I remember analysts originally saying how the PS3 would dominate the next-gen console wars. Well, it’s been over a year now, and, not so much. Analysts and industry “experts” still claim a comeback. Some say as early as 2008 the PS3 could bring Sony back into the next-gen war.

Media analyst firm Screen Digest is feeling confident in the media capabilities of the PS3. They think it’s going to make a strong increase in 2008. Senior games analyst, Piers Harding-Rolls, says “Now that these multi-media services - online video, IPTV, digital terrestrial TV and PVR functionality - are now available or poised to come on line in different markets, this ‘hub’ strategy is emerging as a key console battleground for Microsoft and Sony.” [Computer And Video Games]

Other sources have said it may take as long as 2011 before the Playstation 3 catches up with the runaway success of Nintendo’s Wii. Me, well, I think it’s gonna remain in third place as long as the price remains higher than competitors and the console’s library consists of more than a few decent Blu-Ray movies and one or two good games each year.

What are your thoughts? We love to hear what everybody thinks. Comment below and let us know.

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Before I send you off to another site to see the list they’ve made of the best free games of 2007 I’m gonna tell you the games I picked. While my picks aren’t exactly freeware in the traditional sense, I’d like to share them. First of all the Portal Flash game is the best alternative to the real thing. It’s great fun and you don’t even have to download anything. Second, the newly available Fury MMO. It was originally planned to be sold for money, you may have even paid for it, bummer. Thanks to the company’s financial problems you get a free game. While it may not be the best of MMO’s it’s not bad for free. Finally, it may not have come out this year, but F.E.A.R. Combat (the multiplayer version of F.E.A.R.) is totally free and pretty freakin sweet as well.

Okay I’m done, here’s the link to GameSetWatch’s top freeware games of 2007.

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Hey, score one for PS3! They don’t charge for any online service, although they don’t really have much reason to right now anyway. Yeah, and the Wii I guess, whatever. Microsoft officially announced a downgrade to anyone using a Silver (free) Xbox Live account. If you’re not willing drop the $50 a year, you’ll be missing out on downloadable content, at least for the first week or two anyway.

Can you believe Microsoft is actually downgrading services at this point? You’d think they would want to continue undercutting the competition by extending the Silver membership abilities. They’re not exactly going to expand the audience this way. What do you think? Comment on this story below.

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Ubisoft has released some new info on the new Rainbow Six Vegas game. We here at Counter Agent can’t wait for this game, we loved the first one. Heres the release.

More…

Halo 3 Legendary Edition Xbox 360 only $60 at Walmart.com, online only. This is a limited time offer, so if you just gotta have that cat helmet, hurry.

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First things first Cheapassgamer.com is a great site. The multitudes of gaming deals it brings us everyday are amazing. David Abrams aka CheapyD or your man in Japan, has turned a simple forum for those of us who hate paying full price into a community of like minded gamers who hate paying full price. Along with his partner in crime Wombat they offer a great podcast called the CAGcast. Cheapy’s insight into video games is pretty dead on and sometimes he is even funny.

CheapyD can’t use is online fame just for selfish purposes though. Even though he was recently featured on G4TV’s Attack of the Show in the Global LOOP, he has not forgotten the kids. Once again CAG has set up a fund so that visitors to CAG can donate to the Child’s Play Charity that Penny Arcade set up. As of this post they have collected over 13,000 dollars overtaking the mere 10,000 dollars they donated last year. For every $5 you donate you get a raffle ticket from CAG for some great prizes from CAG. They are running this through DEC. 31 although CheapyD hinted at making it go longer.

Good on ya CAG way to do something good.

Good news PS3 owners, the patch that will allow you to use Guitar Hero 3 guitars for Rock Band is ready to go. Harmonix finished the patch and gave it to Sony for release. So why haven’t you gotten it yet? Harmonix reps posted this on their forum.

“Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision’s Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch’s release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision’s continued objection.”

Well done Activision. I would be angry about this but it is just for PS3 owners. I think all the different guitar controllers should work if, and to me this is big, your not gonna make guitars available to purchase separate from the game. But once again PS3 owners get screwed.

What is Fury? And why is it Free? Here’s a quote from the developers website, “Combat with the exciting pace of an FPS game, and the strategic depth and character development of an RPG.”

It’s another free MMORPG. But this one is different from a lot of the others lately. It wasn’t meant to be free. It seems the developer Auran has run into a bit of a money problem. They’ve had to cut jobs and outsource their support services to China. Oh, and bonus, now you can play Fury for free.

Here’s some of the links. UnleashTheFury.com (official site), Free 2 Play (info about free Fury), and finally the link to download the game (the Fury forums).

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There’s a Mario energy drink, and we knew there was for over a year. Suddenly, after over a year of this story being out (see: Kotaku for the original post), the story resurfaces as new.

Here’s what went down. Some chick, by the name of Scuzzi, a chunky, 5′7″, chinese girl with a quick tempered dragon personality, (I didn’t say it, her Flickr profile did), posted a picture of the Mario energy drink (described only as “blue-raspberry” in flavor) to her Flickr account. Someone Diggs it (FameMoney on Digg). The Diggs pile up, currently numbering 1036. Then, everyone and their brother write a post about the drink. Seriously, check out some of the more prominent links I found:

http://technabob.com/blog/2007/12/09/super-mario-power-up-energy-drink-just-add-vodka/

http://www.destructoid.com/super-mario-power-up-energy-drink-contains-cocaine-58969.phtml

http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/super_mario_energy_drink_its_a.php

http://www.complex.com/blogs/2007/12/12/power-up-with-super-marios-energy-drink/

http://static.flickr.com/79/222480103_3f1fd05448.jpg

So, CounterAgent, in the spirit of not wanting to be left out, is also posting about this story. Why, because Super Mario is awesome, and so is Energy. And when you put the two together it doesn’t matter how old the story is, it just rocks! Oh yeah, I almost forgot, you can buy the drink online at gkworld.com for $2.95 a can, if it’s still in stock that is.

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Run to Your Grave from the mae shi on Vimeo.

I found this great band and they had this great video, it’s The Mae Shi with the song Run To Your Grave. I found them on Chime.tv, which is a great place to watch videos online. The video is actually over at Vimeo, which is another great place to find stuff not on YouTube. I just thought I’d share it with the CounterAgent audience. I was also wondering, should I continue writing and posting about music related stuff here on CounterAgent or on the new SuperLame spinoff?

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