I know...everyone predicts the untimely passing of MMO's way too early. I am usually the naysayer; I was, after all, the one person who stated that Star Wars Galaxies would truck along for years despite people's hatred of the 'New Game Engine'. Lo and behold, it's halfway through 2010, and SWG remains operational...and has even some modest growth over the past 18 months (I'm assuming due to people's excitement over 2011's Star Wars: The Old Republic).

Age of Conan is another game that so many predicted would die....a pretty reasonable assumption after the mass subscription cancelations that followed a healthy first month of sales (simply put, the game was just too buggy, laggy and content deficient to keep people interested). However, even AoC has improved and their recent xPac (as well as their new free trial allowing people free access to the island of Tortage and level increases up to 20) should help cement that MMO as an 'off-brand' choice for the more adult-oriented gamer.

World of Warcraft remains a steady animal....with frequent large game expansions and a relatively loyal subscriber base (though they've seen some chips in their armor over the last year with a tremendous slowing of new player subscriptions).

Vanguard remains a sloppy discarded mess...but one that's miraculously still live more out of spite than anything else.

And yes, there are a handful of other MMO's including Lineage 2, Darkfall, Fallen Earth, EQ2 (and even Dark Age of Camelot is still going) that enjoy varying degrees of popularity; but none (besides, arguably, Lineage 2) have any serious player populations. In fact, the strongest of the alternative MMO's would be Eve Online with over 350,000 subscriptions and a quickly-increasing player base after winning 2009's Game of the Year.

But what about Lord of the Rings Online?

'Lotro' cemented itself as the main rival to WoW 3 years ago. It provided better in-game sound and a more photo-realistic graphics engine (I won't say 'better' since its truly a matter of taste) but otherwise, gameplay was shockingly similar to WoW in most respects (as was the quest system). Lotro did have a few unique features such as titles and 'traits' (but these offered zero potential for character uniqueness). And other unique features (like the ability to become 'family' with others / adoption) ended being an underused and forgotten-about gimmick. Likewise, the implementation of the PvMP system wound up being a near-complete misfire. To this day, the content for evil mobs ("creeps") remains staggeringly limited compared to the fairer races. The ability to 'customize' levelable weapons' also ended up offering little in the way of customization since each character class had specific weapon stats/types they were looking for. Possibly the main selling point of Lotro...and easily it's biggest selling point early on, was that it required less time to play. For the 'casual gamer', a person's character would build up potential 'bonus xp' when not in use allowing them to catch up quickly to friends and guild-mates...the concept was a solid one, and ensured that Lotro was the favored choice for those interested in MMO gaming without the heavy time commitment.

But expansions came slowly (only two major xPacs in 3 years) and class/race selection remained limited; largely due to the carefully-guarded narrative constraints of the LOTR source material. And so, as happens with all MMO's (except WoW), the subscriber base started to peter out....servers became lonelier places and formerly bustling cities were reduced to mere ghost towns.

Of course, since Lotro offered lifetime accounts (a genius bit of marketing), players would reappear after big patches and expansions...but would disappear shortly after exhausting the content leaving the game largely empty save for 'pick up group' raids and guild functions.

It should be noted that Lotro shot themselves in the foot somewhat by introducing the mercurial and oft-scrutinized (and largely reviled) "radiance gating". In a lame effort to increase server populations, the Turbine devs designed an odd character stat that would require multiple runs of the same instances/raids to increase (the stat was increased through armor pieces earned by running group tank and spanks of the same areas repeatedly). This created a large rift in terms of the casual and hardcore player...with those who who played most often having significantly better gear than those who didn't.

But Lotro has done some things right. The crafting system is still the best of any MMO on the market. The game (even after expansions) has been nearly bug and lag free...high praise going to the dev team for exhaustive beta testing and quality programming. But none of this has brought new players to the game recently; and over the last 6 months, the game seems to be faltering significantly.

Is Lotro doomed to close any time soon? No...but it does risk falling into a state of irrelevance. If Turbine really wants to stay at the forefront of everyone's MMO-playing mind, they need to increase the frequency of content updates, introduce better customization and seriously consider returning to their 'casual MMO' mindset.

By now, you may have heard that XBOX is changing their XBOX Live experience. The first noticeable change will be the addition of 'Avatars' (that are such an obvious steal from the Wii that it defies belief). However, this is a good addition; it allows the XBOX to become a central hub for socialization with friends; allowing you to hang with friends and chat WITHOUT being in a game. This is a bold move; but will lessen the annoying trend of 'live games' merely being used by friends to talk - but seriously deteriorating the multiplayer experience.

The other huge change is the addition of NetFlix streaming movies...this is about the most intelligent addition ever; and will increae XBOX's movie library by about 10,000 titles. This will also be a big nail in the coffin of Blockbuster since the streaming films should be included with the new altered NetFlix membership (more expensive to allow for XBOX inclusion but they're talking about 'XBOX only' subscriptions).

Good changes ahead!

While reading (and watching) all the hype about GTA4, I began thinking about the games that come out nowadays (and how they compare to the aged but legendary titles we all know and love). Today's games are measured on factors that even 5 years ago would've seemed far-fetched: destructibility of environment, voice acting, 3d engine, hours of gameplay (content), storyline/plot and, in the case of X360 games, total 'potential achievement yield' (now that's a mouthful). Whereas many of our classic titles (like Diablo and Doom) were measured on their 'uniqueness' and technical advances.

Just look at some of the games that really moved the bar:

Doom (the first really fleshed out and chronically addictive FPS). Warcraft (forcing all of us to learn math and basic problem solving since we now had to manage resources and build attack strategies). Diablo (where our lightning reflexes were honed to a razor-like edge from the endless hours of late-night button mashing). Baldurs Gate (where we enjoyed god-like control over every aspect of our party's equipment and decision making). Duke Nukem 3D (where we would replay levels for the sheer sophomoric joy of hearing him curse while taking a dump in an alien's severed torso). Neverwinter Nights (the first game to ever give us the developer toolkit so we could create our own expansion packs and levels). Phantasmagoria (the first ever title to successfully use a live actor as the protagonist in a video game). Ultima Online (love it or hate it, this game created the MMO realm we all inhabit). And, last but definitely not least, Sid Meier's Civilization (the first title that was so intelligent, well thought out and wholly responsible, we were afraid to admit to our friends we were playing it).

When I look at the big games that have come out over the last 12 months, I realize that while graphics have come a long way; the creative 'mindblowing' advances we all hope for simply haven't matched the marketing campaign's hype supporting the game's release. In short, we've come to expect...and accept mediocrity.

A few examples that will almost certainly be a lightning rod for flame mail:

Halo 3 (as much hype as any game in history; but when it finally came out, it was just a better looking rehash of stuff we'd seen and done before...fun to play but not the 'last game you'll ever buy' as they claimed in one of their commercials). Stranglehold (Chow Yun Fat reprising his character from Hard Boiled seems like the perfect formula for game greatness; but the finished product was a repetitive and contrived mess). Crackdown (the 'sandbox title of the year' ended up reminding everyone of why we preferred GTA...tons of violence but zero plot and a million buildings you couldn't enter). Sonic the Hedgehog (one of the worst retreads in gaming history..they all but destroyed Sega's legacy with this half-baked attempt to recreate a beloved franchise). Lost Planet (huge ad campaign supporting a repetitive and brief game with virtually no replay value). X-Men: The Official Game ended up being official nonsense and the likely winner of the 'worst ever movie/game tie in'...the fact that it was supporting a dud movie like X-Men 3 didn't help either. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 which almost felt like a step back in terms of quality from the first GRAW title. And Viking: Battle for Asgard which may have the worst camera problems ever devised to torture gamers around the world.

That isn't to say some games haven't been amazing - Bioshock, Assassins Creed and Mass Effect all lived up to their hype. GTA4 stormed on the scene and seems to hold up nicely a few weeks into its' release. Call of Duty 4 looked and played great. Even though it's an older title, Gears of War moved the bar in terms of gritty realism and stylized over-the-top violence.

With more "epic" games on the way (Age of Conan, Saints Row 2, Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead), we can only hope that they come close to living up to their hype. But with marketing companies spending millions to woo us into buying another Madden or Tiger Woods golf title, we have to wonder if we're not being taken advantage of...or if the companies publishing underwhelming games have lost their respect for the educated gamer. (EA certainly has).

My Score: 9.3

All in all a really great game - very likely the best in the GTA series. The graphics on the X360 look top notch and the gameplay is loose and fluid - the way a GTA game should be. The main character (Nicco) is easily the most fleshed out and interesting lead character in this series...he's almost sympathetic in some ways compared to the usual murderous deliverer of digital debauchery. The sounds are incredible as well; the whole city feels alive and is incredibly expansive and seamless.

However - some folks have given this game a '10' so I wanted to explain why I can't grace it with the 'holy grail' of gamer scores. The driving controls remain touchy; you can actually flip a vehicle going around a turn at 30 mph which is ludicrous (ok maybe if you were driving a Suzuki Samuari but in an Escalade? No way). Also, there are a few minor bugs some folks have discovered which require a game update that is, as I have heard, already in the works (though these are far more common on thr PS3 than the X360). Also, the 'punching / fist fighting' is almost supernaturally slow compared to real life. You hit the B button and about 1.5-2 seconds later, your Russian goon takes a swing. This means you need to time your fights correctly (which is possible) but detracts from the overall realism of the game and is actually a step back from the earlier titles.

The new 'mini-games' and aspects such as dating are fun and add to the overall realistic feel of GTA4 but also slow the game down a bit. I'm torn - I do like the realistic approach but I find that mini-games can often be distracting from the core joy of the game...especially when that joy is free-for-all mayhem.

With all that said, GTA4 is truly a must own for X360 owners...especially for those of you who loved 'GTA San Andreas' or the 360 title 'Saints Row' - this serves as a major improvement over both games.