I hate it when companies make you buy points to spend.

First off, I consider it stealing. The left over 135 points that you have may not seem like much, but if you leave it in there and don't buy anything for a while (and I refuse to spend money on themes, avatars, etc.) MS is earning interest off your money. Yes, 135 points is not a lot, but multiple this by the millions of gamers on XBL and MS makes a killing just keeping your money and earning interest on it. Or, they make you spend the 135 points on stupid themes and avatars that really don't take that much investment and energy to make.

Second, and MS is particularly bad at this is that you have no idea how much the points are in real money. 800 points sounds like 8 bucks, but it really is 10 bucks. Sure, us veterans know better but a lot of casuals who just recently bought into this scam do not understand or may not really have an idea how much 800 points is until they are committed to purchasing the DLC or game or whatever. Then they will just pony up the money.

It's clear what MS has been doing the past few years. Nintendo is bad too but at least Nintendy's points system is easy to convert back to real money.

That's annoying. THe Wii shop has a browsing ability.

I don't know whats up with Nintendo. They have all these great ideas but always do something to shoot themselves in the foot. What if you just bought the 3DS today and didn't know that SML was out? They'd miss out on that download.

The 3D looks like the same as 2D. I hate it when people just have two 2D images overlayed on each other like that. Characters look flat and not in 3D at all

Is it just me or are the older releases (Super Mario Land, Zelda, Link's Awakening) no longer available on the VC?

Being a rehash doesn't bother me. I play MK for MK, not for gran turismo or anything else. As long as there are new tracks, reasonable 3D effects, I'm happy.

That said, I also play COD for COD, Mario land for Mario land and Zelda for Zelda. I don't want these series to "evolve". Sometimes evolution is a bad thing (like the DS Zelda games, and the new Resident Evil games)

I'm updating. Seriously guys though, Nintendo is a few hours late and you guys are all "I'm never buying Nintendo again". I know for those on the east coast it's really late and you have to work tomorrow, etc. but still, you'll get your games in time. Not to worry.

Anytime you throw a series enough to an audience, you will destroy it. Happened with Guitar Hero. Happened with Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Happened with Jaws.

I loved MW. I loved WAW. I started to get bored at MW2. I bought BO but stopped playing it after a couple months.

I can't imagine buying the next COD. I'm done with this series and it's thanks to oversaturation.

I see Gamestop going the way of Blockbuster and HMV and the other record stores if this continues. Think about it, first DD was popularized for music (easy to do because each file or album was small). Then Netflix came along (along with iTunes/XBL/PSN to rent movies) because we had faster Internet connections. The next step is video games.

Just wanted to add my two cents. I think Nintendo could be moving in for the kill here. Sony made a massive mistake when they released the PS3--made a system too powerful for the time, banked on it lasting 10 years, and having it come out for 600-700 bucks. As we all know, technology changes very fast, and prices for components get cheap quickly. I know Sony has lowered the price of their console but they took a long time to penetrate the market due to the initial cost of the system and are now paying for it dearly. Developing for the next PS4 would be prohibitively expensive and I'm not sure they have the resources (ie, cash) to properly develop another system for at least a few years. Granted, they could make a system even more powerful than the Wii2 but at this point, I'm not sure more horsepower would really be necessary. It's hard to imagine graphics and games getting better than they are currently, and I'm not sure I would pay a premium to play games on a system like that, especially if it will cost developers even more money to make games (and hence having games cost even more).

As for MS, they have a lot of money. They were smart with the 360, releasing it early. The technology in the 360 is starting to show its age, but with MS just recently releasing Kinect, I don't see them abandoning the 360 anytime soon... unless they make a new console with an option to plug in Kinect, but then again, if they make a new console, why not just include the Kinect in it, much like how webcams are built into laptops nowadays?

Many questions, few answers. All I know is that I'm excited for E3.

I'm slowly starting to buy all non-exclusives on PS3 now so this game will be bought on PS3. PS+ is a much better deal than paying for XBL... not going to renew XBL this year and will probably let the 360 gather dust.