Definitely agree it's cool.  Still, it nearly gave me a heart attack when I saw two of them drifting around in the Sol system.

I can hear sound, but can't see a picture.  Is there a codec I'm missing or something?

Weird enough to run into a Slylandro Probe wandering around a star system... even weirder to encounter two of them.  At SOL.  Has anyone seen this happen before?  Is it a bug?  A really bizarre buried feature?

PCs have always been the only real way to multiplay anything. That's right, Goldeneye and Mario Kart are fundamentally flawed because you can see your opponent's screens. "Online play" and "consoles" do not belong in the same sentence. The Xbox would be a worthless console except for two things: 1) The best specs of all three systems making it the best choice for anything multi-platform, 2) Ninja Gaiden. The only fullscale RPG for the PS2 I remember playing was Final Fantasy X. Otherwise it was all about Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Prince of Persia or Grand Theft Auto. None of which are RPGs in the proper sense.

P.S.: I am simply APPALLED that a discussion of the merits of the various consoles has gotten this far without mention of Eternal Darkness, Pikmin, or Ico.

While fun, all three of those were way, WAY too short for me to bring into a serious discussion.

I don't see how the ability to see one's opponent's screen is a "fundamental flaw".  That's simply part of that kind of game.  Just because two things are different doesn't mean that one has to necessarily be better than another; personally, I find games where you can see the other person's screen more fun, because you can see and hear his reactions to what you're doing, which adds a certain malicious thrill.  But that's my personal preference; it doesn't mean that one way is better than another.

It's the same thing about length.  Ico packed more fun into its hour and a half, in my opinion, than the last four Final Fantasy games had in their collective 150 hours.  So, in my opinion, it was a better buy than all of them.

The way I always imagined Hyperspace working was that it was another, much younger universe -- still red-hot and much smaller than ours because it wasn't that long after the Big Bang.  You don't really travel any faster there, but space is much smaller, so a few meters in HyperSpace can translate into a million meters in TrueSpace.  QuasiSpace is even faster, and green, because it's even younger and therefore smaller and hotter.  And that's why HyperSpace is full of all those weird bursts and whirly bits: it's chunks of matter forming and breaking apart in a high-energy environment.  Anyway, that's why you have drag in HyperSpace: all the matter in the universe is crammed into a fairly small space, and therefore relatively dense.

All of that is, of course, completely made up by yours truly.

Anyway, I always thought the twelve ships were because it's a Precursor tug, and it's pulling them along with some kind of tractor-beamy thing (much weaker than the Chmmr beam, so it's not useful in combat).  There's a limit of 12 because it only has twelve beams, and you need one per ship, no matter what size the ship is.

Guess what?  Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all exist, and all three are making good profits.  It is possible for more than one company to make similar products: look at computer printers, or breakfast cereals, or any of a thousand other products that have three, five, or a thousand companies all making variations on the same thing.

For the previous generation, the XBox was hands-down the best console for online play, which I don't do.  The PS2 was the best for RPGs, of which I'm getting bored.  And the GameCube was the best for quirkiness and retro stuff, which I found most appealing.  But if you like RPGs, the PS2 was far away your best bet (that or the GBA, which is the most bizarre thing in the history of gaming).  And if you like FPS, sports games, or online play, the XBox would be the way to go.  And if you like more than one?  Just buy more than one console!

P.S.: I am simply APPALLED that a discussion of the merits of the various consoles has gotten this far without mention of Eternal Darkness, Pikmin, or Ico.

Just downloaded and played UQM over the last week... first time I'd played SC2 in YEARS.  Ye cats I love this game.

Does anybody else think the game would be much, much funnier if you swapped the images for the Syreen and the VUX?

Also, does anybody from the old Star Control Writers' Collective post 'round these parts?  Does that still exist anywhere?

-Froborr d'Wiggy