Reveilled

My googling turned up this: http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/ouendan/index.html But I've no idea what the hell that might be. However, there were sites linking there with the phrase "cheer group". EDIT: I found this: http://ds.ign.com/objects/746/746980.html http://www.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/ouendan/....html?id=180481 It's definitely real, you skeptical person you. Doubt not the craziness of Japan.

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Awesome.

I've never been able to get a good look at the controller. Nintendo's huge balls keep getting in the way. " But yes, I like the controller a lot.

The advantage of the single-prerequisite system is that now there are lots of different research paths. You don't get the Civ3 problem where every Civ on the planet is always researching in unison (and the tech trading rate has, I believe, been toned down). You make your own unique technological path rather than follow the same path in every game like in previous Civs. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I still think a balance between the two options should have been struck. I would have preferred it if there were a few more bottlenecks in the tech tree, such as writing, which one would have to research eventually to progress. For instance, there is already going to be one in Electricity, as all the techs for which electricity is an obvious requirement (like Computers and Radio), all ultimately have Electricity as the only prerequisite at some point in their tree. I'd have liked something similar with Writing. Looking at the tech tree, though, a lot of the technologies have symbols for other technologies on the right of their infoboxes. Perhaps these symbols show technologies which are actually required for the discovery? It certainly appears to make sense that way (Banking has the symbol for currency on its right, which is certainly a requirement for banking), and if so, it would mean that some technologies (like writing) would be required for advancement. If that is the case, then I have no problems with the system. If not, I'll simply cut the links at Feudalism, Theology and Guilds connecting to the Writing tree, since the game should be that customisable.

It seems that the way things now work is that units get promotions that influence their abilities. For instance, a unit might get the City Garrison promotion, which will increase their strength when they defend cities. I would hazard a guess that a barracks will allow the player to select a promotion or two when a unit is built, to allow him or her to customise units (perhaps, for example, building one spearmen unit with a Formation promotion to help against mounted units, while building another spearmen unit with City Attack, so that the player's army can deal with units in the open and attacks on cities). It sounds to me like it will work quite well. So far, the only things I've seen of the game that I don't like are the technology system (which will allow you to research a technology as long as you have one of the prerequisites, allowing you to hypothetically discover Fusion Power without discovering Writing), Julius Ceaser apparently giving thumbs up/down based on his approval (Since the gestures were actually the thumb inside a fist for the gladiator living, and the thumb pointing toward the throat for the gladiator's death), and the truly ugly mug of Queen Victoria (on the other hand, Catherine the Great now looks damn fine)!

But then I'll just end up with a sore back from bending over to look at the monitor. I've been reading the pre-release notes at Civfanatics, and from the way the other features are being talked about, I would guess that the new unit system was implemented to take the focus off the military aspects of the game and encourage players to focus on more diplomatic and domestic aspects. Interesting stuff.

Seriously? If someone preorders it for me, it'll arrive on my birthday! This is awful! I'm meant to be having a party on the 29th! How will I be able to do that when I'm stuck in front of the computer?

Fall 07 Orders: Austria: A Pie-Mar A Tus-Spa F GOL C A Tus-Spa A Ven-Tus A Tyr-Ven A Vie Holds A Tri Holds A Alb Holds France: A Mar H A Bur S A Mar A Ruh H A Hol H F Bel-NTH F Lon S F Bel-NTH F Lpl H F ENG H F Spa-GoL Russia: F NTH-Den F Edi-NTH F StP(nc)-Nwy A Mun-Kie A Ber S A Mun-Kie A Sil-Mun A Boh S A Sil-Mun A War-Sil A Gal Holds A Mos Holds A Rum Holds A Bul Holds F MID-Por F NAF-MID F WES S Austrian A Tus-Spa Final Positions: Austria: A Spa A Ven A Tri A Tus A Alb A Vie A Pie F GOL France: A Ruh A Hol A Mar A Bur F Lpl F Lon F NTH F ENG Russia: A Boh A Bul A Gal A Rum A Mun A Sil A Ber A Mos A Kie F Por F Den F WES F Edi F NAO F Nwy Map: Final Results 1st Place: Russia - Jaguars4ever - 18 Centres 2nd Place: Austria - Bokishi - 9 Centres 3rd Place: France - Reveilled - 7 Centres 4th Place: Italy - Metadigital - Eliminated F06 5th Place: Turkey - Skynet - Eliminated F05 6th Place: England - ServantofEru (maybe?) - Eliminated F06 - Dropped Out 7th Place: Germany - EnderWiggin - Elimated F07 - Dropped Out (before England)

They should call it Spanish-Italian Smallpox Blanket Day.

huh? the germanic language group originated close to India .. that's pretty east to me! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm pretty sure the germanic language group originated in Germany. Proto-Indo-European on the other hand, originated in the Crimea, if I remember correctly.

Okay, I have Jags' now. I'll adjudicate in 18 hours unless I get everyone's orders before then.

Still missing Sky's, Jags', Flame's, and Ender's. If they sent them to Kaftan, he ain't sent 'em to me.

Right, well this is Friday. Emails away.

I think it was the lack of full-blown advertising. The problem I see with this viral advertising that was used is that it is prone to social barriers. I can see the film, and tell my friends about it, but if they aren't interested, they might not tell their friends about it, and those people won't see the film as a result. The film was marketed to us primarily as the Firefly movie, and secondarily as a hard science-fiction film, but while it was pretty good as an action film, the action film fans with no interest in Science Fiction (a huge portion of the movie-going population) were never marketed to with general media. Serenity is a film that could please anyone, but its advertising focused on too narrow a group, I think.

The word "England" being uses as a synonym for "United Kingdom". It annoys me to the point that I've sent letters to the White House over it. Sadly, they were ignored.

When it's a game that is derived from Civilization, a sequel is a remake with a number after it.

What about Frakit? A bit like Fraket, but a bit more profane sounding. I like my name as it is. I've only changed usernames when I got bored pretending to be a Lesbian.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. No game has ever been more deserving of a sequel. Ever.

To indicate your indifference to JPRGs, don't post in a thread about them.

These social groups have always seemed rather stange to me. At my school, we just had two groups. Neds and "Moshers" (well, non-scots tended to form little cliques along national lines that for the most part ignored each other, though second and third generation immigrants were almost universally moshers). Neds were, I suppose, the Scottish equivalent of the Jocks and Cheerleaders. Except that instead of their parents being rich, they were poor. And instead of being popular, they were despised by everyone who wasn't in their (admittedly large) group. And instead of being mean bullies and rude girls, they were common criminals in the making and utterly horrible people. And were all obsessed with rap music. And usually not attractive to anyone other than Neanderthal Man, from whom they were all likely descended. "Moshers" were, basically, everyone else. I put the term in inverted commas because this label was applied by the neds, who seemed to believe that we all listened to nu-metal and moshed. Everyone in the spectrum had a broad circle of friends that was usually both cross-cultural and cross-subcultural, but you would happily be accepted in any group without any great stigma of coming from another group. Thus, there was no actual line between geeks, moshers, goths, skaters, etc., so those sorts of social groupings as actual social barriers strike me as patently odd. I suppose you could count us all as outcasts, but we were about half the school's population, so I don't think it fits. Incidentally, this intensely social arrangement forced everyone to develop social skills, keeping nerds as I defined them down to an absolute minimum.

Geek - A person of intelligence, usually having a particular area of interest or expertise, who also has a social life and can relate to others adequately in normal society. A Nerd with non-nerd friends. Nerd - A person of intelligence, usually having a particular area of interest or expertise, who has little to no social life, or cannot relate to others adequately in normal society. (For example, people obsessed with Star Trek who can only talk about star trek with any degree of confidence and have only other Trekkies for friends). An intelligent dork. Dork - A Person of little to average intelligence, who has little to no social life, or cannot relate to others adequately in normal society. That wierdo that always stood in the corner on his own in the playground.

I always got really annoyed by random battles in the Final Fantasy games. What always carried them for me was the storyline, which was always good enough to keep me interested in them. Often, I would simply use some sort of cheat mechanism to turn off random battles altogether. What I've found is that I have different standards for CRPGs and JRPGs. In American RPGs, I want a considerable degree of flexibility in my character and in the storyline, and I'm quite happy with (and possibly to some degree prefer) a plot that is completely cliche (Bad guy is taking over country/planet/galaxy and only you--and the people who joined your group despite only knowing you for less than a minute prior to joining--can stop him). On the other hand, in a Japanese RPG, I'm happy to play an exremely predetermined character, and have a more complex plot that is in every way as linear as an ancient greek writing system. The completely different and fairly rigid expectations might be the reason why I'm one of only five people on the planet that didn't like Torment.

Hmm...if your PC starts off as a commoner, doesn't that rather exclude some Character classes? Wizards, for example, are supposed to have done years of training as an apprentice before attaining first level. And is it just me, or does a Warlock sound just like a sorcerer? In the first NWN, I heard Sorcerers regularly referred to as (demi-)human artillery platforms. Ah, I'm just feeling pedantic right now. It sounds pretty good.