I heard nothing of the Official Xbox mag going out, just Playstation. Have a source? There was nothing in any of the recent issues.

Yeah...This article sucks. Hey writer you know there's more than just console gaming right?

Wonderful write up Aaron. Looks like you hit all the big gaming stories.

Joe, the article sucks because he didn't cover PC games? Yea, that makes sense.

I would guess that Aaron doesn't play games on the PC, and neither do I.

So tell us, what were the big PC Gaming stories of 2006. Then maybe you could contribute something constructive here.

I can't remember when the announcement was exactly on OXM. It was actually announced a month or two prior to the announcement of OPM going out if I remember correctly. I just recall thinking "It's about time."

Damn. Now I can't find anything on it. Maybe it was bogus and the story was pulled. I do know the U.K. version has plans (if it isn't already) to be axed and it will be combined with another magazine. I believe the disc support is what got pulled from OXM due to the digital downloads and I didn't clearly distinguish that in the article now that I read it. Bottom line, the magazines' demo discs are worthless now with the downloads and I don't see OXM going much further even if the news I got was false.

Yes Ken, it does suck because he didn't cover PC Games. I learned how to write without being biased in High School. Apparently, Aaron did not.

This article might as well be an ad for Microsoft/Xbox 360 since that's what he mostly seems to cover.

Hey Joe did they teach you anything about constructive criticism in high school or just how bitch and moan?

Either way i'm a PC gamer and i can't recall much for PC gaming news. In fact the only major bit of news was Ubisoft dumping Star Force, which is something I think we can all be greatful for.

Joe, your comment sucks. There was no Playstation mentioned anywhere in it. Didn't they teach you in high school not to be biased?

Joe, if you think this is a 360 advertisement, pull your head out of your ass and actually read the article. The PS3 and Wii were hyped and the 360 and PS2 enjoyed a full year of quality releases. That was 2006 in a nutshell. Go to other gaming Web sites and tell me how they are any different.

I don't think Joe is in any position to discuss PC games because he hasn't played them all.

El Bicho you crack me up.

To be fair, it should say "console gaming news" in the title.

There was plenty of news this year on the PC front, from dual video cards in both nVidia and ATI flavors to 7 million subscribers to World of Warcraft, and more.

That being said, it IS a damn fine article about console gaming.

I agree it would be fair to label this as console if it's not a problem to change. If anyone else would be so inclined to do a PC story, I wouldn't be against that either. It's a very civil request indeed.

There was Guild Wars, Civ IV, more WOW madness and some good technical specs that did come through. However, that's not my area.

A few things:

- Great article, but it should have definitely been specified that it would focus on console gaming, so as not to upset us snobby PC gamers (J/K ;) )

- If a Star Wars game comes out for the Wii where you can use a lightsaber, I would be all over it.

- I am so glad I got to attend E3 last year!

- My boyfriend and I got the HD-DVD add-on for the 360. We're quite happy with it! Still thinking about getting a PS3 for the blu-Ray though, or maybe we should just wait for Total HD disks to come out.

I changed the title. And they are working on a Star Wars game for the Wii. It will more than likely have lightsaber battles.

Definately a good article, but a few points that I'd like to comment on....


"Sony was labeled as a copycat once again as it offered two different units at launch - one at $499 and a beefier 60 GB version at $599. Even though people were warned by Sony itself it would be costly, analysts crunched very identical numbers and if featured costly new technology, casual gamers everywhere couldn't add one and one together and were outraged about the price. With a price tag of $599, many gamers failed to grasp the concept of the Blu-Ray technology, which in a stand-alone unit tops $1,000, and much complaining ensued online."


The problem, though, is that a good portion of the population didn't care that it was a Blu-Ray player. They wanted a Video Game system.

If someone really wants new HD video games, AND a Blu-Ray Player, AND all of the other non-gaming related crap that PS3 can do, then yes, the $600 price tag isn't bad. But, I think that the people who actually want that stuff are few and far between.

Plus, in all fairness, despite Sony 'warning' people that it would be pricey, people still didn't know what exactly 'pricey' meant. It could have been $450 (thus still being more expensive than 360 [which was already considered pricey at $400], but not by much), or it could have been $900.

In the end, the final price just seemed overly high to many people, and I can't say that I blame them. Sure, the technology is expensive, but when many people have little to no use for a good portion of the technology that is included, it stinks for them to have to pay for it.



"Quite a few changes, including a $50 price drop, shook up the PSP platform this year, but most surprisingly, came at the expense of the UMD movie format."

Is the death of UMD really that much of a surprise?

Im my opinion, that's about as surprising as my hand getting burned from sticking it directly into a fire.

The movies were generally more expensive than DVD's, had no extra features, and could only be run on the PSP. People would be better off buying a portable DVD player.... in the long run it would be cheaper than buying tons of UMD movies, since it would allow them to use their at-home movie collection on the road.

Sure, maybe having separate portable devices for gaming and movies instead of one that does it all isn't ideal, but for the price they wanted for those UMD movies, it makes little sense to go the route of the combined use gadget when it comes at such a greater price.

Frankly I actually find the idea of Blu-Ray being in PS3 to be a better idea than the whole UMD thing, and as you can see from my previous statements, I really don't think all that highly of Blu-Ray as it is.

Unless someone travels CONSTANTLY for business or something (in which case they don't have much time to sit down at home and watch a DVD anyway), I really can't see where having a combo-device like PSP with a movie format specific to it in additon to gaming would be desirable for the cost.

Honestly, I pretty much felt that the format was dead in the water when it first came out. I was actually surprised to hear that initially they were selling well. But it must have been a quick little novelty that wore off shortly there after, and that part came as no surprise to me.


I'm sorry if it seems like I'm hating on Sony. It's not that I'm trying to be 'fanboyish', but speaking as someone who went out and bought a PS2 at launch and was super-excited about it at the time, between the disc-read malfunctions of PS2, the bad UMD decision of PSP, and just all of the problems with PS3 (most of which were mentioned in this article), I really have gotten to a point where there's little to nothing for me to praise about Sony.





As for the arguements about this article sucking due to the lack of coverage of PC gaming, I think that's a weak arguement. Despite the title, clearly the article was a console based article. And while PC is also gaming, generally speaking PC gaming and console gaming tend to be looked upon by many to be two very different beasts, and should not necessarily be lumped together on a regular basis.