Hurlshort

The new Lord of the Rings Expansion will allow players to go to Helm's Deep. I'm pretty happy how quickly this is coming, Turbine is really hitting their stride on content releases. It also ups the level cap to 95. I just hit 75, so that is great news for me. I hate sitting at the cap, that will give me a lot more levels to gain. I'm guessing we wil be in Mordor in just two years. Pretty epic journey so far.

The latest update adds some good tiers, including a physical boxed game for $65. I also like that t-shirt and I'm thinking about throwing in for it. Even if the game doesn't turn out great, a Jagged Alliance shirt would be sweet. They are also in talks with some of the modding community behind 1.13, so that could be a cool addition. My excitement for this project has notched up a bit, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about their progress.

That would be cool. The JA2 modders are phenomenal, but I don't know how active guys like Batman are anymore.

I've watched a few of these Amazon Pilot series. I like the idea of us voting on pilots to get them on the air, and the quality of them has been pretty high. The show called Betas was the most intriguing, since it is set in my neck of the woods. Dark Minions was also fun, basically about two stormtroopers who are just doing the job for the benefits.

I don't think the Jagged Alliance name carries a lot of weight. A lot of the goodwill that it did have was also burned over the years, either by dead development cycles or weak entries like the recent real time version. Couple that with an unknown team with no ties to Sir-Tech and you have a pretty tough sell. I wish them the best though, I'm imaging something similar to what the Shadowrun Returns team is doing.

Hey Vortex, did you ask a question about Ian Currie on their comments section? If it was you, I'm the one who answered it. I use my real name on kickstarter.

I've done a lot of camping and backpacking in California. I started when I was about 12 with my dad and some of my best memories growing up were out in Yosemite or along the John Muir trails. For me, car camping is pretty boring, I prefer to strap on my hiking boots and walk as far as I can before settling down to make camp. That being said, now that I'm older it is much harder physically, and so I'm enjoying the RV lifestyle where you can get out and travel, but you still get a comfy bed to return to at night. One great thing about backpacking is once you've bought all the initial gear, there is really very little cost involved. It can be pricey to get into, buying a tent, a decent backpack, and all the gear is not cheap. But once you own it, which I still have most of my gear from 15 years ago, all you need to do is buy the food. Heck, my exoskeleton backpack is probably as old as I am. It's a wonderful physical challenge to take 50 pounds of gear out into the wilderness, hiking over mountains, streams, and rocks. I really recommend everyone try it at least once in their lifetime.

Lord of the Rings Online - Hit level 75, and I'm pretty close to the end of the Isengard storyline. When I finish it I get to go out to Rohan and learn how to ride a war stead. Captains are supposed to be pretty awesome on horseback, so I'm excited.

A root canal would be more fun than BIA.

After reading surprisingly positive reaction from the folks at Bear's Pit, I also am going in for the minimum. Although I was tempted by the $85 tier that lets you write an enemy response.

The A's are so good they don't even need 9 innings to win their games. The reverse can be said about the Red Sox, sadly

All that really shows is that their stock was grossly overvalued for awhile. 2012 does not look like a good year though.

I also once spent an hour on the phone with EA because I couldn't get some of my older games to show up as registered products on Origin. They patiently helped me fix my problems ( I had two accounts conflicting) and now all my EA and Bioware games in the last 8 years or so are easy to find and download if I need them.

This doesn't actually say anything about a product key, it sounds like he lost the entire game, and it is what started the entire discussion. I lost my key for a copy of my Windows OS once, and I was able to call Microsoft and get a new key. But yeah, cracking a game is different than pirating it. edit: Oh and buying a collector's edition and not opening it, then downloading it off a torrent is ridiculous AND it's piracy.

Losing something does not justify stealing another.

You can tell the article is fake because I doubt Sarah Palin even knows the names of that many places.

I wonder what Bear's Pit think of this project.

I might back it come May, but I am fairly reserved about it. Jagged Alliance 2 is the best game I've ever played, but I mentioned in another thread that I'm concerned they don't have any of the people from Sir-Tech working on this project. They may pull off a good turn based game, which is something I support fully, but nailing the personality quirks of the original characters is going to be a much more complicated task. JA2 had an understated writing style that was fairly brilliant, and I give Ian Currie full credit for that. I'm also probably too close to this franchise. The project reminds me a lot of Shadowrun Returns, but even though I enjoyed the old SNES Shadowrun game, I'm not obsessed with it like JA2.

The only time I really enjoyed the social aspect was playing with my wife, and rolling to see if I could get my guy to say the jerk line while she tried to be the nice one.

Was the lockdown put into place after the first shootout where the older brother died? The primary reason for a lockdown is to prevent any and all civilian casualties, so it would seem that they succeeded in that.

I've had two lockdown situations in the last few years in my area, but I work in a school and so we are usually the first put on alert when something happens. It seems like it is becoming more common to lockdown an entire area when a manhunt is happening, a few years back we had someone go on a shooting spree at the cement plant he worked at, and they shut down about a 20 mile radius area to get him. This was after he had carjacked a lady and disappeared into some neighborhoods. Our school was not super close (about 15 miles away) but we were still sheltering in place for a couple hours. That simply means no lunch or recess, and eventually we did an early dismissal. I notice you keep using the term martial law, is that different than a lockdown? Most of the news I read referred to it as a lockdown, but was there anything in particular that you feel makes it more than that?

Orogun, where are you from? I'm asking because it would help me to understand your perspective of how Boston as a city and Massachusetts as a state are run. I don't think there is really a usual MO for a situation like this, but instituting a lockdown is not entirely unheard of. The scope and size of the lockdown was massive, but again this is very much a unique situation. Regardless, you have one suspect alive and communicating, so there is really no reason to buy into conspiracy theories at this point. If he comes out and says he was framed (or gets shot by Jack Ruby), then feel free to speculate.

What is interesting is that everyone seems to be drawing up conclusions even though the boys are only suspected of being the perpetrators, even though putting up the martial law and massive manhunt would suggest that everyone has already made up their minds. I get the whole innocent until proven guilty, but let's be realistic. The odds of them not being the perpetrators are incredibly low. Usually people who are framed don't go on a rampage and throw explosives out of car windows during the ensuing manhunt. They also don't put an entire city under martial law just because of a manhunt. What is your point, exactly? Is this just a general criticism of the way law enforcement handled themselves, or are you suggesting something more sinister?

Eh, 3 square meals a day and cable TV in his cell isn't exactly a terrible life. Not to belittle life in prison, but it isn't exactly a gulag. The interesting thing will be how he manages with other inmates, I'm guessing he will be on solitary for a good while.

What is interesting is that everyone seems to be drawing up conclusions even though the boys are only suspected of being the perpetrators, even though putting up the martial law and massive manhunt would suggest that everyone has already made up their minds. I get the whole innocent until proven guilty, but let's be realistic. The odds of them not being the perpetrators are incredibly low. Usually people who are framed don't go on a rampage and throw explosives out of car windows during the ensuing manhunt.