Vinraith

Stardock is the publisher, Gas Powered Games is the developer, what does 2k have to do with anything? And strategy games are far, far too story-based these days. Strategy games need strategic context, not narrative context. Granted, Demigod has neither (being an MP skirmish game, basically), but if they were going to add a substantial single player mode a story driven "go here do that" campaign would be the least interesting possible option (and the same goes for Sins,

Tesla: Look up "parallax," and when you've absorbed that look up "standard candles" and you'll have your answers.

[quote]XP was less usable at launch as far as I'm concerned, though. Of course, not too many people choose to remember that.[/quote] It's not a matter of not remembering it, it's simply unimportant. I didn't switch to XP until 2006, for the same reason I haven't switched to Vista.

[quote who="SlyDrivel" reply="18" id="2135982"] Why anyone would be using Vista is a separate mystery. WTH is wrong with Vista? I've been using for a couple years, and its been fine. With the free mycolors "thinkgreen" desktop, the free object dock, and fences, Vista looks pretty much like the Mac OS anyway. You can even download the free soundpackager and load Mac sounds if you want. But I have digressed. I think the truly important point here is... holy crap!!! Look how many games

Google "god of the gaps," it's essentially what you seem to be getting at.

[quote]Vista itself isn't a bunch of executables dependant on each others' goodwill?[/quote] Why anyone would be using Vista is a separate mystery. :) But even if you look at the OS as a program, the question just becomes why you would start a program to start a program to start a program for you. Impulse is an unnecessary additional step, no matter the configuration in question. Why start a game from Impulse when you could just start it direct fr

"Launch it from Impulse." Err, why would you start a program to start a program for you?

Download the demo for Sins before you purchase. From the sounds of it you're not an RTS gamer, so you'll want to make sure you find it different enough from other RTS's to be worth your while.

[quote who="Ke5trel" reply="14" id="2128049"]O man, you guys missed Vinraith vs. Everybody? It was a year ago and I still remember the epic curmudgeon threads Vinraith - waiting for the demo is a good call[/quote] Oh right, the Off Topic forum is visible on more than one board isn't it? I'm actually posting from the GC2 forum, I try to stay away from the Sins forums. The Frasers and I have... different views on how to handle customer criticism. I do my

I'm definitely interested in trying this one, but my experiences with Sins necessitate that I have a demo first. I'm not going through that again.

[quote]Of course I had the Atari 2600's, then moved on to the 5200, then the 7800 as a kid.[/quote] I still have my 7800 (my 2600 is gone, sadly), along with a sizable pile of old 2600 games (backward compatibility is our friend).

The earliest I can clearly remember was King's Quest and Swashbuckler on Apple, and the original Space Quest on PC. Funnily enough it was years later that I actually owned my first PC game (Master of Magic), until then I played on friends' computers, my uncle's computer, and school computers.

"A friend of mine," now that's rich. Please, by all means keep this up, it's kind of amusing.I suggest starting with a detailed explanation of how a privately run internet message board not censoring people that are mean to you is "illegal." [quote]Take your meds[/quote] The scary thing is, I don't think he has any.

[quote who="WIllythemailboy" reply="9" id="2119872"] Censorship in this case simply isn't a factor. I see people bitching about moderations all the time trying to claim first amendment violations and I mock them for it. Publicly whenever possible. As I am constantly pointing out to users over there, there are ways of making your point without trolling, flaming swearing, etc. If you can't think of those ways of expressing your ideas, that's no one's fault but your own. If I wer

I find censorship objectionable, proponents of it would receive negative karma from me. I suspect I could get 9 other people on this forum to go along with that idea. In other words recode, be very careful what you ask for.

This would be the end of modding and user generated content. While certain parties would probably love that, a certain segment of the PC gaming community won't easily give those things up. They're among the greatest advantages of the platform.

To borrow from Churchill: Impulse is the worst form of PC game content control, except for all the others. Absent truly DRM-free games (ie no restrictions on anything ) Impulse is about as good as it's going to get.

[quote who="vStyler" reply="1" id="2106609"]Seems pretty simple to me, motivation to register new purchasers. Nice prize [/quote] That's the part that confuses me, actually. The only place I've seen this contest mentioned is here, so the only reason I know about it is that I'm already a Stardock customer and consequently inelligible. :D I seriously suspect that whoever wins this may not know it's coming. It'll hopefully be an

Wow, that's a lot of prize for an arbitrarily chosen new customer. I'm not entirely sure I understand the strategy behind it, to be honest. You're awarding this, with seemingly virtually no advertising, to someone that as of yet isn't a Stardock customer. I have to agree with the crowd here that it seems like giving existing customers a shot would make for better advertising, but it's SD's money and they get to make the rules. I hope whoever gets that rig is actually a gamer, though. It'd be

That actually seems kind of misleading. They're pretty strongly implying that there are alternate paths to victory in the game besides "conquer everyone," which as yet sadly isn't true. I'm pleased to hear this is being addressed in the new expansion, but implying that trade and diplomacy are somehow major aspects of the current game is questionable at best. I'm not familiar with AmpedGaming, but this would make me question the veracity of any review of theirs.

Congratulations! I'm pleased to see Impulse doing so well, Steam needs the competition and, frankly, you're the superior platform from a non-intrusiveness standpoint. Expand that catalog as much as you can, if a game is available at the same price point on Impulse and Steam it's an easy decision in your favor IMO.

[quote who="icen9ne" reply="7" id="2102733"]I understand all the concerns with race balance for an RTS, but it just seems a little pointless -- at least thematically -- to be having diplomatic relations with carbon copies of the same 3 races. It hurts the epic vibe of the whole thing. If they want to add the title 4x along with the RTS moniker, then they better understand all the baggage that comes with that. One of theses bags is definitely more races. 4x g

That sounds like the game I was expecting when I bought it in the first place. I wish them great success in implementing this, maybe they'll be able to turn Sins into a game I'm interested in going back to.

More than anything else mentioned, really, I miss real manuals in PC games. Most console games are simple enough creatures that it isn't a big deal not to have a manual, but PC strategy games are frequently complex enough to require their own textbook. That they no longer include one is sad indeed.

[quote who="The_Regicide" reply="5" id="2064914"]Aren't there already five B5 movies?[/quote] Six. TNT commissioned 4 when the bought the series, 3 of which are ok and one of which ("In the Beginning") is actually quite good. The Sci Fi channel commissioned "Legend of the Rangers" as a potential launching point for a new series, it was an abomination of untold proportions. JMS then made a direct to DVD movie (originally intended to be the first of a seri