I blame the liberal robot media.

Anyone have any tips on planet defense other than making turrets?  I got to a point where I literally couldn't leave my home system without getting a "homeplanet being attacked!" message. 

I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I just goofed around too long & the enemy AI grew too powefull while I was screwing around.

Got my code, too. 

It's pretty great that some of the games come with mp3 soundtracks, too.

I'd much rather have the CD in the drive. Then, you wouldn't have to worry about the registration server going under, or the company vanishing, or you losing the patch that would make the game playable in say, 5 years or so. Oh, and I wouldn't have to install SecurROM, either.

While this particular DRM scheme doesn't annoy me personally, I am glad that others who are bothered by it push back.  I have no doubt that things would steadily get more and more restrictive otherwise.

The first time I tried to read this, it was painful.  Then I tried again a few years later, after seeing the movies and having re-read the books, and something just clicked.  Much more enjoyable the second time around.

I liked The Children of Hurin, too.  It's depressing, but I guess it's supposed to be.

[Personally, I think this is a huge improvement over our previous copy protection requirements, which have always required a disk to play.]

And once again the pirates win:

Which means, much like Spore (and Bioshock before it), you're considered a 'thief' the moment you purchase this game. I'm really sick and tired of this DRM bullshit. I really am.

The rest of the linked post seems particularly relevant to the discussion:

- This system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. Personally, I think this is a huge improvement over our previous copy protection requirements, which have always required a disk to play.

- Life happens. I know it’s unlikely, but for those unlucky few who install the game and have their machines nuked (virus, OS reinstall, major hardware upgrade, etc.) five times, EA Customer Service will be on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

-You can, of course, play offline without impediment or penalty.

Red Alert 3 is shaping up to be a world-class RTS game that will give you many hours of enjoyment. I think it would be a shame if people decided to not play a great game simply because it came with DRM, but I understand that this is a very personal decision for many of you and I respect that. As you might imagine, I’m a lot less respectful of those people who take the position that they will illegally download a game simply because it has DRM.

Either way, we’ re very proud of the hard work our team has put into this game and we hope you will all enjoy it when it launches.

Section bolded for emphasis and agreement.

I gotta admit, I'm a little annoyed by the DRM they're using.  However, I always enjoy the opportunity to use the word "Draconian" in a sentence, so it's not a total loss.

They're my favorite new race in 4th editon.

Does simply adding folks to your buddy list ensure that their creations appear in your game?  Or do I need to enable some option?  So far I don't think I've run across anyone's creatures.   

I know you can set things so you will only get your buddies' creatures.  Otherwise, I think it's random, with buddies' critters having a greater chance to appear.

OK, not loving the Civilization portion.  basically the red civ zerged the whole map- I'm not sure how the heck they got so many units so fast but all of a sudden all the spice was theirs and about 10 enemy units were attacking my city with some kind of beam weapon while my turrets were doing absolutely nothing.  wtf am I doing wrong?  did I over engineer my units when I designed them (they cost 1000 each) and they just made cheaper units?

Holy shit.... I came on to grip about the same thing, for me it was the blue. Other than that I loved every part of the game up to this.  I just need to figure out how to get off this planet.

Yeah, I just lost on the Civ part as well.  The tutorials for this section aren't particularly well done.  I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to cram as much crap on my vehicles as possible, since design cost doesn't seem to influence cost to produce the unit.  I'm iffy on how to persuade other cities to join, too.


No option to start over from the last stage, either. Just a re-boot to an earlier, but still unwinnable, point in the Civ stage.

I got to subjugate some of Kadnods creatures too.

I, for one, welcome our new CeeKayian overlords.

My impression is that Harkonis monsters keep eating me!

kadnod

I liked it, too.  They probably could've ended it at the 1 minute mark, but it was still pretty good. 

so, when does Google evolve to the evil corporate entity? 

Don't worry about it.  What could be wrong with them releasing a browser?  It's not like they have a financial incentive to have us view the web in a certain way or anything. 

I ordered a bunch of individual minis from Miniature Market recently. 

I thought the midichlorian concept, while a bad idea to begin with, got a little cooler in Episode 3 when Palpatine insinuated that he had bio-engineered Anakin through manipulation of midichlorians. So while Anakin may have been technically born to a virgin mother, his father was actually Palpatine in a way, and he could only do it thanks to the existence of midichlorians.

It's not enough to save the concept, but it made it moderately salvageable in my mind.

I think this was the one time, ever, Lucas was too subtle about something.  I had no clue this was being implied until I read it on some fansite years later.  It makes the whole dynamic between Vader and Palpatine more interesting.

I think this is my possibly NSFW favorite.

RPG.net usually has a thread going with geek-motivation posters, too.

Put in about 3 hours this morning:

First impressions-

Public Quests are fun.
It is funny to see a hundred bald guys with brown robes and warhammers run around a village.
Kindred the Embraced is just a horrible, horrible TV show, even if its only on in the background while you play a video game.

How will "virtual models" for use with their 3D dungeon/tabletop application be priced?   Part of the monthly subscription, purchased separately or some other method?

Here's the link to the story since the OP hasn't been updated with it.

Maybe the lighting is off in that photo, but if I saw that kid on the street, I would think she tried to dye her hair red and the tint came out slightly screwy.  The idea that it could somehow distract her schoolmates is not computing.

I read The Hunter's Blade trilogy and The Orc King last year.  They're not spectacularly written and Drizzt still whines too much.  Still, I enjoyed them.  The various antagonists were interesting and Salvatore did a good job of telling a war story in a high-magic fantasy world. 

Just got an invite to the 'Preview Weekend" starting this friday.  That was unexpectedly groovy.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.  It's a weird fit for Burger King, but still great.

I like the Red Light District district one, too.

I'm uncomfortable with this new, dark direction the "Messin' With Sasquatch" ad campaign has taken.

The other good thing is I'm using my laptop for my current tabletop game (running the Adventure Path from Dungeon) so I was using the online Rules Compendium a lot rather than using the books and the rules there reflect the current errata.

Same here.  I'm really impressed with the Compendium, even in this freebie/beta stage.  It's been speeding things up significantly in my game.

Can hutts even be gay?  Or straight?  And now that I think about it, why would a giant wormanoid get his rocks off by putting human chicks in gold bikinis?

I'm too scared to Google "Hutt sexuality" to research this one out on my own.

/nerd hat

iirc Hutts are actually Asexual and just become female at some point to give birth, then revert back to being male.

I hope I didn't just cross some nerd line right there...

I've played the Star Wars version of Dungeons and Dragons.  I'm so far past that line, I can't even see it anymore.

Can hutts even be gay?  Or straight?  And now that I think about it, why would a giant wormanoid get his rocks off by putting human chicks in gold bikinis?

I'm too scared to Google "Hutt sexuality" to research this one out on my own.

Congressman Kickass

I'd read this comic.

I think you underestimate the importance of being flawless in internal feeling. 

zombiethread!

If I understand the above correctly, if I start a NEW game in the original game, I'll get the cool new features?

I believe you still have to download the retrofit mod if you want to play the original campaign with some new features. 

I'm pretty sure this was an episode of Jem and the Holograms.

Jersey - stealing. 

edit -Now that I think about it, stealing wallets = "lifting" them, too.

He also makes nifty Tokens for M:tG and other games... check out his Bendy Walls for minis

Those bendy-walls seem like a great idea. The marekting copy made me laugh, too.

The secret is the power of HINGINESS(tm).

This has bad novel written all over it:

"They challenged the Pope in an attempt to right an ancient wrong.  Now they're vanishing one by one.  Only the Grail can save them now."

I hope the Pope shoots force lightning at the Master Templar in the College of Cardinals.

I'm a bit embarrassed that I know exactly why the Joker is wearing a crown and why Batman has a fuzzy hat on the last page.

wasn't the Joker wearing a crown one from a Superman story arc?

Yep. Joker takes over the reality through magic hoopajoop.  Makes everything wacky. Kills Batman every day.  Superman saves everybody.

I'm a bit embarrassed that I know exactly why the Joker is wearing a crown and why Batman has a fuzzy hat on the last page.

Dad said I'd never get ahead in this world, but I showed him!

Ebert sort of likes it:

I was not, however, pleased by "The Mummy Returns" (2001), although it inspired one of my funnier reviews. But "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is the best in the series, and from the looks of it, the most expensive. And once again it presents the spectacle of undead warriors who are awakened from the slumber of ages, only to be defeated in battle -- this time, by the skeletons of the slaves buried beneath the Great Wall after constructing it (which is a neat trick).

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/REVIEWS/198380357

The entire setup was just as methodical and systematic as all of Joker's previous capers.  Every part was planned and had a purpose.  Dent and Rachel being able to communicate, Rachel's seemingly inevitable demise, The Joker's recognizing that Batman would succeed in saving the person he went after, it all came together in the corruption of Harvey Dent.

It also fit in pretty well with the theme of the rest of Joker's "social experiments".  Dent was obviously more important to Gotham than Rachel, yet Batman decides to save her for personal reasons.  So, not only does Bats fail to save Rachel (or Harvey, really), he sorta fails at being a hero, too. 

Or did the Joker trick them by lying about which person (Dent or Rachel) was at each location? 

This one.