It can be hard to believe, but the Playstation 2 was launched all the way back in 2000, at the beginning on the decade.  It launched at $300 – not couch change, but it didn’t exactly break the bank, either.  After all, the original Playstation launched at $300 as well.  However, Sony decided to double that for the launch of the Playstation 3, which clocked in at a whopping $600 for the 60GB version.  The Xbox 360 was more expensive as well, costing $400 for the top-end model at launch.  There is no doubt that these were costly, but it wasn’t the worst part of the decade.  A one-time cost for a console that will last you 5-10 years of great gaming?  That’s fine.  It’s all the rest that has emptied our wallets.

The price of games has skyrocketed with the most recent generation of gaming.  While PC and Nintendo Wii games, for the most part, remain at $50, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 jacked up the price to $60 for new titles, citing increased development costs.  $10 might not seem like a whole lot, but when you establish a double-digit game library, all of a sudden it adds up.

Another popular way for companies to take our money was to charge a monthly fee.  Xbox Live Gold was the first subscription model for consoles, costing $50 per year.  But let’s not forget about Massively Multiplayer Online games.  MMOs were in no way invented in this decade, but they went mainstream with releases like World of Warcraft.  Millions of people are paying up to $15 per month to enjoy these games, all while paying $50 for the game and maybe another $40 per year for expansions.  I don’t even want to think about how much money we’ve all spent on these titles over the years – too much, to be sure.

But that’s not the worst of it.  No, the worst thing to come out of this decade is downloadable content, or DLC.  The idea of this content is great: you can expand your game while sitting on your couch, prolonging the enjoyment of it.  Unfortunately, virtually all downloadable content is overpriced.  We all laughed when horse armor for Oblivion came out for $2.50.  Who on earth is going to pay that?  Well, apparently a lot of people.  Charging $10 for 3 new maps is increasingly becoming the standard, even though the stand-alone game usually contains about 15 maps, the entirety of multiplayer content, the single-player content, and whatever else comes with the game.  That’s not to say all DLC is bad – there are plenty of games that have great content available for download.  Unfortunately, these are usually far and few between.

You know what, though?  It’s all been worth it.  This decade has been perhaps the greatest for gaming, ever.  There have been tons of great games with decade, and many of them have attracted a new audience, particularly with the Wii and DS.  I love the power of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, even if it costs me a premium.  Plus, $15 arcade games can help even out the $60 price-point.  My only real complaint would be the ridiculous prices of some downloadable content, since I don’t think I’ll ever be able to justify spending $10 for three maps.  Still, it’s hard to blame the developers, since millions of these map packs are being sold.  All in all, this was a great decade for gaming, and I can’t wait to see what the next one brings.

Activision seems to be on quite a roll with pissing off their user base.  Their newest declaration may top the heap: Activision wants to start charging an online fee to play their Call of Duty games, similar to World of Warcraft.

Speaking at BMO Capital Market Conference, the CFO of Activision Blizzard, Thomas Tippl, said, “You should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty.”

While he admits it may be difficult to replicate the same format that World of Warcraft uses, there is no doubt that Tippl is looking forward to charging even more to play Activision’s games.  I guess charging $60 for the games with a few $10 map packs thrown in isn’t enough…

Click here to buy: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for our lowest price.

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Ever wanted to record an epic kill from a video game?  We have you covered.  Here is a simple, cheap and effective way to capture video from a game console.  Below, you’ll find everything you need to accomplish this for all major consoles, including Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

First, you’ll need an item called a Dazzle. (the Dazzle Plus comes with software to help you edit the video that you capture)  It’s primary purpose is to record to DVDs, but instead we are going to have it record to your computer.  Then, you’ll need a Standard AV Cable.  Both of these items are needed, regardless of what console you want to record from.  Finally, you’ll need one more cable, specific to each console:

Xbox 360: Xbox 360 S Video AV Cable
Playstation 3: PS3 S-video Cable
Wii: Wii S-Video/AV Cable

Once, you have all of these items, all you have to do is set it up.  The setup should go like this (we’ll use Xbox 360 for this example):

Xbox 360 > S-video AV cable > TV > Standard AV cable > Dazzle > PC

To be more specific, connect the Xbox 360 to the TV using the S-video cable, like you normally would.  Then, use the standard AV cable and plug it into the TV “out” input, connecting the other end into the Dazzle.  Finally, connect the Dazzle to your computer using the included USB cable.  Finally, install the software (also included with the Dazzle) and you’re ready to record anything you do on your game console.

And there you have it.  For under $60, you get a simple, cheap, and effective way to record anything from your game console.  It should be noted that you can you also record from older consoles, like the Playstation 2 or Xbox, by using the same setup but just replacing the console-specific S-video AV cable.

This setup will only record an SD signal.  If you want to record in HD, see how to capture, record and edit an HD signal.

Print may be a dying breed, but there are still quite a few quality gaming magazines to be read.  Many of the authors here at LifeTwitch subscribe to one or more, so we take a look at how these magazines fare against each other.  Here is our top six:

6. Play

Starting with a UK version in 1995, Play Magazine has always been a quality magazine with reviews and previews you could rely on.  A version for the US started in 1999, and both magazines still run today.

5. GamePro

One of the longest running magazines, GamePro has been in existence since 1989. It’s reviews have been criticized as being inconsistent, but the magazine has good insight into the industry.

4. & 3. PlayStation: The Official Magazine& Official Xbox Magazine

I won’t try to list one of these over the other, as they are both quality magazines.  Sometimes you have to take their reviews with a grain of salt since they are so closely associated with Sony and Microsoft, but usually they do a good job of being unbiased.  They get plenty of exclusive previews for titles, making these magazines a good choice for a console-specific magazine.

2. Edge

Without a doubt, Edge is one of the best gaming magazines around.  It has editions for both the US and UK, and both are quality magazines.  Perhaps it’s only fault is that it does not seem to get much exclusive content.  Regardless, Edge reports well on the stories it does run.

1. GamePro

Game Informer was pretty much the unanimous choice from our TwitchPlay authors.  The magazine always seems to be reasonable with it’s reviews, and gets plenty of exclusive content from all consoles.  If you can only have one magazine, make it Game Informer. Click here to subscribe to GamePro

Perhaps Electronic Gaming Magazine will make this list someday when it comes back into circulation, but for now, this is our list of the best gaming magazines available.  Print isn’t dead, and these magazines prove it.

Gamefly is the Netflix of video games.  It allows you to rent video games for an unlimited amount of time for a monthly fee.  You can keep a game for as long as you want, but you can only have a certain amount of games out at any given time, depending on the subscription plan you choose.  The price is currently $15.95 per month for a one-game-out plan, although there is a free trial and a lower introductory rate at $8.95.  Different plans are also available.  Here is why it is worth it to every gamer to subscribe to Gamefly.

The best reason is to have Gamefly is that it opens up the possibility to play games that you would otherwise never play.  Chances are, if you are a gamer, you’re already playing the best games that come out each year, and Gamefly probably won’t help you with these games.  But what about the other hundreds of games that come out each year?  Take me, for example.  One of the best games I have played this generation was Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.  After never playing a Banjo Kazooie game before and hearing average reviews for Nuts & Bolts, I certainly wasn’t going to buy it.  But renting a game from Gamefly is much less of an investment than buying it, so I added it to my queue.  A few months later, I was still playing this game daily.  It was an amazing game that I never would have played otherwise.

But how much did it cost to keep a game rented for 2 months?  Not nearly as much as it would have cost to buy it.  At $15.95, you would have to keep a game rented for a whopping four months for it to cost roughly as much as if you bought it.  The price gets even better if you opt for better plans, costing just $8.00 for each additional game.

When you think about it, how many games do you really play for four months before shelving it?  The truth is, Gamefly will not only save most people money, but it will let them experience games they otherwise would have passed on.  Compared to standard renting services, Gamefly is a steal.  Frankly put, every gamer should subscribe to Gamefly.

Is this a sign of things to come for the PS3?  The Wii has been struggling as of late, but can a price drop change it’s fortune?  It’s very possible that the Wii’s run of being the cominant console is coming to an end.  Even the Xbox 360 has been creeping up on the Wii lately.  Many questions will be answered in the coming months.

Here is the full rundown of sales for the week of August 31st to September 6th in Japan:

- PS3: 151,783
- DSi: 60,419
- PSP: 22,184
- Wii: 21,557
- DS Lite: 8,309
- Xbox 360: 6,827
- PS2: 3,001

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