Think about it. Would Best Buy let any publisher have shelf space to give away a free product? Heck no, they have employees and rent to pay.

I understand Epic's long term customer loyalty strategy - but I am guessing MS does not have guarantees it will be the publisher for GoW 2 (or whatever Epic game follows on this hit) -- So it is more interested in proceeds from this product and running it's "store".

I would love to pay for some more GoW maps. Does not change my opinion of Epic or MS. More Maps (and Weapons / Game Types.. oh, and fix the buggy net-code.. hiding lag sounds cool but is a terrible idea.. makes the game feel buggy / random as all get out.)

In the end as a consumer,
- I am interested in buying maps, additional levels, additional entertainment content for games.
- I am not interested in personally paying for demos or theme packs.

Guys,

GoW may not be for all and it's MP is a completely different game than Halo2 MP. I was quickly bored with Halo2 MP, where I love Gears teamwork and squad based elements - as well as the unique weapons and cover / teammate down elements.

It's a great innovative MP game in it's infancy - it is innovative because no other game that plays like it combines the same balance of game characteristics like it does. The article does it justice.. so if you like Halo2 better than GoW MP, great - don't bash it because you didn't dig it, and I won't bash Halo2 MP because I didn't dig it. The haters sound like a bunch of PS2 fanboys anyway.

360 + Halo 2 & GoW ftw!

-Rask

P.S. Please Epic address the issues in the article, or as the author suggests just give us some information.

#3 - survey can imply a questionairre based survey or as found on dictionary.com it could also imply "to take a general or comprehensive view of or appraise, as a situation, area of study, etc." - i.e. to survey the landscape of something (like the blu-ray vs. hd-dvd acceptance)..

Now PS fanboy, I think you may owe Joystiq an apology..

Gears of War for the win.

If you like Counterstrike and have not tried GoW, buy it and try it..

I have played CS since it was in beta (PC) way back in the day.. and then played CS-Source. I really thought as far as quick pick me up shooters it was the best.

I have never been a fan of shooters on console - the controller is way too slow and inaccurate compared to mouse look and the graphics / gameplay were always less than PC..

I have now changed my tune - Gears of War is incredible and as addictive / fun as Counter-Strike.. even crazier.. about 90% of the people I play with are cool / not obnoxious (which is good for online console gamers). It is a great game - with incredible graphics, great teamwork, and really fun general gameplay.

I agree it was tongue and cheek from Apple, so as a MS fanboy I won't take offense.. I kind of like Apple too, even if you fan boys are a bunch of tree-huggers.. :P

As far as no OSX viruses, a quick Google search proves the more rabid Apple fan boys on the forum to be incorrect: http://news.com.com/Exploit+released+for+Mac+OS+X+flaw/2100-1002_3-6122015.html?tag=newsmap

-Rask

Ansel Adams

Lost!

Cory Morrow - Angela

I have a Tivo Network setup at home but I don't understand what this offers me over my pc running the Tivo network software and dropping my converted video files into my Tivo videos directory with a new extension - I have done it on a few movies with only one failure.

Does anyone know what Tivo Server would give me that the current software from Tivo does not?

DBX,

Yeah - if there are any PC games that install at 20GB they are in the minority - LaughingT is right, WoW is probably one of the larger mainstream games out there. On top of that gaming graphics may shrink going forward as developer investigate new rendering techniques (Joystiq had a article on this a few weeks/months ago).

As far as the Blu-Ray making PS3 have more longevity. The format wars are going to be the end of hard media anyway. In the next couple years most of us that are capable of reading blogs or playing a PS3 will be downloading all of our content on demand (games/movies/music). We will not be buying physical media like blu-ray/HD-DVD/DVD/CD.

Now the majority of this maybe via the Cable/Sat providers (ugh.) vs. Internet unfortunately.. so the friggin studios can guarantee the hardening of the devices that deliver content. It is just a matter of time before they start panicing because it becomes widely known PC/MAC based DRM is going to fail to protect their content the way they want it to (forget how the consumer wants it..) sigh.