@ Bunko..

Where I'm from (RI), local restaurants near the theaters tend to carry tickets for $6 called "prestige tickets" - otherwise it's $9.50 to buy at the theater. Sometimes they'll bust your balls for trying to use those tickets on a new release, but I enjoy the idea of dinner and a movie being so complimentary - especially when eating up before you head to the theater will save you money on not buying the popcorn.

Still waiting to see v2 myself.

But hey, what does everyone think of that corpse art thing? Are they intentionally trying to craft some kind of sideshow feel with the character's pose and the tophat announcer? It feels... uh... Not pleasant to me.

But Hump, while it's the same maps we played 4-5 years ago they've got barrels now... Barrels, man!

Man, some of my fondest memories come from a coop defense map for the original island - Malden, was it? You had to hold off an attack from a destroyed castle on the top of one of the largest hills...

You get a few minutes to prepare and grab weapons or get on the turrets, and then the Russkies throw all kinds of stuff at you. First, they try to drop in Spetznatz from a Hind on a nearby hill while armor + inf move up from the lowlands. (Plunking this helicopter from hundreds of meters away without tracking or aid became a specialty) Then you get a few BMPs and a few T72s with the infantry component that rushes you through the woods from the road while flanking forces hit other sides of the castle. What a nasty fight it always was - I think I beat it once with a friend.

Gimp: I'm with you, heh.

Off the topic for a moment before it degenerates further - not only is IGN running a preview a day before the game hits stores, game information also lists the player count at 16.

Way to be on the ball there, guys. I thought I only had bad writing and McGriddle ads to look forward to when I visited your site - you can't be bothered to look up proper info on one of the most anticipated shooters in years?

I'm hearing ugly weather for tomorrow too, Jim.

I'm about 30 minutes out from Providence, and if we're thinking of the same one I'll be celebrating the blue moon tonight with a Blue Moon on Rt. 2 in Warwick if that makes sense. (Well, just looking for a reason.)

nin, you just hit 5000 posts! Damn... Doesn't that give you, like, an extra life or a powerup or something?

Cool, I figure - DX9.0c is out. So I jump onto Microsoft's page and see this:

Download Size: 10 KB - 166652 KB

Could they be any more vague?

Yeah, I found the site to be interesting, if a little creepy for the sheer amount of work they put into it... Great wording/imagery hidden around the page.

"Improved shell ejection behavior causing errors."
Wait, so they improved the ejection behavior to cause more errors? Or they improved the amount of errors caused?

bid, I sincerely doubt Raven would do that to us.

Nice to see any news about Quake IV these days. Hoping to get more info on it soon, before I lock myself in a room and play Doom 3 for the next 3 months.

It killed me to hear they were cutting out coop from the game... But at least it's still in production. *waves at LA* Can it really come out this year? Some reports were pinning it at early 2005. Has anyone seen the E3 videos?

You know, it's funny - when that Cybercafe program was first announced, I figured that's somewhat equitable because LAN Centers are simply taking the work of others and making money off it without a site license - like if I were to charge the public $5 an hour to watch my home DVD collection at my house, and the MPAA would come down on that.

Furthering the MPAA analogy, the best I could compare a LAN Center to was a movie theater - but then, hey, it's ridiculous because it's not like LAN Centers get exclusive titles before they're released to the public the way movie theaters do---hrrm.

Now I dislike LAN Centers, as always, for trying to turn LAN gaming into an exclusive business, but with Valve now furthering the concept... Bad move in my opinion.

[edit clarity]
This comment was edited on Jul 8, 17:20.

Why test the same material? Extrapolate that idea further...

If it's the same game I touched 6 years ago and left promptly after, why play?

Industry? You call standing on the shoulders of LAN parties (typically non-profit) and using games other people make (typically not intended for site licenses) an industry?

If I take my home DVD collection and start showing popular movies to the public on a nice home theater system for $5 an hour, is that an industry? No. You know what would happen to me? The MPAA would come down on me, that's what, because I would be taking the work of others (aka a finished movie) and using it for an unintended purpose (aka putting money in my pocket). I don't see the difference between that and a LAN Center, unless you can think of a game with a purchaseable site license - and the last game I remember that offered that was ROTT. Of course, moot point because I don't think many CS players could run that game smoothly.

I'm not saying Valve's completely justified charging monthly fees when no one else charges, but I can at least see why they're doing it, and I don't feel bad for LAN Centers. These guys are making money off Valve's products for their own gain with no recourse besides a one-time purchase fee (violating their EULA) and turning our hobby into a business. Guess what? If you wanna make gaming a business, then in business you have expenses - get used to it.

...Trolls simultaneously attacked 4 of the 8 pages across the "America's Army" thread, misquoting sources, ignoring relevent factual information and igniting pointless debate. The time of countless posters was wasted, but fortunately no innocent bystanders were banned. Forum regulars were surprised by the tenacity of the attacks and the high level of coordination shown.

...Also, in breaking news today, Iraqi sovereignity has been handed over two days early to a zombified Raegan. That is all.

At least someone's still putting out titles in this genre. With LA dropping the next two potentially great adventure games (FA2 and S&M2), even junk adventure titles will have to keep the fort until something comes along that proves they can still move units.

Not to start sounding too much like a troll, but here goes:

These guys forget they're in the cybercafe business to make money, and they act like they're the sole originators and purveyors of LAN play anywhere in the country. This upsets me greatly.

I've been attending and running events for a long time now with non-profit LAN parties, and most all of the best parties in the northeast are non-profit. These guys seem to conveniently forget we exist when WE were the ones who started the LAN community that they now reap for money and try to take away from us.

In short: They're running a business... And they're upset that they have to pay some extra fees to use other people's work (not to mention using a whole other group's community while trying to kill it off) day-in, day-out as the core of their profit? Boo fuckin hoo - I hope they fail.

MeatFarts,
You may have to go a bit Sam Fisher on the 2nd screen. Look to moving one of the characters around the tree and clicking everything on the left side of the screen to get a better idea of what works.

There are only 3 screens... But sadly, I enjoyed it.

americans make terrible guns...ill take a slightly pointy stick over an m-16 anyday

Razor, as right as you may be I'd still pay to see your pointy stick vs. M16 debate acted out.