J Arcane

I'll be spending it playing copious amounts of Ryzom with a brief stop at a friend's place for Christmas dinner and the gift of new pants.

I'd have to go RPG, through and through. An early encounter with Ultima Exodus as a lad pretty much marked me for life. The incredible depth, the exploration, nothing else quite satisfied after that.

So basically par for the course for the NPD then?

What the hell is with the color shading? I'm pretty sure the 360 is capable of more than 256 colors.

They've pulled the same attitude in actual training simulations and tactical wargames. These are things that actually affect Army strategy in real wars.

And they wonder why they fucked up so bad in Iraq . . .

As much as I really wish this were true, it'll never happen.

I'd love to see Microsoft finally admit that WMA/WMV is a failure, and start supporting real formats, but MS doesn't give up that easy.

As opposed to the GBA, whose entire library consists of SNES ports?

I'm with Rabish12. Why the hell did they pick Black Gate?

There's only two console Ultimas worth playing, Exodus on NES, and The False Prophet on SNES.

False Prophet is still one of the greatest RPGs ever released to a console, and I frankly liked it better than the PC version, thanks to a much cleaner, simpler interface.

Mutant League and Wing Commander make this one a tempting proposition, but False Prophet would've sealed the deal all by itself.

THe anti-piracy method that is to be implemtented in the next generation of Blu-Ray discs requires HDMI to authenticate the disc.

If there is no HDMI, the system automatically downgrades the signal.

The present generation of Blu-Ray movies doesn't require HDMI, but they will within the next year or so, and then anyone who was a sucker enough to buy the $500 PS3 suddenly will have a crippled Blu-Ray player, with no way to upgrade it.

The $500 PS3 is the real strawman. What the bloody hell good is saving that $100 if it means I'm getting an intentionally crippled console?

Say I decide in the future I want wireless support on my cheapo PS3? Tough luck. Can't be upgraded. Guess I'm spending $600 more on the real PS3.

Or how about when all the Blu-Ray discs start coming out that require HDMI, or they'll downgrade your signal to 480p? Tough luck. Can't be upgraded. Guess I'm spending $600 more on the real PS3.

The lowend 360, while a suckers bet in itself, could still be upgraded to add the HD later on, and for the same price as the difference between the two models.

So save the crowing about the $500 price.