Sometimes things in this hobby exasperate me. Things happen that make you wonder if the video game industry even wants your support. I'll start with Micro$oft. Yes the same Micro$oft that gave you the Red Ring of Death and a $50 annual fee for something Sony gives you for free. Yesterday, while I'm minding my own business playing Rainbow Six: Vegas I get disconnected from Live. OK. No big deal, I pause and sign back in. Well surprise, surprise. I get a notice that my account has been suspended for 24 hours. OK... I check around and find an email from Micro$oft claiming that someone reported that my profile contained something offensive which breached the Code of Conduct. Of course this is absurd. The bio of my profile read as follows:

"I am a mature, married gamer with kids, so obviously my 360 time is precious and I don't like to waste it. I have no time for racists, foul-mouthed brats, or D-bags in general. Other than that, HI!"

Hmmm. Let me get this straight. You ban the guy against racism but keep the idiot in the Halo lobby dropping the "N" word left and right. Micro$oft has no problem with the 13 year old kid that swears more than Tony Soprano and insults everything from your mother to your sexuality but a guy that speaks out against such behavior must go. Or could it be the D-bag reference? Surely you must be joking Micro$oft. I have seen far more blatantly offensive things on other profiles, including the "D" in question fully spelled out. Ahh Micro$oft, you get a little more ridiculous every day and the PS3 looks a little better every day.

My second rant goes out to game developers. Gentlemen and Ladies, I have news for you. WE ALL AIN'T RICH!!! There are no less than 6 mandatory, gotta have 'em games coming out within the next month. At a rate of at least one a week! Dead Space (10/14), Fable 2 (10/21), Fallout 3 (10/28 ), Gears Of War 2 (11/7), Mirror's Edge (11/11), and Left 4 Dead (11/17). $360 worth of games coming out in one month! My car payment isn't even $360 a month, and never mind that there simply isn't enough hours in the day to play this glut of games! Obviously somebody's triple A game isn't going to get bought. Not to mention other good games that I would probably buy are getting lost in the shuffle. Saints Row 2, End War, COD: World At War, and Fracture have no chance of me picking them up new. All are Gamestop used buys sometime next year. Radical idea here: Why not spread the release dates out? If everybody tries to cram thier game into the pre-holiday window it hurts everyone. OK, that's it. Rants over.