Okay, maybe the title was a tad long, but hey, it works. 
So, yesterday, I went to Game in town and picked up the Xbox 360 Elite Forza 3 bundle (which has 2 controllers, a 250GB HDD, and of course, Forza 3), as well as GTAIV: Episodes from Liberty City (which is a standalone game, with the two GTAIV expansion packs). I’ve previously owned two Xbox 360s – the first one was in Australia, which I had to sell (it RRoD’d), and the second one was here in the UK – which I liked, but it was somewhat noisy, and I didn’t really play all that many games on it back then. Anyway, the 360 has since had a revamp (NXE), and now has a lot more titles which I’m interested in playing, so I decided to buy one again – however, the main factor that made me buy it was Forza 3 and the GTAIV expansion packs.
So, I now own one. 
Except, a problem. Due to cost cutting by Microsoft, the component AV cable is no longer included (why not, MS?), and instead, there’s a cheap-o composite cable (the one with a single yellow RCA jack for video), and that’s it. Which is somewhat of a problem, because I want to hook it up to my projector. I could use HDMI (which I will eventually), but the projector doesn’t have anything to do with the audio, so it’s just ignored – and for some stupid reason, the composite cable that’s included with the 360 is too large, and blocks the HDMI port. So right now, I have two choices:
- Use HDMI to my projector, and have no audio. The upside is it’ll be HD, but the downside is, I won’t be able to hear anything.
- Use composite video to my projector, and use the stereo RCA jacks for audio (I’m using my PC as an amplifier at the moment but in the near future I’ll be getting an AV Receiver for switching the 360, Sky+HD box, and PC, into the projector’s one HDMI jack). The downside for this is that it’s horrible SD video, but the upside is, I can hear everything.
So of course, for now, I’m sticking to SD video. I’ve ordered one of those HDMI breakout cables for optical audio off eBay, which should arrive soon. Once it’s here, I can use the HDMI port for HD video, and the RCA or optical jacks from the cable for audio. Perfect. 
Finally, the gamertag I signed up for is WilliamTM UK. The reason for this is simple. I’ve sort-of adopted the nickname “WilliamTM” around the web, so I’ve decided to use it on the 360. The only downside is that my original account that I created in Australia is WilliamTM – and Microsoft won’t allow you to change the account’s country (which you need to do in order to use a UK credit card). So, I’ve now got WilliamTM UK, which is my UK gamertag which I’m now using.
One day, I might try to change the old gamertag to something else, and then change my UK one to WilliamTM, but I’m not doing it yet, for two reasons. One, it would cost about £14 worth of MS points to do so, and two, I’m not sure if it’s possible to change your gamertag to a previously used one. If I can confirm that with MS, I might do it, but until then I’m not going to do so.
So anyway, that’s enough about that. Again, if you want to add me, please do.
Oh and finally, if you’re wondering, no, I’m not selling my PS3. And yes, I did swap my bedroom TV for the Xbox 360 – I really didn’t use the TV for all that much other then some SDTV off Sky, so I’m not really going to miss it that much. 
In The Castle by Wolfmother
