Bungie should have been out on stage at Microsoft's Press Conference, showing the same first level demo of HALO 3 that they showed to the press at their hotel suite. Let us in on the secret. In regards to Brad Shoemakers' gut reaction: I thought E3 was a single venue for all the developers/producers around the world to gather in to make it easier for the press to cover new games? If you, the editor, had to travel from one state/country to the next in order to preview new games at those specific events, would this be productive?

Big fan of Bungie and their current projects. I'll buy any updated version of Halo games. This Vista version of Halo 2 is a welcome reason to replay through the currently available PC HALO experience. For Halo 2 Vista it will be especially nice to play while being given achievement points through Windows Live. Looking forward to playing the exclusive new multiplayer map. Bungie...Marathon sequel...please.

The minor tweak to the achievement post while you're playing the game is very practicle, and will certainly change the way I discover achievements in every game I play. Too bad the extra Marketplace blade does not automatically unlock a previously hidden secret background for your existing themes. That keypad looks user friendly, and a great place to attach the device. All of this for free? No need to spend my fake money? I'm in. Wii needs to have an update soon, cannot imagine what Nintendo has cooking. I'm still mostly looking forward to the "Home" update for my Sony PS3, which will be completely different from what I have experienced in console user interfaces up to this point. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo (in no particular order) all with their own little space to play in. See...there's room for three.

If HALO 2 wasn't available on some other system (Consoles), and Doom 3 worked on Vista, then I would be upgrading right away. It's the backwards compatibilty issue that is hard for me to accept. I'll wait for the service packs and a year before I care to upgrade. It's not worth it right now. Vista will be best suited for those buying their first gaming PC that has the Vista OS preinstalled, then they wont be confused or forced to decide between the two. I'm running Windows XP and an ATI X1900 XTX. I'll upgrade my processor before I get into the OS.

Did the editors/researchers of this piece ever get their hands on Daxter for the PSP, or even GTA: Liberty City Stories? These games are massive in scale when compared to the games they have listed. Daxter takes 5-6 seconds to load from start screen to action, and there are zero load times for the remainder of the game, unless a cut scene begins and even then its 3-5 seconds. And I am rounding up to be fair. GTA is a streaming game that take somewhere in the rhelm of 5-6 seconds to load. Tekken: Dark Ressurection takes almost ... ALMOST a whopping 5 seconds between matches.