If Elle dies I will be a sad panda.

She was the one entertaining bright spot in all of season 2 for me.

I don't think Elle is ugly or anything, but I really don't think she's all that attractive.  And her character doesn't really add much to the show.  It wouldn't bother me at all to see her die.  PURGE EVERY REMNANT OF THE SEASON TWO DISASTER.

I might rent it at some point and wait for the price to come down, but I'm not going to pay $40 for concert recordings of which that I haven't heard at least a preview.  In terms of cost, it's only marginally more expensive than the $2/track that in MS Points ($2.22 per +tax for the 18 tracks).

Of course the problem with that is if you actually wanted all 18 tracks.  For me, there's only 3 or 4 that I would actually like.  So, I'll have to pass on the AC/DC thing.

I plan to resub on Whisperwind and make a death knight as my new main.  Does anyone know if purchasing the expansion comes with a free month?  That'll determine whether I want to get someone here to use the Scroll of Resurrection promotion 10 days before I buy or same day.

Burning Crusade didn't, so I am expecting that Lich King will not either.

Congrats, jblank!

I think the older Beatles stuff could definitely be fun.  At a minimum,it'll give me more songs that I can feel OK about playing with my kids.  I'm in, but I hope I get to pick the tracks(doubtful) and not stuck with an arrangement like the AC/DC content(likely).  

I am sooooo tempted right now, I don't even dare go to Amazon's website.

   Hilarious!

I am tempted too, but I think I am going to wait for the next generation Kindle whenever that is.  These kinds of things only get better with age.

In that case consider your copy sold for $30 when you want to unload it. PLAY FAST!

I'll keep that in mind. No promises on the finish time, but I'll do my best

Next in line for $10!

Hey tiktok, I'll give ya $20 shipped for it when yer done!

[positive]

The new instruments kick ass...the drums are much quieter, they have better bounce and they're wireless.  The guitar doesn't have the star power problem, the buttons are quieter, the strum bar is less mushy and it's wireless. 

Unfortunately the drums have some issues.  Or at least they have for me.  I had to return mine twice because the darn things register hits that never happened.  It kept breaking my streaks when I am positive I was not screwing up.  I got my money back on the second return, I didn't want to try for a third.

But now I miss them, those new drums really are nice.

Not sure why anyone thought any of the songs would be top tier. 

Then I guess you didn't read the last few posts, because they pretty much spell it out.

[but that the songs were of a quality consistent with the other out-of-the-box RB2 songs]

Well, to be fair, I think most of us were expecting at least some top tier songs. The impression I got, at least, was that Harmonix were holding back those songs just because they couldn't get them done in time for RB2's release, but that the songs were of a quality consistent with the other out-of-the-box RB2 songs. It's hard not being a little disappointed. 

Yes, exactly.  I didn't expect all 20 to be great, but I figured at least a few would be good, and most would be recognizable.  To get a bunch of no-name stuff is a real letdown.  I don't think I'll even bother with them.

What it boils down to is this: Some people have real, actual problems getting DRM games to run, either now or in the future. And for what? DRM has no observable effect against piracy (and arguably even encourages it). What's the point in trying to defend DRM when there are only negatives and no positives, even if the negatives don't directly affect you?

You guys keep throwing crap out there like "DRM doesn't work, its useless".  Can you link to something by someone with actual industry experience/expertise that says that?  Because otherwise, I'm going to assume that the software industry is smart enough to do what is best for their product.

Holy hell.  Can you be more dramatic?  Your "rights"?  This is amazing, the imagined persecution you guys have worked up over this DRM stuff. 

Yes, that's right.  My rights.  I bought the game, it's mine, and I want to be able to play it whenever I like.  Whether that's tomorrow or three years from now is none of anybody else's business.  When the publisher removes that choice they're infringing on my rights.

You seem astonished that I'm annoyed by this, but I am equally astonished that you don't seem to care.

Why would I care?  I don't buy games to play them 5 or 10 years from now.  I buy them to play now.  And maybe in a year or 2 when I get nostalgic.  It is perfectly acceptable to me that the game might not function 5 years from now.  If it doesn't work, I'll move on and I'll live.

And as for your rights, that's silly.  You already have limited rights- you can't copy the CD and give it to your friends, you can't use "cheats" for online play, etc.  Using DRM is another part of your limited rights. Just because you buy something doesn't mean its going to work forever.

Amen.  I can't beleive people are freaking out over this.

Really?  It's quite simple.  It's because some of us do like to replay games years later.  And we don't like people taking a giant shit on our rights.

Holy hell.  Can you be more dramatic?  Your "rights"?  This is amazing, the imagined persecution you guys have worked up over this DRM stuff. 

To me, the point is that the DRM people need to be much more clear about what constitutes a change.
Also, all the different DRM companies need to get together and form a standard regarding this.

And even if they did those things, IMAGINE THIS:
You've got dozens of games on your PC, each one with phone-home DRM on it (that day is coming). 12 games use DRM type A, 8 games use DRM type B, 10 games use DRM type C, and 4 games use DRM type D. This is assuming there will only be 4 types of DRM in the future.
Now you've got all those games, the installs of which has spread over multiple upgrades of your computers. You now need to keep track of which game has which DRM, and which hardware configuration it was installed with.

See, all you people tolerant of DRM have been tolerant precisely because THUS FAR, we haven't had all that many different DRM schemes to deal with. I can understand you guys who say you're happy with Steam. I still say Steam is evil, but I could agree that having all DRM tied up with a single DRM company is better than having 4 different DRM companies to keep track of, and hope they stay solvent far into the future.

On the other hand, if all DRM is tied to one single company, like Steam, if something ever happens to Steam, you're screwed.
Ah, but surely that would never happen. If Steam ever folds, doubtless another company will step in and take over.
Maybe so. Maybe.
And surely, some intrepid programmer will step in and make a totally legal patch to get rid of it.

Man, that's ludicrous and a whole bunch of "ifs" there.

You're obviously a type of person who is super anal and analytical, so I'm not going to refute the technical points of your argument.  All it comes down to me is that I enjoy playing cool new games when they come out, so I don't give one shit about the DRM.  I buy the game, play it and move on.  Why the hell would I give a crap about a few years down the line, I personally don't replay old games like that.

I don't care about the principle of the matter, I just want to play great and well-done games.  If it has DRM, that's fine as long as it doesn't interfere with the experience at the time the game comes out.  I'm not going to be changing my hardware configuration 3 times in a span of a month, or even a year.

Amen.  I can't beleive people are freaking out over this.

I wouldn't touch this "game" with someone else's Wii. The whole thing seems half baked and stupid. I'd possibly feel better if more effort was put into the track list, a little lighter on the public domain and more on the actual music that'd be fun to look silly playing. It seems like classic Nintendo cheapness. The only advice I can give is to wait for the inevitable deluge of returns or trade ins of this and pick it up on the cheap.

Yeesh, did Nintendo kill your dog?

I don't think they can get much more casual than WoW.  I've had an awful lot of fun over the years without having to get absorbed into raiding.  There's some neat stuff in the new patch, so maybe you should give it another trial before investing in a new game?

Keep up the good work all of you quitters!

i'm not normally one to brag about my RB/GH skills because i'm not the greatest, but i do have to speak up tonight about my accomplishment in the Ramblin' Basslines Battle of the Bands event...

even though it says i'm #228 overall, that's actually a tie for first place...probably the only time i'll ever rank that high in BotB

the screen actually said i was #1 the first time got 100% on the song, but i didn't take a picture of that one...figured i'd take one back at the start screen of the battle, but when i got there my ranking was already listed as lower.  i actually had to repeat the score to get those screenshots...lucky it didn't take too many more tries.  even though i know it's a tie for first place, it would have been cool to have a shot of it actually saying my band was #1.  oh well...still cool to be tied for the lead with a perfect run

Awesome,  man!!!!

Our band's top achievement was making it to #5 on "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" on the RB1 leaderboards.  I know how proud we were of that, so I can imagine how awesome you must feel to get to #1 on something!

The one thing about Heroes - and I think the reason the season doesn't work on the same level as season one - they had a plan when they first went in. They knew exactly what they wanted to do, how each character's storyline was going to work into the others (and they all did), and it wrapped up very neatly (although the final episode was a bit of a let down, IMO - simply because you knew pretty much everything that was going to happen.) It was full of twists, that made sense if for no other reason than because we didn't know the characters. It's difficult to make those twists with known entities. But they never planned for anything beyond season one. Everything wrapped up perfectly. It was a perfect season of television. If Heroes had to end at that point, I would be disappointed, but not altogether upset because it was so good and the story was finished.

Now, watching Heroes, it's a lot less focused. They're playing for the long term story now. But they're using the same damn methods to drive the story. Over and over and over and over. A lot of the episodes are using characters whos stories are... pretty much finished. They just won't let the characters go. Sylar saws open heads and eats powers. It's gruesome. We get it. Can we have a new villain now?

In fact, I think the longer it goes on, the more diluted the memory of how perfect that first season was - and how the show can never again live up to the sheer brilliance and edge of the seat suspense that came in the first season. There were moments that really, truly shined in that first season - just as a few examples: Sylar's first fight against Peter (when they're trying to save the cheerleader); The revelations about Noah - he's not a bad guy, he's just trying to protect his family; But when all was said and done - they should have realized that not all these characters are interesting, and they can't possibly do enough to make the characters interesting. The cast is too huge. The stories being told are either not interesting enough or they feel like a huge change in character. And it feels like they're trying to build a role for everyone when they should be giving a few characters part time jobs if jobs at all, and focusing more on telling more focused stories. If Parkman got shitcanned from the show, or if Suresh moved back to india and we did not see him again for a year or two - would anyone even notice? The show could only be better as a result.

Well put.  Season 1 was probably the best TV I've ever watched.  Man, it was good.  And I think that's why people get pissed and critical now.  The bar was set so high in season 1, that we feel kind of ripped off that it's not nearly as good.  Heck, I'm not mad at the lameness of the show, I'm mad at the missed potential, because I know how good it could be.

I saw that GRID for the 360 has dropped down to $30.  There is also a batch of DLC that is due out soon (and more to come in a couple months) so I ended up jumping on it. 

Lost Odyssey also at $30. 

It looks like they are also starting to clearance out a bunch of PC games, though most of them are casual-type so far. 

GRiD dropped to $15 at my Target, so my wife picked it up for me today.  Woot!  (It was $30 on Sunday.)

I should have had her check to see if Lost Odyssey was $15 as well.   

Just playing with you, $45 certainly is a good shipped price.  Unfortunately I wasn't crazy about the demo or I'd consider it. 

[two]

Wow, two whole dollars!!!   

Congrats, I was pulling for the Brewers to make it.  I'll be rooting for them on the NL side of things. 

In the AL, I'd like to see the Tigers ruin the White Sox tomorrow.  Regardless, I'll be pulling for the Red Sox.

Blob showed up  from GF today and I got to play the first level.  Really, really cool platform type game.  I don't know how well it'll hold up, but so far I really like it!

Well, good luck with your protests guys.  I mean, I think its fine to do and I hope you all win and everything and get what you want.  It just seems odd to not play a game you want to play over something like that.  If you think you'll have $50 worth of fun playing Spore now, then why does it matter if you can play it 10 years from now?

What, you've never felt the pangs of nostalgia?
Good for you. Play it and toss it then.

Well, actually play it and sell/trade it.  But sure, I sometimes want to play an old game.  So I buy/trade for it again. 

Please put spoiler tag in title of this thread.. thanks 

You honestly didn't expect spoilers in this thread?  In the words of Gob, "OH COME ON!".

thank you for the kind courtesy - I'm sure it cost you a lot...

I'm guessing this is supposed to be some kind of stinging rebuke, but I'm missing it.  Sorry, its lost on me.

Got mine yesterday afternoon and was able to play for a few hours last night.  It took me a few minutes to get out of Civ IV mode and back into Colonization mode as far as how to grow a city and get the people working.  Obviously the interface is different than the old Colonization game, but so far the gameplay has been pretty much identical.  In my opinion this is just fine, I didn't want to see them reinvent the game.

I know there are new features, but the only one I've noticed so far is that your colonies generate culture that determines their borders.  This prevents the other New World powers from just waltzing up to your city unless you give them open borders or they declare war on you.

Anyway, a big thumbs up so far and I am looking forward to playing more this weekend. 

Curious....anyone having issues with the RB2 Guitar and overdrive via the tilt maneuver?

No problems here, mine's been working perfectly.

MY guitar is great, but the Madcatz bass has problems with the overdrive.  Plus, my RB2 drums are overly sensitive and cause me to miss notes all the time.  So, I'm shooting 1 for 3 on the new equipment.  I'm going to take the bass and drums back and hopefully get my $$$ instead of an exchange- I'd rather just play with the old controls at this point.

Please put spoiler tag in title of this thread.. thanks 

You honestly didn't expect spoilers in this thread?  In the words of Gob, "OH COME ON!".

edit:  i was also laughing at Mohinder, after 2 seasons of intensive research in both a lab and in the field, suddenly realizes within that aforementioned 2 minutes that it's (AHA!) adrenaline that's the key!

Yes, I was laughing(bitterly) about the exact same thing.  Give me a  break.

I also was bummed about how we've spent 2 seasons trying to save the Cheerleader, save the world and then like nothing, Sylar shows up and gets what he wants.  That was terribly dramatic. 

I thought it was horrible, a big disappointment.  Season 1 was some of the best TV I've ever watched, but the show has been a mess ever since.  I wish I could stop watching, but I can't help but hope that they turn it around.

My copy from Amazon should be here Thurs.  Can't wait- Colonization is one of my all-time favorites. 

Let me clarify my stance on Rush.  Their songs are typically pretty fun to play on the drums and decent on guitar, and there are a few songs of theirs that I like.  However, I cannot fucking stand Geddy Lee's voice.  His high pitched, nasally whine is like nails on a chalkboard to me.  No matter how good they are musically (which they are one of the absolute best), I have a really hard time listening to them because of his vocals.

Fair enough?

Completely fair, but fair has nothing to do with it.  You are still dead to me.*

There are three bands that I consider my favorite, as in "tied for number one".  Those three are Rush, Pink Floyd, and Queensryche.  Actually as I think on this, the '90s had a fourth band added to my "tied for number one" list, and that band is Dream Theater.  I've seen Rush 18 times starting with the Moving Pictures tour.  I think people who don't like Rush have serious mental deficencies.  Of course I'm willing to accept that it may be me who is insane and everyone else is doing OK, but I prefer the first version.



*you do realize that I'm kidding... right?

Oh, I probably do have the serious mental deficiences(sp?), so your theory could be right.  But I agree with Gratch, its mostly the singer's voice that kills them for me.

I'm secretly hoping that somehow the DLC gets delayed again, just so I can see all the fireworks around here. 

(Oops, I guess that's not a secret anymore.)

Sorry to hear the bad news, Rick.  I guess we all know on some level that its going to happen eventually with our parents, but I'm sure that doesn't make it any easier.  I hope you're able to enjoy the time you have left with him.

I could give a shit about Rush...

Me too! They seem to be pretty well loved around here, what with threatened boycotts of RB2, demands for people to be fired and general anxiety.  I can't get into their music at all. 

Well, good luck with your protests guys.  I mean, I think its fine to do and I hope you all win and everything and get what you want.  It just seems odd to not play a game you want to play over something like that.  If you think you'll have $50 worth of fun playing Spore now, then why does it matter if you can play it 10 years from now?

I guess I don't look at things like you guys do.  If I was still a heavy PC gamer who upgraded his rig periodically, then maybe I would be upset about with this.  But these days I play my 360 and Wii a heck of a lot more.

Also, the DON'T TREAT US LIKE PIRATES argument makes no sense at all to me.  I think this kind of protection scheme is not an attack on piracy as it is more of attack on the used games market.  Am I way off on that?

There are a couple articles out there (too lazy to link) that says EA is going to add an uninstall credit to Spore. So when you uninstall you get a credit back.

Frankly, when I decide that I'm going to wipe a HD and start over, or even upgrade my PC by replacing components, the last thing on my mind is uninstalling all my old games.

Regardless, I imagine you'll start remembering to do so if it gets you an install credit back.
 

No, I'll never own a game that uses that in the first place.

It is astounding to me how "principled" you and others are being about this.  Your protest is about as effective as people refusing to buy gas.  It just doesn't matter.  Maybe such a protest would cripple a smaller game, but is it really going to stop Spore?

And I don't get the problem, I really don't.  I mean, I see the issue, but it shouldn't stop anyone from buying the game and having fun if it appeals to them.  Are we all truly outraged because we might use up our installs over the next few years and then can't play anymore? Play the game for few years and have fun.  In a world where people maintain backlogs of games that they buy and don't even play, they're going to be mad about this?

The only thing that bothers me about Spore's DRM is the fact that it makes it tricky to buy it used and then sell it, which is my normal mode of operation.  And since EA would probably like to avoid that and make people buy it new, I can hardly blame them. That said, I'll still pick up the game eventually, but not until I can get it for about $25.

I'm not meaning to criticize, I'm just throwing out my own 2 cents.  By all means, stick to your guns if that's what you feel is best.   

There are a couple articles out there (too lazy to link) that says EA is going to add an uninstall credit to Spore. So when you uninstall you get a credit back.

Frankly, when I decide that I'm going to wipe a HD and start over, or even upgrade my PC by replacing components, the last thing on my mind is uninstalling all my old games.

Regardless, I imagine you'll start remembering to do so if it gets you an install credit back.
 

[Rock Band 2]

Rock Band 2 for 360.  Woot.

Good God, the Lions look awful.  21-0.

Of course, what did I expect?   

Seriously, there must be another dozen Weezer songs to use, and they already got access to the new stuff!

I'd definately be in for some more Weezer.  There's a few more from the Red Album that'd be great or plenty to use from the older discs.

I think we have enough Weezer.  The songs are too simplistic and not fun to play.  6 songs is enough. 

I agree.  I'm sure there a hit at parties, but they don't get any of my single-player time.  Too damn boring.

Rock Band is a single player game? 

It is when you don't have any friends that are gamers. 

Gratch, I'll play with you.  But we're gonna play some Weezer.