Last week, the New York Times' Dave Itzkoff offered a cerebral look at the often-convoluted but engrossing storyline of the Metal Gear Solid series.

"Is the Sisyphean mission of Solid Snake - to rid the world of a robotic nuclear tank called Metal Gear - a parable about the futility of war or about its necessity? A critique of America's domination of the global stage?" wrote Itzkoff.

I said cerebral, didn't I? Now, granted, I don't know how much average MGS gamers consider such philosophical paths, but to have such ideas put forth in the New York Times speaks volumes about where the industry is today.

But wait, there's more!

In perhaps a moment of temperance to the exuberant article by Rolling Stone's Pete Travers last month (which claimed the cinematics of Grand Theft Auto IV ranked as the best movie of the summer so far), Pulitzer prize-winning author and avid gamer Junot Diaz hails the game as an enjoyable immersion in fictional bad boys and bad behavior, but not "the chosen one" in a Wall Street Journal article.

If you haven't, Google these articles. Even if you aren't a gamer, they all firmly entrench video game narratives as the stuff of mainstream pulp fiction.

Xbox 360 cuts prices, Sony PS3 adds

The rumors of an Xbox 360 price cut have been around for almost a year now, but the time is coming very soon.

Various sneak peeks at retail ads and an insider at a major retailer have confirmed that the Microsoft Xbox 360 premium edition will have a $50 price drop this month. That means the system, which is now $349, will only be $50 more than a Nintendo Wii.

That won't stop the Nintendo onslaught, but it could be the beginning of price war that always benefits players.

By the time you read this, Sony's new update (version 2.40) for the Playstation 3 will bring opportunities for players of that console similar to abilities Xbox live owners have taken for granted. The kicker is that 360 owners pay $50 a year for things such as trophies ("achievements" for the 360), texting friends in-game, and streaming your own music while you play. Users will find that the two services still aren't on par with each other, however. PS3 users still won't be able to voice-chat with other users without quitting a game, and most of the in-game services aren't backward-compatible, meaning older PS3 games won't be able to utilize the new features.

Still, it is better than what Sony gamers had, and it's . . . free!