Fans and analysts have long debated on the topic of why consumers must pay for Microsoft's online service Xbox Live while Sony's PlayStation Network users get their access for free. This time, we're getting some official explanations.

As Gamepro points out, in a recent podcast of Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog team, they gave a reason as to why their subscribers need to shell out US$ 50 a year to get on Xbox Live. Representing the company were Chris Paladino of the Xbox Live Community Team and PR Manager Michael Wolf.

Wolf says he pays US$ 100 a month for cable TV, but says "frankly, I spend more time playing online than I do watching TV nowadays, it feels like. So, you're getting a lot of value for $ 50 a year, in my opinion."

He also explains that with the sheer number of options that Live carries and the satisfaction that players get from their system, the value is well justified. With the online play that involves cross-platform competition, Wolf says Live wins outright.

For his part, Paladino says "there are bandwidth costs, there are things that go above and beyond. I think it goes back to this unified system."

"We have to have voice communication, text communication, now we're doing cross-platform. There's Marketplace, there are demos, and all these things don't just mystically hover around that you can pull them out of the ether," he concludes.

My thoughts personally?

Weak excuses.

Silver account gives you the 'unified system' features, and all Gold gives is online play. No dedicated servers, nice lag (here in OZ), and glitching. Wonderful. And we PAY.

GRAH.

Gets on my nerves. Guess its because of my PC gaming tendancies. Online gaming should be FREE not subscription based. MMOs are an execption as the devs continue matinence, mods + admins and the HUGE amount of dedicated servers hosted.

skrat_01

i agree highly on what you said

BS!!! The 360 offers HDMI too! If you do the comparison of both in HDMI the 360 would still win! Have you seen the 360 in HDMI?super_davem

yeah the ps3 cant even offer grapghics like gears of war even if they tried there hardes :lol: it will never happen MAYBE in the ps4 just maybe

http://gearsofwar.com/News/news_6-14-+title+update.htm

enjoy :)

[QUOTE="latin0playa"]

[QUOTE="II-FBIsniper-II"][QUOTE="latin0playa"]can some one please tell me how u can make a sign becuase it seems so hard can u import pictures or something becuase i wanna make one of like family guy or something or some hot chick or something like that :(msjr78

????? HOW THE HELL DO U MAKE THEM BY HAND ????????

yeah like really?

how can u even make such a cool picture using circoles and stupid shapes?!?!?!?!

You have to get the wheel to really enjoy it, i can understand controller getting boring after a while.eXists

does the wheel work for everygame?

Nope not lame for me. I love the game. But i also don't play it for really long periods. It's like most racing games. You get towards the later portions and the races get longer and you start to lose interest. It's the name of the game in most racers. NFS is prone to this.

I beat the first forza and intend to beat this one as well.

Perhaps you're just trying to beat it too quickly or expect too much from it.

karmageddon2k4

i agree with u in i expect too much ..... I cant even make my own graphics in the game becuase i cant im too stupid :?

[QUOTE="latin0playa"]can some one please tell me how u can make a sign becuase it seems so hard can u import pictures or something becuase i wanna make one of like family guy or something or some hot chick or something like that :(II-FBIsniper-II

????? HOW THE HELL DO U MAKE THEM BY HAND ????????

This cat stole my sig pic. It's all good. Spread the Olivia Munn love. Anyway, GRAW 2 has great graphics. The lighting effects especially when the sun is going down are amazing in HD.msjr78

:lol: i actually got it form one of ur posts :D f u want ill get rid of it?

You said-"all it does is a car simulator" WTF? What did you think it was, a shooter? That's what this game is, a car simulator. I agree that after long, racing for 8 laps on the same few tracks does get old, but it's still fun to me. I could see how you could get tired of it after a while, but to say it's just a car simulator sounds funny to me.

Perhaps you should look into Test Drive Unlimited. It's a totally open world for you to explore, with tons of cars, great graphics and fun online features. Plus it's only $40 new.

nyc05

i own test drive PGR3,Carbon, Burnout, Forza 2, mostwanted