I'll watch. I've read and enjoyed the series on and off. Along with 30 Days of Night and Y The Last Man and others, it's well worth looking for.

[DAILY]

DAILY
Instapundit
CivFanatics
NYTimes

WEEKLY
OO  (used to be daily, but not since the "Great Outage"

MONTHY
GT

When you make the graphics too realistic, then we start to notice the unrealistic fighting sequences. The paradox of progress.

I'm interested. It sounds like something I could take a bite out of for a long time.

Nice looking game! Hope it plays well too.

I played Arcanum through and through twice and enjoyed it both times. It's very old school now and I think the "good old days" required us - I'd say "allowed us" - to supply the excitement ourselves. I'd think anyone who's ever ended up feeling somewhat sentimental about their character by game's end could still enjoy Arcanum.

So I'd vote Yes, if the gamer is one of those.

I would love a code too!! 

PM me or however it's done and I'll be demigoding all over the place!

Oh, I thought he meant the other kind of booty...

Wow! Positive reinforcement! When I report a new game on the radar, I virtually always get a "So what?" response. CeeKay, how do you do it?!

I can barely remember Master of Magic except for 'membering that I liked it. That's it. I'd say that except for disappointing a tiny but vocal number of fans who actually played and still recall the game well enough, I'd say they're going to make a lot of newcomers happy.

[CHESS vs. CIV 4]

It's a tie between

CHESS                vs.            CIV 4

I finish a Civ 4 and often immediately start another. I'll play the mods over and over. I'll debate strategies and analyze civilizations. I play again and then again. I just am fascinated by it; I'll construct stories and narratives about the game's events. I think I'll play Civ 4 forever. I've years of Civ 4 and years of earlier Civs before that.

And chess too; I leave it for months, but I've always come back. Chess and me go way back to when I was a seven-year-old in a tiny northern New Mexico town, followed me all over the country from chess clubs in New Orleans, Houston, LA, San Francisco and Berkeley. I'll always play chess.

STRANGE, I am not saying I'm all ecstatic about these 2 games. Frankly I have had more fun and amusement - perhaps because of the novelty of a game for me (Sword of the Stars) or the sociability (Scrabble, you guys who have friends who'll play wargames/strategy games/games by that brilliant German whatshisname  - you guys are lucky - but Scrabble is fun, we mock each other, my family/friends like it) or the intricacy (Patrician III) and etc. - I actually laugh and smile and say "cool" but

once I've finished 'em, I don't think about them. I don't find myself thinking, Hmmmm, what if I had tried....

Santa Fe was a little cool but just enough for a light jacket. I'm going south to Albuquerque today; it'll be in the sixties. Winter has been very mild once more.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't find one there; and there's got to be a way to make it work!

I bought the Dark Crusade - man, that was a long download 3.3 GBs - and I couldn't get over 100KBs for some reason plus their server would pause me. Anyhow, I got it- for $4 couldn't go wrong

At the Unofficial Mount and Blade Mod depository, you'll find most of the mods - probably you already have. If not, I like the Native Improved Mod myself and use it often - it's a realism mod. I've used several of the mods that add Romans, Orcs, guns, etc: but I prefer the battle generator.  Unfortunately not all mods were updated to the final version.

I honestly think OO is a lost cause, though I wish that wasn't true.  It's been long enough to face the reality that they still haven't recovered even to the relatively low level of activity they had before the outage last spring.  And they likely never will.

Uh, you serious? In my experience of jumping between forums many, many times, OO seems more lively than GT in the Everything But Gaming forums. In the Political/Religious forums it's no contest, around election time OO had nearly a live chat blog running while there was 1-2 posts a day at GT. Nothing against GT, I like it here and I post it here. But your statement doesn't seem to have any basis in reality.

Yeah, I agree: if GT were more active I'd post here more too, but it seems to me even as "lost" as OO is, OO's PC Gaming  and Unreleased Games has much more activity. It's been squandered true, and true may be losing lurkers - but what do lurkers really contribute but the vague possibility they'll contribute something someday.

I like GT but OO's activity drew me back - after a brief flurry of activity in GT's PC gaming section back when OO first went offline it seemed that I would stay at GT, but then it returned to its normal quiet self.

However, OO does need help, no denying OO could be healthier.

I'd join QT3 except that it seems very inhospitable to the new guy and I don't care much for the simple "Games" subforum. Oh well.,..

Umm...actually, no, silence does NOT mean approval or awe...
 
JonathanStrange to JohnathanStrange


(New page, bitches!!)

I'm not worried - I just type into my Word Document file and pretend I'm posting to OO. In some ways it's better: no one replies with posts expressing their lack of interest or corrects me (you know the one's -they start with "Ummm..." or "Actually...").

In fact, no one responds and as usual I interpret that to mean silent approval and awe.

I, too, dislike it.

The idea that we have to get permission to use a game we legally purchased? Not cool.

I saw the subservient posts loving Steam but I see it as evidence of more and more creeping invasion of our privacy. Sure it's just silly games but it's tiresome and constant; we're watched by videocameras, required to present ID at the drop of a hat, can't friggin play a game without permission now. The sad part is how nonchalantly people shrug and say it doesn't matter that there's no option.

Hell, they love Big Brother!

it's funny going back and seeing the posts of people who say they'll keep on visiting and then disappeared- JonthanStrange, I'm looking at you 

And people wonder why I'm constantly pirouetting when I walk to my car after work -  who knows if CeeKay or some other 'bot is out there tracking me - if I turn fast enough I'll spot 'em.

Sorry. I needed the jewel case for my burned copy of "Parking Lot Wars"

I'd like to try Wizardry 8 again but I no longer have it. Any ideas on where to reasonably obtain it?

The "buying experience" at CC had declined, imo, over the years. I can remember as a teenager going to the local CCs and they were well-stocked, organized, busy, "professional" looking. They slowly started becoming over the last ten years a disorganized, low-rent, dollar store franchise.looking place. I don't know that the personnel are to blame - though it's fun blaming the little guy whom we're obviously better than, those freakin' cashier monkeys - but I certainly don't, obviously management was no longer that demanding.

HOWEVER, I often shopped there for smaller items like games, movies, blank DVDs, computer accessories, batteries, etc. more than I've ever shopped at Best Buy.

Why? 'Cause they had plenty of sales, YMMV manager bargains, mispriced games, clearanced items. I've gotten lots of awesome bargains at Circuit City. While others were sneering and bitching how they were too good to go to CC, I was getting some of the best buys at CC.

Best Buy is just too organized, too efficient to find the really good bargains. I've not gotten a particularly good deal on, say DVD players, PC games, or movies in years at Best Buy. However, I knew that at CC, inevitably they'd misprice or deliberately put on sale games that Best Buy would take month/years to discount.

So I'll miss that aspect.

Got one at GS myself - just wanted a hard copy just for the hell of it.

EBGames, according to their site, has it for five dollars too. Not online though.

I'm interested! The day will come when Roman-themed games will play as good as they look - though I hardly think we will be around to play 'em.

I thought glyc was pretty restrained given the almost gleeful prison rape predictions and other non-responsive replies. I suppose you all know him well enough to mock his question and his friend predicament. In that case, I apologise for spoiling the atmosphere.

UFO Ex did get a great mod - probably that's what gave it a slight edge for me as I like personalizing my troopers and having all sorts of different looking troopers and weapons really helped out for me. Without Jennifer Aniston  wielding a plasma rifle or that dude from Prison Break on rocket launchers, I'd have less inclination to worry about whether anonymous ugly clone soldier lived, died, or was captured for anal probing. What is it with aliens and probing?


p.s. UFO Afterlight did have its exciting moments so I hope I didn't make it sound dull; the action was quite vivid and dramatic at times. There were tense situations and humorous incidents (like the time, early in the game, before my troopers were seasoned, when a rocket exploded near a trooper sending her head over heels off an elevated walkway to tumble into the enemies below.

Both games do become repetitive though, which is understandable given the gameplay mechanics but battles are mostly fun.

Why I at times sound lukewarm is because I'd have thought by now we'd have better squad tactical games with better representations of flying suits and better A.I. and more "effects". For example, UFO Ex's flying suits were ok but very stiff looking, not evocative of their cool abilities, more like walking in air. UFO Afterlight didn't model Mar's lesser gravity, our troopers never jump high, there's no flying suits, no sliding down hillsides, and except for the red ground, I thought I was fighting in my own backyard here in New Mexico.

But, at least we had something that tried to be XCOM-like, right?

It's a standalone expansion and you need neither the previous games nor their "background stories" to enjoy UFO Afterlight.

UFO Afterlight was relatively bugfree, stable, and a definite new direction in the UFO series. The artwork was less gritty and more cartoony (like a Pixar movie), the emphasis was on developing unique characters instead of anonymous cannon fodder and the combat was more pausable real-time than the older turn-based action point fighting.

I've liked all the UFO Aftershock, Aftermath, Afterlight games. The first two were buggy and their reputations apparently never recovered - although that's always hard to judge 'cause virtually all games disappear from active discussion and you really only need two or three bad opinions endlessly repeated (like that poster who referred to the series as UFO AfterCrap so often that every time I see his posts I think "It's the AfterCrap guy".) The first two games, btw, were patched (albeit not to perfection) and heavily modded - I liked and finished them too although their gameplay is dramatically different both in dramatic emphasis and turn-based emphasis than UFO Afterlight.

Is UFO Afterlight worth $6? Yes, that sounds right. It's a sturdy, competently done game but a bit dated and not particularly exciting.  UFO: Extraterrestrials was a bit more exciting though not by much - yet it got the sand-lion's share of attention. Ehhhh, I've always been out of step with forums.

Donnie Darko was fun and entertaining; I understood enough of it to follow the plot. As for the "why" and "how" of the events? It didn't matter to me whether the movie bothered to explain them 'cause I'm not much into unraveling a movie's mythology or premise usually.

So I liked the actors, esp. Jena Malone, and even Drew Barrymore (with who I would have loved to have an inappropriate relationship were I a H.S. senior again). The Giant Rabbit, the time-travel, butterfly effect goofiness, the everyday H.S. stuff were all good fun too.

Worship the movie though? Nah. I liked 12 Monkeys too, but I wouldn't marry it.

Hmmm...someone better tell CeeKay that he better start posting like Ceekay 2.0 or lose his rep!

It's good to revisit the old thread. Never know when we'll really need it again.

A friend of mine who works for the Department of Energy in a job that requires a very high security clearance was out one night at a restaurant with a woman who he wanted to have a meaningful relationship with (or failing that a meaningless physical one).

He had ONE drink - I know 'cause I was there and I was the only one not to have anything alcoholic (which oddly enough makes some people think you are an alcoholic but I digress) and I pointed that "well so-and-so had only one himself" when others mentioned I was some sort of modern day puritan.

He leaves the restaurant, gets stopped by the police, takes some sort of breathalyzer test, blows like .01, and is arrested for DWI - there being no safe limit to alcohol consumption and we're looking out for the public and the cop needed the OT pay for court appearances and end-of-shift time (having to stay late to process a perp gives one OT).

Anyhow, my friend loses his clearance, gets sent to the shrink by the DOE who says he has a problem, has to have a car-installed breathalyzer, has to go to AA meetings to confess his sins (shades of communist China's re-education trials), and faces other problems.

This for a guy who I know once had the same two beers in his fridge for six months until I finally gave them to his neighbor - a doctor with more than a little of the taste for beer/whiskey.

So if someone tells me they think they might be overdoing it, I think they're the best judge. If a practically teetotaler can get in trouble, then someone who's actually drinking risks even more. Especially when so many want to make an "object lesson" out of drinking or smoking or eating trans fats or non-diet beverages or not wearing seat belts or not admitting to be sexist/racist or size-ist or age-ist or whatever.

A sad bit of news there; although now she and Gene can work on new episodes together. God bless her and my thanks for her contribution to Star Trek and its legacy.

Still if he has a concern about alcohol and his drinking proclivities - enough to ponder it and post here - then I wouldn't dismiss his concern but recommend he talk it over with an AA counselor. Or someone beside me and CeeKay.

Thanks for posting those QT3 tips. I wish I'd had them when I first attempted the game!

Ok, so I bought SR2 and its expansion - really I only needed the expansion as I have the first - but for $4? What a steal.

Project Aftermath though is iffier because I'm simply swamped with games that it needs more good word of mouth. It's not the money now with me, it's the time.

I'm rarely sick; haven't been for years. I suspect though when I do it will be a doozy. Just my luck. Oh well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This thread made my head spin!

I just got a glimpse into what my brother experiences when I mention what I like about a game and he says "Man! You are way too knowledgeable about that shit".   

Eightball, I don't doubt that being an attorney at big national firm or rather the hiring at the big firms is "one of the weirdest, most nonsensical things ever" or that a law career there is different from most other careers. My point though - with which you seem to agree?  a little: - is that working for the big company like that isn't the be-all and end-all of law school and that unless our friend's only ambition is to work for "the big company" then he isn't necessarily doomed.

We sneer - not me, but the hypothetical "we" - at the lawyer who works for the govt, or for a small practice, or an insurance company - because he's not living the dream big-time Boston Legal/L.A. Law (or whatever the current lawyer shows are) - but I've met friends and have relatives who graduated from law school without any chance of the "dream job" and yet are doing well as lawyers or leveraging said degree.

My cousin represents a casino; not as a lawyer (he never passed the bar) but his legal knowledge got him hired and retained. My uncle is a small town city prosecutor who's raised six kids in a very comfortable home and he's had an interesting career. There are so many others who're not making the big city lawyer bucks and yet are doing just fine and I felt compelled to add my two cents to a discussion where the suggestion seemed to be (at least in part) that the whole point of law school was to work at a certain firm, making a certain amount of money, or forget it. 

So he may not be recruited by the elite firms (many of whom may not exist next year anyway given our economy  ), that's no reason to drop out of law school. I see that we agree there.

Anyway, I hope I don't sound like I'm certain of anything. I'm not. I just can't help recalling my own experiences as well as of very-focused "all or nothing" friends who weren't flexible enough to adjust their goals. My best friend in college wanted a PhD in Physics and to do research at CalTech in something called "solid state physics" and he frequently told me it was that or death (practically). Problem was he didn't have the grades or the drive to finish grad school. He's working as a science teacher in a private High School where last year he met Amy, a beautiful brunette English teacher and married her last month. He gave up CalTech, MIT or any prestigious think-tank job and, imo, is luckier for not having achieved his goal.

I hope I didn't sound arrogant. It's not an easy decision to switch goals. I do think that R. W. Emerson's "success will find you in the oddest hours" is true - so what looks like a setback might be work out better in the long run.

Good luck.

I read CeeKay's rantings and worry about its sanity: Has the 'bot gone mad already? What will it type next?

Then I randomly choose a topic and share my wisdom with the dreamers, crackpots, miscreants, misfits and visionaries that make up GamingTrend.

Finally, I shake my head sadly and sign off...