-I restarted a game with a slightly larger map with six other races and added pirates for a little more interaction.  I used the same race, Haakonish, with the Mercantile Guild government.  I think this has been helping with my economy.  I haven't had any problems with cash flow yet, but it's still relatively early.  Also doing sandbox mode so I don't have to worry about victory conditions yet.

-The action picked up a bit after I had a few colonies going.  There was a group of 4 abandoned ships that were pretty decent and so made them my main fleet.  I have a second fleet I use for taking out pirates and monsters.  Sometimes they are too far away, but they can travel pretty fast.  All the combat so far has been versus pirates and monsters.  They have been fairly easy to take down.  Attacks are somewhat frequent, but it's only been a single attacker each time.  I'm curious if pirates will start attacking with more force.

-I discovered an Ackdarian colony ship, so was able to colonize an ocean world.  There was another colony ship with some kind of advanced humans.  Both gave me a bonus for colonizing them which was nice of them.

-I made contact with a few other races, but haven't really interacted with them.  Two of them live in the same system and hate each other.  I wonder if they will go to war.

-Still trying to get all the ins and outs of the game but it's getting easier the more familiar I become.  Ship design and all the research options looks a little daunting.  I'll probably spend some time with those next.

Anyone know what the dashed lines that go from one system to another?  Ships seem to travel along it, so maybe some kind of space lane? 

Probably some FFXIII on the 360 and Distant Worlds on the PC.  I might finish Miles Edgeworth on the DS.

I spent a few hours with it earlier...the initial load time was really long (a full 2 min on a decent PC), but ran great after that. Started with the tutorials and a quick start.  The quick start was a pretty overwhelming...I started with a bunch of colonies and ships at the get go, so I went back and made a small map with just a few other civs for a slower start.  I left everything on full automation since there is a lot happening, but the AI seemed to do a good job.  Even on a small map and slow start there's some information overload, but I was expecting that. 

I didn't do a whole lot...spent most of the time familiarizing myself with the controls and menus.  Colonized a nearby planet...met another civilization and then was offered a spy mission to steal their galaxy map.  I decided to hold off and be friends first.

I really like the music...it has a grand space opera sound.  I do wish there were some more laid back ambient tracks though. 

The in-game editor allows you to add or remove things to the map on the fly.  I thought that was pretty cool, although I don't know how much I'll use it. 

This looks to be a winner barring any kind of big AI goofs.  The few hours I spent messing around flew by.  I'm looking forward to spending lots more time with it.

Cool.  Picking this up also.  

Looking at the Matrix site, there's also an update out already (1.0.1):

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/379/downloads/Distant%20Worlds

edit: I see there's also an update check in the launcher and game menu screen.

I vote Doctor Who.  The making it up doesn't bother me so much, but using his sonic screwdriver to get out of pretty much any problem like stated above...just seems lazy.  It's fine when it's used for minor things or for entertainment value, but it seems to be used frequently for pretty much any problem.  

SMT:SJ

Put in a couple hours tonight.  I should be good with games on the 360 for awhile with this and FF13.

-Just finished the combat tutorial and it seems pretty complex, but fun.  It took me a few tries to get the tri-attack and smackdown working, but I finally worked it out.  I'm still not 100% sure how to do the smackdown.  

-It's nice there's the option for Japanese voices, but I've been using the English so far.  I'll probably switch it around later.

-Graphics looked good.  Not as pretty as FF13, but good enough.  The steampunk type world is a plus too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVibNKrp8sQ

the scene in english. holy shit that's hilarious.  @ raisens.

bouncy bouncy.   
wow, that was awesome.   

I think I'll pick up TLJ.  Getting rid of the discs will be nice.  I'm not even sure if I have all of them anymore.

I've been enjoying it, especially the last few episodes. 

I really liked the premiere.  Seeing Olyphant/Goggins go head to head was awesome.

Christina Hendricks

I never thought much of Emma Stone, but she looked pretty good in Zombieland.

Resonance of Fate
Infinite Space

I'll pick up the DA expansion sometime later.

I used to be addicted to WoW, but I eventually got tired of the grinding once I hit the level cap.  It's amazing how much more I got done once I stopped playing. 

There's a couple guys I would regularly play with and they still spend all their free time with WoW.  One quit school and the other is unemployed..."more time to play WoW", they say.  I don't know if WoW specifically had anything to do with their situation, but it's pretty sad to see them stuck to the PC like that grinding for achievements.

I think FFXIII will take up most of my gaming time.  I'll probably play some Miles Edgeworth on the DS.

Things became much more interesting once the paradigms opened up and I could advance the characters.  Battles are much more involved and fun.

I like all the changes so far from past FF games.  Better?  It's still pretty early so I'm not sure yet, but it's a nice change and it seems to work well. 
Maybe I'm getting old, but I like the linearity of this one.  I'm marking it as a benefit rather than a detriment.  I don't have to worry about wandering about and I can just sit down and get into the story.

I'm glad they gave Hope a more mature voice and didn't go with the stereotypical anime kid voice.  Vanille's is still a little annoying, but I think I'm getting used to it.

I tip $2-3 depending on how good of job the guy does.

I'm 2 hours further in this game than in any other FF game and the only thing that I don't like is that Vanilla chick's voice.

Yeah, her accent is wierd too. At least she's hot in that barely legal sort of way 

It's been bugging me too.  She hasn't said a whole lot so it's hard to tell, but it sounds like an American doing a bad English accent.

I caved and picked it up.  Played for a couple hours and gameplay-wise there hasn't been much to do.  Pretty much auto attack and the battles have been easy.  The story is somewhat interesting and it's split up between different people's viewpoints, so it's not really boring.  Of course, graphics are fantastic.  Vanillie has a funky staff-whip-weapon that is pretty cool.  I find myself wanting to go back and play more, so that's a good thing.

I liked the last half of Season 1 and the first part of Season 2, then the main arc began to feel stretched out.  Still a pretty good show and I'll be watching when the next season starts.

I like the driving dialogue with the B movie stuff.  Awesome to hear a reference to "The Deadly Spawn". 

Controls aren't the sharpest, but it's nothing new for survival horror.  Whenever I have to use my weak pea shooter, I run far away and shoot from a distance. It's good to have infinite bullets with that one.

I don't mind the drivng too much, but I wish the destination tracking was a better on the mini-map.  I'm always switching screens to find out if I'm going the right direction.  Other than that, I'm having a great time so far.

I finished up Mystery Case Files: Millionheir on the DS.  Really good game in the find-the-hidden-item type.

I caught that the other night.  How naive of them...  lol   
 Hadn't heard of chat roulette before that.  Anyone try it?  I don't think I would...it seems kind of creepy.

I keep waffling back and forth on pre-ordering, but think I've decided hold off.  I've already got a big backlog, so maybe I'll rent it or pick it up on the cheap later.

Nice preview, bael.  This looks really good.

Still working on AssCreed 2 and starting Deadly Premonition (360).

I'm really intrigued now and went and ordered it.  There's also a six minute gameplay clip on Destructoid that's hilarious. 

I'm pretty sure it was The Sixth Sense.

How much harder is hard than normal? Can't decide if I want to bother trying hard or not.

I would say significantly harder.

I beat it on normal, but didn't get out of the prologue on hard. lol. 

Making my way through ME1 on PC.  Maybe fit in some Dawn of Discovery.
AssCreed2 on 360.

What's the deal with the 3 activation DRM?  3 PCs or 3 installs?

The expansion, Dawn of Discovery: Venice came out today.  I picked it up but haven't played it in awhile, so I'll probably run through some of the original first to refresh my memory.

Picked up GK2.  I used to have CtP2 on disc, but don't think I played it much.  I don't even remember if I liked it or not.

I was trying to hack a bot close to a vent and noooo...bye little sister and ADAM.

I haven't had much time to dig into this one yet, but I found I prefer the d-pad over the stylus to move Miles around.

I'm kinda hoping they offer another one of those 10 bucks off your next video game purchase deals at some point.

They are offering $15 off your next game with prepurchase of Just Cause 2 (PC or console). 

They are doing the future $10 off thing for FFXIII and God of War 3.

Selling for $10 (shipping included) thru Paypal.  Game, case, manual and artbook included.

wtf is Lux-Pain, you ask?  Amazon link

I'd be up for a trade but don't have much on a wish list now...maybe Advance Wars: Days of Ruin or Chrono Trigger.  Or make an offer.

[Finished in 2010:]

Finished in 2010:

PC:
Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 1

XBox 360:
Bayonetta
Bioshock 2

Nintendo DS
Mystery Case Files: Millionheir
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Currently Playing:
Deadly Premonition (360)
Assassin's Creed 2 (360)
Mario & Luigi: PiT (DS)

I may pick these up so I don't have to mess with the discs.

Assassin's Creed 2
maybe fit in some ME1 with my renegade Shepard.

Finished it earlier today and had a great time the whole way through.  I'm hard pressed to think of something to complain about it.  The game did become much easier as I became more powerful which was fine.  By the end, even Big Sisters weren't much trouble with my upgraded plasmids. 

I upgraded Swarm, Electricity and Hypnotize to max, but didn't touch the Decoy, Cyclone Trap or Winter Blast.  If I do another playthrough I'll take those and I'm tempted to do more drill upgrades and see how that goes.