Just to let people know - it doesn't really actually work with the MSI RX9800 Pro-TD128 brand of graphics card. Now do I actually move into the spare room in a flat - or do I spend the cash on a graphics upgrade? No contest really - I'm moving out!!! YAHHHH closer to work, zero taxi bills. WTB - a cook book. A human being can live on oven pizzas for so long. Seriously though although I can't play the game at this precise moment in time, I'll be upgrading in a couple of week or so.

Definately Lower The Price, especially when you're lowering the EU specs. Come on SONY!!! Or lower the price and keep that backward compatible chip in there. That was sorry, IS Sony's strength after all. The humungous amount of people with an extensive PS2 library would really like the ability to play all titles on one unit. Even though I doubt many PS3' will find their way into the living rooms as a "Media Center". Yup, exclusive titles. I hate em I really do - but as a primarily PC gamer, I can choose to wait and enjoy the PC version along with any user created mods that arrive, or even better the SDK's that gets released on or around the same time as the release. Bargain!! Cheaper title with an elongated shelf life as well. Nintendo introduced the gaming world to exercise. Microsoft introduced gamers to widescreen tv's. Sony will introduce what exactly? Nerfed specs, an inflated customer price and even imported hardware isn't covered under the warranty, why I don't know. Who ever the "winner" turns out to be, will be the company that doesn't lose as much money. Which makes Nintendo a front runner as they don't seem to be making a loss on every unit purchased. HOW could a giant leader "drop the ball" in such a way that it leads to the run away success of it's two major competitors?

Definately Lower The Price, especially when you're lowering the EU specs. Come on SONY!!! Or lower the price and keep that backward compatible chip in there. That was sorry, IS Sony's strength after all. The humungous amount of people with an extensive PS2 library would really like the ability to play all titles on one unit. Even though I doubt many PS3' will find their way into the living rooms as a "Media Center". Yup, exclusive titles. I hate em I really do - but as a primarily PC gamer, I can choose to wait and enjoy the PC version along with any user created mods that arrive, or even better the SDK's that gets released on or around the same time as the release. Bargain!! Cheaper title with an elongated shelf life as well. Nintendo introduced the gaming world to exercise. Microsoft introduced gamers to widescreen tv's. Sony will introduce what exactly? Nerfed specs, an inflated customer price and even imported hardware isn't covered under the warranty, why I don't know. Who ever the "winner" turns out to be, will be the company that doesn't lose as much money. Which makes Nintendo a front runner as they don't seem to be making a loss on every unit purchased. HOW could a giant leader "drop the ball" in such a way that it leads to the run away success of it's two major competitors?

They've forgotten an age old genre. The text adventure game. Granted not as popular as it once was, but it was quite a popular genre back in the day. Instant death was a bane and blatantly bad design. No warning, no reason, type Go West and instant death. :( There's also a similar event where you get to a certain point but can't go no further unless you've got and haven't used a pretty unspectacular item that doesn't respawn anywhere and have to go through the entire game from scratch. Oblivion was one of those games that had mulitple quests but in some cases a strict path was the "best way" of completing them. Poor design, poor programming who knows.

Seaniel wrote"....I think we've all grown too acustomed to what video games have been up to this point. No longer are they the multi-pixel diversions they once were. They are quickly becoming mediums by which to enter other worlds. Like books, but more interactive. Sure, Mappy was fun, and Tecmo Super Bowl made us giggle. But that sort of fun is for kids. The video game generation is growing up, and I for one commend Sony for investing so much of their own money to push the dragging industry in the direction it should head. Anyone who disagrees should just go play the newest Pokemon and quit whining about the price. " I think I agree with your point concerning what games are today. Even the Nintendo Kids Club wouldn't actually enjoy playing a spectrum or Amiga game, that's not even mentioning the loading times either. However, I would disagree with your main point that the technology HAS to go faster and whistle and ring more bells just because the technology and knowhow is there. I much prefer Nintendo's take on the next generation hardware, even though technically it's not. Sure the wireless wii-mote and nunchuka are the great ideas behind it, but even that makes games more challenging, fun engaging and at a price most people can afford. I've seen the movies for both of these consoles, and I have to say they are both very very nice. While I do not have a HD tv to enjoy the PS3 in all it's glory, I can already see a virtual Wii next to my tv even now. The Wii, will be the first Nintendo product I'll have ever bought, because the previous hardware centered around the teen market and were primarily aimed at youngsters, which is fine. I hope there are more adult orientated (15+ rated) games that will become available for the Wii, but if not, then the wii will function as a party machine in a more affordable way than the PS3 ever could hope to be. In the last section of this story appears the quote "...Sony has stated that upgrading the hard disk will be as simple as dropping a larger capacity 2.5" SATA notebook HD into the system." So if you don't actually need the extra gubbings, why pay extra when you know the HD size will not be a factor?

Having witnessed the somewhat awful at first movie combining live action and game action for Red Steel, I have to say that if the controls are as accurate as portrayed and not some dodgy camera set up, it's going to be a lot of fun. And $450 for a four player party box with party games included is a great price for a christmas gift for all the family. I'm not a console player by any stretch of the imagination, but the games and the hands on intuitive control scheme will get even the Royal Family together for a game of mixed doubles. Let the beer flow and the pizza go cold!!!

The conclusion to the article was spot on. Both are great cards representing excellent graphical benefits but with a new OS and Direct X 10 literally just around the corner and getting closer each day, why bother to spend 1200 bucks or whatever on new hardware that you KNOW will be out of touch in the next six months? I too have used both cards in the past, but my upgrading time frame were a couple of years apart, so it would be unfair (and grossly inaccurate). For the gamer heads out there, I suppose they if they are going the one gfx card option, will have already purchased either of these cards and are getting immense joy out of it. Personally, I'm going to hang on to my 9700 whatever and 1.5GB Ram until I really really need to upgrade. Somewhere between when DX10 and Vista become minimum and recommended.

What is the shelf life for a console these days? Four five maybe six years. At what point do the developers hit their peak and start making games that push the hardware to it's limit. If I remember correctly that occured on the PS2 about two years after launch. So DX10 and Vista, a brand spanking new games PC with all the benefits of playing games on the PC (free mods to name out) and an experience using your prefered controller which is akin to playing on a console, and online gaming seems to be (fingers crossed perhaps?) cross compatible at some time with PC and Xbox Live GOLD users. Sounds great. The future is great no matter what platform or company you support. If acquiring points can take over ones life maybe it's a habit not worth developing, like smoking (guilty) drinking (ditto) and online gambling (uhhh, not anymore). The difference is no money changes hand, except for the software. But time and quality of life is far more important than being fiscally responsible, to those points collectors out there. Be careful, get a good balance between everything. Blu-ray HDTV and all these other competing formats, are a waste of time. The best of blu-ray and the above could have been intertwined with each other if the big seven or eight companies could work together and agree on a standard. In the long run it will be the company who's backed the wrong format that will lose out, but in the meantime, it's people who buy both or ignore one over the other and may end up with an obsolete library. Like the Betamax and VHS wars. I'll still be buying movies and pc games on the DVD format for a very long time to come, as they are not yet capable of filling the disk even now. Great feature, could you guys make it a quarterly thing perhaps?

From the Americna Heritage Dictionary, as provided by a google search. un·can·ny (ŭn-kăn'ē) adj., -ni·er, -ni·est. 1. Peculiarly unsettling, as if of supernatural origin or nature; eerie. See synonyms at weird. 2. So keen and perceptive as to seem preternatural. uncannily un·can'ni·ly adv. uncanniness un·can'ni·ness n. -------- Okay, the woman in the Hard Rain video only freaked me out because she was acting like a sociopath. She's a bit too clingy for my liking. Where as Alex from HL2, looks just as smooth as Hard Rain' femme fetale, but her character is more happy to see you, she's a friend. Miss Smith is not. Maybe gamers have been desentized to a degree, but certainly in real life, things like dolls are really freaky!! I didn't have a problem with the animation in the Polar Express, it was just a really long and boring film. Again, no problem at all with the Enemy Within feature film either. The only problem with Oblivion characters is that sometimes their voices change depending on the script that gets called up. I'm sure there was a male deep voice to read the missions, and a male old voice for other bits. Graphically, they are "dirty" but that's fine

Excellent article at the right time. I've been asking people why upgrade right now when Vista and DX10 are just around the corner. Well, reading that article if you upgrade now you're not going to see version 3 effects, but with a current card it should look pretty nice anyway. I'm in the three year old PC (by Dell) camp, but I've upgraded little bits, sound card, RAM, graphics card, and a second Hard Drive. Will be getting a Vista built PC when the time is right, namely when funds allow. Again, excellent article.