I went through 3 months of Marine Corps Recruit training. It was short notice and I was lucky enough to only be a polee for a month. Before April I had no intention of enlisting and had reserved Mass Effect. Cancled it cuz I thought I'd still be in combat training when it came out, and in another state. Wound up being in another state, yeah but got lucky enough to get a first run copy of Mass Effect 2.
I got Hot Pursuit for 360 and the lady at Gamespot offered me the used copy since I originally picked out the new one. Happy she saved me a few bucks and all... But yeah, open the game up and there's a little sheet of paper talking about Autolog pass. I type in the code and it says it's not valid. It cost 600 MS points to activate Autolog Pass and you need a Pass to play online races. :\ Yeah, 600 points ain't nothing. I've spent 2000 points on stupid Avatar light sabers and clothes. But it's the principal, damnit! Microsoft already gets $50 a year so I have access to XBox Live, so why should I pay someone else for access I should already have cuz I'm paying for it? Even if the game is used.
Really, EA licensed/made/produced/whatever alot of games I like. I also played a lot of NBA street, and I've always been a NFS fan since the original Hot Pursuit, so I had every NFS since. And Def Jam Fight for NY was my favorite game for awhile. In retrospect, they have good licenses, and many say Activision is the greater evil. (Kind of agree)
Honestly was concerned for the Mass Effect series when I heard EA bought BioWare and it turned out fine. So I really wouldn't be worried about Dragon Age II or Mass Effect 3 raping my wallet with micro transactions...and won't be until rumors of a Mass Effect Multi Player forced by EA comes true.
Really, I guess it comes down to this: Don't like EA, but they own Criterion (Burnout) DICE/Black Box (NFS) and BioWare (Mass Effect) so I have to tolerate the company that monopolized the NFL games. Whatever...