Naysayers of Steam: I am going to guess that Valve is going to outlive my desire to play any game that I buy this year. And even if it didn't, what makes you think they won't release something over Steam to remove the anti-piracy checks before closing their doors?

On recent packaging, I got to give love to the World in Conflict CE I just got. It comes in a sweet box, which I find hard to describe (one half of it is in Russian with a hammer and sickle, the other half in English with stars and stripes) and it came with a 10 day trial for a friend, a History Channel DVD, a "behind the scenes" DVD, and coolest of all, a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Usual misconceptions. Yes, you bought a game 6 years after your PS2 which worked great on it. It also hit the ceiling for what that machine is capable of. Sure, I had to upgrade to play Crysis. You also had to go from Xbox to 360 or PS2 to PS3 to play Call of Duty 4. Constant upgrades are a problem, but if you're serious about PC gaming, you don't need to buy new hardware every 6 months like the strawmen say. The one I built last summer will run anything for at least 3 years, and typically will do it better than a console. I paid a lot more than a console, but have a widescreen monitor, thus not needing an HDTV, and have my PC for non-gaming purposes as well as gaming purposes.

Games are still selling well because MMORPGs are cash cows: Also false. WoW is a cash cow. There are others that do well enough to stick around with loyal fanbases, like EVE, and then there's fiascos like SWG and Tabula Rasa, which are probably costing the companies a fortune to keep running at this point. Companies need to make less MMOs, not more, unless they can come up with something truly compelling. Age of Conan is receiving a lot of hype, and will probably do well enough to stick around for years, but it's unlikely WoW will be topped for at least another 5 years (and I don't like WoW, FWIW.)

For the article itself, MS is delusional if they think the industry is looking to them to save it. Games for Windows is a joke. I buy usually at least one new game a month, sometimes 2, and from all the games I've gotten since the new PC, only 3 have GFW on them, and 2 of them were insanely buggy at release and needed immediate patches to work properly. Then, trying to tell me I need Vista for Halo 2 (and I'm sorry, Halo is a trash FPS compared to many, many others, to say nothing of the fact IT'S AN ORIGINAL XBOX GAME) or telling me I need DX10 for some graphical effects in Crysis (which users made available by modding .ini files and replacing a few textures) or best of all, trying to charge me money to play vs. console users, with gimped mouse controls to "keep it fair," are a terrible frigging joke. And no, I don't care that I have an Xbox Live account to go with it. I'm not playing a 360, I'm playing on my PC, and I play tons of online games that don't cost me a thing beyond the initial purchase price.

One last thing: I see a lot of the comments extolling the virtue of Steam...and this is true. I remember HL2 coming out, and myself (and many others) screaming bloody murder at the online verification requirement, and at being force fed Steam to play the game. I didn't even play it then, I wasn't a fan of shooters, and even now, I own The Orange Box and still haven't really played it more than an hour or two. But Valve has been smart and knows what they are doing. I love Steam, it's everything MS wishes they were capable of doing. Tons of games available via digital distribution, lots of free demos, other media, a buddy list/messenger, achievements...it's Xbox Live for PCs, except it doesn't cost me a fee to use it. The face of PC gaming is not MS, it is Valve. Likely it always will be. PC gaming can thrive as long as Gabe Newell draws breaths.

Now, having said all that, I don't like this idea. I don't mind these couple guys doing it, they seem sensible and that they aren't going to use it to cheat. But when it happens, it's the end of online Guitar Hero. God knows enough other games haven't been destroyed by cheats, and this would pretty much be the worst ever.

"Hitl--er, Master-D"

@PrivateJ0ker:
Hi Uwe!

In all seriousness, I think Postal does have potential to be good. The clip I saw was funny, and really, when you look at Boll's personality, he may have been destined to direct crude comedy.

You can probably tell what company's hardware I preferred. None of them except my PC really see regular play, but I have to break out the DC for MvC 2 at least once a month.

That said, they'll still get my money with a PC version of Head Coach that fixes all the problems with the first one.

2. Yes, it's much much better now. It's still not completely stable, and it crashes more frequently then I'd like (some characters more than others for some reason) but for the most part, it runs smoothly and generally lag-free.

3. The mail system was a huge addition and probably the second most requested addition, because you can attach cash or items to the mail. An auction house is still being cried for, however.

4. The pets with abilities aren't earth-shattering, and given how difficult they are to acquire they could probably have done a little more. Also, some pets are *much* more common than others but none of them seem especially powerful compared to others.

I say it every time it's mentioned. Yes, it's gotten a lot better since launch. Flagship listens to the players, interacts with the players, and actually takes their suggestions. I don't regret my founder's purchase at all.