This month at VETERANS-GAMING February's contests and prizes are posted. Congratulations to last months winners! You guys have some great prizes on the way like a TurtleBeach X12 Gaming Headset,Razer DeathAdder Infrared Gaming Mouse and Men of War Complete Pack for PC! Unfortunately nobody won the Seagate Barracuda 500GB Hard Drive, so it's re-listed again this month!

CONTEST DETAILS

Grand Prizes (Feb 2012) : (1) Company of Heroes Complete Pack; Includes 3 items: Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor; (1) Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive ST3500418AS-Bare Drive; (1) Killing Floor Bundle Edition, Bundle Includes 7 items; (1) Free Copy of Garry’s Mod

Please read full contest rules and eligibility info at: http://www.veterans-gaming.com/page.php?214

Hi everyone!

A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game.  You were heard.

On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday.  See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.

This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled.  “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”

“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added."  

Tweet with us, shout on the internet with us, let's celebrate: Round of applause to the 13 million people who stood up  - #PIPA and #SOPA are tabled 4 now. #13millionapplause

Source: FightfortheFuture

Tomorrow, January 18th, 2012, will be the largest internet protest in history. Thousands of sites across the internet, including some of the biggest in the world, will be blacking out and directing people to contact Congress to kill the web censorship bill, SOPA and PIPA. We want to get you involved.

Join us on the historic day by blacking out your site. Copy the code below and paste it into the header of your theme (WordPress users: use the SOPA Strike plugin) to black your site out in protest of SOPA/PIPA. It will activate automatically on Jan. 18th, displaying this page and directing visitors to contact Congress, and will deactivate at the end of the day.

<script type="text/javascript">var a=new Date,b=a.getHours()+a.getTimezoneOffset()/60;if(18==a.getDate()&&0==a.getMonth()&&2012==a.getFullYear()&&13<=b&&24>=b)window.location="http://sopastrike.com/strike";</script>

In just 7 days, the Senate will vote on forever altering the free and open internet by instituting a new regime of extra-judicial, corporate-led website takedowns. This is a fundamental fight about who has power in society -- the people with the means to communicate freely or the governments and corporations that feel threatened.

10 November 1921:

This date marked the first formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps as 10 November. On 21 October 1921, Maj Edwin McClellan, OIC of the Historical Section, HQMC, sent a memo to MajGen Commandant John A. Lejeune, suggesting that the original birthday of 10 November 1775 be declared a Marine Corps holiday to be celebrated throughout the Corps. Accordingly, on 1 Nov 1921, Gen Lejeune issued Marine Corps Order No. 47 summarizing the history, mission, and tradition of the Corps, and directed that it be read to every command each 10 November.

Today in Marine Corps History. Happy Birthday Marines!

8 November 1990:

President Bush announced that he planned to add more than 200,000 U.S. troops to those already deployed in Operation Desert Shield in the Persian Gulf area. The number of Marines in the area would be doubled by the addition of II MEF units from the Corps' east coast bases, and the 5th MEB from California. Within the next two months, Marine strength in the objective area would increase to nearly 90,000 Marines.

Today in Marine Corps History.

Own a Gun? Please Keep This Moving

Guess they were not happy with the poll results the first time, so USA today is running another one (Poll) ... vote now.

Attorney General, Eric Holder, has already said this is one of his major issues. He does not believe the 2nd Amendment gives individuals the right to bear arms. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then pass the link on to all the pro-gun folks you know. Hopefully, these results will be published later this month. This upcoming year will become critical for gun owners with the Supreme Court's accepting the District of Columbia case against the right for individuals to bear arms.

Here's what you need to do:

First - vote on this: http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Second - launch it to other folks and have THEM vote - then we will see if the results get published.

Thanks to Gun lovers everywhere! Please Share, Share, Share!!

Greetings gamers,

Tripymonk from the =R= Clan (Response Clan) sent me this video. (Thanks Tripy) It was waiting for me on XFire as I sat at my pc with my morning coffee. It's the Bro Team Pill Review of Battlefield 3. As I watched this video I almost spewed coffee all over the place! This video completely hilarious (if you enjoy this sort of thing), but it's not for kiddies. 18+ Content Rating, but the banter is funny. I hope you like it. I love Battlefield 3! But It does have it's moments, so I know you can relate.

Caution Adult Language.

1 November 1983:

300 Marines of the 22d Marine Amphibious Unit staged an amphibious and helicopter landing on the island of Carriacou, 15 miles northeast of Grenada, in a search for Cuban military installations or personnel. 17 Grenadian soldiers were captured, and arms, ammunition, and training sites were found. The next day the 22d MAU left the Caribbean area and proceeded to Beirut, Lebanon to replace the 24th MAU.

Today in Marine Corps History.

31 October 1919:

A patrol of Marines and gendarmes, led by Sergeant Herman H. Hanneken, disguised themselves as Cacos and entered the headquarters of the Haitian Caco Leader, Charlemagne Peralte, killing the bandit chief, and dispersing his followers. Sergeant Hanneken and Corporal William R. Button were each awarded the Medal of Honor.

Today in Marine Corps History.

OK, so how excited were you....really?

I mean I was pretty damn exited, but now that's it's been a few days, I'm not so excited anymore. In fact, I'm pretty freaking depressed to see so many of the things I loved with BF2, either changed or non-existent in BF3.
Let's start with Co-op. Every version of BF Co-op has been 32 players until this latest release. I love Co-op and find it much more enjoyable than Deployment, but what did we get...2 players ftw. Pffft. (Read above article on more about that!)

So, I'm looking past Co-op and off to Delployment, ready to play in a server that I have rented, only to find out I need 7 more people to join me before I can even move around the map. Yup, that's right folks. Remember with Battlefield 2 how you could still battle with people while waiting for the set number of players to join? Say for example, if only 2 guys were in the server, at least they could still fight each other and use the assets while waiting for the game to begin. With Battlefield 3 DICE thought they would make it so you cannot move anywhere on the map until the game actually starts. It's what I've named "Quicksanding" and I am not impressed! In fact I hate it! I've forked out over $80 USD for a 64 Player Server that I can't do anything in unless I can find 7 more people to join me. Why not at least allow us to use the assets so we can practice in the vehicles!

Basically, leave it like it was with BF2! I've paid good money to Host a Ranked BF3 Server that I can't even use. Who was the person that thought this was a good idea?

So...who cares about that shit anyway, it's the game play we really care about. Well guess what, you get boned there too. There is NO way for the Squad Leader to manage his squad. No invites, no pairing up with pals, no easy way to find your friends in the game, or get them into your squad. Now considering BF3 is all about MP for most people, for DICE not to have thought about this and implimented features for us to use to get connected is a sad oversight. (Off topic: And why only 4 man squads? A real USMC Infantry squad is 13 members. It consists of 3, 4-man Fire Teams and a Sqaud Leader. To have a game based off the USMC and then to NOT organize the game play to match as such, is not only a disappointment, but it just seems wrong. Granted, the average teenage nasty doesn't know the difference, but if the ultimate goal was full immersion, then why not do everything you can to make it (feel) right?

They (DICE) included most of the assets we (USMC) use, but then they totally overlook (intentionally I'm sure) this aspect of game play! Proper organization of a Marine Corps Squad, Task Organization (TO), and the ability to communicate with them!

When it comes to creating TO, BF3 has failed IMO. Don't worry though, you're not the first. However, I hope you get it right next time. Here's an idea, how about adding a spot for a Navy Corpsman to serve as the Medics and not USMC!

We (USMC) use Navy Corpsman as our Medics, why not take a few extra minutes and model the Medic after a Corpsman and not a Marine! Make them (Corpsman) their own squad and make it so they have to attach themselves to an Infantry Squad before they can spawn. Each Squad should get a medic (that has the revive ability), but each member of the Squad should still have the ability for self-aid and buddy aid to get their health up until the Corpsman can get to them. This is a simple change, but it adds so much more to game play if you ask me.

There are so many changes DICE could make that would really make BF3 more like a Sim and less like a game. I know all the kiddies love the eye candy (as I) and exaggerated game play, but there are some of use that prefer something more realistic than that. If BF3 met Project Reality, that would be the perfect fit. (but PR has TO issues itself, but those can be fixed)

Anyway, I'm trying to love you Battlefield 3, I really am. I'll give you a few more weeks and see how things go. Check back for more then!