Dude, I've played poker for real consistently over the past 3 years (less in the last 6 months) and I've yet to see a Royal Flush. El Scorcho, has played about the same amount of time, and has seen 2 or 3. It's totally random, and shouldn't happen often.

Naw, it makes sense - you won't be penalized too much for not being able to achieve the impossible.

It's kind of like Desert Bus being worth all of 1 point.

That would be pretty cool...

It's pretty far from Speed poker. I bet the guys were pissed when I had to leave the controller because my puppy pissed on my leg and I couldn't fold. The time is plenty long to make an informed choice.

YES!!!!!

This just in from The Magic Box:

I KNEW IT!!! SF2 was such a success, XBL is going to be the TOP system on the market for a LONG time for the 2d Fighting fans!! Mortal Kombat is comming up and now this! Im so thrilled!!

Prices and release dates for some of the new XBox 360 peripherals have been announced. Unfortunately sans HD-DVD drive

XBox 360 Peripherals

Crikey! I thought you were shitting us.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...39948?n=468642

How a game of such obvious greatness could come so close to launching without us having created a whole subforum for it is beyond me.

If they're going to do that, they need to release a cheap arcade controller. That $80 DOA 4 controller is too much, and the standard 360 controller sucks for SFII.

As for that Lumines shit, this is exactly what I feared would happen with microtransactions. Hopefully downloads of it will plummet and Microsoft will learn they can't pull this shit.

its just the beginning stages of the 100.00 games. first you'll drop 60.00 for the disc, then you'll have to buy the new stuff for the game at a price of 10.00 and up.then they'll release more game content until they get almost 100.00 out of the sale.

Yeah, I refused to pay for those Ghost Recon extra levels. Give me a break. I have paid for some of the extra Oblivion content (not the horse armor), but those haven't been overly expensive, and some of them have added some awesome things.

I'm just thanking my lucky stars for Nintendo, who seem to understand that milking the consumer out of all of their cash isn't necessarily in their best interest as a company.

I paid $30 for Lumines on the PSP. I don't think the XBL version will cost that much even with all of the add-ons. It's a great game and worth price posted. You guys are just bitching because there is an added cost. If they did it like xmiyux said, $20 vs $15 plus $5, no one would say anything.

It's a small step into a larger scheme. Lumines may only cost $20 total, but if people start getting used to it, next thing you know, as Chris said, $100 games.

I would almost rather do that then pay $60 for a "sequel" every year. Sports games have been doing this for years, you just get a new disk and case. As for GRAW, $15 added a lot to the game. How much different was Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike from Ghost Recon 2?

How many people bought Morrowind only to turn around and buy the Game of the Year edition?

I guess my point is, in the past, the only way developers could release additional content was "expansion packs". Now they have the relatively less expensive (development wise) option of releasing content through live.

In perspective, if people are dumb enough (that might be too strong...willing) to drop $5 each for frogger, pac-man, galaga, etc. and pay for picture packs and other crap, Lumines is easily worth $15 plus whatever they charge for the addition content.

(Oh wait, this isn't real money anyway, these are marketplace points... Microsoft=genius)

Well, like some people here already said it might not be the worst thing ever right now, but this is only the beginning. It's gonna get progressively worse.

I agree. I'm probably one of the last 360 owners who hasn't bought points and hasn't purchased anything in the Marketplace. If is doesn't have "FREE" next to it, I keep ooooon keepin' oooon.

Hey, I don't fault MS and others for trying to get my money, but I don't have to make it easy for them.

Once gaming goes in the direction that some of you posters predict, I'll just stop gaming all together...or worse...I'll just play Nintendo games. I mean after all, they're not out to "milk" players right? They do it out of an altruistic vision of Utopian sensitivity right?

I think that is everyone's gripe. No one has a problem with the total cost, just give it to us up front instead of some bullshit pricing scheme that makes the game seem cheap at first but are required to download more ($$$) later on.

Like I said, give it to me for $25-$30. The whole game. Put it on a disc for retail at that cost. Actually that is a good idea. I might wait for that to happen before I pick it up, as I have a gut feeling they will.

Yeah I have no problem with expansion pack downloads (ie: GRAW, Oblivion) but that said, X360 games really need to drop to $49.99 new across the board... now.

What do you have against these upcoming 'indie' games who dont distribute to the retail stores and will only be selling on the LIVE marketplace? If you like the game, does it have to be free?

You're in grade graduate school, right? Find some international students, specifically Germans. They'll be extremely hardcore.

Why single me out? Hey I'm basically a Capitalist so I'm all for what they're doing. However, I don't have to participate in it if I don't want too. Believe me; the gaming industry won't die because Giantrobo is Frugal.

That's too bad. I bet with $25 bucks you could get a lot more gameplay out of your system, much more so than buying the average $60 game.

Im saying why be opposed to the method at which new games come to the gamers? If you can buy a fun game online for $20 why does it matter that it doesnt come with a case/disk? You make it sound like its the end of video gaming for you if its downloadable.

What is that in the picture, that resembles a communicator with a cord, right above the headsets?

Resale. Taking it to a friends house. Loaning it out. Hard drive crash(always have a copy handy on disc) Having a manual that actually explains the game and how to earn specific achievements(sounds silly but go for Zuma's and you will quickly learn a book would be nice).

So there are almost a half dozen reasons right there.