Finding the doors to OO locked, I  buttoned my jacket up to my neck and hurried through the chilly Santa Fe streets - a light snow falling gently around me in the darkness, streetlights casting an indifferent illumination as I passed dark corners of the web - 'cause I need to read some GamingTrend gaming trend info. Glad it's always open.

I was merely editing one of my brilliant posts and changing it to a "+1" or "This" one word statement of obsequious agreement when BAM!

I really hope - but do not expect - they will go the "full route" and have something like a "you must eat, find shelter, sleep" mechanic (and not just in I'm running past some ammo/medkit and grab it). I'd be really surprised as I think the trend is not to those "I want to experience a zombie outbreak, barricade myself, forage for food/supplies" gamers but for people who like shooting stuff. But even if they don't, I'm no fanatic.

Still, if somebody did create a zombie apocalypse - and there have been attempts - that has a sort of RPG, Builder, turn-based (yeah, I said it) feel to it, I'd grab my shotgun and some reloads and be there.

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
Jose Chung's From Outer Space
Home
Memento Mori

My favorites - and in the same order! What made XFiles such a memorable show for me was, in part, so many episodes being high caliber. Ultimately, the show reached an almost pointless destination but the trip alone was worth it.

I'm likely to purchase; very likely. I have to admit though that the graphics are a little dated; that's irrelevant to me though if I have a good time. And I think I will!

A new Carmageddon, eh? And me with the last of the V8 Interceptors!

I remember watching the original movie in a theater in Berkeley - I must've been 12 or 13 - and just mildly liking it. I didn't think it anything special but I did like K. Swanson well enough.

The series, however, was awesome. I really enjoyed the shows, the story arcs, the characters, the Slayer mythos. I didn't know anyone else who did though (though now that I think about it, the idea of talking about a tv show just wasn't something that my peers did. They'd laugh at a joke or admire an actress, but discuss an episode's allusions or insider joke? No way) except for an English teacher in the ninth grade with whom I'd spent my free study periods discussing Xander's Everyman status or the nature of vampires.

I'd watch a reboot movie but I'm skeptical: nowadays vampires are the good guys and the romance element would likely be emphasized whereas I'm more of a traditionalist like Xander: "I'm going to take a stand and say vampires are bad". That used to be a non-controversial viewpoint.

CeeKay's avatars never cease to disturb me. OO is down for now but I seem to recall a notice about a temp shutdown...

Looks interesting. I also would like a Zombie Survival RPG, some sort of zombie-themed builder game perhaps wherein I have goals that evolve from mere survival to building some sort of stronghold - perhaps a small town even? - for other surviving humans.
 

I'm a post-apocalyptic fan and for me, zombies are part of the genre, so basically I'm a zombie fan too. Not a big one, and like other people, I have my own preferences in zombieness:

slow moving ( a la the early Romero movie)
no brains (i.e., no evil guiding intelligence like in the Keene books)
plenty of 'em ('cause one or two is weak)
no humor (Shaun of the Dead was cool, as a change of pace, but not a regular diet)
few animal zombies (I feel it dilutes the unique zombie appeal)
no zombie POV (we're shooting 'em 'cause they're dead and hungry, not because they're undead Americans with a different food preference)

But, I'll admit, I'm pretty flexible about the whole thing really. I'll give anything a view or read.

For someone who like zombies in games, videos, and books, I have to admit this: I find most efforts terrible.

Most zombie movies suck (don't get my started on SyFy's efforts), most zombies in videogames are just not terrifying (recently I played Thief:Deadly Shadows and the zombies were actually easier to defeat than virtually everyone in the game), and many of the zombie books are just dreary. So what do I like? The early Romero movie, for one, World War Z, Land of the Dead: The Road to Fiddler's Green, the graphic novel The Walking Dead. But I don't hate the rest, they're mostly justdull.

I'm playing SEV using Windows XP, so I don't have direct knowledge on its compatibility with Vista or Windows 7.

However, a thread at SpaceEmpires.net on this subject exists: the results (as usual) are mixed but its apparently playable AND unplayable depending on the poster. 50% of those who voted on the poll were using either Win 7 or Vista.

Shrapnel Forums had little on Windows 7/ SEV compatibility - little that I saw other than a poster saying he could run SEV on Windows 7 though using the minimizing game button was problematical.

I have had no problems with SEV on Windows XP after maybe 40-50 hours play. I do however keep the number of empires, quantities of ships allowed, and galaxy size on the lower side. I've found those epic 20 empires and dozen neutral civilizations with thousands of ships to be annoyingly sloooooow - unplayable for all practical purposes.

If you ever try SEV on Windows 7 in the future, it'd be interesting to know your experience.

[Star Bursts]

From what I read at Penny Arcade about the game and from the official site, Star Ruler does sound interesting. The price is low enough that I'd ordinarily buy the game considering I like star ruling more than most humanoids.

I agree the name could've been better; I would've have called it Star Bursts!

I'd buy it, but I'm playing SE:V right now and I've become a bit too interested in my investigation of that game to turn to a new one.

In the unlikely event of a water landing...

1993. My aunt and her brood were going on a 2 week trip and wanted someone to look after their house. I was 13-years-old and lived a block away, so they asked me to "look in on the place from time to time." They had a computer with, iirc, 16Mb of RAM. I had Civ 1, a summer vacation, and the run of their place. I gamed more that 2 weeks than I have ever since.

Hell, all of 2004-2010 would barely exceed the hours I gamed then.

I've got more money now but far less time.

I don't remember UFO ET being panned when it was first released.

I'd use some mods though; those are some of the ugliest troopers around. lt looks like they've already taken a few phaser hits to their mugs already. But that's trivial, the real good stuff is the mod's weapons.

The non-Earth setting was ok by me; there's nothing special about going on a Terror Mission to save "Chicago" or "Ilyria". It plays out the same. In any case, the original X-Com, eventually had us leaving for Mars.

Destructible terrain seems to be a big deal to many. Eh, it reminds me of how when we were kids, my brother any time a dog was in a movie, he'd ask "Does the dog die?" If it didn't, then it was a good movie.

I'm surprised the game's not cheaper after all this time.

As much as I've liked the XCOM successor games; none of them have left me with the wonder and amusement of XCOM. I'm probably finished with this type of tactical game for good until some challenging AI or exciting graphic or...something is added to the mix. Frankly, after awhile, they're grinds to finish. You're not seeing anything new. You're not smiling in surprise at an AI's move or at a new monster...

The UFO Aftermath series were enjoyable and I liked their "endings". I was disappointed by UFO ETs ending. Anyone who's assembled an elite combat team will understand.

I played Interstate '76 back in high school and loved it! However, seeing the YouTube videos was disappointing. I can't go back to that. It's not just the graphics/porn music but also I expect much more freedom and options now. I used to think "WHY isn't there an updated I76? Think what they could do today!" every now and then for years.

In the fullness of time, I became the leader of the Great Northen tribe...and I76? It lives now only in my memories.

Health insurance and costs are hard to figure out – and dental insurance and costs seem the strangest of all. I took my grandfather to the doctor’s a few months back and he recommended an anti-shingles vaccination shot. His nurse said if she gave us the shot, it’d be something like $300 but if I went down the hall, I could have the pharmacist give him the vaccination for $40. Apparently, if it came out of “the doctor’s supply stock” they were required to bill us the higher amount. Such are the ways of accounting…

My grandfather’s dental bill for a tooth extraction (a tooth had broken) at another time, according to my father, might have been covered by his dental insurance except that, like the original poster’s account, the doctor had included something like having it extracted “by oral surgeon” which was explicitly not part of grandfather’s plan. Sigh…while it’s nothing like the huge charges others here have seen, just that recommendation meant we had to pay out of pocket. Ok, we did it, but I wonder what the real costs in health and dental care really are. Are we subsidizing all the low-cost maintenance by paying much more when something more major happens? Does it really cost more? Such are the ways of accounting…?

Dental Insurance is a source of frustration. My health insurance is very good and reasonable. My father has a similar plan that's worked out well for him - quick appts, good coverage, etc.

But our Dental Insurance is less reassuring. It covers basic exams, xrays, fillings and cleanings, etc. but anything much more? Not so much. I've not needed anythng beyond one filling 3 years ago but Dad had to have a tooth extracted and it cost him about $400 from a specialist who was able to see him the same day. A very professional man, the oral surgeon was, and a well-equipped office and staff eased my Dad's tension. He did think $400 for 10 minutes (actually seconds to pull the tooth) a bit much but people don't work for free.

My office colleague at Intel - an expat from England - had few good words for the NHS there: he told me that finding a NHS dentist who would take new adult patients and scheduling an appt. and actually getting the work done took him months. When I told him of my father's expense, he looked at me like I was crazy 'cause apparently he'd of paid double that to save him months of pain. We all pay one way or the other.

Very interesting news. I like their idea of not simply having us begin, yet again, in a solar system rush situation but of controlling established empires (or something of that sort). The change in combat focus also looks intriguing, if I understood correctly they intend a sort of change from having ships slug it out to having long-distance fighter style battles: sort of like going from WW1 to WW2 naval combat.

I just tried to replay an old game from my early teens - East Front II - and it was quite tedious, primitive and dull to boot. I can't believe I ever enjoyed it but I seem to have memories of liking it enough to have played it a hell of a lot when I was 13. But now, I was thinking: "I rarely play any more, hardly played more than 30-40 hours total last year - AND THIS is what I choose to look at!!" Life's too short to try to rehabilitate old games; if someone's enjoying an old wargame that's one thing (more power to 'em) but for me they had their day. I really really need some gimmick -a powerful AI, spectacular graphics/fx, or an original setting -to enjoy a game now.  

The new maps for TOAW are attractive, but I'd rather read about your battles than actually play it again.

Lock 'n Load: Heroes of Stalingrad was on my radar 'til I gave up on it a year ago; I hope it does come out well eventually. It looks so much like the ASL boardgames we used to play at the Berkeley wargaming club. I have a few John Tiller wargames like Advance of the Reich but they're so dry - but then Tiller games have a design philosophy pretty close to "You're lucky you get anything".

TOAW GUI upgrade looks really cool and if these were 2000 A.D., I'd be all over the Korean peninsula preventing the death of Charley Co or fighting my way from the Chosin reservoir. But I'm not returning to TOAW at this late date.

I thought it looked promising - especially after viewing the YouTube videos. The graphics as they are now, don't do too much for me but I imagine as this is an Alpha (correct?) stage look, they've a long way to go. Of course, the real test is what we can actually do: what tactics can we employ, what weapons can we fire, how the AI works, etc. It sounds promising; I'd like to see what other concepts will make it into the final game. This is a game that bears watching!

I can't help but think that JeffV's involved in this somehow.

I would say AI War is virtually a "must have" for space war gamers and for gamers looking for an AI with personality. Other games may be better looking, but AI War has personality, and as they say personality goes a long way.

I believe that online complaining about a game - or virtually anything else for that matter - seems to be easier and more "safe" than praising it.

Forums can be pretty snarky places, where being cool (in the sense of being detached, bored 'cause I have seen it all before noob) is easier and more fun than risking someone thinking you're a enthusiastic, unsophisticated rube who doesn't recognize that "Game X is completely derivative of the Atari Jaguar 64 game which itself stole from the Tandy 1000 game Y."

As for continuing playing a game that isn't fun, I don't unless there's something else in the game - maybe an unknown level I want to reach or cutscene.

I can understand why someone might continue a game that's less fun than it might be in places - but anger? No, if it reached that point, I'd quit. Mildly irritating I can handle - there was this quest/mission in GTA San Andreas where you had to pilot a small model biplane around the city and shoot out rival messengers in cars. I could never quite do it - at least for 20-30 attempts - but then I just F it, and went on my way to other places in the game. Yet on the forums, this small quest generated passionate hatred: no game's worth that much stress.

I've beaten the "too many games dilemma" -talk about the paradox of choice and embarassment of riches - by just making a note in my To Buy list and then leaving it at that. I no longer jump at bargains, even unreal, totally awesome insane bargains, unless I plan to play the damn game upon arrival of said game. So I have a huge list, and I'm cool with that.

I haven't bought many games these last two years but what I've bought, I've played. I have at least thirty games on the list that I know I'd love to try but a game's not a bargain unless I actually play it - so that list will likely grow as I don't make time for 'em anymore. But with digital downloads, I know that a future me can buy them and be disappointed later.

Making procrastination work for me.

[JANUARY]

                                  

     JANUARY

• Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins   Carl Zimmer
  
• Don't Know Much about Literature: What You Need to Know but Never Learned Kenneth Davis
  
• Welcome To Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future And It Doesn't Work   James Delingpole
  
• Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count Richard E. Nisbett
  
• Road Dogs* Elmore Leonard
  
• Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam Andrew Wheatcroft
  
• Fun Home A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel
  
• The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel* Salman Rushdie
  
• The Man Who Loved Books Too Much Allison Hoover Bartlett
  
• SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Levitt & Dubner
  
  
  FEBRUARY
  
  
• The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius Graham Farmelo
  
• The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next Lee Smolin
  
• The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb  R. Crumb
  
• Centennial* James Michener
  
• The Canterbury Tales A Retelling By Peter Ackroyd Geoffrey Chaucer
  
  
• The Innocent Mage Bk.1 Kingmaker Series  Karen Miller
  
• Half Broke Horses A True Life Novel Jeannette Walls
  
• Breathless A Novel Dean Koontz
  
  MARCH
  
  
• On The Origins of Species By Means Of Natural Selection Charles Darwin
  
• The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome Christopher Kelly
  
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science Richard Holmes
  
• The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
  
• Why Are Jews Liberals? Norman Podhoretz
  
  
  
• By Blood We Live Vampire Stories John J Adams (ed.)
  
• Boneshaker A Novel Cherie Priest
  
• The War After Armageddon A Novel Ralph Peters
  
• The Caryatids A Science Fiction Novel Bruce Sterling
  
  APRIL
  
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth Apostolos Doxiadis
  
• Basic Economics 3rd Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy*Thomas Sowell
  
• This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly Carmen Reinhart
  
• The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created "Alice in Wonderland" Jenny Woolf
  
• The Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies* Michelle Malkin

-

• Twentieth Century Ghosts* Joe Hill
  
  MAY
  
• The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel Zachary Mason
  
• Dune* Frank Herbert
  
• The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution* Richard Dawkins
  
• The Windup Girl A Science Fiction Novel Paolo Bacigalupi
  
• They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq Kelly Kennedy
  
  
• Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945 Barrett Tillman
  
• The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans G. J. Sawyer
  
  JUNE
  
• Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery
  
• Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) William Poundstone
  
• The Eerie Silence Renewing Our Search For Alien Intelligence Paul Davies
  
• The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence Jack Rakove
  
• The Dreaming Void*(The Void Trilogy, Bk. One) Peter F. Hamilton
  -
  
  
• Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't John Lott
  
• The Warded Man A Novel Peter Brett
  
• The Desert Spear A Novel Peter Brett
  
• The PacificHugh Ambrose
  
• The Lovely Bones* Alice Sebold
  
  
• The Dying Earth Tales of the Dying Earth* Jack Vance
  
• A Gate At The Stairs* Lorrie Moore
  
• The Forbidden Apple: A Century of Sex & Sin in New York City Kat Long
  
• Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains Jan MacKell
  
• Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee
  
  JULY
  
• I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay John Lanchester
  
• Insectopedia Hugh Raffles
  
• Anthill A Novel E. O. Wilson
  
• The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution Ian Tattersall
  
• Horns A Novel* Joe Hill
  
  
• A Dark Matter A Novel* Peter Straub
  
• The Infinities A Novel* John Banville
  
• The Library : An Illustrated History Stuart A.P. Murray
  

I know I've accidentally bought a few games more than once - but the extra copies were always bargain-bin priced (less than $10).

The one's I've intentionally bought a second or third time were bargain-bin priced and bought because I couldn't remember where the original was and decided that $3 was a small price to pay to avoid looking for it.

I played all three (UFO Aftermath, Aftershock, and Afterlight) and enjoyed 'em as much as when I was 10-years-old and playing X-Com. IMO, the UFO: Aftermath series made a very poor first impression because- with the exception of the last game - they were very buggy and, frankly, not as novel as X-Com was in its day. Still, I personally had little problems with bugs with any of the games, loved what the modders added, and just enjoyed the retro feel of the all of them: developing a 2 handed machine-pistol squad leader, using old-fashioned projectile  weapons or kitschy energy beams and needing to calculate action points or else...

I'm a fan of this sort of game; whether its UFO Extraterrestrials or UFO AI ...

And it makes sense too: I warned him that chickenwire wasn't going to stop the more determined zombies from taking over the radio tower from which the Overlords broadcast.

The Wargamer.com has a list of Holiday Sales that includes some lesser known games and companies; esp. of the strategic and wargaming kind.

LINK

Why does OO keep playing with my emotions?????

Looks damn pretty - but can it fight????

Yes, unless I had a particular yen for Dragon Age, I'd choose the still excellent Mass Effect and AC for their prices: one could get two great games for less than Dragon Age, then when DA goes on sale (and they almost always go on sale) one could enjoy the magnificence that is DA.

Aganezer's review convinces me that at the very least the game is "good enough" and as I'm already interested in a zombie game that attempts to be more than a shooter, I think I'll like it. I'm interested in a few good solid hours of gaming and the price is right. I'll buy tonight.

Heh. I played Thief for the zombies! But that was years ago before the zombie renaissance.

Fortunately, I keep my GT dues paid in full - and my feathers numbered -for such emergencies! CeeKay was right: it pays for itself in less than a year.

[JANUARY]

JANUARY
Odyssey of the West IV A Classic Education through the Great Books* Timothy B. Shutt LIT
Stupid Black Men How To Play The Race Card - And Lose Larry Elder SOC
Great Sky River (Galactic Center, volume 3) Gregory Benford SCI FI
My War Killing Time In Iraq Colby Buzzell CURRENT
The Last True Story I'll EverTell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in IraqJohn Crawford CURRENT
Hard Corps From Gangster to Marine Hero Marco Martinez CURRENT
In Praise of Prejudice The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas Theodore Dalrymple SOC
Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life James Hawkes LIT
Ony A Theory Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul Kenneth R. Miller SCI

FEBRUARY
Dumbing Us Down The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling John Taylor Gatto SOC
Battlespace Book Two of The Legacy Trilogy Ian Douglas SCI FI
Ender's Exile Orson Scott Card SCI FI
Just After Sunset Stories Stephen King FICT
Star Marines Book Three of The Legacy Trilogy Ian Douglass SCI FI

MARCH
The Soul Thief* Charles Baxter FICTION
Alive in Necropolis A Novel Doug Dorst FICTION
The Kings of New York A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, And Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team Michael Weinreb CURRENT
Byzantium The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire Judith Herrin HISTORY
A Concise History of Byzantium Warren Treadgold HISTORY
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World David W. Anthony HISTORY

APRIL
The Mountain People Colin Turnbull NONFICTION
The Decline and Fall of Rome* Thomas F. Madden HISTORY
The Ruin of the Roman Empire A New History James J. O'Donnell HISTORY
Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe William Rosen
Your Heart Belongs To Me Dean Koontz
Is God A Mathematician? Mario Livio
Winston's War Michael Dobbs

MAY
Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival Own Matthews
Empires of Trust How Rome Built - and America is Building - a New World Thomas F. Madden
The Turnaround A Novel George Pelecanos
The SuperOrganism The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies E. O. Wilson , Bert Holldobler
The Third Reich At War Richard J. Evans

JUNE
The Source A Novel James Michener
Unbelievable Investigations Into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, And Other Unseen Phenomena, From The Duke Parapsychology Laboratory Stacy Horn
The ESP Enigma The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena Dianne Powell, M.D.
The Last Defender of Camelot Roger Zelazny
Give Me Back My Legions! Harry Turtledove
White King And Red Queen How The Cold War Was Fought On The Chessboard Daniel Johnson
Escape From Hell A Novel Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Selections from Dreamsongs 2: Tales of Fantasy, Horror/Sci Fi and a Man Called Tuf* G.R.R. Martin
A Clockwork Orange A Novel* Anthony Burgess
Berserkers The Beginning* Fred Saberhagen
Elric of Melnibone* Michael Moorcock
Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-In-Chief* James McPherson

JULY
Jews, God And History Max I. Dimont
The Yiddish Policemen's Union* Michael Chabon
The Killer Angels A Novel of Gettysburg* Michael Shaara
The Defeat of Rome in the East Crassus, The Parthians, and the Disastrous Battle of Carrhae, 53 BC Gareth C. Sampson
The City of Ember* Jeanne DuPrau
The Discovery of France A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War Graham Robb
A Hymn Before Battle John Ringo
The Middle Ages The Complete Idiot's Guide To Timothy Hall
World Without End A Novel* Ken Follett
A Distant Mirror The Calamitous 14th Century* Barbara Tuchman
The Space-Gods Revealed A Close Look At The Theories of Erich Von Daniken Ronald Story
The Skeptic's Dictionary A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions & Dangerous Deceptions Robert T. Carroll
America Anonymous: 8 Addicts In Search of A Life Denizet-Lewis, Benoit
Why We Read What We Read: A Delightfully Opinionated Journey Through Contemporary Best-Sellers Lisa Adams

AUGUST
The Lathe of Heaven Ursula K. Le Guin
How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever* Jack Horner
Fighting Techniques of Naval Warfare Strategy, Weapons, Commanders and Ships 1190 BC - 1942 Thomas Dunne Books
Liberty and Tyranny A Conservative Manifesto Mark R. Levin
Berserker's Planet* Fred Saberhagen
The Man In The High Castle* Philip K. Dick
Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong Reopening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles Pierre Bayard
The Art of Conversation A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure Catherine Blyth
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization* Thomas Woods
The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels*Thomas Cahill
Where God Was Born A Daring Adventure Through The Bible's Greatest Stories Bruce Feiler
Empire Rising A Novel of Ancient Akkad Sam Barone
Into the Storm Destroyermen, Bk 1 Taylor Anderson
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber/ The Snows of Kilimanjaro* Ernest Hemingway
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Relentless A Novel Dean Koontz
The Tyranny of Dead Ideas Unleash A New Economic Prosperity Matt Miller

SEPTEMBER
Europe Between The Oceans 9000 BC - AD 1000 Barry Cunliffe
The Stars, My Destination Alfred Bester
Deathstalker War (Owen Deathstalker, Vol. 3)* Simon Green
Reflections on the Revolution in Europe Immigration, Islam, And the West Christopher Caldwell
Cahokia Ancient America's Great City On The Mississippi Timothy Pauketat
Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold! (The Magic Kingdom of Landover)* Terry Brooks
The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover series #2)* Terry Brooks
Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures In Narnia Laura Miller
No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels Jay Dobyns
Wizard's First Rule (The Sword of Truth)* Terry Goodkind
Rocket Ship Galileo* Robert A. Heinlein

OCTOBER
After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000 - 5,000 BC Steven Mithen
Before the Dawn Rediscovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Nicholas Wade
I am Legend* Richard Matheson
The Prince* Niccolo Machiavelli
One Second After William R. Forstchen
A Princess of Landover* (Magic Kingdom of Landover series #6) Terry Brooks
Homer & Langley A Novel E. L. Doctorow
The Company A Novel K. J. Parker
Stone of Tears (The Sword of Truth series, book 2)* Terry Goodkind

NOVEMBER
The Law of Nines* Terry Goodkind
The Evolution of God Robert Wright
Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Vol. 1* H. P. Lovecraft
The Elements of Style Strunk & White
Waiting For My Cats To Die A Morbid Memoir Stacy Horn
Transition A Novel Iain M. Banks
Fragment A Novel Warren Fahy
Conqueror Time's Tapestry Book Two Stephen Baxter
Stitches A Memoir David Small
Thunderstruck* Erik Larson
The Simpsons An Uncensored, Unauthorized History John Ortved

DECEMBER
The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000 Chris Wickham
How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower Adrian Goldsworthy
Liberal Fascism The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning Jonah Goldberg
Descartes' Bones A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason* Russell Shorto
Anansi Boys* Neil Gaiman
Alfred & Emily A Life Doris Lessing
Impostor's Daughter A True Memoir Laurie Sandell
The Name of the Wind Patrick Rothfuss
Crusade: Destroyermen, Book II Taylor Anderson
Loser Goes First My Thirty-Something Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation Dan Kennedy
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire series, Book 1)* Naomi Novik

So the game was developed by zombies for zombies? I'll wait, but if future patches and upgrades improve the experience, I'll bite.

So if you early purchasers can keep us informed if something worthwhile in the way of gameplay improvements, then I'll gladly put down my PC and pick up my shotgun.

Ok, technically if even one game gets picked up by Grandma for Gamer, Jr., then the claim "it didn't sell any copies at all" wouldn't be true. 

However, there are still games that I've seen over the years, where I wonder "Who'd buy that?" or "Who'd knowingly buy that?" Then I tell myself that my own tastes are perhaps so singular that I can hardly be said to know what moves the gaming public - but even so, I'm no snob who looks down on blockbuster games, children's games, mass-appeal games: I'm just curious.

There are games in my specific areas of interest - turnbased strategy games - that I sometimes suspect sell only 3 copies: one to me (who'll be bored and disappointed by it), one to dbt1949 (who'll try anything) and JeffV (who won't like it).