I've wondered about whether or not the console would crack a disc like that, and I really do not know. What I do know is that my Halo 3 disc cracked in a period of time when I rarely took it out of the console, and when I did, I did not put it back in its case (which was an older style of case than what is being used now). I also had a Left 4 Dead disc crack in a similar manner. However, my Far Cry 2 case is extremely tight and requires more force to get a game in or out of it, but my Far Cry 2 disc is perfectly fine.

While inconclusive, that leads me to believe that something other than the case contributed to the cracking. Maybe the cracked discs had a defect that made them more prone to cracking than my Far Cry 2 disc. I don't know, but I am certain that the discs can crack even when you handle them properly.

I would much rather see Guitar Hero die then Halo. Halo games can be spiced up since they don't all have to be FPS's. I would really like an RPG Halo.msuspartan11

I agree completely. Although, I don't mind keeping something like Guitar Hero and Rock Band around so long as they don't attempt to release new versions more than once every two years and if it will keep them from releasing things like Lips and the DJ rhythm game.

I don't think they should end the franchise, but I do think they need to give it a long rest and bring it back once we've had a chance to get nostalgic over it. They should really start working on a new IP to carry through yet another trilogy (just because people usually get tired of things around the third installment) and then look at revisiting the Halo universe. As it is, they are dangerously close to pushing the entire franchise to a point of saturation where the story is no longer innovative or interesting and all the levels just blend into mind-numbing repetition. All Halo games have the potential to be story-driven, but it takes a lot of time to write the story up front before developing any of the game, but I doubt Bungie will take the time to take that approach. And they've not helped themselves by letting Eric Nylund write books for them...

I think it all depends on the game. In some games, it's awesome having no story and to just go around and be a crazy man with no worries- ie doom. But in others, it really helps, and the game wouldn't be much without the story (bioshock.. but this was more about the atmosphere to me).

To be honest, I was more in to stories in games when I was younger. Plot devlopment in games will never match movies because of the interaction, and as I get older, I am starting to see plots in games as just kind of lame.

On a side note, I find it ironic that most of the same people who say stories are what makes the game and if you don't like them you are a dumb/shallow gamer are the same people who tend to like the really old games... saying they are the true masterpieces of gaming, when they have no story themselves:).

I'm 22 years old, and have been gaming since five, and can honestly say I feel that this generation of games is the best!

The_Baymonster

I'm kinda the opposite. The older I get, the more important the story is to me. And I find it interesting that you bring up Doom simply because that was my first game. Sure I enjoyed it, but that's largely because I had nothing else to play. Pretty soon after that, I got Wolfenstein 3D and Sim Farm, also having no story, but that's what was available to me, and I enjoyed them. But I think that Doom 3 was clearly a better game than any Doom before it, partially because the graphics were much better, but largely because they actually put some inkling of a story into it for anyone paying attention for those types of things. They did a wonderful job of including bits of theoretical physics and even mentioning a rumor from the 90s of a space port project in Oklahoma in various logs that you could find throughout the game. It wasn't a full story, by any means, but it was enough to intrigue people who wanted a little more immersion while not burdening those who just wanted to shoot demons.

I do think that our current generation of games has the most potential for telling stories, but I also think that many developers rush through the story only using it as an excuse to get from one environment to the next. On the other extreme, I see writers for games coming from more of a nerdy, sci-fi background with a complete incompetence when it comes to writing something remotely realistic. Thankfully, they write well enough for most gamers, but they still annoy me. For example, Eric Nylund (I know he didn't write for the Halo games, but I'll use him anyway because he wrote three of the Halo books and helped develop some of the Halo canon) has some skill at writing a story that keeps readers immersed in the story. But he has no idea of realism when it comes to writing out battle scenes, and he can never find a happy medium between futuristic weapons and old weapons (apparently in 2552, humans have intelligent AI to command their ships and can use massive magnets to guide plasma projectiles over long distances, but they are still using shotguns from the 1960s?... and Warthogs have 70mm chainguns?!?! That would roll the thing over backwards at best, and would more than likely tear the whole vehicle apart. Heck, an A-10 only has a 30mm gun, and sustained fire from that is sufficient to counteract the full thrust from both engines!). The other example that comes immediately to mind is Gears of War (which also has some of that amazing Eric Nylund writing!). Yeah, people love the story, but I personally can't figure out why. Everything in the game is overly cliche and stereotypical, and the finished product just looked like they got a bunch of people who live in their grandma's basement to come up with a list of characteristics that would make someone macho, and they implemented every single suggestion. There is no subtlety, and you could cut nearly half the levels out without affecting the plot at all.

Sorry for the long-windedness. I guess it is just a pet peeve to see game developers putting a story into a game and acting like the story is a big deal, but then they don't bother to make it believable or check for consistency in details. I get irritated at movies for the same reason. So I would rather not have a story at all than to have a poorly written story, and I certainly don't expect everyone else to place the same importance on the story that I do.

I treat games a lot like books or movies, and since I expect them to have good stories, I also expect games to have good stories. I am more lenient on games. I will actually play some with little to no story, but I am not likely to buy them or play them more than once. On the other hand, a great story with good gameplay will keep my attention for years. Just last weekend, I finished playing through Halo CE yet again because I just love that story and the gameplay. I've also been playing through Left 4 Dead recently, and I see no reason to play back through it once I finish it.

Go to Walmart's website. It is only for certain games.

There are only 7 games to choose from, and they are all $20 games. So it is a good deal if you wanted at least two of those seven games, but otherwise, it really isn't that great.

And considering the alternative of owning a PS3 or Wii, I'm pretty happy. I'm not saying those are bad systems, but the games for them do not interest me as much (which is why I didn't buy them). For Wii, I've not seen any games that excited me, but my wife would actually play games with me if we owned one. And if I had a PS3, I'd get Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 and probably MGS4, but that would be the extent of it. Prototype and Infamous both look like decent rentals, but nothing more for my tastes, and both Natal and Sony's motion controller look just as difficult to control as the Wii controller, so I don't care for either of those.

I guess I'm just easy to please. Give me three to four good games a year and make sure that one is a FPS with some good online coop/versus action, and I'll be happy.

I was waiting for e3 so I could see what games Microsoft has to offer for the rest of the year, but they have barely anything. For the rest of 09 MS has Halo: ODST a 60 dollar dlc, Forza 3, and Lips. I dont like racers and Im not interest in Lips so there first party titles are a no go for me. and 3rd party wise the only games im interested in are Bioshock 2, and mayb Assassins creed 2 if its not as repetitive as the first. So this year is a dud for me, anyone else feel the same?

Shawnzee_102

No!

First, my expectations for E3 were pretty low anyway. The last two years have been really good, and most of the games for this year were already announced. So my expectations for E3 were to see a bunch of guys saying that this is "the future of gaming" like they do every year and showing us some gameplay demos of the already announced games. And guess what... that's exactly what I got from E3.

For the games you listed, I'm not interested in Lips at all, don't care for Forza 3 since I thought Forza 2 was not as fun as the original Forza, and I will probably get Halo ODST (even though I don't expect it to be as fun as Halo 1 through 3). And while they have not set a price on Halo ODST, Bungie has said that it will not be full price, so I'm assuming it will be around $45 instead of $60, but that price is still merely speculation.

For third party games, I am really excited about Modern Warfare 2 and Mass Effect 2 (2010 release, but still in "this year" according to developers' fiscal years, and it should be close to the holiday season). Assassin's Creed 2 should be good, along with Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, and Left 4 Dead 2, but I don't plan on buying those. Considering I only buy about one game every six months, I still have several games from last year that I want to play, so I am quite content with this year's releases.

I'm still not convinced on using my 360 for anything but playing games. If I start up the console, its to play a game. Otherwise, I'll get on the computer.

Obviously people will like this, so cool, but its just not for me.

seankane

I'm the same way. I have no use for Twitter, and I only check my Facebook account every few weeks, so there is no point for me to use either. My xbox is used for gaming, and I'd much rather be gaming than looking at Facebook anyday. I'm still irritated that they changed the xbox dashboard and added ridiculous looking avatars last year, and I've still never seen much use in the little controller keypad from last year's E3. But, apparently the younger generation likes this sort of thing. I guess the one good thing about linking to Facebook is that I will be able to find friends on Live without knowing their gamer tag, but I doubt that happens often.

Alan Wake, Guitar Hero 5, or pretty much anything else other than the few games I plan on buying around the holidays (Modern Warfare 2, Halo: ODST, Mass Effect 2). I really don't care much about any of the others...