I turned on my Xbox 360 and was treated to a download of fresh goodness.

One of the great things about the '360 (yes it owns me and I enjoy every minute of it) is that it periodically updates itself with Xbox goodness (Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold accounts and connection to Xbox live required).
Fear not my cheap brethren, you will not miss out on the goodness either. The Xbox 360 gods will let you download the update as long as you connect to a broadband internet connection. Starting on Halloween we get a new update that will provide more than 85 new features and enhancements!!

Some of those include; support for native 1080p games and movies (the bestHD resolution currently available) and faster display times and a number of options when it comes to video playback options.

A short list of some key features include:
- A number of ways to enjoy video on your machine. It is now possible to stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
- You can play video files from data CDs and DVDs, storage devices (i.e. USB 2.0 flash drives) and Xbox 360 Memory Units.
- Xbox 360 will support 50hz HDTV display modes, providing viewers greater choice in how they watch DVD and HD DVD content.
- Redesigned user interface with easier to read buttons and status windows.

Xbox Live Arcade Enhancements
- Now rather than going to look for new game trials to download you can set your account up to automatically download newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games.
- The games you already have in your Xbox Live Arcade collection appear much faster letting you "get your game on" faster.
- Because of the sheer number of games Xbox Live Arcade has added new sorting options such as “Recently Played” and “By Category' for easier navigation.
- A new expanded Friends Leaderboard allows you to see how your gaming skills compare with you friends and see leaderboard details of their your top-10 friends.
- A new expanded Achievements View within Xbox Live Arcade lets you see full Achievement details for you Arcade games at a glance to include; descriptions, icons, allotted Gamerscore right on the Xbox Live Arcade dashboard interface.
- Rather than having to go find a downloaded Arcade game on your system, there's a “Play Now” button after the game is dowloaded. Thus allowing you to bypasses Arcade and go directly to the game.

And for you budding game developers, XNA Support
- Amateur game designers will be able to test and play the games they create using XNA Game Studio Express on their Xbox 360 systems when it launches later this year (separate download and subscription required).

Phew, let me catch my breath! From the sheer excitement over all the new features and trying to recap them here, its made me a little light headed.

I'm off to wear the buttons of my '360 controller, Dutch.