Let me add that since I work in this field, it is constantly emphasized that complex diseases are not well understood. There are several diseases that can give you a black and white answer, and those are often tested on newborns using a simple panel that does not contain more than a few hundred alternate alleles, very far short of a whole genome sequencing. The rest of the problems, the ones everyone is interested in because they seem inevitable as we keep living longer, are more a problem of living longer than genetics.
It's still going to be a long time before a geneticist can sit you down and having all the data make any sort of prediction, and even then these predictions will only be about biases and what sort of prevention you can do. No one really understands Alzheimer's or the cardiac predisposition genes beyond a few obvious, and rare, cases such as for people who can't clear cholesterol. While hopefully understanding will happen one day, theres not much point in rushing out for one of these babies right now.
I actually really dislike the way this new console generation has gone, and am glad I have held off buying so far. There is way too much SKU shifting, with new better versions constantly being released to one up the other guy and keep the console "relevant". Its all well and good if you don't care and are sitting on the fence, but as a person actually interested in a next generation console instead of dropping a grand on a gaming PC it is really aggravating. Kudos to the Wii for avoiding this, but its not really what I'm looking for.
Examples of this abound. The one that pisses me off the most is Dual Shock 3. Some of the upgrades have been less than necessary, such as the Elite Xbox SKU, but rumble is a novel game input that you're completely missing out on for no reason if you bought or will buy a PS3 in the next six months. Some weren't even able to make the choice to wait because Sony lied about it.
Now with the HD tuner incorporated HD DVD Player MP3 jack extravaganda, why buy now? You know there will be a new SKU and it will make your box look like a chump. And this isn't like Apple releasing something new and you're paying opportunity cost (forgetting about the iPhone for a second), because most of these upgrades already exist and are minor. The only difference is if you buy them now you're paying probably twice as much for something that's half as well integrated with the box.
Maybe I should just buy a Dreamcast...now there's a stable SKU!
I like how the summary for the article was about the same length as the article.
In other news, I'm sure when Levine says he's not "interested" in adding a new campaign or whatever it's just justification for reintroducing minimal material that was cut from the game and charging for it. We already know Bioshock 2 is greenlighted and I doubt he was hemming and hawing in that board meeting. I might sound negative about this but thats mostly because of the disingenuous way that the information is presented. I actually think its kind of interesting that all of the cut material of yesteryear has become bonus content. I wonder if our ancestors who took breaks from clubbing dinosaurs to watch the Wizard of Oz would want to see a Making Of feature or if that would taint the experience for them.
How exciting that premium content that I must pay exorbitant prices for will be released not even a week after the game is released, further mocking me by ridiculously not being included in the original purchase even though its ready at the same time. Where do I sign up?
Re:And yet, it is being held back for North Americ
on
Orange Box Turns Gold
·
· Score: 1
It looks like digital distribution hasn't changed a thing when it comes to arbitrary launch dates that have nothing to do with a products readiness.
Not entirely true. It is true that Valves hands are tied by EA (rather than Vivendi this time) regarding the brick and mortar sale date. But this time the presale crowd gets to play with the TF2 "beta" (beta after a game has gone gold, eh?). It's true that you don't get the whole thing when you easily could, but some people genuinely prefer to get a pretty box to hold their product code in and therefore Valve has to play ball for now. There's many years tradition and mega cash still supporting and worrying about brick and mortar. I think the beta shows that things are changing gradually however, here and there. Its not like we were going to cross the digital distribution rubicon overnight, though I do think that future will be here sooner than you think.
I play videogames to relax in the first place. It's all about release. This sounds very contradictory to the point of the entire hobby. Maybe it could be used to make sure grandpa doesn't burst an artery while in some game where hes trying to cap a flag and being fragged and insulted every two seconds.
I'm glad you call attention to this because I think it highlights the real problem with Lair which isn't that the technology sucks and they were pigeon holed, but that after the situation came down they didn't adapt and made a universally shitty user experience. From what I hear, cruising around controlling the dragon is just find if all you're doing is traveling. The real problem is their retarded play mechanics, which punish you for not juking the controller exactly the right way when a turn around button would have been stupid easy and punish you again with the terrible targeting system that goes terribly with the slow tilting controls and lack of camera control. I think a Panzer Dragoon style with this mode of moving the dragon around would have been amazing, if they gave you a stick for the camera and didn't require you to 180 by waving a dead chicken over the controller (or I guess the controller over the dead chicken in this case).
The truth is most of the games on this list would never get notice, and frankly the Wii and DS selections were a little weak. Come on guys, tell me how you managed to guess Radar Readers wouldn't be buying kiddie and tweener rhythm games.
Nights and Fred are pretty obviously going to get trampled.
They actually have interesting points about the shooters though. 51 looks like the next FEAR, which did great, and there's no reason it couldn't kill if released in Jan-June. More than any other game 51 is caught in the undertow. The biggest hype of this season is feeding into shooters with Halo 3 ready to split open the earth to make way for end times-like gushers of money in Redmond and 51 wants to get right in the goddamn way. Same with Army of Two and Kane and Lynch. These games sound really interesting but not only are they throwing their hats into the November mudslide, they're also climbing over each other and releasing on the same day in what may be the stupidest release timing I've ever heard of. I understand they're trying to cut each other off but it just seems so stupid to slit each other's throats for some of that holiday cash. If the developers would just wise up they could own a month from the second quarter. A triple-A game released in March is the only thing for the obsessive compulsive gamer media to talk about during that time.
Even Harmonix's first effort Guitar Hero I had the Vans Warped tour and guitars. I think the sponsorship for bumping up a set was placement too but I'm not sure. And lets not forget the Bonus Songs, even though its supporting indie stuff instead of Megalocorp.
Frankly I think the fact that MTV even pretends to care and gives a front thats it's hip and understands gamers is a good sign. Gamers have to face the fact that good games with ads will eventually make the practice common place and hopefully tasteful placement will continue to lead the way. I will miss fake ads though... Dice-cream! Mmmm!
The incremental gains your immune system might make in fighting off some random infection by itself is probably very small. Your immune system will already be producing antigens and killing bacteria during a course of antibiotics. This is really more about the community, because antibiotic usage DOES lead to resistant strains which might not affect you but will hurt the weakest in the population. The problems arise from the fact that antibiotics are really the only weapon that doctors have and when patients come in expecting results regarding the sniffles. It's about the only thing they can try.
In my personal experience, the answer isn't to avoid antibiotics but just to be a little more knowledgeable about your condition. If you feel sick for a couple weeks you're probably going to be fine. If the problem continues for more than a couple weeks your immune system might need some help. Also, there are some tell tale signs that your body is having trouble, such as the sickness expanding to an ear infection (which can cause hearing loss if untreated), unusually thick phlegm being coughed up, fever, or trouble breathing.
Yeah, it really seems like they're locked in a box with no windows over at Sony HQ. It took a $100 price cut to start to turn the overwhelmingly negative vocal consumer response, now people are ready to buy if only there were some games, but before they can get things going they announce that they're going to ruin it ahead of time. What is wrong with these people? Deny good things vehemently but rushing to tell the bad news must be some new form of corporate Tourettes syndrome.
I think people are being a bit hasty to criticize based off a 30 second spot of a logo which clearly shows that they have no assets yet. Also, people who are afraid of SH4 should pay attention because they basically say they're going to try to copy SH2.
That being said I'm hardly confident about this next effort. They say they're going to capture the atmosphere of Silent Hill, but apparently they're going to do it with multi hit frame advantage combo system and gravity gun puzzles. This is a lot better than finding rooster keys and firing your biggest gun till it runs out of ammo but it really sounds like they're missing the point. Silent Hill is ripe for a new kind of gameplay and narrative structure (actually the narrative was one good thing from sh4). SH was satanic resident evil because thats what the technology allowed, but why are we still yoked to the same basic system of exploration and combat 10 years later? Silent Hill got to 5 because the mythos is excellent even though the games are crap to play. Can we please change one and keep the other and be done with this? I keep waiting for this series to finally reach its potential or flame out.
Who knew that taking a plat former and setting it underwater would be so much excruciating torture?
Someone who played Super Mario's swimming worlds in 1985?
Heres a recent rough sell list put together by NPD group:
1. Nancy Drew: The White Wolf Of Icicle Creek - Her Interactive
2. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff - Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
5. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Electronic Arts
6. Starcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. The Sims 2 Seasons - Electronic Arts
8. Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts
9. The Sims 2 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
10. Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
Nancy Drew leads the pack, with the Sims taking 3 spots and fan favorite Blizzard taking 4. Even though WOW is super popular with everyone, The Sims Fashion Stuff trumps it and Nancy Drew beat that. I think its time to wake up and smell your gender stereotyping. When all's said and done though you're right that both you and the article are just bsing around. Expected to top 2 billion by 2012? I think someone put in a late night with Excel and the analyst's secret weapon: the best fit line.
Considering that this is a transient treatment, the problem with cancer will probably depend on the length of the treatment, which probably would not lead to a very large increase in cancer rates. There is still a lot of ground to cover for cancerous cells to become malignant (angiogenesis, telomere limits) and these sorts of things take decades of accumulated mutation and selection.
A three month suppression of apoptosis and then a return to homeostasis is probably safer than a three month vacation to Hawaii, after which the genetic damage is permanent.
These letters were a surprisingly broad look at the issues surrounding video games. What I thought was especially nice was some discussion of implications on the gamer who chooses to play the game, which is rare since most of the time these are just defense or attack pieces. It's funny because this sort of discussion is what actually makes me interested in the game. When the previews came out it always centered on action and mechanics which were quite frankly droll in the first game. In Manhunt the killing is just mechanical. You creep around and want to see all the animations, but after that the execution scene could just be a bop on the head rendering them unconscious and it would have the same visceral effect on the goal oriented player. But when we look at the similarities between the Director, the game designer, and our selves sitting there guiding Cash to and then passively watching the gruesome offings, that makes me genuinely interested in Manhunt 2.
The only thing I thought was missing was a better comparison between manhunt 1 and 2. They talk about some things like the tone and and narrative structure which doubtlessly had the largest impact on the ratings board, but I'm still unsure whether 2 plays the same pretty much (ignoring the Wii) with the same structure. This seems like a strange omission considering all the talk of repetition in gaming and how that makes up the core. I would like to have known how Manhunt's core compared to Manhunt 2's.
I think its actually just good timing in general that they shelved it but didnt give up on it. For years we've been pounded with shooters that did nothing new culminating in Doom 3 a couple years ago, but now the technology is far enough along that they can stop worrying about the graphics horse race and start innovating. Bioshock and Crysis look amazing and they have all sorts of bells and whistles which are supposed to change the way you play. Just look at the difference between Prey and STALKER, games with similar long delayed histories. Prey was released about a year ago to mixed reactions with its pretty graphics and whatever gameplay. Then STALKER comes out and although everyone admits its flawed they also all rave about "Oblivion with guns" and the sticking points aren't bad things but additions they wanted like an evolving stat system. I think Ghost would never have been special as just a run and gun half life 1 affair with scripted bits to make you feel like part of the world. Then you might as well have been sneaky marine #51231 in generic sci fi world, which is I think all they could have accomplished just a few years ago. Now I think they could make the experience really dynamic and amazing with factions (Bioshock, supposedly real time and not scripted or dumb agro), the increased tendency towards free roaming (STALKER even more than Deus Ex of old), and improved environmental interaction (Bad Company, Call of Jaurez).
I think even the graphical sequels were very imaginative. Return to Zork had some of the most random and vivid imagery and locations paired with an excellent tongue in cheek approach that really sticks out in my memory. Too bad about Nemesis. That was more like a cross of Myst and 7th Guest but boring. Zork was great because of the humor.
My brother had a nice space on the wooden stand under his TV that had lots of air on all sides and he still got the ring of death after around 10 months. If it really is faulty environmental conditions then the 360 is way too touchy and its ridiculous to expect consumers to comply.
More than any other game recently, Bioshock has preloaded me with all the talking points to convince my friends to buy the game. Now all that remains to be seen is if I end up gushing over this stuff or complaining about it when I actually get to play it.
Thank you for pointing out that Straczynski has been sidelining as a comic book writer. This gives me high hopes. Since Marvel will eventually turn every property it owns into a cash in movie, I think there is a big chance that Babylon 5 will be revitalized with big money in about 5-10 years when they eventually exploit the comic based on the show based on the movie. And since Hollywood doesnt really care about the creator's intentions and we don't have to worry about some of the original cast being dead. Just imagine! Brad Pitt as Garibaldy double fisting PPGs as he slides down a rail giving cover fire for Orlando Bloom as the time traveling Commander Sinclair who is in a fight to the death with Denzel Washington as Commander Sheraton for some reason. Brilliant!
It doesn't surprise me. I guess barely outselling six year old hardware by 1-2K is what it takes for Sony to admit that maybe it shouldn't make you choose between rent and entertainment.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me add that since I work in this field, it is constantly emphasized that complex diseases are not well understood. There are several diseases that can give you a black and white answer, and those are often tested on newborns using a simple panel that does not contain more than a few hundred alternate alleles, very far short of a whole genome sequencing. The rest of the problems, the ones everyone is interested in because they seem inevitable as we keep living longer, are more a problem of living longer than genetics.
It's still going to be a long time before a geneticist can sit you down and having all the data make any sort of prediction, and even then these predictions will only be about biases and what sort of prevention you can do. No one really understands Alzheimer's or the cardiac predisposition genes beyond a few obvious, and rare, cases such as for people who can't clear cholesterol. While hopefully understanding will happen one day, theres not much point in rushing out for one of these babies right now.
I actually really dislike the way this new console generation has gone, and am glad I have held off buying so far. There is way too much SKU shifting, with new better versions constantly being released to one up the other guy and keep the console "relevant". Its all well and good if you don't care and are sitting on the fence, but as a person actually interested in a next generation console instead of dropping a grand on a gaming PC it is really aggravating. Kudos to the Wii for avoiding this, but its not really what I'm looking for.
Examples of this abound. The one that pisses me off the most is Dual Shock 3. Some of the upgrades have been less than necessary, such as the Elite Xbox SKU, but rumble is a novel game input that you're completely missing out on for no reason if you bought or will buy a PS3 in the next six months. Some weren't even able to make the choice to wait because Sony lied about it.
Now with the HD tuner incorporated HD DVD Player MP3 jack extravaganda, why buy now? You know there will be a new SKU and it will make your box look like a chump. And this isn't like Apple releasing something new and you're paying opportunity cost (forgetting about the iPhone for a second), because most of these upgrades already exist and are minor. The only difference is if you buy them now you're paying probably twice as much for something that's half as well integrated with the box.
Maybe I should just buy a Dreamcast...now there's a stable SKU!
Street Fighter IV was just announced...
I like how the summary for the article was about the same length as the article.
In other news, I'm sure when Levine says he's not "interested" in adding a new campaign or whatever it's just justification for reintroducing minimal material that was cut from the game and charging for it. We already know Bioshock 2 is greenlighted and I doubt he was hemming and hawing in that board meeting. I might sound negative about this but thats mostly because of the disingenuous way that the information is presented. I actually think its kind of interesting that all of the cut material of yesteryear has become bonus content. I wonder if our ancestors who took breaks from clubbing dinosaurs to watch the Wizard of Oz would want to see a Making Of feature or if that would taint the experience for them.
How exciting that premium content that I must pay exorbitant prices for will be released not even a week after the game is released, further mocking me by ridiculously not being included in the original purchase even though its ready at the same time. Where do I sign up?
It looks like digital distribution hasn't changed a thing when it comes to arbitrary launch dates that have nothing to do with a products readiness.
Not entirely true. It is true that Valves hands are tied by EA (rather than Vivendi this time) regarding the brick and mortar sale date. But this time the presale crowd gets to play with the TF2 "beta" (beta after a game has gone gold, eh?). It's true that you don't get the whole thing when you easily could, but some people genuinely prefer to get a pretty box to hold their product code in and therefore Valve has to play ball for now. There's many years tradition and mega cash still supporting and worrying about brick and mortar. I think the beta shows that things are changing gradually however, here and there. Its not like we were going to cross the digital distribution rubicon overnight, though I do think that future will be here sooner than you think.
I play videogames to relax in the first place. It's all about release. This sounds very contradictory to the point of the entire hobby. Maybe it could be used to make sure grandpa doesn't burst an artery while in some game where hes trying to cap a flag and being fragged and insulted every two seconds.
I'm glad you call attention to this because I think it highlights the real problem with Lair which isn't that the technology sucks and they were pigeon holed, but that after the situation came down they didn't adapt and made a universally shitty user experience. From what I hear, cruising around controlling the dragon is just find if all you're doing is traveling. The real problem is their retarded play mechanics, which punish you for not juking the controller exactly the right way when a turn around button would have been stupid easy and punish you again with the terrible targeting system that goes terribly with the slow tilting controls and lack of camera control. I think a Panzer Dragoon style with this mode of moving the dragon around would have been amazing, if they gave you a stick for the camera and didn't require you to 180 by waving a dead chicken over the controller (or I guess the controller over the dead chicken in this case).
The truth is most of the games on this list would never get notice, and frankly the Wii and DS selections were a little weak. Come on guys, tell me how you managed to guess Radar Readers wouldn't be buying kiddie and tweener rhythm games.
Nights and Fred are pretty obviously going to get trampled.
They actually have interesting points about the shooters though. 51 looks like the next FEAR, which did great, and there's no reason it couldn't kill if released in Jan-June. More than any other game 51 is caught in the undertow. The biggest hype of this season is feeding into shooters with Halo 3 ready to split open the earth to make way for end times-like gushers of money in Redmond and 51 wants to get right in the goddamn way. Same with Army of Two and Kane and Lynch. These games sound really interesting but not only are they throwing their hats into the November mudslide, they're also climbing over each other and releasing on the same day in what may be the stupidest release timing I've ever heard of. I understand they're trying to cut each other off but it just seems so stupid to slit each other's throats for some of that holiday cash. If the developers would just wise up they could own a month from the second quarter. A triple-A game released in March is the only thing for the obsessive compulsive gamer media to talk about during that time.
Right on.
Even Harmonix's first effort Guitar Hero I had the Vans Warped tour and guitars. I think the sponsorship for bumping up a set was placement too but I'm not sure. And lets not forget the Bonus Songs, even though its supporting indie stuff instead of Megalocorp.
Frankly I think the fact that MTV even pretends to care and gives a front thats it's hip and understands gamers is a good sign. Gamers have to face the fact that good games with ads will eventually make the practice common place and hopefully tasteful placement will continue to lead the way. I will miss fake ads though... Dice-cream! Mmmm!
The incremental gains your immune system might make in fighting off some random infection by itself is probably very small. Your immune system will already be producing antigens and killing bacteria during a course of antibiotics. This is really more about the community, because antibiotic usage DOES lead to resistant strains which might not affect you but will hurt the weakest in the population. The problems arise from the fact that antibiotics are really the only weapon that doctors have and when patients come in expecting results regarding the sniffles. It's about the only thing they can try.
In my personal experience, the answer isn't to avoid antibiotics but just to be a little more knowledgeable about your condition. If you feel sick for a couple weeks you're probably going to be fine. If the problem continues for more than a couple weeks your immune system might need some help. Also, there are some tell tale signs that your body is having trouble, such as the sickness expanding to an ear infection (which can cause hearing loss if untreated), unusually thick phlegm being coughed up, fever, or trouble breathing.
Yeah, it really seems like they're locked in a box with no windows over at Sony HQ. It took a $100 price cut to start to turn the overwhelmingly negative vocal consumer response, now people are ready to buy if only there were some games, but before they can get things going they announce that they're going to ruin it ahead of time. What is wrong with these people? Deny good things vehemently but rushing to tell the bad news must be some new form of corporate Tourettes syndrome.
I think people are being a bit hasty to criticize based off a 30 second spot of a logo which clearly shows that they have no assets yet. Also, people who are afraid of SH4 should pay attention because they basically say they're going to try to copy SH2.
That being said I'm hardly confident about this next effort. They say they're going to capture the atmosphere of Silent Hill, but apparently they're going to do it with multi hit frame advantage combo system and gravity gun puzzles. This is a lot better than finding rooster keys and firing your biggest gun till it runs out of ammo but it really sounds like they're missing the point. Silent Hill is ripe for a new kind of gameplay and narrative structure (actually the narrative was one good thing from sh4). SH was satanic resident evil because thats what the technology allowed, but why are we still yoked to the same basic system of exploration and combat 10 years later? Silent Hill got to 5 because the mythos is excellent even though the games are crap to play. Can we please change one and keep the other and be done with this? I keep waiting for this series to finally reach its potential or flame out.
I only hope that there is DRM virtualization so that your digital rights can be managed on both monitors simultaneously. Go progress!
Okay I think I fixed it.
Heres a recent rough sell list put together by NPD group:
1. Nancy Drew: The White Wolf Of Icicle Creek - Her Interactive
2. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff - Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
5. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Electronic Arts
6. Starcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. The Sims 2 Seasons - Electronic Arts
8. Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts
9. The Sims 2 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
10. Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
Nancy Drew leads the pack, with the Sims taking 3 spots and fan favorite Blizzard taking 4. Even though WOW is super popular with everyone, The Sims Fashion Stuff trumps it and Nancy Drew beat that. I think its time to wake up and smell your gender stereotyping. When all's said and done though you're right that both you and the article are just bsing around. Expected to top 2 billion by 2012? I think someone put in a late night with Excel and the analyst's secret weapon: the best fit line.
Considering that this is a transient treatment, the problem with cancer will probably depend on the length of the treatment, which probably would not lead to a very large increase in cancer rates. There is still a lot of ground to cover for cancerous cells to become malignant (angiogenesis, telomere limits) and these sorts of things take decades of accumulated mutation and selection.
A three month suppression of apoptosis and then a return to homeostasis is probably safer than a three month vacation to Hawaii, after which the genetic damage is permanent.
These letters were a surprisingly broad look at the issues surrounding video games. What I thought was especially nice was some discussion of implications on the gamer who chooses to play the game, which is rare since most of the time these are just defense or attack pieces. It's funny because this sort of discussion is what actually makes me interested in the game. When the previews came out it always centered on action and mechanics which were quite frankly droll in the first game. In Manhunt the killing is just mechanical. You creep around and want to see all the animations, but after that the execution scene could just be a bop on the head rendering them unconscious and it would have the same visceral effect on the goal oriented player. But when we look at the similarities between the Director, the game designer, and our selves sitting there guiding Cash to and then passively watching the gruesome offings, that makes me genuinely interested in Manhunt 2.
The only thing I thought was missing was a better comparison between manhunt 1 and 2. They talk about some things like the tone and and narrative structure which doubtlessly had the largest impact on the ratings board, but I'm still unsure whether 2 plays the same pretty much (ignoring the Wii) with the same structure. This seems like a strange omission considering all the talk of repetition in gaming and how that makes up the core. I would like to have known how Manhunt's core compared to Manhunt 2's.
I think its actually just good timing in general that they shelved it but didnt give up on it. For years we've been pounded with shooters that did nothing new culminating in Doom 3 a couple years ago, but now the technology is far enough along that they can stop worrying about the graphics horse race and start innovating. Bioshock and Crysis look amazing and they have all sorts of bells and whistles which are supposed to change the way you play. Just look at the difference between Prey and STALKER, games with similar long delayed histories. Prey was released about a year ago to mixed reactions with its pretty graphics and whatever gameplay. Then STALKER comes out and although everyone admits its flawed they also all rave about "Oblivion with guns" and the sticking points aren't bad things but additions they wanted like an evolving stat system. I think Ghost would never have been special as just a run and gun half life 1 affair with scripted bits to make you feel like part of the world. Then you might as well have been sneaky marine #51231 in generic sci fi world, which is I think all they could have accomplished just a few years ago. Now I think they could make the experience really dynamic and amazing with factions (Bioshock, supposedly real time and not scripted or dumb agro), the increased tendency towards free roaming (STALKER even more than Deus Ex of old), and improved environmental interaction (Bad Company, Call of Jaurez).
I think even the graphical sequels were very imaginative. Return to Zork had some of the most random and vivid imagery and locations paired with an excellent tongue in cheek approach that really sticks out in my memory. Too bad about Nemesis. That was more like a cross of Myst and 7th Guest but boring. Zork was great because of the humor.
My brother had a nice space on the wooden stand under his TV that had lots of air on all sides and he still got the ring of death after around 10 months. If it really is faulty environmental conditions then the 360 is way too touchy and its ridiculous to expect consumers to comply.
More than any other game recently, Bioshock has preloaded me with all the talking points to convince my friends to buy the game. Now all that remains to be seen is if I end up gushing over this stuff or complaining about it when I actually get to play it.
Thank you for pointing out that Straczynski has been sidelining as a comic book writer. This gives me high hopes. Since Marvel will eventually turn every property it owns into a cash in movie, I think there is a big chance that Babylon 5 will be revitalized with big money in about 5-10 years when they eventually exploit the comic based on the show based on the movie. And since Hollywood doesnt really care about the creator's intentions and we don't have to worry about some of the original cast being dead. Just imagine! Brad Pitt as Garibaldy double fisting PPGs as he slides down a rail giving cover fire for Orlando Bloom as the time traveling Commander Sinclair who is in a fight to the death with Denzel Washington as Commander Sheraton for some reason. Brilliant!
It doesn't surprise me. I guess barely outselling six year old hardware by 1-2K is what it takes for Sony to admit that maybe it shouldn't make you choose between rent and entertainment.