You'll come back when the PS3 gets an advanced online interface and realizes they can start charging for it..

LOL.

And BRC, if your kid's 16, and you're buying him all these games with a console, hell, make him pick up the LIVE fee. That seems fair, he prolly has a job or will have extra X-Mas money.

It's an awfully nice Christmas present, I'll tell you that much. I think one of the best XMas presents I ever got was my Sega CD system when I was considerably younger than your son.

depends on how they charge. If it is per profile, my online gaming is over. If it is per console, I'll probably go ahead and pay as long as it is the same or less than what the 360 charges.

edit

When my son gets his own job then he can buy his own online access. IF that is more important to him than saving for a car. heh

Hell, any kid that's willing to work one 8 hour day can pay for a year's subscription. But I get your point. If I had to pay for more than one profile a year, I'd probably be pretty pissed about it, but most MP games allow you to sign in as a guest and play online still.

Take away online achievements and kids would care about having to use the Guest profile. THAT is one of the things that they count on at M$ to keep the money rolling in for LIVE>

Oh yeah. That's definitely true...your gamerscore and achievements are important to some gamers.

I found myself caring for a bit there. I got over it. heh

His main job is getting A's and B's. Football season just got over and that was a lot of hours of committment in High School.

It'll probably be something like we buy the console and grandma's buy the games and the guitar hero stuff.

I played it. I was a big fan of the series for a long time. GT5 Prologue is a disappointment.

Yep. But there are some games (such as Halo 3) that let you sign in on 1 profile and then bring in up to 3 guests. In my house, we have 3 separate gamertags. That does suck to have to pay for those, but I figured it was worth it. I got tired of them using mine.

Never tried GT series. I have always sucked at racing games. Especially if they are overly realistic.

The realism is what drew me in to GT. I played 1 thru 3 on the PSone and PS2. I had mastered GT3. Had tons of incredible cars (i.e.Supra with over 800hp that was hard to drive because it was too easy to fishtail, F1 Indy type cars, you name it). Now I haven't been into those type of games in awhile, but I still enjoy jumping on them from time to time. I have Forza 2 and I like it better than GT5.

Well, I plan on being on Xbox live the last two weeks of December (got a free month) -- user name is "TKE919" if you want to add to the list.

Note, however, that I'm not sure how long I'll do it. I'm an uber-casual gamer (maybe a few hours a week), and when I tried it a few months ago ran into an enormous number of douche bags.

For example, I jumped into several Forza 2 races, always had a comparable car to everyone else -- a bit slower, actually -- and yet, when I'd get a lead, they'd kick me out. And I don't even want to get into the number of assholes on Halo3 ...

Anyway, I'll look for the names above when I hop online in the hopes it goes better. Thanks for the list!

MM
~~:thumb:

GT was great, IMHO, for those not used to it due to their licensing system. It allowed you to get the feel of how to drive in real situations -- a great primer. I also enjoy Forza 2 quite a bit, and it has a number of tweaks that make the game easier (e.g. the racing line super-imposed on the track to guide you).

The main drawbacks I have with the GT series are:

1. Too many Skylines -- Nice car, but dear lord ...
2. Weak AI -- Way too easy most of the time
3. No damage -- If you slam into a wall at 100 MPH, your car should reflect that
4. No paint or custom feature -- What you get is what you got

The main issues I have with Forza 2 are:

1. Not enough cars -- 300 is quite a few, but it could use more
2. Not enough city tracks -- Would love to see a few more city tracks like in GT (Seattle, Monaco, etc.)
3. No tutorial/licensing -- Probably not needed, but would be nice for n00bs.

Overall, they both could use a few more American cars, IMHO. Yes, most U.S. cars are crap when compared to their Japanese and European rivals, but the mid-80s GT Mustangs, Oldsmobile 442, even a stock car or two, could be represented better. And they would be no worse than some of the Jap. and Euro dogs they include.

Anyway, when GT 5 comes out (last I heard Dec. 09), it should be amazing -- I've seen shots of endurance races with 30+ cars on the track! That'd be stunning. And given their love of cars (the biggest difference between the two games, IMHO -- GT celebrates the car, while Forza celebrates the racing), the car list should be a whopper.

MM
~~:drool:

The lack of car damage in GT5 Prologue crippled its online play. Seriously, it's 2008; how do you release a game without car damage? Hopefully they will fix it for GT5 when it's released in 2020 or so.

So you think it will be out before Home is?