OK, obviously I was wrong. Gears of War PC/Windows Live is a nightmarish, desktop-crashing, slide-show framerate disaster (on my PC anyway) that makes Hellgate's launch iteration seem like a fabled paragon of stability and smooth running efficiency.  So, Blackjach shall return to the sloppiness that is Hellgate and see if he can at least finish the game once at Normal.

Well, I give up on this at this point. Maybe when I get a new PC with the dreaded Vista, Windows Live won't crash the game every 10 seconds.  I was able to get it to run maybe once or twice, but even then I'd briefly glimpse a "wargame_windowsLive.exe" file crash message in the background briefly. Now I can't get the game to run at all, it just won't avoid crashing to desktop long enough.

I just don't see why they had to tie the game so tightly into Windows Live crap that I can't even get to enjoy the single player stuff.

[Addendum!]

Well, never mind. Despite updating my ATI drivers to the latest, installing the required AMD CPU driver (!) and patching the game, the game crashes to the desktop roughly every 15 seconds with the typical Microsoft useless error message memory address garbage. I can't even keep it running long enough to see what the game looks like. 

Addendum! Ahem. OK, premature rant. Apparently at 1024X768 the game crashes like mad on my system but it's quite stable at other resolutions. I do have an aging system and it just runs OK, but it seems less sluggish than the Unreal-engined MOH: Airborne, fwiw.

It looks fine. I'm not crazy about the camera view being so zoomed in (I prefer the adjustability as in Hellgate).

What seems to be crashing like mad is the Live.exe component of the game, but the game .exe itself seems fine.

Addendum 2: Well, now it's back to crashing like mad. I'm at a loss. And no, clicking the "technical details" or "about this error" don't give anything remotely helpful in terms of troubleshooting the problem. I'll do some research.

[Thanks.]

I'm pretty sure that:
A) I'm the only person here without an XBox360 [I exaggerate, but it feels that way  ]
B) I'm the only person who bought the PC version of Gears of War.

Just thought I'd check though if I'm wrong about B. Would love to do the campaign co-op with anyone interested. If there isn't anybody here, that's OK, just checking.

The PC version comes with one month of Games for Window LIVE! which is, well, useless to me unless there is really anyone interested in co-op on this (I don't think the online team DM stuff will interest me much).

Oh I must give Kudos to Epic for actually making parts of the EULA agreement both entertaining and more understandable to read. For example:

Thanks.  We’re Epic Games, Inc. of Cary, North Carolina U.S.A. (“Epic”).  We would like to congratulate you and thank you for licensing our Software. We’re sorry to cramp your style, but our lawyers tell us that if we want to keep control and ownership of the cool stuff we and our licensors are developing, we have to make sure you understand and agree that you are just buying a right to use it and that that right is limited in certain ways.

Cheating.  Nobody likes a cheater.  It’s a disgraceful way to earn a win and really is an insult to those players who earn their wins in on-line games the old-fashioned way-WITH TALENT.  We’re pretty hard on cheating in on-line games using the Software because it sullies the overall gaming experience and is JUST PLAIN LAME.  With that in mind, if you are caught cheating in an on-line game using the Software we will immediately and permanently ban your CD Key.  At that point, this License Agreement is automatically terminated and you must immediately delete this software from your PC.  Failure to comply with this last bit (deleting the software) may bring on the wrath of the lawyers.  Trust us…you don’t want that.

Termination.  This license is effective until one of us terminates it.  You may terminate this license at any time by destroying the Software and related documentation.  In the unlikely event that you are naughty and fail to comply with any provision of this license, this license will terminate immediately without notice from us.  Upon termination, you must destroy the Software and related documentation.  Please don’t wait for us to come after you; it would not be pleasant for either of us.  If we do have to come after you, we’re going to expect you to pay us for our troubles, including the cost of our lawyers.

I think that's the first time I actually read the EULA all the way through hoping to find something amusing.

I'm gone from the game, but these are things I would've loved about a year ago. 

I always loved those bizzaro Fifth Column names (Unterweizeroffizerierire etc.). I remember Statesman/Jack Emmert (no longer involved with the game post-NCSoft acquisition) dropping hints ages ago (maybe years ago) that they would bring the 5th Column back "in some form, some day."

I just find it peculiar that in many places (not just here), perhaps the best-reviewed game (probably only Halo 3 got better reviews) of 2007 suddenly has so many nit-pickers crawling out of the cracks. I really can't believe anyone thinks a Bioshock followup without Levine's involvement would be for the best. To me it sounds like a publisher-mentality that designers and dev teams are interchangeable, and you can get the same results by just plucking someone from the dev team and pasting "from the creators of blah blah" on it. We might as well say the Civ games would be a lot better if they'd just get that pesky, picky Sid Meier off the series. 

Ms. Gossipmonger's rumors may well be true, but I'm a longtime (now former) newspaperman and I've learned to not always trust people who slander other people (Levine in this case) from behind an anonymous identity (if she said this kind of bilge about Levine in a newspaper, he could probably sue her for libel), something the Internet and blogs have basically given everyone the power to do now without worrying about facts or attribution.

As far as Irrational goes, my understanding was Levine worked more with the Canberra, Australia team (which did most of the work on the Freedom Force games). The 2K Boston team worked on SWAT 4 and its expansion. If there was any friction, it might well have been geographical, or simply that 2K Boston and 2K Canberra/Aus. don't work or think the same way, or maybe 2K Boston wanted a straightforward shooter and Levine wanted something more ambitious. Well here I go contributing to Internet conjecture.

One problem I have understanding the resistances is what constitutes a "good" resistance rating.

I mean, is 360 "good?" Is 780 "good", "mediocre" etc? I just don't have a basis of comparison to go by. If I knew optimal was for every resistance to be at least 500, 600, whatever, I would focus on trying to attain that.

I was by night's end (I think I'm at the final Station, working my way to the actual Hellgate) able to wear the boots above.  I'm still getting shredded by certain kinds of enemies, and I think I need a serious Shock Protection upgrade. The Mini Dynamos in particular, and the Bile flying puffer fish monstrosities still give me... hell. 

Pretty scary.

Although it's a little ironic that Penny Arcade is making a big to-do about it, since they've spent weeks decrying all the so-so reviews of Assassin's Creed (which PA has advertised heavily for and done official comic features for, to help promote), complaining the reviewers are idiots who don't "get" the game, except for Gamespot which fawned over it (9/10). PA is of course quick to say they laud games they enjoy and bash things they don't, whether it's advertised on their site or not, and if they bash something they've been advertising they've had advertisers drop out and then later come back (if I'm recalling their older posts about that correctly).

I'm a PC World subscriber, and a while back I was upset that a longtime editor-in-chief was apparently being forced out for pushing for an article about complaints about the design of Apple's products (and Apple's a huge advertiser for PC World, another irony given the magazine's title).

I could've crafted some decent armor finally, but I had already sold off most of my materials in desperation:


A quest gave up some decent boots but as usual I can't wear them yet:


Oh yeah, on the Knowledge quests -- when I complete them, I'm sent to a room with no NPC and no exit. Clicking on the Sigil Post just makes the Knowledge game start over (even though I already completed it). And  now I have this "scoreboard" (Light: 0, Dark: 0) stuck on my screen from one of those. And I can't use a relocation gadget inside the room. So so far, every time I complete a knowledge quest, I have to log out of the game. Just more Hellgate weirdness...

btw, new bug appears to have come out of thin air tonight -- party portals weren't working properly and the General chat channel was flooded with complaints about it (you could read them in between the constant spambot spam ads).

I have to say this giant stupid robot game around L28 is in fact stupid. The controls make no sense to me at all (you can click, and click crosshairs and he basically just seems to get mauled, and he has no special attacks), and I just quit in disgust because once again the game ramps up from enjoyable challenge to "rub your face in dog poop" difficulty without warning, and jumps to a different genre game clumsily to no purpose (and w/ no explanation of the control system) except to remove me from the basic game that I enjoy. Gah!  I think maybe I'll go get Gears of War PC or something and stop torturing myself with this.

Is it just me, or do all screenshots of the game look like something made in 3D Studio Max?

It's just you. 

Just kidding. Is that a bad thing? It seems like just about every PC shooter and lots of console stuff (Mass Effect, Gears of War etc.) on the planet uses 3D Studio Max for character modeling these days. Used to be I'd never see character models like this except in cut scenes/cinematics.

In Hellgate's case, it helps it be a gorgeous looking game whose beauty hides rot and bugs underneath. Basically, it's "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Between this, the Gods & Heroes cancellation and its generally checkered game publishing history, my analytical, thoughtful opinion of Perpetual is that they couldn't find their ...

... oh I'm sorry that wouldn't be fit for a family audience. I just think Perpetual is pretty clueless and they should get out of the games market completely instead of continually hiring and dumping employees (many of whom presumably are talented and deserve better treatment) because they don't know what they're doing from a business standpoint. There, that's the family-friendly way to put it.  You know I'm mad at Perpetual because I have never before used the "Angry" emoticon once, much less twice. 

God said you shouldn't be playing a sinful gore-fest like Hellgate: London ... at least not until it reaches version 1.0.

I'm glad the pundits aren't again putting too much pressure on annointing yet another PS3 game as the Savior of the Console. 

I'm starting to be reminded of Monty Python's "The Life of Brian."

"Look! MGS4! It's the chosen one!"
"Yes! SAVE US, MGS4! Lead us to the promised land!"
"What? No. I'm just a game. Maybe a good game. But I'm not..."
"THERE! MGS4! It is the CHOSEN ONE! IT WILL LEAD US TO THE PS3's HOLY GRAIL!"
"No! NO! I'm just a game! Stop it! I'm not..."
"MGS4! All will fall before it's might and it will lead us to redemption!"
Etc. 

I've a smaller 19" LCD with 1280X1024 native. I spent a lot of time hyperventilating that games I played in 1024X768 rez woulid look distorted or wouldn't fill the screen, but so far all the games I've played at that rez (I had to play MOH: Airborne and COD4 at that rez for frame rate's sake) have still filled the screen without looking distorted, fwiw (since, yeah, it's not widescreen -- I have a hard enough time panning my eyes over a 19" monitor I don't think I could keep up on widescreen  ).

Sorry if I repeated myself. It's a longtime malady of mine. I'd put an emoticon here but we don't have the "embarassed" one available.

On some of the weird late 20s quests, I'm not sure whether to commend the devs for variety or to scold them for mushing small scale RTS, weird budget turret-shooter games and maze-y CTF games (I mean, if I wanted to play CTF, I would've bought the latest Unreal Tournament game  ) into this. I was just glad to see a sprinkling of fresher environments. Oh wait, I probably said that before too. Never mind! 

Actually, I think it's a tool used in Hell for prostate exams. 

Well, I went ahead and switched to a Brainpan (which flips to a red/black color scheme overall), here wielding the famous Urinating Green Laser...

Although I prefer my 25mm rifle on just about everything, those electrical Bile puffer fish things I sometimes have better luck using the green toxic laser on.

If only this game was as cool as the character models. 

I've got some Rifleman Plate I want to switch to sometime (I need the Augmentix to cooperate ) just for the sake of a blue-white armor scheme (Blackjach's been mud-brown forever  )

Alas, by the time he could use the PSGT helmet, it just wasn't worth the drop in armor (I seemed to take a lot more damage when wearing it).

I've experimented with numerous weapons but nothing keeps me dying less than the Masterful 25mm mentioned earlier. 

I spend much time griping about this game, but I play every night and am quite addicted still -- in spite of everything.  And Necropolis = a very cool zone. Albeit I'll probably get sick of it quickly.

So far the environments that debut in Necropolis and Eastcheap zones are my favorites, and are the ones that give me the most hope for the game in terms of some fresh environments (when all the murky brown tunnels and square rooms, and the Hell Zone Layout That Never Changes made me very pessimistic). Necropolis has enough elevations and pathways that I can find ideal grenade-lobbing positions. 

The later I get in the game, the more it feels like a mix of Doom and Serious Sam (though maybe that's just a marksman's perspective  ).

I can't see myself subscribing for some time. Although the upcoming update's supposed to throw subscribers a bone, I'm not seeing any real content updates in the near future worth my moolah.

I finally got a Unique Weapon!  Well, toxic lasers work a bit slow for my tastes but they seem solid on those electrical giant bloated puff fish flyer thingies (I swear I can't remember the names of any monsters in this game):


I can't seem to stop mis-reading what my "real" (i.e., base stats, not w/ equipment modifiers) character stats are, put points in the wrong stats, and keep preventing myself from trying Legendary armor and stuff that has been rotting in my storage locker forever. Maybe next level...

It's sad, I'm a lifelong 'Skins fan (I know right now they're underpaid and underachieving, but given this senseless tragedy, it just doesn't seem important now). 

It really did seem like he was gradually cleaning up his life off the field and to some extent his behavior on the field. I really think his couple nasty spitting incidents years ago came from entering the draft early and generally playing like he had a chip on his shoulder. He still hit hard this year, but I don't recall any of the hits-to-the-head penalties like year's past and he seemed to enjoy being a more pass-defense oriented free safety this year. He had a penchant for missing tackles and coverage sometimes in years past but he was really playing smart this year.

Every time I hear about someone in their teens or 20s dying, esp. in violent crimes, I just hate that their family and friends don't get a chance to see them grow, mature and become whatever they were going to be. I would've liked to have seen Taylor finish his career with the 'Skins, grow paunchy with grey hair. He'd come back to FedEx field on "old timer's day" and maybe tell a self-effacing joke about what an immature punk he was when he first came out of college. We'll never get to see that.

I know around here pundits are saying "Why do I feel bad about Sean Taylor and not all the other youngsters getting killed by gun violence?" I think any loss just hits harder when it's someone you rooted for and were used to seeing on TV every week. I don't think any fan should feel like a hypocrite that they're upset about his death.

I don't think he was a saint, but I do think he was heading in the right direction with his life, and that's really the tragic thing, more so than the Redskins losing their linchpin on defense.

I made it through Act 4. Then the seemingly daily "Server Error" crash to desktop told me it was time to stop for the night. 

The Act 4 end boss was quite challenging, esp. when you're completely out of power thingies and down to your last couple health packs, even though his modus operandi is basically "chase player, whack wildly with scythe, repeat ad nauseam."  I found the act's last environs pretty refreshing even if it's all corridors we played before. The little bit of drama and story made it feel more interesting. I still think the game feels like it was designed by a committee of several subscommittees. And some of the subcommittees did nothing to make their environs or quests interesting; while a few precious others subcommittees actually made some effort to shake up the environs and make a quest/storyline at least a little bit interesting. I just hope the latter subcommittees handle any future content updates. 

[Patch .6 notes]

Yeah, I'm not doing alts like crazy because I just don't feel much like trawling through the exact same content again [mainly, because aside from a few imaginative quests, it's tedious]. I wish maybe it was a bit like Sacred, where different character classes at least got some unique quests to start out on (and some MMOs do that as well).

Patch .6 notes are up at the official site (it isn't live yet, afik):

Patch 0.6 has one very notable fix – the invisible group member bug has been slain.  This was a crafty, fierce thing with rows of nasty sharp teeth, but we believe it has now fallen into the mists of legend. We’ll stay vigilant in case it raises its ugly invisible head again.

We’ve also made great strides on the Engineer Drone issue where items become unequipped. There are some cases where Drones (as well as players), will still have items unequip. The main cause of this is when players “ladder up” the equipment on their Character or Drone by using items with statistic bonuses. This results in the Character or Drone being able to use a better overall set of gear than they normally could, and thus causes issues if the items are not equipped in a specific order (or used at all). We’re continuing to work on this one, but it is better with this patch.

As always, we’re reading the forums, getting your feedback, and seeing your desires for Hellgate. The biggest issue we’re currently working on is the client-side memory usage issue. This is very complex and involved, and we also know that it’s a major issue for users. We’re pouring all of our energies right now into working on the game, so if you don’t see us reply to your posts it doesn’t mean we aren’t listening. It just means we’re working hard to make Hellgate: London a better and better experience.

Full patch Notes...

    General:
    * Fixed a bug that caused group members to be invisible to other group members.
    * Fixed a texture memory leak that occurred when inspecting armor items. This will improve long-term memory usage, especially for players that frequently buy, sell, and analyze items.

    Chat:
    * Increased the number of players in global chat.
    * The chat window no longer overlaps the Crafter merchant UI panel.
    * Fixed a bug that prevented the user from interacting with the chat panel via the mouse when the Buddy List or Guild Panel is open.
    * System messages are now displayed in all chat tabs.
    * The scroll bar on the Guild Panel should now function properly.

    Items:
    * Items dropped in the world now have slightly lower overall feed requirements.
    * Analyzers now work as expected on stashed items.

   Engineers:
    * Fixed a bug that caused items equipped on an Engineer Drone to be unequipped when the Engineer summoned the Drone after changing levels.

   World Movement:
   * Fixed a bug that caused players to be randomly teleported under certain circumstances. [Hallelujah!  ]

They need (imho) to make the chat tabs configurable, add-able, removable (ala COH and LOTORO, among others). Esp. since spam-bots are completely amuck in the general chat channel now (basically, every time you log in, you're welcomed by about a 40-line chat message from one offering to "power level" you and get you all the best items). I find it rather ludicrous that a mostly non-fee game where you can level like crazy just by playing reasonable amounts of time (it's not a grind-fest) is attracting so many spammers and spam-bots like sharks attacking chum. 

I realize it's not an MMO per se, but if they're going to have all these MMO-style quests anyway (btw I'm really glad they have so many hunt quests where you have to "camp" the same map over and over because it doesn't spawn enough baddies to complete the hunt quest  , and that some later quests are so long, you can't complete the quest before the respawning of it drops on your head), they should've at least spent 5 minutes in any modern MMO to see how chat's handled. If they're not going to fix the spam/spambots, at least give us the tools to shut the channel spigot "off."

fwiw, I've tried "leaving" the general chat channel via the new command line stuff but it doesn't seem to affect spam messages eating up my chat screen constantly. And the problem with the ignore-list (besides the fact that spambots seem to just register a different name and re-post every 15 minutes) is that it inexplicably seems to vanish every time you log off (it seems to be a "temporary" ignore list, as I've had to ignore the same spambot repeatedly).

I'm still generally enjoying the game (just hit L25), but the list of things that leave you thinking "Did they look at *any* other games like this, or MMOs, in the market and learn anything whatsoever before they decided to make this game?" just keeps getting longer and longer. They're going to be using chewing gum and baling wire to fix a lot of things and add a lot of features that game should already have, for quite some time. Any kind of research would've helped them avoid so many pitfalls, but it's like they designed Hellgate in a cave and didn't bother looking at the game world around them. Even looking at their own previous work (Diablo and Diablo II were just awash in spammers,  spambots, and the like, but Hellgate does nothing whatsoever to try to discourage that) would've helped.

Oh, I still think Eastcheap is the coolest environment design in the game, but after playing about 25 randomized versions of that same map, it's not quite as charming. 

To end on a hopeful note, there were a couple of L25ish quests involving crafting or other unconventional gathering, and I really dug that stuff. As far as one epic required quest involving an enemy of un-fathomable size, I must say, it just wasn't fair.  Fortunately, an L28 fellow Marskman offered to help. It still proved next to impossible, but we eventually completed it after probably 20 minutes or more of trying.

Flagship claims to have ideas for fixing the "inviso bug" in multiplayer but didn't figure them out in time for this most recent patch. So maybe next time.

I generally find if I portal back to town and then rejoin the teammate via the party portal, that'll clear up the inviso. Why/how this kind of malarkey wasn't caught and soved in beta -- heck, in alpha -- I have no clue.  It seems to happen to me a little less often since the latest patch, but it might just be a random bug.

I canceled LOTORO today, so I'm now officially monthly-fee-gaming free. So I might be up for TR down the road (again, probably as an Xmas gift wish, so I might get in sometime in December).

Warhammer fans might be interested in this THQ/Relic competition to win professionally Warhammer-skinned consoles.

To celebrate the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command tomorrow, we're giving away an exclusive Limited Edition PSP console, as well as copies of the game and Squad Command T-shirts!

THQ, in conjunction with Games Workshop and a team of professional modelers has created a limited set of twelve exclusive Squad Command themed games consoles - and one of each is bound for the UK. Right now, the PSP is up for grabs - to be in with a chance of winning this awe-inspiring bit of kit, head over to our competitions page and answer the fiendishly difficult question.

So far I've only seen the UK competition page:
http://www.thq-games.com/uk/news/show/2998

And you can glimpse the PSP and DS versions (that competition's later when the DS version releases, presumably) at their small Flickr photo album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thq-games/sets/72157603267557457/

Hit Level 22 this morning. Hey, right on cue, this Legendary version dropped, though I'm quite a ways from having enough Will for it (it would replace a helm that adds a few Will points):


This "brain pan" helm is pretty cool/ominous too:

Never mind, figured all that stuff out. Doh.

But hey, I really dig the Eastcheap zone later on (Blackjach's to 21 now). Why aren't more of the environments so intricate and eye-pleasing? And interesting to fight in, with stairs, nooks, crannies, lots of variety, relatively speaking. This is the kind of stuff I was hoping for from the Diablo II boys and girls -- not generic brown square rooms and corridors, outdoor canyons that all feel like the same map (randomizing or not), and ruined London streets that feel mostly all the same. I spent a lot of time dyin' on this map but I quite enjoyed it.

It's really the only non-Hellish environment that has wowed me to this point.  Maybe I'm overreacting to the map, but I honestly almost felt like I'd walked into a different game. I mean that in a good, hopeful way.

I loved this Helm, but it was a vanilla variety and I don't think even the Augmentrix can get it to the point of being useful enough 


For a while tonight I had Legendary 20mm rifles dropping like mad. This was the best of the bunch:

OK I think I am truly stuck in the Temple Station area. I don't think it's a bug, I'm just missing something.  It seems like all my quests point me to Connor Street. But other players tell me I have to go through... well shucks I'll add the name later, but here's a pic. The one red (unlocked) entry tube is the one I supposedly have to get through, to eventually reach Connor Street...



I don't see a Connor Street on the 'M' key map -- the players tell me it becomes 'discovered' once you fight through the zone that I can't reach. Which leaves me seriously befuddled. 

If you're curious, go find the latest issue of the UK magazine Edge, which is carried by most Borders Books and Barnes & Noble stores.

This is the November issue, and the cover story is on Rock Band (cover art is a big closeup of a guitar amp).

There's a lengthy, hands-OFF preview of Spore on Page 30. It's not exactly recent though -- it's from the German game show in Leipzig a while back and they weren't allowed to play it, only watch it being played (which sounds vaguely obscene  ).

I assume moderators would frown upon me posting a scan or photo of the two page story, so I'll refrain from that. But, I think I can post a pic of the cover, so you know what to look for.


Basically, they are more impressed with the tools and editor than with the gameplay itself (which has probably been the skepticism about this from day one). Their last paragraph (unlike US mags, Edge is skeptical in most of its previews, sometimes to the point of bad-mouthing stuff before it's even close to release, for better or worse):

It is a worry that, in trying to cover so many different game types, the promise of each will be reduced. Spore's central and ingeniously implemented selling point is the editor which enables the creation of so much in its world -- but if this world is then only periodically engaging in its behavior, Maxis may have created a briefly brilliant toy rather than an enduringly entertaining game.

I love Edge, and it's really the only gaming magazine (it's multiplatform, including PC, but basically console-focused) I bother buying off the newsstand, even if it feels overpriced ($8.99, but you can now get a U.S. subscription that's a lot cheaper per issue); also, oddly, there are no bylines in the whole magazine (aside from personal columns). They claim this is some sort of UK censorship issue, but I'm not really sure. 

Anyway, just bear in mind that if they're only doing "hands off" demo play throughs of the game, then it probably is still going through balancing and playtesting. I'm so tired of over-hyped games at this point, I would welcome Maxis battening this thing down hype-wise until they have ironed out gameplay.

I started the German campaign last night. Although the first mission is mostly a cakewalk, beware of over-reaching with your Blitzkrieg. 

Gametrailers has a Wii movie showing how the controllers are used (not the Zapper):
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28175.html

What about Jade Raymond? Does she not even care about us game godz now that Assassin's Creed is out? 

I'm going to break from ranting sarcastically about Hellgate and other things to wish everyone here a Happy Thanksgiving. 

I came here after a falling out with the operator of a smaller message board (I'd like to consider us old virtual friends but clearly we just didn't see eye to eye on how to treat your message board members and how to moderate without crushing the concept of sometimes critical discussion), which, coincidentally, uses this exact same software.

I was going to just swear off message boards (I hung out at that board for the better part of 10 years so it was like having a relationship fall apart), but I kept looking up various forums. I wanted to find one with lotsa traffic, reasonably well-behaved members, moderated enough to limit abusive behavior but not to the point you're afraid to speak your mind a little bit.

And so far, by golly, this place has met all that criteria with flying colors. So I thank everyone for putting up with me to this point, and again, Happy Thanksgiving. 

Call me when Ubi announces "We will not release bugfest PC games" or "We will stop rushing out lame-as* PSP versions of good console games." (See R6: Vegas and GRAW on PSP -- or better yet for your own sake, don't  .)

Then, by golly, I'll be astounded, bamboozled, bowled over, dumbfounded, astonished, flabbergasted ... in fact my pocket thesaurus would run out of descriptive adjectives!