I'll probably try and keep this as an ongoing blog entry, adding stuff as I think of it, but I thought I'd make a list of things I thought would've been included or improved, or maybe they have been included, but just haven't been as successful as I'd thought. Let me just say though, I love the new dashboard, I think it's generally fantastic. Everything's just nicer to look at , for everything you need to do, there's at least 2 ways to find it, which I like

So anyway, in no particular order...

- I love that they have previews for games, so why aren't there still previews for things like themes and user-icons? You're so quick to tell us that there's no refund, so how about giving a little bit and at least showing us what we can't get a refund for. I shouldn't have to go to gaming forums and blogs to see a screenshot.

- Still a complete lack of any variation on Netflix or tv downloads for us Aussies. Sure, in terms of internet infrastructure, we might as well be using two tins and a long piece of string compared to the US, but come on, give us SOMETHING.

- The avatars, while nifty, ultimately suck. Even the Mii creator on the Wii is still better than this. There's just not enough options that allow me to create something either realistic, or totally ridiculous. Of all the people on my friends list (roughly 50 or so, I think?), there's one person that I've seen and thought "oh yeah, you've nailed it".

-  You need to drop the prices of HDDs. Seriously, everyone knows how cheap they are to make - you are telling me that the cost is the plastic case it comes in? Seriously dude, don't tell us about how we can install games onto the HDD at the cost of about 6ish Gig of our HDD, offer "Premium themes" at about 5-10mb a pop, then not at least make the price of the HDD within the realms of reasonable cost.

- Still no "inside xbox" feature for us Aussies? Seriously, my fiance has a Canadian account (not that she's Canadian, she just lived there for a while) and I see some of the cool stuff when she's logged in. It's frustrating to say the least.

- I want to be able to do a "force refresh" on the list of video/music/photo files that I've networked to my PC. When I download the latest episode of whatever into my "My Videos" folder on my PC, it should show up instantly on the file list as it stands on the xbox, or at best, refresh the list.

- While we're on it, I wish that it had better video codec support. There's still some avi files that I can't watch on the 360. Just support the damn codec. Please don't force me to have to re-compress the video file. That's far too frustrating.

- Oh, speaking of themes: 250 points for a theme now? Are you fucking kidding me?

... yeah, that's about all I can think of right now. Any that I've missed?

Okay, so I haven't updated this blog as much as I'd like to - but I've been too busy actually PLAYING games to write about them!

So, let's see, what have I been playing lately.....

Saints Row 2

- I fucking loved this game. Yes, it's not as pretty as GTA4, but I kinda got a little sick of GTA's "gritty realism" - it's like they forgot what made these games fun. Good thing that SR2 was able to come back and remind us.

Guitar Hero World Tour

- speaking of fun games! Oddly enough, I think I've played the guitar part maybe 3 or 4 times. I've completed the medium drums career, and now i'm doing vocals on expert.

Mirror's Edge

- one of the most disappointing games I've played all year. Don't get me wrong, I loved the game while I was playing it, but I finished it in 2 sittings! Sure, it has time trials and speed-run modes, but that's definitely not enough to keep me entertained in the long run.

I just picked up Left 4 Dead up today, and if I can get my fiancé to stop playing Lumines for just 5 minutes, I might get to play it tonight before I go to bed!

oh, and I also played a bunch of Street Fighter IV the other night too, that's pretty freakin sweet

So, there's been the news that there's going to be a new Beatles game (wait --  is "new" the right word? I'm not sure that The Beatles have had a game before?) coming from Harmonix. Being a massive Beatles fan myself, this instantly filled me with joy ... but then I started to think about what a Beatles game would actually be like? Harmonix have already stated that it's not going to be a Rock Band title, but that's not to say it's not going to be a music rhythm game, which I hope that there's going to be more to it than just that. As much as I love The Beatles, their tracks aren't exactly the most complex. There's no face-melting shredding guitar solos, and let's face it, Ringo was no master of the skins. I always think of the interview once with John Lennon around the time that people were again attacking Ringo's drumming ability, and was asked if he thought that Ringo was the greatest drummer in the world, and John replied with "I don't think he's even the best drummer in The Beatles".

But anyway, I kinda hope that there's more to it than simply a Rock Band expansion pack of 45 Beatles tracks. Mainly because, well, something that leads me onto the next thing that's kind of bugging me, the fairly mediocre reviews that Guitar Hero World Tour has been getting. Now, I haven't played the game yet, so I can't comment too much, but it just seems to me that the whole rock music rhythm games have almost done their dash. I mean that, I think that they'll still continue to make titles and DLC and all that, but I just don't see what other boundaries that can be pushed. I'm not sure if you can even throw down your alliance to either GH and RB. There's things about the RB series that I like and don't like and the same goes to the GH series. Ultimately it just comes down to which title has more of your favourite songs, or alternatively, can you afford to buy both titles, and the DLC that goes with it?

Guitar Hero World Tour is released in Australia this Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

As much as everyone raved about Grand Theft Auto 4, Saints Row 2 is far far far superior. From here on in, GTA is to be referred as a Saints Row clone, not the other way around.

Best Game of 2008.
FACT.

There was an interview this week from one of the creators of Rock Band, who just happens to be Aussie, discussing how they're looking at releasing more localised songs to be downloaded for RockBand in the future. Being a) Australian, b) a big fan of Aussie rock, and c) a big fan of Rock Band, this excites me no end.

(Here's the story, btw: http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/11/rock_band_getting_more_localised_ie_nonamerican_songs-2.html)

So, I decided to put together a little bit of a top ten Aussie tracks I'd love to be able to play on Rock Band from bands that have yet to be featured in a RockBand/GH title. I've tried to keep it slightly mainstream for the sake of having some of these tracks be genuine guesses at what could make it, so most of you should pick at least 75% of these...

1. Roquefort - Karnivool

  
2. Berlin Chair - You Am I


3. Sam Gribbles - Spiderbait


4. Living Type - Powderfinger.
For some reason, there's three versions of this on YouTube, and all of them have disabled embedding. Fuckers. Anyways, you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpcyJDqchN8

5. Tomorrow - Silverchair


6. It's Because I Love You - The Master's Apprentices


7. Come Anytime - Hoodoo Gurus


8. Cheap Wine - Cold Chisel


9. Captain (million miles an hour) - Something For Kate


10. One Second Of Insanity - The Butterfly Effect