Agiel

They didn't "smack China," the US government makes these announcements yearly, at the very least. Espionage in all forms is a two-way street when it comes to real players on the international stage. Have you ever heard of Sun Tzu? "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." I have heard the line "Soon the Four Asian Tigers shall bow to the Dragon!" before.

I'm quite fond of this image:

Without Relic at the helm, who have shown the license the love and attention it deserves, I'm unsure of any other developer being given the opportunity to take a bash at it... Unless Bioware makes my lifelong dream come true of a good Devil May Cry/Bayonetta-style action game featuring a Harlequin Solitaire: Space Marines? Pfffttt... How about space elf ninja clowns whose weapons include a hollow tube you shove into a man's chest, from which razor wires uncoil from and rotor-blade his insides into soup? Or soul-less goddesses of close combat that will slaughter even the toughest Space Marine army you can throw at her?

For all the 4chan b/tardedness out there... For all the anonymity that affords users to toss about homophobic/racist/misogynist/generally bigoted slurs out there... For all the social networking that emphasises a "don't want to say this to your face" approach to interpersonal relationships... I think we've turned out for the better because of the internet.

There are ways for some western armies to hit opponents that on paper are far above their weight class. Most foes NATO-alligned countries have engaged in modern times used the old Soviet-system of strategy i.e. highly-centralised, top-down command structure and unified sweeping movement of ground forces. Thus, towards the end of the Cold War NATO devised strategies that involved crippling the mechanisms and infrastructure necessary for higher level functions of a numerically superior opponent (i.e. a Warsaw Pact offensive). Ironically, it was a Soviet general who pointed this out (see Marshall Ogarkov and his "Revolution in Military Affairs"). Among these was the use of precision guided munitions which could be used to hit headquarters, communications and logistics centers, and bridges. Another component (deployed shortly after the end of the Cold War) was new advancements in information warfare. In manuever warfare, the biggest force multiplier is good intelligence. Use of observation satelites, RC-135 "Rivet Joint" reconnaissance planes (and later, high-altitude UAVs), and E-8 JSTARS allows NATO forces to observe large formations, identify the weakest points, and choose their fights.

In the memoirs of a UH-1 pilot who served in Vietnam, "Chickenhawks", the supply sergeants of his regiment often distributed surplus gear to the men. However, the Army being as tightfisted as it was, nonetheless demanded what was the fate of the gear that had gone missing. This conundrum was solved whenever a helicopter was shot down, as the supply sergeants would say that the missing inventory had gone down with the aircraft. One report had said five tons of equipment had been lost with one Huey; the Huey has a nominal load of one ton.

A friend of mine who was into Marvel had told me about The Sentry, saying that it would probably be the most wretched thing I would ever have the displeasure of reading. While as I have said before I didn't have a terribly high opinion of superhero comics, I was open-minded enough to at least read some of the issues he showed me to see if our opinions differed... Soon after, I learned that my friend was 100% accurate in his assessment; even with my fairly limited knowledge of the Marvel canon I felt as if the writers had gone out of their way to anger the readers, then continued to rub jagged pieces of rock salt into the wounds with every successive issue when a sane editor would have killed the series long ago with the crazy contrivances they have grown so fond of using over the years. I have heard defenders make fair points about the redeeming qualities of the character; the core of the character I don't find particularly objectionable (the Dr. Manhattan concept operated on similar principles). But the execution was bungled every step of the way.

A relevant video. Though I wished it included a bit of black humour that came before this in the film.

Well the fact that England was an island nation did work against it. Admiral Donitz had given Hitler his assurances that England could be starved into submission if he had 300 U-boats (100 going out, 100 coming back, and another 100 in the docks being re-fitted at any one time); Hitler started the war when Donitz only had a little under 50, some of which were not in fighting condition come September 1939.

Blame also goes to the higher ups who believed the abbey at Monte Cassino was being used as an artillery spotting position. despite Kesselrings communications to Allied forces to the contrary (as a great admirer of the arts, he did in fact issue specific orders to his troops that it not be garrisoned lest it be targeted). Nonetheless, it got bumped up on the USAAF's strike list and it got bombed to rubble, which had the effect of making it an even more fortifiable position for elite German Fallschirmjagers who were now free to use the rubble as cover.

Erwin Rommel did say if he had to invade hell, he'd have the Australians take it and the New Zealanders to hold it.

Some of you may have seen my semi-game diary of a mission I flew in DCS: A-10C. For a game as crazy as that, take comfort that you could probably do a lot better than this fellow:

http://youtu.be/dhUQ5ONxYFc The Russians would have just evacuated a couple of neighbourhoods, then proceeded to bomb them. T-72s and a nasty little thing called the RPO-A "Bumble-bee" on a gymnasium filled with women and children more like.

Along with this, the big one I was keeping my eyes on was Cradle, which was also Greenlighted this past week. Absolutely loved what the Eastern Europeans have been doing for PC gaming. One of Ice Pick Lodge's previous games, The Void, was one of my absolute favourites despite its design issues. In spite of them, speaking as an artist it helped me out of a creative rut and kick a bout of depression (which is weird for a game that's as seemingly soul-crushingly depressing as it is). That game goes criminally unrecognised by gamers at large.

As of now the most irritating thing about playing team games is being teamed up with too timid players, people who don't understand that a Relic RTS is all about map control, even more so than Starcraft and League of Legends all the kids are into these days (these same players also seem to think we get enough fuel income just by building fuel points, rather than helping me take the natural ones on the map, spending valuable manpower on that instead of additional grenadiers or conscripts). One of these days, Relic should put a splash screen on their games that's required to watch every time you launch the game that says: "DO NOT TURTLE WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE AT LEAST HALF THE GODDAMNED MAP!" Also with the mortar-centric meta now, I've gotten in the habit to listen closely for the tube launches. I micro a capping unit to dance around the point as mortars shells land around them, and break down an MG-42 ASAP to re-position. Putting infantry into scout-cars/half-tracks during blizzards also finally clicked with me, ninja-capping the other guy's fuel during blizzards on the winter maps. Speaking of which, a pair of Sdfkz 222 Scout Cars with autocannons raiding a Soviet player's rear lines and icing 4 Studebaker trucks with Katushyas mounted on them is glorious. I really hate artillery-centric players, you see.

I don't exactly have a lock on my personal data here overall given that half the people on this board decided to shoot me in the head at one point or another. Dude... I manage a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds. Imagine how old I must feel with something like Sugar Ray or Bare Naked Ladies comes on the radio and I start rocking out while they ask who the hell is singing. Also when it occurs to you that you're older than Aaliyah when she died

All I know is that if the best looking games looked as good as Battlefield 3 does now for the next five years with relatively mild graphical improvements over the years, I would totally be okay with that. I'm still having a blast with Mount and Blade and Steel Beasts even though they look ugly as sin (and they are among the few in my library I can run on max settings), but they still play utterly fantastic. I'd rather see a sustainable games industry that isn't reliant upon selling at least 2 million copies to break even and developers who don't live in constant fear of being laid off once their part on the project is finished.

24. That feeling you get when they don't even ask for your ID anymore at bars... (well, it happened once)

When I was getting my license, they walked me through Microsoft Flight Simulator first, which was in my case more of a formality. Hard part was getting used to the responsiveness of the controls in the real aircraft as opposed to it with an off the shelf flight stick (the instructor sat next to me ready to take over the controls if things started looking pear-shaped). As for DCS, the game started as an avionics training simulator for pilots of the Air National Guard converting to the A-10C, and after some time the company that developed it, Eagle Dynamics, was allowed to produce a commercial version. Keep in mind that the sim is modeled after the 2nd block of upgraded A-10Cs where the USAF and ANG have just now filled orders for the 7th block and the capabilities of certain top-of-the-line equipment like the Sniper XR targeting pod remain too classified to be modeled accurately in the sim as well.

Pretty cool. But then again I love CoH1's graphics. I've got it ramped up to maximum for everything and it's purdy. I think you'd like the weather effects, the blizzards are very atmospheric I had to put a woolly hat on. As for other observations --- I agree with Drowsy that they have resorted to one concept of the theatre, which in Multiplayer I would suggest is Kursk - Berlin (i.e. later war tactics) will be interesting to see what's occurring in the campaign... So for LordCrash the campaign is a totally different data set from MP. So you might see very different units and mechanics in single-player. Agiel: You can get 88s in this game as a Commander ability and move the suckers around, too. There is a very fair split between on and off-map arty. The PaK-43 at the moment seems to be just a specialist anti-tank unit with not much more anti-infantry power than the Panther, takes an agonising time to build, is particularly vulnerable to at that stage in the game ubiquitous Soviet artillery, and costs way too much in the way of upkeep.

Well at least the Soviets have a lot of artillery, they called it the "God of War" for a reason. About the only artillery that's an actual unit and not an off-map global ability the Germans have are mortars and the Walking Stuka (the latter if you're kind of up a creek if they miss). At the moment, there have been quite a few complaints that "German Steel" has a dominating advantage against Soviet armour, but given that the Soviets have to count upon spam tactics and they have plenty of immobilising abilities (ram for T-34 and their basic conscripts having easy access to the CoH 2 equivalent of riflemen sticky bombs) and that the Ostwind is weak as hell this time around, I don't really see where they're coming from. I would definitely like to see the 88 back in this game. Anti-aircraft, anti-tank, and anti-social!

Actually possible: http://www.koryogroup.com/ Just make sure if you go with a friend you bring a small whiteboard and dry erase marker, your hotel room will be bugged. Joking aside, might I suggest the south of France? Sure, Nice is a bit too easy, but it's easy for a good reason. I've been all over, but I haven't seen oceans as blue or beaches as sunny as that.

Probably the most impressive engine sound I ever heard was from a Harrier I watched at an air show. I frequently go to the House of Blues in West Hollywood for the Summer Slaughter tour, but even listening to ear-shatteringly loud death metal doesn't beat the sound of a Harrier doing a STOL takeoff in terms of decibel levels.

Admittedly, a bunch of that is embellished. I have so far mastered the 50+ step start-up procedure, taking off and landing, aircraft maneuvering, basic navigational display management, basic weapons employment, and coordination with the joint-terminal attack controller. That said, there's at least five hundred functions to the aircraft I haven't learned (advanced management of the CDU, multiple JDAM drops, trouble-shooting some CICU errors, etc) and I probably only know about a third of the total material from the 700+ page manual. I do however have a small plane license and experience with flight sims since I was eleven (I am 24 now), so that helps.

*BWWWWAAAAAAA* The GAU-8 thunders. The GCAS warnings ring and a female voice, "B****ing Betty," protests "Altitude! Altitude!" as Baldie ceases fire and pulls up. "Playboy 3-1, request BDA." Baldie says as he drops another series of flares. He waits for a moment before Playboy is on the horn again. "Hawg 1-1, three trucks destroyed, re-attack is authorised. Turn 180 degrees from your heading and reference secondaries. Remaining targets are 300 meters to the west, over." While the A-10 is not a quick aircraft by any stretch of the imagination, it's straight wing set-up means it has an incredibly tight turn radius, Baldie is quickly ready for another run. "In hot!" He cries. The altitude warnings ring again as Baldie pulls up barely 500 feet above the deck. Baldie continues on course before Playboy's voice cackles on the radio again. "Hawg 1-1, targets destroyed. No further tasking available. Nice work! You may depart." Baldie affirms and egresses along the Georgian coast, contacts the air-traffic controller at Batumi International Airport, the makeshift airbase for NATO forces at the moment. He lines up with the runway, lowers his landing gear, and extends the flaps. Code one. As Batumi International Airport was not necessarily intended as a military airbase, the airstrip is rather short, which necessitates extending the airbrakes along with applying the toe-brakes for the landing gear. As the aircraft slows to under 50 knots, Baldie taxis the Hawg to the parking area and powers down the aircraft. The crew-chief will at least be satisfied that Baldie returned his "baby" no worse for wear. Another job well done!