"1- Why isn't installation optional?"

Easy, if every console has a hard-disc and it gives you a significant boost you will use it because otherwise you would have to do a complete testing of the non-HD install which means you will have to go through every damn scene of the game and see to it that the resource loading doesn't result in framerate drops, long load times, etc. pp.

"2- Why is installation not allowed on the 360 (with the condition of having a HDD installed of course)?"

Equally easy if NOT every console has a HD you have to make your program run decently on a non-HD console anyway. If you did this, programming a version that uses HD will be extra effort without much return on investment.

Spiderman 3

Expect more games like this in the future.

@ GGE

But is that so bad? I wouldn't mind spending half an hour at one time, to never have load times? Am I the only one who doesn't see this as a big deal? I mean, I'll end up with the 360 one cuz I don't have a PS3, but if I had the choice to spend twenty five minutes so I wouldn't have any load times in the game, I'd take it. It'd more than be made up by the end of the game. I welcome this. If it was optional it'd be better, so I could jump right into the game, but I don't mind waiting a few minutes to play a game. I had to wait an hour before I could play FFXI on my XBOX 360. You know what I did during that, something else. Not a big deal to me.

@ Fuzzmosis )

I always wonder how people can be so angry about things ,that don't even affect them personally .. a real mystery.

For PS3 gamers, the problem I see with this is that if this starts happening with many games, they'll soon have to keep deleting and reinstalling games whenever they feel like playing a game they haven't touched for some time. Companies should refrain from making this kind of installation mandatory, it could become quite annoying (especially if each installation takes 25 minutes).

@ NJ5

Oh, that makes sense. But since you can swap hard drives, or use an external one to save, when I get mine, I'm gonna use a 500GB external one I had for my comp that my dad bought me but I hardly use to store downloads if need be, and I am gonna upgrade it to 250GB internally (Didn't a company come out with like a 350 or 400 gb 2.5" one recently? I think I remember reading it somewhere, maybe at CES?)

Dmeisterj, do you hear yourself? Does that actually sound like a convenience? Switching Harddrives? Do you not see the problem this is becoming? Dear god where does it end?

I think the people with the sarcastic comments saying "Oh No! Not 25 mins!" are missing the long term implication of this type of thinking.

I am sure I am not the only one who has seen this trend start lat gen with the XBox moving toward PC-esque game consoles. Soon these consoles will just be low end PCs (though in my opinion they are almost that already) with TV video outs and proprietary controllers.

Consoles are supposed to (at least in my opinion) be special purpose hardware designed to implement gaming efficiently. They should not be general computing machines, we all have PCs for that.

I see some more completely unbiased posts coming from GGE as usual

/Sarcasm

So do you post anything relevant to discussion on the forum or is making cowardly attacks that dodge the issue at hand your only niche here? What? You can't think of anyway to actually defend the PS3 in this topic so you attack the easiest target instead? Brilliant.

25 minute install time = Not that big a deal

Filling up your harddrive and having to delete and or reinstall games to play them = Big deal!

Call it biased all you want I think you'll find anyone not with a reason to put the PS3 on the pedistal of perfection will agree this is a worrisome inconvenience. You don't have to be a Nintendo/MS fanboy to appreciate the "Oh-Shit" implications of this problem.