Colin

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
That's not how I see it at all! Because you have Netflix and PSN (soon Vudu) on your PS3, has it replaced Blu-ray? Hell no! Options are always a great thing. Personally, for things like game demos, I would rather not wait for the download and have them take up space on my local machine that could be better utilized for locally stored games.

@Anciegher
Yeah right, Apple buying a company that lets you play (WINDOWS) PC games over a cloud...

Is it wrong of me to hope that either Microsoft or Sony aquires OnLive and integrates the service into their next (or current!) console iteration? I think this is a fantastic looking service, but would be weary of investing in anything without some sort of money-back guarantee if the company flops. I am really curious to see what kind of flat-rate plan they can cook up.

But what I really want is this to be one of the next-gen services rolled into Xbox live and PSN+. Think about it! Instant demos that don't take up space on your HDD, a massive cloud to store all of your game saves, achievements, stats, games on demand that you don't need to download...

I wouldn't want this to replace physical, or at least local media, but FWIW, there's massive potential.

Is that Star Wars box art?

In regards to 5.1 vs. 7.1, I would buy something at least capable of decoding that information (ie: everything these days) so you have the capability for the future if you ever decide to go that route. HOWEVER, when initially building the system, it will be MUCH better to invest that money that would be spent on two additional speakers on buying better speakers or electronics upfront. A system will sound much better having 5 good speakers than 7 just OK speakers. Think quality over quantity. In fact, there's no shame in taking it even further; getting a great pair of speakers (as long as they're appropriate for your amplification (aka don't buy a $300 receiver to drive $2000 speakers)), and buying matching center, surrounds, and sub at a later date. This may provide you with much more satisfaction in the long run.

As far as which products to look for; audition audition audition!! Make sure what you buy is something you can enjoy and live with! Also, dont be an a-hole and take time from a dealer to see what you like then buy elsewhere. Just make sure they offer good valued products and you wont be getting "ripped off".

If you're totally in the dark on what brands are good and which to avoid, avoid HTIB's, and Bose. They are generally not a good value, especially bose stuff. For receivers and other electronics, I have had good experiences with Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha. Higher up on the chain you could go with brands like Rotel, NAD, and Cambridge (although blu-ray players are largely unnecessarily expensive from high-end companies due to the nature of the technology behind blu-ray and HDMI). For speakers look at Paradigm, Polk, B&W, PSB, Definitive, etc... As far as higher end speakers that I find to still be reputable and a good value; Vandersteen, Theil, upper-end B&W & Paradigm, this list is really miles long... Speakers will probably the most personal-preference type of decision you make in acquiring your system, so take your time and audition lots of brands in your price point from multiple dealers if possible. If you're planning on surround sound pick a speaker brand based on how it will sound in a surround setup as well as music even if you dont plan on going surround right away. Some companies make great 2-channel speakers, but lame center channels (Martin Logan is a good example of this IMHO), for example. Matching is key to a seamless surround sound experience.

Hope this helps!

It's lame enough there are ads at all (which arent new to Wipeout...) but come on?! State Farm? WTH?! It's so out of place in the Wipeout universe! If it didnt affect loading, I probably wouldnt have a problem with say Red Bull ads, after all, it was Wipeout XL that introduced me to Red Bull!

With regards to downloadable games specifically, wouldnt it be awesome if publishers let you download a game (like this one) for multiple platforms and only pay for it once? Especially if there was a service that synced your saves... I suppose Sony sort of lets you do that with PS1 games that play on both the PS3 and PSP, but I dont know if saves get synced... anyone?

FUCK. I just bought this for PC. It's a blessing and a curse sometimes having several platforms at your disposal. I would have loved to see how it plays differently on XBLA than the PC (where there's currently a few bugs). But I have been craving a good adventure game for my iphone, and this would have been a sweet deal...

Man it would be sweet to own a pair of Thiels. I admire their persistence to maintaining time and phase accuracy and their house-built drivers. I've been rocking stereo for far too long, slowly building my system up over time to maintain quality. So far I rock some time and phase accurate mains (Vandersteens), with a 5 channel amp, leaving three of those beautiful channels without any love... Now that I'm out of a job, it's going to be an even longer a wait to step it up to surround... sigh... :(

NICE!! I subscribe to pretty much all of those statements (although I dont really watch a lot of HBO HD, and my plasma doesnt have a zero overscan setting)!