I wonder if the writers had intended on Andrea's character being as hated as she's become.  She really is an annoying character who seems unreasonably naive and clueless.  Not only that, but she has seen things in Woodbury that would have made most people either run for the hills, or organize an overthrow if they had the means. 

I've heard that the comic version of Andrea is very different...that she's a badass.   

In the comics Andrea is the best sharpshooter of the gang and pretty much all around likable.  In the TV show everyone seems to have developed more enhanced shooting skills.

I still have high hopes for Andrea to get over her fascination with the governor's giant schlong and get back to shooting bad guys; I see what the writers were trying to do but they pretty much blew it with this plotline.  Seriously though you can't blame her too much, there's pretty slim pickings in good looking men and girlfriend is clearly horny.  Rick is still by far the hottest guy but he's a lunatic and it's questionable how good he is in bed.  I guess she could always do that nerd guy but the gov is way sexier.

HE can always go back to his old hobby of doing Hark 

That was kind of lame.  The only thing I look forward to is sending inane banter into all of Hark's games.   

I ended up getting the PC version via simplygames.com for roughly $30 (it's a UK site).  I only played for a very short while in the tutorial portion but in all honesty I haven't seen anything that would make me think this game was as horrible as it seems most are making it out to be.  Granted that's nowhere near enough time to give a review, but just some impressions.  The music, sound effects, the atmosphere, the thrill of getting to board the Sulaco and see the aftermath from my all time favorite movie - all good stuff IMHO.  I actually got scared/nervous enough to be holding my breath even in the opening minutes of the game, and probably that will keep me from getting much further lol.  Graphically I ran at max settings 2560x1440 and it looked pretty good to me, nothing stellar like ME3 but certainly not horrible.  Maybe it just goes downhill constantly from the first minute but from what I've read it seems like at least for fans you get to explore more movie locations later?  That would be worth the price of admission for me.

Anyway, I get the sense this is one of those games where the negative hype has just cascaded upon itself and the game itself may not be as bad as people are making it out to be.  I almost wish I hadn't read any reviews or seen any press and could have gone into it completely unbiased, but oh well. 

Is everyone happier with the show now?  That was a pretty intense action-packed episode if you ask me.  Not thrilled with losing yet another character so soon but oh well.

My company decided to do MLK and President's day this year, but it's mostly just coincidence.  Because Christmas/New Year's are on a Wednesday (I think), they removed both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.  I guess this leaves it to the individual to decide whether and how to bridge the weekends.

1) Do you all think 16 gigs would be adequate?   

2)Transferring movie files to the Iconia is simple as it shows up as an external drive and you just drag and drop.  I realize I'll have to use iTunes (which I still despise) to move movie files to the iPad.  Will I also have to convert the files first?  (normally .avi or .mkv or .mp4 files).
 
3) I will also be purchasing a bluetooth keyboard and stylus.  I'm leaning toward the Logitech Ultrathink Keyboard cover and either the Bamboo or Jot stylus.  Any thoughts?

4)  I have a 4s so I'm familiar with iOS apps.  Any must have iPad only apps?

*I also seem to remember reading something about using an xbox controller to play games on the iPad.  Anyone do this?

1) I think you have that answered already, but I definitely agree 32GB minimum unless you can forgo video

2) I haven't done this in a while but my guess is you will have to do some file conversion.  MP4 might work but I'm not sure.

3) The Logitech keyboard cover is fantastic, highly recommend.  Stylus-wise it really depends.  There are so many types out there with prices ranging from practically free to the $100 range and it really depends on the individual.  I have trouble recommending one in particular but if you want something more "hardcore" the Pogo Connect is pretty cool, it uses bluetooth tracking but I still had trouble free style writing with it.

4) There's a couple good threads here, there are so many awesome apps these days.  Check out the mobile forum for sure for games.

It cracked me up that "Franchesqu" a made the exact same mistakes she made last time and got voted out 1st by the exact same person. Some people never learn.

Why did she make that inane comment about eating the rock if she got voted out?  As soon as she said that she was done lol.

[JEREMEY!!!]

JEREMEY!!! 

I don't remember, did he get his ring taken away from him recently?  I can never keep track.

That said, given that they never explained his ability to see/talk to the dead, I suspect he's got some more storyline.

Only episode 1 and it looks like this season is filled with promise for mayhem and excitement.  Of course it could always turn into a dud but with this band of crazies it's hard to imagine it not being fun.

Fans - does anyone really care about these people?  Hopefully there will be some standouts eventually, but at first glance all that interests me is the eye candy.  Of course it's a little annoying when the eye candy (Eddie I'm looking at you) actually acknowledges they are eye candy, but whatever.  The scene where the 4 of the "cool kids" are bathing in the water is like softcore porn, but I don't see how they think that was a good idea after they all talked about how they didn't want to attract too much attention.  Oh well.  The volatile marine guy could be interesting, I would love to see him make it to a merge with Philip.  But unfortunately it looks like he's the type that will be eliminated quickly.

Faves - OK now the fun stuff.  When I first saw the list I thought it was more a list of idiots and freaks rather than favorites, but after a few minutes with them I realized how much I enjoyed almost all of them.  Cochran never ceases to amuse me with his goofball comments and his classic red sweater vest, and you almost expect to see Dawn with him.  I loved Brenda in her season, and she looks even better now.  Erik still seems like a doofus but he should be a good tool.  Malcolm seems like he gained some weight in between seasons, and I was shocked he lost the tossing challenge.  WTF that's HIS challenge!  After just watching him last season, it's like seeing an old friend.   Crazy Brandon is always good for some laughs, and then of course we get to everyone's real favorite, the new and improved Boston Phillip.  As long as he's on the show, he pretty much owns it lol.  I was really afraid they'd knock him out early, which seemed like the sensical thing for everyone to do.  I almost felt like the producers made the reverse happen after Francesqua announced she would eat a rock if she got voted out.  How dumb is it to say something like that on Survivor, ugh!!!  She seems like she could be a really good player if she just kept her big mouth shut, and it was so cool to see her dominate in the first challenge.  She looked like some giant amazon standing next to Cochran, it was so awesome.  Sad to see her go but oh well.

Hopefully the Faves don't get the Malcolm curse and can pull out some wins so they can make it to the merge.  I don't think the new group of fans has much to sustain my interest on their own besides Eddie in his tight red underwear sticking his hot ass into the camera every couple minutes.

Anyone else watching?

Some nutjobs are claiming it's a sign from God.

imho, it's a sign that God is angry that "A Good Day to Die Hard" is so freaking awful, and since it's set in Russia, he/she mistakenly blamed them... 

That's understandable.  It's hard to discern who's responsible for what from God's perspective, especially when professional athletes are distracting him with their constant requests for divine intervention to win games.  I imagine it must be really annoying.   

Don't forget God is also really busy giving signs and advice to Survivor contestants.... speaking of which I need to make a new Survivor thread!

Love Southland too, but I guess Lucy Liu is gone now that she's on Elementary?

Hugh Jackman officially joins cast

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/12/19/hugh-jackman-x-men-days-future-past/

Although again its from Bryan Singer's Twitter account,hopefully it wont be a little too early like the twitter 'announcement' of Sir Patrick Stewart joining the cast

“I would officially like to welcome @RealHughJackman to the cast of #Xmen Days of Future Past. Very excited! More to come…”

hopefully it will be more than the 10 second cameo in First Class

I don't think Patrick Stewart realized Bryan Singer had already come back from the future with his signed contract.

On a side note, have any of you watched the TV series Banshee?  That main actor (Antony Starr?  I think) displays this raw animal nature that I think would be awesome as Wolverine (or a "younger" Wolverine).  He may need to buff up a bit but watching some of his fight scenes just made me think of the way I envisioned Wolverine.  Hugh Jackman really seems like he's softened over the years - maybe the Wolverine movie will prove otherwise. 

In terms of the comics, as I mentioned above the original storyline featured Kitty Pryde in the main role.  Her consciousness was sent forward in time to her adult body where she went to stop an assassination attempt.  Pretty clearly this movie is not going to be anywhere near the same kind of storyline.

As for Peter Dinklage, the only role I could think of off the top of my head that would be great for him would be Arcade, but that doesn't seem to make any sense for a time travel plot.  Or maybe they could put a giant goober suit on him and make him Mojo lol.

Realize that I'm a longtime fan of Neverwinter Nights, having spent a criminal amount of time in the editors for those games. I was even awarded with a NWN Hall of Fame position for the module I actually released. Getting into the game even just a few days earlier to get a head start on content creation is worth a lot to someone like me if I want to get my creations noticed.

That's awesome TiLT.  Being a creator as well, I know how much effort it takes.  Looking forward to playing your stuff!

Thanks! I'll make sure to advertise my creations in this thread once we get that far.

Actually, I'm wondering if the developers maybe have a special team of beta testers for the Foundry so that there's a reasonable amount of user-generated content already at launch. If so, my NWN history and HoF module should help me get my foot in the door. Now if only I knew who to contact about such a request...

In the first beta it looked like there were already quite a few modules ready to play.  I recall some were quite intimidating in terms of projected length.

This felt just like backyard monsters on facebook to me.  Not really my cup of tea

Uhhhh seriously are we talking about the same game(s)?  Backyard monsters looks like a sim-city 2.5D builder game.  H&C is a 3D 3rd person action-RPG plus tower defense.  Whatever you're smoking, can I have some too lol?

[Spoiler]

Don’t know how much longer I can follow this show…   Already the serial killer of the week is wearing thin and having multiple season of this, imo, won’t work.


Btw if this happens I am done with the show

Spoiler for Hiden:

Head FBI Woman Annie falls for Joe and starts sabotaging from the inside

I just see the spoiler happening

Im still watching, its good enough if not great but if your spoiler actually happens, then Im out because it would be completely ridiculous.  I do believe that they will have a surprise twist where Joe has already co-opted someone in the FBI.  If that happens my money is on Shawn Ashmore.

No way!  He's an X-Man and won't betray the cause   Plus he's so damn cute, now if only they'd give him a personality...

Joe is starting to annoy me, he's so freaking smug for really not much reason.  So he arranged to kidnap his own son, whoopdedo, it's not like anyone thinks he would kill his own kid.  I really don't think they can sustain the show if he is stuck in prison, because his flunkies are just too lame (not to mention they just killed the chick who seemed to have some promise).  Ironically, though, the only thing that really interests me is the crazy 3-some.  I had no idea that one guy had such a hot body, wow!  They should dump the kid and just have hot 3-way sex all day and night.

So now they have the problem that they really need some more competent flunkies, but if the flunky is TOO competent, it makes Joe seem irrelevant.  You're right, though, I suppose having someone on the inside turn could make things more interesting...

1.0.7 patch is out complete with 4 way dueling.  Needless to say I got slaughtered!

A little surprised at the tepid response for this game here, it's definitely one of the most addictive games I've played on any platform for a long time.  In spite of numerous other gaming choices this weekend, I found myself quickly drifting back to "just one more round" of H&C.  It's got that great combo of player skill, action, RPG, strategy and TD that keeps me wanting to play again and again.  

For me the Co-Op mode is the one I'm most into presently (most rewarding as well since you always gain xp and crystals, sometimes runes as well), but on the Toucharcade forums there's a big following for Vs. Mode (PvP) with the usual ranting and raving about balance and such.  One cool thing about co-op is the unpredictability depending on who you get matched with.  If you get some low level n00b the entire session depends on you.  If you get some high level super dude he can carry you and you just need to find a niche to help the best way possible.  I had my best game last night with a high level Paladin (using my mage) which to me is the perfect combo.  Mage works off of losing health to do damage while Pally regens health and buffs damage, so as a duo it's perfect.    

Anyway, if you like a challenge (but not TOO challenging), this is a fantastic game.  The engine is pretty darn impressive with the amount of stuff going on.  It's actually nice to die and pan the camera around to see the view from the other side; it really looks like a castle being sieged upon, and when there are giants fighting trolls and spell effects and arrows, explosions, etc - it's just really cool.  The 5 classes play differently enough that you should be able to find a style you like.  If sieging is more your style, you can play as the bad guys now and do that as well.

At the core, this is a tower defense game, right?  That sort of thing is completely lost on me.

It's a tower defense in the sense that it has the elements of you making choices (build walls, summon units, etc) to deter enemies from destroying your castle.  However the gameplay itself is all in 3rd person with a very action-oriented, simple interface that involves you fighting.  From a gaming "feel" point of view, it is very RPG-like.  Really the closest comparison I could make is Dungeon Defenders, but in this game you are much more involved in up close and personal combat as opposed to setting traps, etc.  OF course that statement is class dependent (for both games), but in general H&C is you fighting bad guys while protecting your castle from getting overrun.  It['s much more focused on you than a traditional tower defense game where generally you summon stuff and hope for the best you placed it in the rigkt spots.  Here you just make the choices and the rest is up to the AI in terms of units and castle upgrades. 

What I think will ultimately make this game a success is how well they implement their grouping interface, as well as how well they stay focused on their core competency of providing solid dungeon delving fun.  Giving the community ability to generate content is a brilliant idea as it saves them from constantly needing to come up with new stuff to please the hardcore.  From what I saw, the grouping interface had some issues but could be a real winner.  A window would show you various options (a dungeon, a raid, etc) and approx time for completion of each, and you could choose to join the queue for any of them.  Once it was ready you'd get transported into the instance and away you go, similar to how many games work PvP battlegrounds.  Using a similar system for PvE is an obvious idea, but hardly anyone has chosen to implement it.  This keeps the focus of their game fairly well set on the dungeoning experience.  There's plenty of solo content as well but there's much less focus on single player than in recent MMOs, which I think is a good thing.

I came away really impressed from the few hours I spent, aside from needing a few more classes, the game seemed pretty much ready for release.

I think it was more assumed because of the awesome ratings, but it's always nice to have that warmy comfy feel of shirtless Jeremy to snuggle with at night.

Agreed!!! 

[Spoiler]

I just saw it too.  I enjoyed it but not as much as the previous movies as the "plot" didn't really seem to advance as much as I'd hoped.  I thought 2 did a great job of enhancing the story from 1 in a different perspective, and 3 added to the "lore."  I was really hoping they'd take the story into the present and have someone actually do something to counteract this time.  As much as I'm interested in where they take the plot, I think they need to have someone you can actually root for if there's a sequel.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I guess we didn't see jailbait die so it would be interesting if she came back for a sequel and actually got to do something proactive.  BTW was she just carrying her freaking Macbook Air everywhere while running from witches lol?

woohoo!  season 5 pickup today!

Sweet!  Though wasn't it already assumed considering they are doing that spinoff?

[Spoiler]

I found the ep a bit of a letdown after the finale, but maybe my expectations were running too high.

While I enjoyed it, I would agree that in some cases the characters are just...

Spoiler for Hiden:

... not acting logically. I realize it's the walker apocalpyse, so maybe it makes sense people wouldn't act logically?

So maybe it's not technically illogical that Andrea sees nothing wrong with her one-eyed lover keeping his walker daughter chained up in a closet, and fish tanks full of dead human and/or walker heads. She doesn't even seem curious about any of that.

Maybe it makes sense Rick treats Michonne like she's the anti-Christ even though she helped them rescue several members of their group who would've otherwise likely died.

Maybe it makes sense Darryl runs over and joins whack job Merle without a second thought, or even some reservation about it.

To adddress BJ's comments, some of which I do agree with, I'll just play devil's advocate:

Spoiler for Hiden:

- I think the Gov explained his crazy heads as being something he wanted to remind himself of so he never forgot the people or some such.  Keeping his daughter is more understandable in some ways, it's disturbing but also tragic and sad.  I think you are supposed to assume she has genuine feelings for him, and people can be pretty forgiving.  Plus she's horny and he's fairly hot.  I have the sense he's hung like a horse but that's just me.

- Rick has gone bonkers, which has already been established. 

- Darryl has always felt guilty about leaving his brother, and it's been implied they have a very special/particular relationship in terms of control/power.  To us Merle is an asshole whack job, but to Darryl he's the big brother who essentially raised him and kept him alive (I guess).  And then there's also the secondary theory which Carol alludes to, in that he can't help going back to the abusive/controlling relationship he had with his brother.

I didn't see a topic for this in the recent pages so I thought I'd start a fresh one.

http://nw.perfectworld.com/about

I''m not sure how this one almost completely escaped me (I did have some vague notions of its existence), but I happened to get an email and decided at the last second to go for a founder's pack and try it out. They are having a total of 3 beta weekends before release, the first of which ended yesterday.

It's an interesting and fun mix of a bunch of games most of us have played, and from what I can tell, feels like a fairly successful implementation. Certainly there are influences from DDO and the D&D universe, though more of it is in lore than gameplay. Cryptic (CoH, Champions Online, Star Trek Online) is the developer, but having been bought by Perfect World (formally all F2P Asian MMOs), you can clearly see the influence. There's a lot more of the immediate rewards (e.g. a gift box every 5 levels) and really easy to jump into features intact. From an engine standpoint it reminds me the most of LOTRO, particularly the fonts they use and the overall look. But from gameplay you can clearly feel the influence of CoH/CO, though it's wrapped in a way that isn't that obvious. There are open quest areas as well as instances, very similar to the CoH setup but without the disjointed feel. Combat feels more action oriented than a traditional MMO so that's good.

Combat is a mix of skill/traditional.  WASD to move, mouse controls a cursor/pointer to aim, and your primary attacks are on left and right buttons for an action-game type of feel.  Skill loadout is similar to other recent games where you can only choose one from a selection for each slot with only limited slots available.  The game slowly unlocks more slots as you level, so for primary combat you'll only be using about 5-ish skills.

Best features I saw were a fairly simple easy to join universal queue for mini-raid missions and dungeons. And what looks like a really solid implementation of user made content for dungeons a la Neverwinter Nights and the mission creation tools for CoH/CoV. So essentially you have a mix of Neverwinter Nights, DDO, LOTRO and CoH plus misc Asian MMOs for good measure.

In any case I think it will be well worth checking out at release given it is going to be F2P. If you want an earlier look you'll have to get into the next beta(s) in March.

A little surprised at the tepid response for this game here, it's definitely one of the most addictive games I've played on any platform for a long time.  In spite of numerous other gaming choices this weekend, I found myself quickly drifting back to "just one more round" of H&C.  It's got that great combo of player skill, action, RPG, strategy and TD that keeps me wanting to play again and again.  

For me the Co-Op mode is the one I'm most into presently (most rewarding as well since you always gain xp and crystals, sometimes runes as well), but on the Toucharcade forums there's a big following for Vs. Mode (PvP) with the usual ranting and raving about balance and such.  One cool thing about co-op is the unpredictability depending on who you get matched with.  If you get some low level n00b the entire session depends on you.  If you get some high level super dude he can carry you and you just need to find a niche to help the best way possible.  I had my best game last night with a high level Paladin (using my mage) which to me is the perfect combo.  Mage works off of losing health to do damage while Pally regens health and buffs damage, so as a duo it's perfect.    

Anyway, if you like a challenge (but not TOO challenging), this is a fantastic game.  The engine is pretty darn impressive with the amount of stuff going on.  It's actually nice to die and pan the camera around to see the view from the other side; it really looks like a castle being sieged upon, and when there are giants fighting trolls and spell effects and arrows, explosions, etc - it's just really cool.  The 5 classes play differently enough that you should be able to find a style you like.  If sieging is more your style, you can play as the bad guys now and do that as well.

To me ultimately the logic boils down to marriage being a legal status with legal rights and priveleges.  Trying to frame it as solely a religious concept breaks down in the fact that non-religious people can also get legally "married".  There is no set standard that I'm aware of to define marriage in a religious context (can atheists get "married"? Buddhists?  Mormons?  Jews?).  Who draws the line?  Does one particular religion's "marriage" have more moral value than everyone else's? 

The irony is that I could go out right now and "marry" a criminal, a prostitute, a child molester, even a murderer... as long as it was a woman.  And apparently that would be morally better and less threatening than marrying the nicest guy on the planet.

Damn you Ceekay lol!!

As much as I love the show I think a spinoff is a mistake, I think the show is losing steam already so this will just further dilute it.


P.S. Shirtless Jeremy is 100% yum

I had it preordered for pickup at BB but they sent me a message it wasn't available so I just did the download. Anyway absolutely loving everything about the game, really hits the spot for me.  The music, animation, gameplay, characters and interactions are all around fantastic. The only thing I could complain about is the battlefield graphics which seem a bit dated but the battle animations keep this from being a distraction.

The 2.0 patch is already out, great time to check the game out if you were on the fence.  Incredible bang for the buck with all the added modes and two new unlockable classes. 

This game has all the negative features from Shadowbane I remember without any of the good ones - crashes, login issues, rubber banding, grainy graphics...  it's like some demonically spawned game from 10 years ago complete with bugs and crappiness.  I honestly don't understand the release of this game at all.

Even if they both end up gathering dust I refuse to fall into the behavior I had with both the 360 and PS3 - first I convinced myself I didn't want one, but then once they released and everyone was talking about them I ended up paying exorbitant prices on Ebay - both times!  You'd think I would learn my lesson.

Let us know how nostalgic it is to reacquaint yourself with the beloved anime characters from the world of Wizardry 

So far I got reacquainted with trying to make a Sony Online account, which was an adventure in itself since my browser seemed to be incompatible.  After a lot of hullabaloo and a couple hours downloading, I got it installed and then.... just couldn't connect.  They get one, maybe two more chances and I am done.

I'll probably give it a try for old time's sake.  I'm curious to see how fast (and fun) levelling is.  If it's relatively fast/fun (like a Diablo game) I don't mind permadeath so much, just reroll and hopefully get back to business in short order.  If it's slow and all that happens is you play an hour to get to level 2 and then you get griefed by level 99 people and then perma-die, I won't last long.  The key for me is just how fun the basic game is, and how well controlled and balanced it is for PvP.

Haven't finished the whole pilot yet but I wasn't very impressed thus far.  Aside from seeing Felicity give a BJ, get butt-raped and talk dirty there hasn't been much of interest to mention.  Maybe I watched too much Brothers and Sisters as well, since I keep expecting the husband to do something gay at any moment (I guess the country boot dance was pretty gay/cute).  I'll continue watching for Felicity but my expectations are much lower now.

First impressions:

The game reminds me a bit of that Mage only crazy ARPG from a little while back, forgot the title.  There are no levels, so everything is pretty much skill (your own) based, aside from class choice and a couple of fairly critical mods you can make before you start adventuring.  There is no loot or xp; reward is solely on a gold basis.  With that gold you can unlock novelties like new costumes and hats, as well as different specials for each class that actually affect gameplay.  I think the idea is to create a very fast paced, simple environment to get you into the game asap (not unlike my other current favorite game, Heroes and Castles - see Portable Gaming).

As for the gameplay itself, PC users are stuck with a semi clunky interface as movement is on the keyboard and is not as fluid as a Diablo or Torchlight fan might desire.  Two other keys are used for special skills, and right and left click are for attacks.  It's an OK interface but seems to be geared more for a joystick or gamepad of some sort.  The environments are lively and colorful and the mobs are fairly interesting, but there doesn't seem to be much variation and there are only a few limited maps.  The diversity is supposed to come from a dynamic "dungeon master" AI (or a real player being the dungeon master), but in all honesty I'm not sure this adds that much to someone primarily playing one of the core classes.  If you thought Diablo 3 didn't have enough content/variety, this will start to seem repetitive almost immediately.  YMMV. 

The game can also be fairly difficult and unforgiving.  For instance there's a certain boss that just runs around and single hits you dead.  You can keep trying to evade but it's still kind of annoying when you get one shotted.  The reward system being only from gold drops means you can enter a game and essentially be slaughtered with zero forward progress or reward (unlike the aforementioned Heroes and Castles where bare minimum you will gain some xp). 

All in all it's a pretty fun game and addictive in its own way.  I hope they add some new classes and skins/items to make the game more lively and allow for more specialization. 

A Microsoft spokesman told The Verge on Tuesday that when the Surface Pro ships on Feb. 9, a large portion of the unit's flash storage will be allocated to Windows 8, pre-installed apps and a recovery partition, leaving users a meager 36 to 65 percent of space to work with.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/29/3929110/surface-pro-disk-space-windows-8

damn that's dumb.  at least some of it can be reclaimed but still....

Not that I think it's a good idea, but it's not that different from any of the recent ultrabook designs, or for that matter from netbooks.  Same thing for Macbook Air, etc as well.

The cliches I'm talking about are found in the charismatic serial killer who's two steps ahead of everyone and works his magic from prison, the alcoholic fed with a haunted past and the department that SHOULD listen to him but rarely does because of their history.  

Ahhhh yeah that is definitely true, I guess it just didn't bug me that much, probably like xeno said because of the actors.  I guess I like a lot of the actors/characters in general so I'm not too focused on the cliches.  The pacing of the direction has good tension, and the flashbacks are working well for me thus far.  So for me it's on the overall strength of the writing, plot, direction, side and main actors - that I'm enjoying the show.

Odd, I'm really enjoying it and I really don't get the cliche comments, aside from maybe Kevin Bacon who seems like he's just Jack Bauer 1.5.  I'm generally pretty jaded with TV shows but I haven't anticipated any of the twists thus far (are you guys saying you all guessed the fake gays and the nanny were bad?), so maybe I'm just a dolt or I don't watch enough crime dramas.

I think primarily I'm intrigued with the bad guys' storylines, particularly the 2 fake gay guys and Crazy/Beautiful wannabe chick.  You really have to suspend disbelief but it's intriguing to consider someone would have so much charisma that he could brainwash people over multiple years (that otherwise seem fairly intelligent) and plant them all over the place for his endgame.  The main bad guy is pretty charismatic overall and that goes a long way in making the show interesting for me.  You know Kevin Bacon is not going to die but everyone else is fair game as either a victim or a plant, which creates an interesting sort of tension in the show.  I also like the way the flashbacks are woven into the main story, not too obtrusive but generally giving additional insight.

Oh wow the devs have already released the changelist for the update (submitted today)!

New skins, ranger and mage classes, lots of fixes, Good vs. Evil mode, Evil Siege mode!!

(sorry my copy paste is malfunctioning due to excel lol)

Yeah I played a bunch during the weekend, really got its hooks into me.  For those of you who like "challenging" games, this one can be really tough and frustrating at times.  But what I like about it is that even though you can fail a particular mission 50 times, you will always gain at minimum some xp and hopefully some insight into a certain strategy.  I also recommend you play without using any IAP; I got some to support the developers and used it on some upgrades, which didn't unbalance anything but I think for the "pure" challenge I would have preferred no extra help.  Upgrades are only for units and city buildings, not directly for your character.

The game reminds me a lot of Diablo 2 in terms of the "gameflow" - not so much the details of the gameplay but the flow.  You start out with 1 of 3 (soon to be 5) classes, and when you level you get to specialize.  Here it's tough because each level you only get 2 points to spend, and that is for stats as well as skills/unlocks.  There are limited stats but they are each important in their own way.  Next you have to deal with "gear" - again it's vastly simplified with only one "rune" to equip but choosing the right one can be critical to your success in a given mission.  So even with a fairly simplistic system on paper, there's tons of customization/specialization.  Then once you enter a mission, you should go in with a baseline strategy, but be ready to adapt at any given moment.  Sometimes an extremely tough melee unit will just rip down your walls, other times a super far ranged unit will shoot your keep down at a distance.  You have to balance your own combat with summoning the right units or making the right choices in upgrades, and it can get frantic very quickly.  There are a few levels that are just horribly difficult (likely may be balanced down to be a bit easier) but you can beat them with a combination of strategy, persistence and if needed, levelling up.  If you get sick of one class, you can play the other classes for a while, which will help universally with upgrades.  Or you can take your guy into coop which seems the fastest way to level.  Beating the tough levels (19 and 20 in particular) is incredibly gratifying.

Overall a fantastic game that's perfect in small 5-10 minute spurts but can easily suck you in for much longer.  There are some balance issues, bugs and problems with coop (freezing and crashing primarily due to Game Center), but overall it's a really solid initial release.  Next update should bring bug fixes, 2 more classes, a Versus mode and a Siege mode. 

I'm rittchard on Game Center if you want to play some co-op.