#1. It was done so well that it got popular, so the developers simply sat on success and haven't done anything genre breaking in years. If you are the big boy of the genre, it's your job to help it evolve.

#2. Money. It makes tons of money yet the developer still feels the need to charge too much for map packs, usually at the same price point of an expansion that brings alot more content then maps alone do.

#3. It was done so well that it got popular, so everyone and their annoying cousin plays it now, bringing in an unwanted community of morons, jerks, and rude players that otherwise would be at the bar cheating on their wives.

Intimidated, absolutely not. Disgusted would be a better word. I used to play online all the time, never had many problems with people. But I can barely stand the community anymore, as was said already. The 'Elitest' attitude has become too much for me. I play to have fun, sure I prefer winning but in the end I don't care if I lose either, as long as I have fun. Even seeing people yelling profanity for no reason, harrassing other players, or trying to be Elite in chat bothers the hell out of me.

It's not that I'm bad at games, I'm not. But I'm not top dog either. And I don't care. But there's always someone who blames the entire team for failure. Because, you know, if it was just him by himself his team would always win...right?

I play to relax and enjoy some downtime from work, wife, and kids. Not to be harrassed like I'm some 10 year old, by some 20 year old who only takes gaming so seriously because he has no real achievement outside of his games.

physx doesn't matter, i have a geforce card and i really cant tell the difference. Anyways to the op sell your 4850 for like $50 on craigslist or kijiji the buy the 6850, it also comes with shogun 2 at newegg.

blaznwiipspman1

This. When I switched from ATI to my 560 it was nice at first to be able to use Physix, knowing it's not that popular among developers, but I knew it was there so I wanted to use it. However I have 105 games or so and I think 3 of them use Physix. Woopee

Save your money, the increase between the 460 and the 560 is minor. The only real advantage is about 10 FPS and some cooler temps, other then DX11. I just picked one up a few months ago, and I notice very little difference in DX11 at this point. The 460 should handle anything you throw at it, and Battlefield 3 videos were confirmed running on a GTX 580, so by fall you could get that card or better a the price point of the 560 right now.

6850 surely. Newer chipset and DX 11 support. Plus alot of games seem to be lacking proper support for Xfire or SLI, especially if you play console ports on your PC instead of a console.

Call your ISP and find out about problems in your area or on their end. Usually if a program like Skype or Xfire work but other programs like browsers that require a DNS don't work it could be a DNS issue on their end. Try pinging a known IP, such as your router/hub or google also, make sure you can talk to the router ok.

Let me ask you, if there were no piracy involve, would Dragon Age 2 be better..???winrehs_007

I am an old gamer as well, first started on a TI-99 and have played on just about every system ever since, and I also find the new trends in game development disturbing.

However, I do have to disagree with hardware requirements. Back when games like Quake and X Wing vs. Tie Fighter were popular, Command and Conquer, Medal of Honor etc. It seemed that I was upgrading my PC all the time. Now I can build a decent PC for $600 that will last 2-3 years, maybe upgrading 1 or 2 parts along a 4 year path.

Once dual and quad core became standard, gaming upgrading has become kind of null really. With so many console ports now, most of our PC's are 2-3 generations ahead and have no problem running every game. The only games that I know of that can tax most gaming pc's out there are Metro 2033 and Total War: Shogun 2.

I remember when Half Life 2 and Doom 3 came out and everyone freaked because nobody had PC's built to run these kinds of games. I remember having to build again shortly thereafter when Battlefied 2 came out, and again when the Unreal 3 engine was released. I've run this rig now for 3 years, only upgrading because I could but because I needed to.

If anything requirements have gone down compared to what is out there on the market now. Mostly due to lack of innovation by developers and console porting. I have a feeling though that Battlefield 3 will be the next man responsible for these forums filling up with "OMG OMG I can't run this game?!?!" posts all over.

I don't think I'll ever outgrow gaming. I've always believed that you can mentally forever stay young, just never admit "I'm too old for those kind of things". I've been gaming since about 1982 and I have no intentions of quitting. I work 50+ hours a week and have a family and still manage to get in 15 hours a week of gaming or so.

I, like others have stopped caring about Achievements, Trophies etc. It is a neat idea sure, but in the time it takes to get some of them I could have played 2 more complete games and gotten more experience out of gaming. I would like to see some kind of reward system for them to make it worth the time though.

My main concern is that I won't outgrow gaming, but that gaming will stop growing. Games have changed alot, some have stayed with a tried and true formula only changing minor things to enhance the experience. But it seems overall gaming has become easier and given into Hollywood and leaving out the option for us to beleive in the world we are playing in. If you think that Black Ops on Veteran was hard...it wasn't. Rush N' Attack wasn't as pretty and didn't have big set pieces, but just beating that game period was an achievemnt. RPG's have gotten more streamlined, sacrificing exploring and story for effects and other "bodily" parts that 6th graders joke about in school. Only the long time veteran companies and the indie developers are really keeping gaming true right now, not the big business companies.

Also this 1 title per franchise per year has to stop. I have plenty of money and time to play them all if I want. But I don't want the anticipation of the next release to become stagnant because I'm still not tired of the last 2 releases. When I stop getting excited for the next Battlefield or Splinter Cell maybe it'll be time to move on.

I hope that never happens.

A little game called Congo Bongo on the TI-99 is the first PC game I remember playing