FuzzyTummyRumblings

I Need to replace my theme but I'm done waiting.
I'm adding a few new fun things here. Some re-curring themes and an adult content warning. No... No pr0n but plenty of foul language and divisive, political/religious/racial stuff. I'm going to offend people here. Maybe you.
Get over it.

So- without further hesitation: A game review and an angry rant about Ford.

I've been playing Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (DoW) lately. I'm almost done with my first campaign and I have to say I'm fairly impressed. There seems to be enough of a table game feel that you know it's not a linear system like most campaigns. You get to choose where to do the next move, etc. The coolest thing is that there is actual strategy. Let me explain:
Most strategy games would be more aptly labeled as tactics games. Tactics win a battle while strategy wins a war. In most RTS games, you are a tactical commander but the game is fairly (or completely) linear and thus real strategy isn't part of it. In DoW, you get to pick which battles to fight and where. You can choose to invest your forces in a fight for a territory that will give you X bonus or Y bonus. You can choose to fight anywhere that makes sense to you from a truly strategic standpoint.
The other standout feature is that it has a MUCH lower unit limit than most RTS games. You get unit cap and vehicle cap of about 20 each but some units are as high as 5 cap each. Again, this stems from the table game origin. Nobody wants to deal with moving 700 little plastic dudes. The coolest part is that one or two units can literally change the entire tide of a fight. Balance is important because of this aspect. In most games, a simple infantry unit can win a war just by having hundreds of them. Zerg rush anybody? But having a full group of a single unit can be a horrible waste of resources in DoW if they get wiped out by a couple units designed to counter them and because you can only have so few units, the balance of offense and defense becomes incredibly delicate.
Cliffs: This game is great, the graphics, gameplay and sound are top notch but it won't appeal to everybody. It's MUCH more difficult than most games in its class but I'd recommend it.

Now- onto my bitching about Ford.
Ford put out a Press Release today. Whoops!
Cliffs of the press release: We won't be turning a profit this year either. If things go well we'll be breaking even next year. Reason?
"North American car production increased and truck production reduced for remainder of 2008 to reflect the continuation of rapid changes in customer buying preferences."
see that? Rapid Changes. Now, in some industries, four to six years could be seen as rapid. In an industry where a model's design life is... 4-6 years, that's not really the case. Nuclear Power? Four years is an eyeblink. Computers? It's three generations. With cars, it doesn't really classify as rapid.
When I was a car salesman in Denver, the local Chevy and Ford dealerships had to rent out vacant parking lots to house the SUVs and trucks they couldn't get off their lot. This was in 2004. Four years ago the trend was dieing. Two years ago it was in a "rapid decline." Smart car companies adapted to that. Toyota put out hybrid versions of their vehicles and started revamping their sedans. Honda put out smaller SUVs and more cars. Hyundai spent millions on totally redesigning their line of sedans. Toyota launched Scion- which ONLY makes small cars... Chevy made a new suburban. Ford made a new Expedition...
Hello! McFly!

Seriously. no fucking sympathy. My sympathy goes to anybody who bought stock in Ford. And then only if you bought it at least 5 years ago. As soon as they started giving away cars, you shoulda known something was up.