Some fixes going in today:

We are working hard to resolve a problem that is at the heart of the issues which some players have reported.
Namely:
Trading not working consistently
Unable to load/claim city errors
Getting stuck in a loop in the tutorial

To that end we are currently rolling out a server update which we believe will improve performance considerably. This will involve restarts over the next 4-5 hours across all of our current severs. Minor player impact may occur, such as trading not working consistently and the region wall not working occasionally.

We appreciate your continued patience and support while this fix is being deployed.

It boggles my mind that some NA servers are at capacity at this time of day.  Spring break, I guess?

I just started up a region for GT, my origin name is arkon262, hit me up with a friend invite and I can add you to the region if you would like to join in.

Friend invite sent.  What server are you on, East 1?

West 1 actually, despite being on the east coast, it was the first I could get in to.

Any one works for me, but unless we log onto the same one I don't think the region invites will work.

I just started up a region for GT, my origin name is arkon262, hit me up with a friend invite and I can add you to the region if you would like to join in.

Friend invite sent.  What server are you on, East 1?

I'd still like someone to make a modern thief game. Something where you would rise from being a small-time cat burglar to doing a huge heist. No zombies or anything - just the challenge of breaking in and getting out with the loot.

I would play that, but don't call it Thief.

What he's describing is what I want from Thief, so calling it Thief sounds great. :)

Good time to reread Origin of PCs, too.

I think some services can only be shared once you get certain upgrades to your town hall or certain service buildings.

started playing through that damned tutorial just fine.  I wish they had made it skippable; thankfully it's short.

I was able to skip it by starting into it and immediately quitting to the main menu.

Yeah, Origin is a huge turnoff, as is the EA connection and the threat of Sims-style expansion pack overdosing.  I'm still super excited for my copy to arrive, though.

Do you hate Steam as well?  It's the same damn thing.  I don't understand the hatred.  They both do their jobs.  Steam has had problems with unlocking games as well.  It's the reality of PC games these days. 

I love Steam, which is why I hate that this is on Origin.  I want all my games on Steam.

Yeah, Origin is a huge turnoff, as is the EA connection and the threat of Sims-style expansion pack overdosing.  I'm still super excited for my copy to arrive, though.

Here's a bunch of neat visual aids on how various game mechanics work.

If I didn't have to purchase through Origin, I'd buy SimCity V in a heartbeat.  I refuse to use that shitpile of a client though, so I'm out.

You don't have to purchase through Origin (but you do need to use the client to play).

Yawn.

Gustav Holst used to yawn like that.

Holy shit.

If you have been avoiding the comic for a while waiting for a good time to catch up, now may be that time.  Just be sure to go back to where you left off, and avoid peeking at today's.  Here's a link to a comic a ways back so you don't have to click on the most recent to get reading: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0837.html

Also worth mentioning, Rich is recovering well from his thumb injury, and he's been churning out comics daily for the last week.

But again: holy shit.  I'd love to hear some discussion from true D&D nerds on what the possibilities are coming out of today's comic.

Next thing you know you'll have to like, pay a quarter every few minutes just to keep playing. Out of quarters? Can't play anymore, sucker.  I can't believe nobody has ever thought to do this.

Overview of the Available Regions

The Wife and I are thinking about giving this program a spin, but before I head over to eBay I thought I'd check and see if any forumers had a set they were hoping to offload.

What was Shaker trying to be?  I hadn't heard about that one.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/368238381/worlds-of-wander-plus-secret-spaceship-club-game

30 hours to go and they only have $46k out of the requested $400k.

I can't put my finger on why this one didn't take ground at all.  Tom Hall has quite the pedigree (Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Rise of the Triad, Anachronox) and I would have thought there'd be a pretty decent nostalgia factor out there for the Commander Keen series.

I think a lack of publicity was a major factor.  I only heard about the kickstarter through a Wil Wheaton tweet, but I haven't heard a peep about it through any other source.  Has anyone here heard of this from anywhere other than this thread?

But sadly the best you can ever hope for is a win by default.

What an awesome story

Hmm.  The trigger is my favorite part about 1911 design, and I was hoping the Hi-Power would be similar due to their common ancestry.

Ah well, still want to try one.

Here's the video the gif is derived from:
http://www.usfunvideos.com/world/789-mostar.html

Google reverse image search, ho!

With the Arkham games, there were plenty of comparison videos showing how much fancier the PC graphics were. Neato cloth movement, debris, smoke, etc. Very cool stuff. I bought the 360 version anyway. It looked good enough to me, and I wanted to play on my big TV.

It reminds me of the rollout of blu-ray, where people thought their upscaled DVDs looked plenty damn good, and even with the two techs side by side they needed convincing that the improvements were significant. People still need that convincing.

With blu-ray, I'm TiLT, waving my arms in frustration at the people who can't see the difference. With console graphics, I think I might be the guy who just shrugs and doesn't see the need.

Fun fact!  The inside of your ear canal is significantly warmer than the underside of your pillow!

The iPhone 5 is bigger than I'd prefer (though the thinness is nice).  If the next iPhone is even bigger, I won't be buying it.

And as for there being people who like the gigantor Android phones, well of course. I'm not disputing that. I thought it was pretty clear I was just sharing my own personal impressions.

EYE-oh-ESS

I've never sat down and spent a serious amount of time with Android, but a number of times I've had brief exposure from borrowing someone's phone, and I've never had a good impression.  

The first turnoff is the gigantor size of the Android phones I borrow.  I honestly don't know how people can bear to have devices that big jammed into their pockets.  That's admittedly the fault of the device design, not Android itself, (and I know there are smaller Android phones out there) but it does contribute to my negative impression of Android.

The second turnoff is just the overall lack of polish in navigating the interface, compared to iOS.  Something as simple as swiping to the second page of icons seems clumsy--like the framerate is too low or something.  Similar thing when I tried launching apps.  Now I have no idea if that was just because the devices I tried happened to be using inferior hardware or whatever, or if that's par for the course.  I'm clueless about that aspect.  All I can say is that the UI animations were choppy on the devices I got to try.

Third turnoff is the availability of apps.  I play a lot of games on my iPhone, and for many many games that I've really enjoyed, I see people complaining that there's no Android version.  This is the biggest dealbreaker for me.  

I'm not saying iOS is perfect, mind you.  I hate how Apple holds back obviously helpful features, says that they're counter to a good user experience, and then 3 years later the feature gets added and they make it seem like they've just invented something miraculous.  I hate how limited you are in customizing the setup of your own phone.  I hate iTunes.  For me, the cost benefit of dealing with these known evils to get me to the good parts of the iOS balances out.

I've never heard about that one.  What's the basis?  You're not as much at the ready?

Take a road trip out to New Mexico & Arizona so Pete and I can throw you a big party.  I'll take you clay shooting, too.  Pete will tell you all about pharmaceuticals.

I thought you lived in Boston?!!?

Boston and New Mexico are like right next to each other.

(I moved a few months ago)

Take a road trip out to New Mexico & Arizona so Pete and I can throw you a big party.  I'll take you clay shooting, too.  Pete will tell you all about pharmaceuticals.

Both versions of Plants vs Zombies are currently free (normally $3 and $7)

I'm at the same point, but only have 150/155 clones.

Did you do the Valentine's Day update?  I avoided that one since the update news said some scary stuff about your savefile getting wiped if you don't do a backup, so I only have 150 total clone types.  Did you have to restore from a backup to keep your progress?

Hi, I'm wonderpug! You may remember me from min/maxxing such freemium games such as.... We Rule

So, Pixel People.  I am 2 clones and a building or two away from 'beating it.'  It's been an interesting journey.  I'm at level 16 of land expansion, with 181 land slots.  My income peaks at 1385 coins per second.  In my last sprint to the end I've been scrapping all of my cosmetic use of land, and even deleting trees.  Land expansions have been my biggest bottleneck since the upgrade costs are so high (my next upgrade costs 92,000,000 coins).  The benefit of the 'spirit' you get from decorative additions seems really minimal, and it's a disappointment that you're almost punished for trying to make your city look pretty.  I also highly recommend sticking to the most land-efficient residences you have available.  Once you unlock the Shiny Tower, stop using every other type of residence.  And also: save up your Utopium for that as soon as possible since Shiny Towers cost 6 Utopium a pop.

I know these types of games often get heat for not having any 'gameplay,' but for me they do.  My goals with these games are to spend as little real money as possible (or none), to build things out as quickly as possible, and to minimize the amount of real-life time I need to spend on the 'chores' of the game.  Even though it's not a traditional type of game, with Pixel People I had very gamelike decisions around the use of the Utopium resource, planning ahead to minimize time getting held up by bottlenecks, and planning clone placement and building assignments to maximize income.  The clone pairing mechanic was one of the funnest parts, and entire games have been made on just that (the Doodle God series).

Total real monies spent: $1 on the feature to double the amount of time all my buildings run.  I definitely got my $1 worth.

Your hands aren't offset, why would you want the sticks to be? (As long as they aren't too close together)

The upper position is the more natural one for your thumb to fall on, so it makes sense to put the left analog stick up there since that's what your left thumb uses for almost every game.  Putting the right analog stick in the upper position makes sense for games where your right thumb is controlling the camera; putting the buttons up there makes sense for games where your right thumb is using buttons.

I would pay money a launch title called Horrible Interface wherein I have to use motion controls, the touchpad, the Move light, and the Kinect cameras all at the same time to open a door.

Did any of the demos show use of the controller touchpad?  I still can't picture how you're supposed to reach that thing with your thumbs to do anything other than use it as a gigantic button.  The controller shape also doesn't seem suited to holding it up with one hand and using the other to do touchpaddery.

I had a similar reaction, but I think we're just approaching it wrong. I don't think it's supposed to be a way to control games, but will instead be used in the user interface. One of the big hurdles to home consoles being used for web browsing (for example) has been the lack of a mouse and keyboard. While the touchpad won't solve the keyboard part of the equation, at least it should cover for the mouse. You would use the touchpad in the same way you'd use one on a laptop, in other words not by using your thumb.

Good point, but I think that pesky 'leverage' thing will get in the way of holding it one hand and using the index finger of the other.  I guess it depends on how sensitive the touchpad is and how light the controller is, but I imagine I'll be half resting the controller on my lap to use it the way you describe.

I also hope game developers can show restraint and not try to hamfist touchpad functions into their games.  

* Ruger SR9c 9mm - which I've recently sold

Something you didn't like about it?  It looks awesome on paper.

Why does it matter what the box looks like? If they put it in a beige pc box would you not buy it? What matters is what's inside the box, and they revealed that.

I just want to know the size

Men are always preoccupied with size.

Well I just want to know if this thing is going to be bigger in my hands compared to what I'm used to.  And will it handle differently?  Right now I'm used to rubbing my PS3 in just the right spot to make it eject, but will the PS4 eject in the same way?  Will it still require direct contact with human skin to eject? Where is its slot going to be?