It's coming: http://www.civilization5.com/ . This fall. Awesome.

Our fair website is up for renewal this month. Rance discovered that the hosting price went up this year. He managed to call our hosting and get them to essentially match last year's price. I'm grateful for his effort but I'd also like to ask all of you that visit for some help.

I realize that facebook and twitter have decreased site traffic, but I think most core member would agree that hawkandsabre.com is not something we want to loose. Its a nice thing to have when those rare games, topics, or events inspire lengthy conversations. If you agree, I humbly ask you to donate any small amount you feel is appropriate. $3, $4, $5, $6,841. Any little bit would help Rance and me cover the costs.

Please send to my paypal account: dillon75.ebay@gmail.com

Normally, I wouldn't even ask, but, hey, tough times all over, right?

Warning: This Thread will have spoilers. Lots of them. Tons of them. All of Them. Also praise, accolades, complaints, speculation, and salivating over the mere concept of Mass Effect 3.

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I make few aplogies for my gaming habits. They are not done to the detriment of my children or family. I do not forsake the outside world, friends or other relationships. It is my most important form of entertainment and my most cherished hobby. I want to experience the most out of said hobby. I want to milk quality games of all the enjoyment (and, yes, achievements) that I can. To than end, I started thinking about what I would like to experience with games in the coming months. In a perfect world where time and money were of no object, what would I want to play?

I thought some of use might want to share our top games of the year. Given that we are not always on the cutting edge of gaming releases, the game doesn't need to have been released in '09, just played and enjoyed in '09.

Here are my personal top NINE of '09

I recently read an ME2 story in Game Informer that was relatively free of major plot spoilers and was more exciting to me that the recent preview impressions posted online. It contains information I had not seen elsewhere. I've had this issue of GI for a while and just stumbled other the story this week. Being a slower print publication, this article has been out there for a month or more. Odd.

 I’ve had some thoughts. I feel well versed in MW2 after playing through the single player and spending a considerable amount of time on the multiplayer. These thoughts are often heady realizations about the message of the game and the choices it makes through the immature medium of video games. Likewise, these thoughts are also basic critiques of mechanics and simple functionality. I’m not sure than anyone will read them, but here they are.

I was jonsing for some strategy/simulation lovin' this past weekend. I went on to Steam and browsed around for a bit and found this hidden gem: Dawn of Discovery. I browsed the screenshots, read some reviews and decided "What the hell...". I ponied up my $50 and waited for the 4 gigs to download.

When the download was finished, I fired up the campaign. The graphics are, in a word, stunning. I'm running it on 1920 x 1200 with an ATI Radeon 4670. The oceans are awesome just to look at!

It's been a while since Hawk and Sabre had a solid multiplayer game that we have played on Live. This fall looks promising. What are some games with clan multiplayer potential?

These have been mentioned:

• Worms 2: Armageddon (now)
• Section 8 (8/25)
• Halo 3: ODST (9/22)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (11/10)

What else is on the horizon?