My copy of Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes arrived this morning, I have been skeptical about this title for some time but also I have always held some intrigue about it aswell. It does look very immersive but weather or not the bugs will deminish from the game is yet to be seen. Or weather the eledged nature of the game engine being a total system hog will rend it unplayable for me I will know soon enough, it's all installed and ready to go I just haven't logged in yet. As always though I will post my oppinions here when I have some solid ones to voice.

My 360 has had quite a workout today and over the past couple of days actually. GRAW2 was a bit of a mixed bag, the single player campaign is great fun and well worth playing however it is way too short. You can demolish it in around 4 hours with little trouble, I am now working through it again on Elevated Risk and it is still pretty easy going really. Thankfully though GRAW2's shortcomings are more than made up for in the Multiplayer section, if you have played GRAW1 then you know what the Ghost Recon games are like for online play. Well GRAW2 is all GRAW1 had and then some, there are so many different game types and setups that I wont even attempt to list them here, there is more than enough to keep you occupied for months.

I finally buckled down and finished off the last 4 sections of Splinter Cell: Double Agent today aswell and the final bonus mission so I can now add that to my list of completed titles which is growing steadily. I still love the online play in SCDA, it is so different from anything else on the 360 I just wish there were more people online playing it as right now there are some online but not enough to get a serious match going with 3 on 3 and actual co-operation and co-ordination.

Last but not least as this one is getting long now, the new info released about Forza Motorsport 2 has got me drooling, that game appears to be shaping up as everything promised and then some. I love the original and 2 from what Microsoft have let us see so far is leaps and bounds ahead of what the original managed to achieve. Roll on May so I can finally get my hands on that one thats for sure.

I went out and got my copy of GRAW 2 this morning and what an awesome game it is. It is vastly improved over the original, especially the graphics which IMO are the best seen on the 360 so far, they look pretty much real life and some of the weather effects are simply outstanding. Gameplay is more of the same from the original but the cross-con has been refined and pretty much everything else tweaked and now it plays superb even better than the original which was already an awesome game.

Thats gonna have me occupied for quite some time for sure like the original did and still does to some degree, but onto other matters and ideas at hand and I am considering starting a union based on Xbox 360 driving / racing titles such as PGR3 TDU and Burnout Revenge ect. If there is enough interest I will see what can be done but let me know what you guys think and we shall see where it leads :)

It was a much faster process than I had expected, it only took 5 days after collection to get it back to me, and it is a brand new one. The only downside I have seen is that there is no information to state what went wrong with my original one. Anyway can't help that but the new one works like a charm and I think it is one of the ones with the new drive in it because compared to my other it is almost silent even when the disk is spinning at full speed. Also it doesn't seem to generate anywhere near as much heat as my old one did, time will tell on this it could be just because it is new but if nothing else the optical drive is definutely alot quieter which I aint gonna complain none about.

Overall for the service Microsoft provide, it is very efficient but they really dont give you any feedback or information what so ever, they dont inform you that your system has been sent back to you at all so it's a case of wait it out. The lack of information for what was the original issue for me is quite strange, I figured they would at least let you know that but I guess they wanna be all secretive as usual, but now if you will excuse me I have a date with R6V :D

UPS came by today and collected my X360, it is now on it's way to the European Repair Centre and I should have either a brand new 360 or my current one repaired within 15 days. I hope it takes less time but still at least now it is in the process of being fixed. When I get it back I intend to get GRAW2 I was gonna get it this week but after this problem I decided to hold off on it.

I hope it doesn't take as long as 15 days but I wont hold my breath none on it, I have heard that the whole procedure aint exactly the fastest thing known to man. I will keep posting here about my own experience of dealing with Microsoft on this so others will know if they need to do the same within the UK just how you get treated. So far all is well, no issues with customer support or the courier services.

I got in touch with Microsoft about my poorly 360 as the symptoms have gradually gotten worse as time wore on yesterday, now on the dashboard the system will bog down, lag out in menu's then freeze up completely. It seems obvious that this is a terminal issue so I called their repairs department and have arranged for them to have a look at it and or replace it depending on what needs be. I am glad they only want the core system and they let you keep your HD I wouldn't like to have to redo all my games over :P

After this happening even with me taking great care of my console it is making me wonder if getting an extended warranty would be advisable, £50 for 2 years extra cover doesn't sound too awful bad compared with what they can and do charge you for repairing the system out of warranty so for my own piece of mind I think I should get it, at least 1 extra year anyway :)

Well after last weekends fiasco now my Xbox 360 looks like it is dying :P I aint had it more than 4 months thankfully but still thats really lame. I have never had a console die on me ever, I look after them very well. I will have to get in touch with Microsoft and get it replaced / repaired ASAP, I kinda need my video games to pass the time and to interact with friends overseas.

Vista is installed on my system, but to say it was a smooth process would be a flat out lie. For some reason Vista really does not like my Onboard SiS 7012 AC97 Soundcard, granted it is crappy but it did the job. Now I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme on the way because if I enable my onboard soundcard at all Vista throws a fit and bluescreens constantly. Well done Microsoft, oddly though even with the issues, I love it so much, it is way better than XP ever was and it looks cooler ontop of that. Granted there is no need to rush out and get this OS really but I needed a new one as Microsoft wouldn't activate my old XP Home edition for some reason after I reformatted so I bit the bullet and said sod it and got a copy, when I have sound it will be even better but the first impressions although a little shaky at first are darn good.

My copy of Vista Home Premium is now on it's way and I hope it is all it's cracked up to be. I will know soon enough though I guess :)

29 - 17 OH YEA!!!! Awesome game awesome result!!! Indianapolis earned that one. Darn I am stoked over that and I live in the UK :P :D NFL FTW!