Epic

Although DMC2 was sub-par, DMC3 was the highly-tuned evolution of the genre. It's a great game. The DMC collection is very worth it.

I should point out that you shouldn't expect the review bell-curve to center on 5/10. Most games that come out are better than a 5. There's certainly something to say about all the 8-9s, but to insist that half of the games receive scores below 5 is foolish.

This is pretty fascinating. The palettes really are pretty uninspiring. Part of the reason Half-Life 2 (and now Crysis) are so striking is the bright color pallete. Dark, post-apocalyptic corridor crawlers have their place, but the next-gen should really give us more interesting environments. Instead, we're taking steps backwards. Compare Battlefield 2 to Battlefield 2142, for a recent example.

The fact: Oblivion extras may come to 360.

Joystiq's conclusion: Exclusives will only exist when developers are bribed, and PS3 and 360 are essentially technically equivalent platforms with their only difference installed user base.

Joystiq has become a megaphone for the empty rhetoric that dominates fanboy discussions. Gaming news is only an ornament now. Just look at this article. Vlad twists one comment into a sweeping assertion about the entire industry.

The consoles are very different. X360 is a more familiar architecture and standard media. PS3 is more expensive and undeniably more sophisticated (built in HDMI and Blu-Ray and Cell for $499, $425 in Japan...HELLO)

You're right, Vlad, Sony is foolish to engage in marketing before the launch of their next console. They should keep it hush-hush until they can move enough units. Likewise, film trailers should really only be released once the movie is in theaters.

Digital distribution is so over-hyped. Does anybody really believe that it will outstrip hard media in the near future? It works for renting films, but consumers enjoy collecting movies. With all the bandwidth and storage required for HD movies (can you imagine a long movie at 1080p with multiple audio options and extra features?), is anyone going to own enough terabytes to store digital content?

The two ideas are not at all incompatible. Besides, take your average DVD collection and multiply it by the probable size of an HD movie. Do you really think people will have terabytes of storage on their hard drives for their movie collections?

This is really digging deep and putting words in Sony's mouth. It's getting a little rabid over here. I think there should be a little accountability for Joystiq bloggers these days, maybe some peer review to make sure Joystiq doesn't become a firebrand trouble-maker designed to attract traffic by creating controversy where none exists.

The XMB is "miles behind the dashboard?" Maybe in terms of bloat and clutter. Clean and simple is exactly how a game console's overhead should be.

This is clearly propaganda. A government-sponsored game depicting an attack on a civilian target is propaganda in poor taste. In this case, the Iranian government's motives are clear. In the case of America's Army, it's more of a "buzz-builder" than a propaganda tool. The Army's marketing department was responsible for that one, and it's not aimed at inflaming the situation.

I don't like the moral equivalence that seems to come up between the US and terrorists, or between the US and Iran. The Iraqi insurgency used to be branded by some as "freedom fighters." Then those "freedom fighters" started killing more and more civilians participating in elections, and 90% of their targets are Iraqi civilians. Iran is currently in hot water at the UN. They're lucky they've been given so much time already to comply with their international obligations. If they get a nuclear weapon, it will not be a good thing, I promise you.

"6. I'm not an Apple fan. I'm an Apple user, with a dual boot to XP for the only thing OSX doesn't give me - games. Which, incidentally, got its first virus 6 hours in."

I've been running XP since it came out, and I've never suffered infection or intrusion by a worm, virus, or hacker. Safe surfing and proper security software virtually eliminates the threat. There's a reason Apples are "safer" -- hackers don't bother with them because they're such a niche market. Once Apple OS software hits a certain critical mass, it will be no different than XP.