I'm sure by now some of you out there have heard the rumor that the next Xbox might not be able to play used games or that developers want to crack down on the used game market.With developersclaiming that its hurting the industry and so on. Well the unfortunate reality of it all is that peoples budgets are still relatively tight in that we can't all aford to buy the newest and greatest game at full price all the time. As a result some of us have turned to buying games used as opposed to brand spanking new because used games tend to be cheaper.

As a side effectof used game sales some developers have begun trying to find some way to get a piece of that market. With the most common one being online passes that a number of developers have begun to adopt in some shape or form. However the online passes seem largely to target the online functionality of games but some developers have begun working on a way for their passes to lockout somesingle player portions of their game. While an online pass that locks out online functionality can be a nuisance in some ways it really isn't hurting the used game market all the badly and here's why. In large part people can probably safely say that they'll buy a game for its single player aspect as opposed to its online functionality and beforesome of yougo and call me a bloody liar here me out on this. Lets say for example that you live in an area where your connection to your respective onlineservice isn't all that stable which some online services like say the PlayStation network require you to have one in order to use the service or you simply can't affordto pay forinternetservice.The online pass won't really effect you if you live in that type of situation. Hell what if you simply don't care about the online aspect of a game or you don't spend a huge amount of time onthe multilayer side of things?You see whatI'm gettingat? Now if developers continue down the road of locking out single player aspect of some games and here's to say that they won't it will gradually start to become a problem as consumers will need to take the added cost into account when they buy the game used. In the long run some consumers may just simply say f it and not even bother buying the game from that publisher.

Now here's where things start to get really murky. Consoles lockingused games out. The concept may sound like the holy grail to developers but in reality it could be their greatest down fall as it would probably spell their doom. This would be in large part because the basic idea would probably be based on the whole online pass concept. Don't follow me so far? Hang in there because this where things should become abundantly clear. Now I'm sure that some of you out there are aware that some stores like pawn shops sell used consoles and typically tend to include a game with the purchase. So lets say that Jimmy,and nonot that Jimmy from Mafia 2, buys one of these new type of consoles second hand whether it be from a friend or a pawn shop. Would that console be locked out from the network that consoles service network whether it be a new PlayStation or Xbox for that matter? How about notbeing able to play even new gamesbecause the consoleitself is used?While some of you maybe asking how does this relate to games? Ask yourselves this. If developers apply the basic online passmodel to games as well as locking out used gamesandget away with it.What's to stop them from applying it to consoles?

As much as we as consumers dislike online passes we have to come to except that they're probably here to stay but we have to put our foot down and say no when they start going too far. Fact of the matter is that theused game market is not going to disappear nor should it by any means. If developers really want to try and lower the amount of games that end getting sold used they gotta make the game hold our interest longer as well make us want actually keep the game. That means means doing a better job of making their products, making the experience last longer and I'm sure their are plenty of other ideas out there that would make really good sense. Will developers listen to us? Not if we all stay quiet on this but that's enough from me for now. What do you think of the used game market?

Well I just beat Prototype and because there's been a debate over which is better I'll throw my 2cents into the mix.

Grahpicly speaking Infamous does have better graphics. With loads of detail and very nice looking effects infamous is better when compared to Prototypes rather bland locations. The effects in Prototype do look nice but the locations and NPC's do leave something to be desired. In general graphicly speaking infamous is the better game in terms of graphics when the two are compared.

Control wise infamous again's wins due to smoth controls and despite that Cole does grab onto anythingin terms of buildings it is much betterwhen comparedPrototype. Prototype's controls seems rather twitchy at times and make going up buildings at times a pain espcaily when going up narow pillars. On top of that the camera can be a pain to work with at times because it occaionly gives you a bad view when flying or going up the sides of buildings.

Gameplay wise Protoype does have an advantage. Their is a lot more in the way of diversity in terms of things to do outside of the main missions and the main character has access to different powers both deffensivly and offensively when compared to infamous. Infamous's main character seems to be restricted to just lightning bassed powers and can't use guns, vechiles or throw things which you can do in Prototype.

Audio wise its a draw. Both have solid voice acting and great muical score for each.

In general when you look at the key parts mainly graphics, controls, gameplay and audio they don't do everything perfectly and while they're both fun. Infamous does do a lot more things better and while there's isn't as much diversty in the gameplay section infamous manages to stand out from the crowd more then Prototype does.