Ross

P.S. Geforce 6800GS, the technical equivalent to xbox360's R500 GPU, is selling for about $180. If any PC users are losing sleep about not having displacement mapping, get one of those and you're golden.

Consoles were designed for people who are afraid of keyboards, and who don't have an appreciation for the effect a stable surface can have on the precision of someone's input devices. A pilot wouldn't settle for having a joystick wobbling around in his lap, so why should I?

People seem to forget that PCs are backwards compatible with every PC game created. And as far as performance is concerned.. while console gamers have been crapping their pants over whether to hold out for PS3 or get xbox 360, I'm not worried. Despite what the hardware manufacturers would have you believe, my 3-year-old PC will play Oblivion just fine. I might miss out on some of the displacement mapping, but then I'm wise enough not to lose sleep just because some engineer has a new fangled way to deform a surface. Any grizzled PC gamer will tell you that the newest feature isn't necessarily the best, just like the newest game isn't either.

The fact is that without any current expense whatsoever, I retain the functionality of playing the most recent games, while you console gamers are foolishly shelling out hundreds of dollars to upgrade a single-function device. It is to laugh.