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I don't play War Thunder much these days because I'm busy with other games but I found the air game much better than WOWP and the ground game far superior to WOT. I generally only play the ground game on Simulator level which removes the 3rd person camera, makes the tanks behave more realistically.

I played in the beta or alpha once and I found it fun.

A beta release is a release that has most of the core mechanics of the product finished and usually the product is "usable" to a large degree. However there is still polish and features left to add in before the final release. Its become pretty common to let people who have pre-ordered games to play the game in its beta state. You see this mostly with multiplayer games where the dev team wants to get the balance right and stress test the servers with heavier loads than can be done with in house testing.

Yes. I have it from steam. Its good but I don't know if I would say its $40 good.

Pretty sure this was more of a trailer for the trailer. I'd expect a longer one later.

I played the tutorials and a skirmish last night. They've made some interesting choices with the game. Its clearly aimed at a console release, all the controls in the game list the keyboard/mouse command and the controller command. Instead of having hexes or anything like that you have circles that you can move in freely. If you leave one circle you use up a strategy point, as does jumping or climbing. Fighting is mostly a matter of choosing the attack you want and then telling the character you're controlling to attack, which uses up an amount of action points. Its been years since I've played Mordheim on a table but the turn order is different. Everyone goes in initiative order, so you're not waiting for the entire other team to move. The game is much less a straight port of the tabletop game to computer than it is an adaptation. Right now I think its going to be pretty good but we'll see how it pans out when they get more content into the game.

No religion. It has culture and borders like Civ 5

I have it and steam says I've put in 54 hours so far, but I think that probably includes me leaving it on all day or all night a couple times. Its much shorter than Civ 5. I've gotten through 3 complete games on huge maps in the time I've played. The shorter game play means it plays differently than Civ 5. I never felt bored and mostly wasn't just hitting enter over and over again so that's saying something. I think the AI is just as meh as it was in Civ 5, but at least it tries to build naval units I guess. The factions don't really feel any different, just a different bonus, no special units or anything like that. All the special units come from your affinity to the different traits. I would say that I was sorta disapointed with the number of the units in the game, there aren't many at all, but then the units you build in the beginning of the game are just as useful at the end of the game. In the end I payed full price for the game and I'm not complaining so I think that means I like it.

I'm fairly proficient with the COIN series and I drop 2-3 hours minimum per game solo play.

If you mean the War on Terror simulation from GMT then you've done pretty good. Volko Ruhnke does a great job with his games and the AI is particularly good in that it generally tries to make the game more interesting for the player by trying to f with the player rather than just 'winning.' If you enjoy that one I would suggest the COIN series that he designed. Everything post Andean Abyss has AI for all the factions so you have 4 choices on who to play for any game. I've never managed to win Cuba Libre against the AI and the AI in A Distant Plain (afganistan) is really fun to play against. I almost always bring one of the games with me on work trips so I have something to do in my hotel room.

I saw that down at the Breakside Brewery last week. It definitely solves lots of the problems with growlers. Not sure if I need one since I already have a nice vacuum flask growler and a kegerator but tempting.

But that NEW DIFFERENT GAME is an online all the time game and has features that require you to be online all the time, the company isn't going to make a whole new network for that one new game, they already have Battle.net, which every Blizzard game for the past decade or more has used. You don't even NEED to have the authenticator. Pax made the choice a long time ago to have an authenticator knowing full well it would be required to log in to his Battle.net account and then lost it. You're always going to have to trade convenience for security and given how much time/money WoW accounts are worth this seems like a total no-brainer. I guarantee you if Diablo had required a new login to a new service people would be complaining about having to remember 2 logins.

From the blizzard page that describes this process: If you're worried about the amount of work involved then just make a new email account, they're free. If you're worried about the data the employees would see then just black out the things they don't need. Having had people steal my WoW account when I was still playing WoW and knowing the value of some people's accounts that seems like a pretty reasonable route to me.

I don't see the fear either. If you really wanted you could just black out anything they didn't need to see.

Wargame: Red Dragon (the sequel) is so much better

I hate you FFG . . . really I do . . . . Take my money.

It uses CO2 cartridges of some sort

I've played it quite a few times. One of my favorites. Essentially each round the players get dealt a hand of cards. Each card can be played for the event, or a set of operations points (if the event is for the other player and you play it for the points the event goes off anyway). Using the points you can essentially try and influence a bunch of nations to be more in favor of your side of the cold war. You try and score points by having more nations favoring you in whatever region of the world happens to show up on the next scoring card (mixed into the deck). You essentially have only a general idea of which places will be important next (you do know during the early war that only Europe and Asia matter, as the war goes on more of the world comes into play on the scoring cards) and you're always trading off getting things done vs playing your own events and trying to avoid playing your opponent's events. Lots of fun.

Digital version of Twilight Struggle. Backed! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559431060/twilight-struggle-digital-edition?ref=discovery

Selling a bunch of old darkroom equipment to fund beer brewing equipment. Looking for about $400 http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/pho/4503211491.html Pretty much everything you need to get started printing photos in your own darkroom. I don't have room to set this up anymore and it needs to go. Selling: -Beseler 67SC Enlarger (35mm and Medium Format) --Works fine --both enlarger lenses in good condition --35mm and 6x6cm negative holder --Filter Holder --Multiple lenses (50mm, 75mm and 105mm) -Enlarger Filter Sets -Darkroom Automation F-Stop Timer (automatically turns on and off enlarger and darkroom light based on exposure times) -2 print easels for framing print -Dry Mount Press -Thermometers -2 Darkroom lights -2 Paper safes (for large photo paper and small paper, both still have paper inside) -Several boxes of photographic paper -Print Wash Tub -Contact Print maker for Print File Holders -Exposure Meter -Various Development trays -Containers for chemicals -Various measuring cups for chemicals