@Epsilons That's not actually cheaper unless you already have an extra copy of Windows 8 you can use. The site says "You can install a License you already have at home or find it for free on Torrent website." which is basically saying if you don't already have a copy you can steal one. Now, I'm the first one to say that Windows is overpriced and I'm anxiously awaiting Steam OS, but the small footprint of the Alpha and the fact that it comes with a legit copy of a $129 OS are attractive to me. Even if I end up switching to Steam OS down the road I could still use that Windows license on another machine (I think...).

I'm waiting for the reviews to come in, but Alienware makes great stuff and more importantly developers will probably start to target this specific hardware for optimization the same way they target consoles today. I could see a development house internally saying "let's make this run really great on the base level Alienware Alpha and then if someone has the higher hardware models or better components in any PC, it'll just be even better. I'm not 100% sure the system can pull off 1080p/60fps on most modern games but I'll bet with some optimization that's a reasonable target. I certainly hope so - I abandoned PC gaming because I got tired of new games demanding more and more hardware to play with decent graphics unless you were willing to sacrifice framerate. I'm not. So I switched to console gaming several years ago but am seriously considering the Alpha or some other Steam Box to get back in on some of the amazing sales PC gamers get.

Can't wait for Halo MC Collection! What Nintendo really needs to do is start making games for the PS4 and XBox One, and focus on handheld gaming where they excel. There are SO many great Nintendo IP characters they could port (or allow others to port) to other systems, including remakes of all the Zelda and Mario games with HD overhauls (seriously, Nintendo wouldn't even need to pay to have these done; other devs and studios would pay them for the privilege of porting these guaranteed hits).

But if Nintendo persists in the console market themselves, they should bring their focus to online communities. In addition to the Mii system, give every system an "Avatar reader" and throw 4 plastic (Skylanders-style) figures in the box - Mario, Luigi, Peach and Zelda - then let them choose their avatar by which character is on the reader. That will virtually guarantee sales of more figurines since people will quickly not want to look just like everyone else but might not want to be limited to just their Mii, and Nintendo eats that kind of marketing up. All the pokemon characters, Zelda characters, Mario Characters, Metroid, etc. Then throw people into a "PS-Home-like-but-doesn't-suck" virtual world environment to move between games, media, ads and DLC. If the whole thing looked like Hyrule or Mario World people would eat it up.

The most important thing is that Nintendo could make online kid-friendly. It really isn't like that today, but by letting kids play online without chatting (voice or text) but selecting inoffensive emoticons and actions that crossed language boundaries, they could really pull gamers together in a way that hasn't been done yet. Kind of a Destiny "always-online" experience even when all you're doing is watching Netflix or playing a single-player game. Get rid of menus and think "virtual candy store" with aisles and end-cap displays.

Personally I switched from PC to console gaming for a pretty simple reason: over time games on the same hardware get better on console, but worse with PCs. That's simply because new PC hardware comes out every year and the new games target that hardware. On console, devs get better and better on the SAME hardware because they know it's not going to change and so they optimize. Just look at the difference between the first Drake's Fortune games on the PS3 and the last ones in that series (or GTA, or Ratchet & Clank, or Little Big Planet, the list goes on and on).

That said, I still might pick up an Alienware Alpha because I trust the brand to make great hardware and I think at least having this device gives developers a baseline to start optimizing for, which is something that's been missing all along in PC game development. If I get one it'll be the cheapest version, because I think it's the most value for the dollar and there are some PC games on Steam I'd like to play but don't want to shell out the $600-700 upgrade for my PC it would take to be able to play those same games.

What I'm a little unsure about is how user mods are going to work on these systems, especially once SteamOS comes out. We'll just have to see how well that all works, and if we'll be able to install mods without keyboards on this thing. I have zero interest in using a mouse and keyboard on my couch.

@teller76567 @sunyatanada76 There's also a good possibility that Sony is so sure they'll dominate completely in Japan that they wanted to focus their efforts in contested markets like the US and Europe first (which they've obviously been very successful in winning). They're right, too. They'll destroy XBox in Japan.

Personally I stopped upgrading my gaming PC about 5 years ago and I just don't see myself ever getting back into it, at least in the way I used to do it (every 2-3 years upgrading the CPU and GPU, and inevitably the MB, memory and hard drive because I like to play the latest games and "good" settings are never "good enough" for me. I'm also a huge fan of playing on my TV and personally love controllers vs. keyboard/mouse. While I love the PC mods I hate the PC cheaters, hacks, viruses and malware. For me, buying both PS and XBox makes more sense (I bought a PS3 & 360 last gen, I bought a PS4 and am about to buy an XB1 for this gen).

What might change everything for me is the Steam box though, in particular the Alienware box. We don't know how much they're going to cost really yet, but 99% of what I don't like about PC gaming can be summed up in one word: Windows. With Steam OS there is no Windows, and while I honestly wonder if we'll see all AAA games ditch DirectX and switch to OpenGL/Mantle etc. so they can run on both Windows and SteamOS, it just might happen. If it does, and the price for a decent (Alienware) Steam box is somewhere closer to $400 and less like $1000 then yes, I'll probably get back into PC gaming again.

@adamg78 I doubt anyone will buy XB1 that doesn't have Internet. Even a slow DSL line would suffice. It's interesting that PS4 is going to a more XBox Live style approach (pay for multiplayer, cross-game chat, real world friends) it will hopefully balance the playing field a little but I have both PS3 and XBox 360 and XBox Live is far and away a better online experience in everything I've played. PS3 online is a mixed bag and Sony needs to fix it. Not only the multiplayer but downloading and installing games, demos and patches is painful on PS3 compared to 360 (where patches happen automatically and take about 5-10 seconds vs. several minutes on PS3 for comparable patches). Hopefully PS4 will auto-patch, play demos with one click (browse to a demo and just click "Play" instead of "Play Demo", "Download In Background", "Install", then click the icon to launch). Sony can definitely do better than they did with PS3. I think they're learning from Microsoft both good (XBox Live) and bad (no game rentals).

I'm kind of intrigued by the cloud-based game library on XB1. I hate physical disks once I've bought them. I love (on both XBox360 and PS3) digital versions of games since I don't have to worry about a disk getting scratched, lost, etc. and I have multiple 360s so it would be nice to not have to make sure the right disk is in the right room. That's especially intriguing if I'm over at my brother's house or out of town and want to play or show off some cool new game I got. Log in, and play the game. No disk required. Maybe we're all being a little too hard on MS the same way everyone was on Apple when the App Store came out with the EXACT SAME MODEL.

This sucks. Of course a high end PC video card is going to beat both systems. This series of comparisons was MUCH more useful when it was just 360 vs. PS3. I hope Gamespot realizes it's just a complete waste of everyone's time to keep saying "wow, look at that - PC graphics are better again!" The whole point is to compare console versions please GS if you're going to leave it this way at least give a gold, silver, bronze or something so there's still a direct comparison of 360 and PS3 in every comparison. Personally I have a reasonably high end video card on my PC (8800 GTS) but I've stopped playing PC games because of all the hackers ruining online games. I bought a really good HDTV, and a PS3 and a 360 so I can choose which system I want to play each game on and I rely on unbiased comparisons like this to decide (yes, graphics is only one factor but it's a big one for me).

Missed opportunity here - what they really desperately needed was six-axis style tilt detection. My big gripe with my PSP has always been the controls (I also have a DS and the controls there are weak too even with the touch screen). Imagine LocoRoco with tilt support on the PSP! Imagine Mercury rising, or dozens of other games. I know they didn't want to break compatibilty with the original PSP but they could have really improved things by adding the tilt support and it's a shame they didn't. They also should have switched to 802.11g for 56kbps support and put at least a gig of solid state memory in the device. I would have also really liked to see a second analog stick. Looking at my PSP right now there's a perfect spot for an extra analog controller under the X button. All that said, the TV output is nice although I don't see anyone saying "ok, I'll just buy the UMD version of that movie then!" - I'm not really sure what the application of this is, outside of being kind of interesting... It's not like you can use a remote control with the PSP so I guess you have to stand 5 feet from the TV to pause? Thinner is always good and lighter is VERY good! Will I upgrade though, nope. Nothing really worth getting a new one, but if you haven't bought one, clearly the new one's the way to go.

After about 40 games of the beta I have nothing but good things to say. Yes it's a lot like Halo 2. It controls just as fluidly, the framerate actually seems smoother (or at least the controls are smoother - I can't tell which) the audio is amazing and the gameplay feels lag free even when the stats show that some players have bad connections. Honestly for an online game I don't see how anybody can even complain - Halo 2 was damn near perfect and Halo 3 just takes it that much closer to perfection. It's not that Halo 3 isn't amazing it's just a testament to how good Halo 2 was/is. Textrues are one area that has improved a lot. Shadows, too, are perfect in Halo 3, which helps a lot when someone's jumping down on you from above! It would be nice if the particle effects like the blowing dust we saw in the E3 intro were in MP, but as long as they're in the campaign I can live without them in MP. There is only ONE area that really sucks in H3 but it also sucked in H2 they just need to fix it - sniping without zooming in should be IMPOSSIBLE or at least almost impossible. The ease that you can hit someone twice with a sniper in their torso and take them down without zooming in is rediculous. Can you imagine a real sniper NOT zooming in? There should also be a huge accuracy penalty for shooting a sniper rifle while moving at all. It should be a stealthy option for long distance targetting only, not the current unstoppable beast of a weapon it is.

This is a great idea for an article, and I hope Sony is listening. I'm lucky enough to own a 360, Wii and a PS3 and I love all three in different ways, so I feel pretty comfortable making some unbiased suggestions: Sony's download experience is PAINFUL compared to the other two, especially the 360. Background downloading is the single most important thing they need to add to the system. It's absurd that a chip as powerful as the Cell just sits there downloading a 300MB demo. I think this means they need to detach the download process from the browser. Maybe the browser could START a download but they shouldn't be intimately linked the way they are. The whole process of selecting what to download and where to save it is just painful - I shouldn't have to push the "Start" button after I've pushed "X" for every confirmation up to that point for example. I think Home will help this a lot, but we'll have to wait and see. There's something wrong with the controllers losing their connection and the system not realizing it's happening. It's worse in some games than others, but it's definitely a problem and it can take a perfect game like Motorstorm and ruin the experience as I go flying off a cliff. BTW: Here's something Sony did VERY right on the PS3... They did a brilliant thing by letting us swap out hard drives. I upgraded my 20GB to a 160GB for the $100 I saved by not buying the 60GB version (a pretty good deal in my book since I don't want the WiFi anyway). Except for the tiny little screws that strip before the let go of the drive chassis the process was easy - especially backing up and restoring the contents of the hard drive to an external USB hard drive. Bravo!