It does mean that every time I fire up Anno 2070 it's an even more delicious relief than usual, though. It's like somebody is directly massaging my brain-meat. Making headway takes a significant amount of time, though - it's frequently the case that I've barely created the requisite number of militarily-positioned truffle farms before it's time to exit the game. Obviously not before choosing a ridiculous (yet relevant!) save-game name, however. Do any of you bother with that crap, or is it just me? Every time I'm given the responsibility of naming things in games, I descend into a weird, pondering revery. I'm sure there was a day when I'd just hold down the "a"-key and have done with it, but at some point I decided I love nothing more than taking my free time and throwing it into the nearest abyss.

Here's a video-quilt of fifteen second clips from hundreds of different people. It's a full-length, crowd-sourced remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. There are weird animations, ghetto home-movies and claymation - some are impressive, some are funny, some are endearingly earnest and some involve dogs (immediate greatness).

Combat feels alright, but no skill is required, at least at the low levels that are offered in the demo. The combat and weapon effects are quite nice. Weapon damage seems a little askew. I don't have any DPS data to back it up, but the bow and sceptre seem over-powered compared to the longsword and daggers. The staff was the only weapon that felt as it should (ie. slow and weak). A big disappointment was the inability to re-map movement keys, but I hear that there are more bind options in the retail version of the game. Another annoyance was sudden FPS drops. I'd go from 70 to 6 and it would last for a couple of minutes, making the game unplayable during these times.

Overall, when play Reckoning I felt like I was playing a newly launched MMORPG on an empty server. The world had a very MMO feel to it, and seemed to lack some of the finer details that one might expect to see in a single-player RPG. You even start the game fighting rats and spiders. Loot is plentiful. Mobs are sparse. Harvesting feels a bit odd because there is no harvest animation in the demo; the only indication that you've harvested a node is a small bit of text. Reckoning has been on my todo list for a long time now. But after sampling the game through the demo, I think I'll be switching it to the todon't list.

Disclaimer for the benefit of the fanboys: My opinion is based on the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo; the demo does not represent the final product.

What I Like About The Demo:

• Character races.
• Character customization.
• Weapon and combat effects.
• Lots of quests.

• Can't re-map movement keys.
• Random FPS drops
• No zoom out.
• Serious graphic glitches when fighting a certain type of mob.
• Horrible weapon targetting system, or lack thereof.
• Often have to use the "Take/Open/Use" key several times before the action is performed.
• Not 3D ready (view my Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 3D gallery).
• Invisible walls.

• GameStop / Impulse Driven is doing 50% off Batman: Arkham City.

• Steam's Daily Deal is for 75% off Medal of Honor, bringing the price down to $4.99 USD.

• Steam Weekend Deal will net you 50% to 75% off on select Sonic titles.

• GOG.com has added the original Syndicate to their line-up of games. You can pick it up for $5.99.

• GOG.com's Weekend Promotion is for 50% off Arma (Gold Edition / Cold War Assault), Empire Earth, Empire Earth 2, Empire Earth 3, and Little Big Adventure.

In the midst of a devastating epidemic, a young woman finds herself unceremoniously dumped into a plague colony full of monsters. Discovering a strange "half-way world" between life and death, she proceeds to gather a small army of disaffected survivors and sets off in hope of escape!

Defender's Quest is a unique blend of real-time Tower Defense strategy and tactical RPG meta-game, complete with a colorful cast of characters and fast-paced story-telling.

In an official statement the US Department of Justice called the takedown one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States, and on the other side the remnants of Megaupload defended the site stating that the majority of the traffic on Megaupload.com was legitimate. Using what could best be described as wishful thinking, Megaupload's representative says they are here to stay.

Still not enough drama for you guys? Well, take one guess at who wasn't down with the raid? Yep, Anonymous. In typical fashion the group started DDoSing government agencies and companies like crazy, including the FBI, DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, US Copyright Office, EMI, and the Universal Music Group. Following the attempt at internet justice through retaliation the group issued a statement of its own.

I think most of you will agree that the timing of the raid is quite strange, especially considering all of the SOPA / PIPA controversy as of late. I think it's pretty well known that places like MegaUpload and RapidShare have been used by pirates, but I've never seen either site marketing in the way that say Napster was back in the day i.e. as an actual tool to exchange copyrighted material. Should services like Youtube be raided by the government as well just because some of its users use the service to distribute TV shows and movies which are protected by copyright law? Are companies truly liable for the actions of their users?

This might make your head spin a bit. Looks like the British version of the Jerry Springer show.