Hi again!

Its been a while since i posted in here. lets get you up to speed.

At the moment i'm in university studying Forensic Computing which is a great computing subject and fully recommended if anyone suddenly wishes to go to Uni.

I have also come to post one or two slight issues that i have been having about the games industry. the first is the january 'slump'.

because of the mass panic of trying to release every game in development before the christmas period, it sort of leaves a void between january and march which almost no games come out in. i find this displeasing because there are no new games to try out but also fills me with joy since my local game store has a clear out of all the older games. bargin time baby! so for this year i bought burnout paradise (because my friend was nagging me to get it), chromehounds again and star trek legacy which im happily enjoying but as im playing my mind is always saying "you could be playing a really good early 2009 release right about now" and it really drives me up the bend. however the DLC market never seems to slump. the release of burnouts paradise's surf island and all the new cars AND free update which improves the games physics, graphics and gameplay is more than i ever imagined.

my last concern is with the release of halo:ODST. me and my group of friends argued quite extensivly over this. should companies bring out a full priced game that is basically and expansion?

this goes back to the roots of expansions in PC gaming where an update or collection of new units and maps was impractical to release over the internet due to it being too big so companies started releasing expansion packs which were priced considerably less than the original game. over time the prices of expansions weighed heavily on the content but it seemed to level out at about half the price of the original game, if priced at all (like the EVE expansions).

but ODST is taking it to a whole new level. an expansion pack that is priced at £40? just sounds to me like they are starting to milk this one. i would not have cared (because i dont like halo past number 2) if they had released it as a DLC priced at 1200 MS points (like oblivions shivering isles) but £40 is taking too far.

now im not saying to boycott it but if you can justify using £40 (and equivilents) on an expansion then go right ahead. just dont expect a full game when you get it (like left 4 dead, ooohh low blow).