Wow. I can't believe it's been over six months since my last post.

What have I been doing with my time? Well, there was a certain expansion pack that was released in mid-January. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was fun for a few months, but after I had exhausted all the soloable content and explored all the new areas, what was left wasn't that appealing. World of Warcraft is full of greedy, selfish people, and life is too short to waste time on them. I began spending less and less time playing WoW, and when my subscription ran out in mid-July, I didn't bother to renew. I'll probably be on board for the next expansion, as long as it has new areas to explore. The exploration aspect of the game was always the best part for me.

As my interest in WoW dwindled during the spring, Guitar Hero II was launched for the Xbox 360. Of course I purchased it. Of course I loved it. I imagine I could have a lot more fun with two guitars and some friends, but GH2 was surprisingly enjoyable to play by myself.

I also expanded my Xbox 360 library with Lego Star Wars, reaching the 5000 gamerscore milestone with the first few achievements. I watched each of the Star Wars movies before playing the corresponding part of the game. It kept the movie fresh in my mind as I played the game (as if I haven't seen those movies enough times). I really appreaciated the work that had gone into all the little jokes based on situations from the movies. The news that there will be Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones games is very interesting indeed.

Lately, I've been playing Dirt and The Darkness. I've been wanting to get a good rally game for the 360, and Dirt fit the bill. It's not quite as good as, say, Rallisport Challenge 2, but it's good enough for me. The variety of race modes and types of cars will have me playing the game for quite some time.

The Darkness was a bit of a surprise to me. I wasn't aware of the game until just weeks before release, but quickly knew that I had to get this game. As soon as I started playing it, I knew that this was the game I never knew I wanted: A first-person shooter with scary tentacles! Oh yes.

And then my Xbox 360 died.

A few days ago, I wanted to play Dirt. I started the game, picked a stage to race, and after speeding along the German countryside for about four seconds, the game froze. I tried it again, and the 360 froze on startup. I've tried every suggestion Microsoft's help pages could come up with, but the console is just dead. At least I still have a few weeks to get it repaired before Bioshock is released, but on the other hand, my history of bad timing suggests that I will not have a working 360 by that time.