Has anyone been hearing or reading rumors about Sony and MS enacting used game policies for thier next-gen consoles? From what I have read, if it is true, I will switch to PC gaming exclusively, and I have been a lifelong console gamer since the 8-bit days. I play games on my PC as well but it is in no way shape or form a gaming rig. IF this policy goes into place I hope it is the death knell of console gaming. I hate to say it but if it is enacted I would like to see nothing more than to watch that industry burn.

What happened to Cold Stream? I remember seeing a blog post sometime back about it and they had beta testing but other than that I can't find a damn thing about this DLC, does anyone know anything about it or even a speculated release date?

Why is it all the good games are coming out at the end of this year when last year it seemed like no good games came out in the holiday season unless you are a COD nut. Seriously, what came out during last years holiday season? Whats coming out this year? Way too many to mention. This makes me think the next 2 years are going to be a bit weak when it comes to highly anticipated games in the fall season.

I also just learned you can't have your title in all caps...

It might just be me but it seems there is a gap in the market with alot of untouched potential. The gap I am referring to is westerns and pirate games, pirate games in particular. Red Dead Redemption set a high standard for westerns so I can understand why no one is very eager to jump on that train and is probably why Call of Juarez went where it did with its newest release but pirate games, minus the crappy Pirates of the Caribbean games, are virtually untouched. The last decent pirate game I played was Sid Meier's Pirates and it felt like sooo much more could have been done. With all the big ship battles, razing or plundering cities, getting scurvy and swordfighting and boarding parties you could do it seems that this generation has yet to make a decent (and potentially very addicting) game to showcase these features in a pirate setting. Such a game could easily blend RTS, FPS, RPG and Sandbox game genres in a melodic and fuctional way if done right. Like I said theres alot of potential waiting to be tapped, hopefully someone picks it up and executes it.

Litz

With Battlefield 3 and MW 3 going head to head this holiday season who will recieve the crown? I'm guessing CoD still sells more but Battlefield will get much better reviews and CoD will drastically lose its more open-minded players (you know the fanboys will stay with CoD forever). But Battlefield could outsell CoD this year, it's not unlikely. Battlefield now has a higher marketing budget and the footage they have taken of the game looks jaw dropping to say the least. Only December will tell who get the better reviews and sold more...

On a different note I've been reading alot about Saints Row Vs. GTA. With SR: The Third coming out this year they may take the place of the best open world sandbox game genre if they play it right. Technically I don't think they have the capacity to beat GTA on the graphical front but thats not nessessary now is it? San Andreas and Vice City are often reguarded as GTA's best although neither game had graphics that could compete with games like Resident Evil 4 so do graphics matter? Yes, Broken, buggy graphics while annoying can break a game but Saints Row never had a problem with this. The issue here is I read how alot of GTA gamers, like myself, liked the older GTA games and didn't like how GTA4 turned into this uber-serious crime drama. For me GTA4 had no sandbox appeal and SR2 was nothing but s world where you did what you want, when you want and lots of stuff to do on the side. SR2 was immature and didn't have a serious bone in its body and thats what soo many people liked about it. Not to mention the music on it was great. I never heard a metal station in any similar game that had a better selection of metal tracks than in SR2, Black Dahlia Murder, Chimera, Dillinger Escape Plan, Avenged Sevenfold, they had it. Minus Blur, I have no idea why that was on there. SR is picking up all of GTA's disenfranchised fans and thats quite a large base.... So can SR beat the game they so blatantly ripped thier formula from?

It all seems possible, I guess we'll know soon :-)

Litz