On Sunday, as part of what has become a weekly ritual, Euan and I finished the co-op campaign of Gears of War on Hardcore difficulty. Gears is set up in such a way that playing co-op is identical to playing single-player, and yet it's a whole new game when you've got a mate helping you out instead of an AI. Having the chance to chat with Euan for a few hours while we lay the smackdown on the Locust horde is great fun. For our next trick, we'll be playing all the way through it on Insane difficulty ... which should be ... well, insane.

This week the long-awaited Autumn Dashboard Update (known in the US as the "Spring Dashboard Update") is released, featuring new integration between the Xbox 360 and Windows Live Messenger (as well as a whole swag of other goodies). I don't see myself making too much use out of the instant-messaging feature from the 360 itself, since I don't plan on plugging a keyboard in or buying the new text-input device, but the ability to check who's online from the dashboard, and presumably check who's playing from WLM, should be good. Unless, that is, you're someone who is irrationally afraid of having others know that you're playing Xbox. What's that all about?