There's the upfront cost of getting the kit, which isn't any different than having to buy SOCOM before all of its bugs are ironed out. The subscription period for XBox Live doesn't begin until after the beta test has ended, so the beta testers now have effectively just pre-paid for their subscriptions, which will last as long as those who pick up their kits on day one of the national rollout...they just have the added benefit of playing online a bit earlier.

Problem is if you are unhappy with the Xbox Live while Beta testing you are still out $50 since there are no refunds. I would much rather be unhappy with Socom or any of the other free to play Sony online games and just sell them and the adaptor to get most of my money back than to be unhappy with Xbox Live and still be out $50.

Once you register Xbox Live you are pretty much stuck with it. Luckily I found this out and sold my Beta kit without even using it.

Remember also that Sony did a Beta test before launching their network. Like MS the beta testing only includes a few games so games that are released later may run into problems.

I think the biggest problem with Socom is the popularity. There are at least 20 people I know playing this game nightly. Sony may be getting more online users than they expected.

I don't think SOCOM is perfect, but most of the "flaws" you mention aren't flaws at all.

You getting booted "every couple of hours" isn't a function of the game. It's your connection with the game server, which is someone else's PS2, being severed. If Xbox Live uses people's Xboxes as game servers for any games, it will have the same problem. It will also have lag. Online gaming is not a uniformly smooth and perfect experience, and if Xbox live makes it one I might might have to buy an Xbox. SOCOM is very well tested, and I've encountered few real bugs.

The issue of unlimited names is a small one. Every online game ever has had that problem. Xbox Live's uniform name service will be good for keeping in touch with buddies across a range of games, but it won't be good for banning out griefers, because there are just too many of them. The subscription model might help some, but it didn't keep them out of Everquest.

The 56Kers may be annoying in SOCOM, but they can play Frequency perfectly well, and the support of 56kers may be the trump card that makes Sony's plan more successful than Microsoft's. MS seems to be betting on a lot of people getting broadband really soon.

My main complaint is the Counterstrike style "die and watch" dynamic, which generally keeps me on servers that have 6-8 players, rather than the larger games. The quality of one's teammates and one's competition determine the quality of a given match.

I don't know about this whole Socom bad/Socom good thing. I think the game is just so good and so popular that people are playing the He** out of it. There is lag sometimes but not that bad most of the time. The worst I saw was Saturday nigth but it was very busy. So far Socom is no different than any other game I have played online, you must have friends or a group/clan or else it just isn't as much fun. Playing with foklks from the dvdtalk clan has been a blast even when it got laggy. I don't want the mic on all the time either, that would suck. having to listen to the other players the whole game would suck. I haven't had the problem yet where I was talking to someone and got killed for it, I have bneen switching grenades and guns and been killed though.

Can someone please explain to me though, why are xbox players having to boil discs? I was thinking about getting a box with the new bundles or refrub/used prices and now I am worried about it. I do not want to have to boil a disc to play a game. WTF is the deal here?

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=227679

Now a tasty in-joke.

Well, I take it that it is not just the demo discs if people are having issues with Fever and Revolt. Is this something to be expected from all online content games or just the first few released?

I'm sure its just a bad pressing of discs. MS will work this out I'm sure. Biggest problem is Fever and Revolt are barely worth playing when your discs do work.

Whacked and Moto GP will be the real pack in games once Xbox Live officially starts. Not the greatest games in the world, but compared to Fever and Revolt they are a big improvement. Hopefully those discs will work fine.

I did the beta test for Sony's Network Adaptor and the games that came with it or later on were Gameday, Frequency, Twisted Metal Black Online, and SOCOM. So it did go through testing, although the process was simply play it, then fill out a survey.