Early music games shared the conceptual idea of "you can be the star of all these rock songs" and "you" naturally extends to your avatar.

Later on, real people were licensed into the game to add the gameplay of "you can be your idol".

Combine those two concepts and you have the mash-up of the century. You can be any rock star singing any song. It only took us Curt Cobain to figure out how ridiculous that was.

The Beatles estate did the right thing by saying only the Beatles are the Beatles. Other bands appearing in music games are just as unique, they only do not have the power to be treated fairly by an industry. Be mashed up or be gone is all the choice they have. For me that does not raise the questions if the Beatles game is the odd one, but if all the other music games were done "right" in that sense.

If that game told me anything, then it is the impossibility of rating a game on a scale and expect every player to be represented by that scale.

As a reader of reviews, Demon's Souls shows me that beyond presentation, sound and gameplay, the fundamental thing a review should tell me, is whether I am compatible to the design choices of the game I read about.

A game could be perfect in every department and yet fail to capture me due to the way the gameplay was set up. At some point gameplay can go several ways. None of these ways needs to be bad, often all choices are good in their own way. But they are choices nonetheless and some people will always be alienated by them.

For example, not being able to build a base is not be a bad thing in an RTS, such a decision does not yield an automatic -1 on the final score. An RTS can still be a 10/10 allowing no bases to be build. But for some player that decision will be THE reason not to buy the game.

Demon's Souls appears to be a radical game. No gameplay decision was inherently bad, no resulting gamplay is really bad, but the tastes in gaming it caters to is far off the pampered mainstream of regenerating health and quick progress through an action packed cinematic adventure. All ratings aside, this game challenges the way how to write a review and how to inform the reader. No quick glance at a number will tell you if this game is any good, only reading about how it interacts with the player, how it treats you, will tell the reader if Demon's Souls is something to buy.

$200 for PS1 generation games? I haven't felt that sorry for Latin America in a long time.

Then again, the people really being ripped off here might be the first world investors spending money on this company. Zeebo claims to be cheaper now, but we know Sony can undercut their price in a heartbeat.

They will, no doubt, offer only totally butchered versions of the more violent movies on that list as far as Germany is concerned. I would also be surprised if they offered the original language versions. Again, driving a 12 inch nail through your knee is better than listening to uninspired German dubbing efforts that challenge even the worst video games in their lack of quality.

With TWO competitors on the market not charging money for multiplayer features, I don't see why prices should rise. If anything, they should drop.

Another problem are 3rd party developers. Imagine Infinity Ward developing multiplayer for PC, PS3 and 360 only to see ANOTHER company earning money on their userbase via subscriptions.