8x AA is more than enough, actually anything over 4x is. If you notice jaggies with 4x AA on then you're not actually playing a game. It's a scam because it's going to lure people into buying NVIDIA cards because they think they need this super duper ultimate AA.
There is some site floating around that tells you what you need for all the unlocks and awards, but it's pretty inaccurate for the awards. It says you need something like 4,000 hours (just shy of a half year) of global play time in a tank to get the highest tank award.
Auto updates are a good thing for a few reasons. For one, you don't have to wait in line to download. Now I realize some people try to be "hardcore" and pretend they'd rather wait in line to download or download at a slower rate, but in reality this is beneficial to everyone. Secondly, having...
Let's just say you had to be there. I've had plenty of gaming experience in pubs and leagues and I can tell the difference between skill players and cheaters. He was obviously cheating.
To make a map you need to download the SDK off of Steam, and that's all you really need. You can use photoshop to make the textures. Modeling is nowhere nearly the same as mapping and if you're only interested in mapping just do that, don't waste your time making models.
I enjoyed the game too, but I think that's because it was ahead of its time. When compared to modern FPSs (as this will) it won't be nearly as popular nor seem as good.
I don't think it will mean much for Valve, it's just a way for them to sell boxed copies. They don't need EA's money to develop future games so EA won't be able to push them to meet a deadline. I'm sure somewhere in the contract it states that EA can't try to rush game development.
http://www.steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html
http://www.csports.net/(gjjaee55urh5j3ubbalbvv55)/TopGames.aspx
http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/ <- Only good for BF2, but most likely inflated