Ok my first question is if anyone has any estimates how long a video card lasts? I'm getting a new computer soon and I'll have the option of either integrated graphics or an 8800m gtx. Obviously the nvidia card is much superior but it'll be more expensive, and I'm still not sure if I want to take the plunge and get a little into pc gaming. Now I am not a hardcore gamer. I have a psp and a nintendo ds and I'll be selling them soon as I'm tired of the small screens and I don't really use them as portables all that much, but I do like playing a game every now and then.

How long will the nvidia 8800m gtx be able to play upcoming games though? I've seen on the system requirements that a very advanced game like Crysis will run on an nvidia 6800 which I believe is approaching 3-4 years of age correct? Now I'm sure it won't be running at a high resolution or with any settings on high, but is it playable and still enjoyable?

Maybe I'm blind but some of the graphics I've seen on some of the latest pc games look like they are up to current xbox 360 and ps3 standards and I believe the 8800m gtx can handle that stuff so even in a year or two if games start looking even more phenomenal, as long as they look as good as they do now I think that should be more than enough eye candy for me.

And my final question is the old vista vs. xp thread. I have a copy of vista lying around that I haven't used. I do want to play some old pc games that were originally made for xp, maybe even some that were made for 98, so is it worth it to buy a copy of xp? Or have all of the driver and performance issues been resolved? I looked around for this but I didn't find anything recent.

In a sense yes, console games are ruining pc games. Part of the problem is that games are being dumbed down to make them more accessible to the masses since video games have gone mainstream. The other big problem is that its expensive to be a pc gamer, and there are headaches that come along with it that aren't even a concern for console games. Will my system run it? Why is it running so slow on my system? Should I update my drivers? Which update should I use?

If you buy a ps3 game it will work on your ps3, you don't have to deal with all the other stuff. You don't need to know about video cards, how to install it etc. etc. The average person does not want to fiddle with all of these minor details they just want things to "work". Some of you may roll your eyes and think "but thats stuff is easy to deal with" but you fail to realize that the average person doesn't even want to spend time researching that sort of stuff. They have to work, have a family, and when they want to play they just want to play and not fiddle with stuff. My brother asked me if I could "hook up" his ps3, he doesn't even want to fiddle with that. And I've seen people at gamestop that have to ask what other cables besides an hdmi cable would they need to hook up there ps3. They don't know that you can get quality hdmi cables for 15 dollars over the net, but when they pay 100 dollars for that cable they think they are getting "the best".

Wow you guys just can't read. He's clearly talking about the on-screen battery indicator that shows up when a ds is first turned on. Again, the battery indicator that shows up on the LCD SCREEN, not the led hardware indicator that turns red when your battery is low.

Also, lithium batteries like the one in the ds don't have memory effects.

Basically this is the setup. My girlfrind and me are at home on the same Wii and we want to play with other people online. I was doing a bit more reading and it seems this is only possible if you use friend codes, lame, but at least theres a way.

Sometimes its good to trust the Gamespot review because the reviewer has a better view of all the games of the same genre than many gamers. Alot of these buy a game and after paying alot of money for it try to convince themselves that the game they bought is better than what they flush down the toilet. MHF was an exeption though. It is really something elseZeroHook

One thing I forgot to mention about professional reviews. They sometimes rate a game lower when its a sequel with minor improvements. Now I haven't played MHF, but my understanding is that MHF 2 is basically the same game with some minor improvements. So when you look at the reviews, MHF will have scored higher than MHF 2 even though MHF 2 is the better game, so looking at the score is misleading. I think this is a significant problem in many professional reviews. I think when a game's rating is dropped for being mostly a sequel, I think the reviewer needs to explicitly state this and state how much they dropped the review score.

For example, lets say I own Golf 07' which may be an excellent game, and Golf 08' comes along. Now lets say a professional review scores drops the score of 08' over 07' even of 08' is the better game with only minor improvements. Well if I don't own, nor have ever played 07', somtimes a reviewer misleads a reader into thinking 08' is no good because the improvements are minor. Well if your new to 08' then it may be a game you'll enjoy a lot. Well I hope that made sense, I know it was a bit convuluted, sorry.

...Remember, reader reviews are almost always better than professional reviews.

KakashiAnBu

My problem with reader reviews is that often times young readers buy into the hype of a game and even if a game is bad, they try to convince themselves that it is good because they need to justify to themselves that they didn't waste their money, which young readers tend to have less of. In short, there can be a lot of positive bias in a reader review.

A professional reviewer sees games from a different perspective. Since they are exposed to so many games, they tend to rate things lower than readers might because to a certain extent, they have been "jaded" from simply playing too many games. Some games that get low reviews are rated higher by reader reviewers partially because casual gamers don't have such high expectations.

In the end, I think you need to read several reader and professional reviews to get a sense if you will enjoy a game. Don't just look at scores either. I think simply looking at a score is the biggest mistake a reader can make when trying to pick a game. If a review is written well, you should be able to understand why a game was rated low and you might be able to decide if the things that bothered the reviewer will bother you.

I said it about soul calibour 4 and im saying about mortal kombat vs dc universe. This would e amazing on the PSP and the sales would be sky high. Look at God of War, Crisis Core, and Patapon! These games sold like crazy and everyone loves them. Crisis Core is 40 and Pataponis 20 it dosnt matter what the price is us PSP fans buy amazing stuff, can't people understand you would make money on this system? Watch once the force unleashed it out and the sales would be high then they will think about making more game on the psp that is out for other systems.

hameh93

Well everyone knew God of War and Crisis Core would sell well. Both are proven franchises that people love. I don't know how well Patapon sold. Mortal Kombat vs. DC is probably going to be a crappy game that won't even sell well on the consoles though.

And we don't know how good the Force Unleashed will be on the PSP. Most people are probably going to get it for a console instead.

God of War, Crisis Core, and Patapon are all original games only available on the PSP, and that is absolutely key I think, to selling well on the PSP. Most handheld owners own a console. That makes people most likely to buy a game on a console rather than on a handheld if they have the option between the two.

What we need is original AAA titles.

From what I heard, they were going to remove the gba port, but if Guitar Hero's on Tour is a big hit, I think Nintendo might have to rethink things. So far the only thing that has used the GBA port (to my knowledge) is the rumble pack which is no big deal to get rid of. The rumor is that the DS has already been redesigned and Nintendo is sitting on the design till there is a major decrease in sales but the redesign was made before GH:T was announced and we still have to see how well it will sell.

Like I said before if GH:T is a hit Nintendo has to rethink removing the GBA slot. I hope more games make use of the GBA slot in creative ways as well.

Really though, how can you make the DS better? Brighter screen? No its already bright enough. Slimmer? Maybe, if you don't make it a clamshell and the second screen slides out somewhat how a t-mobile sidekick flips its screen. Larger screens? Not for me because this means the dpi of the screen would drop and graphical detail flaws will stand out even more.

I think a redesign will be as successful for nintendo as the GBA micro. Personally, I think they got it right with the light.