Another franchise might be brewing after the success of the two Star Wars Trilogy (or is that TRILOGIES?) games on X-Box, GameCube, and PS2.
A LEGO Batman game, evidently influenced by the comics more than the movies (there IS a God!), is coming out next year. Thanks goodness the development is by the same team that worked on the previous LEGO Star Wars games (check again for the existence of God) and NOT the publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive.
Can LEGO Justice League, LEGO Superman, etc. be very far behind now?
This has been announced all over the place at the usual videogame and comic book newssites...
(B) X-Box 360 is getting a hardware upgrade. Available ONLY in the X-Box 360 Elite package is the sorely missed HDMI/HVI linkage to produce the absolutely best video quality with HDTV sets. Standard with the Elite model is a 120GB hard drive. $479 for this package. You still have to buy the HD-DVD drive (DOORSTOP by next year if trends hold) add-on separately.
The previously released X-Box 360 models can also be upgraded with the same 120GB hard drive for $179.99. You'll have to trade in the whole system, though, for the HDMI connection. It's hard-wired into the 360-Elite.
Man, oh man, does it look like I'm NOT getting a PS3 any time soon!
(C) Lots of previously announced Sony "exclusives" are jumping ship or being simultaneously released on the X-Box 360 and PS3. Jumping ship altogether is the Ace Combat series which will see an exclusive NUMBER 6 release on the X-360 in two formats -- game-only and limited edition bundle with a flightstick like the one released with Ace Combat 5.
I guess the last Sony exclusives are the perpetually delayed PS3 version of Gran Turismo and Ratchet & Click 5?
(D) By this time next year, there should be a clear winner in the high-def DVD wars. Looks increasingly like it will be Blu-Ray as no announcements for major HD-DVD releases for Europe or Japan are forthcoming. Also, since the beginning of this year, Blu-Ray sales have been outpacing HD-DVD software sales by 2-1 or better.
Predictions are that sub-$300 Blu-Ray players should hit market sometime next year. Hopefully, decent sized TVs with TRUE 1080p broadcast capability will drop below $1200 sometime in the near future as well.
hey! hey! -- 200 posts! 
(took me 2½ years to get there, though)
