Dewar

I did well with a Magic Rapier. It might not have been the best option available, but I really liked the move set and I was able to surprise a couple of invaders with my melee damage when after they thought I was all magic spells.

It depends on whether they are looking at OS Name (Windows 95) versus OS Version (Version 4.0)

I found out in a conference last week that this is causing versioning problems with programs that check for something like "version >= 6.0" since it's a string comparison and 10 comes before 6 alphabetically. So I guess they were screwed with version numbers no matter what they do.

Yeah, I guess I liked the florescent light and CRT look, but not the other stuff (being vague on purpose.) The options menu was pretty much all or nothing.

Oh, i could have done without the screen reflection effects. Every time it happened it reminded me I was playing a game.

A definition that I generally agree with by the way, even if it's inexact. I just loved the image of someone pressing their nose against a tree trunk and saying "Yup, it's a forest!"

I don't have the time to read more than the first part, but I'd just like to say that much of the area that Fallout 1 and 2 take place in isn't a desert either, so complaining that the desert motif doesn't make any sense in Washington DC isn't much of a point. I wholeheartedly agree with the criticism about the comedy and the 200 year jump though. That's what I really miss about Fallout 1 and 2, the black humor.

I did a lot of co-op to destroy pirate base missions. Usually the forces aren't too hard and it's a free 3000 credits. I tried to keep the planetary stats positive on my allied worlds, and pretty much ignored them on other planets. In my play through, I found the assist building fleets action to be way overpowered, both in the amount of influence it gives you and the amount of power it gives your allies. The final planet that I was trying to get to join my federation needed an approval of 250 so I sat above that planet for something like 10 years building fleets. When I was done and got them in the federation, I noticed they only had a few defensive armadas. Turns out they were already half way through conquering two other planets. I saved and tried to fight a Burlust leader. He had 20 million shield HP. By the end of the game their regular ships had about 2 million and were fairly beatable, but it seems like fighting a leader is more a goal for a longer game. For the record, I started captured by the Acutians, granted space faring tech to the Peltians and Andors first. Started the federation with the Boarines going to the the Peltians first, then added in the Andors shortly after. With that core of three I started building military and tech with the Pelitians (who were closest to the Acutians.) I added in the Skylaxians fairly easy and eventually the Evucks using the military trick I mentioned in the first paragraph, then conquered the Acutians, Thoraxians, and finally the Burlusts.

That's how my wife gets when she misses her ADHD medication. Maybe he should see a doctor?

Yeah, I played that for a while. Never got very far. Edit: The alien game I mean.

I'd say I like the old style better as well, but the new isn't bad at least.

So one tree if you stand close enough to it?

Massive Chalice and Invisible Inc are both really good turn based strategy games in the vein of X-COM. As for grand strategy games, it seems like you're playing most of the ones I am already. Edit: As for keyboard and mouse, I prefer getting cheap Logitechs from Amazon with the benefit of being able to toss them and get new ones every 3-6 months without feeling guilty.

Yeah, I bought the DLC during the Steam sale, but I'm currently playing EU4 multiplayer so it'll have to wait for a bit.

I beat this through the first time in two evenings of play, so approximately 5 hours real time. Unfortunately, I found it too easy to get my first four planets into the federation, then militarily steamrolled the folks whose federation invite conditions were too difficult. I plan on playing again with the combat difficulty higher to try and encourage more thinking and less warring. Each time you die, it takes 12 months to repair, and I did that a quite a few times right at the end. While at certain points time can be of the essence, it was my experience that you shouldn't fear spending a year or more doing something if you think it's going to be really helpful. If I had to guess, I played the game for a couple hundred years in-game time. Also, the tutorial keeps on busting out new features for quite a while. I think the one that talks about mineral resources was the last one I got, but I still had some holes on the control panel at the bottom so I might have beat the game before the tutorial was even over.

A store near here sells vintage (60s-80s) Playboys. I pick up about one a year and read through it (yes, actually read along with looking at the pictures.) I find the whole thing fascinating. There's some really interesting articles in there that are casually sexist or racist in uncomfortable ways, but others that are pretty progressive for the time. It definitely has a different feel from the internet, which ends up being rather... to the point I guess?

Nice, I just finished Long Live the Queen and I'm really interested to see how things could go. I feel like I was railroaded pretty hard down my path, but then I read wiki entries that talk about all these options that I didn't even have.

Man, you're really making me want to pickup and try out that game, (I've had it on my Steam list forever) but also even more chicken about jumping in not knowing what to do.

I bought the update on the Steam Sale. I might get a chance to dig in this weekend?

Man, the Higurashi anime first season is one of my favorite horror experiences of my life, but it was so intense that I never got around to watching the second season. It's the same with District 9, one of the most intense and best movies I've ever seen, I keep on saying I should watch it again, but I'm too chicken.

Thoughts on favorite team? I know that most of the teams have switched it up in the last year so I have no clue who to even put in. i

Interesting, my friends are big into Elysian brewing and we haven't gone there recently. I wonder if that's why. I never heard about their sale, I love Shock Top, and never really paid attention where my beer is coming from. I guess I'm not quite that much of a beer snob.

I beat King's Bounty: Crossworlds this weekend. It's basically Heroes of Might and Magic without the actual taking over of cities (and without uPlay.) Much like its predecessor, it's an awesome 30 hour game stretched out to 50-60 hours. I'm glad I finally got it off my plate, but I'm definitely not buying the next in the series for quite some time, if ever.

I love that game, but it's just too easy in general. None of the traits really mattered because the game was never hard enough to make you care about them. I'm really bummed they don't have difficulty levels in that game.