BrerRabbit~SPARTA~

Its very good so far. Still wish I could bring the camera out 25% more ...

Very much not a FPS

This is an excellent game and its sequel Wargame: AirLand Battle is going to be even better. Im a huge fan of these games by Eugen (R.U.S.E and W:EE). Anyone looking to play these just drop me a line.

So a Steam pal of mine talked me into buying TrionWorld's Defiance (http://www.defiance.com/en/) last night. He sold me with the pitch that it is a mix Borderlands (themes, style, gameplay), L4D (co-op gameplay), Firefly (theme, style and design). After playing three hours last night I have to say he nailed the description. Its sort of like Borderlands with many more players populating the world. More of a large scale co-op game than a MMO. Gameplay is 3rd person shooter/skill based. Its quite easy to play solo or to join groups on the fly. Its available on Steam for $60. One time fee, no monthly sub. Anyone looking to play this with me just let me know via Sparta TS or ping me on steam (on Steam I go by GoraSahib). - Rabbit

SpaceX claims it will have the worlds first fully reusable rocket and reentry vehicle up and running in the near future. Affordable, efficient, economical, and way fucking cool. http://www.space.com/13140-spacex-private-reusable-rocket-elon-musk.html

I don't think its an accident that Blizzard announces a D3 delay and Bioware commits to a launch date for SWTOR on the same day. Both announcements probably have as much to do with keeping an eye on the competition as they do with the games being ready to ship.

Star Wars the Old Republic will launch in NA on Dec. 20 2011 (EU launch 22nd). Pricing also set at stardard $15 a month. http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110924

Great vid Haji. For me the key part came at 12:09 when you see how you can switch between a "traditional" windows environ and the new "mobile OS" style. It seems like its a nice compromise between a real hands on environment and a "dummies" environment. I can already see me installing this on my mother's PC, setting it to the most senior friendly mode and then *fingers crossed* never having to do over the phone tech support for her again. I can see in the near future where, for example, your coffee table top will be an interactive surface running an OS like Win8. It will be light weight, scratch impervious, and waterproof. Play a game on it while on the sofa, then later pick it up and stick it on the wall for hometheater movie time.

"The operating system has changed little over the past several years. It continues to rely on a point-and-click, mouse-based interface at a time when computing is moving toward interactive touchscreens." A quote from an article I read today, claiming that Microsoft is banking heavily on Windows 8 and is going to try to close the gap between its self and iOS/Android. Ive seen a lot of articles covering this ground lately, all sounding the call that personal computing as we know it (PC stack/monitor/keyboard & mouse/point and click/etc.) is about to kick the bucket. I used to scoff at claims like this but this time around Im not too sure. Not so many months back I voiced my sceptisism about the viability of tablets, and I was convined that no one was really going to choose that interface over a laptop or desktop. Smart phones, sure ... but a tablet? Hell no. Well Im here to eat some crow because I bought a Toshiba Thrive tablet a few weeks back and I love the damn thing. No buyers remorse (yet) and its really filled a niche for me in mobile computing. I am using the tablet daily and that for me is the most important thing when assessing a big ticket technology buy; nothing worse than having a pricey piece of technology function solely as a dust magnet. But are we all about to transition to a tablet like computing and interface? Even for home personal computing? Are the keyboard and mouse and point and click user interface about to be buried? Is that likely, and if so does that mean a sort of dumbing down of personal computing? Does it mean a dumbing down of gaming? And then theres this TED talk from last year ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6YTQJVzwlI A museum where I work sometimes in DC has one of those Microsoft touch tables tucked away in an alcove. I just stumbled on it by accident one day. Its in a public space but I rarely see anyone using it; which is a shame because the damn thing is amazing. I think Microsoft must have given it to the Smithsonian and the Smith wasnt too sure what to do with it. Currently all its got is two East Asian prints you can interact with. Point is though, the potential for interactive surfaces and touch based computing, once you see on of these things in person, seems immense. Anyway, the Sparta community is pretty damn tech savy, if for no other reason than we all are avid gamers and consumers of high end gadgets. Im curious about what other Spartans think. Are we on the verge of a major shift in personal computing or is this just another "in the near future we will all have flying cars" flash in the pan.

Wow ... some of the hyperbolic comments in this thread had me checking the date on the calender. For a second I thought it had to be the early 80s again what with all the "Red Dawn" hand wringing going on. The Russians have a long tradition of overstating their capabilities (this goes all the way back to Tsarist Russia), and the West in turn has also had a tradition of overstating Mother Russia's capability to menace the West. This is not to say that Russia does not have very capable engineers and has and still can produce effective military systems ... but we need to distinguish press op propaganda from actual threats. Throughout the Cold War the Soviets would regularly display some great new weapons system (more often than not a copy of some Western tech.), the military/corporate apparatus in the West would in turn demand we meet this new "threat" with more spending and more development, only to find out a few years later that the Soviet system that had caused so much concern was never produced in any number, or never had the claimed capabilities. In short, I think Buck Turgidson just about got it right, "the Russkie talks big, but frankly, we think he's short of know-how. I mean, you just can't expect a bunch of ignorant peons to understand a machine like some of our boys. And that's not meant as an insult, Mr. Ambassador, I mean, you, you take your average Russkie, we all know how much guts he's got." Also, these advanced military programs, like 5th gen fighters, all have teething issues. The F-22 program has been scaled back (to something like 180 in total) for very good reasons and Im sure we will work out whatever problems there may be with the current fleet of planes. As for the Russian and Chinese capacity to address such inevitable teething problems in their 5th gen fighter programs there is good reason to be doubtful.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2011/09/08/scientist_pleads_guilty_to_trying_to_sell_us_secrets/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Nozette 13 years is way too short for this type of crime. Life seems more appropriate. Anyway, if we are going to potentially bankrupt ourselves with bloated military spending, we could at least keep our secrets safe. The Chinese stealing from us I expect, but I'm getting fed up with our so called "friends" ripping us off.

Well, Ive been a big fan of Sagan since I was a kid. "Cosmos" hooked me. And the vid in the OP is truly sublime ... but then I clicked on this related video on YouTube and my hope was quickly deflated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNGGNomLx_c&feature=related But then there's this. I wish we could still talk so effusively about science in this country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qho15vV3Lz8&feature=related

Too many to possibly choose from. Here's a two. "Hey, Sweden!" - MacReady (Kurt Russel) calling out to Norwegians in John Carpenters' The Thing. "Well, I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir." - General "Buck" Turgeson (George C. Scott) in Kubrick's Dr. Srangelove.

BRINK patched. Sound fixes work, and the game as a whole seems to be running smoother (though I had little trouble running it before). UI text still sometimes screwed up. Also, they made the in-game text chat bigger, which I find annoying. Hopefully they will implement the ability for us to choose if we want small or large text.

This is the best review of Brink I've read yet, and it goes a long way in explaining why many reviewers and players just dont get what Brink is about - article. "There seems to be a lack of understanding about Brink's goals. Perhaps some players find it a little complex? With having multiple mission objectives and classes that play a vital role at different stages of the mission and near on-the-fly switching maybe that's a little too complex for some. This is a huge problem for a game like Brink because, as with Quake Wars, team play is everything and that's something Splash Damage understand very well. When I first started playing Quake Wars I used to hop on random servers and (long story short) found it infuriating - players had no sense of team coordination and I was often left weeping over my keyboard. After a few weeks I discovered the OCB server, a server run by a tight-knit group of players that were there to primarily have fun but also showed good skill and team-wide coordination. Just as importantly, they understood the maps and the objectives. Immediately my enjoyment of the game was boosted a hundred fold. I ended up playing Quake Wars every night for around a year. Being a late comer to the proceedings, I only paid £10 for the game and it was probably the best value for money I have had from any game and I wish I had grabbed it when it was first released."

I can' t wait.

Regarding crossing into Pakistan to eliminate OBM, I'd say that the Rhodesians had the proper idea some 30 years back when they launched a raid into neighboring Zambia to attack a terrorist base. Here's a portion of the radio chatter between Rhodesian AF raid leader and Zambian air traffic control. An example to be followed and in my opinion this is how we should be talking to Pakistan from here on out. Green Leader: Lusaka tower, this is Green Leader. How do you read? Lusaka Tower: Station calling tower? Green Leader: Tower, this is Green Leader. This is a message for the station commander at Mumbwa from the Rhodesian Air Force. We are attacking the terrorist base at Westlands Farm at this time. This attack is against Rhodesian dissidents and not against Zambia. Rhodesia has no quarrel, repeat, no quarrel with Zambia or her security forces. We therefore ask you not to intervene or oppose our attack. However, we are orbiting your airfield at this time and are under orders to shoot down any Zambian Air Force aircraft which does not comply with this request and attempts to take off. Did you copy all that? Lusaka Tower: Copied. What do I call you? Green leader: .

BRINK update to go live next week. PC fixes will include fixed sound issues and fixes for ATI card users. Source: BethesdaBlog Also, for all the folks who keep asking about BRINK, here's a fair and balanced overview from the CynicalBrit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9zDpaQPoEI Also to get a good idea of how the parkour movement works in-game here is a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0q14FZmfIo&feature=youtu.be

I dont know about the pulse rifle in the posted vid but I know the original props in Aliens were made from modified Thompson submachine guns. The prop team had made several attempts at prototype pulse rifles and eventually hit on reworking the Thompson as it was rugged and easily modded. Gotta love the good ol Thompson!

Heres a post with some details on how the new clan multi-player system will work: Clan system

There are already mods for TWS2! Over at TWCenter's Shogun 2 section there are mods that allow you to play any of the starting clans in the demo as well as other options. TWCenter Shogun 2 demo mods Ive not messed with them yet and probably wont, but as I said in earlier posts the TW mod community as super active ... hell, they are modding the demo!!!

TW:S2 is going to include a multiplayer clan functionality. I plan on joining a clan for teamplay multiplayer but Id prefer (if we have the numners) to create a clan from withing Sparta. Can I get a show of hands of people who 1. think they are likely to get TW:S2 and 2. would want to play in competitive multiplayer?

I just ran through a chunk of the campaign tutorial, and its excellent so far.

Hmm I see, you make a blanket statement and throw assumption on top of it .... nice. First, the TW series isnt supposed to be Hearts of Iron or Europa Universalis or Civilization or whatever strategy game you have in mind. Second, there are quite a few mods that address strategic AI in Empire, MTW I&II, Napoleon. Third, to say that the strategic portion of the game out of the box is rubbish is not accurate and may give some folks who are unfamiliar with the game series the wrong impression. Regarding folks who say the series has been buggy at launch, well I say show me a PC game that isnt (Creative Assembly is decent about addressing bugs, and again the mod community is great at addressing these issues). From my experience, at least in multiplayer, the "bugs" that people have in TW are almost always performance centered.

I couldnt disagree more. And given that the Total War series has one of the most active modding communities out there (mods for every iteration of the game) its always possible to find player made improvements on the base game. TWCenter.net