OK, so I changed the thread title because just generic "Strategy Game" was bugging the piss out of me.

But in news, the game's official site was unveiled the other day for Empire At War, and holy schnikeys it rocks.

The little videos to see what troops or other aspects of the game do/interact is really neat.  The weather effects look like they'll add a unique dynamic to the game among other details.

I'm sorta so-so on things like a Rancor just popping up anywhere and I really wish they'd relegate things like that to their native planets.  IE: the Rancor only appears if you're on Dathomir duking it out.  It showing on Tatooine is sorta ass backwards to me and takes away from the game's "realism".  Granted Jabba has one and all, but I doubt it'd be running loose on Tatooine.

For that matter, I'd be ok with never seeing Tatooine in-game since as a planet its "importance" and supposed rebel activity on it doesn't take place till post-ANH but that's a whole other rant.

The TIE Crawler is not a TIE Crawler and that's cool.  It's a much smaller model basically, and a replacement for the AT-PT which appears to be omitted from the game.  That is a 50/50 split to me as I feel the AT-PT is superior in design and has become an established walker in EU materials during the war...  The Crawler is actually a TIE Marauder which is a cool name and the vehicle is basically a fast anti-personnel weapon that's easily destroyed even by a nice sized infantry group.

I'm perplexed on what a "PLEX Trooper" is for the Alliance...  They look like heavy weapons troopers more or less judging by the video but I'm wondering what PLEX means more than anything.  There seemed to be two types too.  Would they be specialists?  What?  Weird.

I'm pleased to see the AT-AA appears to be making a resurgence and vehicles like the AT-ST appear to be holding up well as core walkers.  There's a ton of other new vehicle names too that really have me intrigued.

I'm slightly disappointed at the same time to see that they didn't carry over the Rebel Tank designs from Force Commander which were 100% perfect IMO and fit in squeaky clean into Star Wars.  They have a hover tank (lighter model) and a heavy tracked tank, so why design NEW tanks and not just adjust the FC tanks to this game, ya know?  At the same time it's cool to give some diversity to the SW EU, as it's not like the ALliance couldn't have a wide variety of tanks at their disposal and you just don't have their use in this game...  I can believe that, so that's not the point, it's more that the game's designers are just trying too hard to rewrite history in their image which always strikes me as a stupid aspect to EU stuff anyway but I digress.  I'm sure I'll accept the new tanks as part of my EU world just like I accepted the ones in Rogue Squadron and all the tanks in Force Commander. 

Stuff looks good to me though overall, the battles look really gritty and fun...  Space battles looked a lot cooler than I imagined too, that should rock.  I really want to see how fast the action is, and then how easy to control the game is.  FC's fun/fast but controlling it was always probably its biggest issue.  Once you learned it, it became somewhat easy but always an issue during the game, so I'm really curious to see how it's handled in EAW.

Glad to hear that the battles aren't forcing multi-tasking or whatnot.  You play the ground or space, not both at the same time, because I can't see how anyone would control that.

The sounds, which many probably haven't even thought of yet, sounded really great in the game.  Screams were realistic, commanders for various parts of a ship yelling out damage as if you're the honcho on the bridge and hearing staticy reports from Engineering or the Gunnery line decks, or Torp Launcher rooms...  Really cool ****.  Especially when the guy's voice is cut off because his ship just took the big hit and blows up...  Speaking of this too, watching the Corvette blow up and a huge chunk of the foreward section drift off into space as the engines/aft section desintegrated...  Nice.

Something I wish they'd include but I doubt is a "Ramming" option.  Taking your ship directly into another if you're going to lose it.  Make it hard to accomplish and have an "intensified fire" counter so if your ship is barely alive as it is it gets destroyed in the ramming attempt, but to me that'd add a realism aspect that would be really fun and have a bit of strategic value to it too.

Great site though, lots of fun stuff, looks like some great vehicles.  My EU world just got a huge spike in cool ****.   My "Customs To-Do" list for custom vehicles seems like it just got a lot longer too.  Ugh.

it's really not a big deal that it got locked is it?

Big deal in that is it going to "hurt" Matt?  No, not in the slightest...  "Silly" is the proper way to describe it there.

But a "Big deal" in that it is blatant immaturity on the part of Scum's staff that felt it necessary?  That it's somewhat offensive to do that without explanation or just cause, nor allow someone to say anything in favor of what a stand-up person Matt is publicly over there because they simply "say so"?

Well that's not a huge deal, but it's worth laying it out flat here where you CAN call the people involved over there what they are...  It's a real childish attitude, plain and simple.  It's not like we'd have canned a feedback thread for someone we banned here, and hell we also didn't ban any of Scum's staff despite their behavior (instead we let them voice their opinions over time so long as they stayed within the rules).

Really Matt's feedback thread incident is just one more thing to comment on here, roll your eyes, and (presumably) not get banned for commenting on it...  Though that didn't work for Matt since he got banned there for what he said here instead of actually violating rules, but that's a whole other story I guess.

I think, and I'm die-hard Steelers even in losing seasons for us, that Indy is pretty near unstoppable.  I think they're a better team than NE was last year, and NE I had much respect for (however I thought the Steelers COULD have dominated NE at any turn but they just didn't).

I love my team, but the Colts just look great and even when they didn't look good tonight htey still held their own.  That's the sign of a winner IMO so I think they easily could go undefeated.

I can see Rob's scenario of them resting guys too though and not taking it all, but I think they wouldn't rest EVERYONE, just select people at select times...  And if their schedule (I don't know it to say) is easy then even with people resting up they could still win... 

And in Pittsburgh we took a breath and have all moved on to the next day's challenge. 

Oh that's what the set is guys, you guessed it!

However it's limited in production to only 10.  10 whole sets, that's it, and they're only going to be given to Wal-Mart managers with a note saying "Sell them on Ebay!".

I'm thinking the Steelers should pick up Curling and just cut out the game they're in at the moment.   

I too am finally "done" for the most part...  Black Friday caught me up basically.

I still need: 

-Multiple Wookiee Heavy Gunners.  I only have the variation so I'm looking for my openers and extras.

-2nd Tact. Ops Trooper (I'd like 2 and consider more if I just lucked into finding a pile one day).

-Clone Evolution Sets (have the greys on order, but I'd buy extra of the 1st and 2nd sets if I saw them readily available at retail).

-Lava Anakin...  I didn't pick him up and now he's drying up around Pittsburgh so I'll likely have to track one down either via a local buddy or *gulp* online.  Anyone have an extra they wanna sell? 

-I didn't get many of the 4/2 release figures.  While not abundant at retail I'm 100% sure I will get them for less than retail on the secondary market.  These are the figures I'll see in bins loose at the local Toy Show probably next weekend for $2 - $3 a piece.  Save me some $ on figures I find subpar anyway.  Mustafar Duel Anakin/Obi-Wan for instance, etc.

And that's really it for me...

I'm gonna maybe fill out my Clone Pilots and AT-RT Drivers too over the holidays...  Neimoidians I have my eye on for a clearance here soon I hope as well, I think they make great trooper builders (both decoes).  I'd also take more #6 Shocktroopers and Black Pilots.  Most all of that stuff listed is my army building habit though, except Lava Anakin who I hate to say it but I'm kinda desperate for now.

If it's the early Collection 1 figures I'd actually buy it just because I waited on most of them.  Not like htey're "rare" or anything, so buying in one fell swoop would be alright.

Still, not the best little item, especially for such a high pricetag, but what do I know.