Why I Canceled My Halo: Reach Pre-order

[LiquidSolstice]

Spoken like a true fanboy. Seriously, to say no one cares about Blu-ray is the furtherest from the truth. Blu-ray sales are increasing each week and last I checked the market share was somewhere around 20%, which is a great considering DVDs are cheaper and have been around for over a decade. ANd you keep lying about PSN not being free when it is in fact FREE. I paid $299 for my PS3 Slim, which lets me use ANY 2.5" HDD, and can login and play online anytime for free. No strings attached, I don't have to pay anything. Perhaps you're too blinded by your fanboy-ness to see this?

Sad. You really think Sony is magically keeping the servers free for you? Do some research on what "per-part-cost-analysis" is and perform that on all the elements of the PS3, and you'll see where the money is coming from to pay for the servers. Just because it's not in your face with a label that says "PSN=x amount of $$" doesn't mean you're not paying for it in some way.

And BluRay is going to get dominated by streaming video, there's a reason why people love Netflix Streaming/HD On Demand Content, why Hulu Plus is being pushed, and why Apple is jumping into the TV market with shows and Apple TV.

Stupid? No idea? Let me just start laughing now....

If you purchased a graphics card 4 years ago and it can still play the current iteration of PC games, you spent more on that than I did on my xbox 360 and possibly my ps3 combined.

When I built my desktop last year I spent over 3 grand. Does it outperform my xbox 360? Yes. Is it more frustrating for someone who works all the time to install a game, fine tune it to get the best from it, update my video drivers to get a 2-5% increase in performance? YES.

I enjoy the pricing of the games, the model, and the ease of access. I don't have the time anymore to deal with all the bull**** PC gamers have to put up with every time a new, un-optimized port comes out.

So tell me, if no one buys $600-$1200 dollars for video cards, why is there still a market for them? PC fanboys are infinitely worse than the PS3 guys because they have this elitism about their arguments. At the end of the day, I don't care that I can have 16MSAA/AF or whatever the hell it is at now. I want to unwind, game, have sex with my awesome girlfriend and then work again. The rest of the crap (including this argument) IS stupid.

THIS. Holy S*HIT. Finally someone with sense.

+1 to you, sir.

[Hedon]

Don't forget about the upcoming Google TV and movies. It's going digital baby. Optical disks are going to be a thing of the past. It will be about flash/memory and digital distribution. Pretty exciting.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Stupid? No idea? Let me just start laughing now....

If you purchased a graphics card 4 years ago and it can still play the current iteration of PC games, you spent more on that than I did on my xbox 360 and possibly my ps3 combined.

When I built my desktop last year I spent over 3 grand. Does it outperform my xbox 360? Yes. Is it more frustrating for someone who works all the time to install a game, fine tune it to get the best from it, update my video drivers to get a 2-5% increase in performance? YES.

I enjoy the pricing of the games, the model, and the ease of access. I don't have the time anymore to deal with all the bull**** PC gamers have to put up with every time a new, un-optimized port comes out.

So tell me, if no one buys $600-$1200 dollars for video cards, why is there still a market for them? PC fanboys are infinitely worse than the PS3 guys because they have this elitism about their arguments. At the end of the day, I don't care that I can have 16MSAA/AF or whatever the hell it is at now. I want to unwind, game, have sex with my awesome girlfriend and then work again. The rest of the crap (including this argument) IS stupid.

I think I will bookmark this reply and refer pc fanboys to it in future :D

[LiquidSolstice]

Don't forget about the upcoming Google TV and movies. It's going digital baby. Optical disks are going to be a thing of the past. It will be about flash/memory and digital distribution. Pretty exciting.

Another person who actually understands where digital media distribution is heading :). this is my point. BluRay is fantastic, amazing even, but it's going to die soon. It won't have the same lifespan of DVDs.

[madd-hatter]

This is simple.

I've purchased 2 different 12 month cards online at Amazon for less than $30 at completely different times. So, learn to shop.

Halo is only on 360. Sure, you can play psn for free, but you can't play Halo.

I own a PS3, I own a 360. I haven't turned the 360 on since Reach's beta. Before that, I hadn't turned it on since cursing GoW2 for the last time (3 weeks after released.) I turn on and use my PS3 almost daily.

That said, I still have no hesitation in purchasing a $30 code card to prepare for hundreds of hours of Reach.

If you don't wanna play, that's fine, your loss. You don't have to go online and attempt to justify it.

You get what you pay for and Halo is the best.

[Eddo89]

When people say 10 dollars they are missing the point. Yes, you are only paying 10 dollars more than before, but there is no alternative now. The choice is not 50 vs 60, is free vs 60. While one may find it very reasonable to pay 50 dollars for a slightly (cry me a river, but I never see the need of sugar coating of LIVE, I mean I want to play online and that is what most people want) superior service, but it is different now that you are comparing it with 60 dollars.

And stats, 83 cents? Well, how about 20% increase? And a game only cost you 5 dollars a month, which perhaps work out to be an hour of work, every month if you are a student. Everything looks like nothing when is divided over a year. But of course, that is the cost of Gold.

[Hedon]

"but there is no alternative now."

There never was an alternative. There has always been an annual fee to play games, and that hasn't changed. Said fee went up $10. I can see the problem if XBL was always free, and people had a bunch of Live games they played.....and then all of a sudden they started charging $50 for them to play online. THEN it's a legit beef. Now they have a library of games they can't play because they were never aware of any fee to play them, and may not have the $50 or $60 to play play them.

[shakey]

Bluray will have a chance to top streaming media, as content providers are unable to stream videos of same quality. If streaming media picks up and becomes anything near what a 1080p bluray movie looks like, then yes it will. But until that day, Bluray will have a very good chance at beating it.

I have netflix streaming, and their HD media is horrible compared to what a bluray disc will offer. If you can not see the difference between the 2, you don't have a good enough TV. That is the truth. A Bluray Batman Dark Knight is just mind blowing to watch on a great tv, where as the HD stream of it is just DVD, maybe a little upscaled DVD quality.

If I have the chance, I wait for them to ship me the bluray disc rather than stream it. The difference in quality is leaps and bounds above one another.

Had to add that in. Streaming media still sucks in quality to what real HD is.

[Guest]

Another person who actually understands where digital media distribution is heading :). this is my point. BluRay is fantastic, amazing even, but it's going to die soon. It won't have the same lifespan of DVDs.

Ahh... no.

The world wide internet infrastructure is not ready for such high-bandwidth content yet. Blu-ray is here to stay.

[shakey]

Ahh... no.

The world wide internet infrastructure is not ready for such high-bandwidth content yet. Blu-ray is here to stay.

JINX!

[Bengal34]

It's 83 cents extra a month and you can buy a year pass for about $35

[shakey]

"but there is no alternative now."

There never was an alternative. There has always been an annual fee to play games, and that hasn't changed. Said fee went up $10. I can see the problem if XBL was always free, and people had a bunch of Live games they played.....and then all of a sudden they started charging $50 for them to play online. THEN it's a legit beef. Now they have a library of games they can't play because they were never aware of any fee to play them, and may not have the $50 or $60 to play play them.

wasn't online free on the first xbox? They should at least be giving you that for free.

[Alladaskill17]

wasn't online free on the first xbox? They should at least be giving you that for free.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't free. I seem to remember buying the first packaging with some motorcycling game and a goofy 3rd Person cartoonish shooting game (limited levels for online / demo(s)), but I still had to purchase the CD to 'install XBL' lulz wow this was a long time ago now that I think about it.

[Lamp0]

It was never free as far as I know.

It's a pain to pay for XBL, but I am not that bothered I play often enough.

[NoLiMiT06]

It's $10 more a month, that's like buying 3 redbulls.... I have no problem paying the extra 10 bucks because I think the service is worth every penny even though I do not use it every single day. Like someone else said it will probably help with the 10 year olds shittalking :)

[Hedon]

wasn't online free on the first xbox? They should at least be giving you that for free.

$50 a year, day one since XBL was invented.

[Motoko.]

As long as those $30 and $40 12month cards are accessible I guess I have nothing to complain over.

Madd Hatter is right, there's nothing better than Halo

[jkrupa128]

Worst argument ever.

Best Comment Ever!

[Hedon]

Bluray will have a chance to top streaming media, as content providers are unable to stream videos of same quality. If streaming media picks up and becomes anything near what a 1080p bluray movie looks like, then yes it will. But until that day, Bluray will have a very good chance at beating it.

I have netflix streaming, and their HD media is horrible compared to what a bluray disc will offer. If you can not see the difference between the 2, you don't have a good enough TV. That is the truth. A Bluray Batman Dark Knight is just mind blowing to watch on a great tv, where as the HD stream of it is just DVD, maybe a little upscaled DVD quality.

If I have the chance, I wait for them to ship me the bluray disc rather than stream it. The difference in quality is leaps and bounds above one another.

Had to add that in. Streaming media still sucks in quality to what real HD is.

Nah, we can all ready download (not stream) the 1080p files over Amazon, XBL, PSN, etc, and the quality is right there with Blu-Ray. Streaming HD is not though, agreed. They are getting there. DirecTV is streaming 1080p now (which I have at home), and it's pretty sweet.

I have been using my Blu-ray player less and less as the digital content keeps improving.

[Elliott]

Bluray will have a chance to top streaming media, as content providers are unable to stream videos of same quality. If streaming media picks up and becomes anything near what a 1080p bluray movie looks like, then yes it will. But until that day, Bluray will have a very good chance at beating it.

I have netflix streaming, and their HD media is horrible compared to what a bluray disc will offer. If you can not see the difference between the 2, you don't have a good enough TV. That is the truth. A Bluray Batman Dark Knight is just mind blowing to watch on a great tv, where as the HD stream of it is just DVD, maybe a little upscaled DVD quality.

If I have the chance, I wait for them to ship me the bluray disc rather than stream it. The difference in quality is leaps and bounds above one another.

Had to add that in. Streaming media still sucks in quality to what real HD is.

Netflix, in particular, has awful HD content. I tried to watch a movie on it on my Xbox 360 and just got sick of it. I have no qualms with the 720p content that comes over my Apple TV, though it would be pretty awesome if it was 1080p. To my eyes, the quality is a little worse than Blu-ray, but since I don't watch movies enough to warrant the cost of a Blu-ray movie, the quick on-demand rental nature of the Apple TV (or other streaming services) just makes more sense for me. It's just infinitely more convenient.

[Bengal34]

It's $10 more a month, that's like buying 3 redbulls.... I have no problem paying the extra 10 bucks because I think the service is worth every penny even though I do not use it every single day. Like someone else said it will probably help with the 10 year olds shittalking :)

it's $0.83 more a month which comes to $10 more a year. However, you'll always be able to get them for cheap online at places like amazon.com

Honestly, if they do a good job on the new ESPN portion then that 83 cent extra is worth it.

[BobSlob]

I personally haven't had my xbox live account since March or so, so this doesnt effect me.

What I don't understand is how people are content paying $60-70 for a game... $10-15 for one, two, three DLCs and then paying to be able to play online on top of that. Blows my mind.

[shakey]

Netflix, in particular, has awful HD content. I tried to watch a movie on it on my Xbox 360 and just got sick of it. I have no qualms with the 720p content that comes over my Apple TV, though it would be pretty awesome if it was 1080p. To my eyes, the quality is a little worse than Blu-ray, but since I don't watch movies enough to warrant the cost of a Blu-ray movie, the quick on-demand rental nature of the Apple TV (or other streaming services) just makes more sense for me. It's just infinitely more convenient.

True, streaming is great for the convenience they offer, and a lot will chose it just for that. But as long as there are those of us who crave a good image, Bluray will have a market.

How is the 1080p through DirectTV? Are there artifacts or tearing?

That's the other thing with streaming as well, if you don't have a fast connection and everything else in place, you can easily get tearing and artifacts. Normally videos, even if it is HD, are compressed a lot to get them to stream decently. Cable TV compresses their HD as well, to were the 1080i will look great, but is nothing compared to uncompressed 1080i, or in most cases, less compressed lol.

I hope streaming comes along, but it won't be soon. Not with all the bandwidth gripes all companies have been giving lately.

[Ayepecks]

Netflix, in particular, has awful HD content. I tried to watch a movie on it on my Xbox 360 and just got sick of it. I have no qualms with the 720p content that comes over my Apple TV, though it would be pretty awesome if it was 1080p. To my eyes, the quality is a little worse than Blu-ray, but since I don't watch movies enough to warrant the cost of a Blu-ray movie, the quick on-demand rental nature of the Apple TV (or other streaming services) just makes more sense for me. It's just infinitely more convenient.

Meh, Netflix HD is perfectly fine. It's far above DVD quality, above broadcast quality, but definitely not on-par with Blu-ray.

[Elliott]

Meh, Netflix HD is perfectly fine. It's far above DVD quality, above broadcast quality, but definitely not on-par with Blu-ray.

Maybe it was just having an off day or something, but when I tried Netflix HD (shortly after the Xbox integration came out), it was absolutely horrible. It didn't look HD at all. I had to double check the movie I was watching was actually an HD rental (trust me, it was). Since then, I haven't even bothered with Netflix.