Thanks, guys!

I just bought a joystick today, and it works just fine. I calibrated it, and got my first taste of real flying. It's the first time in my life that I'm playing a flight sim, or even any game with the joystick. I even miraculously managed to shoot down a German bomber in a quick mission training. But I don't understand what's the deal with German planes, crosshair always seems to be missing in a default cockpit view. What can I do to fix it? How can I zoom properly?

OK, I understand why she might be concerned about "killing" imaginary aliens on your monitor, but letting kids watch Sweeney Todd is just insane! I started to watch that movie with my younger sister (she's also 13, I'm 24), but I didn't let her to continue watching it with me as soon as I realized how bloody the movie was about to become, after half of an hour maybe. It's simply not a movie for those younger than 18, and with good reason. But compared to Sweeney Todd, Half-Life 2 seems like a kindergarden show.

Let me guess, I assume your mother also doesn't have a problem with you watching Saving Private Ryan, but freaks out when you tell her you want to play Call Of Duty...

I just bought IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles. But this is my first time with flight sims and I need some help. I'm still learning the ropes and I need some advice about how to aim properly and shoot down enemies. I don't have a joystick, but I do have a gamepad (very similar to that of a PS2), and it seems to work OK. But I still couldn't figure out how to zoom on my targets.

Anybody, please help!

You know what they say... Everybody needs a little paaaatience.

Get a PS3 and wait for Mercs 2. A lot of people I know have problems with X360, and repairs are not cheap. PS3 seems like a better choice to me, especially when it comes to quality and reliability of the console itself.

DEFCON: Everybody Dies. A multiplayer game where you play a role of high-end military buff in a nuclear bunker, just before the nuclear holocaust breaks out. You command your troops, control nuclear bombers and ICBMs, all while you're staring at the map of the world, showing yours and enemies' forces. Every round inevitably ends up in a thermonuclear war, where you try to score more than your opponents (killing more people with the nukes, that is). The game is pretty dark, and the sound effects are absolutely terrific, making you believe you're really in a nuclear bunker, deep below the ground during 1960s.

Deffinitly a multiplayer game worth playing...

My usual toughts are "Man, I'd kill for a cup of coffee" or "Oh, heck, I forgot to feed Kya", hehehe...

Kya is my dog, by the way.

Oh, come now, don't be so hard. I played Blood 2 and Thrill Kill when I was 13, and I never turned out to be a killer or anything like that. I think people give to much credit to video games, when it comes to turning normal kids into psychos. Sure, some games really ARE for mature audience, but I don't see a reason why a 13-year-old shouldn't play Half-Life 2 or Farcry (none of those games is rated 18, as far as I know). The trouble starts when a kid spends too much time playing video games, and when parents don't pay attention to it. So kids can easilly become video game addicts. But that's why the parents are here to make sure their kids don't go too far with video games. It's the parents who need to spend time with their kids and, if worse comes to worst, see where they went wrong with their kid and try to fix it, instead of simply blaming "violence in video games" for what messed up their kids.

Let's face it, there are very few games today that are rated 18, many FPS games are OK for young kids to play. It makes a lot of difference if a kid plays Soldier of Fortune 2 (a game famous for it's gruesome violence) or Farcry (which is not so violent after all, come to think of it). So... parents, be mindful of your kids and don't let them spent too much time with video games. Also, make sure to know how much violence there actually is in a certain FPS game before you label it "unfit for kids". In my opinion, that would be Soldier of Fortune, Sniper Elite, Thrill Kill, God Of War, Resident Evil 4 and some similar games. Half-Life 2, Farcry, SWAT 4, Operation Flashpoint are mostly OK, not much blood in it. In SWAT 4, you even score more points for disarming a bad guy without firing a shot. So...don't be too hard on games, eh?

I'd recommand Fallout 3 and Farcry 2. Simply because Fallout 2 and Farcry are one of my fevorite games ever, I simply doubt anything can be better then their sequels (altough I'm a bit sceptical about new Fallout).

Go, Jack Carver, go!!!!! ;-)