Hurlshort

Well, not everyone wants to play games online. I think the Xbox marketplace is lame whether you have silver or gold, because they want to charge you for crap like themes and pictures. I bought a theme thinking it might have a few sound effects, but it was just 4 background pics, whoopie. Anyways, silver isn't as bad as you are making it seem. It allows you to log in and keeps track of the games you play. It's free, what do you expect? Gold isn't some nirvana of gaming, it just lets you play online. That's pointless for anti-social folks.

As kind of a rebuttal to a few of those arguments from a year ago, Final Fantasy Online is set to come out for the Xbox 360. I think the Nemo idea is great. I can see that being an excellent family style online game. Seriously though, this thread is pretty out of the blue.

http://bf2s.com/player/43374929/ Awesome, alanschu is my worst enemy. Gads, my stats are weak...we should do a leaderboard for Obsidian.

That's excellent for Alienware. They started out as a small boutique and now they will get a hefty price for their company. You can expect quality to drop, but that's they way of capitalism. Building your own PC is the only way to go, IMHO. I guess if I was rich, I'd buy a fancy Alienware case.

I watched the first 2 periods. The Kings looked exhausted and got beat pretty solidly. I didn't see any undue fisticuffs.

So would you say the same thing about Dungeons and Dragons Online? Come to think of it, Everquest also separates zones into instances when they get too crowded. I believe the limit is somewhere near 100 per zone. It also does have a persistent server...but it's just built like a graphic chat room. I actually do agree with you, but I'm just trying to point out the many gray areas in MMORPG's.

Guild Wars is in the gray area of MMORPG's. What are you referring to specifically? There are massive amounts of people online in Guild Wars, but only in designated, non-combat areas. By that, DDO wouldn't be a MMORPG either. Is it because it's free? Plenty of games have marketed themselves as free MMORPG's.

I'm thinking Vancouver and LA will be slipping out to make room for the Ducks and Sharks. Vancouver got whalloped tonight against Nashville, and LA is already down 3-1.

I saw that the Leafs won, nice! The East is looking almost as messy as the West. I'm hoping the 'Yotes can upset the Kings and give my Sharks a bit more room to move up.

If Crosby and Ovechkin tie, who deserves it? Personally I say Ovechkin, because at least Crosby has a few supporting castmates on the Penguins. Ovechkin is way alone.

Take care Jorian, you are in our thoughts.

Whoever mentioned "Footfall", I second. That's a classic, and so is "Lucifer's Hammer".

As I said, GW is still much cheaper either way. EQ is the real con artist in my eyes. They release expansions like crazy, charge for features that most games offer for free, and don't add all that much content in their updates. Asherons Call had a much better system, releasing monthly content for free and only giving expansions for major changes, like housing. WoW seems to be following that model more closely, as the expansion adds areas and new races, as well as mounts.

If anything, I imagine that just means all three games will be delivered using the same technology. That means they can release three games in three years (although that may rush production, like KotOR 2.) Anyone else notice that the Guild Wars expansion is priced at $50? I guess that's the drawback to no monthly fees. Of course, that's still cheaper if you compare a year of WoW to bothe GW games.

Before getting my 360, my wife made me set up cable for her in the back room. Now we don't argue over the TV anymore.

There has been quite a few attempts at legislation aimed at censoring games, but none of them have held up. This doesn't really need fighting at this point, the game industry is pretty much on top of these laws and Jack Thompson is looking loonier every day.

While I admit plenty of people sink their time into MMO's, and the game design tends to favor that, it's not the only way to play. Personally I play only on the weekends and typically in the morning before my wife wakes up. I probably average 5-10 hours a week in WoW, and I'm plenty happy with my progress.

Thornton got three assists tonight to take the scoring lead. Cheechoo got all three of the goals to give him 40 on the season. Someone asked me at the start of the season if I thought Marleau would break out this year. I said I had higher expectations for Cheechoo. Marleau has definitely had a break out season, but I'm glad I was half right. Alright, enough fanboism, I'm going to sleep happy.

I went to Vancouver on my Honeymoon. It was pretty awesome...hockey merchandise everywhere.

That wouldnt be particularly suprising. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is a tough one. Personally I hope it's primarily a PC game, because I don't see myself plugging in a keyboard to my console and typing from the couch. I mean, typing is pretty important in these games, particularly to avoid the whiny kids on the headsets. WoW has clearly shown that you can sell a TON of games on a PC only title. It could be a hybrid, like Final Fantasy Online. While the interface is a bit odd, I played it on my PC and never felt like it was a console port. The interface was designed to work for both a controller and a keyboard, but it wasn't skewed one way or another. I'd be shocked if it was console only. That would be a major gamble, as I don't think FF online is big enough to prove that a MMO can succeed on consoles alone.

You have to realize that Edge is reaching a certain audience, and an RPG might not be suited for that group.

Hehe, bonus packs. Console versions tend to be a bit more stable anyways though, since the hardware is all the same. I'm sure our local Bethesda rep. can correct me, but I think the console and PC versions are developed simultaneously, but they aren't exact replicas. I've had a few Xbox 360 games go through a game "update" the first time I played them. I don't know if this is a patch, but MS needs to make this easier to do. Why else have my 360 on my network?

I really only trust Computer Gaming World, but every review is honest if you read carefully. Game companies will always try and endear themselves to reviewers, and you can usually tell how affected someone is by that.

The Rangers are getting solid goaltending, as Volourn has pointed out a few times. I think that plays a major part in thier success. The Sharks have gone 22-11-5 since Thornton came over. It's hard to say that they'd be a middling team if they had him at the beginning of the season. But again, if they don't make the playoffs, I say no MVP for Thornton, and I'd say the same for Jagre. Ovechkin scores a lot of goal because his team is down by a few and the other team is playing the 3rd and 4th lines. It is easier to score when you are already down by 5 or 6, because your opponents are relaxed. He would deserve a scoring title, but not an MVP award in my eyes. An MVP should be a guy who make the whole team better too, and I think Jagre and Thornton both epitomize that.

If the Sharks make the playoffs, I say Thornton has as much claim to the MVP title as Jagre. But that's a big "if" because the Sharks are going to have to win at least 3 out of every 4 to make it in. It's going to be an interesting final 20 games.