Corvus

Damn, am I the only Falling Skies fan?

Its something I've intended to check out for a while as science fiction is my personal bread and butter genre of everything (television, film, video games). If I'm not mistakened, the first season was literally just added to netflix so I'll have to check it out.

Yeah, I heard the same thing about Tenant. Apparently, Matt Smith as the Doctor (after Tennant) is pretty great as well.

Might have to give it another shot soon. I hear too many good things about the series not to try again.

Matt Smith AND David Tennant's Doctors are both great in their own ways, while Matt's Doctor is more of the charmer David's portrayal usually has this quiet fury that he brings out of the character so well. There are certainly a few dull episodes during both actors' runs but nothing like that one terrible season of Christopher Eccleston. It shouldn't be a surprise he only last one season before being "regenerated." I'd reccomend just skipping the first season of the reboot as it doesn't add very much to the whole Doctor Who lore in any case apart from the character of Rose.

I don't really have many shows I am devoted to watching amymore. I too used to be a huge Burn Notice fan but it has gotten pretty repetitive. The only show I can even think of that I religiously follow now is Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which is far from a religious program hahaha.

The X1 uses Blu-Ray, making the forced installs potentially even more disappointing depending on the size of the games. That 500 GB hard drive may start looking mighty small after awhile.

Very true, a hardcore gamer will eat up that hard drive space in a year. Not to mention the space needed for DLC, personal music, photo and video files, and other video streaming programs, etc. Before you COULD install your games to the hard drive to make the experience a little smoother on both consoles, now? I saw no mention of forced hard drive downloads when the PS4 was announced last month but that doesn't neccessarily mean Sony isn't planning the same schtick. I likely won't be purchasing a PS4 this year anyway but I'm hoping they're not that foolish...

You're in the minority.

I buy very few used games as well. The only ones currently in my 30+ game PS3 library that I have purchased used are Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas (and I merely bought it off of a coworker for $10 who didn't like the game after buying it new, the antithesis of my methods of purchasing) and Heavy Rain. I do massive amounts of research on what games I want to invest in and as such am never disappointed with my new purchases. The only game I've bought in the last 5 years that I was truly disappointed with and regretted buying was Assassin's Creed III (just my perspective, I know there are a lot of lovers of that game on here). If its a game I know that I am certain to purchase, than I'm likely going to go ahead and buy it new.

As far as the XBox one goes, if I were a Microsoft console user, I would be discouraged by some of these announcements. At least they changed the always online feature but forcibly downloading a game to the hard drive? What's the point of even selling physical disc copies? Just sell the game solely through XBox Live if that's the case and save a bit on disc manufacturing. Speaking of which, any word on what type of disc format the One will be using? I guess it doesn't really matter if you have to download it to the hard drive anyway, but I think Microsoft lost out some on not incorporating Blu Ray into their 360 game discs (i.e. LA Noire shipped on 1 PS3 Blu Ray, it took 3 discs for the 360 version, Mass Effect 3 was 1 PS3 blu ray, 2 360 discs, etc).

I'm upset too, but like many others have previously said, do you really think Ozzie wanted to trade him for a 6th? That's the best we could get for him unfortuantly.

Remember two years ago when it seemed like everything was lost when we lost Mason,Mcclain & Heap, last year with Grubbs,JJ & Redding....

I'm trusting Ozzie with this one, you should too since we don't have a choice lol. He's a master at this stuff

The thing is we were already going to have 11 draft picks (it was reported back in August-September that we are expected to get 4 compensatory picks this draft). What is another 6th rounder going to do? I realize that all we are doing is spitballing at this point with one side thinking we can find the next gem there and one side thinking it is a pointless draft pick because none of us know what it will be parlayed into. My point was that this man has given us his blood and sweat for three years and just had a very big part in taking us to the top the ENTIRE sporting world. I know he is going to a "winner" and this is all business, but there are things called good business practices, not squeezing every ounce for something that likely will amount to nothing. Show the man some respect for what he helped your organization do and truly give him the choice on where he wants to go since you approached him with the choice to take a pay cut or leave. 6th round is just completely insulting, it would be to me if I were Boldin. Like I said before, I had come to terms with this divorce happening, but I'm just really bothe a red by, as I put it, squeezing every possible ounce out of a potential Hall of Famer in the name of late round pick that has low "boom" potential.

We also had other guys currently on the roster for all of those prior releases that had at least shown some flashes of potential to replace the guy who was getting cut/leaving via free agency (Pitta/Dickson for Heap, Boldin/Smith for Mason, McPhee/Jones for Redding, Kruger/Upshaw/[at the time] Kindle for JJ, etc). I have defended Doss on these forums since he was drafted, but he has shown little to make any of us think he can be our new Boldin. I know that has as much to do with opportunities as anything but has he, Williams, Thompson, or Reed really shown you anything to make you not grimace at least some about this loss? Its still early in the offseason and none of us really know what our receiving corps will look like once camp starts. But based on what we currently have and throwing in the fact that identifying and drafting WRs has always been our achilles heel in the draft if you will, how could you not be a little worried?

EDIT: Also, not directed at you Ravens<3 but anyone who actually thinks Tavon Austin will be sitting there at #32 is sadly, sadly mistakened to put it nicely. You do realize that teams other than the Raiders pay attention to 40 times right? Not to mention, throwing combine stats out of the window, how productive he was in college,

Yeah that 6th rounder and extra 6 mil is gonna get us right back to the Super Bowl.Maybe we can get another Tommy Streeter or Ramon Harewood with that pick who can ride the IR bench for a few years since that's what we've used two of our most recent 6th rounders on...

I wish I could say in Ozzie I trust, but I can't on this one. A 6th round pick is freakin' peanuts!! I would have just given Anquan the choice of what he wanted to do in respect for what he has done for us if i couldn't get at least a 4th rounder for him and just give him his release...as if all of the pay cut talk wasn't enough of a slap in Q's face. This wasn't Mark Clayton or Antwan Barnes we were trading here, this is a guy who may eventually be consider for the Hall of Fame. Its a business, I know and I had been slowly accepting the fact that Boldin wouldn't be here this season but this is totally disrespectful if you ask me.

Meanwhile our new #2 receiver (and face it, who could we really bring in to be one of our top two receivers via free agency that is gonna take less than what Boldin was making?), who despite his pechant for big plays is still questionable at times as an actual wide receiver, is practicing his dance moves, awesome....

I know we need cap space but this is a major slap in the face of Q. As great as Joe was, we wouldn't have even come close to our goal without Q going up and fighting on every amazing catch he made this postseason. I honestly don't know how all of the specifics with the cap work but I figured it would be completely feasible to give him his 6 million salary as some type of bonus for carrying our receiving corps and sign him to a completely new 2 or 3 year deal that is more cap friendly. I really hope our front office isn't dropping the ball on this just for a little extra wiggle room. There is no replacement on our roster or in the draft for Anquan right now and any free agent who we try to bring in to have the same impact as Boldin will likely want more than 6.8 million this year. I love Torrey and Jacoby and I still think Doss, Thompson, and Streeter can still continue developing but none of those guys are ready and with how streaky Torrey and Jacoby were at times last year (I know this had as much to do with Cam as anything), giving Anquan this ultimatum not only feels wrong but I simply don't think our roster is prepared to move on without him this season as it currently stands.

LOL, yeah most of the issues I have with discs are not because I went out of my way to not take care of them. I actually I am quite proud of the collection I have that is in good condition. But yeah long story short I have been gaming a long time, and lately its my kids that destroy my games or are the reason my consoles are heavily used.

Now that I think about it I NEVER had an issue with a console dying until my 360 got red ringed maybe 5 years ago. THAT happens to be a disc reading issue, and it seems that I have run into a bit of bad luck related to that issue since. I have two Ps3's as well. The one had to be purchased shortly before christmas because the other stopped reading games or blue-rays and its one of the older models. Whats strange is my ps2 is an original model and while it is slow to load it still works just fine and has been rode hard and put away wet so to speak.

In summary I don't think new (and newish) consoles are built to last. I also don't think that constantly reading discs are good for the machines durability in general. On my PC I have stopped purchasing discs and between Blizzard and Steam I am pretty confident with how long those digitial licenses are going to last. It also takes up so much less space.

Lastly, I don't want to be a killjoy here on these new consoles. I am excited about the future of gaming and the direction things are going. I am just trying my best to temper those expectations and not jump right into something that will quickly be obsolete or take a long time to patch and make right.

Yup, children will definitely attribute to disc wear and tear, don't need to tell you that. I can't really disagree with everything you've said in this entire thread, I guess I just felt the need to put up some defense for the PS4 since you were being such a "killjoy" (haha, just kidding man). I think that disc do cause major wear and tear on their reading devices after a while, I guess I'm just sentimental about having hard copies of games, dating back to blowing on a Defender 2 cartridge for NES (as you alluded to earlier). I'll reserve any further judgement on the PS4 until more details are announced though...

Hard copy discs are going the way of the dinosaur faster than any other outdated technology has turned over in the past. With the abilitiy to quite easily add terrabytes to a console HD then why in the world would I ever purchase a disc again? I've had my fill of losing discs whether they were destroyed, lost, borrowed, or straight up stolen. Furthermore, if you think about the main issue with a console it has always been disc reading errors since the days you had to slap and blow into NES cartridges. The simple wear and tear on a consoles disc drive is the number one factor in it's over-all durability. Even recently I've replaced 360's and Ps3 because they stopped reading discs.

I do agree that they will eventually be phased out, but it won't happen this generation with the PS4 and XBox720. While I would have problems with game discs on prior consoles, I attribute that largely to my youth at that time and not taking care of things I owned. The four games I purchased when I first bought a PS3 in spring '08 (Assassin's Creed, GTA IV, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and MotorStorm) still work perfectly fine on my console and have nary a mark on them. Not trying to say you don't take care of your equipment there Lebowski or anything of the nature, just pointing out that different people will have different experiences, sorry that you've had people borrowing, stealing, and destroying your games. No such problems here my man. I am on my second PS3 but that is only because at the time, it was drunkenly pissed upon at a kegger I hosted, no lie, haha.

Its not for most, IMO.

I will not knock a single person for preferring PC gaming (except the ones who think they are holier than thou for sinking $2000+ into their "rig") but your opinion is a common one that I share due to the ease of console use. With a new PC game, I need to do research before purchase as to whether my PC can even run said game. The three major consoles are plug and play if you will and for that reason alone, there will always be a market for them. Not all gamers are super tech savvy (while I more than comprehend most basic computer functions and how they work, I myself am not that savvy either) and it is simply easier to enjoy a game this way then to construct a dedicated gaming PC. And while I know costs for top of the line video cards, etc etc are getting more reasonable for PC gamers to construct their own gaming PC, the current gen of consoles are still much more affordable to many.

Well here's a few things to think about Dudeman. For starters, the actual phrase the Sony bigwigs used in regards to being able to stream all Playstation games was "long-term goal." That tells me that they aren't going to have everything available day one, likely select titles that they will continually add to. The technology for this has been around since 2003, as evidenced by that being the year Valve launched Steam. So while EVERY playstation title throughout its history is unlikely to be streamable, they certainly have the software to stream PS1, PS2, and PS3 games. I would imagine the reason the software to do this was not on the PS3 was moreso because of financial and business decisions, not the simple inability to implement it. Also, you can't stream PS2 games on PS3, but they have been adding titles for purchase and download to the store (I bought GTA San Andreas just 3 weeks ago or so) so you can buy select titles to play on PS3. I do share in your lamenting on no backwards compatability on new PS3s and you'll notice in an earlier comment I said the lack of it for the PS4 is a large factor in why I likely won't pick one up until next year sometime. If I could use my PS3 library on my new console and access new features, I would be more inclined to get it ASAP and I am not the only consumer who thinks this way. As far as the actual PS store goes, I actually quite liked the old version and never had any problems with finding what I needed there. I definitely don't care for the new version, which I have had a few problems with. It seems though that Sony heard you as one of the tidbits I gleaned from the announcement was that downloading and installing will be much more streamlined than the PS3.

As far as Steam and Valve are concerned, I certainly believe their future is constantly brighter and an actual hardware console would give them a huge boost. That said, they have been doing this for almost a decade, and while they are picking "steam" (pardon the pun), if they were going to overtake Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, I would think they would have already done so (I think decreased console sales for all 3 are due more to the prevalance of the mobile and tablet market which was almost nonexistent just 6 or 7 years ago and the fact that this current generation of consoles has stagnated longer than previous ones). Also consider that not everyone here in the U.S. even has a great interet connection, much less the world so there will always be a market for hard-copy disk based games that run on consoles for this simple fact, much less the rest of the world

Well I might as well post it here, but my PSN ID is in my signature, the original PSN Green Goblin: NormanOsborn.

The only games I really play online now are Mass Effect 3, Red Dead Redemption, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and the occassional Madden match but I have been rocking Dead Space 3's online co-op (until my buddy and I beat it and he completely lost interest, haha) so if anyone needs a partner for that, hit me up, or add me regardless if you like :-)

There are several cool new features here. I especially like the fact that you can recharge controllers when the console is "standing by." Reportedly you will also be able to still play your games offline, contrary to reports I've seen regarding the new XBox and the cloud streaming for games has a lot of potential. Also really like the fact that updates and downloads can be done seamlessly in the background now while doing other tasks, as opposed to some current PS3 updates. From a hardware perspective, the specs definitely indicate a pretty darn powerful console.

That said, I'm getting tired of the pandering to the mobile "gamer" crowd. I completely understand why they are putting so much emphasis on "social aspects" of the console, they are a corporation operating in a capitalist economy so I don't blame them. But I will be severely disappointed if I pick one up and find they could have improved on a gaming aspect of the console when they were focusing on being able to connect to Facebook or whatever. Again, I understand trying to cover as many bases as possible to broaden your consumer base. But Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo need to understand there is a miniscule amount of people who consider themselves console/pc gamers but also thrive in the iOS and Android markets. You'll have dedicated gamers who may throw on some Angry Birds while at the DMV or something, but very few go "gaga" over that type of game. Meanwhile, very few serious tablet/phone gamers are going to feel comfortable plopping down $500 for a new console (despite them doing just that for an IPad).

Lastly, Sony would absolutely destroy Microsoft and Nintendo in launch sales this this holiday season if they would just do backwards compatibility with PS3 titles at least. If I could still use my PS3 library while accessing the PS4's new features, I would likely buy one at launch. As it is now, I'll wait until after the holiday season to pick one up in the first half of '14 probably. I know I am not the only PS3 owner who feels the same way.

Still, a lot of promising stuff was revealed yesterday, I just can't help but feel slightly alienated by the massive focus on "social interaction." All I care about are what titles your developers are working on and how well your device can present said titles to me. Everything else is either a nice extra or something I have absolutely zero interest in.