I’ve been finding myself working late at night with absolutely nothing to do, but heads down typing away and finishing a load of projects. To keep myself semi-entertained while my shows are still recording on the DVR (I hate watching shows live and not being able to fast forward commercials) and making sure I’m still in the mood to work, I’ve been using my Xbox like crazy. So I thought I might actually inform you of my two favorite things to do on my Xbox that have been keeping me completely happy lately.

If you already have an Xbox you would know that Netflix is now available to be streamed through your console and onto your TV. Recently, I just discovered Heroes for the first time, so I’ve been catching up on the all of the old episodes until the current season. It doesn’t have much to pick from as far as new movies go, but it does great with favorites or television shows, including the fact that anything playing on Starz will now be available, so that’s always a plus. It is also fun to start up a movie with any friend who has Xbox Live and also has Netflix. You can suggest a number of movies and then agree on one to watch together. My second favorite thing is Connect360 which is basically a program I have installed on my Mac after paying 20 bucks for an activation code. Basically it installs onto your Mac and allows you to play movies, music in iTunes, or pictures you have on your computer, right onto your TV through the Xbox. Which is pretty amazing, because it makes you feel like there is really no need to have cable. Especially if you download.

Anyway, this is basically what has been keeping me busy and happy lately in the at home entertainment department. I hope you find this of use to you if you want something else to do on your Xbox. Getting the most out of your console is always awesome and I just had to share.

Keeping up with these “Video Game Nerd” posts that I have going on in my blog, I thought I’d update on the latest one I’ve been playing. It wouldn’t typically be a game I would play either, but it seemed to have a lot of people talking when I had first heard of its release, so Prince of Persia was added onto my Gamefly queue.

Prince of Persia is obviously not a shooter type game, so I had no high expectations for this game either, but it ended up being very addicting. It is a action/adventure game set in ancient Persia where you play as the Prince who ends up having a girl named Elika traveling with him. I had never any Prince of Persia games before, so it was odd that this guy never really died. The character Elika would always save him from falling off cliffs with magic, so I immediately thought … Ok this game is going to be easy. Not only does he never die, but he climbs and slides on objects to get to his destination like a spider which is strange but cool. Using his spider-like techniques you have to figure out how to get to destinations, but as you progress in the game they become more difficult to get to. It became addicting for me, because it felt like a puzzle that I absolutely had to complete. After a while of being very redundant I did end up getting bored of the game and decided to send it back. If you are really in need of 360 achievements though, this is a very easy way of getting them. You get an achievement for almost everything you accomplish even if it is running up a wall, so that is a plus.

Overall, I do recommend trying out this game, because it is fun and you can get a lot of achievements for yourself.

The past couple of months I have been buying video games like crazy. A lot of new ones were coming out, but then after a while I tend to get bored of them if they don’t have online play. So, I ended up giving in to a monthly subscription of Gamefly. Those of you that don’t know what Gamefly is, it is basically the same as Netflix, but with video games. You can let it know what type of console you have or what type of games you like and it will suggest some for you too. I thought paying a monthly fee would be way cheaper than going to a video store and I can rent it again or send it back whenever I want. So I added some games to my queue and already tried out my first rented game!

I’m not a big RPG fan, so I wasn’t expecting too much from Fallout 3 when I put it on my list. I had heard so many good reviews from friends and it had been out for a few months. You can pick a female or male character to play the game where you grow up in a vault after a global atomic war in the United States. You start off as a an infant and progress into your pre-teens, to your teens, and so on while completing various tasks as you move along in the game. You do end up venturing outside of the vault where the whole word is taken over my giant mutant creatures. The way you decide to play also changes the outcome of the game. I thought it was ok, but the game moved along so slowly for me, I ended up getting bored of it very fast. As I had said before, RPGs really aren’t my thing. I suppose I could say that it would be a good one for people that actually like those types of games, but me being a big first person shooter fan, this was just not it.

I apologize for the shortness of this review, but I guess it wasn’t as easy writing about a game I didn’t enjoy. Hopefully, the next game will be a lot more interesting!