On the one hand, I'll miss saving a few coins when buying on the internet, on the other it does help to even the playing field for brick and mortar stores...primarily small ones. 

Exactly. Where's the outrage for the mom-and-pop stores who offer products that can't be sold on the internet? Why do they have to pay sales taxes while "internet" companies don't?

13 for 13.

I'm personally enjoying the heck out of the game. I don't know what kind of replay value it has, but for my first run at least, I'm having oh so much fun with it.
Just keep in mind that yes, it's supposed to be frantic paced. There's no pausing and giving orders here.

I like it for the frantic pace as well. I typically zoom in during space battles after hearing and identifying where invaders will start beaming aboard my ship. Then I set up a red-shirt firing line

To be fair, one stood better chances of outright surviving a tour of duty on the Enterprise versus other Constellation class starships:

USS Constellation - entire crew died from planet eater. Captain Deckard piloted ship on kamikaze mission to destroy planet eater
USS Defiant - entire crew driven to insanity and killed each other
USS Excalibur - all hands lost in war games with M5 computer (installed on USS Enterprise)
USS Exeter - entire crew died from contamination to bateriological disease. Captain Tracey arreseted for violating Prime Directive
USS Hood - severely damaged in war games with M5 computer
USS Intrepid - almost all vulcan crew. Destroyed by huge single-celled organism whose energies were totally destructive to all known life. No survivors.

So far I haven't heard people around here say "totes". Please tell me this lack of usage is "totes" more common than not.

Great looking game. I am intrigued, but I have a 15 month old and she makes the same quick breathing sounds as in that gameplay trailer. Thing is, she does that when she's all excited and happy. I think its going to screw me up to associate it with fear.

[Star Trek Into Darkness (10 new photos)]

New pics, yet still no explanation why the bridge doesn't have airbags and seat belt harnesses. "It's just more fun to have crew members falling out of their seats, flying all around the bridge, and crashing into bulkheads!"  

Star Trek Into Darkness (10 new photos)
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20647938_20689497,00.html

One could ask the same thing about submarines. Why don't those guys have airbags and seat belt harnesses?

"Red band" trailer.  Looks damn good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p4pYIsaZqE0

Yeah, that makes me wish so much that I had a PS3. Damn Sony for making Naughty Dog publish only on their platform. I guess I'll just wait until the PS4 comes out and drives the PS3 prices down.

Lots of just sitting in the dark waiting for adventurers without light sources...

Awesome self reference!

Rocket scientist and cool dad. Although that last part may change in 10 years or so.

Watched it.  It was not great.  Too cliche, though the sex scene was a bit more explicit than most american TV so theres that.  Ill give it a few episodes to establish itself but it needs to get better.

I kinda liked it. Particularly the fact that it didn't try to explain the whole clone thing in the first episode. Compare that to US TV shows that either have a monologue explaining stuff in the intro or moving at breakneck speed trying to establish the cloning backstory with lots of talking and flashbacks. In fact, I'm willing to bet there will little to no flashbacks for any of the characters - which would be refreshing for a sci-fi show.

More like:



AMIRITE RAYDOD?

 

Bah! They're not stealthy! I can see them just fine!

For me the mouse sensitivity seems a little wonky. I've turned acceleration off, it moves too slowly turned all the way down but it goes up way too quickly from there to where my view flies all over the place with the slightest movement. Think I got it settled down but sheesh.

Interesting. I wonder if it plays better with a gamepad?

I think raydude's referring to the Skyrim meme.

That's what I thought so I was pointing out that I didn't think it had anything to do with Skyrim but instead the fact that Lara actually puts arrows in her foes knees.

EDIT: oh wait, I guess "former adventurer" could be interpreted as having to do with Skyrim 

"I used to be an adventurer" = "former adventurer"

I was looking at the achievements in steam and had to laugh at the "former adventurer" achievement (incapacitate 25 enemies with dodge counter). The graphic shows what looks to be an arrow in the knee.

Well 90 percent of that stuff was in the uncharted games, especially number 3. Not a bad thing at all. Just saying you would also enjoy the uncharted series.

Yeah well, not quite at the point where I can justify getting a PS3 . I'd have gotten one too, if it weren't for my meddling kids! Just kidding. I love them, but they seem to eat into my discretionary fund faster than I can say "sequestration".

[Spoiler]

I've never played Uncharted since I don't own a PS3 and I'm playing Tomb Raider on a PC so I can't compare the two. I will say TR is absolutely a AAA title. I love all the little details in character animation that they put into Lara. When she crouch walks and passes by an object (like say a stack of tires) she'll cautiously put her hand out and touch them - like a real person sneaking would do in order to know where the object is - so she won't bump into it.

When walking in a cave she'll reach out and touch the wall if she's close enough, and when she first gets into water she'll sometimes flick the water off her hands.  I've also noticed that she turns her head when there's something of interest close by. Its clued me into several hidden items during some points in the game. But that head turn is not glaringly obvious, like in some games where the character's head just keeps turning around to face the object of interest.

I especially love the scene

Spoiler for Hiden:

after she's wounded and has to get to the helicopter for medical supplies. Her jumps end up with her hitting the ground hard and her long jump especially feels painful on landing.

And there's definitely a subtle change in the way she does certain things as she progresses in the game. 

Spoiler for Hiden:

The way she walks across balance beams for one - she definitely gets more confident and less "wobbly".

1. I took control of an Air Force satellite while fresh out of grad school.
2. I got to say "mission planning is go for launch" for 2 launches of Iridium satellites.
3. I got to name a crater on Mercury.

Anyone with eyes can see the resemblance...

It's called makeup. Most actors use it when playing a role.

See though, the difference between us is that if things ever got really bad i would take a second job before milking the bloated entitlement system.  Hep on the other hand would be first in line for an Obama phone I'm certain.

Dude, there are folks who are amazingly embarrassed about having to ask for help, and they feel like such losers because they are in a tough spot and cannot get back on their feet on their own. Don't you dare make a mockery of those people just because you are all high and mighty in your ability to find work. I say this because Karma has a way of biting people in the ass.

My wife is a non-gamer and she's been very understanding about my need to play games. Has been since we were dating. She thought my LAN gaming weekends were great social activities for me and my friends as we'd gather at someone's house for 48 hours of non-stop gaming. At one point she even came along and it became a girls/guys thing where all the girlfriend/wives would gather upstairs, talk and socialize while all the guys hung out in the basement gaming.

She's even been 'game' enough to try Diablo and some Counter-strike, although both were not for her. She gave it a good try though and her play-by-play comments were hilarious. However, she does get into Dance Central and gaming with the Kinect.

My parents and my relatives who are my parents age don't really mind it, considering my career and how an interest in gaming and computers got me there. So I guess I've been lucky in that I haven't had to defend gaming much. I guess it will be tested once my daughters get into public school and I start to meet other parents - some of whom will inevitably be non-gamers. Still, I have an ace in my back pocket and I think saying that "gaming helped me work on spacecraft that went to Venus and Mercury" will shut up the detractors real quick.

Is it time for reality to match fiction?

I believe the North Koreans think so. Unfortunately for them they think they can emulate this invasion

One could get the (cough) actress known as "April O' Neil" to play April O' Neil.

Nah Gratch not Government.  I hate that so many have been impacted by the sequester (Obama's idea from the start).

Daughter 1 wants some toys Daughter 2 is playing with. Daughter 2 wants some toys Daughter 1 is playing with. Neither is willing to share the toys they already have. Daddy says 'okay, if you girls can't compromise by 10am then neither of you will get to play toys'.

10am comes and girls still not compromising. Neither gets to play with toys. Are you seriously saying Daddy is to blame? (Assuming Daddy came up with the idea in the first place, which he didn't)

Makes me want to bust out my copy of Space Hulk and play it.

I find myself fighting the analog stick sometimes on my controller. Been playing around with the sensitivity and non-linearity settings. Anyone find a setting they like?

What kind of controller have folks been using? I sold my old old Microsoft wheel a long time ago and have been using a wireless xbox360 controller as an alternate to keyboard and mouse. I'm wondering if the xbox360 controller is adequate for this game, if folks are getting by with keyboard and mouse or if most are using some kind of wheel.

As a brief aside, when talking about iOS do you guys say "eye oh esss" or "eye oohs"? I've always spelled out the acronym because I know when I'm talking about different OSes in conversation I say, for example, "Microsoft Oh Ess" not "Microsoft oh ssss". So it was little funny hearing the radio newscaster talk about Apple's "eye oss" devices.

I just won this cool lifestraw from entering into a 'caption this' contest on facebook. Now I don't have to worry about getting sick from a water source after the zombie apocalypse

Congratulations! Did you play with the minis at all yet? That was the first thing I did, putting them on the table and imagining the character sounds in my head.

Regarding Sentry's point about female POWs - the POWs are not going to just come from the infantry. In fact, even if we rescind this policy of allowing women on the front lines we will still have female pilots flying fighter jets and helicopters. Should we then rescind the policy of letting women fly combat missions because of fear of what the enemy will do to a captured female pilot?

I agree with the argument about physical standards being more stringent for line infantry units. But arguing about captured female POWs to me would seem like an argument to remove women from the armed services altogether. Simply because on an asymmetric battlefield anyone has the potential to become a POW.

Chicks should be allowed on the front lines because we need to have someone nagging our male soldiers so that they keep pressing forward.  Think about it.  You got some dame behind you telling you that you forgot to clean out the garage back at HQ, what are you going to do?  You're going to rush straight into the enemy lair, that's what you're going to do.  The moment some Yenta appears on your flank to give you grief, you only have one option...escape.

Plus there's a reason why the automated voice warnings on planes and helicopters are female. They tend to get heard and acted upon.

Lego are accused of being Racist over their Jabba's Palace line of Lego Star Wars because it resembles a Sacred Mosque in Turkey

The Austrian Turkish community claim 'Jabba's Palace' is similar to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia mosque and an affront to its cultural feelings.

Holy crap, so the Hagia Sophia has Han Solo frozen in carbonite displayed on its side wall too?

What I find interesting is that whenever the issue of women in combat comes up the discussion at first glance would indicate we are still fighting wars as if it were 1916. There is more to war than the infantry now. We have jets and helicopters. Women have been able to enter fighter pilot training since 1993. I don't recall any negative repercussions of that eligibility since then. Women have been in Army aviation since the 1990s and some flew (and some still fly) combat support missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As I understand it, lifting the ban on combat also means recognizing that the women who currently fly attack and support mission are actually in combat and and thus get that entered into record for possible promotions later. Or were they officially recognized as combat troops the moment they were allowed to fly combat support missions?

Btw, I've been to Brussels a few years back. Lovely city!

I have Starcraft the Board game 

My game group and I tried to play it once. Unfortunately everyone was a veteran of the computer game so some of the ways in which the board game changed things around took a lot of getting used to. For example, combat. Combat is card-based and based off two decks: the technology deck and the combat deck. The technology deck is where new technologies are picked up when researching and the combat deck is the one actually used for fighting. When you develop a new technology you get to move a card from the technology deck to the combat deck and have it available for the next combat.

In battle, generally, the attacker gets to play 3 cards and the defender 1 card. Pairings are made between the attacking and defending units, each forming part of the front line of combat. Each single pairing is called a skirmish. Remaining units are support units and assigned to a given skirmish and will support the front line unit they are assigned to. The attacker then gets to put his combat card face down, one behind each skirmish, and the defender gets to put his card behind one skirmish.

The cards generally have two numbers on them, one in larger font. The larger font number is used if the picture matches the unit in the skirmish. For each skirmish the front line's total power is calculated and compared to the health value of the enemy unit, then casualties are assigned. If the attacker doesn't eliminate EVERY defending unit in the battle then the attack fails and the attacker has to retreat.

For some reason my group couldn't get around how the cards worked. That, and there was a long setup time as I explained the rules and we set up our bases. And there were four of us, all of whom had never played the game before, so I was trying to explain the rules while trying to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Anyway, I'd be up for playing it again, just need to find new people. I would never give it away or trade it though. The units are just too cool looking, the map tiles are awesome and its frakkin Starcraft. Sorry .

No he really doesnt and shouldnt have to just to get someone to vote for him, unless people are complete assholes.     Obama smokes, that is a very unhealthy activity, should a person not have voted for him because of that?  This reality you speak of on this needs to change, just because a person is overweight doesnt make them any less able to be a leader.

Good luck changing reality on that. I wish you all the best.

It shows a tremendous lack of judgement for someone in his position.  And it doesn't have to be the person who he is having the affair with who will blackmail him, someone else could find out about it and try to use it in that way. 

Nobody tried to blackmail him! He never buckled under blackmail, and never compromised national security or secrets about his job (from what we know about the case so far, which is what we're discussing). Face it, you don't want him gone because of a hypothetical situation that hasn't even occurred. You want him gone because his actions go against your sexual morality.

I don't know what kind of news you are reading, but here's the article I'm focusing on. Now, since timelines seem to be all the rage these days, lets build a timeline:

Wednesday: White House learns Petraeus had a potentially serious problem.
Thursday: Petraeus telephoned Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, early Thursday and asked to meet with Obama.
Friday: After sleeping on it, President Obama again asks Petraeus if he wants to resign. Patraeus says yes, Obama accepts.

I don't see anyone wanting him gone.  One day after the White House learning about it is not enough time to put pressure on a man who's been shot at in the chest and who shattered his pelvis while skydiving. Frankly, I don't like your insinuations that Patraeus is a victim who was forced out against his will. That implies that we can't trust his own words, both in his reasons for resignation, nor in his letter to the CIA.

I prefer to believe he was a man of conviction, who knew what he did was wrong, and figured the only saving grace was to resign. To think otherwise lessens the man.

I simply cannot even begin to fathom what this guy's personal sex life has to do with his job. Why should it matter in the slightest? If a guy in the upper echelons of Norway's elite was unfaithful with his wife, the media might mention it, but apart from that it'd be business as usual.

One word: "honeypot"

That doesn't explain squat. She wasn't a honeypot, unless you know something I don't.

Dude, imagine you're the director of the CIA. Every extramarital affair better be suspicious of turning into a honeypot, otherwise you're useless in terms of keeping our national security.

*modified to remove an adjective that didn't need to be there. My apologies. It was 6:40 and I didnt' have my morning coffee yet