Live is free! .....for PC.

So Microsoft announced what everyone knew they had to do if they wanted to compete with Steam in any way, shape or form... they made Games for Windows Live free. That means they get all the features they did before, including cross-platform play with 360, for no monetary value whatsoever.

Ok, so, where does that leave us Xbox gamers who still have to shell out every year? I mean, I was ok with it for awhile because a majority of the games I want to play online are 360 exclusive. But now just because I have a white box I have to pay where PC players don't have to? Say what you will about the features of Live, they certainly are robust and they exceed those of the PSN in general, but truth be told all online PS3 games I've played have had little to no lag in them whatsoever. Any lag there has been has never been a killer of the experience. However, on Xbox Live, the service I'm paying $50 a year for, every single Halo match I play has some sort of lag to it. Every single big team battle I play, forget about it, is tremendously laggy to the point of making me downright enraged at people that I'm trying to shoot literally disappearing from my view and appearing a couple inches to one side or the other and suddenly I die without having any real registry of being shot, screen flashing or controller vibration. So you're telling me that I'm destined to give money to Microsoft for pairing me with people who kick my ass up and down the block in laggy matches of up to 16 people when I can get a less laggy experience with 32-40 players (more when some of the new games come out like Resistance 2 with 60 players and MAG with 256) for free? Call me crazy but I'm willing to give up some luxuries like sending game invites to people and voice chat that doesn't carry over into games for better online play without a $50 price tag attached.

PS - You may wonder if I just have a crappy connection, so I'll put that to rest. First and foremost, it seems unlikely it's my connection if I'm having a completely different experience on a different console using the same connection. Second, I'm getting 12-15mbps down and about 1mbps up. Well surpasses the minimum requirements for online play. Am I just being a whiney little baby? Let me know.