alanschu

I said I didn't find them "insanely annoying." I will say this about Fallout though...it was one of the first games where I didn't reload after an NPC died.

I found the NPCs in Fallout to be so frustrating that I typically played the game solo. The only ones I didn't find insanely annoying were the ones that either fired single shot weapons, or were melee (though they'd frequently run in MY way). The funny thing is, if an RPG came out today with NPCs that acted the way they did, it'd be criticized for it. And I'm guessing that if Fallout 3 did it, the Fallout "purists" would be up in arms, despite the fact that it'd be an excellent job of adhering to the flavour of the original.

I remember MAD Magazine had a funny spoof of the sport with "Statistics the NBA won't admit to" They included stats such as the grade of Pat Riley's Hair Gel (5w30), the number of women Wilt Chamberlain has slept with since you started reading this article (4), the shortest last minute of a basketball game (4.2 minutes), and the most teeth pulled out of Bill Laimbeer's elbow in a single quarter (12) :D

That's like wishing the rest of us turned into ocelots due to magical space beam. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> *Gasp* Orbital mind-control lasers! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sounds like a game of Illuminati.

Krookie said straight up that basketball is a non contact sport. He's later qualified it as "no/limited contact" sport. As for the FIBA game, the Greeks played a fantastic game against the United States, and their Semi-final game was not particularly "soft." Both teams shot over 30 freethrows. Fortunately for Greece, they were absolutely on fire that game. It's hard to lose when you're making more than 60% of your shots. They also hit their first 13 shots of the second half. It's hard to win when even if you play good defense, the other team still finds a way to cash the shot.

And I'm just making the point that that is probably only really prevalent in weaker (i.e. younger) leagues. My Grade 7 basketball was much more no touch than my Grade 12 Senior Varsity league. I wasn't even allowed to arm bar when I was in Grade 7, but in Grade 12 the arm bar was pretty much a forearm shiver. In Grade 9 I played low post, and pretty much the only time I wasn't making contact with another player was in transition or when playing help side defense. When I got to high school, I was shifted to guard (mostly for height reasons). If I happened to be checking a good perimeter player, I got the joy of running off of screens set by guys that are 8 inches taller than me, and probably 100 lbs heavier. And I still had box out responsibilities for defensive rebounding, so unless the other team turns the ball over, I'm bumping into someone every time their team shoots the ball. If you don't find it physical enough then that's fine, I just don't particularly care for those that call it a pansy sport. To be honest, I find playing in the low post in basketball to be remarkably similar to playing in front of the net in hockey. There's going to be a lot of bumping and jostling for position, and those that aren't willing to work hard and don't want to shy away from the physical contact weren't particularly successful. Some of my favourite memories from high school was playing floor hockey against people that teased me because of how much basketball I played, and their misconceptions for how soft the game is. I never played organized ice hockey (I am a weak skater), but I did find it hilarious that the guys that played defense for the local team (I have no idea what the division was....I would have been 15-17 years old) had such a hard time keeping me underwraps when I played in front of the net. They had to resort to crosschecking me in the back. The best was in a road hockey (read: vicious) game when one of them talked about how he was going to show me what it meant to play a "man's sport" and all it took to get him off my back was a small elbow to his gut. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but he quit flapping his beak at me after that (of course I tried that to a different guy, and all it resulted in was a huge crosscheck into my lower back). Does it have as much contact as say (American) Football...of course not. But just because the guy gets a foul when he elbows me in the face, doesn't mean that that contact is some how "soft." Every time you drive the basket you should expect to make contact with the other team. If you don't, then the other team is playing poor defense.

You can. And depending on the coaching strategy, it can sometimes be encouraged. EDIT: Laozi: It wasn't 100% clear, but I'm not saying that on the whole European players play a different, more finesse style of play. I'm sure it's pretty true for hockey as well. It's just the "captain" comment that irks me

I remember playing the demo of Sanitarium, and thought it was neat. Never had a chance to pick it up though.

Yeah, Europeans are pretty famous for being really soft at the game of basketball, shying away from contact. It really is almost a completely different game over here. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This image seems to carry over into hockey as well. I've lost track of how many times I've gritted my teeth at stupid people making dumb statements like "No team has ever won the Stanley Cup with a European Captain!"

Must just be a different style of game over there than over here. Moving your feet on defense is how you avoid getting fouls on defense, because if you get into position before the offensive player, you're not going to get a foul. Though playing in any league without a referee is typically going to be more physical. The same could be said for any sport. When I talked about moving up leagues, it was moving through leagues that still had carded officials. The main reason why I didn't move past high school was because I lacked strength. It wasn't possible for me to take advantage of mental errors (such as not putting a body on me when rebounding) since the players were typically all very good. I was a wiry 160 pounds at the time, and was usually overmatched physically. I wasn't able to just get by with hard work, hustle, and determination like in high school, because there were enough other players that had those same attributes. And even then, just because a foul is called on the play, doesn't suddenly mean that the physical aspect of those plays are suddenly irrelevant. Tell someone that gets into the lane to take a charge on Shaquille O'Neal that there's no physical contact in basketball. Sure, he draws a charging foul, but it's not like there was no physical play on the play. The Detroit Pistons of the late 80s played exceptionally physical, accepting the fact that they will get called on fouls, because it took the other teams out of their game. They'd get pissed off at the Pistons and retaliate. Watch any 1988 or 1989 playoff series involving the Detroit Pistons, and try stating that basketball is a non-contact sport. Just because it can be called a penalty, doesn't mean that the contact disappears. Hockey fans cheer the toughness and the contact of the hockey fight, but I don't see people claiming that the fight doesn't count because the players are penalized afterwards.

To my experience, there's even less contact in basketball than in football (soccer to the heathens in the west). Unless you play in a true bush league.. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you play close to the net (low post) you can expect to spend the majority of the game bumping into opposing players jostling for position. If you're guarding someone that has an excellent shot and is the focus of the offense, you can expect to run through many picks, often multple times per possession. When defensive rebounding, players are supposed to put a body on their defender. It's called the box out and it helps to ensure that the team can get the rebound. Actually, rebounding in general can be pretty vicious. Ironically, I find it the opposite to your assessment, in that it is the lower quality leagues that have less contact. Usually those leagues are more likely to be in it just for the fun. Each time I moved up into a higher quality league as I grew up, the games got more physically demanding. As I wasn't a particularly big kid in high school, pretty much every game had my arms being extremely sore from putting up arm bars and getting physical while playing defense.

As someone that has played basketball for 12 years, I can safely say that basketball is not devoid of any contact.

The only reason why I mentioned it is because you made comments about how it made no sense that it could take 12 rockets. I'm not sure how blowing away helicopters with rockets really constitutes "stealth" but whatever.

All of the helicopters in the game are set up that way. Granted, we're not supposed to be able to destroy choppers until we get the gun mounted to the airboat, but I prefer to play a stealth game (as much as the scripting lets me) so I usually cheat in rockets so I can take out the helicopters rather than be chased/hounded by them. This is how I found out that it takes about a dozen rockets to down them, versus four for nearly everything else. The airboat gun takes them down faster, and then we never see them again after Black Mesa East. Instead we get the much weaker, but more intelligent, gunships. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Let me get this straight...you're criticizing the strength of the helicopters and how they take 12 rockets to take down, when they were never balanced to be shot by the rocket launcher in the first place?

I'm in a Basketball league, 2 Floor Hockey Leagues, and a Volleyball League.

What Helicopter took 12 rockets?!?!?

Been a Manning fan since he came into the league, so here's hoping he can pull it out.

Does it really matter what some people (even Winston Churchill) think though? Inquiring on information about World War II will likely not find you any information that doesn't involve the 1939-1945 conflict involving the Axis and the Allies.

Or someone that doesn't live in the past.

Didn't Spider already explain to you many moons ago that you aren't equipped to fight it in a straight on fight anyways?

Hammertime is an inside joke that only a handful of people on this forum understand. Someone recently posted this picture and said they thought of me. I laughed and figured I'd post it as an avatar. I don't put much stock into avatars and signatures. You've never seen me say "Hammertime" in a regular post. Otherwise, I could say the same for anyone that has an avatar for an extended period of time.

The fun wears thin when you've heard it for the 100th time. It's like over using a joke.

Err, I didn't exactly zip through the level. Though I shot them all from the catwalks before going down.

Stop it. The kiddies want to make fun of Fallout 3. Simple reading comprehension need not apply. Seriously though, it's funny that the title implies that it is "Not unlikely says Bethesda" yet, as you pointed out, there's nothing from anyone that even hints at it. All it is is the author saying it would make sense.

Are you talking about the big open area with a few steps and ladders, and some catwalks, with the fence you have to jump across? Because I don't remember enemies respawning there either.