Freelancer.

The X series is a very simmy space game. Also, if you're running a Mac, you should check out Boxer; its pretty much DosBox with better OS X integration.

On your last point: Asus, Acer, and Dell are pretty smart not to try to be a major player in the game console market. The market is crowded as hell (3 huge competitors with a several-year lead in install base and minimum 8/9 year lead in mindshare for Xbox, decade and a half for PlayStation, and decades for Nintendo), their competitors have a pretty big back library, and you're talking about hardware companies that don't generally develop software (and when they do, it tends to suck). Licensing an engine isn't cheap, and building a good game around it isn't any easier: there are a bunch of UE3 licensees that put out crap games, including Too Human, Stranglehold, Area 51, etc. The best these guys could do is to pay id to have Rage on their systems day-and-date, and then pick up on the scraps of gaming on Linux (and as a Linux fan, I know how scrap the games tend to be). Remember: game consoles aren't bought based on the hardware or OS inside them, they're bought on whether or not there is a big library good games for it.

TL;DR version: crowded, competitive market won't be overtaken by the likes of Frozen Bubble and Warsow.

Did you *gasp* read the article? It doesn't talk about now, its mainly about whether or not the current cycle of console hardware refreshes every X years will last, and if something like OnLive (streaming games over the net to a dumb interface, and letting the actual hardware sit in a data center) will take its place. MW2's launch says that consoles are good now, but says nothing about consoles beyond the X360/PS3 generation.

Games for Windows is a scourge. I don't know anyone who actually likes it. Games that use it typically are ports from the 360 (Fallout 3, Dirt 2, Gears of War to name a few). It only runs when the game is running (a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view). Steam is far more popular in my circle of friends because you can just hop in to a TF2 server or get invited to a L4D game without having the game running already. Also, Steam DRM tends to suck less than the GfW DRM.

The aim bots could be MW2's excessively iffy lag code. I've seen quite a few reviews that mention unbelievable kills, and one that explicitly mentions banana bullets like this.

Verizon has the Int'l Blackberry, which has a SIM card. They don't subsidize it, and their price is astronomically high (~$700 last time I looked).

Whenever I see that, I always try to explain LaTeX (even as a CS major, not all of the profs know what it is) and just end up submitting a PDF.

IDCHOPPERS -- GM sucks, doesn't it? IDSPISPOPD -- Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris

They're made by 2K games, and EA Sports took the "2008" and "2010" style of naming.

The first half of HL2 dragged (specifically, the hovercraft section). That was the only complaint I ever heard.

MAG is a different beast altogether. Unlike something like PlanetSide (which was a slower-paced FPS with a lot of background, engineer-type roles making substantial portions of gameplay), MAG is a twitch shooter based on the style of the SOCOM games. NovaLogic did 256 players 5 years ago, and nobody noticed, when they released Joint Operations. It supported 256 players, and until EVE came along, had the world record for most players. The issue with 256 players isn't lag or processing power (anymore, at least). Its a difficult task for the players to keep everything straight when you have that many on a single server.

Not true -- the lower end MacBooks (I'm writing this on the white plastic one) only have Intel graphics -- not discrete at all.

I completely disagree with you on your point about OnLive and Gakai being useless. For existing PC gamers, yes, they are entirely useless. But existing PC gamers aren't the target audience of those services. Instead, those services are designed for those who either (a) can't afford or (b) aren't interested in maintaining hardware.

It speaks volumes that their demos so far centered around putting their tech in cable boxes (something usually made as cheaply as possible) or as client software for thin & light laptops (I think the exact demo unit was a MacBook Air). The devices are far outside of the usual "gaming hardware" group.

Also, its not so much DRM on an item you own as a monthly service. Slashdot, in general, needs to realize when things aren't necessarily DRM. You enter into the agreement knowing that you're paying for a limited time use of their system, which they maintain, and are limited to the titles they offer. You enter the agreement knowing that you haven't bought the game and therefore aren't allowed the usual rights that come with owning a product. Such services can exist without DRM as we know it (software or hardware copy protection) because the actual software is running remotely and they serve a stream -- and if you don't pay, they just simply kill the stream. Its roughly equivalent to your local power station killing your service if you don't pay your electricity bill.

AFAIK, this isn't quite true. They make the NCAA football games because nobody else wants to (and theirs doesn't sell particularly well anyway). 2K is still making the NHL2k series, but has lost the mark and hasn't done a good job since the X360 launched. Konami is still working on the Pro Evo series for soccer, and has the FIFA license.