Ok, I've made the second payment. So I'll probably receive some kind of confirmation, and a few weeks before we go, we'll get all kinds of detailed information about the cottage and more stuff.

As an update, Open Source is actually happening.

Not much going on yet, but you can download and get in game again already. No new content than what we've already seen.

This time my pessimistic estimate of end-of-2010 turned out to be actually pessimistic, wow!

It's .com. I'm not aware if there are any hotmail addresses ending in .nl these days, but I'm sure there was only the .com version a gazillion years ago when I created this address in my very early teens .

Bill just came in, I'll need you all to send me the first part very quickly, as it needs to be paid before the first of January 2010.

First, I'll need everyone to send Eur. 38,10, before January 1st 2010 (that's in a few days :S)

Then, later on you'll need to send me Eur. 67, before 15 May 2010.

Maybe a stupid reminder, but that only counts for the 8 people who will be staying at the cottage, of course . If anyone is camping at Nuala's parents' place, they'll only need to worry about the costs of travel and such.

Contact me by e-mail for account number (Asphodel_Nebula is the handle, it's a hotmail account so you know what to put after the @).

If anyone is late and we have to cover for you I'll charge interest .

Edit: l'll scan the booking confirmation after christmas, if you want to see it, send me a mail and I'll e-mail it to you).

It's always a shame when your estimate turned out to be overly optimistic, while you were actually trying to be a bit pessimistic so as to not let people down.

However, I'm sure there are  also illegal servers up again somewhere like Until URU of the old days, in case anyone feels an urge to go play.

Oh yes, as for the graphics:

they don't appear to have a middle setting. If you can run them on high, they look quite beautiful, but if you can't, the game immediately looks rather bad.
Since I can run them on high, I've always thought the game was gorgeous, and I didn't know what people were talking about until I saw other people posting screenshots.
Then again, they're not horrible on low settings or anything, and the game itself is worth below-expectation graphics.

I'll post a comparison once the game goes live of my own shots and someone else's.

Nice. Did you pre-order in a store that gives early access or are you waiting until the 22nd?

Even though it was optional during the booking, they're now asking to know everyone's birthdates after all.

So, I need them, and kind of today.

Time to admit to your ages .

I pre-booked this one, it's pretty good all around, good price (although it can change come January 1st next year, but it's unlikely to be much more expensive), well located (should be pretty close to Souspierre), has room for more than 8 if push comes to shove (it's in two parts, one part can house 6 max, and the other 4 max, and since we're with 8 anyway, both parts are already ours so we could add two more).

But the reservation shows me as male even though I clearly chose my gender as female in the booking form :S.

Edit: I figured you all might want to see what we get:
http://www.topictravel.nl/vakantiehuis/ … -08-2009/7  (in Dutch, but you can figure it out or use a crap translator)
Which is located here :  ok, maps can't be linked it seems, but enter Bourdeaux (Drôme, France), and maybe also Souspierre (Drôme, France) in google maps or whatnot.

Edit 2: Oh yeah, and I had to fill in all your names and we didn't know them all, so two of you are now called Mr. and Ms. Vuller.

Anything that late would make it a July week, which means the prices instantly soar up.

I can try for the 19-26 week, but otherwise me + BF will be cancelling.

Yes they do, or they'll be automatically excluded from the cottage at least, can't risk everyone having to pay extra if they weren't really really certain.