Luftwaffles

The addition of co-op just makes me even more worried ME3 will be an Origin exclusive. Besides that, though, the way they handled it sounds like the best way they could have. I'm just fairly sure none of my friends will pick it up if it's not on Steam, unfortunately.

But can you enchant baby animals?

And oh man, that ending. Spoilers incoming. Either way, though, probably my favorite game of 2011. I liked Portal 2 a lot as well, but this felt a lot newer and fresh than Portal 2.

Less QQ, more pewpew. It really grinds my gears to hop into a BC2 server and see a squad of level 50s doing nothing but complaining about the teams. I mean, you're level 50, if you spent less time sitting in a corner bitching into chat you'd probably be able to help the team out a little.

I believe it's actually only 1/2 off now. Which is too bad, but it's still a good deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIC0Sb6pLvI Weird stop-motion film from 1912, but I found it pretty neat, and awfully professional for being almost 100 years old.

Only series I'm really interested now in is the Cardinals - Phillies one. For some reason I've always liked the Cardinals, even though St. Louis is kind of a shithole of a town, IMO.

That is arguable. I don't like origin and I don't know how to feel about Battle Log, but I'm still "on the fence" about the game. It looks good, plays good(despite all alpha-beta issues), sounds good and Origin won't stop me from enjoying the game. Agreed. I know I would enjoy the game nonetheless, it's just, as of now, I can't see myself shelling out $60 for it when it's still using Origin. Maybe I'll pick it up in the Winter Sale when it gets cheap... Oh wait.

You're right, it's not a gamebreaker for the game itself, but I think the issue is more with those that were on the fence about BF3. For me, Battlefield 3 looks and plays like a good game, quirks aside. I could see myself devoting quite a bit of time to it, but It's just not quite good enough of a game to justify moving over to Origin, especially when Origin doesn't do anything. Just like Steam doesn't do anything in BC2, all Origin does is give me another overlay with friends and another place I need to be connected to the internet to play my game. (It also won't let me change my name or avatar, but that's a different story). Maybe I value convenience way too much, but right now it's just more convenient to stick with what works, especially if BF3 keeps selling for $60 for a while.

My problem exactly. I said "fuck it" and bought it anyway, though.

Picked up the Witcher 2 for a cool 30 bucks, plus Mirrors Edge and Alpha Protocol last week. I haven't played the first Witcher, but I've heard nothing but good things about the series and figured $30 was a pretty good price point. I'm probably gonna hold off on playing it until I finish a few games, though. Deus Ex: HR is almost done, and I've got a few more hours on GTAIV and a few more Spec Ops missions in MW2. It's also a really big download for my internet, so I'm not even sure if it'll get downloaded anytime soon. I definitely have a nasty tendency to start games and not finish them...

I'm not sure if we could stream all of them (I don't think any sort of spectator mode exists), but I know we could have a few people streaming the matches they're a part of. I could definitely do that for mine if this were to go through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWP4bI37mCE Been listening to Wilco's new album a lot. This track in particular really surprised me, mostly with it's Radioheadness. Also, badass Queens of the Stone Age esque ending.

With this being cheap and all via the Humble Bundle, would anybody be up for a few games or a tournament if we could get enough people?

I was with you up until there. I hate, hate Operation Metro, or at least I hated it in the alpha. The foliage is too easy to prone in (I bet I could hide in a bush for 10 minutes and not have anyone kill me) and the first set of M-Coms just turns into sniper camp city. The second set ends up with lots of dolphin diving, and feels a lot like the BC2 map Oasis with less room to move side to side. The outside set is pretty good, though, easily my favorite out of the sections. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not really digging the whole "maps are now straight lines" layout they've been going with in some of these.

Don't you think it's just guaranteed to be underwhelming if you do that?

Agreed. If we were to point newbies towards one thread on here this'd be a good one. It was one of the first I posted on when I joined here.

For those who bought MOH on Steam, looks like this is how we get our early access. http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7560778.page Myself, I know I'll play the beta but I highly doubt I'll be buying the game unless it goes on steam. The alpha felt a LOT like the MOH multiplayer (BC3), and although I haven't missed a Battlefield game yet, I can't see myself going out of my way to a service like Origin just for this game. It didn't feel THAT good.

Agreed. The lightheartedness of the GiantBomb podcast (Bombcast) is why I like it so much. It doesn't make me think, it's mostly just like eavesdropping on an interesting conversation about video games.

I'm just here for the free booze, myself. Anyhoo, welcome. Just make sure you agree with everything Dean says and you'll be fine.

Total War: Empire and Napolean + all the DLCs. Went to go buy just Empire, but then Napolean plus all of the DLC for both games was only 5 bucks more so it seemed like a no brainer (You win, Valve). Was meaning to snatch up Alpha Protocol as well, but forgot to add it to my cart in the process and now I'm probably not gonna bother with it. Far too many games to play anyway...

I think that the advantage is unfair to new players, but I do like the idea that you can unlock a weapon that has different stats and acts differently, allowing for a different play style. I think the issue with the BC2 unlocks isn't with the weapons, which I find to be all quite good and fairly balanced, but with the gadgets that you have to unlock. A level 0 player is still going to kill people with an AEK, but the lack of any way to dish out ammo or revive teammates (you don't unlock the ammo box or defibrillator) until later broke the BC2 unlocks for me. It took me a long time to just get to level 1 just because (as the medic class in particular) you had to kill rather than support, the game gave you no choice in that respect.