alanschu

Define revolutionary. System Shock 2 isn't revolutionary. It's a sequel! Deus Ex isn't that good, as it's just an evolution as well. Don't even get me started on how crappy Planescape: Torment is. It didn't add anything new to gaming. As much as I loved playing through Half-Life 2, it didn't leave the same wow factor that Half-Life 1 did. Probably because of Half-Life 1. Exactly. At times I wonder if some of the Half-Life hatred I see is simply because it's popular, and it's in vogue to bash the popular stuff.

The other big one that came out at that time was Unreal. I remember it being sort of Unreal vs. Half-Life. Both games had a fair bit of hoopla to them (though it wasn't until I read a review for Half-Life that I knew what Half-Life was, but at the time I wasn't really into PC gaming). As for whether or not Half-Life would have come out if Quake hadn't existed...I don't care. Quake does exist, and Valve liked the engine, licensed it, and modified the tar out of it. As for the progression of FPS games, I definitely put Duke Nukem 3D on the next evolution after Doom. It created a persona for the character, had interesting levels that we were able to related to (well, on the Earth levels anyways). It had basic scripted events which were pretty cool at the time. The sounds were great, and it actually added the ability to jump and voluntarily move in the Z-axis. It had style and substance, and as a bonus was FUN! I remember hearing about a "Doom killer" and scoffed at it, but Duke3D delivered. Environments that could be interacted with (often in humorous ways) and so forth. When I heard about Quake, I was hoping for a Duke Nukem 3D killer. Quake had kickass deathmatch, but the single player game was boring and uninspired, and while I was too young to truly appreciate that it was a fully 3D polygonal engine, I preferred sprites because quite frankly I found the low polygon characters to look rather foolish. Sure a necessary step to what we have today, but even games like GoldenEye and Turok for the N64 weren't games that made me think "ooo, the graphics for this game are awesome" especially when you got up close to the characters. I played a variety of FPS games...but ultimately when I first got my grubby little paws on Half-Life, I couldn't stop playing it until I was done. My cousin that started watching me play it about halfway through was equally enamored just by watching me play it. Add in pretty much the most successful mod of all time (as well as some great times with TFC, since I didn't get a chance to play TF for Quake 1), it's quite the recipe for success. I agree with Crash Girl that many of the games we see today are heavily influenced by Half-Life, which is in part why we look back on Half-Life and go "meh."

Ultima VII's dialogue tree was essentially a graphical version of the dialogue from Ultima VI. Though because we were no longer typing, we no longer needed to remember the key words required to have discussions with other NPCs (nor could we cheat and just type in the words if we already knew them). At times Ultima VII makes fun of the keyword system, such as when you talk with the actor that is playing The Avatar and he says his most common words are "Name" "Job" and "Bye." Dialogue was still very much a keyword based system, as it was in every Ultima game preceding it. I also remember party members getting upset with me for breaking the virtues (particularly stealing since I was prone to do it), in fact moreso than in Ultima VII (where NPCs typically only got mad if you moved something that did not belong to you...even if it meant moving the invisible caltrops out of the way so half of your party wouldn't die walking into the treasure cave). I didn't play Ultima VI nearly as long as I did Ultima VII (since I didn't own it), so I can't comment a whole lot on the world interaction. I know you could bake bread and whatnot in Ultima VII; I don't know if you could do that in Ultima VI. I do remember having everyone chill at the Blue Boar Inn, however, eating a meal (which I could do since it was possible to control each individual character with in a solo mode). NPCs had schedules and would go to bed, go to work, and all sorts of fun stuff like that. They'd lock their doors when they weren't home and so on. The big thing about Ultima VII is it was now a mouse driven interface. Outside of that it was very much Ultima VI with improved graphics, and a change to a real time environment (which was definitely a good thing, as the world otherwise stood still unless The Avatar did something). As for NOLF. That game was great too. It's sales are obviously lower because it doesn't have what Half-Life has that extends the life of FPS games, was a multiplayer mode (and in the case of HL: mods) that captured the attention of the players. While it's possible for a poor game to have good sales numbers due to hype and so forth (look at Driv3r), rarely is that success sustained. Half-Life may just be a Doom clone (a point a whole heartedly disagree with), but it does it really well and with a style and presentation better than other games at the time. But if you want to get super picky, you could make arguments that any FPS game is just an evolution of Doom (or Wolfenstein 3D if you prefer). Does a game need huge sales to be considered a good game? Of course not. Many of us consider Planescape: Torment or the first two Fallout games to be excellent games, and none of them were huge sellers. But if a game is able to keep selling copies for a significant number of years even if that game, as you yourself say, hasn't exactly aged well, it seems likely that it did something right. At the very least argue that much of its sales were a result of mods like Counterstrike and Day of Defeat before simply stating "Pfft, Doom clone that's overrated." As for how Half-Life hasn't aged very well, I am willing to bet that if you were to take someone and show them Half-Life: Black Mesa when it comes out, people will be impressed by it. Regardless of whether or not they played through the original Half-Life. In fact, I think the fact that a group of modders are willing to spend time recreating the original experience in Source is a testament to just how highly regarded the original Half-Life is. People don't seem to be out there creating mods that recreate the original Doom or anything like that.

He was off to a slow start I would say. Then he turned up the heat: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/3637/g...AvE5gxvU.FivLYF

Dark Castle 2 did that too hehe.

As probably the biggest Ultima VII fanboi out there, how was it revolutionary whereas a game like Half-Life wasn't? The thing that impresses me the most about Half-Life, is that I still consider it one of the best games I have ever played, in spite of Xen (which did suck). Furthermore, what does a game being "evolutionary" vs "revolutionary" have to do with whether or not a game is overrated? System Shock 2 was evolutionary, but kicked the tar out of System Shock 2. Dues Ex followed along the same lines, and was significantly better than either System Shock game. Often times "revolutionary" games suck serious ass. Look at Codename Eagle. That game was bloody awful. But it set the stage for the Battlefield games, as well as game modes in other games like UT2k4 and so forth. All of the evolutions of the revolution that was Codename Eagle are significantly better than Codename Eagle.

I think that that is different, because McDonald's has CHEAP hamburgers. Sell Striploin steaks for the same price as McDonald's hamburgers, and we'll see how well the McDonald's hamburger does.

Yeah I enjoy a lot of the lore in WoWWiki. It actually made me really enjoy WoW itself a lot more.

January was a rough month in the East Indies. In the first week, the onslaught against Singapore was too much. Japanese had inflicted heavily losses to most troops as they withdrew back to Singapore, so they were still quite fatigued and heavily disorganized when trying to mount their defenses. Singapore has fallen (historical fall: February 15, 1942) and resulted in the surrender and loss of 1000s of troops, and the destruction of several ships (fortunately scuttled so the Japanese could not use them) and aircraft. A heavy loss to the Allies. The rest of the East Indies are in serious jeopardy. With reports of advancing ships, most of the key ports in the area were heavily mined. Soerabaja (Naval Base), Balikpapan (Oil Fields), Tarakan (Oil), Batavia (Dutch HQ), and Palembang (resources and oil) were the primary targets, as they will be the focus for the Japanese. Palembang has now started to receive air strikes from Japanese planes based out of Singapore. With the loss of Singapore though, there are no sufficient naval bases to resupply the minelayers, so they ended up retreating back to Darwin. There is still a good contingent of ships in the area however. There is an assortment of Dutch DDs and CLs, in addition to a few Australian and American CLs. CL Boise was performing raids on the odd Japanese TFs and scoring some hits, until a Japanese CVTF came in and scored a hit on her with a torpedo. Heavy damage necessitated a stop in Soerabaja to stop the flooding, and then a retreat to Darwin. Fortunately she was able to get away. The Japanese CVTF steamed through the Java Sea, and with the first significant warship success of the war, a Dutch submarine was able to score a hit on CVL Ryujo. While she wasn't sinking, she was significantly slowed. To make matters better, she was slowed significantly enough that the Japanese detached her from the task force so they could continue her patrol. We sent out a small surface combat fleet, headed up by CL De Ruyter to engage. They found her, though she had a single destroyer protecting her so the forces focused their fire there. The destroyer was hit at least 18 times by a variety of shells, and she was sunk. With daytime approaching, the ships couldn't engage the carrier directly, but she was now completely helpless. That day, bombers out of Soerabaja, Batavia, Balikpapan, and Tarakan flew several sorties against the carrier. CVL Ryujo suffered at least one torpedo hit, and over 30 bomb hits, mostly 500 lb GP bombs as well as some 250 lb GP bombs. She sank later that day, leaving the Japanese with one less carrier to project her power! Success was not celebrated for long however, as Tarakan was soon under assault (though there was a report of an Armored Transport hitting a mine while heading to the beach). Tarakan was only able to hold out for a few days (historical: January 11, 1942), and more transports proceeded to Balikpapan. I sent the submarines off the coast of Balikpapan, as well as a small destroyer TF. Troops began unloading in mid January, unfortunately evading all submarines. The DDTF did interdict and scored several hits on a few Japanese transports, but as Tarakan and Brunei were now occupied by Japanese forces, the constant threat of air attack loomed. The destroyers retreated back to Soerabaja. Balikpapan held out a few days, and fell to Japanese occupation (historical: January 24, 1942). To the north, Japanese forces started pushing up through Siam and Malaya and into Burma. Mines were laid in Rangoon harbour, and forces along the Siamese-Burma border began to retreat. British Forces, having been building up naval and air bases in Diamond Harbor, Chandpur, Dacca, and Calcutta, moved forces to the mountain ranges along the India-Burmese Border. Japanese troops quickly blitzed to Rangoon, cutting her off by mid January. Despite bombings from Chandpur, the Japanese quickly overwhelmed Rangoon defenses, and occupied Rangoon by late January (historical: March 7, 1942). Troops in Burma were ordered to hold Mandalay (where the famous AVG Flying Tigers air wing was flying out of) and began to fall back to those positions. It didn't matter however, as Japanese troops were quickly en route, and were able to cut off Taung Gyi and Pagan. AVG fell back to Dacca, and Troops in Burma were then ordered to Imphal and Kohima to help protect the India-Burma border. The Burma road to China was in jeopardy. In the Philippines, initial successes ran into the brick walls at Manila and Clark Field. The advance has stopped entirely, and both regions have significant supplies to hold out almost indefinitely. With Bataan being near suicide to attempt to take by landing on the beaches, land troops from Bataan reinforced Clark Field. Out of Clark Field, a small group of remaining B-17s continued to bomb task forces in the region, usually scoring 1 or 2 hits a day on transport ships. Morale is high in the Philippines at the moment. In New Guinea, American forces assumed control of the Dutch base Amboina, with hopes of reinforcing it and building up an airfield to protect northern Australia and stymie future advances. It'll also be a key point to hold should forces attempt to build up Hollandia along Northern New Guinea. While Hollandia is a long term objective, land based aircraft (LBA) from there could effectively cut off Truk. It is also a key point as Japanese forces have been spotted heading towards Rabaul and the Solomon Islands. Losing the Solomon's would slow supply convoys to Australia, forcing them to move past Fiji and New Zealand. Should Rabaul fall, Hollandia would interfere with supply convoys heading there to and from Japan and the Philippines. A large amount of Japanese submarines have been spotted near Townsville, so anything with a depth charge from Darwin to Sydney and Melbourne is being dispatched to the area. Planes are now on ASW patrols as well. The Central Pacific is mostly quiet. BB Colorado has arrived at Pearl Harbor from Seattle (avoiding a submarine attack just outside PH). CV Saratoga has also arrived from San Francisco, and the threat of submarines near hawaii has been reduced, so transports from Pearl have been resupplying the various atolls closer to Marshall Islands and so forth. The Gilbert Islands were captured to the south of the Marshall Islands, slowing convoys to Australia. As part of the convoys, several older flush deck destroyers (many of them Clemson class) were sent down to help Australia battle the submarines in the region.

Nothing sunk, just heavy, heavy damage. I certainly wouldn't mind doing that. One problem with the battleships is that they area bit slow, and either in Hawaii or mainland US. They are very far away from the Japanese Navy and most of the concentrated landings seem to be over now.

As a fan I am disappointed if a player I like leaves to play for a different team because of money, but realistically I don't really judge them. It's easy to say "OMG they already make millions of dollars!" It's always cool when a player does take what seems to be a "discount" to play for a team they want, but I am sure if I was in their position, I'd lobby for what I felt I was worth as well. I think a lot of it has to do with relative pay scale. Just like "real life" people get frustrated if they are more qualified than a peer, yet that peer makes more money than them. Owners are just as greedy too.

How would that make them overrated?

If you're playing on expert then it's even really efficient!

I'll post the historical dates of capture with the dates that they were captured in my game as well, for reference sake. I'm happy with what has happened so far in the central pacific. No major losses to BBs or CAs, while being able to take down a fair bit of transports and light escort ships and getting in additional hits on a variety of cruisers even. Hopefully these types of losses will have a significant impact as the logistical need for the transports for Japan increases. Malaya fell quite quickly though I think. A bit of me wonders if maybe I should have sacrificed the Prince of Wales and Repulse (the PoW is a fantastic fast battleship though with good radar and AA capabilities and 10 14" guns, the Repulse is also fast, with 16" guns) to have them help out in pounding the transports in the area. It's hard to catch a task force at sea, but when you know they are near a port and suspect they'll be there for a day or two, a few quick night raids can at least make the price they pay quite a bit higher. The loss of Borneo was pretty expected. With Singapore cut off, it was too risky to even consider reinforcing it from Java Island. Plus those islands themselves will need to be defended. The other bonus is the early successes from the submarine fleet. Even with the US submarines having a 50% dud rate to start the war (problems with the magnetic fuse and the depth settings. The Dutch submarines have been doing quite well though.

Yup it's pretty ridiculous. My roommate and I roll our eyes at it.

Well, Steam itself is a type of DRM too, so it's not that surprising.

December 1941 After the initial surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Allied forces have been scrambling to prepare for a counter attack. As luck would have it, no major capital ships were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, though several of them have been severely crippled and will be out of commission for months. Hawaii and Central Pacific: Fortunately CV Lexington and CV Yorktown were out on the seas, and spared the attack. With a powerful Japanese Carrier Task Force (CVTF) nearby though, they had to be careful. Several submarines were also detected surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. With Wake Island falling after a single day, there were concerns for the safety of Midway Island. Midway has a solid airfield which provides invaluable reconnaissance and a warning for Pearl Harbor. The Japanese CVTF in the area has effectively cut her off, and Lexington went to Wake Island to hopefully get a shot at the transports and warships in the area, and hopefully send a few of them to the bottom of the ocean. Yorktown cautiously returned to the Hawaiian Islands, her flight groups helping with ASW attacks against the numerous subs. Several destroyers and minesweeper groups were formed (minesweepers also have depth charges), and proceeded to hunt the submarines in the area. Unfortunately over the month, few hits were scored. Two ASW groups had a submarine tracked just south of Oahu, but it seems like the submarines were pulling back, and we were hoping to inflict as much damage to them as possible while they were close to hawaii. Two ASW TF followed recon reports of submarines towards Midway Island as they retreated. 4 destroyers were sunk as a result of torpedo attacks, and at best we sunk 2 submarines. CV Lexington's attacks on Wake Island proved somewhat successful though. She scored multiple hits on several transports and escort ships, and Yorktown was dispatched from PH to take over for when Lexington would start to run low on ammunition. The SBD Dauntless inflicted most of the damage, scoring several hits on several armored troop transports, cargo transports, as well as escort ships. Confirmed kills on two CLs were the highlight of the raids, with minimal losses to aircraft. Yorktown saw similar results, with ships moving between Guam/Saipan and the Truk naval base. It seems as though Japan is fortifying the naval base at Truk, with a large assortment of transports heading towards the island. US CVTF continued to raid the route, which also interfered with supply runs to the Marshall Islands as well. Logistically in the Central Pacific, initial results have been pleasant. Several transport ships have been sunk or heavily damaged, as have several DD and CL escort ships. One CA was even hit hard. Unfortunately more kills could not be confirmed due to the poor range of the TBD Devastator torpedo bombers. Yorktown was attacked by an air raid of Betty torpedo bombers from Truk, but the Wildcat CAP was able to rebuff the attack, claiming several Betties and allowing the Yorktown to escape unscathed. As the flooding of the capital ships at Pearl Harbor were taken care of, a group of the most heavily damaged ships were sent back to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle for the major repairs. This would allow the repair yards there to focus on repairing the capital ships, and let Pearl Harbor deal with ships that would most likely see patrols in the coming weeks. Towards the end of the month, several of the nearby islands were reinforced with additional supplies, and the air wings at Pearl were rebuilt. Most planes on ASW patrols to seek out the rogue submarines in the area. Philippines: Things are not going as well at the Philippines. In a bold move, the CA Houston made an attempt to intercept a landing group on the east coast, with reports that the escorts there consisted primarily of destroyers. Houston arrived off the coast of Legaspi at night, to encounter roughly 8 destroyers and a light cruiser. Happy with her firepower and armor advantage, she proceeded to engage from a distance. However we were not expecting the range or firepower of Japanese torpedoes from their destroyers. Dubbed the "Long Lance," the torpedoes have immense range and payload, and Houston reported several hits and her last communication was that she was going down and they were abandoning ship. The submarines in Manila all departed, patrolling the South China Sea in a blanket, and scored several hits on transport ships off the coast of Indochina. Most transports seemed to be en route to Malaya, and we saw this as some good gains against the Japanese, as Malaya was starting to be overwhelmed. The surface ships departing Manila were not so lucky however, as they were attacked by several air attacks, incurring heavy damage and significant losses. Much of the fleet of small warships there have been sunk or expect to be in repairs for a significant amount of time. The Northern Coast of the Philippines was heavily attacked, and forces quickly fell back to Clark Field to fortify themselves there. The same from the south, with forces falling back to Manila. PT Boats were deployed from Manila, and they saw some limited success raiding transport ships. Their small size providing an inherent defense from the Air Attacks. Malaya: Initial attacks from Malaya have not gone well. Japanese forces from Thailand and amphibious groups quickly overwhelmed the northern airbases. Flights out of Singapore were able to score hits on transports, but the air force was pretty decimated and it wasn't as effective as we were hoping. With several Naval Forces suffering heavy losses in the Philippines, UK command felt that the BB Prince of Wales and BC were far too vulnerable, and had them retreat back to Diamond Harbor, India. The smaller warships with insufficient fuel capacity were put to use for night time raids on the landing forces. Ships would depart at dusk from Singapore, arrive at a beseiged port, and attack the transports under the cover of darkness, and return back to Singapore by morning where air forces could protect them. This seemed to work quite well initially, as several transports were hit and sunk by torpedoes and gunfire from the smaller warships. Unfortunately one of the raids resulted in an encounter with some heavily capital ships, which knocked much of that fleet out of commission temporarily with some flooding damage. To the east, Borneo was being attacked, with Brunei falling quickly. The oil fields in the area were quickly secured, and there was little that could be done to interdict the forces in the area. At the end of December, Malaya and Northern Borneo had been occupied by Japanese forces, with a siege beginning in Singapore. Constant air raids have granted Japan full air superiority, and now battleships have come to bombard the coast as well. The prognosis is very bleak, though allied task forces and submarines have sunk and damaged several transports in the region. Hopefully this will help the DEI survive long enough for significant British, Australian, and American reinforcements to arrive.

HOI2 is working online!? Haha. Do you have the armageddon expansion?

Haha, maybe I'll just stick with updates from my game

You know.....that could be a lot of fun.... HAHA. I am only a few months into my current game, so a restart isn't out of the question. Did you guys want to do that?

Yeah I have heard of the expansion. Part of the reason why I picked the base game up again. Unfortunately it sounds like the expansion has been delayed due to AI issues. Still, I am looking forward to it!

Dec 7th, 1941. Japan opens up with surprise attacks on Malaya and the Philippines, bombing ships at port and local airfield. Transports approach Khota Bharu along the Malaya-Siam border, with a heavy surface fleet composed of several battleships and cruisers bombarding the unsuspecting defenders. Heavy losses are incurred as troops prepare. With most of the UK's troops occupied in the war against Italy and Germany, Malaya is under garrisoned and will definitely need help quickly if Singapore is to not fall. Singapore is key to Allied operations in the area, being the largest base with a repair yard. From there Japan can strike out to most of the Dutch East Indies (DEI) without having to return to mainland Japan. Japan no doubt is interested in the oil rich islands of the DEI. Further to the east bombardments and troop landings occur at the British Island-City of Hong Kong. Completely surrounded by the Japanese occupation of the Chinese coast, Vichy French Indochina, the situation is bleak. A small compliment of destroyers is found at anchor, with a large compliment of troops defending the island. However without reinforcements it's unlikely Hong Kong will be able to hold out for very long. Nearby is the Philippines. Heavy airstrikes on unsuspecting USAFFE (United States Armed Forces Far East) forces. The Clark Field airfield takes significant runway damage and loses a lot of her planes. Manila doesn't receive many attacks, and begins making preparations to deploy her significant SS forces. The bases on the northern coast are overwhelmed almost immediately, taking American and Filipino troops by surprise. Early morning shore bombardments are followed up with large shore landings. Troops make preparations to fall back to Clark Field/Manila if necessary. Continuing East, Japan makes coordinated assaults on the bases at Guam and Wake Island. The small garrison at Guam is overwhelmed on the opening attack, surrendering within hours of troops landing. Wake Island troops have been alerted to troops landing and a small surface fleet has bombarded them. The biggest attack of the day was the coordinated surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. A huge attack on the airfield and port caught American forces completely by surprise. While initial attacks didn't sink any capital ships (a huge boon of luck in the game for me!!!), several of them are immensely crippled, notably BB Maryland, BB Tennessee, and BB Arizona. Significant structural damage has occurred that it's possible that these ships may sink in port! Fortunately carriers CV Lexington and CV Yorktown were not at port, and were able to avoid the attack. In the afternoon a second wave came to attack, but as luck would have it, most of this focus was on the Allied airfields. Immense losses were taken to the air wings at the base, with the airfield facing significant damage. Flight operations have been suspended, leaving Pearl Harbor very vulnerable should the Japanese decide to attack again tomorrow. Of the few planes that did take off, most of them were patrol craft (PBY Catalinas - a flying boat). They detected several submarines around the island, further compromising the safety of ships in the region. As a further boon, they spotted the carrier fleet north of Pearl Harbor. In the wake of the devastation, Allied leaders deal with the aftermath of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and begin planning defensive and counter-offensive measures to strike back at Japan.

Before I get started, just a quick reference since I'll tend to use the same notation that the game uses for ship designations, such as CV Yorktown referring to the Carrier Yorktown. For the most part just the big ones for the common ship types, but here goes: CV = Aircraft Carrier (The big fleet carriers and new "Queens of the Sea") CVL = Light Carrier (Smaller carrier. Still has good range, but smaller detachment of planes, less armor, etc.) CVE = Escort Carrier (small carrier with small compliment of fighters, usually to protect convoys) BB = Battleship (The good ol' floating fortress with 14" guns or bigger!) BC = Battlecruiser (Similar to Battleship with gunsize, but typically less armored) CA = Heavy Cruiser (8" guns. Great speed, good balance of guns and armor) CL = Light Cruiser (6" guns, smaller brother of the CA) CLAA = Anti-Aircraft Light Cruiser (A cruiser that trades in the naval guns for more dual purpose guns and focuses on AA fire) DD = Destroyer (small and fast, with depth charges against submarines) SS = Submarine (the ninjas of the sea) I'll make references to other ships, but usually by their name, because they are less common.

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation. As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God. I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Absolutely, that was a great read! Okay, I'll write them up in chunks since I'm a few months into the game by now.