I picked up a copy of Halo 2 from the Microsoft company store last week. It's definitely a great game but nothing revolutionary. It's the original Halo with more guns where you also get to play as one of the Covenant in campaign mode. The graphics are excellent, the sound is great and the gameplay is about the same. The outdoor levels where you ride around on a Warthog are just as cool as before and the treks around the mazes in the indoor levels also tend to get just as repetitive as before. The game truly shines in multiplayer mode and may be the incentive for me finally setting up XBox Live at home given that the kit has been sitting on my cofee table for about half a year.

I also picked up the AudioVox SMT 5600 last week. I've wanted a Windows Smartphone for months because I'd gotten to the point where having access to my Outlook inbox and calendar on the go was becoming more and more necessary. I picked the AudioVox 5600 based on some favorable comments from Robert Scoble which were echoed by someone from the MSN Messenger team during an impromptu cross team meeting. I totally love the phone and take back all the snide comments I used to make about folks like Russell Beattie who are always singing the praises of mobile phones that do more than make voice calls. I even used the camera on my phone today while sight seeing in Washington, DC. However, unlike Scoble and my new boss I don't see this phone or anything like it replacing my iPod anytime soon.

That's two Microsoft-related personal purchases that I'd heartily recommend to a friend. Excellent.