I thought the most valuable part of motion capture data was the actor's face, as it's the most difficult to simulate in CG. This is a neat system, especially for the price, but it doesn't provide the best feature of the original.

A side-scroller probably wouldn't improve your peripheral vision at all, because your eyes are generally focused on the right side of the screen rather than the center. A first-person shooter or racing game, on the other hand, requires you to look at the center of the screen fairly often but also to be alert to quick developments on the edge of the screen. Of course, you'd have to be very close to the monitor to actually exercise the edge of your vision in this way.

Deep within Microsoft's help site, there is a process that lets you consolidate all your downloaded stuff, licenses, etc. onto a single Xbox so that anyone can use them. But you can only run this once a year. Do it wisely!

So the best way to reduce evil is to vote Republican?

We didn't buy Bioshock and give it all these Game of the Year awards because we liked the mechanics. The game is impressive because of its atmosphere, its unfolding mystery, and the sprawling world it invites you to discover while fending off hordes of bad guys. The actual enemy killing part is the least interesting portion of the game, but it's the only part of the game that would translate to a cell phone.

He's not a 25-year-old Wal-Mart veteran, he's a 25-year Wal-Mart veteran - i.e. he's been at the place for 25 years. Just the kind of guy you want to open a new store.

Instead of throwing a $100 graphics card into your old computer to play four-year-old games like Half-Life 2, you could spend $100 on a PS2 or Xbox to play four-year-old games like Half-Life 2. Technological depreciation is only a problem if you're on the bleeding edge.

Which is the greater benefit: saving 340 homes at $500,000 each, or giving 2 million attendees hope for the future with a big ceremony? Given the degree to which consumer spending props up American GDP, the inauguration may actually MAKE money.

Using this kind of detailed knowledge about the game's idiosyncrasies isn't cheating, or even micro-cheating. We call it "Playing to Win." In several cases, it can make an otherwise unplayable game competitive and fun. (Capcom vs SNK 2, for instance, is a lot more dynamic thanks to a bug allowing every character access to invincible attacks.)

You forgot the PS2, which has the installed base of the Wii, 360 and PS3 combined, and comes with a $10 discount over the "newer" console versions.

I've run into Tale #3 before. It turns out that this lady only emailed files using Windows Explorer's right-click -> Send To -> Email Recipient function, which of course doesn't let you reply to an email.

I'm as happy as anyone about Bison's new devil reverse, but to the casual players who actually made the game a success, the changes are totally transparent. Sirlin's tweaks are only going to matter to the 10,000 people who know that Street Fighter tournaments exist - the rest are just going to see Ken's move list hasn't changed and leave it at that.

The marketing campaign I'm talking about is getting the #1 slot when you first boot up the new Xbox dashboard - a strategy which also worked well for Kingdom for Keflings and UNO, and they took several more clicks to download. A lengthy open beta and several timed previews also helped to get the word out to fans early.

Yes, HD Remix was a group effort - but I'm betting Capcom is realizing most of the profits, and they're the ones who should be warned that the same formula won't work for every old property they dig up from the archives. Street Fighter 2 was a successfully resurrected old game - but it has always been a good game, and it sold well even when it wasn't remixed. Capcom probably budgeted more money for Bionic Commando Rearmed, and got a lot less return per dollar for it despite its critical acclaim.