After the recent NXE update, the Xbox Live Marketplace was consuming loads of bandwidth to give the sleek branding filled look when you're browsing for downloads. Not very good for us here who have broadband that's well... usable... Then there's the whole problem of the undersea cable being damaged again and causing data to have to take the long way around.

So what's a Xbox Live player gotta do to check out the downloads now? Don't fret, you can now do all your marketplace browsing on the WEB. via the marketplace.xbox.com URL, just sign in with your gamertag's LiveID, select what you want to download and the next time your box is turned on and connected to XBox Live it starts downloading what you've selected. So you can still get to the content minus all the branding fluff.

Oh.. I missed a step previously, after signing in be sure to pick the RIGHT country/region you are in to see content which you can dowload. You pick the country by clicking on the country indicator on the upperleft corner on the page. It looks like this.

So remember to choose your proper country, ie. Singapore, US, India, etc. etc. or you won’t be able to see the right content.

No... your 360 doesn't automatically turn itself on and start downloading... maybe in the next update? :P

When you have a baby to take care of, it becomes a little harder to waste money on certain unnecessary things, but boy does it hurt when I see stuff I want and I know it's actually a waste of money to get it. Stuff like this...

Phew... this has been a project that is a few WEEKS in the works already, thanks to the fact that I've been just swamped with work. But.. now, it's almost over already. But my 3RODDED XBox 360 is almost back in action. Here's the patient on the operation table.

The PSP (Hmm.. I haven't talked about this on my blog yet have I?) makes a GREAT debugging tool for this purpose.. it's small.. compact.. and yet is able to act as a video monitor to test wheter the box is working or not. No need to fumble with a big 14" display on an already small cramped work table.

We were rushing for time, and after a few more extra modifications we didn't even have enough time to put everything back properly yet. So...

This will have to suffice so we can finish the fight!

Every now and then something happens that makes you wish you could just be irresponsible and call in sick. I'm feeling that need right now. God.. why must they torment me this way?

I can still remember taking this picture about 6 months ago.

And look where he is today..

You want that achievement for killing me 20 times? You're gonna have to dig it out of my warm, bleeding, bullet ridden body, but just think about it, the satisfaction that you'll get as you hold high your achievement still dripping in my blood and you scream through the headset "Achievement Unlocked!!! Suck on this MarauderMY!!!"

Then I snipe you in the head cause I've already respawned, pickup a sniper rifle, found a good vantage point and fired while you were going through the theatrics.

Previously there was only 2 kinds of people you'd meet when you were playing online in say.. on XBox Live.

The people who play games, or the people who heckle/sneer/curse while trying to play games.

More recently there's an additional bunch of people who like to let the other gamers on their teams know about their views of the current geopolitical issue. So you got people who are ganging up on people from certain countries, or just being an ass to people from certain countries.

Come on people!!! We're trying to have some fun online here I don't care what your polictical beliefs are, if you're on the opposing team I cap your ass, if you're on my team I cover your ass, that's unless you're a bad teammate, if not THEN I'll cap your ass.

That's what people say when they get their Nintendo Wii, but come on lar! Isn't that obvious, you've got a brand new spanking toy of course you're gonna pour all your love and affection onto it. And if you're a Zelda fan, you know all you wanna spend as much of your game time as you can in Hyrule!

But as much fun as the Wii is in giving a different gaming experience, the Xbox 360 is able to give a fantastic online gaming experience. So once you are done with the mystery of the twilight princess you'll hang up your sword and grab back your chainsaw to play Gears Of War.

And then, whenever you need to work off some stress you'll boot up the trusty Wii, pop in Wii sports and lay the smack down on some poor Mii.

Welcome to the world of the Wii60!