EmersonPF

[quote who="klaxton499" reply="47" id="3259425"]Ignore the number and read what they say. I ignore the "worst game EVER" and "best game EVER" crowd. I read to identify gameplay features. As derivative as games are now, a little self awareness is all that is required to find games you'll enjoy. [/quote] A thousand times this. I find it preposterous that you can score a game on a 1 to 10 scale to begin with. Modern games are complex, and all have strengt

Bought it yesterday, and I'm in love.

I actually wrote a blog post about exactly the issue of DW's graphics a while back: Last but not least, I want to mention Distant Worlds, a game that is so massive, so complex, and so wonderfully fun that it could only work in 2D. Huh? Look at it. It's ugly. The ships are small, the space station looks horrible, and the planet is bland. The space looks empty, and everything is so dark. Distant Worlds is a classic "don't judge a book by its cover" kind of game.

I still read real books for reading books, but as an academic I also have to read a lot of PDFs. The Kindle is a life (and eye) saver for that.

I'd say Heroes 3 (1999) and Majesty (2000) are the oldest games I still fire up on a semi-regular basis.

[quote who="Kazriko" reply="3" id="3167968"]I think Direct2Drive is decent too, for the couple of games I purchased there.[/quote] Direct2Drive was decent... until it got bought out by GameFly. Now it's pretty much a disaster. And in the process I (and many others) lost access to games we had purchased on D2D because GF doesn't want to support them. Kind of everyone's worst-case scenario for Steam or Impulse. Needless to say, GameFly will never get my business, gi

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="6" id="3162081"]I'm afraid you need to be destroyed rewarded. Please report to the front for cake.[/quote] Huh, I think I've played this game before...

No. Without a doubt. I'm tired of every single game I buy having a half-baked multiplayer mode that took up way too much effort (manpower, money, etc) to develop. I'd happily contribute more money to the Elemental franchise than I have (as an early purchaser), but I'd rather spend extra dollars on any number of things that are not MP.

At the very least the "MoreNavalAI Mod" is a must. Started as a small project, but now is a comprehensive AI-improving patch. When I play FFH that's what I usually go with.

I was a steam skeptic for a long time. Now I use it quite regularly, and I have no problem with it. It's not nearly as bad as a lot of DRM (Ubisoft, I'm looking at you), and it provides a lot of other stuff beyond copy protection for developers. For example, as a poor graduate student it's my primary source of affordable games thanks to all of its sales. As someone who likes indie titles, it's a great place to find hidden gems because they host so many. As someone who uses a d

People have this same misconception about many industries and organizations. Universities are a great example. The idea that, say, Harvard and Yale or Stanford and Berkeley or Auburn and Alabama are rivals is a myth perpetuated by undergraduate athletics. In reality, each of those places have faculties that collaborate with each other and shared community projects and so on. That doesn't mean they don't compete (for students, for grants, in sports), but at the end of the day that they

[quote who="NickJames" reply="22" id="3085377"] Overlord was incredible, One of my favorite missions in the whole game.[/quote] Oh, we can agree about that, but that's the exception that proves the rule. Most of the DLC was either meaningless costume and weapon packs, or stuff that should have been in the base game to begin with (like Kasumi). Even the good stuff was, by and large, overpriced. If I already paid $50 for your game, why should I have to pay another $10 for a 1-2

Is it no longer the case that you can't create mountains/water? As I recall, you can't create impassable terrain. That would prevent some of the problems in the OP (like raising mountains to prevent attack).

Someone needs to stop sleeping through math class.

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="8" id="3084637"]I finally believe now that Dragon Age Origins was Bioware's swan song. I'm not even looking forward to ME3...and it should be a major event in my nerd life.[/quote] I hear ya. The inclusion of multiplayer is beyond troubling. After the disasterous jump from DA:O to DA2 I'm really concerned about ME3. It was miraculous that EA didn't ruin 2 (too much, except for the horrible planet scanning and the 1,000,000 p

[quote who="AlLanMandragoran" reply="82" id="3060295"]Man, these forums have become lively yet again![/quote] It's like a presidential debate in here: all talking points, hyperbole, and emotional "logic." Me, I'm going to go back to playing the awesome beta of the game I've been waiting for for 2 years.

I love this idea. Even my extremely turtlish city-building nation can have advanced, specialized units. Under seanw's system, I'd have to pay a fair price for my research and economy focus: fewer traits to choose from until I actually focus on the warfare tree.

Submit those crash logs! That's how we can help make the game better. I'll submit mine just as soon as I generate them. So far no crashes. Maybe I need to play some more...

I'm curious about this as well. Is the required internet connection a beta-only thing?

Another "yes, yes, maybe" here. Really, I care more about the quality of the game than I do about the computing capabilities. If the 64-bit architecture is used intelligently in order to improve upon the game's design, then definitely yes. If it's just to make things look nicer or run a little faster, I don't care as much.

Tough to choose. On the console side I'd go with Shadow of the Colossus. On PC I'd probably pick Europa Universalis III.

Good game everyone. Glad I could stick around to the "end."

Not that my vote should count for much, but I'm happy to declare someone - at the discretion of the more able nations - a winner. I was looking forward to watching the fireworks from my watery holding cell, though...

Dude, not cool. [e digicons] I totally fell for it...

No opinion here. My turns take a whopping 5 minutes at this point, since I'm basically just holed up in the ocean waiting for someone to take the trouble to finish me off.