If people stop paying for this garbage maybe some publishers would start using the avatar awards or putting the outfits up as pre-order incentives...I sure would rather see that as a pre-order incentive over a gun that will unbalance the game or extra level nobody else gets.

Activisions shill said it was the shit - it has to be true!

This is the model I have wanted to see come back to gaming for a while now. Where you could download the first part of a game for free, try it and if you liked it go ahead and buy the rest.

So are they just recycling some '3D' engine the created for the Dreamcast or are they really that bad a developer? Oh, Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven...that explains it. This game is FUGLY.

Game is dated alright - dated looking. Sad that this is the best SNK can do for some of the greatest fighting franchises in history.

Is it racist to think ONLY your race is not correctly represented? And while we are at it, what about gender. Rarely is the female race represented through anything other than the googly eyes of a boy in mid-puberty.

@Jeyl: I think point 5 is a bit fib. It is only 3 new maps for Halo 3. The other 21 are already included in Halo 3 or have been given/sold as DLC. ODST MP is nothing more than a three map pack for Halo 3.

Churning out Halos like Madden. This is Halo 3.5 and should be priced accordingly. MS is just taking advantage of all the spoiled little Halo kiddies who will pay any amount of their mom's money for things Halo.

Success Breeds Imitation...or in the case of Japn, un-success

A simpler method to predict review scores would be to look at what the marketing budget for a title is. If you have an unknown brand and no marketing budget you can expect a score no greater than "8" even if you have a "10" game. If you have a huge marketing budget and are a well known publishers with a well known…

Not long now and we might see something like a real working plasma gun in these LE....I imagine the 'games encourage violence" zealots will have a field day with that.

Some games are just better not trying to be everything for everyone.

@Spiffmeister: Developer has already come out and said, point blank, the PC version looks better than either console version. So if you are concerned about eye candy stick with the PC.

It really just comes off as tasteless and gaudy on Activisions part. Odd that only a few stories above this, is an article about the Rock Band devs being afraid of not doing The Beatles' legacy justice. Activision takes the complete opposite approach. They don't care about the artist's legacy, only how much they can…

I have to agree with the people that say it was a purposeful "mistake". GT5 is not coming out this year but the PS3 slim is. Gamestop wants as much as possible laying about the store to attract potential buyers...even if some of it is a lie...err, "mistake".

Of all the things to steal from MS, PREMIUM themes and avatars is NOT what the PS3 needed.

'Gay Tony' seems to have made it past the filter just fine - a bit hypocritical of MS saying gay is ok as long as it cost them $.25 million for the privilege.

I'll pre-order two copies when the announce a 360 release date.

I'm personally boycotting Activision in the literal sense. Not because of the price of COD, rather because I just despise they way they are 'exploiting' anything and everything they touch.

I thought you had to be 18 to have a gold account ? If this is the case then what is the issue - if a parent wants to sign up for Live and then give their child free reign of their account then that is the parents issue - not Microsofts.