Hmm, is now a good time to snag Stranglehold?

And no assault mode...so disappointing.
Ah well, at least there were hoverboards!

It was bug-ridden as hell on release. After Patch 1.3, it's gotten okay, but...
But the major flaw was that that it was released more than a month before even a beta version of the Linux server was ready. For the next installment of a series whose player base runs nearly all their private servers on Linux servers, this is a game killer.
Go to http://www.game-monitor.com and see how many active UT3 servers there are, compared to how many active UT2004 servers there are. The numbers speak for themselves.

Looks like EA didn't do so hot this year (reason they moved to Steam?), Free Radical was killed off (TimeSplitters), and Aspyr (Stubbs the Zombie) are in trouble as well.

Aspyr is also the mac port king!
but I was going to also say, does anyone know where Midway offices are? if they do go out of business, you might be able to find yourself some neat gaming swag if they're selling it off or holding an auction or something.
Also, as far as timesplitters go, Dr. Doak apparently started a new gaming studio a few months before hand, which hired 50 some odd programmers from the Free Radical Team
PUMPKIN BEACH

Why would they want to disassociate themselves from TimeSplitters? =S

moar like Haze.
Also, maybe they're tired of the FPS genre? maybe it's time for casual puzzle time.

That's sad :(
Though one has to wonder how much that has to do with the fact that people kinda hate change.

Pretty much, actually. UT3 isn't half as bad as some people hold it to be.
It's true Epic changed direction, yes.
But really, it is very much the very same UT experience as UT2k4, only it is much more probable to run like crap on many PCs that run 2k4 without a hitch.
This pissed lotsa folks off. Lot higher system reqs, and really no major gameplay improvements. The biggest step up was graphics-wise.

Except for very few cases, I think the casual puzzle genre is wearing thin, also. A year or two ago I used to look forward to going to Big Fish every day to see what was new. But it's gotten so boring lately, that unless I hear of something quite different coming along, (a very rare occurrence), I can't be bothered.
Speaking of FPSs though, I finally bought Far Cry just recently, and am having a blast with it. It's one of the few games that has pulled me in enough to make me actually look forward to playing it all the way through. I might have considered buying the second one, if it wasn't for SecuROM. :(

But you're still going to play it, right? ; )

Deva, I really enjoyed Far Cry. Sure, it has it's issues, but overall it's a really well done shooter. Anyway, I HATED Far Cry 2. First off, it has nothing to do with the first game...nothing. Secondly, it just felt very 'hollow' to me. They spent a lot of time building an absolutely beautiful open world for you to explore, but they basically forgot to put any life in it. I found it annoying that, despite the fact there are 2 factions supposedly engaged in a war with one another, the one character in the game they show the slightest bit of interest in shooting at is you. And the missions grew very repetitive.
You might like it more than I did, but if you look at various player opinions online, you'll find that it's a very hit or miss game for pretty much everyone who's tried it.

Hmm, by that do you mean will I get it by other, less legal means? Naw, I don't do that. I've missed a lot of SecuROM games over the past year. (And saved hundreds of dollars in the process, so I guess there's an upside.) There's always something else to play, and that combined with work keeps me plenty busy. I do miss being able to play certain games though, and having to research what kind of DRM a game has before buying it. That's the real pain of it all.
Anyway, Merry Christmas. :)

Thanks for the review. Yes, I've read a mixture of thoughts on the game at Amazon, many like yours. But I have to admit I did want to play around with it just to see the graphics... it just looked so pretty, as you mention. It's unfortunate that the gameplay doesn't seem to live up to the first one to many people. Maybe they'll get it right with the Far Cry 3? (While hopefully losing SecuROM in the process.)
It's nice to see some companies doing DRM-free games like World of Goo and the just released Prince of Persia. I know the World of Goo makers said they had an 80-90% piracy rate, but I think that's not much different than a game with DRM, anyway. Hopefullly Prince of Persia will do well enough to show companies that DRM makes little difference when it comes to sales results. I've liked the series in the past and will buy it just to help support their "experiment."
Merry Christmas. :)

Yeah, I really wanted to like Far Cry 2...too bad it just didn't pan out. :(
It is nice to see some DRM-free material showing up, and I agree with you about the piracy rate...I think it's pretty much the same across the board.