The Orange Box was fun. Episode 2 was more of the same (which is not a bad thing), TF2 is very fun, especially since the grenade spamming was gone, and of course Portal was all sorts of awesome (even if it was too short). Even Peggle Extreme, a 10-level Orange Box-themed version of Peggle that was included with the pre-order without announcement, was addicting enough that I bought the full Peggle Deluxe.

Last weekend I bought an Xbox 360. I’ve always said I’d buy a 360 when the price was right, and was thinking $300 for a Premium would be that price. The bundle I got was $350, but that was the HDMI 65nm CPU Premium bundle, with 2 packaged games (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Forza Motorsport 2). I also picked up Beautiful Katamari.

I haven’t tried Marvel yet and don’t really have an urge to do so. Forza is nice, but is very much like its competitor, Gran Turismo, in that it’s a racing simulator more than a racing game. Beautiful Katamari is very nice, but very little in gameplay has changed from the original two titles for the PlayStation 2. But hey, that’s why I bought it. Xbox Live Marketplace is a nice feature, particularly downloading game demos. The Project Gotham Racing 4 demo has been fun, roughly half way between arcade racing and a racing simulator. I’ve also downloaded the Virtua Fighter 5 demo, but haven’t played it yet.

On Monday, I noticed on slickdeals.net that I could get the 360 HD-DVD add-on for $170, the normal selling price, which includes King Kong. In addition, you get season 1 of Heroes HD-DVD free in-store, and receive 5 out of choice of 15 HD-DVD movies free by mail. Heroes itself costs $70-$100, and almost all of my friends and co-workers have been telling me to watch Heroes, so I got the bundle. I then spent the next 5 days watching all 23 episodes. It does not disappoint.

I also bought the Serenity HD-DVD because, well, River is made out of chocolate.