I simply cannot afford the 360. Definitely not a PS3. I am the owner of a prematurely obsolete X-Box. I don't understand the decision Microsoft made to never make another X-Box game. F**k man, a lot of people have not 'upgraded' to a next gen console. Sony has wisely recognized that many people will not be buying a next gen console because they are simply too expensive. Plus, there are not many games for these elite gaming systems and their respective libraries are building at a slow rate. This makes sense. Working out all the bugs n' stuff. Sony did right by their PS2 owners and continue to make games for it. PS2 hasn't gone away. There are many people who have this system and love playing games on it. They especially like good new games that are still being developed despite the PS3.

What Microsoft did to X-box owners is cynical, and a total f**k you, now you have to buy the new system because we are not going to make any more games for the X-Box. Because, low and behold, what new thing we have created. It is pure and all that is good. What we have done in the past is no longer relevant because we have created something new spawned from the old. It is better, the old is no longer of any use to you. So, we will do X-Box owners a favour. We will not subject them to anything new for their old, out dated system. Yes, we realize that the Sony people still make games for their comparable 'PS2' game console. They do not know what they have wrought upon the time tested and honored tradition of treating people with a cynical marketing ploy.

The ploy obviously is 'now you got to buy the new system.' No more games. Yeah well, you know, we got the 360 coming out so we decided to increase our projected sales of the 360 by not making games for the original X-Box. I think its the right move for us, ya know. Because if people can't afford a 360, then they are not big enough video game fans. F**k those losers. They should fork over the cash for the new one. It's way better and more awesome with incredible graphics and gameplay. Frankly, the people that don't buy this and are hanging on to their old X-Boxes, are not people we want associated with the X-Box 360 name brand. They can't afford it? It cost too much? They are waiting till the price goes down?

Oh, s**t! Ya know if we still made games and other developers make games for the X-Box, we could absorb some of the cost of marketing the 360.

Ya think?

I have come across three war based games today that deal with the middle east. Are writers no longer creative? Or are they just trumpeting the clarion call for bloodshed in a heavily war damaged part of the world.

There is one that is set in Venezuela! Ostensibly you and your characters are CIA agents wanting to overthrow the dictator that took power through a military coup. What's funny is that the U.S. tried in 2002 to over throw Chavez, a democratically elected by the majority of people in Venezuela. Well, technically the U.S. was not involved but I wouldn't put it past them giving the readily available reading material on how much they interfere with Latin American governments.

I'm sick of these lazy story ideas. The army has now got their own game out. And that's fine. But it's rated Teen. I guess in real life there is no blood. Recruiting bastards!

Man, is it easy to give advice to a lot of the people who post there. For what it's worth I try to take their questions as real queries and answer accordingly. Forums can be a strange, strange world with strange people posting the most intimate details of their lives.

Some threads like all the 'God vs. Science threads' are set up to be adversarial. The poster obviouly had one point of view and wanted to share it and 'debate' people who didn't agree with him/her. A more honest looking topic would look like 'Intelligent Design?' Simple, to the point and the question mark makes the thread more welcoming to people with different opinions.

Almost all the Polls the Off-Topic forum has are dumber than a licensed Matrix videogame. (Ok, Path of Neo wasn't bad)

I don't want to get personal so I'll stop here. Just one more thing; a lot of Gamespot posters are surprisingly polite and respectful and very sensitive when the subject's serious. That being said, there are a lot of 'less mentally endowed' people on there as well.