Wow… didn’t realise it had been so long since my last post and it isn’t as if I’ve been doing nothing! We’ve had lots happening offline lately but, I guess the most likely reason for my lack of posts can probably be more attributable to the fact that my free time has usually been taken up playing games on the XBox 360 I recently acquired.

Already built up quite a library of good games for it and have actually completed a couple, namely ‘Gears of War’ and ‘Portal‘.

I’ve just purchased a second X-Box from EB Games to put in our outside rumpus room. I really couldn’t resist the price of AU$79 for a pre-owned X-Box!

They may be considered “last generation” now as regards games but, given the easy ability to soft-mod an X-Box (thanks to my possession of an X-Box memory card and an original copy of Splinter Cell) you just cannot go wrong in creating a most excellent media center.

Installed with XBMC this little baby can now throw every single file format you can throw at it and, the bonus fact it can also still play X-Box games (including ‘backups’) means it is a significant improvement on the DVD player in the rumpus room which it has replaced. I even installed some classic ports like Doom, Quake and even had space to squash a couple of X-Box games on the HDD.

I virtually funded the purchase of the X-Box by the sale of 1 Gamecube game I no longer wanted, Paper Mario, which I managed to sell on EBay for AU$75 and of course I still have the old DVD player from the rumpus room which will now no doubt be sold too!

Anyway, the point of this post I guess is to make anybody who is buying a DVD player to think twice as, for the great AU$79 price from EB games, plus half an hour or so of time in softmodding it, you can have something much more interesting than a basic DVD player!

Spent most of this evening playing Forza Motorsport on the X-Box. I had played the demo of this a few months ago and kinda wrote it off at that time as ‘just another car game’ but now I have been playing the full version I have to say it is one of the best driving games on the X-Box. It may not have the high speed arcade fun of games such as Rallisport 2 but, for a more simulation style racing game it is excellent. Cars actually do feel different to drive rather than just looking cosmetically different on screen. I think this game should keep me amused for quite a while… which is probably a good thing as I don’t see many other forthcoming new releases that interest me much.

Also caught up tonight with the latest episode of Lost. I watched the first episode some months ago when it was shown on Australian TV but, in typical Wuggle fashion, I did not have the patience to wait for the following episodes and thus have since been itching each week to grab a copy from the U.S. However, it is kinda frustrating now that I’ve caught up as tonight’s episode seemed to finish no sooner than it began and yet again I’m left eagerly awaiting the next episode. So ok, I confess I am a ‘Lost’ fan… kicks ass over the likes of ‘24′ in my opinion.

Oh and also watched the latest episode of Amazing Race 7 last night… yay the crusties are gone and Rob and Amber are back at no.1! Only the season finale to go… Can’t wait!

And for anybody interested in what else I watch on TV here is my current viewing habits:-

Amazing Race, Lost, CSI Vegas, CSI Miami, CSI NY (although Vegas is by far the best), Cold Case, Without A Trace, Everybody Loves Raymond.

Damn I look at that list and see I’ve been americanised… hmmm…. I officially am not watching anything derived from the UK or Australia at the moment… rather sad but that is the way it is. To be absolutely honest I could cut out CSI Miami and NY and would not miss them but, as Muppet watches them, I tend to still follow these.

What could I watch that is Australian I wonder?… well… yet another season of Big Brother starts tomorrow night but I’m not sad enough to start watching that surely? Hmmm… we’ll see!