He's a bit over the top which really hurts his case.

It all comes down to the same ideas - nobody with Windows 7 needs to upgrade. I have Windows 8 and I have no reason to revert back to Windows 7 - it has some improvements and a wonky Bing start screen (Metro.)

As for design, though, the Metro "core" of Windows 8 really is a mess. The fact that I primarily spend ally time in the Windows 7 app proves that. That fact that I cannot even run my system through the Metro screen (no task manager, no control panel, no explorer, etc.) means it is, at best, an incomplete idea.
It really does tell you only "Click in the corner to begin..." and nothing else."
Wishing they would announce the new GPUs already ,
Ray

Cool; got one new code. I haven't looked for other/better sites, but I've been checking this page every few days:

http://www.ign.com/wikis/borderlands-2/SHiFT_Codes_and_Golden_Keys

Previously, I had not been tracking the key codes and my second play through was getting a bit rough. I now have a ton of keys, but gave up on the game somewhat - the drop rate and quality of drops could definitely use some love.
Too bad your drops affect so much of the experience.
Hating the long gaps where you go a few levels with crap drops,
Ray

If you buy it, do so for the idea of the game than the actual gameplay. It is a nice take on a survival game, but the mechanics are too strict and tedious.

The entire game is built around managing your stamina levels - you literally cannot breathe the air at ground level and there are specific climbing puzzles with little room for exploration or error. On top of that, there is a fair amount of combat where you are expected to die the first time, only making it through the second time when you know what is coming. Toss in the rough controls and bad targeting system and you can end up with some frustration moments.

When everything clicks in the game, I definitely like what they were going for. But when I get screwed by one of the rough mechanics, I cannot help but think the game was designed as a torture device.

With a few tweaks, I think it could have been a good game, but it definitely has a fair share of frustrations.
For $5, give it a shot only if you really like adventure/exploration games.
Tired of replaying a combat scenario to get a good roll of the dice,
Ray

RARGH! RUN UP TO THE ENEMY AND...just stand there pressing buttons.

This obviously is not limited solely to FFXIV, but it reminds me how little the industry is trying.
I need more than this when I play a MMORPG.
Skipping this,
Ray

I'm still using Windows 8 and I generally like it, though I admit there is no significant reason for anybody to upgrade.

It runs a little nicer...the Metro desktop is useful for some news blurbs when first booting up...it boots and shuts down faster...there are some nice minor additions to routine items (accessibility of folder options, expanded Task Manager, etc.)...etc.

But, there is no reason that you need to upgrade from Windows 7. They tried forcing a touchscreen UI when the vast majority of PCs do not have touchscreens. As Cnet put it, Windows 8 is a solution looking for a problem.

Damning the OS, the Metro desktop does not give you control over the full system or it often complicates routine items. If you wanted to, there is no way for you to run your system entirely from it - time and time again, it kicks you back to the Windows 7 desktop app. Over time, you basically teach yourself to treat the Windows 7 app as the main OS and the metro desktop as a weird, enhanced Bing search bar thingie with peculiar restrictions on sizing two (and no more) windows.

Taken to the full extent, I look at Metro on the way into and out of the Windows 7 desktop app. And that is where I spend all my other computing time; this is like Windows 7 Plus or a real Windows 7 Premium Edition. Unless you saw me boot up or shut down, barring looking for the Start menu (which there are apps for,) you would never know I wasn't running Windows 7.

Looking at Windows 8 as a whole new experience, they definitely did too little and jumped the shark on touchscreens. Even running with some of the design choices they made, there are some peculiar choices or limitations they made.

As a user, $40 got me some neat tweaks, something that works better than Windows 7, and that gives me an occasionally interesting boot screen. Nobody is hurting for not having Windows 8, but at that price level, I don't really have any regrets.
It's Windows 7...with benefits.
Amused by the haters; amused by Windows 8,
Ray

So, the PC port is back on?

And which version? The one that corrupts all my save information, destroying everything I have played for and completed, or a working version?
As everybody said, take a look at Indie game: The movie.
Curious to see what price point they aim for, too,
Ray

On a less negative note, I would argue that there is less of a backlog, or at least relevant material, of games to actually put on sale.

The first year or two, I gobbled up whatever I could. But now? Any big releases I purchased on day one, any second tier releases I waited the 30 days or so to get the 50% discount price, and I really only consider "sale" games in the $10 or less category. In general, these are fairly flawed games or games that, regardless of quality, I have a limited affinity for - there will never be a big "OH MY GOSH!!!" moment with these titles.

I've only spent $50 or so, but I have probably picked up a good 10 or so games.

Enjoying most of the games in small spurts,
Ray If only the wifey would give me back my gamepad...

The writer of the article definitely has no love for Zuckerberg, but there is a bit of hypocrisy. I would generally side with Randi regarding the etiquette factor...but she, Facebook, and her brother in particular have become rich off of much more blatant disregard for any privacy, much less "human decency."

She'll take the money or even come up with more ways to rape any data she can from people, but then cites it as an offense against human decency when a relatively minor breach occurs to her own photo. Which one is it?
She should try caring about people a bit.
Shrugging,
Ray

Crap DLC effort for a crap game. Seems fitting enough.

As a big, $60, AAA, single-player shooter, Rage was a real letdown. Focusing on technology over design? Framerate over gameplay? Weak shooter mechanics? A strong, yet under-utilized, driving component? Repeating levels? Linear, confined spaces? A small, low-resolution playable area nestled in large vistas/skyboxes? Lackluster weapon damage? Boring campaign with a lackluster ending?

It is just a really generic game. And after all that time? That was id's single-player experience?

There a certainly far better shooters available. There are certainly much more varied or fun shooters available. There are many smaller, much more limited developers that could make an equivalent game for a cheaper price or in much less time.
Quake 4 is probably even more generic, though.
Unimpressed; thinking this should be free; feeling that id has died,
Ray

The whole market is set around price fixing.

Our contract recently ended and, if we were to maintain the same service we had the last two years on a new phone, our cost would increase a good 15% or more.

Looking at plans that are equivalent to a 6GB family plan with data, text, calls, and insurance, the four carriers I compared all fall within a charge range of $9.62:

Verizon: $170.36/month.
Sprint: $171.99/month.
T-Mobile: $175.96/month.
AT&T: $179.98/month.

I guess that is what "competition" gets us these days - increased cost for identical service, decreased service with throttling, and/or equivalent pricing between all carriers.

Or, now that we are off contract, surely our monthly charge has decreased significantly since we have presumably paid off our existing phones, right? Oh...
Yes, I would like some cheese with my wine.
Bothered that the only more expensive bills are rent and car payments,
Ray

Little Debbie exist solely to present Hostess products as gourmet food.

As for Hostess, they were alive and kicking up through today - I saw (limited stock) at Target today and they have been around for my entire life. I will say that mid-Florida seems to barely stock them, offering up shelving space to many other competitors, compared to them being the primary stocking item in California.

Rarely finding Joray-style fruit rolls,
Ray Suck it, Pop-Tarts losers.

At best, it should have been released as a budget shooter. I bought it for either $5 or $7.50 and I feel that I paid a fair price - it just felt a little crude and it was really boring. Short, linear levels, useless teammates, heavy use of scripts to advance the gameplay, basic shooter mechanics, lackluster story, extremely confined levels, brief campaign, etc.

It certainly is not a bad game - it works and you can see what the were going for - but the actual game did not amount to much. The word presented in the game offered up many more possibilities than the actual game executed.
DNF gave us a spectacular failure and Bulletstorm gave us sheer stupidity.
Finding more and more of today's game to be worth $10 or less,
Ray

I've been running Windows 8 since the official release day without a single issue. I never tried any of the beta versions, having only watched a few preview videos, and I got lazy - I just popped in the DVD and had it do an install over my existing Windows 7 keeping all Windows and personal files.

One hour later, I was running Windows 8 and haven't looked back. This was the single easiest install of any operating system that I have ever done. And it did not just give me a barren OS; it actually kept everything - all my documents, all my programs, I didn't have to reinstall a single game, I have all my bookmarks, it remembered my user and computer name, etc.
The writer of the "article" seems like a moron with an axe to grind.
Windows 8 is really pointless - it is basically Windows 7 with a neat, quirky start screen that plays like a massive Bing desktop or a massive representation of a cell phone's simplified interface. I will say it is actually fun to have something new to explore or play around with as part of a Windows OS, but it really does feel like something running atop Windows 7 instead of a brand new OS (which, I know, is the opposite of what it really is...) More than anything, I wish the Metro desktop did more - many things can only be done in the Windows 7 app (Metro will kick you back to it) or the Metro version is inferior to the Windows 7 app version (customization, ease of access, handling multiple windows, etc.)

All that aside, it was $40 for the physical product, it is working without any issues, seems to be slightly more responsive, and I was blown away by how simple the installation was. If you want the latest and greatest and want to have a little fun within Windows, give it a shot. You can readily work from whichever desktop you want.

But make no doubt - nobody needs this install. It is not a fully fledged OS. From a functional perspective, it acts like Windows 7 with a quirky GUI/splash screen that can readily be bypassed.

That aside, I am glad I spent the $40.00 to have even one moment of "fun" with the OS. I can't remember the last time I said that about Windows itself...

Noting that Windows 7 (app) is missing the Start button and transparencies,
Ray

This comment was edited on Nov 1, 2012, 18:33.

It has a few neat moments, but more than anything, Windows 8 feels incomplete. If anything, it feels like a massive Bing desktop for Windows 7.

Even if you love the new Metro interface, it is very limited - you lost direct access or control over numerous things or other standard things kick you back to the retro desktop. Even for maintaining the Windows 7 desktop, why disable the start menu and transparencies?

Going back to Metro, why are so many things missing or limited? Why do so many of the apps just stay open without an on-screen way to close them? Why is everything sized for a tablet with no recognition of the 27" monitor I have? IE is a good example of this - I like that it defaults to a full screen view, but other things make it less convenient than the desktop version - tabs are not accessible from the main screen, I don't see my favorites until I open a second tab, sorting through bookmarks is inefficient now that each one is an icon that is roughly 1.5"-wide icons, etc.

Windows 8 is fine as an operating system, but there is reason for anybody to run out and get it. It really is Windows 7 with a quirky search/start screen. Until I can do everything I want from Metro, much less in a smart and efficient way, this seems like a half-hearted attempt by Microsoft.
It's a $40 add on pack.
Liking it for being something different; doing most stuff in the retro desktop,
Ray

P.S. If you did happen to buy Win 8 Pro, be sure to get the Windows Media Center while it is free:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

Great game - it has some rough edges, but it puts to shame a lot of the garbage out there and parts of it make me wonder if I just played the closest thing I could (in today's world) to a Thief game.

I don't know why they are bothering with the challenge pack, but I will definitely look into the story packs if they have a sufficient story to price ratio.

There are some things that prevent it from being a 10+ "perfect" game, most of which have previously been mentioned, but it's such a nice world, something differint from the generic shooter, and it actually lets the player, well, play the game how they want.
On top of everything else, it sucks that the levels are sized for consoles.
Thinking it is one of the top five games I played this year,
Ray

Just a reminder, this game is fantastic.

Also, GMG put out a new 25% code (or just extended the old one?) that is good through 12/10/12: GMG25-EVFWS-4Z4ZN.

And take that into account when looking at the prices - Dishonored at 60 funny money becomes 45 funny money.
I put 2.5 hours into it yesterday and haven't done the first mission.
Noting the one exclusion is Xcom,
Ray

This really is a phenomenal game. I had other plans last night and loaded it to just give it a spin...and then realized ninety minutes had left.

It is basically Thief, but with swords and magic. There is a very deep, slow stealth game or you can burn through it by shooting at or cutting up everybody. There is an achievement for getting through the entire game without killing anybody and there are also repercussions for killing everybody. The story is mildly intriguing, but the powers and the "other" add some otherworldly elements to it - nothing like walking around with a talking heart in your hand and then swapping to your sword and teleportation ability.

Meanwhile, what a world to play in! The characters, the different routes you can take, the focus on secrets or hidden items, hunting for loot, heavy use of vertical routes, and the overall geometry. On one hand, it is obviously a different, strange world, but it is also a world that you can completely believe you are a part of. It really shows that art design trumps technical specifications, not that it is not a good looking game on that basis as well.

You're here. The objective is there. Kill or sneak. You figure it out.

Last, though certainly different, this game really, really made me think of Thief. Given the troubled development of the new, Eidos-"fixed" game, I did think to myself that this may be the closest I will ever get to having a sequel to Thief and Thief 2. More than discussing any specific detail, that is the best praise I can give it.
I will sink hours upon hours into the stealth game.
Wondering if I mentioned that I love this game,
Ray

ZOMG THIS IS THE BESTEREST GAME EVERY IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF GAMES IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!!!11111ONEONEONE

Joking aside, I already had this preordered (with Steam key delivered today!) from GMG.

I was kind of hoping it would knock it out of the park and hit the 90+ range, but I can live with a strong 85+. I have enjoyed all of Arkane's releases to date, I love what I can see of the Thief/Bioshock/Deus Ex gameplay, and this appears to be a game that I will really get into.
This may be the new Thief since Eidos wants to "fix" the series.
Hoping the developer sees a significant reward from making the game,
Ray

GW2 is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but I feel it tweaks just enough of the existing MMOG mechanics to put it as setting the bar for any current day release.

Going back to WoW, it just felt really old. Combat is standing in place and going through your rotation, you don't explore the world, people don't work together, there is far less customization, the female panda will always have the same face, guilds tend to be either a swarm of inane comments or slimmed down to a core raiding group, the core UI is fairly rigid, the five items you pick as talents really limit your gameplay styles, the graphics are obviously less technically complex, it shoves you into the stereotypical MMO class composition, the story integration is really bad, etc.

It really felt like WoW should be the "free" game and GW2 should be the one with a nominal fee...
My wife wants to see 90, but then we're done.
Ready to move on,
Ray

BL2 does manage to just step into into the "stupid, but kind of fun" category for me, but a lot of his points do seem valid.

Is anybody going to defend the story? How much of the game is spent just looting? How much time is spent comparing weapons prior to figuring out they suck and selling them? Does anybody want to argue "just point the camera in a direct and hit accelerate" as a robust vehicle model? Are there some tedious enemies/quests/repeated levels?
It's fun in spurts. The $37 price and lack of new releases really help.
Noting it is still far, far better than Rage,
Ray