What's funny is that is something that could easily be tested if we weren't all at work.

My 360 is 15 feet away, but I'm too lazy to get up

I don't have a memory card and some games always ask about save data. It's really annoying to me.

Dumb question, but aren't all of the Xbox HDMI ports the same? I have HDMI on my pro, and I'm looking for cables on eBay, and a lot of them say not compatible with original 360? Is that just because some 360's don't have HDMI ports, so these sellers are covering their bases -- or is there something I'm overlooking.

I think that's all it is. Old 360s don't have an HDMI port.

why would you buy ebay when you can get a cable from monoprice.com that's just as good and probably half the cost.

I had no idea that place existed. I got 3 6ft HDMI cords for $8. Maybe I could have done better, but I'm ok with that price. Considering Wal-mart sells 3ft cables for $27.

All this HDMI shit is new to me, but boy is that HD dot by dot picture awesome!

If you don't have a receiver that has HDMI, then you're going to have to crack the plastic casing off the old A/V cables to have access to HDMI video and optical audio. With the plastic casing, you can't fit both of them in.

The official MS HDMI cable comes with another audio adapter thingy that's got a smaller plastic casing and just has audio outputs.

I did some research before heading out and the elite i purchased has the Jasper chip. Thanks anyways.

I just checked and the PSP for my Xbox 360 (from Best Buy) is going to end in December this year. I haven't had any issues with my Elite but I'm almost sure that I'll fail in January 2010
I actually got my first Xbox, a Pro, in December 2005, with a PSP from Best Buy, in December 2007 I decided to return it to BB and "upgrade" to an Elite. I had a few issues, but nothing really important, but I just wanted to be sure. Right now I think I'll just keep my Elite unless it starts malfunctioning.

Am I the only one excited about the anniversary edition of NBA 2k10? I don't really care about kobe but this is one of the few limited edition items I am actually willing to pay a premium for.

You got lucky then. From what I've read, only the RE5 Elite bundles had the jasper chip.

What to play next? I've got the following games sitting in my queue:

Dead Rising (Borrowed)
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
Infinite Undiscovery
Mass Effect
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I've recently finished Prince of Persia, Ghostbusters, and Overlord II so I'm thinking one of the RPGs makes the most sense, but I'm open to any of them.

Direct me.

Dead Rising

I pretty much assumed Dead Rising was a foregone conclusion before I asked, so I'll ask a follow-up.

I know that it has a bad reputation of being a system killer. That being said, has there been many issues with the later (Elite and later)? What about having the game installed to the HDD? I mean, was a primary cause of heat due to constant disc-spinning?

I think it was only those people that specifically went for the 5/7 day survivor achievements which is roughly 14+ hours of constant play. I don't think there were any issues with the normal play through.

Obviously it wouldn't hurt installing to the hard drive, but I doubt it would change much since you are only eliminating the drive from the equation. The system will still be taxed just as much as if playing from the disc.

Of course, all of this could have been overblown at the time as well.

I had planned to go for those achievements as well. When you say "constant" do you mean no saving? What about pausing?

I'm pretty certain you can pause, but that just means your system is running even longer. Also there is no saving in that mode. You're in it for the long haul. You die, you start over.

I'll vote for Mass Effect - it takes a bit to get going, but once it does, you won't be able to stop. Even with the "unfinished" feeling of the game, it's massive scope, story-telling and very fun shooter/rpg gameplay made it stand out as one of my more memorable gaming experiences. It's not too long for an RPG either - maybe 15 hours, give or take.

It wants multiple play-throughs too, right? I was thinking about doing that around the other games.

I liked Mass Effect was more than Dead Rising. I'm not a fan of the RE-type third person shooter with those controls. It wasn't bad in my play time with it, but I didn't love it either.
I found ME far more playable and it has the BEST voice acting I've ever heard in a RPG. My main probalem with it was the terrible controls while driving those tank-like transport vehicles. Other than that, it was fairly awesome.

Not really. If you take your time you can see and do pretty much everything the game has to offer in one play-through.

The changes you make to your customizable character is mostly superficial, even the gender you choose doesn't affect much (mostly just the voice actor *editing to add, I thought the female lead was much better than the male lead). And while you do have choices to make, they boil down to "good" and "good, but kind of a jerk". There's no real incentive to go back and replay from the beginning.

FWIW, Mass Effect 2 is going to be able to use your save from ME1 and continue your character that way.

Achievements. There's a bunch of achievements that will require 2nd and 3rd plays to get. Just thought it worth mentioning in case that's a driving force.

Achievements? What are those?

But, yeah, that's where I got that impression. From the difficulties and such.

I couldn't stand Mass Effect. Too much dialogue, not enough gameplay. It was Death Proof: the Video Game.