mkenyon

Oh! That would be sweet. When you're traveling from Khergit to Nords, it does seem to take forever.

There *is* a speedup button. You either camp, or if you are in a town/case you can "stay there awhile". It'll put the game into fast forward mode. If you have a party member with a high training skill, you can train up troops fairly quickly.

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that is just so awesome about this game. If only there was that level of polish... In a way, I like a lot of the clunky mechanics, maybe it's my old curmudgeony PC gamer ethic. Having to write down the cities I need to travel to in order to sell goods properly, or even head towards if I'm looking for someone just tickles a part of me. What I did this time around was completely change up the type of troops and playstyle I usually go for. Rather than a fully mounted army of Khergit and Swadians, I went for a full on norse with heavy archer army. For my character in previous games I went for mounted archer + two hander, this one I'm doing polearm + shield/1hander. Just that change significantly altered my experience in the game. The sight of baiting the enemy into a line of 50 Huscarls that all throw their axes and javelins at the same time is quite rewarding.

That explains why I felt so good after 3 weeks in Ljubljana and Bled. Here I was thinking it was the Kremsnita and beautiful women. And cheap beer.

Nice You won't regret it.

In addition to the classics and modern classics (Quakes, Half Lifes, Dragon Ages, Civs, etc): King's Bounty Hearts of Iron II/III Mount and Blade: Warbands (would've put vanilla M&B here until two weeks ago) Tribes (my #1 PC game ever) Rise of Nations Freespace IL-2: Sturmovik Also, if you need help building a PC, this thread is actually helpful: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383771

You'll be fine. Everything in the game is very scalable, and to be honest, it seems mostly CPU dependent rather than GPU dependent. I'm getting about the same frames from running the original release on a GTX260 as I am currently on my 5870. Although the basic game is still the same, the additions in the game is giving me much more of that "just a few more minutes" syndrome because there are many more small objectives to complete than there were before. Before I'd get burnt out after about 15-20 hours of gameplay, but I'm still going strong on this play through. Rather than an expansion, this feels like a (mostly) full release of the game where as the original release was simply a beta.

Great show! I'm fiendishly awaiting talk of Mount and Blade: Warbands, however. *nudge* *hint*

I'm not sure your logic is as black and white as it might seem. Sports are meant to be played, and watched. As such, I have a blast watching a buddy of mine who used to be a professional FPS gamer. Seeing the skill and mastery is just as exciting for me as watching Ronaldo have a beautiful assist.

[sarcasm] I dont know about you guys, but I'm totally stoked to play World of Call of Duty: MMOdern Warfare. [/sarcasm]

Also remember, mice are a very personal thing. What works well for me might be crap for you. Go to a store to feel some mice out before taking the plunge.

That is most definitely not built for FPS. You'll be much happier with a Deathadder.

Agreed 100%. The new Imperator is basically a Death Adder +1, but if the price difference is too much to stomach, go for the Death Adder. Also, a good mousepad can be more useful than a mouse for accuracy and quickness. I'm currently using the Razer Destructor Mat with the Death Adder for FPS and the Naga for RTS/MMOs.

A Farewell to Arms EA's new groundbreaking first person brawler featuring new GoreX technology. Watch sinews tear as you dismember your enemy!

EA Presents Brutal Legend 2: For Whom The Bell Tolls

Favorite: Tribes, no question. The community, the high speed feel of the game, and the fact that it was the first online only FPS made for some amazing moments in my gaming history. I so miss this game. A good Tribes duel was like watching a ballet. Best: Civ 4. The game is so refined, the UI is intuitive, and you never ever feel like you're working against the system. Top that with such a blank slate and "do whatever you want" gameplay makes for the most polished game ever. Desert Island: Hearts of Iron 3. So much to do, so many different ways to do it. Combine that with the most intense level of micro-management, and I think I could get more gameplay out of this than any other game.

One of the big things with PC FPSs like the CoD series is that you have a few servers that you go to, as you know the community there, the house rules, etc. It becomes a community of players rather than just randoms thrown at each other. You can even go to servers where bigotry and swearing is not allowed, and be free of the immature hate speech so prevalent in internet gaming. Matchmaking and P2P eliminates a lot of this, and quite honestly, kills the game for me. I know that my group of friends will not be buying this game because of this move. But, we can all look on the bright side. PC gamers will be sticking to CoD4, and we wont have to go spend $60 to buy a game that isn't really much different than the one we have now.

My top 5's as of late: Superman: Red Son. Imagine Superman landed 12 hours later than he really did. No big deal you say? He lands in Ukraine. Superman is a commie! It's written by Mark Millar, and he doesn't take the subject in a black and white manner as one would expect. There's a lot of gray area. It's freaking fantastic. (and its my avatar) The Ultimates 1+2. Another Millar book. This is an Avengers reboot. They form the Ultimates under Nick Fury during the presidency of George W. Bush. It takes a very modern and adult look at what a supergroup would have to go through in today's day and age. Public Relations, questions of using them as a preemptive force against rogue nations, etc. . Freaking awesome. Thor. Straczynski did this reboot. Art is amazing, and its very adult in content. Not as in boobies and blood, but as in complex relationships and concepts. Very well written, and great ideas throughout the book in a post civil-war Marvel universe. Locke and Key. A horror/terror book done in a Lovecraftian world. The book is really freaking creepy, amazingly well written. It doesn't take the Lovecraft IP and sensationalize it. I think it does a really good job of capturing that "this is just the surface.... what is coming" creepy feel that Lovecraft did so well. Invincible. Great popcorn superhero book in the Image universe. Kirkman (of Walking Dead fame) is the writer behind this. It's about the son of a great superhero coming of age and having to come to grips with serious issues. High school one day, saving the world the next.

Did you play any of the MP? That's where the meat and potatoes are, IMO. The campaign can be fun when you want a little co-op action.

I have a ventrilo server folks could use if they like. It's based in Seattle. mikeysplace.vent.nfoservers.com:4140 I'll setup a room for Idle Thumbs. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197971324385 *edit* Have a room setup in my vent server, its open for use. Room name is the Wizards.

CoH > DoW 2 for me as well, at least in multiplayer. Nobody in my gaming group plays CoH though, so I'm stuck with DoW2.

Hi! Been listening for awhile but just joined the boards. Great podcast (only one I look forward to these days), and looks like a nice community you have here. Jake, you should consider playing some video games.

Necro thread. 1.8 patch came out today. The new last stand mode is a blast, but I suspect it'll be quite frustrating with randoms. The best way for me to explain it would be an MMO-esque encounter, with each hero needing to use specific skills at certain times, as well as getting the right mix of hero types in there. The leveling system makes it really addictive, as you level up you gain access to new wargear which gives new abilities and stats. Also, the MP balancing patch was quite nice. Fixed a ton of problems, but unfortunately, the Nids still suck.

When people talk about the new Halo game, all I hear is Odious Tea.

I recently did my first play through as the US in Hearts of Iron 3. Just an amazing game. I used spies in Canada to make it seem like they were more of a threat to the US public than they actually were. I also used propaganda at home to create national unity as well as have the people more likely to invade an actual country. By the time I could declare war (June 1940), Poland, France, Belgium, mainland Denmark, the Netherlands, and most of North Africa was under control of the Axis forcing Canada to join the Allies. I took a gamble and declared war on Canada despite not having any firm alliances. The invasion only took about two weeks before every main city fell. The next 3 months was spent pushing Great Britain out of the Americas. For my next battle plan, I would require access to German-controlled territory as they had Iceland in their firm grip. Despite not being in the axis, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with me and gave me military access to their territories.. I created a forward base in Newfoundland to take over Greenland, then set up in Iceland for my grand assault. On December 7th, 1941 (heh), I launched everything I had in a surprise attack against Scotland in order to have a firm hold on some land before the final assault into lower England. This ruse proved successful, and provided me a great amount of defense (since I was in the mountains) as the Brits attempted to push me off their island. I used combined air and naval raids to give myself complete superiority in those fields which helped give me the edge to finally capture London. I spent the next four years aligning myself with Russia (as Germany never declared war on them), giving myself a giant Bear of an ally in Eastern Europe and Asia. I turned on Germany, eventually taking over all of Europe, as well as liberating Yugoslavia and Republican Spain from Fascist rule. Viva la revolucion socialismo! The greater Socialist Anglo Empire was created.