Hell, I'm going to get a subscription just so I can have the satisfaction of cancelling and if the charges go through, I'll dispute them until they are reversed.

What a joke. You don't do someone like that. i don't care who or which company - you don't dip that far into the corruption sesspool. Shame on you, GS.

I 100% agree with you. It was Button Mashing that got me interested in Gs in the first place mainly due to the outstanding job Rich did with that show (he kind of made it look cool to be obsessed with video games, and what more would a video-game only website want from on-air talent?). And I honeslty just kind of skimmed the news and reviews sections on my way to their video page. Normally, I rely on my own decision-making for $60 and over purchases but their reviews did pique my interests in some games I otherwise may not have checked out. It was about the time that Rich left that I warmed up to Jeff, who I think also did a good job of just presenting video games in a really casual way (which is how I play them, even though I do buy a lot of games), and in a way that got right to the point in a sharp, witty manner like Rich.

But it's just things like this (if reports are accurate) that made me wary of leaning on sites like GS too much in the way of what to buy/what not to buy. If there's one thing the media has beat over our heads the last decade or so it's that facts should never get in the way of good (bought) opinion. And objectivism has little to no place in the media with occasional exceptions in sports coverage and sites like Digg where the interesting stuff can find its way to the top on its own despite what kind of feathers it may ruffle in various power structures.

It was a pleasure, Mr Gerstmann. Don't go away for too long, please? It's been said before, but how amazing that a video game journalist would have more integrity than basically the whole of cable news reporters.

One last thing; it's easy to see with hindsight how this thing manifested. Watch the Button Mashing episode where Kane & Lynch is played at the very end by Alex N, another Gs editor and a couple developers from Eidos. The game looked like something 989 studios tried to push on videogame-dom back in the late 90s. Just a sloppy knock-off of better games in an already well-saturated genre. Hmm, Do we need to go back and re-consider the legitimacy of reviews of games from ubisoft, activision, ea, etc? I'm guessing yes.

Hey I just read about the level cap increase in my email too and I am very excited. Especially since they said they will be increasing the level cap additional times in the future as well for the Beta.

This is a great game, but they must have figured now is a good time to make the tweak since people like me have been playing for a couple weeks now and the initial allotment was getting a tad stale. Must say that this is definitely the best beta I've ever played and the best free software I've ever owned. Everything is tight and looks good. Simply can't wait for the full monty!!!!

For those who care, my criticisms so far go like this: 1. Running into teammates jerks the screen around. It doesn't happen often, but I've found myself frustrated trying to "get off" one of my teammates when all we're trying to do is run around each other. 2. Game should announce when the UAV goes offline for the opponent. Or, at least make the text that announces when the UAV goes off a little bigger or in a brighter color. Good players know the importance of the UAV and in the heat of the battle it can be annoying searching around on the screen to find out when the opponents' UAV is finished. 3. Auto-aim cheapens up close quarters battle. I am not a big fan of the X360 controller (it's good but not a mouse) but once a person has gotten used to it they should reap the rewards in the form of advantageous accuracy. Unfortunately, the built in auto-aim function, while not too pervasive, lends itself to cheapness: by new players getting lucky and by veterans who figure out how to dodge your fire while letting the game keep their gun on you.

Other than that stuff, between this game and H3 I'm not going to have much free time til the new year. Sadly, I think IW is just sitting on the finished product until well after H3 comes out for obvious reasons. Too bad because this baby looks and plays ready to go. Nice job IW, good call Activision bringing them back to reenrgize the series in a big way.