Wow, October came and went and it was probably one of my busiest months of gaming in a long while.

It all began with Need for Speed Shift, which I reviewed for this very website. I was quite impressed by the change in the series and the graphics were certainly a step up from previous NFS games. The interior view for me is one of the best out of any videogame and the sense of speed you get when using it is fantastic.

Even with Forza 3 (which I'll come onto in a moment), being out, it has made me realise that even Forza has failed to re-create the driver viewpoint as staggeringly done by Shift. That said some iffy handling let the game down, but surely things can only get better!

Up next I downloaded a classic XBLA title which I had wanted since the launch of the console. Quite why it took me 4 years to download Smash TV, I'm not quite sure, but I was enticed to some co-op with a friend and at 400 MS Points, it wasn't much to give me a bit of retro goodness. Sadly the co-op is plauged now by drop-outs which is a shame, but a very addictive title.

On the XBLA front again, I have been playing Watchmen Part 2, again reviewed for the website. Although this appeared at the end of September, I failed to give it a brief mention last month. As you can see from the score, I thought the game was pretty dire and very expensive for what it is. Strangely enough though I found myself returning to it to complete it as the second character and still hated it the second time through.

Then came a much bigger leap in the gaming calander, in the form of Halo 3: ODST. I didn't get this straight from launch and even at the end of last month, it was still sitting sealed whilst I completed some other games. I've enjoyed the campaign and managed to wrap that up on Heroic, but I can't do Legendary on my own. I've enjoyed it with 2 other players, but solo it can be nigh on impossible. Not only that but the campaign is very broken in terms of when you begin a game and who with which meant having to re-play through the game to gain access to the next levels. A frustrating element of ODST, but a cracking game nontheless especially the epic Firefight battles I have endured.

Next up was Stoked, where you can read my review. This is quite a nice looking snowboarding title but I found it very hard to get to grips with, especially as the control system is taken from Skate which I'm useless at. If you are into the extreme sport and want beautiful looking mountains, then I suggest you take a look, especially as it can be picked up relatively cheap.

I managed to trade in Dirt 2 which I had near on completed from September and get £30 off Guitar Hero 5. With my staff discount at work, it meant I gained 1p, which meant I had two games for the price of one, considering I only paid £26 for Dirt 2 from an online retailer.

I've enjoyed what Guitar Hero 5 had to offer, it seem more polished and the soundtrack is far better than in World Tour. It took me back to the glory days of Guitar Hero III which was a postive element for me. The new improvements, whilst generally subtle, give it the edge. Sadly though the game is let down by poor DLC and connectivity with the old games.

With Halo 3: ODST as mentioned earlier, I decided to return to the multiplayer of Halo 3. It had been a long time since I played online particulary with the new maps which came on the second disc. I quite enjoyed my return to the game, a game which I've spent many fond hours playing online and it was nice to get back into the fray. Sadly with so many releases, online is something I don't bother with these days, but I should really settle down to some games more often.

The end of October heralded a packed month, I finally opened FIFA 10, after my girlfriends mate came round and wanted to play it. I guessed that it was time to take the shrink-wrap off and give it a blast. I've spent very little time with it, but it is an improvement on last year.

Around the time I opened FIFA, Forza Motorsport 3 arrived. I hadn't initally planned to buy the game and luckily I didn't have to. I won the staff of the month award for September at work and got a free copy which was nice. I didn't enjoy Forza 2, but this is a step up with some lovely menus and tracks alongside the vast variety of cars. Really enjoying the racing and handling as well and I can see me returning every now and again to complete events.

Up next was NBA Live 10, and a review will be up shortly for this. I've had a soft-spot for basket ball games down the years and NBA Live 10 is quite impressive. It is a very flexiable game in terms of rules and settings and the gameplay is great.

Finally (phew!), just making it into October is DJ Hero. I will write more about this next month and possibly put a review on the site. It is a cracking music game albiet over-priced but the mixes on it are superb and the instrument is well built.

And that is not all for October (I did say it was packed!), I was given entry into the Beta for the next Xbox update which is shaping up to be quite nice with Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm leading the way. I particulary like Last.fm, but it is ashame it can't be used in games (yet!). Sky Player also launched a week later which looks quite good but was plagued by problems. I will hopefully be getting access to the full service later in the month.

My target of achieving 30,000 gamerscore was smashed in October, and I'm now sitting on 32K, having beat two of my friends for the first time in three years past there scores. My next target is 50K, but that is a long way off.

October was certainly the busiest month possibly ever for gaming and November will be quieter but with a return to some classics and a few new guys, including possibly MW2, if I decide to splash out.

The weekend heralds work for me. For those unaware, I work in a well known game store in The Potteries Shopping Centre, Hanley in Staffordshire (the hint is in the title!).

Anyway, whilst pondering what the weekend would bring with a wealth of new releases on Friday and some pretty decent bundles, I arrived in the store to see a flash in the corner of my eye.

It turned out to be some disco lights hanging on the column to the left of the shop. Below those lights, gone was the drum kit from Guitar Hero and in its place was a deck.

Of course, I'm talking about DJ Hero, where for the first time, I saw the perhiperal in all its glory, albiet it strapped down to a podium. Very excited at seeing the device in action for the first time, I hastily jumped on it to have a play.

I was a bit of a whose and opted for the 'Easy' mode which gave me a subtle introduction to the scratching and pressing of the buttons. Sadly my job doesn't mean I can stand and play for the duration of the shift, instead I had to let others play and introduce them to the game as well as the usual till work and sales.

The deck itself is fairly solid. The one on the pod is wired up, but the final version is wireless if to be believed by a number of websites. The sliders and knobs are a little plasticky, though the Renegade edition apparently fixes this with a nice metal finish and gold knobs to have a fiddle with.

Only three songs were in the demo, including the Deck V Guitar song, which was utterly crap. But the other two songs highlighted how well the deck works and the game looks like it could be very good indeed.

The difficulty curve is steep though and Medium and Hard modes were certainly not for the faint-hearted. There is also no way to fail, whether this is just the demo or that is reflected in the full game, I'm not quite sure.

Either way each cock-up can be heard in all its glory. Bugger up and you'll just hear the dodgy scratches and no music.

DJ Hero is out this week and I'm very excited. Apart from the price mind, but staff discount softens the blow!

Anyway tell me if you are grabbing DJ Hero on Friday? If you want to try it out, head down to your nearest 'large' retailer and have a go!

With the recent announcement that I posted earlier today about Microsoft banning '3rd-party accessories', I thought I'd blog my views on this.

Although I've never used any 3rd-part memory cards or hard drives, I certainly know there are a lot of people out there using them. And Microsoft needs to sit up and take note as to why they are using them.

That key factor is price and flexiability of the other devices. And the reason Microsoft hasn't helped itself win over fans with this announcement, is a recent hike in accessory prices in stores.

What most of us forgot, was with the original announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite price-drop, was that Microsoft would combat some of the 'losses' they would make, by increasing the price of accessories such as the Headsets, Control Pads and Storage devices.

Typically prices have increased by £2-£4 for each item. Granted it might not seem like much, but every penny counts in this tough recession. They call it giving in one hand and taking it on the other (much like our Labour government!).

As our own Lauren points out in the news article, the price of a 512MB memory card is a staggering £34.99, and it has remained that price since the Xbox 360 launch. Why on earth are Microsoft still pushing such small memory and at such a high price? Are we delibrately trying to alienate the gamers who purchased a Core or Arcade system?

Granted, you may be able to purchase a 20GB hard drive second hand for a few quid more, but even then you have to sit down and ask yourselves, why in the age of 500GB and 1TB hard drives on PC's, are we paying through the nose for a 20GB and 60GB hard drive? Worse still if you want a 120GB HDD it'll cost £99.99, but that is if you can ever get hold of one.

The store I work in has not had the 120GB hard drive for nearly a year in stock. We got sick of using 'Sold Out' stickers and removed the display packaging from the shelves. Of course that could be a company problem or it could be Microsoft refusing to send them out.

To put into perspective the idea of storage and pricing, I've just purchased a brand new Quad Core Pentium PC with 4GB of RAM, and the key factor here, a superb 750GB hard drive. And the price? Just £218.99. That is just over £100 more than a 120GB hard drive, with a complete PC unit, sound card, graphics (albiet basic), keyboard and mouse. And that 750GB hard drive let us not forget.

Microsoft have being very rash in making this decision, without prior warning and Major Nelson has already promised 'to pass comments onto the accessories team'. Make this one of them Major!

The core reason there are people using un-official devices is that they can use there own larger hard drives to store the vast amount of downloads on the service and the truth is, that 120GB is far too low with the amount of content and the increasingly large XBLA games, let alone the over-priced Game on Demand service.

If you want to loose fans, the way to do it is to block other storage devices. Allow us to use our own at our risk and you'll be giving us the flexiability that console gamers want. We are allowed freedom of speech in the UK, but Microsoft is quietly trying to hush us and allow price hikes on accessories and silencing the critics.

More to the point, lets have realistic pricing and now. Make us a 500GB hard drive and sell it for £70-£90. Then you might not have people creeping off to use un-official methods. It could come full circle, if Microsoft allow it.

Tell me your views on the issues raised in this blog below including if you feel that price hikes weren't justified?

I thought I'd take this small oppurtunity of this silly hour of the night, to wish Console Monster, a very happy 4th birthday.

Of course, I'm still fairly new round these parts, having being with the site for just over a year or so now, in some shape or form.

Originally Console Monster never existed, it all began back in 2005 as 360 Monster, launching on the same day (I think) that the 360 became available in the UK.

And it hasn't looked back since. What drew me to the site from the very first time I saw that 'Blade' effect on the homepage, was the stunning design and the quality of writing on the website.

Don't forget, most of us back then were still fairly new to the writing game and the site has come leaps and bounds since. Members have passed, particulary when the decision was taken to drop the 360 only format and introduce PS3 and Wii. But all along some people have stuck by and some staff members are still here from that very launch.

Not many mind, I believe Ant threw away the key to some of there doors and some haven't been seen since.

But whatever attracts you to Console Monster, whether it be the honest journalism, the personal qualities, the cracking community or the stunning website we have before our very eyes, we do this because we love it.

This isn't about money or ego's, simply to give you our honest opinion on the games that matter for the PS3 and Xbox 360. And thats what Console Monster has being doing now for four hard years.

So raise a toast to Console Monster, as we celebrate four years together and of course, wish that there are many more birthdays to come.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday marked a special occasion. Why you ask? It was the day I finally played my 100th Xbox 360 game.

100 is pretty high but some would argue it is a fairly small number. However what I felt marked the occasion was my 100th game to grace my disc-drive was Halo 3: ODST, a sequel in a series which was the first to grace my original Xbox console back in 2001.

I felt this was quite fitting and a mark of how far the Xbox and Xbox 360 has come since the original Halo was released. Today that stands as a superb game, but ultimately to me, my favourite was Halo 2.

So 100 games, but what about achievements? Well 29K out of a possible 77K might sound a little lacklustre but infact this is a fairly reasonable tally compared with some friends whom have hundreds of games. A smidgen of those are XBLA titles but most games I like to get at least half of the gamerscore associated with them.

A bit of a mean feat, but perhaps in the future I will return to some key titles including the first ever Project Gotham Racing 3 and see if I can get one or two more achievements for it.

Anyway onwards with Halo 3: ODST and here is to another 100 fantastic gaming titles. Hurrah!