Drowsy Emperor

Its not the best RTS, its the only pure RTS in years barring the never ending WWII crap that's shoveled on our heads. The genre is practically dead in favor of various hybrid options. SCII is a good game, I ain't saying otherwise. But one week is how much I played it overall. If the next expansion offers a more involved story and changes some units around I might be interested again, if only to bring back the RTS nostalgia. RTS has always been a dominantly multiplayer genre, uninspired single player is practically a standard feature of most RTS's. As I don't play competitively SCII really only had the campaign to draw me in and it failed, more or less. Either that or exceptionally appealing graphics and gameplay like Age of Empires II, Dawn of War, Homeworld...

I like the aesthetics, he's kept it very close to the first one. Watched Source Code. Bleh. Although it is much better than that Inception garbage, which it resembles, to an extent. Also, watched Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Great stuff.

It's Samuel Barber's " " .. a very beautiful piece of music and I've never seen a more appropriate use of it than Homeworld.. it really makes the situation so much more powerful. Yes, its perfect. If games ever came close to being art that was then: It makes 90% of sci fi films I've seen look like the work of amateurs.

I am glad to hear that. Having decided to forego the game in spite of thinking it would be a masterpiece (as Starcraft I was), it is, nonetheless, good to hear that perhaps I didn't miss all that much. Right, so Emperor said so, and you're already satisfied so easily? How about you get some more diverse opinions/reviews before you write off a game? Either way, SCII is superb (imho, of course). Well my beef with it was as follows: 1. cliche upon cliche in the campaign - characters, plot twists, overall storyline etc. resulting in the game being completely predictable at every turn (my biggest gripe overall) 2. missions that revolved around using a single new unit 3. WCIII comic style gaudy graphics and animation negatively impacted the atmosphere 4. weak visual unit design (mothership, protoss carriers, humpty-dumpty with grenade launcher [marauder] etc.) 5. uninspired units (flamethrower buggy? please) All this caused me to lose interest quickly.

I loved Prague and Venice. Rome is great as well. Vienna, although splendid, left me cold. Florence is nice for the art lover, dunno why I wasn't taken with it all that much. Verona didn't really impress me all that much. The most important thing in my experience is to be well informed and see any city on your own terms - avoiding being part of a large tourist group which will rush you through all the sights. In short, don't visit the city you're dying to see until you have the cash to do it at your leisure. Better not to visit at all than to barge through everything. Also I've heard St. Petersburg praised by everyone whose ever been there.

You didn't miss much there, SCII wears out very quickly.

I disagree. I rather want Valve taking their time (Valvetime) and release a new HL that had the same impact as HL did in 1998 and HL2 did in 2004, than releasing just another upgrated HL2. Besides, one can hope they also have other new IPs in development. The "miserable treatiment" was them being so tight lipped about it - not the time they're taking to do it. Which is perfectly fine with me.

Pretty miserable treatment for their flagship game, considering how large and well funded Valve is.

Does anyone know why Valve has practically abandoned HL EP3?

Its the principle of the thing. You're losing something (offline mode) that you're been used to since forever for no justifiable reason and getting nothing in return that you wouldn't get anyway (battle.net). Bad trade is what it is. Other than that its not really an obstacle for most people - maybe for those that use a laptop for gaming and move around a lot.

You'll run out of area to explore 5-10 minutes in any direction. It aint that hard.

You are a loathsome individual. You're Australian.

If they wanted to make it more annoying and obstructive to having fun they should just bundle iTunes with it.

Sneaky ole bastard aren't you

This outcome is the reason I said he went about the wrong way in fighting multiculturalism.

A gazillion. Or about as much as a Chinese item farmer. If auctions will bring in real money they'll quickly adapt and corner the market. The comparison has crossed my mind. I wonder how much they earned. Also, lets presume that leveling will be much faster than in WoW. If so, access to high level endgame loot drops comes much more quickly and easily. I assume that means the prices will be even smaller than in WoW. Nothing; they are serving 3 consecutive life sentences on Chinese prison and forced to play WOW, tragic fate really. The last part is what makes it tragic.

Stronghold Crusader (first time) AvP2 Primal Hunt Quake III CS 1.6 Age II

A gazillion. Or about as much as a Chinese item farmer. If auctions will bring in real money they'll quickly adapt and corner the market. The comparison has crossed my mind. I wonder how much they earned. Also, lets presume that leveling will be much faster than in WoW. If so, access to high level endgame loot drops comes much more quickly and easily. I assume that means the prices will be even smaller than in WoW.

I assume the prices in real world cash will be rock bottom except for some very rare items.

I'd normally agree with you, but on a tiny island with no means of escape? The way it seems the only thing separating you from death is his potential lack of thoroughness. How long did it take the police to respond anyway?

Ow, that's a killer for me as well. Pity.

There has been a new addition to the family: Steelseries 9HD mouse mat - around 30-40$ This is hard plastic mat. Its got three layers, the top rough surface, the hard plastic inbetween and the rubberised layer that holds it down. The rubber does a good job, I haven't had it move so far. The pad is very thin, 3mm I think. Both the Logitech MX518 and the Orochi glide beautifully on it, although the crappy plastic feet of the MX518 don't offer as much control as Orochi's teflon ones. At first it wasn't easy getting used to it, after a lifetime of cloth pads what with the huge speed increase in mouse movement - but after a while it became perfectly natural. The way you can control small movements and rapidly move it if necessary is something cloth mouse pads aren't as good at. I noticed an increase in aiming agility in Quake III, but at the same time a drop of accuracy in CS1.6 as I tended to move the crosshairs too far. The marketing info isn't lying, the surface really increases mouse responsiveness and precision by a little margin. Supposedly something about how the little bumps reflect light. It comes with a little cleaning rag. Overall: i feel it was worth the money. I'll be using primarily this pad for now.

How much real world money do you people think it'll be possible to earn?

That's really what was crossing my mind. Its hard to accept that your life may be so fully out of your control.