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^ What? (I assume it's a bot, since it's about a million miles off topic, but it's rather coherent for a spam bot.)

The picture of Gary Oldman in purple wizards robes is awesome. I hope this thread never has another page.

Good on ya! Keep it going at that rate and they'll like you. (God forbid. ) I hauled off and grabbed Hammond's autobiographies off Audible, because I fear I've come to enjoy his existence. Quite interesting.

So apparently they're making a Top Gear America. I think I'll stick with the English version.

10US/Whatever On GOG 19 for all three Age of Wonders games on Steam/Impulse/GamersGate Fantasy turn-based strategy game, fairly old. Would anyone be interested in PBEM games, or something of the sort?

So in my continuing trawl of Netflix; G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra . . .What? Final thought: Rent it, if only for the interesting "technology". Edit: Alright, I'm actually bothering to watch the climax (it was just too bizarre/shitty, but I figured why not) and it has a massive submarine battle, which instantly gives it an extra point in my book because of the Aquanox series. Admittedly, the attack subs perform more like aircraft than submarines, but I suppose something made like that could potentially do so underwater. Still though. Further editations: I just thought of something. Joe/Cobra, GDI/NOD? Final edit (for reals this time): WHY WOULD YOU CAST ARNOLD VOSLOO AND TURN HIM INTO JONATHAN PRYCE?! Godsdamned idiotic. (Arnold Vosloo played Imhotep in the new The Mummy movies, if you're a cultureless swine.)

I couldn't stop laughing through the entire cutscene. Then I turned the game off and didn't go back for three days.

I think even in the first five seasons, there are duds. The reason I actually watch the Simpsons, but don't watch Family Guy/American Dad/Southpark, is because while the Simpsons may not always be high-brow comedy, it doesn't do every joke to death, and then explain it to you like you're some sort of comedic imbecile. (Run on sentence, woo!) There have always been Simpsons episodes that just don't click with me. For instance, the Simpsons movie as a whole doesn't do it for me. But there are many individual gags in there that can make me chuckle whole-heartedly. Dunno, I've never had a problem with the change of writing staff, but it does seem to be running out of jokes.

The stories I could tell you about the former would curl your latter.

Not entirely sure where to put this, so shazow: We have any SA forum members around here? If so, shoot me a PMz.

I'm not sure about the texture pack, but the AO looks quite nice.

It's because you haven't uploaded the video yet, Jake.

Huzzah. Hopefully Infinite can be less "eh, blah, ugh" feeling than some of the BioShock 2 levels. Congratzorz, dudezorz.

You heard him folks. End of November. If there ain't no video, we'll have us a lynchin'! (Or. . .something.) Also; Do we really qualify as a niche section of the internet? We're more of a. . .bungalow.

It was a tad bit more crass than is acceptable concerning the fairer sex. (Though my robotic maid is looking pretty awesome these days. I mean wait. . .)

I think he's a bloody nutter. That's about it for me. (Though the wizard duel in "In The Name of The King" is absolutely awesome.)

But see, I am a crazy person. I put thousands of hours into Age of Mythology, learning everything about every civilization/major god pairing. I got my ass kicked constantly for several months. But I genuinely enjoyed the process. Another example is my recent stint in Mount and Blade Warfare mod cRPG, which forces you to level up and buy equipment. I've been dying horrible, bloody deaths for a couple days now, and just now have started killing people. I enjoy those activities. I do not (to a point of headaches and anger whilst playing) enjoy SC2 enough to do that. And the rocks in "noob matches" is foolish and stupid (IMO.) As for the criticism of it being old-fashioned, I think everyone has sufficiently picked that apart, but I still do not feel it has contributed anything to the genre aside from a giant wave of "OMG STARCRAFT" all over again. I'm weird, I have weird views that don't really make sense. Whatever. Human. Etc. Suffice to say, I am not pleased with SC2. P.S. Upon reading the above post, I sound like a bloody zealot. I stick by it.

I'm running out of Antrax actually. Can't power those toy trains much longer without it! (I slay me.)

Send me something Thumbs related, if you don't mind the postage.

Yeah, that about covers it. I think another major problem for me is that I'm sort of bitter. While I was playing AoE2 and RoN and even Empire Earth The First, everyone else in the world was playing SC:BW. And any time for the last decade that "excellent strategy games" comes up. . .SC:BW. I don't like the damn game, partially because I don't want to sink 300 hours into it to be able to compete effectively, partially because by the time I got into it, it was violently dated (graphics don't bug me in RTS, but the systems certainly did) and partially because Fuck Starcraft, FFS. ("Can you recommend a good RTS?" "Duuuuude *Puff* have you tried Starcraft, maaaaaan?") So yes, reverse-old man. I'm sticking with that theory.

Not what I mean. I don't think I can satisfactorily explain what my issues with the game are, so I'll let it go and just fume in a corner. P.S. Satisfactorily for you folks to understand what I mean at least. I know what my problems are with it, my odd thought process doesn't allow it to percolate enough into a form that normal people can understand.

I tend to agree. It just frustrates me that things like The X____ of War series and Dawn of War and Sins of a Solar Empire have come along and enriched the genre, and the biggest RTS game of the last decade (arguably in opinion, but probably fact in sales) doesn't do anything to help the genre, and is essentially a useless remake. It's kind of, as I said, a reverse-old man effect, but it still bugs me to no end. Especially when a studio like Ensemble Studios got shut down. Also, Forbin. I apologize if Starcraft was not originally released in '99. I just dredged up a year I felt was right, but was probably wrong, and went with it. Further edits: I didn't address Drath's main point. The fact that Blizzard did it intentionally is probably what infuriates me most. Because as I said, they could likely have gotten away with changing/warping Starcraft 2 if it had the usual Blizzard polish and balance.

It's a quality game. Polished, balanced, well made, quite stunning at the right times. What I'm saying is I'd like a tad more innovation, a little less 1999 in my RTS. I'm a huge fan of the Age of Empires series. Age of Empires 2 probably holds my second greatest hours played to date. (Even TF2 at 357 hours isn't half-way to it.) But Age of Mythology, without doubt, holds my greatest. If I think about it, I could probably guess at some 1.5k hours of Age of Mythology played. Part of it was the people I played it with. Part of it was it was something new, and fun. But an even larger slice than both of those, is that it brought new ideas to the table. Ideas that have, in some ways, been discarded. My big problem with SC2 is that is continue to allow the RTS genre to stagnate. They could have innovated in unheard-of ways, because they are Blizzard. Because they are Blizzard, they would have gotten these right. Because it is Starcraft, people would have given it a massive chance at being something new, and improving RTS forever. But they didn't. It's SC1 in a new engine with three (four?) new features. This angers me. This angers me because RTS is the genre I prefer, even if I don't play it overmuch in this day and age. Part of the reason I don't is the stagnation and slow death of the genre. (I may just be a reverse-crotchety old man, and I have this horrible feeling Remo will find this thread and devour my soul for my impudence, but I really feel this way. SC2 pisses me off.)

Doing that sort of thing puts things in perspective very quickly, and can leave you feeling like utter shit, even if none of it immediately effects you. It's a shitty thing to go through (thought not nearly as bad as it is for the person you're listening to) but it's generally helpful to everyone involved. I just hate people in general, so I avoid that sort of thing unless I know you really well or have a reason to like you off-hand. (You hear that Patters? When boardgaming drives you mad, don't come crying to me!)

I love that the dialogue bit is true on both sides. (Hey, fuck you spell checker! I was spelling "dialogue" properly.)