Aristes

Because I'm not going to be buying the game no matter what, ergo they have nothing to lose? Why aren't you going to buy the game?

Yeah, the players who don't engage in cartoon sex are the virgins. haha

That's my point entirely. Sluggie says the internet is our god given right? But the government probably doesn't see it that way. We could end up with a lot more regulation than we have and the fastest way to see that regulation is to abuse our freedom. ...Or to have folks like 4chan abuse theirs. Posting stupid crap is one thing. Engaging in internet terrorism that ends up materially impacting folks lives is quite another. I agree with you entirely, Oner.

Folks are all about storming the barricade of AT&T. I wonder what will happen if 4chan and their hordes of slack jawed minions go hog wild in regards to this and it turns out AT&T was not responsible. All of this is great when it's AT&T people getting hurt, some of whom may not have had anything to do with this mess. ...But it's always great when it happens to some other poor bastard. Nothing like making it so abundantly clear that a place so lawless as the internet can impact the lives of people in real life. I wonder, if it turns out AT&T didn't willfully do anything, if lawmakers are going to be more sympathetic to 4chan after some sort of retaliation.

Dude, that's awesome. I'm jealous, ya rat bastard.

I take the view that Revelation is written in code. I don't think it's literal. I don't look for the breaking of the seven seals and whatnot. However, the idea behind it, that of salvation, I do believe. However, whether literal or code, revelation doesn't depict the end of the world. It depicts a struggle between good and evil in which good triumphs and evil is subdued. Revelation has a long and rocky history with Christianity. I think most Catholics today tend to think of it as a warning to Christians contemporary to the work. The big villain in that case is the Roman Empire. Calvin and Luther both had serious misgivings. I think that more of the fundamentalist folks view it as more literal, but even they disagree about specifics such as 'the rapture' etc. (Note: I don't use the term fundamentalist as a pejorative, merely as a point of reference.) ...But it's not like I really know that much about it. I didn't put it in for a reason. As for belief, I'm Catholic with a capital C. I believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the life of the world everlasting. ...But I won't hold it against you if you disagree or even think my belief is silly. There are so many reasons we hate each other in this world, most of them petty, that I'm not going to let my religion be the basis for another one. Not with that big assed asteroid getting ready to strike the earth any minute! PS thank you, squidmonarch!

I would like to point out that the end of revelation is triumphant, not destruction. Just thought I'd throw that out. I've decided not to hunt you folks down and force you to read my bible. Instead, I'll write a mean post about game romances. There, see, we can all win! PS. I also figured it would make sense to spell revelation properly.

Wangsting. heh Odious term if I've ever seen one. Anyhow, I don't doubt that someone can fall in love very quickly. In some form or another, I suppose folks can 'fall in love' immediately. I'd certainly expect the exact nature of that love to be different after eight or eleven years than after one month. On the other hand, is the love of your friends who 'fell in love' immediately only to have the relationship end within a couple of months somehow inferior? Sure, we can pull out all sorts of fun pop culture/counter culture terms, but I don't really want to butcher the idea of love with glib remarks sprinkled with tv trope jargon. I don't want to belittle brief and fiery love or long and stable love or even long and fiery love. I've seen plenty of movies where two characters fell madly in love in an extremely short period of time and ended the movie in a happy relationship. Often the implication is that the couples live happily ever after. I really enjoyed Groundhog Day, but Rita didn't really know Phil all that well and yet they end the show talking about renting before they buy a home in Punxsutawney. Frasier is one of my all time favorite TV shows and Niles falls immediately in love with Daphne. By the end of the seventh season, they're confess their mutual love. By the end of the ninth season, they're married. I guess that's like a love at first sight that lasts for eleven years example in television. Let's make a break from comedy, Romeo and Juliet didn't exactly know each other for very long before the boy fell madly in love and then won the fair maiden's love in return. Tragedy ensues. See, I'm not a cold hearted bastard who doesn't believe in love or even love 'at first sight.' So, what's my beef? I've hated virtually every computer game romance I've seen. I hate the way they're depicted. I hate the way they unfold. In cRPGs, because the player must have 'complete control' *tries to stop his uncontrollable laughter* these romances must be available for some while being fairly transparent or at least avoidable to others. That does not make for a compelling romance. Yeah, I don't tend to watch romantic movies, although I'll watch a romantic comedy with the wife and enjoy it just fine. However, I don't have anything against romances per se. I just don't want them in my computer games. I tell you what, though, I'm nothing if not flexible in my views. All I need to do is see it done well and I'll be all about coming clean to say I was wrong. That's what I was trying to do with the whole Max Payne thing. Yeah, it had it's shortcomings, but I thought romance fit the story very well and the design team did a good job with it. So, I have two games where the romances didn't make me grit my teeth. In terms of the sexual revolution idea, I guess that's fair enough. *shrug* Have a female witcher with absocompletelystupidlutely 'romances' with men. Make a female main character in a title that uses sex as a mini-game. Why should men be the only ones designers depict as intemperate and incontinent?

I've never used Good Old Games before. I've heard about it here. I think Hurlie plugs it a lot. Hmm. Stepping out, but I'll look into it when I get back. :haksthumbsup:

Finished Portal three times. Great game! I haven't played Ground Control yet. I'm sticking mostly with Facebook, although I would pick up a Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout compendium if someone gave me the chance. I might break down and buy all three separately. I can't find most of my game disks, you see.

Yeah, it's actually confusing to me also, but we've netflixed the entire series to see if we want to buy it. We've also followed Leverage, which is a great little series. Even the bad ones are entertaining and some of them are just out and out HIGHlarious. Tonight, we're going to watch the Proposal.

I'm Catholic. This is usually when I get pelted with tomatoes by both the atheists and the protestants.

Hey, just because you don't have any friends to send the other copy to isn't their fault! Unless of course your dog really does play, which would be totally rad and tubular. It's a bit extreme giving him his own Xbox 360 though.

Oh, now that I've whipped it on the hard setting, I'll stop. It's not a bragging rights thing, I really like to get the special endings. ...And, while I jest, it just doesn't count unless I get it myself. I would have played through CoC: Dark Corners for the special ending if the bugs weren't so severe. So, what next? I guess I'll hang tight until Dragon Age and/or Alpha Protocol hit the streets.

It great that you like it and all. I didn't really mean that you should only ever play Max Payne... Hey, if you don't get those endings through game play, they don't count!

If you're discussing romances in games, it's probably appropriate to discuss romances as handled by other games, you yutz! I could bring up the Max Payne romance with Mona Sax. I think that was well done within the story. I mean, I had to laugh at the gun pointing romance, but I think that was the point. The Max Payne romance, where it's developed over two games, has hardly any physical contact, and touches more on the emotional side and how it affects the PC is actually well done and it took me three runs to think of it in terms of this thread. I didn't really think of it as a romance per se, more of part and parcel of the PC's story. That's probably why I enjoyed it and why I didn't tie it into my overarching view of in-game romances. Of course, Max Payne 1 and 2 aren't cRPGs, so that's another reason, I'm sure. So we have the spectrum. If the game series goes on over a couple of titles, and if the hints of romance start early and develop slowly, I might not hate another in game romance. Otherwise, just give me the sex option. At least I can ignore that. I don't need to experience my sexual contact in a video game, thank you kindly. (I wish I had a tongue in cheek grin icon right now)

Hey, now that you've played it for a bit, how does it stack up to CoH?

I just finished Max Payne 2 for the 'happy ending.' I actually liked this ending much better than the happy ending for Painkiller for the simple reason that we didn't get to play through the last levels of Painkiller on that setting. I think Max Payne 2 will probably go down as one of my faves. I've heard some of the criticism, and as usual I can see why critics would make those points, but I still thought it was a thoroughly enticing game. Now I'm playing a bunch of little facebook games until the end of the month where I'll have to get serious about things again.

Well, if the other stuff is true, I will buy it. I can use the other copy as a gift. *shrug* I buy computer games for friends as birthday/Christmas presents already. Might as well be smart about how I do it.

They figured we ol' timers were all Fallout Trolls and decided to info-starve us to death.

Damn her! I thought it was legit at first and decided to buy it so I could gift out the 360 version to one of my buddies. Rat bastards!

Oh, man. Hootie and the Blowfish. I remember when they were a new up and coming band. What was their biggest hit? Hold My Hand? I'm going to listen to that presently, as soon as I can find it.

This is the sort of argument religious folks pose to atheists. "How can you explain this natural, terrestrial, or celestial phenomenon? Since you can't explain it, it must have an outside cause and that cause must be this specific thing (God)." I'm not insulting religious folks and I'm not trying to insult you either, Junai. I'm just saying that the fact that we cannot or have a difficult time explaining something is not equivalent to proof. It certainly isn't proof of a specific cause. There might be natural factors that we don't know. There might be human errors in design or construction we don't know. There might even be outside events we don't know or understand. One of those outside events might be explosives, although those theories themselves have inconsistencies. ...And that's taking the assesrtion at face value. I've never had a problem accepting that there might have been some sort of conspiracy. That's the problem. There might have been a lot of things. God might have caused the building to fall by striking the foundation with an unseen thunderbolt. If we cannot prove it, we cannot trust it.

Well, I knew you were joking.

I knew I should have included a biblical ending in the poll, but I figured that it wouldn't work because the book of revelation doesn't actually describe the end of the world. You freaks! Turn this into a religious argument thread and I'll hunt you down and.... I don't know! Make you read the bible from cover the cover, with all the footnotes, and commentary by St. Augustine and Martin Luther! Either that or I'll sigh and forgive you. You never know which.