That's nice, but pretty useless for the laptop I run 90% of the time. The few times I have used multiple monitor displays (work, mainly) the standard support in friggin XP does everything I need it to.

Client what now? For most people including myself this isn't remotely useful. Under what circumstances does the average consumer need to make use of virtualisation?

Woo, more cloud bullshit and opportunities to give M$ control over my personal life. Again, I can't think of many circumstances where this would actually be useful. People who need to keep accessing the same files from different computers all the time (for some reason) are probably already well equipped with established cloud services or even *gasp* memory sticks.

Well isn't this Windows 8's Un-unique Selling Point. i.e. their answer to the App Store. Hint: most people with a fetish for walled gardens are probably already well established with Apple. Those of us who actually value a choice and freedom already know how to use Google to find free Apps (remember when we didn't have the need to abbreviate and capitalise the word 'applications').

Because criticising M$'s grasp on anything related to security is like picking on the disabled kid in the playground, I'll just mention that Windows Defender already exists (and contradicting myself here, isn't actually too bad). The vast majority of the planet who are already using older M$ products no doubt already have one or more antivirus solutions. Since as anyone with half a brain knows, it's lunacy to rely on a single point of protection. So again, while this is a nice feature (and arguably should have been standard on an OS since at least a decade ago) what exactly new does it bring to the table?

Of course, all the above counter arguments for upgrading are pretty irrelevant since there is still enough momentum in the Windows empire that you can guarantee new PCs will be sold with it as standard before long. However, this release probably has the least compelling reasons to upgrade thus far. XP and 7 were tangible and substantial improvements over their predecessors. Vista was a turd as we all know, but at least it was a shiny turd. People won't be as impressed by the UI changes this time around. I'm thinking from the point of view of the average non-geek and I still can't see why anyone would rush out to buy this.

I'd be more interested if they were releasing the sound assets. Open, free to use sound effects are hard to come by.

Oh great, I hadn't even finished reading your post before making the Apple fanboy statement. Some things really do speak for themselves.

It's no coincidence that publicly traded companies like EA and Activision are the pioneers of this garbage, and privately-held Valve refuses to participate (see their longstanding refusal to charge for DLC on the Xbox, for example). Valve knows that in the long-run, angering their customers will result in fewer gamers and a declining industry.

What the fuck? I guess your brain must have selectively filtered out the unremovable ads that have been present in CS 1.6 for years (courteousy of Massive Inc no less). Unfortunately there are too many people like you being duped by Valves Reality Distortion Field, and are doing gamers a tremendous disservice by giving Valve a free ride on several issues. Steam is and has always been a resource sucking DRM scheme dressed up as something less repugnant. Shame you won't find out until you want to play 10 year old games on machine from that same era, or find your account suddenly disabled with no explanation. You remind me of Apple fanbois.

If I found out that an idiot with a toy helicopter was causing my wifi to drop on a regular basis, I would do my best to ensure that it experienced an mysterious loss of control. Preferable while 100ft above a lake or busy highway.

How fortunate that the medium of games is, by it's nature, more than feasible for the hobbyist or non-commercial to contribute to. I'm never really concerned about the Jack Thompsons of the world and those who favour yet more nanny-state laws. Censor what appears on the shelves until you are blue in the face, you will not stop modders and independent developers from releasing their stuff for free.

You fail to realise that the worst-case laws that outlaw all anonymising software, open wifi access points, p2p software, and the introduction of total internet surveillance will happen ANYWAY, EVERYWHERE in the world. Only when this situation has been suffered for many years will the pendulum start to swing the other way with a change in culture and peoples tolerances, possibly even revolution. The sooner the dystopia starts, the sooner it will end.

In the past most game demos were not a cheap copy of the games first few levels. Half-Life's Uplink demo was a short high quality standalone episode that is worth playing in its own right, and was an awesome incentive (for me at the time) to buy the full game. Darwinia also had an addictive demo featuring a unique level not included in the full game. When custom made demos such as these are released, completing them is far more satisfying than walking through some random door and have a message saying "Please buy the full version to continue". When I play a game for the first time I want it to be a fresh experience, not something I have already seen in the demo. This modern trend and the whole tone of the article just stink of the greed and laziness that pervade the mature games industry.

More likely its actually that campers favorite from Half-Life the tau cannon..