Agiel

Was going to ask: "Where da Babushka women at?"

The only two sentences I can think of seeing that anorak: "I said come in! Don't just stand there!" "Get out of here, Stalker!"

Helpinghans somehow manages without em, though I definitely do in the beginning to mid-game. Generally you'll only have enough units that a single unit per key will suffice (always use "0" for artillery for on call fire support).

Strictly speaking the abilities for the DLC doctrines are available to other doctrines that come with the stock game, it's just that they don't come necessarily in the same combination. As for the styles of play they facilitate I feel the stock ones in fact have those covered (and in most cases superior to the paid ones; had I not pre-ordered and gotten them automatically on release I would only have paid for one of those new doctrines). Now, if Relic were to release DLC doctrines that included Fallschirmjaeger and Soviet Naval infantry call-in units...

I'd say that a country that resorts to using their nascent nuclear weapons program as well as their military to extort neighbouring countries as a means of political and economic subsistence has demonstrated a total unwillingness to take part in a responsible non-proliferation regime. Both South Korea and China were and are more than happy to help North Korea out of their economic woes, but the North Korean regime either dragged their feet or stonewalled them entirely, as the measures both of them were hoping for would mean admitting that the regime was a sham. Even Iran's economic troubles are mostly on their own heads (fun fact: despite being a major oil exporter, Iran imports most of its energy needs). How about I ask you this: As a pre-requisite to North Korea eventually becoming a prosperous, peace-loving nation in which case its nuclear program would be let be so long as it were solely for energy, should the North Korean leadership admit to errors in judgement on the part of the Great Leader and the Dear Leader (mistakes which continue under Kim Jong-Un's leadership)?

While I can't stand for a nuclear Iran either, it's actually quite unlikely that they would ever use it to "wipe Israel off the map." Iran has always been lacking in good relations with its neighbours since time immemorial, so nuking Israel and potentially irradiating many sites holy to Islam as well as killing a whole lot of fellow Muslims is the last thing Iran needs when they are currently the second most hated entity in the Middle East. Honestly, I don't think they actually are trying to produce a weapon, but I do believe they are developing the capacity to produce one very quickly if and when they do call for it (this capability is why Japan is considered a de facto nuclear power, as while they are banned from having military capable of force projection, they have the resources and know-how to make one). That the west and Israel has been unable to unambiguously prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are actively producing one after all these years of cyber-warfare and defectors that my guess is that Iran is daring the US and Israel to bomb them in order to turn world opinion against them.

An anecdotal story: I had an Iranian roommate last year. I was taking a class on Cold War history, and I was given an assignment to write about Iran's role in it. My roommate saw that I had an article on Ayatollah Khomeni opened on my computer and asked me: "Why would you want to write a paper about that a**hole?" I in fact think there's more hope for Iran now than there has ever been, despite what my assessment might have some to believe. While I don't really expect it to be so within a decade, much less with this administration, a nationalist secular government a la Ataturk-era Turkey is a very real possibility in the future (many Iranians actually quietly respect Reza Shah the elder, who modeled his attempts to modernise Iran after Kemalism). Many young Iranians have or are getting educations abroad (in particular, in the universities of "the Great Satan"), so the clerics are now looking at a young population that not only doesn't like them, but also favours good relations with the west (after 4 or more years of casual sex, beer, and blazing, how many of them do you think find the idea of hardcore Sharia enticing?)

I highly suspect this to be a strategic decision on the part of the clerics. While it may very well have been that Rouhani won mathematically, it is the clerics who decide who ultimately gets the seat of the presidency, and they simply OK'd his win (while it is certainly possible that Ahmedinejad had won a majority vote the last election, it's believed that the clerics padded his lead to make it look like he had a far better mandate, something a lot of Iranians didn't believe for a second). My guess is that the clerics hoped that a "moderate" "head of state" who makes token reforms might keep urban Iranians relatively well-behaved and fool some westerners into believing the Islamic Republic is making strides to "join the international community" and that would lead to easing of sanctions later. Rouhani has no say on Iran's nuclear program, save for being its face to the rest of the world, as ultimately the Grand Ayatollah has the final word on their nuclear program. That said, Rouhani does have enough power to make economic changes, which means that he may reverse some of the bad economic decisions made by his predecessor. However, he can only do this within the limitations of the international sanctions placed on the Iranian economy (it's possible that some State Department officials were secretly hoping for another Ahmadinejad, as that would mean the effects of sanctions would be accelerated).

Now that you mention it, it sort of reminds me of this scene from Network:

My guess is that Sony's decision was more informed by the potential Japanese reaction to such a scheme than western backlash. After all, the Japanese games market isn't big on PC games save for dating sims, light novels, and H-Games, so the concept of serial keys, activation limits, and always-on may seem even more foreign and draconian to them than it is to westerners (unless someone here that's into Japanese PC gaming can enlighten me that the DRM situation is similar).

Wonder if it's possible that Microsoft can backpeddle on its used game policy mid-console cycle. I would think it's not going to be easy as releasing a patch that abolishes it once they have the hard proof that their policy was a terrible idea. The $500 console makes a little bit of sense given that surely cheaper models will come out given a few years and that the Kinect (as vestigial of a device as it is to us core gamers) is an integrated part of the package, but that on top of their outrageous "must connect every 24hrs" deal is simply outrageous.

When I heard Massive Entertainment, was sort of hoping for World in Conflict 2 (even if Wargame: AirLand Battle has sort of taken over in scratching that Cold War-gone-hot itch for me).

I was holding my breath to hear Michael Ironside's voice again. Alas as much as my subconscious tried to make me hear it, it just wasn't there.

Lana. Lana? Lana! LANAAAAAA!!!!

A Panzer Dragoon-type game. Now there's almost a reason for me to get an Xbox One.

Boris Vallejo incidentally married one of his favourite models, Julie Bell, a former competitive body-builder who also became a respected oil painter of the same subject matter. Their two sons have also followed in their footsteps as well.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/how-meals-win-wars/276448/ Fantastic article from the Atlantic about the little stuff.

Well, I found out about a B-movie featuring Sean Connery that I intend to watch so it wasn't a complete waste. Made by the same guy who made Deliverance, and nearly ruined his career in the process.

Watching replays and shoutcasts will go a long way to learning the game (and short of playing actual games, is the best way to learn). As was the case with Starcraft 2, 1v1s and 2v2s are where it's at for balanced, pure skill games (I nominally only do 3v3s and 4v4s for the sake that its faster to level up with them). And some tips I hand out to new players (of which now that the game is in open beta there are a whole lot of) include: -Map control, map control, map control. There really is no point in turtling up in your base as its reasonably well defended for most of he game already. If you don't control more than half of the map at any given moment, as George Clooney said, "(you're) in a tight spot." -It's generally a much better idea to dedicate your manpower at the start of the game to building a strong core force of infantry rather than building fuel OPs (the ones already on the map give you more fuel anyways). After all, assuming an equally, or more skilled opponent, the thought has probably crossed his or her mind as well. Speaking of which... -The single most important component of your forces is infantry. Sure they're not as flashy as heavy Panzers or the "Gods of War", but the former by themselves will struggle against large mobs of conscripts supported by AT guns, and the latter counts for little without a strong core force to keep the enemy at arm's length (also the hole artillery can open up in an enemy's defenses amounts to jack if there's no one to capitalise on it). -Always be attacking. While augmenting your capabilities, you should also be trying to subtract from your opponent's as well. Keep in mind the sectors you can decap to cut off your opponent from crucial fuel and munitions take less time to de-cap than the resource sectors themselves. -This one may come down to preference, but I abide by it all the same: "Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man." -General George S. Patton.

What about mankinis? Can we have male characters wearing mankinis? Raise ya Sean Connery from Zardoz.

Having read through what was at a glance about 1/4 through the original post before doubling over laughing, I'll try to offer my thoughts on the matter. I play just about every kind of game under the sun. MMO with stripperific outfits? Story-based FPSes? Deep cRPGs? Even hardcore mil-sims I play them all. As a sex-positive feminist, while the industry certainly shouldn't inundate it with, rule of sexy has its place in the medium of video games. I greatly admire George Kamitani for his work on Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and there are hardly lead designers who are as involved with the artistic side as they are with the gameplay design side in the industry, and as an artist myself, I can feel for him when someone harangues him over his art. And honestly, sometimes the whole crusade against stripperific outfits reeks of people trying to gain progressive cred on the internet. Take for instance this topic on the Torment: ToN suggestions forum (you may need to be a backer to see it). Someone complains about a lady character showing a bit of cleavage in an arctic environment, while conveniently ignoring the male character right next to her that's utterly shirtless (both designs are totally fine in my book). There are feminist causes over the medium much worth fighting for. For instance, out of morbid curiosity (alas, it shall be the end of me one of these days), I tried to gauge 4chan's opinions on the Anita Sarkeesian affair. The result left me dry-heaving all over my monitor.

My money's on a private firing. Plane's an old Frogfoot, hung up on chains, in weird looking colours. Don't know what that missile is, but anything legit would be rigged to travel further before exploding. And that target looks pretty much pointless. No measuring devices, place looks like a junkyard more than a firing range. Su-34 Fullback strike fighter actually from the looks of it (side-by-side pilot/co-pilot cackpit, nose that looks like a platypus'). And when has the Russian aerospace been known for exceptional OSHA compliance?

The Russians notoriously keep the shiniest toys to themselves (to an even more blatant degree than other major arms supplier nations) as stated in my talk on "Monkey Models". A Russian arms expert I've talked to seems to think that the Russians were more easily able to part with this system given that they believe the performance of the SA-21 to far surpass that of the SA-10. While the older system is indeed very capable to this day, western powers have been acquainted to its capabilities for quite some time (the Bulgarians brought one with them to a Red Flag exercise), and without a sufficient IADS in depth (mid-range SA-17s and SA-15s and short-range SA-19s and MANPADS), the thing is asking for a HARM up its tailpipe (even since the introduction of SAMs, anti-air artillery remains the largest killer of military aircraft by a large margin). That said, it's unlikely the Israelis will touch it in the near future, as it would mean killing a whole lot of Russian advisors and involving them further in the conflict. You are indeed correct that the Russians have been quite wary about how their export equipment performs (hence the re-branding of the T-72BU as the T-90 in the aftermath of Desert Storm). Another interesting thing: Iran previously claimed to have purchased an SA-10 battery from Belarus, going so far as to parade the TEL during the 2010 Gulf Blockade crisis. However, a defense analyst took a closer look at the photos and deduced the "TEL" to actually be 55 gallon drums welded together and mounted on a generic heavy lifter truck.

Still kind of amazes me the same console that played Oblivion back in 2006 can still play Skyrim of 2011 (albeit in a much more diminished capacity than if you were on the PC). Makes me think the engineers in charge of optimisation for game companies are being lazy.

Lol. Whut? "Horde" it's not about numbers, its just name. Our name. Too long to explain, read better this. Said BD goes by the more popular title "Jihad".