I have high-speed wireless internet in my house.  Can I just hook a router into the back of my 360 with an ethernet cable, and be golden?  Or do I need to buy a 360 wireless network adapter?  A direct connection is simply not an option, the 360 and router will be at least three rooms away from each other.  Anyone who can provide me with a concrete answer will gain my eternal gratitude!! :cry:

Not for sale of course, silly. :P I was in Target, and was walking to the electronics section. I spotted the PS3 demo station. There was no one there. I ran really fast. I made it. I looked into the screen, and...it was broken. Yep, that really makes me want to invest in your $600 system even more Sony, displaying how well it breaks. All well, nothing I didn't predict anyways...*sigh* :roll: But then I looked behind the glass case and actually saw the thing! :shock: I guess they had to break it to prevent people from stealing it. Where the PS3's would normally be if they had any in stock was empty, and they had a sign saying something to the effect of, "We're sorry, but due to high demand, we're sold out of Playstation 3 systems. We're sorry for any inconvenience." Then I walk over to the Wii section, where I find the exact same situation. I then turn around and find out they have a full supply of 360's. Gee, I wonder which one the discerning parent will get. :roll:

Well, I got a new TV.  To give you a point of reference, my old TV has a curved screen, was AV-cable only, and was 14" tall.  My new TV, which cost $130, is a flat screen, has component and S-video hook-ups, and is 20" tall. Cool. 8)  As for games, I got The Elder Scrolls IV used for $44, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter used for $26.  Together, they came to $70, as opposed to $120 if I got them both new.  Double cool. 8)  Now I just need to work on actually getting a 360. :P  I also need to get a set of component cables, but that's slightly cheaper. :lol:
 

Here it is, at last, my finalized list of games that I'm going to get with my 360 in order of importance:

1. Gears of War
2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
3. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
4. Dead Rising

I would also like to reemphasize that if everything goes according to plan, I should finally be getting Xbox Live hooked up. :)  Also, I currently I have a curved TV, and might possibly have enough money left over to get a slightly bigger flat screen.  Also note that if anything goes awry, Dead Rising will be the first game dropped off the list.  It would, under normal circumstances, be Ghost Recon.  However, as I mentioned in an earlier blog I found it for a deal, $26.  Getting back to the TV thing though, I originally shopped around for an HDTV, but those turned out to be way over my price range.  However, SD flat screen prices are falling like rain drops, so I might be able to squeeze one of those in, but as I said above, I'm not sure yet.  At any rate, looks like my holiday is finally starting to come together; wish me luck tomorrow when I go price flat-screens.  Good night to all, if you have critiques or recommendations for my plans, please feel obliged to chime in. 8)

I still have several slots open for games to get with my 360 this holiday season.  I currently only have two games that I'm definitely getting, and they are Gears of War, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  I'm really tossing around the idea of getting Ghost Recon: Advance War Fighter or Rainbow Six: Vegas, but I really don't know (it's worth noting that I have a local store where I can get Advance War Fighter for $26).  I'm also determined to finally get Xbox Live hooked up.  The system comes with one free trial month.  I have one spare wireless router lying around with an ethernet cable, and I've been told by more than one source that I can just hook said-router into the back of the 360 with the ethernet cord, and I should be good to go.  Can anyone confirm this for me?  For the record, I do have wireless internet through my house.  While you guys are pondering all these questions, I shall be gone tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  Happy Turkey Day everybody! :D (I'll be back tomorrow night, but then gone again on Friday, but then I'll be back for the remainder of the weekend)
 

Look a few centimeters above where this is being typed, and you'll see that the Wii has sold twice as many units in one night as the PS3 has sold in week! :lol: Of course, I'm sure that's due mostly due to the fact that the Wii is $150 cheaper, and possible to find, but the situation is still quite humorous. :) Also note that Microsoft seems to finally be reaping the benefits of their early launch, leading each of the other two consoles by more than 6 million units. Based on last night and today, the Wii seems to be selling about ten-thousand units about every ten minutes or so. At that rate, I think it's totally possible that they could reach 3 million by the end of the calender year. The 360 has also slowly been climbing the last few days, and I predict that they'll reach at least 9 million by the end of the year. The PS3...that's a much different, more depressing story. After launch night, their numbers pretty much hit a brick wall at around a quarter million units. Unless they get a bunch of PS3's shipped really fast, I don't for-see a really successful holiday season for them, but hey, who did? My big question right now is how on Earth either console (especially the PS3) is going to catch up to the 360's "installed base." Amazing how much a few days of staring at some sales figures posted above your blog can teach you. :)

There were two games I though were going to be really awesome at the Wii launch: Red Steel and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  GS has just released both reviews.  They have given Legend of Zelda an 8.8, and said that it is exactly the same game as Ocarina of Time (can't wait to the hear the flame wars over that).  GameSpot has thoroughly torn apart Red Steel; giving it a 5.5.  They said it was a mediocre tech demo for what the Wii developers might one day be able to put into a fun game.  Well, any delusions that I might get a Wii over a 360 are gone now :P. Can't anyone get a launch right these days?  I think Wii will sell decent enough on launch day, but they don't have anything getting people to jump up and down over.   Which coincidently, is the same problem Microsoft had at launch (Oh boy, Kameo!).  And on a side note, it's also the problem Sony would be having right now if you could find a PS3 (had to throw that in there for good measure).

I have been putting off getting XBL hooked up to my Xbox because I though I had to spend colossal amounts of money on stuff, and I would have to have an ethernet cord running through the entire house, which I was less than enthusiastic about.  As a result, I just never get XBL.  However, yesterday I did a little research, and found that I already have everything I need!  Well, that's saying a little too much.  For the original Xbox you have to buy the $100 starter kit, which I don't have, nor feel any motivation to purchase, as I'm getting a 360 in about five weeks.  Anyways, about two years ago I bought a wireless router so I could get online with my PSP. We got standard wireless internet through our whole house about three months ago, and I just put my old router under my bed to dust away into oblivion....but no!!  All I have to do is just plug the thing into the back of my 360, and I'll be ready to go! :D  My understanding is that a 360 comes with a year of free Gold-level service when you get it, so I can be Gears of War-ing online on  day one. 8)  Don't you love it when live just works out?

I have only in the last few days really started to get in the next-generation gaming spirit in earnest, and find myself getting really excited.  Will the Wii plummet or plop with its radical new design? Will the PS3's price kill it? Will the 360's graphics lag next to the PS3's?  Or, the more immediate question on all of our minds: will Gears of War beat our Resistance: Fall of Man?  IGN has already pinned it with a 9.1, but we all know how hard GS grades games, so who knows!! (Gears of War!! w00t w00t!)

I'll go ahead and say this: I think the PS3 will be the new Xbox, and the 360 will be the new PS2.  Lets compare:  the 360 has slightly weaker graphics versus the PS3, like the PS2 versus the Xbox.  The 360 is easier to develop for, like the PS2 versus the Xbox.  The 360 is going for the "installed base" strategy, like the PS2 versus the Xbox.  And last, but certainly not least, the 360 is trying to undercut the PS3 in the price department, like the PS2 versus the Xbox.  I actually find it crazy how many similarities there are.  Did Sony really not pick up on this?  They're adopting the same strategy as the people who came in #2 last-gen, while they're letting their competitor carbon-copy their own successful strategy!  Of course, why is that such a big deal?  It would only be mistake #4329057903475892347598 of Sony's PS3 campaign so far.  Oh, and here's another thing:  not only did they let Microsoft get the jump on them in launching their console, but it's a year later, and they're still not ready! They're launching because they have to to stand a chance, but seriously, who launches with less then 400,000 units?  Do they realize that that is probably not even half of the demand for the thing?  And then they're making their own situation worse, by trying to advertise it with TV commercials every five minutes, and attempt to increase already unsatisfiable demand! I believe that would be mistake #4329057903475892347599 of Sony's PS3 campaign.  It's like they're trying to make a sequel to the fiasco that was the 360 launch. 

Thank you for listening to my PS3 rant. :D 

I really want to make an image for my sig. I can do that easily. That is not the problem. After making said image for my sig (dimensions 400x200) I hosted it in PhotoBucket, just like always. I copied and pasted the bb code in my little signature box in my preferances menu and hit apply changes, just like always. Then when I go post something to see how it turned out, it always has just the top right corner blown up really huge. Am I doing something wrong? I don't know what else to do....I know my picture isn't too big, lots of people have pictures twice that big in their sigs! The only thing I can think of is putting in the tag instead of the bb code and see if it works, but I don't know...Can anyone provide some help?

Edit: The max dimensions for a sig image are 550w X 200h (just so I don't forget). Credit to soulreaver for the info. Now lets see if we can make this work.

Edit 2: Didn't help. :(

Just for the record, I'm back now. I'm kind of sad to realize I missed the ensuing firestorm just after the Gears of War review went up *sigh*. Anyways, I'll be spending my weekend starting up a new profile in Morrowind and attempting to locate the Morang Tong's HQ (somewhere in Vivec...:(). I'll also be pretending that I'm playing Oblivion, not Morrowind. :P

Cheers everybody. ;)