That's not a bad idea, honestly. I know it sort of runs counter to the Kickstarter "ideal", but why not shop around for more funding if you want to make a bigger game? As long as they follow through on all their pledges, I don't see a problem with them taking additional money.

(That said, if they do take additional money and they're part of the 'kick-forward' campaign or whatever it's called, I hope they take 5% of all profits, not just some percentage based on Kickstarter's involvement versus investor involvement).

Hell, apparently they could still take the division from Florida.   

Yeah, though that too was a lot more likely before the last couple minutes of Florida's game when they managed to tie it and steal a point. They play the Caps Thursday, so if the Caps take 2 from them, win Saturday, and the Cats lose Saturday in regulation the Caps take 3rd. Florida just needs a single point, or for the Caps to not win out, so in Caps-land we're not holding out a ton of hope (unless we win in regulation Thursday).

Put me in the "really liked it" camp. Loved the look, loved the soundtrack, thought it was a great entry to the "games-as-art" camp along with Journey and Flower and Braid.

Brooks Laich went on the radio this morning and guaranteed playoffs.

...at least SOMEBODY feels confident about this Caps team.

Chop the last 2 minutes off yesterday and today's games, and the Caps clinch it. Instead, Buffalo has all the momentum and only has to outpoint the Caps by 1.

Imagine how George McPhee must be feeling right now - it will not go kindly on him if the Caps miss, I imagine.

Holding out for an ELoTH:tES RPG, myself.

Caps choked it away in the last 90 seconds of the game again, only no getting it back this time. Door's open, Buffalo.

There's actually a shot at three eight-game series this year - it's not looking unlikely that Washington and New York might play in round 1, as well as Philly/Pittsburgh and a very outside shot at Dallas/St. Louis.

I'd be in favor of all three of those coming to pass.

Please GOD, let there be a Flyers/Penguins first round series.

As if there wasn't enough bad blood - Joey Vitale knocked out both Grossmann (7-10 days) and Briere (indefinite) with injuries. These guys might just all hate each other to death.

Don't they play their last game of the regular season head-to-head too? Imagine if home-ice is on the line... there's a series I would hope to get eight games out of.

Oh, if this is real, I'm so very, very in. I love Combat Mission, and having it on iPad will be glorious. I hope it's reasonably fully-functional.

Haven't had time for it, but that's mostly because I've been spending those hours on work and developing my app. I've played a few more games of MLB while waiting in line at the DMV, eye doctors office, etc, though.

Sounds like Backstrom is back in tonight after 40 games out. Yeah, I think getting back one of the top passers in the league and returning other guys to more tenable positions is going to help a bit. Buffalo's loss to Pittsburgh last night puts the Caps back in control of their own destiny, and within reach of the 7th, 8th, or potentially 3rd spot (4 points back on Florida with one head-to-head matchup left).

Of course, Buffalo has two games left against the Leafs, so that's four points the Caps have to get right there just to keep up.

How'd you like Hendricks kick-starting his Harley? He only has that one move, I'm a little surprised it's still working. I liked how he juked Thomas so badly he fell down walking down the tunnel, after falling down in the crease, though.

Edit: Link for sick shootout move: http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/dimagus/2011-2012%2520NHL%2520Season/HendricksSOGoal-Boston03292012.gif

I'm pretty sure I still haven't exhaled. Some sick goals in that shootout though, huh?

...stupid Caps, bringing back hope. I'm not sure if it's worse that they're lingering in it at this point, or that they're forcing me to cheer for the Penguins tomorrow. Painful.

Caps didn't show tonight. Biggest game of the year, and they absolutely and completely failed the gut-check.

 

Some people mentioned productivity as a plus.  The consumption/entertainment value is obvious, but what productivity apps/features do you use?   Do you need a keyboard or is the dictation really good enough to do without?  Thanks.

Love Evernote - I sometimes use a Bluetooth keyboard, very rarely dictation.

Maybe the Sabres get lucky and Minnesota bounces back from their loss tonight to beat the Caps tomorrow. 

Tuesday's pretty key, huh?

Yeah, and not in a way that I'm comfortable with, win over the Rangers notwithstanding.

At least you know who's starting in net! Right now there's a case to be made for all 3 Caps goalies, assuming Vokoun is good to go. Holtby's coming off a shutout, Vokoun is technically still the 'big-game goalie', and Neuvy is probably the best blend of experience, quality, and non-injuredness.

The Caps' defense needs to show up in force, though - either roll 7 like they did yesterday and double-shift Ovechkin again, or at least limit Carlson's and Wideman's minutes to the point where they're effective.

As much as I'd like for Joe Beninati to have to go during warmups "OH MY GAWD! THAT'S BACKSTROM'S MUSIC!", I'm pretty sure they hold him out another week.

Maybe the Sabres get lucky and Minnesota bounces back from their loss tonight to beat the Caps tomorrow. 

Tuesday's pretty key, huh?

I really hate the tapatalk messages. Someone needs to write a Fuck Off Tapatalk app.

 

Yep. It's either poorly configured or obnoxious as hell.

What a brutal, brutal, brutal meltdown by the Caps tonight. They've had chances and chances and chances to secure their hold on 8th - instead, it's now come down to Ottawa with 84, Caps and Sabres with 82, and the Jets clinging on with 78. The only upside is that the Caps will hold the tiebreaker in just about any conceivable scenario, so they just have to keep pace - but Buffalo is surging, and Ottawa might be about at a low point.

At this point you can figure it's a coin flip for the Caps to make the playoffs, and a big part of it hinges on Tuesday's game versus the Sabres. A regulation win either way is going to go a long way.

5 games

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=-7&id=167025

Coming to a tidy sum of $149,688.15 to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

Yes, that $2500 is hurting them. Severely.

$2500 is the maximum stand-alone fine. For suspensions, they get fined either per day or per game, depending on repeat offender status - obviously that gets up over $2500 rather quickly.

A million times IN!

The worst news for Sony and Nintendo isn't that Apple sold 3 million new iPads, it is that 3 million people just gave their old one away to a family member or sold one cheap.

Good point.

I think the thing that Sony and Nintendo have to be the most concerned about is the fact that large amounts of people are more than willing to drop at least $500 on a iPad at the drop of a hat, but their own devices (Vita and 3ds) which cost much less and don't have new versions coming out every year, are nowhere near that level of success.

I really don't know what they can do about it either. Apple just seems to have found the perfect balance of a nice large screen and cheap games that are lots of fun to play.

I think part of that is that, despite the complaints about Apple being such a closed platform (just the one App Store unless you jailbreak), it's (relatively) trivial for someone with an idea and some passion to make an iOS app, and a professional app development shop can really work in volume - heck, I'm making one now, just because nobody was making the game I wanted to play. XBLA has the indie games section, but otherwise you're basically not going to see low-effort, low-cost games coming from indie devs on those platforms - the best you'll do is smaller games from bigger publishers at 5 or 10 bucks on something like PSN. That basically means you're not going to see the obscure efforts, or the size of ecosystem that allows for publishers to try and fail and fail and fail and then suddenly hit it big. If something like Angry Birds or Draw Something is one in a hundred thousand releases, the Vita or 3DS would have to be insanely lucky to see one runaway success like that.

That reminds me of...

It depends on the game - for plenty of games, I think a real, physical controller would obviously be great, and I think if Apple got serious about gaming they'd need to standardize on a button set. But for other games, I really think the phone or tablet could be ideal - think about a You Don't Know Jack game, or similar, using the touchscreen as both your buzzer and to press the right answer. Or a bigscreen Angry Birds, controlled by your touchscreen. Or a kart racing game that just has gas, brake, and tilt to steer.

I don't see any reason for Apple not to support the phone as a controller if they ever go to bigscreen gaming, even if they standardize another control scheme too - after all, anything that ups the number of potential controllers, even if they sort of suck, for multiplayer games is a good thing in my book.

VRWC?

I believe that would be the Vast (and most honorable) Red Wings Conspiracy (or, more politely, Cabal), backed by NBC and the vast network of spies and connections left behind by the infamous Russian Five espionage and hockey-playing network.

I don't know - while Apple tends to get lambasted for not being cheap, I think the Apple TV might provide them with an unexpected point of entry to the market. See, pretty much everyone in their target market already has at least one controller - their touchscreen phone, or iPad. Heck, you're already part of the way there with airPlay - just make it something that's centered more on the Apple TV as the main interface, throw some hardware into it to push polygons, and they could probably do a device at $199 that uses the phone or iPad as a controller and plays a decent game, with the benefit of an app store infrastructure to boot, or one at $299 that's really competitive in terms of hardware and processing power. Maybe have optional 'real' controllers (which probably would be absurdly overpriced), but I think a real part of the appeal could be that a regular Apple consumer who already has a current iPhone and a previous-gen one or a Touch rambling around would immediately have two really capable touchscreen, tilt/gyro-aware controllers.

Decided to hold back on the earliest Lite release - I don't want to put out something so beta I don't like it yet. Going to spend a bit of time on an art asset or two, and tune the engine until I'm happier with the realism of the results, and I like the interface better.

By way of apology, have a screenshot of the in-development beta!

As with most other things, it depends heavily on the implementation. There are plenty of games that just let you buy in-game currency or turns, the basic 'freemium' model, which are kind of a rip-off if they're not surrounding a really good core game. But there are other games (Puzzle Quest in its first implementation comes to mind) where IAP was reasonably priced and offered a ton of additional content, and apps like Hipstamatic where if you like the core concept, you'll probably get value for the IAP.

I think in general good developers are going to try to give you something for your money, or they'll be pretty up-front that what they're offering is insubstantial and you'd be purchasing it to support the developer. Bad developers are going to try to con you into buying next to nothing over and over.

So it runs the gamut from 'horse armor' to 'facebook Farmville credits' to real, legitimate content.

Called up to AAA last night, but stuck in the bullpen with a month to go in the season. Rather than force the issue, I'll just continue pitching relief for the balance of this season and try to win a starting AAA spot in my sophomore season - that should clear me to get a cup of coffee in the big leagues at the end of that season!

I absolutely can't believe the Caps have managed to stay in this thing - maybe the Leafs downward spiral served as a warning for them to get it together (plus it freed up that 8th playoff spot as a gift). Of course, teams keep pressing from behind, too - Winnipeg, Florida, and Washington could all legitimately take the 3 seed, and the losers are competing for that 8th seed with Buffalo and maybe even Tampa. I keep expecting Florida to implode (-25 goal diff and leading the division!) but they're just hanging on and winning when they need to win.

Is there online? If so how is it?

Haven't touched it.

Also, the bastards! They traded me! As a AA starting pitcher, the Orioles were apparently high enough on me during a hot streak to give up 3 players to the Nationals organization to have me. I assume this means the Orioles have bigger plans for me, seeing as the Baysox are bottom of the league, so they sure aren't loading up for a playoff run...

This game is only growing on me as I play more of the Road to the Show mode (starting pitcher). It really is far and away my favorite game on the Vita right now - the launch stuff was fun, but doesn't even come close. If you like baseball even a little bit, and have a yen to play on the move instead of on the PS3, this right here is your system-seller. If anything, RTTS is at its best when you can play in 15-25 minute chunks on the handheld.

Highly, highly recommended.

I'm hoping to have a very, very early Lite version of my game available in the next week or two. Are shameless plugs here okay?

Ben Kuchera of Penny Arcade Report did a feature on it.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/mechwarrior-tactics-is-free-to-play-turn-based-and-go-ahead-and-take-our-mo

Depends on implementation, I guess - if it's just another Hero Academy with a new skin on it, meh. If it's actually got some depth and a few balanced tactical options, could be interesting. Queue complaining that [premium-only weapon] is overpowered...

I don't know who they're making these difficulty levels for.

I mean, I played this series a ton on the PSP, and on the early PS3 editions - and I'll be damned if I can manage right now with anything more complicated than Zone hitting at Veteran, and Meter pitching at Veteran. Still haven't won a game yet!

I did have a fantastic one just now, though. Exhibition of Texas at St. Louis - traded runs early for a 1-1 game, my starter gave up a 2-run shot in the 7th, then in the 9th with 2 outs I managed to get a runner aboard and put a shot juuuuuust over the wall to tie the game. But I managed my bullpen poorly, and got torched for 2 runs in the 11th that I couldn't make up. So close! Yes, I was mad when I lost, but what a fantastic game. This is, after a (very) short time of play, my Vita standout so far.

I know how to do it from the older versions - I imagine it is in the digital manual, though.

It's not. That's my biggest problem with the game: It doesn't explain the advanced concepts at all, which means you have to be told about them to even know they are there and how to pull them off. The text that is there is vague at best.

Yeah, I ended up on GameFAQs for that stuff. Same problem a lot of sports game franchises have now - they believe so hard that they're intuitive that they don't bother to explain anything anymore.

Nope, I'm terrible. Haven't played in a few iterations, though. I'm still godawful at hitting, too - in two games I put up three homers and I think one single, and that's it. And all three of those homers were against AAA pitching - Johan Santana put up a perfect game against me.

If you select the main 'Voyage' mode, yes, you always start at the beginning. But every skin you beat unlocks it in 'Playlist' mode, where you can just string together whichever skins you want.

Beating a skin isn't the only way to unlock it.  As you level up, you get new skins unlocked as well.  Something funky happened this morning for me when I checked the world block thing.  For my contribution, it moved me from something like level 20 to level 50 and I unlocked all the avatars.  I still have about 5 skins to unlock and I haven't played any more to see if I can level beyond 50 to unlock those remaining skins or not.  That huge level bump didn't seem to really unlock any new skins, but I had pretty much unlocked a ton of them through a playthrough and then a few more through leveling.

Edit - Actually, I just started a game and quit out of it after a couple of points and I got no XP, so it seems level 50 is the highest.  So, these last 5 skins I need (they aren't last on the list, though) must have to be gotten either by reaching them, in another mode, or through trades, I guess.  Gonna research to see if I can figure out what they are.

Same thing happened to me when I checked the World Block, I got bumped to level 37. It looked like it unlocked the skins at the end of the list, but it did not unlock any of the ones from Voyage mode, so far as I can tell. So it's probably that a bunch are unlocked by collective world-blocking, and the others are from Voyage.