SteveThaiBinh

I don't think you can, which is why I assumed he was talking about Afghanistan. The departure of the Soviets in 1988/9 was a pivotal moment in that country's history. I don't think the collapse of communism itself had much effect in the Muslim world other than removing the Soviet Union, obstensibly pro-Arab and anti-Israeli, as a big player in international affairs. Edit: Agreed.

No, I think they all died out. Revan turned evil and destroyed half the galaxy to prepare it to repel a greater threat, and the threat was dead already. You should have seen the look on her face when I told her. Whoops!

For 'Islam' read 'Afghanistan'.

If you try to impose democracy, it may not work. It may lead to the very idea of democracy being associated with the Western invaders, and leave pro-democracy activitists branded as traitors. On the other hand, so many Iraqi people voted in the elections, many at risk to their own lives, I'm not sure this is purely an imposition of democracy any more. Iraqis have at least accepted it as a system they're prepared to work with. If you don't try to impose (let's say 'foster' instead) democracy, and rely on traditional systems of government, then the traditionally voiceless - women, religious minorities and others - will remain voiceless. Mixing democracy and Islam is not an easy task - Turkey has been struggling with it for decades and still hasn't perfected it - but it's a worthwhile endeavour, one that the Iraqis will do better without too much outside meddling, I think.

I bought one a week or so ago. Folks on this board strongly recommended the GeForce6800, and it looked pretty good, but after searching on a dozen different websites it became clear that the AGP version was out of stock everywhere (this is in the UK, elsewhere might be different). My guess would be that the manufacturers or suppliers or whatever don't want to sell high-end AGP cards because they want everyone to switch to PCI-E as soon as possible. I ended up getting a GeForce 6600GT instead. The 'GT' apparently is important, or at least costs more than a plain 6600. It's great. The units in Civ4 actually move through the terrain, rather than teleporting directly to their destination.

Surely not. Firaxis did a good job of making it politically correct, and so avoided seeing the release of the game getting tangled up with a row involving some of the more extreme Christian groups in the US, who are the most likely to notice a game release and make a fuss. Now that this hurdle is safely overcome, it's time to let religion develop. It's a genuine success of the game - for me, it's the biggest factor in making each game different to the last and so sustaining interest in the long term. It has a lot more potential.

Listen to it meowing incessantly because it wants to be fed/cuddled/let out. Well done on the conversion. This is important work. The larger and more varied the gaming community, the greater protection we have against the likes of Jack Thompson and the politicians in thrall to them.

I doubt that merely discussing it could be considered grounds for impeachment, though I know little of US law in this regard, having avoided the whole Monica Lewinsky thing like the plague. If Bush had actually bombed al-Jazeera, it might well have been grounds for legal action. However, relatives of those killed when NATO bombed a TV station in Belgrade tried to bring their case to the European Court of Human Rights. It was declared inadmissible because Yugoslavia had not signed the European Human Rights Convention. Alas, international law is sadly lacking in many regards, and allows many governments literally to get away with murder.

No, seriously. What is this 'dentist appointment' of which you speak?

And that's the problem. It can't really be an RPG unless you have the choice to do bad as well as good (arguably an RPG should have much more choice than this, and this is the bare minimum), and if your King David is allowed to wander around massacring the innocent like some Sith Lord, would it still be considered a Christian game?

Who, me? I'm just saying, it was interesting how they were quite happy to give attributes to civilizations in Civ3 or leaders in Civ4 (which is just another way of giving them to the civilization, in my opinion), yet they were so cautious about religion. They probably worked on that message in the manual for weeks. OK, it's probably wise not to come straight out and say that a particular religion is aggressive, or benefits agriculture, or so on. We don't want a holy war in real life. So why not have the religions gain different bonuses during the game according to who founded them, or the behaviour of the founding civ. So if, for example, the founder of Taoism is then the first civ to circumnavigate the globe, Taoism itself gains some maritime bonuses which also are passed on to other civs, or cities, with that religion.

It'd be great to be able to download games. It's the perfect solution for me, but is it more reliable than when I foolishly purchased from www.trygames.com? That was a bad experience that I hope never to repeat.

One for the expansion pack, I think - customisable religions. I wonder if they'll ever be brave enough to give the different religions attributes of their own.

Yes. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No! Well, actually, yes, but then I feel so guilty that I reload the game and let the guy live. I'm a failure as a role-player.

I've never been able to get my humanity down at all. I just feel guilty - it's even worse than playing Kotor 2 as a darksider. So my question was, are there any good dialogue options or other things that open up when your humanity is low? If there's considerable new content, I might be able to force myself.

The insurgents/terrorists have shown repeatedly that they are prepared to see heavy Iraqi civilian casualties resulting from their actions. Alas, this is nothing new. The US at least makes some effort to reduce civilian casualties, though arguably they should do more. Soldiers should not be handing out gifts to children. That should be left to humanitarian workers or hospital officials. It exposes the children to an unnecessary risk, given that US soldiers are a prime target for insurgent attacks.

I think Take That have realised that their old fan base are now largely professional women/men in their 20s/30s with high disposable income. I'm sure they'll milk it for all it's worth, though I'm a little surprised, as I thought they were still in denial about their solo careers going nowhere.

I like this site, which gives Christian reviews of mainstream games, and even gives a Christian rating. I wonder who's responsible for starting all these forest fires.

His defence would be that he obviously wasn't trying to kill the guy, because you couldn't miss by accident at such close range. If this is old news, was he eventually convicted?

I think so, too. However, while FoxNews is a step down for the US, which used to have, and may still have, serious intelligent journalism, it's a massive step up for the Arab world accustomed to state-controlled TV that tells obvious lies. Didn't NATO bomb a TV station in Belgrade during the action over Kosovo? That was around the same time they bombed the Chinese embassy 'by accident'.

I feel sad for George Best and for his family. His career was before my time, and the thing I most remember him for was being drunk on a TV chat show (possibly Wogan?). I also feel sad because the news is going to be full of this for days, rather than, for example, George Bush's desire to bomb Qatar or the likely failure of our power supplies this winter.

So, in the finished LifeGem (DeathGem?), what proportion of the matter would be from the cremated ashes? Moreover, I think that most of the ashes you get back are from the coffin rather than the body.

I voted water. Half cat, half fish, so the cat would keep eating its tail, with serious philosophical ramifications. Very cool!

As if we'd need an excuse. 24-hour binge drinking is only days away. (w00t)

The only thing that matters is that you think you're right.