Agiel

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".

The huge influx of Russian weaponry and no obvious way of paying for all of it in a timely fashion by Assad would likely mean the loyalist Syrians will be completely in Russia's pocket in the incredibly unlikely event Assad comes out of this only a *little* bit less worse for wear. Think Cold War Poland, DDR, and Czechoslovakia for the type of relationship Assad will have with Russia if he manages comes out of this mess in one piece. That said, the Russians' naval base in Tartus lies in a firmly Alawite region of Syria, so a balkanised Syria will do little to harm Russian strategic interests (Iran and Hezbollah? Different story).

Fixed. Freudian slip there Just a shame someone other than Relic now has the rights to the IP

Homeworld Homeworld: Cataclysm Homeworld 2 Company of Heroes Dawn of War Dawn of War 2 (noticed a pattern yet?) The Void/Turgor Pathologic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Jane's F-15 Jane's Longbow 2 Jane's F/A-18 Falcon 4.0 Arcanum Icewind Dale 2 Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Silent Hunter 3 Sins of a Solar Empire

An online poll sort of uses a skewed sample. People savvy about gaming will likely have PCs powerful enough to handle BF4 on their machines. I suspect you'd get a far different result if they polled random people walking into a Gamestop or Best Buy or other electronic retailer.

That "Brevik" gets a "++" for Norway on that list is rather disturbing, and probably tells me a little too much about the attitudes held on 4chan.

Might I suggest Stanislaw Lem? Some of my favourites by him are The Cyberiad, The Star Diaries, and The Futurological Congress.

From the Steel Beasts forums: Been spending my time with it in between sessions of the Wargame: AirLand Battle and Company of Heroes 2 beta. Hope to post a game diary of my efforts in the M1A1, the Leopard 2A4, and the Leopard 2A6 soon.

I adored Arcanum, but despite some broad similarities (fantasy world on the verge or in the midst of industrialisation), the general air I've gotten from the developers and Sawyer's Formspring is that P:E will have a far more serious tone and what humour that will be in it will be in-universe rather than meta or based on references to pop culture (which Arcanum was out the ass with, not that I minded it).

The thing I'm most happy seeing return is Relic's tradition of putting great unit dialogue in the game. Just this last game playing as the Ostheer, I heard two golden ones I hadn't heard before: "I'm worried that I won't be allowed to like Tchaikovsky anymore." "WHAT THE F*** DOES 'URA' MEAN?!" Though my favourite so far is: "Can't wait to get back to the west. Those amies always complain about the might of our piospam."

Was about to go into Russia's own nationalist groups that spout the line of preserving "slavic purity" in the face of the Uzbek and other Turkic "Untermenschen" invaders... but...

Don Matrick just did an interview outside of the presentation. No always-online for this. Have to wonder if Microsoft refrained from giving a solid release date to revise the machine to take this out after the Orth debacle.

Back when the 360 was still under wraps, I have heard the name "Next-Box" being tossed around. As for an always on console (or always on gaming for that matter), it's a future I have no doubt will come. However, it's a future that's a long, long, long ways off (not until broadband internet and the computer/router connectivity is as reliable as cable television and land-line phones are, which is to say the developed world at large is nowhere near that state). Hell, in the US there are kids who do their homework in McDonalds because they can get free high speed wi-fi there as opposed to the 56k garbage in their own homes. That said, on the off chance the new Xbox does involve something like that (or as equally egregious), how Microsoft would spin it would put the motto "Peace is war, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength" to shame in terms of absurdity.

Finished it a while ago. I can say that a game that's not Company of Heroes 2 would have to be something very special in order to beat Metro as my GOTY, and it would be the bar I would measure Half-Life 3 with when it eventually comes out.

Well if you want, you can post the images you're using and a quickie thumbnail sketch and/or detailed description of what you want and I can take a bash at it with Photoshop CS5. Unless of course this is a "teach a man to fish" kind of situation...

It's the funny thing about the Codex: For every one thing they say that's insightful (or, dare I say, something reasonable, well-adjusted people might agree with them on) there's about ten other things that are exceedingly bitter and/or narcissistic,

On my Intel i7 and GTX 560 it runs and looks well enough on 1280x720, medium textures, no SSAA, and very high tessellation. As for the gameplay, I'm glad for the stealth options and non-lethal takedowns (I hope the Metro has plenty of MRI machines to go around, because, you know, being knocked out for more than half and hour is super bad for you). After one of the mutant sections past the half-way mark, I was literally down to using my military grade ammo against the boss, which as you may well know is literally p***ing money away.

I remember reading an interview with the director of Das Boot that in its first screening in Hollywood, the audience clapped when the intro said "Of the 40,000 men who served on U-Boats, 30,000 would lose their lives," despite the film having a decidedly anti-Nazi tone throughout.

Hunting Party is a bit light on plot towards the end and more exposition than anything (Cold War, Eastern Bloc history), but that Button Man looks like something to take a gander at.

How many threads more like. This is at least the 4th such thread on the subject (the other three were simply extensions of the first since the mods don't like the actual threads going over 25 pages).

Re-read what is quite easily my favourite comic book of all time, Partie de Chasse by Bilal and Christin. Also available in an English translation as the Hunting Party.

Finished my annual reading of Voyage au bout de la nuit. Will be getting to Mort à crédit again next.