I haven't put a blog out in a while, and most of my recent ones have been the satisfaction survey we run each month. So I thought I'd put something out there for the gamers in our midst. For those of you that don't know, my gaming systems of choice are XBOX 360 and PC. Both have advantages and disadvantages and have been covered in a lot of detail elsewhere around the web so I'm not going to bother with that. What I am going to do is go over a couple of upcoming things I'm personally looking forward to in the gaming world. Firstly, the new XBOX 360 dashboard. I first heard about this just over a month ago, and from what I've seen of the new interface, it promises to be pretty good. There will always be those opposed to change of course. Those that don't want to use the new dashboard will still have the option to continue using the current ‘blade’ interface. 
There’s also going to be the option to install games to the hard-drive to speed up loading times ‘in-game’. The disk will still need to be present in the disk drive to prove ownership. This sounds promising for the larger games that may involve some loading time between levels but will obviously not make any difference for those with the 360 Arcade - this doesn't ship with a HDD. Personalised avatars similar to those on the Wii are another introduction for the update which is due out soon. This will mean you can represent your personality better in the gaming world. 
Personally I'm looking forward to the update - I like new shiny things 
Now on to what could be the best game for a long time or a completely overhyped flop. Please, please, please let it live up to the promise and be the game it deserves. As you've probably guessed from the blog title, the game I'm referring to is called Alan Wake. A quick poll of the 3 people currently on the Comms desk shows that the other 2 hadn't heard of this game until I mentioned it, so maybe you haven't either. For those that haven't heard of it here's the blurb on it: Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller, a unique new take in the world of gaming. The game is set in an idyllic all-American small town and its surroundings in the state of Washington. Alan Wake, the game's protagonist, is a bestselling horror writer, who writes a novel about his darkest nightmares. In the game, those nightmares come true. It's being made by the same people responsible for Max Payne and was announced back in 2005. Since then numerous rumours about Alan Wake have surfaced, varying from it being due out next week to the developers abandoning the game. The developers have continued to be cagey on this saying that "Alan Wake is pretty ambitious, in terms of what it’s trying to do. It’s taking a very different approach to storytelling and gameplay and it’s taking a lot of work to get it right." Let's hope they do get it right and make this game amazing. Thanks for reading and I'll be back with updates and other news soon. Chris
Games Galore: XBOX 360 new dashboard, is Alan Wake ever going to be released?