Gaming takes a turn, enters our hearts & wallets

Another great FPS game on console that broke boundaries was Halo on the Xbox. Microsoft knew this was going to be the next big thing - Bungie originally coded games for the Mac and Microsoft then purchased them to acquire Halo and make it an Xbox exclusive.

Halo introduced high quality gaming to a console that had to fight tooth and nail to survive against the ever-so-amazing Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Both PlayStation consoles never really had an FPS that took off, so Microsoft had a way into the market.

It worked.

Microsoft now have a very, very successful console and market to sell hardware, games, accessories, XBL, Xbox Live Market Place, etc.

But in this fight for console supremacy, has Microsoft forgotten what made the Windows platform so great for gamers? - Pushing new Direct X versions every year, bringing new features and functions for developers to take advantage of?

Microsoft recently has promised to "double-down" on PC gamers, but we've had the same promises from AAA based gaming developers promising their next AAA title will not be a console port. Cevat Yerli of Crytek recently bragged about how good the PC version of Crysis 2 will be, yet it is simply not even a shadow of its former self.

What a trip in history, eh? I haven't even touched some huge titles such as Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Far Cry or any of the other games that debuted on PC and went on to live right up until now as games that are still getting sequels, and if not, they're still loved by fans all over the world.

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Multiplayer wise, it was mods like Counter Strike that shot multiplayer gaming to the point it is now. Without it, we may not have the competitive multiplayer world that we do now.