Holding Back 5,000

I know the feeling, between work (which is not in the it field) wife, children, dog, etc. I have no time left for my own stuff. The sad part is I keep buying things, I got a Dreamcast (yes, the defunct DC) because of the recent developments on it DIVX, Linux, etc. But I haven't touched it in weeks;( I simply need more hours in my day.

Wait…two years.. what happens after two years?

you're such a microsoft sympathizer chris.

*heh heh* Now he can't give away every secret… tune in in two years and find out! *wink*

Yeah but it sounds like in two years Lockergnome is over… now I'm probably reading it wrong but….

It's always amazing that the closer you get to what you thought was your goal, the farther away it seems to be! You just have to be prepared to fight that battle all the way and do everything you can to not renegotiate your own desires!

I'll never, ever buy an xbox.
The fact that they purposely put “locks” on a built in feature (DVD playing), forcing you to shell out more bux to enable it burns my craw big time. I'm very happy with my PS2 (which has, natch, DVD playback right out of the box), and I'll most likly go PS3 if Sony keeps “doing it right”.
Any manufacturer that makes this obvious a play to “get more money on an already major purchase” doesn't get my consumer dollars… well most of them don't, anyway. :)

I am very impressed with the specs and design of the Xbox. Having nVidia on board can only mean amazing things. I will purchase one as soon as my greatest fear is surpassed: Game development. I want to see a lot of manafacturers falling in love with the SDK. I want to see good quality games pushing the envelope.
Based on a purely technical standpoint the Xbox rocks the socks off the competition. I just hope that the baseless “anti-Microsoft” sentiment doesn't impede the purchase of the machines. I know this is and probably will continue to happen but that's the nature of the fickle market. I am interested to hear more about your experience with your Xbox as I haven't heard much firsthand about it.

there's a reason the xbox is “locked” from dvd playback. It's because in the manufacturing of a dvd player are numerous licences one has to pay to various organizations (dolby being a large benefactor). When you paid for your PS2 you paid rougly $28 to these licencees – which is too bad, because the pS2 could've really used that extra $28 in hardware. Particularly when I bet you bought a $20 DVD remote ANYWAY for your ps2 – as most people have had to do.
What I think is lame is how PS2 “locks” out the saving features on the PS2 and requires you to buy an ADDITIONALL piece of $35 hardware they call a “memory card”. The xbox, on the other hand, has this “feature” enabled right out of the box. This is especially nice considering there was a shortage of this saving-unlocking-devices, don't you think?
Especially when I buy a game system to play games, not watch DVDs, and with the Xbox at least I can save my games right out of the box.

Not to mention, we already had a DVD player, so we weren't planning to use the Xbox for that anyway…

To John:
a) The PS2 has more than enough hardware for my liking, thank you very much :) (and the linux release is anyday)
b) I have never bought a remote for it. The controller works nicely.
c) I have yet to see an xbox game that can even touch GT3, GTA 3 or Metal Gear Sons of Liberty… certainly not in gameplay, not to mention visuals. And yes, I've had more than a few hours playing and watching xbox games.
Can you also source me the facts on the $28 you quote? That's a lot higher than the licensing numbers I've heard (per unit, that is).