Well then, that takes care of that...

I found a used XBOX with a Samsung DVD drive and a three-month warranty for $109 yesterday. It's a little noisy at times (both the DVD drive and the HDD, but they're normal noises based on my PC experience), but all of the disc read errors are gone! It's so nice to enjoy my XBOX games with consistent loading times, audio that doesn't cut-out while the drive makes ominous seek noises, and (so far) no fear of random, progress-threatening crashes! I also picked-up Otogi 2 (XBOX) and NHL '97 (Genesis; classic!) while I was out, as well as Starfox and Starfox 64 the day before. Turns-out the SNES Starfox cartridge doesn't work, so we'll see if they give me a refund, or let me exchange it.

I must make note of just how excited I am about this. The idea of an Oddworld movie just works a little too well in my head. If you've never played through any of the Oddworld games, then all you need to do is a read a synopsis of one and check-out some of the artwork, and you'll start to get the idea. If you'd like to see exactly how well this could work, watch the intro movie to Stranger's Wrath and feel the anticipation :) Speaking of, I'm nearing the end of Stranger's Wrath, and I've throughly enjoyed the experience (especially once I discovered the quicksave feature). This game constantly impresses me with its graphics, gameplay, and storyline/humour. The only knock I have against it is that it can get repetitive if played for too long all at once. It works fantastically, however, as a game you can pick-up for an hour or two a few times a week.

Oh, heh, before I go, my Leafs in NHL2K7 are 20-0-0 this season :) Yes, I'm playing it at the "Pro" level, and no, I'm not using any funny cheats or settings... A number of games have been quite close, production has been spread-out well across the roster, and Raycroft has not been stellar. I've been winning by playing a very physical game (defending Raycroft at all costs) while being exceedingly aggressive on offense (like 40+ SOG per game). The price has been a number of injuries (usually a few days or a couple of weeks at a time; Kubina's out for a few months), but my rookies (Ondrus, White) have really been able to step-up. Also, the shenanigans of those Florida games I mentioned earlier seem to have subsided; it's not perfect, and I guess I'll have to accept that injured players stay in until the end of the game, but it's been a lot of fun for the most part.