[www.spore.com]

We need a new Internet rule: Everything's better Sporified.

Imagine and pity the person who gets mobbed by a tribe of Michael Vicks when they first start the game...

Also, graphical updates. Reflections and better water, denser trees, all-around texture fidelity boost and stylization... there is no way this won't be good.

On another note, isn't it high time strategy games, especially those based around the start of civilization, abandoned prebaked civilizations? After all, what sense does it make for Mr. Lincoln to run around in the Stone Age, writing emancipation proclamations for neighboring tribes on clay tablets? What happened to societal evolution? (Note: In situations with defined sides - like Colonization - this doesn't apply. But in games like Civilization or Age of Empires...)

'Tis time for factions in the ancient strategy genre to get the boot.

So for some specific complaints:
1. Several people have implied that ideas should be treated with equal status - that, say, people who worship Cthulu should get exactly as much status as people who worship Christ. The problem with this is the numbers - how many people seriously worship Lovecraft's R'lyeh-dwelling squid-head character? Very few, if any. How many people worship Christ? ~75% of Americans... if we were a proportional-representational democracy, 75% of schools would teach creationism... 75% of religious references would be Christian or Catholic... if we were a true winner-takes-all democracy, that 75% would account for 100% of results...

Interestingly enough, it was the religious (deist, Christian, etc.) founders of the American system of government who put in place the separation of church and state - who said that even if 75% of America is Christian, the 25% who aren't won't be forced to convert...

And to baysideSxoc: Again, you are so confident and self-righteous in your own anti-religious stance that you refuse to even LOOK at the people you accuse. You just call us brainwashed sheeple and try to belittle us as best you can... I assure you, I and practically every Christian I know are rational, intelligent, thinking beings who are no more brainwashed than we are literal sheep. And we're not irrelevant.

But why does every conversation about religion and the religious here, no matter how civil its intentions, degenerate into Christians and nonChristians throwing stones? Let's discuss our mutual fiend Jack, not our personal grievances with what other people believe, shall we?

Yes, Thompson is a disgrace to the Christian community, the gamer community, and the Christian gamer community. He is what happens when Christians act like their "hate everything without a cross on it" stereotype. But he is not representative of Christianity or Christian gamers... and he has a point, albeit a misdirected, hyperinflated one. It is this: Parents need to pay attention. The end.

It is not right to ban violent games altogether - after all (pardon my Christian), God Himself gave us the choice to sin or obey - but it is imperative that those parents who walk into the department store with wallets and kids in tow know what the "M" sticker on the box means. That's what Thompson and others should be trying to do - in limited context, to get the word out to those who need to hear it...

...and not to the gamer community at large. Because, honestly, although as a Christian I may try my best to get you all to believe as I do, you're big kids and have a choice. If you want to ignore the surgeon general's warning... it's up to you.

I wonder what the system-specs on that will be. Also, the terrain in the screenshots is oddly reminiscent of the starcraft series' stacked-plateau maps. (I'm not a DoW player - yet - so I'm not sure if this is normal or not, or just something I'm noticing)

Canadian Dwarf Football...

The Care Bears' Handgun Deathmatch...

A Boy and His Sniper Rifle of Fury...

Master Chief's Wedding - Total War...

Honestly... you don't even have to try with this thing.

To answer Anglon: I think because it's far too easy for people outside a particular worldview to take one look at it and condemn it for all manner of things without taking the time to understand. "It is the mark of a genius to be able to hold two conflicting points of view in equal mind at once." Atheism, for most, drives out all possibility of rational or fair consideration of Christianity - and, I'm afraid, the same is true for Christians concerning atheism.

Anyway, for those who talk about specific Christians gone bad: We Christians are a sinful bunch. That's one of the primary tenets of our belief system. We're no better than any of you - worse than many of you, in some cases. Thing is, we believe it doesn't matter in the end.