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Next-gen consoles are stupid cheap, for what you get. This is truly the apex in the history of price-to-performance. I can understand why that nutty MS exec claimed to be delivering "thousands of dollars in value," if you compare the power and price of the newest hardware to even just the last generation: the PS4 will have 600% more power than the PS3, at a cost of only +33%. And that's including a wireless input device. The new Xbox is still a good value, too, it just comes with an unavoidable camera caveat that I don't want anything to do with. If you guys find value in your 680's and 7970's ... kudos on the multiple monitor setups.

Finished Bioshock: Infinite this morning, for the first time, after three months or whatever. Had to have it explained to me ... guess I'm too thick to see through such a convoluted reach-around.

Okay, so there have been some development leaps since the Rift's debut. This month at E3, the device was shown using Epic's Unreal Engine 4 tech demo in HD 1080p. Until now, I have been totally ambivalent and ignorant of the potential of the Rift. I assumed it was merely a monitor that sits on my face. Turns out, I was wrong. Some quotes from this article ... Imagine the depth of immersion at being able to move your head view independently of forward control ...

I love it, this makes me feel like one of those journos invited behind closed doors for a preview ... except I already have a reliable source at the developer who updates about every two weeks. Can't wait to visit that bay city and the dungeons thereunder.

That looks fun. I do prefer shaders dressed in black, however. Maybe a nice red for Tomb Raider 2 bundles in 2015. This interview with Bioware's Jessica Merizan is a fun tap to the gaming vein if you're collecting for Dragon Age and Mass Effect, but more importantly, a new IP. I love being teased like that, but I'm hoping it's for an Episode VII Star Wars single-player open world on Frostbite 3. If you watch Jessica carefully, you can almost read her mind when she mentions the new IP ... *STAR WARS* No, but seriously, at the end, she mentions SWTOR and, "giving back to the fans." Also, one of the questions specifically alludes (if that's possible) to Project: Eternity, as far as Kickstarter, new-old games, and their influence, if any, on the new DA. Speaking of Tomb Raider, if you haven't seen Chloe, the interviewer, cosplay as Lara Croft ... she nailed it, and I mean with a hammer.

I call Monday night at midnight, July 8, after Friday's July 4th launch party weekend. There will be booze. And hot dogs. I am totally going to buy P:E at launch, even though I pledged for digital and hard copies. I'll gift the other code and lovingly caress the boxed version--er, I mean, you know, put it on display with KOTOR2, et. al. I like physical media.

Yes. That's what happened. Furtive, wordless glances in the darkened hallways of Obsidian. Executives and writers together, thinking as one. Delay--at least for 45 minutes while we decide on Wasa, or Wahoo's. April was always a placeholder. Next summer would be great. If not, I'll wait longer.

Super fly photo for Mirror's Edge 2. Just got the original game on Origin ... can't wait to play. The HD version of this image is just stunning. Big propositions to the artists at DICE.

Bioware Montreal director today posted a photo of the Design Document (not the contents, just the binder) for ME4 and said it will use the same engine and "core features" as DAIII. An open-world Mass Effect RPG? Yes, thank you, I'll take two, one for my PC, one for my PS4.

I would love to know exactly how large corporations "read comments and listen to feedback." Do they have dedicated research teams (like the ones EA just pink-slipped) or do project directors et. al read reddit (readdit?) and Shacknews ... but then what. Do they call a meeting, talk about options ... who makes the final decision. What I am certain of, however, is that a potential loss of revenue is the only thing that makes a company change anything. Still not loving the mandatory Kinect. When gaming, I prefer to remain as still as possible ... having to wave my whole hand around, using my entire forearm, lifting my upper arm, rotating my shoulder cuff ... gads I'm tired, I just want to play and relax.

Gads I was set on starting with a monk character. Now I know it was a paladin all along. Thanks for doing this, by the way.

I'm seriously almost wanting to buy a PS3 just to play The Last of Us.

Ahaha! Never gonna give ... never gonna give ... you up. Never gonna say goodbye! It is so strange, this turn of the tide. Not six months ago, MS was, more or less, inoffensive, with some big surprises up its sleeve ... and Sony was a pitiful hydra of worthless stock prices, in-fighting, too many SKU's, and unplayable versions of Skyrim. Now ... they're the scrappy underdog, sticking it to an empire. If this movement revitalizes Sony as a company, it will be thanks to us gamers. I'll take a new 4K TV, if you're listening, SCEA.

Consoles are just different. They come with different expectations, independent of mass market reality. I have Origin, Steam, and Uplay, and an Xbox 360, but I just pre-ordered a PS4 because Sony exposed a nerve inside my gamer's psyche that says consoles shouldn't be all-digital, always-connected platforms. Not yet. PC games, yes ... consoles, no. I can't really explain it, but a crazy-fun magic happened at Sony's E3 press conference ... also independent of reality. But that's what made it great. It was as if the underdog manufacturer gave us a way out, a better option: a more powerful machine at a much lower price. The irony is about perception ... the Kinect won't actually spy on us, but it seems like it will. An always-online connection isn't that big of a deal, either, but it seems like it will be, especially to the underdog consumer. Never in all my life have I seen such a wave of momentum for any product.

We may be few, but our passion is great. Tried some new vendors this time ... ASRock and MSI, in particular. Got a true quad-core Llano (A8-3850) right as Trinity launched, with the A75M chipset, HDMI and v3.0 of USB and SATA. Sniped 8GB of Corsair DDR3 1600 right at the bottom of the market, $40. The most exciting new part, is the SSD. Got the 830 128GB for $80 right when the 840 series launched. It is fast ... fast, fast, fast: Win7 boot time is ~15 seconds. Skyrim is the only game I put on the SSD ... all the others are stored on a 10k rpm Velociraptor. Load/save times are measured in 0-3 seconds, even with HD texture packs. Graphics are a Pitcairn, MSI Twin Frozr 7850 2GB. Tomb Raider and Lara Croft's TressFX hair rendering completely changed my priorities in life. Oh, and Viewsonic. I took PC Gamer's advice and went for the 23" LED IPS panel ... it really is beautiful. And a very reasonable $160. For 1080p gaming, this system is ultra-satisfying. The whole reason I built it, was to get ready for Project Eternity. Woot!

Would love to play The Last of Us ... would not love to pay $359 for the privilege, now, on a console with 256MB RAM ... am currently playing the very confusing and poorly-written game of Amazon Pre-order: Launch Day PS4 ... can't wait to stream The Last of Us via cloud to a console with 8GB of RAM.

Retail discs. With key codes. And manuals. Mint in box. All mine forever!

Imagine if the hard drive upgrade potential for the PS4 included internal solid state drives ... now imagine truly affordable SSD's by this time next year ... I'm asking too much.

Nevermind the console, I'd like to attach an Xbox One controller to my PC for gaming, see how the new vibration capabilities feel. Backwards rumble compatibility with games older than 2014 might be a pipe dream, though.

all i saw was ryse, that digital-only killer instinct remake and dead rising 3. does microsoft have more exclusives than those? They have exclusive Big Brother spying technology. Does that count? Which is exactly why I don't want the One, and is exactly how Sony can sell the Four for less, since their camera is optional. Sony is not going out of business, they're doing this launch right, finally. It's shocking for me to be a current 360 owner and be successfully wooed by a Playstation. $400 for 7850/7870-level graphics with 8 gigs of RAM and a 500GB HD ... insane.

Ars called it a twice-bisected rhombus, the PS4. I would say Sony directly bisected Microsoft at least twice during the show. And only $399?! What a good deal for 8 gigs of RAM.

Gross misrepresentation ... gads, that is so untrue. I'll never understand the ME3 ending furor. Super-excited for Morrigan's whip-tongue dialogue to return. Witcher ... meh.

Morrigan returns!! Lots of exciting news today ... SW Battlefront not least among them. In the here and now, I wish The Last of Us was available for PC ...

Gads, how do you people remember so many details. I should load a save and finish another OC, I guess, but the camera controls are a pain in my mouse.

Wait, isn't there a gradation of soul "quality" in P:E ... maybe they will introduce a kind of soul-istic bigotry more dynamic than a racial scheme.