You're kidding, right? Outside of the PC realm, Sony doesn't support general-purpose storage technologies. They didn't even support their OWN geeral-purpose storage technology (Memory Stick) when they made the PS2. Why would they suddenly do an about-face and support OTHER technologies like SD, Compact Flash, etc.? Because the PS2 didn't work out?
I'm not one to take a lot of shots at the Xbox (because I've thoroughly enjoyed mine) but you're just plain incorrect on the longevity question. It was four years between the launch of the Xbox and the 360, it's already been over five years since the launch of the PS2, and it was six years from the launch of the Playstation to the PS2.
I don't know exactly to what the AC was referring, but one thing you seem to have misunderstood was where the transcoding is going to occur. The photos from CES showing the Windows Media/PSP/iPod options are photos of the new Tivo Desktop software. Thus, the Tivo (as it does in the Series 2 boxes) will send the MPEG-2 files as-is from the Tivo to the PC where you can then transcode the files to formats compatible with other devices. They wouldn't offer transcoding within the unit for the simple reason that there wouldn't be enough CPU overhead for this to be time-efficient, especially when encoding two streams and decoding another besides.
..."Generic FPS 3:The Return of the Main Character, Again" with upscaled graphics certainly isn't an intelligent launch plan for a gaming culture like Japan's.
Certainly not. "Generic RPG 20:The Return of Guy Who Looks Like a Girl" is far more compelling in Japan's gaming culture.
Now, if I punched you in the mouth for insulting me, and we went to court, would I be responsible for hitting you, or would you be responsible for provoking me?
You'd be responsible for the act, while I'd be responsible for being an ass. That's a burden I've learned to accept, and you wouldn't find yourself in court for that particular act in any case.:)
You're absolutely right. I would only say that a) I'm not an IT-type person so I know jack about using PCs in business for anything beyond the most basic functions and b) using multiple processors in applications as you describe has been going on for a long time so the value has already been established, where multiple CPUs in home systems is only very recently becoming "common."
It's not a stunt if it works. As expensive as four 7800GTX 512MB cards (or four chipsets in two cards) would be, we're not talking car prototype expensive. Given the number of silly people already using two expensive video cards in one PC (my parents paid less for their PC with LCD monitor than the cost of two new 7800s), it's not a big stretch to imagine them buying a couple more if they're getting a measurable performance advantage. Hell, maybe someone will actually be able to run Everquest 2 at its highest settings without turning it into a slideshow.
As for dual dual-core CPUs, that's also not a stunt, and for the same reason in that it can provide actual performance advantages. Nonstop (fast) DVD-to-DivX encoding while playing F.E.A.R with all the bells and whistles, without buying a separate PC, might be worth it to some folks.
Me? I'm doing fine with my AMD XP1500 and lousy GeForce 4 MX420 (64MB, ROCK!), thank you. I'm doing most of my gaming on my DS these days...:)
How about a long (like three to four feet), high-res OLED "roll-up" screen that could be shaped anywhere from flat to semi-circle to a circle (with one's head in it)? It would probably take some extra software/OS configuration work but you could make one nice HUD out of it.
I don't know if the child is mentally retarded, but clearly you're pretty damned slow. I (and the commenter before me) never said anything about the adult being right (and I thought I made that crystal clear in my post).
The adult who assaulted the kid is still responsible for their own behavior.
Yes, the adult is entirely responsible for his actions and, again, should be held so by a court and imprisoned. That said, the adult could not have created this specific situation by himself. The boy had to give his e-mail address (this is not publicly accessible via Xbox Live) to the pedophile, then apparently participated in an e-mail exchange (to arrange the time and place), then went to a park to meet the sicko. The fact that he's 14 doesn't mean he has no responsibility for the situation (in most states, a 14-year-old can be treated as an adult in criminal proceedings, indicating that society has determined that a child of that age should know right from wrong).
As for your specious rape comparison, the situation is quite different in that dating is a standard adult practice, as is wearing "provocative" clothing. There's nothing standard about a child corresponding with a child molester via e-mail and then arranging to meet him in a park.
Now, if that same woman wears provocative clothing, invites a guy to her place, blows in a guy's ear and handles his junk before the rape, then she would have to own some responsibility for the situation - but, again, that doesn't make the attacker right, nor should it be considered a mitigating factor in court. It just means that she shouldn't be actively revving up a date with whom she doesn't want to have intimate contact.
What? You don't think a 14-year-old bears some responsibility when they go to meet a stranger from the Internet in a park? A stranger who has been sending pornography? There's no doubt that the molester should be put into a hole and left there eating scraps and drinking only water for the rest of his life, but there is something deeply wrong with a 14-year-old kid who acts this way. Even more important, there is something deeply wrong with the way a kid was raised when he acts this way.
I would thus consider the parents to bear some of the responsibility as well considering there was no monitoring of the child's Internet gaming or e-mail. It just about rises to the level of neglect and foster care might be a smart option while those parents are investigated.
In the player arena, it isn't even a question. Samsung has come right out and said that they'll be releasing an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo drive ASAP. Of course, that will be a home theater component as opposed to a PC device, but it's certainly a heartening step. It makes me wonder, too, if companies like Sony and Toshiba who, in theory at least, have all their bets placed on one format will end up selling any significant number of players (apart from the PS3) at all. If companies like Samsung - and there should be several - go the dual-format route it may "disarm" both sides in the format war. And, if PC dual-format "ROM" drives can quickly become the standard as well, then it matters less which recordable format people use.
It's not strange at all. Japan has had a few of the big system-selling games longer. For example, Nintendogs was released in Japan in April while the US had to wait until August for their version. So, if someone in the US would "normally" buy Nintendogs and a DS six months after that game's release then they still haven't made their purchase; the same person in Japan bought their system and game in October.
This gap is different for different games (for example, the Japanese and US versions of Mario Kart and Animal Crossing were within weeks of each other) but that element does play a role in the overall sales gap. The gap will narrow, disappear and then go in the other direction, more in line with the population factor you mention, as the system grows older.
It's also worth noting that Japan has a higher population density than the US and the local WiFi features are probably much easier to experience and enjoy in Japan. I know that if I had to ride a crowded train every day, I'd have bought a DS much sooner (before the games with Internet connectivity) if only for the chance that I might get some multiplayer going with other people with similar habits and tastes.:)
"Godawful"? I think you might be understating the case. Believe it or not, Atari 2600 Pac-Man, with the combination of horrible audio and painful visuals, actually caused me to become nauseated. To this day I'm not sure if the greatest contribution to this came from the miserable flicker, that horrible chomping sound or just an intense reaction to how far from the real thing it was.
Is the weight really causing the problem with your wrists, or could it be the distribution of the weight, holding the bottom half with little support on the top half? Or perhaps holding the whole thing with one hand while using the stylus? I guess it doesn't matter since either way, an uncomfortable handheld is a bad thing.
In my case, I found the DS a bit uncomfortable at first but have since gotten quite used to it, hardly noticing the increased weight. For me, the only current problem is the increased size (for toting; once I'm playing I'm fine) and I'm hoping against hope that they'll show off a smaller revision at E3.
In the meantime, though, there are bells to be gotten, so huge system or not it'll be in my hands a lot.
What the hell are you talking about? You keep using the term "intimate" as if it actually means something important to online gaming - indeed, that it's somehow self-evidently vital to online gaming - but where is this information coming from? Have you done some sort of study where the word "intimate" was used by many subjects?
Consoles can continue to be locally social while expanding to the online realm. I know that when I played Mechassault online I was almost always playing in games where there were at least two people gathered around one Xbox connected to other people online, and those people (if their vocal stylings are any evidence) were enjoying themselves quite a lot. Imagine World of Warcraft on Xbox 360 or PS3 in a multiple-player household where two or more gamers could gather around the same television and play online (the high resolution and widescreen abilities of HDTV would even make this as visually appealing as a computer monitor).
I honestly believe that those who dismiss console online gaming as a failure either haven't experienced it properly or just don't have any imagination. My opinion (uneducated as it might be) is that the surface has barely been scratched and that playing online with consoles will not only be a success but will, over time, marginalize even further the already smaller PC gaming market. On what would I base this? On the fact that console games sell lots more units than PC games; therefore, if online gaming is "a good thing" then consoles will, quite naturally, end up dominating that market.
In the real world, people with money pay people with less money to do their dirty work for them, why would the online world be any different? Its a game, not a Utopia.
The point you seem to miss here, however, is that the real world and World of Warcraft are supposed to be two separate things. In other words, apart from initial purchase and subsequent subscription fees, real world money shouldn't be exerting an undue influence on this online world. In particular, that real world cash shouldn't have a negative effect on the gameplay; in other words, shifts of people shouldn't be monopolizing areas or MoBs in order to obtain something to sell in the real world (shifts of people monopolizing an area for the furtherance of their own character's or guild's goals is another thing entirely). That may be "realistic" in some way but realism isn't supposed to be the goal of a fantasy RPG.
I use a Tivo with my Dish Network satellite receiver and it hasn't dropped a recording in months, so the IR transmission is working flawlessly. The most obvious advantage of the IR transmitter compared to a remote is that the IR transmitter is right next to the receiver - so, it should actually work a lot better than your remote. The only two reasons it should miss (apart from hardware failure) would be dirt on the transmitter/receiver or intense glare. The former can be solved with a moist cloth and the latter can be solved simply be draping something over the receiver (with Tivo, for example, direct control of the satellite receiver is not only pointless but could screw up recordings). So, unless a company really borks its software, IR transmitters work just fine.
Of course, I agree with you that taking the step out is better, if only because integration usually provides a better overall experience. As for CableCard, it's supposedly coming to AT LEAST Windows Media Center PCs sometime next year. I hope against hope that one of the satellite companies gets off the stick and comes out with a satellite-compatible "CableCard" because I hate cable.
I just get the feeling I'm going to be playing this generation's games on the next generation's platform, since developers couldn't be bothered to come up with new ideas.
It's good that folks like you have been able to come to this kind of conclusion within the first two months of the "next generation."
And, talk about a dumb question on which to base an article. Of course HD is important to the future of gaming. It's so by virtue of the fact that, at some point, there will only BE high-definition televisions. It's like asking if color was important to the future of TV when it was first introduced, or if higher resolutions were important to the future of computing when everyone was working on an 80-column green-screen monitor.
I wonder, what "nefarious" pupose exactly is Microsoft going to accomplish with information about what music you listen to, movies you watch or games you play? Even if they decided to sell this information (a move that would be discovered quickly and would garner them untold amounts of shit, making it unlikely), what would be the net negative effect on you?
I think you're paranoid and I don't think you even know what you're paranoid about. Hell, Microsoft isn't requiring credit card numbers from people anymore so you don't even have to give them any clear identifying information.
I guess I just think it's one thing to be concerned that someone could be tapping your phone or videotaping you inside your house, and quite another to worry if Microsoft knows that you like Britney Spears and watch 'Lesbian Panty Police' over and over again. If I'm not being clear, I think the latter worry is probably a symptom of a piece of wood lodged in the ole rectal orifice - which, by the way, SHOULD be private...
"200 gigs ain't cheap"? A quick look at Newegg finds a 200GB ATA drive for 86 bucks and a mod chip can be had for $20-75 depending on how fancy you want to get. $265 would allow for a very comfortable profit margin depending on how long someone actually takes installing the hardware.
I think that if you buy a gaming PC and can't install The Sims 2 - a ridiculously popular game - out of the box, then there's no such thing as a review that is "too harsh." The only possible excuse would be an actual hardware problem, and that obviously wasn't the case.
You may have a point on the virus issue (though I think it would be far more reasonable to limit the virus calls on the regular service line instead of banning them altogether) but that PC earned the lousy review because it was filled with easily preventable problems from the get-go.
It's a combination of two things with the Hickory Farms deal. The first is the worst reason: Tradition. Everything about Hickory Farms says Christmas to us (and to most people, though I remember a time when Hickory Farms stores were HUGE and year-round instead of being relegated to the holiday season in many places).
The second reason I stick with HF is because I already know everyone likes the flavors. I've had better meats and cheeses (obviously) but I've also had "fancy" meats and cheeses that I thought were better and other people just hated them - and vice versa.
It's kind of like McDonald's. People tend to like their food because they've had it so many times, and some of those wouldn't appreciate a really good hamburger made of grade A Angus just because they're not used to it.
That said, it's still a good idea and maybe I'll spend some extra time this year, at least on a couple of folks who I think have a more..."sophisticated"...palate.:)
Unless shopping for used titles or PC games, it rarely matters at which store you do your game shopping. MSRP rules the day for the vast majority of console games.
As for cash, I'm personally of the opinion that while it's usually great for the teenager/adult, the giver just doesn't get a lot of satisfaction. If we assume that gifts are all about the giving and not the receiving (that's the platitude, right?), the giver should be the happier of the two parties. This is why I like spending money at Hickory Farms. It's quick, it's simple, and apart from vegans (I don't do Christmas with any), meats and/or cheeses are right up everybody's alley. In my family (admittedly, an overweight group), few things make us happier than five-pound sticks of good summer sausage.
I think I might have gotten off topic? Oh, yeah, if you don't know jack about games but want to buy games for a gamer then, yes, get a gift certificate. It's a lot more fun shopping for a game one wants instead of going to the store to try to return a game one doesn't. And, frankly, I wouldn't want to encourage the uninitiated to try to make sense of the myriad of reviews out there, not to mention the possibility of platform confusion ("I thought you had a Nintendo!" "No, grandma, that's just what you call all videogames.").
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You're kidding, right? Outside of the PC realm, Sony doesn't support general-purpose storage technologies. They didn't even support their OWN geeral-purpose storage technology (Memory Stick) when they made the PS2. Why would they suddenly do an about-face and support OTHER technologies like SD, Compact Flash, etc.? Because the PS2 didn't work out?
I'm not one to take a lot of shots at the Xbox (because I've thoroughly enjoyed mine) but you're just plain incorrect on the longevity question. It was four years between the launch of the Xbox and the 360, it's already been over five years since the launch of the PS2, and it was six years from the launch of the Playstation to the PS2.
I don't know exactly to what the AC was referring, but one thing you seem to have misunderstood was where the transcoding is going to occur. The photos from CES showing the Windows Media/PSP/iPod options are photos of the new Tivo Desktop software. Thus, the Tivo (as it does in the Series 2 boxes) will send the MPEG-2 files as-is from the Tivo to the PC where you can then transcode the files to formats compatible with other devices. They wouldn't offer transcoding within the unit for the simple reason that there wouldn't be enough CPU overhead for this to be time-efficient, especially when encoding two streams and decoding another besides.
..."Generic FPS 3:The Return of the Main Character, Again" with upscaled graphics certainly isn't an intelligent launch plan for a gaming culture like Japan's.
Certainly not. "Generic RPG 20:The Return of Guy Who Looks Like a Girl" is far more compelling in Japan's gaming culture.
Now, if I punched you in the mouth for insulting me, and we went to court, would I be responsible for hitting you, or would you be responsible for provoking me?
:)
You'd be responsible for the act, while I'd be responsible for being an ass. That's a burden I've learned to accept, and you wouldn't find yourself in court for that particular act in any case.
Peace out.
You're absolutely right. I would only say that a) I'm not an IT-type person so I know jack about using PCs in business for anything beyond the most basic functions and b) using multiple processors in applications as you describe has been going on for a long time so the value has already been established, where multiple CPUs in home systems is only very recently becoming "common."
It's not a stunt if it works. As expensive as four 7800GTX 512MB cards (or four chipsets in two cards) would be, we're not talking car prototype expensive. Given the number of silly people already using two expensive video cards in one PC (my parents paid less for their PC with LCD monitor than the cost of two new 7800s), it's not a big stretch to imagine them buying a couple more if they're getting a measurable performance advantage. Hell, maybe someone will actually be able to run Everquest 2 at its highest settings without turning it into a slideshow.
:)
As for dual dual-core CPUs, that's also not a stunt, and for the same reason in that it can provide actual performance advantages. Nonstop (fast) DVD-to-DivX encoding while playing F.E.A.R with all the bells and whistles, without buying a separate PC, might be worth it to some folks.
Me? I'm doing fine with my AMD XP1500 and lousy GeForce 4 MX420 (64MB, ROCK!), thank you. I'm doing most of my gaming on my DS these days...
How about a long (like three to four feet), high-res OLED "roll-up" screen that could be shaped anywhere from flat to semi-circle to a circle (with one's head in it)? It would probably take some extra software/OS configuration work but you could make one nice HUD out of it.
I don't know if the child is mentally retarded, but clearly you're pretty damned slow. I (and the commenter before me) never said anything about the adult being right (and I thought I made that crystal clear in my post).
The adult who assaulted the kid is still responsible for their own behavior.
Yes, the adult is entirely responsible for his actions and, again, should be held so by a court and imprisoned. That said, the adult could not have created this specific situation by himself. The boy had to give his e-mail address (this is not publicly accessible via Xbox Live) to the pedophile, then apparently participated in an e-mail exchange (to arrange the time and place), then went to a park to meet the sicko. The fact that he's 14 doesn't mean he has no responsibility for the situation (in most states, a 14-year-old can be treated as an adult in criminal proceedings, indicating that society has determined that a child of that age should know right from wrong).
As for your specious rape comparison, the situation is quite different in that dating is a standard adult practice, as is wearing "provocative" clothing. There's nothing standard about a child corresponding with a child molester via e-mail and then arranging to meet him in a park.
Now, if that same woman wears provocative clothing, invites a guy to her place, blows in a guy's ear and handles his junk before the rape, then she would have to own some responsibility for the situation - but, again, that doesn't make the attacker right, nor should it be considered a mitigating factor in court. It just means that she shouldn't be actively revving up a date with whom she doesn't want to have intimate contact.
What? You don't think a 14-year-old bears some responsibility when they go to meet a stranger from the Internet in a park? A stranger who has been sending pornography? There's no doubt that the molester should be put into a hole and left there eating scraps and drinking only water for the rest of his life, but there is something deeply wrong with a 14-year-old kid who acts this way. Even more important, there is something deeply wrong with the way a kid was raised when he acts this way.
I would thus consider the parents to bear some of the responsibility as well considering there was no monitoring of the child's Internet gaming or e-mail. It just about rises to the level of neglect and foster care might be a smart option while those parents are investigated.
In the player arena, it isn't even a question. Samsung has come right out and said that they'll be releasing an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo drive ASAP. Of course, that will be a home theater component as opposed to a PC device, but it's certainly a heartening step. It makes me wonder, too, if companies like Sony and Toshiba who, in theory at least, have all their bets placed on one format will end up selling any significant number of players (apart from the PS3) at all. If companies like Samsung - and there should be several - go the dual-format route it may "disarm" both sides in the format war. And, if PC dual-format "ROM" drives can quickly become the standard as well, then it matters less which recordable format people use.
This gap is different for different games (for example, the Japanese and US versions of Mario Kart and Animal Crossing were within weeks of each other) but that element does play a role in the overall sales gap. The gap will narrow, disappear and then go in the other direction, more in line with the population factor you mention, as the system grows older.
It's also worth noting that Japan has a higher population density than the US and the local WiFi features are probably much easier to experience and enjoy in Japan. I know that if I had to ride a crowded train every day, I'd have bought a DS much sooner (before the games with Internet connectivity) if only for the chance that I might get some multiplayer going with other people with similar habits and tastes. :)
"Godawful"? I think you might be understating the case. Believe it or not, Atari 2600 Pac-Man, with the combination of horrible audio and painful visuals, actually caused me to become nauseated. To this day I'm not sure if the greatest contribution to this came from the miserable flicker, that horrible chomping sound or just an intense reaction to how far from the real thing it was.
Is the weight really causing the problem with your wrists, or could it be the distribution of the weight, holding the bottom half with little support on the top half? Or perhaps holding the whole thing with one hand while using the stylus? I guess it doesn't matter since either way, an uncomfortable handheld is a bad thing.
In my case, I found the DS a bit uncomfortable at first but have since gotten quite used to it, hardly noticing the increased weight. For me, the only current problem is the increased size (for toting; once I'm playing I'm fine) and I'm hoping against hope that they'll show off a smaller revision at E3.
In the meantime, though, there are bells to be gotten, so huge system or not it'll be in my hands a lot.
What the hell are you talking about? You keep using the term "intimate" as if it actually means something important to online gaming - indeed, that it's somehow self-evidently vital to online gaming - but where is this information coming from? Have you done some sort of study where the word "intimate" was used by many subjects?
Consoles can continue to be locally social while expanding to the online realm. I know that when I played Mechassault online I was almost always playing in games where there were at least two people gathered around one Xbox connected to other people online, and those people (if their vocal stylings are any evidence) were enjoying themselves quite a lot. Imagine World of Warcraft on Xbox 360 or PS3 in a multiple-player household where two or more gamers could gather around the same television and play online (the high resolution and widescreen abilities of HDTV would even make this as visually appealing as a computer monitor).
I honestly believe that those who dismiss console online gaming as a failure either haven't experienced it properly or just don't have any imagination. My opinion (uneducated as it might be) is that the surface has barely been scratched and that playing online with consoles will not only be a success but will, over time, marginalize even further the already smaller PC gaming market. On what would I base this? On the fact that console games sell lots more units than PC games; therefore, if online gaming is "a good thing" then consoles will, quite naturally, end up dominating that market.
In the real world, people with money pay people with less money to do their dirty work for them, why would the online world be any different? Its a game, not a Utopia.
The point you seem to miss here, however, is that the real world and World of Warcraft are supposed to be two separate things. In other words, apart from initial purchase and subsequent subscription fees, real world money shouldn't be exerting an undue influence on this online world. In particular, that real world cash shouldn't have a negative effect on the gameplay; in other words, shifts of people shouldn't be monopolizing areas or MoBs in order to obtain something to sell in the real world (shifts of people monopolizing an area for the furtherance of their own character's or guild's goals is another thing entirely). That may be "realistic" in some way but realism isn't supposed to be the goal of a fantasy RPG.
I use a Tivo with my Dish Network satellite receiver and it hasn't dropped a recording in months, so the IR transmission is working flawlessly. The most obvious advantage of the IR transmitter compared to a remote is that the IR transmitter is right next to the receiver - so, it should actually work a lot better than your remote. The only two reasons it should miss (apart from hardware failure) would be dirt on the transmitter/receiver or intense glare. The former can be solved with a moist cloth and the latter can be solved simply be draping something over the receiver (with Tivo, for example, direct control of the satellite receiver is not only pointless but could screw up recordings). So, unless a company really borks its software, IR transmitters work just fine.
Of course, I agree with you that taking the step out is better, if only because integration usually provides a better overall experience. As for CableCard, it's supposedly coming to AT LEAST Windows Media Center PCs sometime next year. I hope against hope that one of the satellite companies gets off the stick and comes out with a satellite-compatible "CableCard" because I hate cable.
I just get the feeling I'm going to be playing this generation's games on the next generation's platform, since developers couldn't be bothered to come up with new ideas.
It's good that folks like you have been able to come to this kind of conclusion within the first two months of the "next generation."
And, talk about a dumb question on which to base an article. Of course HD is important to the future of gaming. It's so by virtue of the fact that, at some point, there will only BE high-definition televisions. It's like asking if color was important to the future of TV when it was first introduced, or if higher resolutions were important to the future of computing when everyone was working on an 80-column green-screen monitor.
They probably don't. I haven't seen any evidence that they're collecting and saving that information in the first place. Hence the word "paranoid."
I wonder, what "nefarious" pupose exactly is Microsoft going to accomplish with information about what music you listen to, movies you watch or games you play? Even if they decided to sell this information (a move that would be discovered quickly and would garner them untold amounts of shit, making it unlikely), what would be the net negative effect on you?
I think you're paranoid and I don't think you even know what you're paranoid about. Hell, Microsoft isn't requiring credit card numbers from people anymore so you don't even have to give them any clear identifying information.
I guess I just think it's one thing to be concerned that someone could be tapping your phone or videotaping you inside your house, and quite another to worry if Microsoft knows that you like Britney Spears and watch 'Lesbian Panty Police' over and over again. If I'm not being clear, I think the latter worry is probably a symptom of a piece of wood lodged in the ole rectal orifice - which, by the way, SHOULD be private...
Tenous? That's near libelous unless the gene formerly known as Pokemon had some actual connection to the videogame, cartoon, playing cards, etc.
"200 gigs ain't cheap"? A quick look at Newegg finds a 200GB ATA drive for 86 bucks and a mod chip can be had for $20-75 depending on how fancy you want to get. $265 would allow for a very comfortable profit margin depending on how long someone actually takes installing the hardware.
I think that if you buy a gaming PC and can't install The Sims 2 - a ridiculously popular game - out of the box, then there's no such thing as a review that is "too harsh." The only possible excuse would be an actual hardware problem, and that obviously wasn't the case.
You may have a point on the virus issue (though I think it would be far more reasonable to limit the virus calls on the regular service line instead of banning them altogether) but that PC earned the lousy review because it was filled with easily preventable problems from the get-go.
It's a combination of two things with the Hickory Farms deal. The first is the worst reason: Tradition. Everything about Hickory Farms says Christmas to us (and to most people, though I remember a time when Hickory Farms stores were HUGE and year-round instead of being relegated to the holiday season in many places).
:)
The second reason I stick with HF is because I already know everyone likes the flavors. I've had better meats and cheeses (obviously) but I've also had "fancy" meats and cheeses that I thought were better and other people just hated them - and vice versa.
It's kind of like McDonald's. People tend to like their food because they've had it so many times, and some of those wouldn't appreciate a really good hamburger made of grade A Angus just because they're not used to it.
That said, it's still a good idea and maybe I'll spend some extra time this year, at least on a couple of folks who I think have a more..."sophisticated"...palate.
Unless shopping for used titles or PC games, it rarely matters at which store you do your game shopping. MSRP rules the day for the vast majority of console games.
As for cash, I'm personally of the opinion that while it's usually great for the teenager/adult, the giver just doesn't get a lot of satisfaction. If we assume that gifts are all about the giving and not the receiving (that's the platitude, right?), the giver should be the happier of the two parties. This is why I like spending money at Hickory Farms. It's quick, it's simple, and apart from vegans (I don't do Christmas with any), meats and/or cheeses are right up everybody's alley. In my family (admittedly, an overweight group), few things make us happier than five-pound sticks of good summer sausage.
I think I might have gotten off topic? Oh, yeah, if you don't know jack about games but want to buy games for a gamer then, yes, get a gift certificate. It's a lot more fun shopping for a game one wants instead of going to the store to try to return a game one doesn't. And, frankly, I wouldn't want to encourage the uninitiated to try to make sense of the myriad of reviews out there, not to mention the possibility of platform confusion ("I thought you had a Nintendo!" "No, grandma, that's just what you call all videogames.").