jrhawk42

I'd argue that the story in MW2 is better, and No Russian alone is enough to justify this. As far as calling either story good is a stretch. MW2 is obviously over the top, while MW tends to be a caught up in trying to sell realism.

The good: Destruction like you've never seen. Seriously everything else is child's play when it comes to destruction. Cool weapons, and upgrades. A x-ray sniper rifle, and another that shoots saw blades... need I say more. I'd say about 1/2 the guns in the game are fairly unique compared to most shooters. Multiplayer is a blast also. Just not really much of a reason to keep playing like COD, and Halo.

The bad: AI is tough, and stupid. Basically they overpower you. Tons of shit knocks you over. Basically you're going to watch your player get up off the ground a lot because debris will knock you over, and tons of stuff explodes. Story sucks. There's not really much going on w/ the story or any of the characters. Some interesting stuff but for the most part it doesn't lead anywhere. Lack of car stunts. A few awesome tanks, but there's not really any fast cars, or stunt jumps in the game.

So basically we'll never see this game... Taking the fact that it will be about 1 year before we know if natal will have a sizable install base or not. Then they'll green light the game, and it'll be another 2 years in development. So the soonest we'd see this game is 3 years after Natal is released. By then what ever idea Bilson dreamed up will be "old hat", or a bad idea.

Not to mention that any original IP published by THQ will sell less than expected despite its quality.

demos are for people who haven't bought the game...
previews are for people that bought the game, and want a taste early.

I'm interested to see how increased melee combat changes gameplay in this series.

As far as GTA V goes don't count on it. Though patcher is right Rockstar should be working on a new GTA IV (think GTAIII: vice city), but really who knows when it'll be released. Normally Rockstar has released these "expansions" about 2 years apart, but w/ the DLC, and things still being a bit crazy for T2 and Rockstar who knows what's going on there. I highly doubt even those working on the next GTA project can predict when their next retail game will ship.

Personally I think 2011 is a better conservative guess.

@why not the LS2LS7

yes it's ridiculous, but it's an example. A brilliant example if I would be so bold as to compliment myself. It shows that anything can be compelling, but not everything is worth putting the resources into.

I agree with your second statement though your only looking at the retail side of things. Valve will also need to train/hire staff to work w/ the new hardware which costs time, and money.

Last the limitations of motion control (in this specific case) are often limitations to design experience. Barely any designers have any experience in motion control, and in the past most design has been based on experience, and research more than mindful thought. Since designers have no experience w/ the product they tend to stick w/ the ideas they know which are much more tiring if you're actually acting them out. As Yahtzee put it they replaced "random button mashing with random stick waggling", and stick waggling uses much more energy.

you can make something pretty compelling using any type of hardware... hell dvd menus can be compelling if you have lots of cash, time and the right team.

What valve wants to see is cash/money, and I agree. As much as I love Natal's possibilities I don't think we'll see any commercial success from it right away. It's a $100+ peripheral 1/2 way through a console cycle. Of course you never know guitar hero was destined to fail on the ps2, and that worked out "ok I guess".

I think what he means by taking us back to the rental store is being able to go into the interface not knowing which movie you want to watch.

Personally I've never had any problems w/ the netflix functionality, but I'm extremely organized, and already have my queue sorted before I turn on my xbox.

in other news rioting has erupted in western China...

How about the difficulties the unreal engine has w/ lighting (especially shadows), and how it's difficult to use w/ the havok physics engine?