I flipped through the books at the store today. I wasn't super-impressed with the presentation of the books, but that didn't give me much feel for the game itself. I did get the impression that the game is totally, totally divergent from any previous edition.

And uh, I also got it on pdf from a guy at work. So I can start reading through it sooner rather than later I guess....

I guess the thing that I've realized about 4th ed is that I don't care that much if it's good or not. If it's good: great! let's play it. If it's not that good: who cares, we have literally dozens of other great RPGs between us. I kinda feel like I've got WFRP and Savage Worlds and heck, the D&D Rules Cyclopedia as "safety" games. I have more fun games than I have time to play. So, if the new release of D&D spurs us to get together and play that's wonderful but I'm certainly not gonna be bothered if the game sucks as long as we go to something else that is good. I mean we haven't even finished the Vault of the Iron God Savage Worlds game I was running at Gencon two years ago....

Couple random thoughts:
1. Denis, hasn't D&D always had a minis focus? I mean not so much basic D&D but look at 1st ed. Every single measurement in that game is in inches (representing squares on a battle map). That said, I really hope the game is playable without miniatures. I always felt like if a battle required us to break out the minis that it always took away from the drama of the battle and automatically made it a more cerebral experience. That isn't always bad but usually isn't what I want.
2. I don't want to play DM-less D&D, that's not what it's about for me at all. I mean, I already have Warhammer Quest and Descent road to legend, and those games don't have rulebooks adding up to like a thousand pages long....
3. I like the idea of the online stuff, I think it's great. I have heard the actual implementation is pretty poor at the moment though.
4. We should get together for some role-playing fun! I can probably get clearance to host, one of these weekends... perhaps another JonCon is in order?

Not about D&D
They're making a Watchmen movie. I hope it's cool. Anyway they're starting to release some sort of marketing bits for it... I thought this was pretty cool.