Why couldn't this unpacking happen before it unlocked? I am sure they could still prevent us from playing it... They should call it "pre-downloading" instead of preloading.

Well, my enjoyment of the previous games, a $50 Amazon gift card I had burning a hole in my money clip, along with the universally positive reviews have swayed me. Preloading on Steam now. May even stay up late to play tonight.

[Spoiler]

Well it took me about 2.5 months to re-read the series and read the 4 books I hadn't read. I had previously read books 1-11 (many of these multiple times) and had read the shorter version of New Spring. After finishing the last Jordan book "Knife of Dreams" I vowed I was not going to touch the series again until it was finished. I decided for this final read through of the series (at least for a VERY long time) I would pick up the novel version of New Spring, so there were 4 I hadn't read. I think I read New Spring sometime after book 4-6.

Reading them back to back does really help make the slower books more tolerable. I remembered being so fed up when some of those books came out and I had diligently reread the whole series only for the plot to barely nudge forward. Here is my basic feeling on the book quality and pace:

1-3 - Awesome. The books are all great and the plot moves along well. You don't really know how big this thing is going to get, and it often feels like Book 3 will be the last book in the series.

4-6 - These are all still very high quality. The pace of the story definitely slows down - especially in book 6.

Book 7 - The slowest book to this point. From my point of view, nearly nothing happens for the first half of the book but the second half is really entertaining.

Book 8 - The slowest and worst book to this point. Very little is going on and at this point I was getting really frustrated with the series.

Book 9 - Much better. More interesting things seem to be happening here, and a big plot point is resolved.

Book 10 - Definitely the low point of the series. It just drags and absolutely nothing happens. The climax is a big anti-climax and was a huge letdown back when this came out.

New Spring - I enjoyed this a lot. The part that was added to the novel version was much better than everything else. Very glad I got this.

Book 11 - I had only read this once years ago when it first came out. I really remembered nothing about it, but I had low expectations since this is where I vowed to wait for the series to end. On this read through I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I felt this was on par with book 9.

Books 12 - 14 - I was very pleased with this. It did feel different from the Jordan books, but things are basically flying by here. I would gather the pace would have been quick for Jordan as well, since he had planned for book 12 to be the final book. Thumbs way up for the job Sanderson did.

I really enjoyed the ending overall. I wouldn't call it perfect, but so many of these types of series end poorly, and overall this one was very well done.

(some spoilery rambles)

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was pretty surprised by Egwene dying. I half expected a big balefire event to undo it, and I am glad that didn't happen. I thought the last battle stuff was awesome. I do think it might have been a bit long, but it was all very entertaining. I actually found the Rand vs Dark One "battle" (more like discussion) to be pretty dull. The final part with Rand at the end was great however. I have mixed feelings on Rand getting Moridin's body and leaving. I was glad he didn't die, but the body swap thing seemed like a cop out, and I didn't really like him leaving everyone behind... though I guess he could Travel to see people. I too would have liked a 20 years later epilogue. Perrin sleeping for so much of the book was disappointing, and GOD it took way too long to kill Slayer. Perrin was rendered fairly impotent though the latter half of the series. I found it ironic that the end had Perrin killing Slayer after several books of them feuding, and at the same time Matt killed Fain almost as an afterthought. It says everything about why at the end Mat was my favorite character (after being my least favorite though the first 5 books) and Perrin went from my favorite after book 4 to just being tiresome by the end. I was glad they made Rand likeable again for the last couple of books. I was half way starting to root for the Dark One for a while there. And Mat (as I said) was just awesome. He was by far my favorite character by the and his exploits made me laugh out loud often. I would have loved to read more about Mat and Tuon's marriage, but it's probably a good thing that I won't. (Always leave them wanting more....) My remaining complaint about the series - Who in the HELL killed Asmodean?!?!?!?! [Edit: I see Sanderson did reveal it via clues (and the glossary). I missed it.]

This was an often frustrating series at times but I ended up really enjoying this read through, and would feel much better about recommending it to someone than I would have been before reading these last 3 books. Thumbs way up.

Boo! Rothfuss needs to be writing his books!

I don't mind a reboot (though I am not thrilled about it either) and I don't really mind the new look, but I really hope they get Stephen Russel back to play Garret. It will definitely mar my appreciation of the game if he's not voicing Garret.

I absolutely love the first 7.5 Ultima games, but I have absolutely no faith in this man's ability to make a good game in 2013.

The most intriguing thing to me about the ps4 (and the new Xbox), is this: if these things are really just going to be pcs, will they be easy to hack, install windows on them, and the just BE cheap gaming pcs? That would be awesome.

If memory serves, there is free DLC that gives you a storage chest in your camp.

16G is absolutely fine if you don't put music or video on it. I have 9.4G free on mine with around 25 apps installed.

Oh god am I dying a lot in this! So weak early on. But I'm having a blast as well! Mr. specter is of course more than entitled to do whatever makes him happy and whatever makes him money, but it makes me sad that he went from the likes of this and Deus Ex, to Mickey Mouse, but that's just me.

I am in the minority, but I thought deus ex, while good, was a pretty big fall from system shock 2.

Bought. I hope they get the original as well, which is surprisingly really playable with the mouselook mod.

Someone made a mouselook mod?! Sweet. Never been able to get past the controls in this one. I'll have to give it another try some day.

Glad some people will finally get to play SS2 for the first time. It was pretty awesome, though I too had to go god mode to get past the Many level... shudder...

Batman: Arkham Dark Knight? Was Batman: Arkam Batman too on the nose? I agree most of the titles suck. Arkham Legends or Arkham Stories or Batman: Tales of Arkham would be better.

I'd be happy if the 3rd game's title was "Batman: More like Arkham Asylum than Arkham City".

Way late to the party here. Finally watched this after having the netflix bluray sitting around for several weeks. I had tempered expectations given the mixed reviews, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. Beautiful special effects and nice performances. I was pretty young (7-8) when I saw Alien, and I am sure if I saw this at that age I would have loved it every bit as much. Thumbs up, and I look forward to the sequel.

Al Unser Jr's Turbo Racing

Loved this one back in the day...

I am no  expert, but I do know Carrier is a good brand. Given you are getting a separate AC unit and furnace, my first reaction is that it's a reasonable number.

I would call New Spring an optional thing and not required reading. I definitely wouldn't start with New Spring since it will spoil things in the first book at least. I think it was intended to be read by people after reading the first few books.

I love (and hate) the Wheel of Time for all the same reasons other fans love (and hate) the Wheel of Time. The first 6 books are awesome, but after that things slow down a lot. I did however, think book 9 was much better than books 7 or 8. (I can't remember the titles anymore.) I started reading this around 20 years ago when I was a freshman in college. I think at the time there were 2 or 3 books out. Book 4 came out shortly after I finished reading the first 3 (within a couple years I think). With the release of books 5 - 11 I always reread the entire series in anticipation of the new books' releases. I found this to be pretty much required or I would never be able to keep up with the millions of characters who keep hanging around through these books. After book 11, I was fed up with this so I decided I was done with WoT until the final book came out - which happened today. So I haven't yet read the Sanderson books.

Today I begin re-reading the series so I can then buy the last 3 books. After I finish I plan to take a couple decades off from the series. Having said that, I am excited to see how it all ends.

My wife and I caught this today. We are total whores for Tarantino movies. We both agreed that it was great, but not among our favorites by him. So I would say it's quite a bit better than Jackie Brown, but after that I am not sure where I would rank it among his movies. Thumbs up, however.

Finished Extraction Point, and was definitely ready for it to end. I am definitely taking a pass on Perseus Mandate based on reviews and its non canon status. I would be inclined to jump into FEAR 2 right away, but given its middling reviews I may take a break and move onto something else... (Or I may just start it, I'm really not sure.)

I did find the firs game pretty enjoyable. Always nice to play something scary and fun.

I finished FEAR last night. Pretty good.

I have been playing the Extraction Point expansion today. Fun, but ready for something a bit different. I may take a break from FEAR once I finish this before tackling the last expansion.

I also have FEAR 2 and 3, are they as good?

I think these days Image Retention (which is temporary) is more likely than actual burn in. As long as you take the set out of the default "Vivid" mode (make sure your contrast and brightness aren't set way high - better yet calibrate it properly with a DVD or Blu-ray made for such purpose - and you'll be fine). I only buy plasmas because they frankly look better. I would always take the cheapest plasmas over the best LEDs or LCDs, but that's a personal preference.

This thread jogged my memory. I actually picked up the series during this year's Summer sale. So, inspired by this thread, I started this up yesterday and put in a few hours. Pretty fun game. I like the scary bits more than the shooty bits. Glad to finally play this as I was always curious about it.

I really enjoyed it. Certainly far better than last year's special.

As a Who nerd it was fun to have the Great Intelligence back - especially voiced by GANDALF~! I found it interesting that the Doctor didn't quite seem to remember who and what the Great Intelligence was. It makes me wonder if it will be back this season. Obviously, the Clara/Oswin mystery is interesting too. Looking forward to the rest of series 7.... (wish we didn't have to wait until April.)

You guys are way off base. This is not even remotely like recasting Freema as Martha. This was completely planned. I'm not saying the payoff will be good, but there will definitely be a payoff/explanation of some sort.

[Spoiler]

Well that ending was... odd... Not a very satisfying ending (to put it mildly), but nothing nearly as bad as the ME3 atrocity. (I will NEVER get over that one...)

I do find it irritating that the last mission is another damned

Spoiler for Hiden:

chase sequence.

Would it kill these guys to end an Assassin's Creed game with a damned assassination and not some stupid action sequence. At least there were no chariots.

Overall, better than Revelations, but I think they've just thrown too many different things into this game. AC1 was a bit bereft of content, but they nailed the core gameplay, so I thought it was a lot of fun. AC2 and Brotherhood added the content in spades, and they were both great. But now, there's just too much extra stuff and as I noted earlier, playing one of these every year has left me fatigued on the series as a whole. Definitely ready for a break now.

A great, but very flawed series. AC3 was pretty good. I think even playing critical path only (which I did a lot, though still wasted plenty of time with some side stuff) the length is satisfying.

I finally had the extreme pleasure of playing the infamous Chase Hickey mission last night. Wow, that was something. The chase missions have always been my least favorite in this series, but THAT one really takes the cake. Whoever designed that should be tortured. Yes it's easy once you figure it out, but I would never have without looking it up online.

Some other complaints. This isn't just about this game as I felt the same way in Revelations - I find the whole wanted level mechanic to be tiresome now. Yes it was fun when they introduced it in either AC2 or Brotherhood, but now it's just a tedious exercise in finding whoever/whatever I need to lower it and hope the guards don't see me. It's just a waste of time that's not fun. On another note, I don't like the economy in this game AT ALL. I'm not interested in hunting, I don't like the Convoy/trading thing, etc. I'm just skipping the whole thing. I greatly preferred the buying shops mechanic to this. Brotherhood's was the most fun economic system by far, though I enjoyed AC2 in this regard too. I also am not into the naval battles like so many others seem to be. (I preferred Sea Dogs!) In fact, I am doing very little in the way of side missions at all. I think I just have AC fatigue with a lot of these things. Putting out a game every year does have its down side.

Having said that, I am still very much enjoying the main campaign (occasional bad - or horrible like Chase Hickey - mission aside). So far, this is my favorite single game narrative of the series, and given how much I loved Ezio's story, that's saying something. I don't particularly care for Connor though. He's not as annoying as Altair, but he's definitely annoying. I also think the moral ambiguity between templars and Assassins is MUCH better in this game so far. Really excited to get back to the game, warts and all.

My wife went out of town for a long weekend, so I went ahead and picked this up yesterday. I am in the post childhood but still early Connor stages. The game was definitely rushed as there are many little glitches the other games didn't have. I also really don't like the new controls or the new HUD. I also was very annoyed at the parts spoken in "Indian" since they inexpicably have the subtitles so god damned small on the screen. (Seriously, way too many console games have too small a text. We aren't sitting 6 inches from a monitor playing these games....)

Having said that the game content has been pretty fun so far (if slow). Back to it.

Anyone actually playing this yet?

Based on reviews I've read I think I'll wait and see what the fan consensus is... particularly to see if the ending is really bad.

So does Disney now own all things Star Wars, including the original movies? If so, I am shocked I haven't heard anyone ask the obvious Star Wars nerd rage question yet.

Finished tonight. Went stealthy and no killing the whole way. Even though I never had a kill at the end of all the missions I still didn't get the Steam achievement for not killing anyone (shrugs). Overall, a fantastic game, and I look forward to going through playing it the violent way and seeing the "bad" ending. In addition to having the best implementation of stealth I have played since the Thief series, I think the designers borrowed MANY other game design elements from the Thief series - so it's no wonder I enjoyed this so much. Probably my favorite game I've played since Batman Arkham Asylum. It's nice to get a quality game like this after feeling like I've been in gaming doldrums for a while.

This really makes me hope we get a Thief 4 and it doesn't end up being vaporware.

Can someone explain what it takes to get Ghost for any given mission?  I played through the brothel mission (3?) and thought I got it, but it wasn't marked on the screen at the end.  Do I lose it if I knock people out?  If I get any alert icons at all, even just the first one?

Assuming the developers are going by the Thief nerds' definition of "Ghosting" (and I would be shocked if they aren't since this game borrows a TON of design philosophies from Thief, which is why I love it so much), I believe knocking people out would keep you from getting it. As I recall, the Thief nerds considered Ghosting, never being detected and never knocking anyone out or killing anything. I always found this to be beyond the point of fun to me and have never tried it - despite me being an unabashed Thief nerd.

I am early on, and I love this. I wouldn't call it a Thief clone, and it doesn't do stealth QUITE as perfectly, but this is definitely the closest thing to playing Thief that I have played since... well Thief. I am going the stealth route 100% if I can, and trying not to kill anyone (so far so good). The cool thing is there are a lot of other (more violent) powers that look incredibly fun too, so I see the replay potential as being greater than normal.

Thumbs way way up from this Thief fan (again very early on - I have completed one "mission").

Sigh, the backlog will never shrink. Installing on Steam now.... (hurry!)

Resistance... Fading...

So in November BG1 EE is coming out. Have they hinted when BG2 EE  is coming out? I originally thought this was a 2 in 1 deal, but their forum FAQ indicates otherwise.

This sounds just.... horrible. This may have people longing for RE5 which we all were disappointed with!

[Spoiler]

On your last spoiler...

Spoiler for Hiden:

The tragedy wasn't for the ponds, they got to live happily ever after. The farm/hotel was destroyed by the paradox Amy and rory created. The tragedy was for the doctor only, who can't ever see them again and is now alone. Now, there is another nit to pick. I get why the doctor can't SAVE Amy and rory, but why can't he ever see them again? He could go visit them. Even if 1930s New York is still "time locked", does that mean he can't see them in the 40s? The 50s? Etc.

All that nit picking aside I still think all 3 angels story were a blast, but yes I still think Blink is the best of them and yes I am ready for a break from them.

There's also the chance you've gotten used to watching improperly calibrated pictures, making bright, sharp colors look best in your eyes. When I bought my Panasonic VT20, I quickly learned to trust the judgment of expert advice for how to calibrate it properly, and the picture was considerably darker than I expected. The thing is, it's dark in a way that enhances the detail in the picture and produces more natural colors. I properly calibrated TV will seem darker than you'd expect it to be, and will be able to show very subtle colors. A typical thing I noticed people look for was the red in actor's chins. If you can't see it, chances are the screen is of poor quality or isn't calibrated right.

Agree completely. People keep flocking to LEDs because (in addition to form factor differences) they are in love with the jacked up contrast/brightness settings the stores use because their interiors are overly lit. People think plasmas look too "dark". No, they are designed to show things properly.

The thing you absolutely must not do under any circumstance is to set your TV to dynamic mode, or whatever it's called on your set. This will saturate the picture with color and brightness, but will kill detail and color balance and get you used to this kind of thing. To most people this will look better right away, but it doesn't last. Better to get used to correct calibration right away.

Again, total agreement from me. Dynamic/Vivid modes are horrible, and often not good for the life of the television either.

Plasmas are particularly good at this kind of thing. The VT20 I bought got great reviews comparing it to so-called "reference screens" in quality. These are screens that show perfect colors as intended by the creator of the movie, and the VT20 was so close that the differences were barely noticeable, if at all. I'm not sure if a LED screen can do the same thing. Depends on the screen I guess, though plasma is better suited to this kind of thing.

100% agreement.

[Spoiler]

Really loved Angels in Manhattan. When I watched it again with my wife she cried like hell... My big complaint about the episode was....
Spoiler for episode but revealed in the opening intro before the theme music:

Spoiler for Hiden:

the statue of liberty as an angel. I understand that they probably couldn't resist the urge to do it, but it looked silly, and it's beyond ridiculous to think the statue could ever move more than a millimeter without SOMEONE looking at it.

The ending was certainly brutally sad and sweet. I do hope they resist the urge to:

Spoiler for Hiden:

bring them back at some point later. I suppose I could forgive them if they bring them back next year for whatever they have planned for the 50th anniversary. But, for once I would like one of the "Doctor can never see him/her/them again" to actually happen and not have the emotional devastation be undone a couple years later. (Hello Rose!)

Thumbs way up, and for me, all 3 Weeping Angels stories are pretty excellent. (Now let's wait a few years before bringing them back.)

Okay. I'm sold. Thanks for everyone's input. I'll check Costco but I found the set I want for $1600 (!!!) on Amazon and that seems like a freaking steal. I'm looking at the 60" version.

Sadly, at my Costco I can never find any panny plasmas bigger than 50" these days. I hope you'll have better luck. My best buy had a 60" Panasonic for $1399 recently. The 60" Sammy I bought was only $950 on Labor Day weekend. That was too low for me to resist. I would expect the panny to look better, but I am satisfied with this set. (Its main flaw is a bit of motion blur with sharp camera movements...)

Let us know what you end up getting!