News Stories

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I forgot you are 43.

Yep.

Endless "Younger than some, older than others" Soul

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

i wonder how many of these guys who think the US tax rate is too high. Will realize that while the official tax rate is lot lower in these 3rd world countries they are moving to, have a much higher unofficial tax rate.

Most millionaries only move their companies to barbados or other "tax havens", his error was moving to another country without doing some through investigation first "hey, they speak english, they even are part of he commonwealth, I am home!". He would be better of if he wasn't too lazy to learn another language.

[Dhomochevsky]

For a lot of the newer games, the the physical disc is just a sneakernet download.
Would the activation servers of the company ever go down, your physical copy will become just as useless, as if you only had a CD key.
You would have to crack the game, at which point you could just download a cracked copy anyway.

If you don't want any of the goodies that come with premium editions, I don't see a reason to ever buy a physical copy.
CD keys can be bought worldwide and delivered by email. That allows to hunt for the lowest price.

[Ithekro]

I had that game. Though I think I got it second hand. The LucasArt games were of the same vintage and had books bound just like that. (Battlehawks 1942, Battle of Britain, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe).

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

If games came with one of those beefy manuals that had all sorts of backstory, art, and other fluff in it, buying the game in box might be totally worth it. I bought games in the 1980s and 1990s that had manuals that told stories about what was going on, or gave background details for the heroes and villians of the story. Some of it was actaully better than the game it came with.

The Lucasarts World War II flight sims came with awesome background material books.
The game The Ancient Art of War at Sea by Brøderbund came with an awesome manual with stories about the captains you could play against.

Heh, I even still have my Zork swag and stuff like the old "Pools of Radiance" code wheel.

[Endless Soul]

Yep, played all three of those along with Aces over Europe, Red Baron, and European Air War. It was the first one where I could change custom skins. Later I got into WarBirds and helped out with beta testing Aces High, and WWII Online. Around the time Il2 came out, I was starting to get out of combat flight sims. Lots of good times were had and lasting friendships were made.

Endless "Former flight sim junkie" Soul

[synaesthetic]

One of the reasons I'm super fond of publishers like the now-defunct Working Designs, xseed and NIS America is that they tend to go nuts with the Collector's Editions and pack a lot of awesome extra stuff in there.

(psst. xseed! release Sora no Kiseki FC to Steam! DO IT!)

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Used to have all my MechWarrior, homeworld (used to read this one until it pretty much fell apart), baldurs gate (remember the fat little book you got with BG2? It had to be 100 pages at least) manuals and stuff on hand for easy reading access. I loved those old cloth maps for RPG games. Hell getting all that stuff was one of the reasons I got the Witcher and SWTOR CE's. It annoys me you get bugger all these days and is while I've mostly just DLd stuff.

[Xellos-_^]

A woman who claimed that she was raped by a star high school football player -- sending him to prison for five years -- is not likely to be charged with making a false accusation, prosecutors said.
In the summer of 2002, Wanette Gibson accused Brian Banks, now 26, of rape. The two were students at Long Beach Poly High School. Rather than take the he-said-she-said case to trial and risk a 41-years-to-life prison sentence, Banks pleaded no contest to forcible rape, spent five years in prison and, after his release, was forced to register as a sex offender and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
"It's been a struggle, it's been a nightmare," he said. "It's more than I can describe, the things that I've been through."
...
According to Banks and his private investigator, Gibson refused to tell prosecutors that she had lied, so that she wouldn't have to return the $1.5-million settlement her family won in court after suing the Long Beach Unified School District.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...ian-banks.html

The kid made 2 mistake
1. going out with this.. piece of garbage
2. listening to his overwork/underpaid court appointed lawyer to pled guilty.

[Kokukirin]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

The kid made 2 mistake
1. going out with this.. piece of garbage
2. listening to his overwork/underpaid court appointed lawyer to pled guilty.

1. Sometimes it's just hard to foresee this kind of dramatic turn of event.

2. Perhaps his lawyer believed that his chance of winning his case was low, and he was better off trying to reduce the sentence. Without knowing better it's impossible to say whether it was a poor decision.

[Ithekro]

My parents use to go out to dinner every Friday night when I was a young teen. Did I party...no?

I cranked up the CD player with the 25th Anniversary James Bond Instrumental CD and played Battlehawks 1942. Because there is nothing like Dive Bombing an aircraft carrier to the theme from Goldfinger.

[ganbaru]

Bounty hunter on the trail of Arab Spring loot
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...84N0TJ20120524

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Used to have all my MechWarrior, homeworld (used to read this one until it pretty much fell apart), baldurs gate (remember the fat little book you got with BG2? It had to be 100 pages at least) manuals and stuff on hand for easy reading access. I loved those old cloth maps for RPG games. Hell getting all that stuff was one of the reasons I got the Witcher and SWTOR CE's. It annoys me you get bugger all these days and is while I've mostly just DLd stuff.

The book that came with BG2 was in the standard box. They didn't even have a collector's edition special-ish one.

[Mr. DJ]

When you enter the business (especially MMOs) as a fan with no credentials other than professional baseball...it's not going to be pretty -_-

http://www.brokentoys.org/2012/05/25...he-music-died/

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

The book that came with BG2 was in the standard box. They didn't even have a collector's edition special-ish one.

Ya, I know. I wasn't able to purchase CEs back then. Was still in school with very limited funds. It's only been recent years I've purchased CEs.

[Endless Soul]

I still have my Baldur's Gate collection and the spinoff Icewind Dale as well. You're right, the books were very expansive. Something not really seen these days. I should try to see if I can dig these up and play them again.

Endless "Nostalgic" Soul

[mangamuscle]

I still remember when some Atari 2600 games included an original comic bool (Atari Force or Swordquest).

manga "get off my lawn or will blast you with my commodore 64" muscle

[Mr. DJ]

German doctors apologize for Holocaust horrors.

That's a pretty big step.

[ganbaru]

Slow and steady Mexico draws equity bets over Brazil
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...84O0CQ20120525

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

slow and steady mexico draws equity bets over brazil
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...84o0cq20120525

booyah!!