Aristes

I'm going by the public statements by the campaign, not an unnamed source for Newsweek. However, the article does include one statement that makes sense. "...the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books." I'd suggest that this is a red herring. If the audit turns up the real dirt, as the Newsweeks unsubstantiated claim suggests, then I will gladly eat crow. Until then, I don't know why the official word should take backseat to the mags rumor sheet. On the other hand, this sort of nonsense is the type of thing that irritates me about the Palin choice. What McCain fans saw as daring and courageous, I saw as desperate and unpredictable. Frankly, Alaska has got some real problems lately. When a convicted fellon comes within a hair's breath of winning the senate seat, your state has problems.

To be fair, Palin did not buy clothes with Campaign money. Since the election is over, I figure folks can stop telling/believing untruths about the candidates. The McCain campaign purchased Clothes for Palin. The clothes were bought in three sizes to make sure they fit. So the actual ammount was more like 50 grand. Once the campaign was over, they intended to give those clothes to charity, so Palin was never intended to receive those clothes as part of her regular wardrobe. The male candidates also have expenditures for clothes, although the brevity of the process meant that news organizations could get word of the purchases and then fan public interest in the story since it was a large sum of money at one time rather than several purchases hidden in larger budgets. As a story, it was pretty lame. However, it did provide fodder for populists who, on the one hand, will attack the candidate based on the price of her wardrobe and, on the other hand, be uncharitable towards her based on what she wears. Palin was certainly in a tight spot. As far as the vice presidential debate, I think she won it in terms of the most important areas. She came accross as more likeable. In terms of policy and knowledge, they both would have failed had it been a fair test administered at any reputable University. The fact is, the vice presidential candidates probably didn't really matter much. McCain was the less articulate, less charismatic candidate. He ran in the same party as the least popular president for at least decades, if not more. Obama's margin of 6% is significant, but it wasn't a landslide victory to the level of Reagan or Nixon, although that's not an entirely fair comparison until Obama runs for a second term. If anyone is surprised, it should be that McCain actually managed to make it look like a race for a while. Hey, how about this, Democrats/Republicans (and folks who aren't citizens but would like to engage in friendly debate with Americans) why don't we be civil to each other about the candidates? If you voted for McCain, be generous to Obama in victory. If you voted for Obama, be generous to McCain (and even Palin) in defeat. This wardrobe stuff was fluff in the first place and now it's just snide.

Hurlshot's colorful way of putting it seems most likely.

The wife and I went and bought our copies of WotLK from Frys today. We're not home, so we don't have it installed, but we're playing on computers with the xpac installed, so we could play once we upgraded our accounts. ...And the queues used to be common a couple of years ago around Christmas. Not so much lately and I think it will all be under controll soon enough.

I found the same thing in my first game. The final part was really easy, but I get sick and tired of every game trying to outdo the final boss. I managed to finish the game the first time by The enclave went down like cheap hookers in my first run. They were much easier than many of the earlier opponents. Hell, a called railgun shot to the head had a huge chance of killing the bad guys. Like Gromnir, my second run is to run up every skill and stat. I've got 5,10,6,7,10,10,10. At least I think so. I'm not at home right now, so I can't be sure. That includes 10 ranks of intense training and all of the stat bobbleheads. So, the ease of the final part didn't bother me, although the ending sequence was pathetic. I wanted to know more. As far as folks saying they hate Fallout 3 and won't play it. Fair enough. I don't even care if they waste their time in a thread dedicated to a game in which they allegedly have no interest. However, I'm quite happy that I purchased this title. If Bethesda makes a sequel, then I'm buying it. Great job!

My problem with them is that they take quite a few shots to kill and you don't get any ammo off of them or anything. That said, I'm going to do the Deathclaw town and, most importantly, the caves. Some good stuff in those caves, even if it takes a lot of resources to clear them. I think I've reached critical mass with ammo, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I was actually quite relieved about the robot, although I agree he was largely incidental within the design. I was relieved because I was sure, while we were running down the road beating the crud out of all enclave comers, that Bethesda would force us to fight it. I was so happy that they didn't pull the quick and easy bait and switch with us. I was absolutely certain that it was going to be a real lame ending where we beat up the enclave only to fight the robot that got us that far. For my part, I was happy with the "anti-climactic" ending. The complaints I've heard make sense, namely that the big-arsed brute could have gone in and put in the code. I also would have liked to see more detailed accounts of what occured after the end. ...But the fact that we didn't have a huge boss fight was great. I'm so tired of the formulaic boss fight at the end of games, especially with the temptation to do it with the robot, that I heaved a sigh of relief. All of my disappointment came after the end and the voice over and splash screen part didn't tell me anything. I didn't even care that the brute wouldn't do my dirty work. I just wanted to know what happened. In this game, I'm not the last great crustless white bread golden haired savior dudley do right of the mounties repped hero. I'm more of a hard edged do gooder who expects a few bennies every now and then hero. Even after asking for a few rewards and offing a couple of allegedly good people who rubbed me the wrong way, including some idiot stick who thought I wanted to steal the parts off a robot he'd killed, I'm still a "paladin" I think. ...And I'm sure, after all is said and done, I could turn over a new leaf and be the L,BHfH or whatever. I might end up there inadvertently, since I can't, no matter how hard I try, make myself roleplay a slaver. Whether it's because of society or whatnot, I hate 'em, even in games. Maybe if there were a game that gave an honest to goodness decent argument for slavery along classical rather than colonial lines I wouldn't despise them so much, but I hate it in principal and I think I'll get a lot of goodytwoshoes rep for killing all the bastards in Paradise Hills. Ironic. I'll get great rep for murdering an entire town.

I'm level 13 with my latest game. I'm playing on Very Hard, and I think it can be tough. I mean, if you're careful, individual battles aren't that bad. There's still random stuff like the errant missle crit that will ruin your day. If you don't like to do the save/reload bit, I think it's actually tough, and if you save and reload, I think you should cut out the "it's sooooo easy" bragging. On the other hand, you get to the critical money mass and, yeah, you're stocked and stoked and beating up bad guys right and left. I think that's a problem because of stimpaks but that was always a problem with the Fallout games. Stimpaks have made them super easy since Fallout 1. Of course, save/reload did too since crits were so overpowered and random you could could end up getting shotted by a crit in several different fights. Personally, I don't find Fallout 3 easier or harder than 1 or 2. I think it's super fun, though. Liberty Prime (I think that's the name) is damned funny. I love his battle cries against communism. It's like the Mr. Handy robots and their statements. "You won't like me when I'm angry." "I'm going to kill you, you commie bastard!" hahaha "Communism is dead!" Splendid. Oh, and I finally found Tenpenny Tower. Since I'd broken down and read the stuff folks said here, I offed Roy. When I used the intercom, the folks in the tower they tried to shake me down for 100 caps to get in. At that point, I told them to piss off and left. I don't give a crap if I ever talk to the Tenpenny people, just as long as they don't get in the way of my pursuit of my own personal heaven. In that case, I'll even out the scales and Roy and Tenpenny can take turns knocking on St. Peter's gate.

I was standing next to a bus that blew up and I literally sailed out of DC and into the wasteland. I honestly think it blew me all the way over to RobCo. That was the funniest thing. I must have sailed for two minutes before the slowmo action stopped. I wish I'd caught the whole thing on video.

My point is, if you want to have a little cushion to let your inner devil loose, then turn in scrap metal. By the end of the game, you shouldn't need any money anyhow. You'll probably be filthy stinking rich, especially if you turn in the scrap metal free so you can steal more valuable stuff.

I tell you what, never charge Megaton for scrap metal. You want to have a rep so pristine they forget about the odd ruthless murder or two? Scrap metal, my good friends. Turn it in by the ton free of charge, and all those Last, Bestests Hopes for Humanity will pray to YOU from now on!

Looks like a pretty even spread right now. Fallout 1 and 2 are tied. I don't get the Fallout 1 purists who say that the only reason someone could prefer 2 to 1 is because he played 2 first. Your lips and my backside. I played 1 first, bought off the shelf soon after they published it, and enjoyed every minute. I enjoyed every minute of 2. There were many more minutes of 2. Enjoying each minute equally, I have to give the nod to 2. Geez, people get stupid in advocating their game preferences. Like I assume the worst about folks because they liked 1 better. What the hell? haha

I cannot see how anyone can honestly say that they've watched an hour of O'Reilly and an hour of Olbermann and not decided that O'Reilly at least pretends to be less biased. I watch all the major networks, listen to Pacifica news, read the LA and NY times. The media was disgusting. If I were going to get riled up about politics, it would be about the media, not the politicians. It is the politicians' job to get elected. I don't hold that against them. The media should be better. I agree that Fox News has a more conservative bent, but I think they did a much better job of covering both candidates. They were equally critical of both. Some reporters and commentators better than others, to be sure, but overall much better. I haven't always thought that, but this election really did show them to be the best at giving equal coverage to both. However, print media and msnbc were simply the worst. How the folks at the New York times can sleep with themselves after printing a front page unsubstantiated story citing an unnamed source regarding McCain's alleged affair with a lobyist while refusing to cover the Edward's scandle until it completely blew up is beyond me. To be fair, the New York times own editorial staff ripped the newspaper a new on on that count, but it's just a sign of how the paper took an active role in shaping the news rather than reporting it. ...And, hell, the cat's out of the bag in regards to McCain's sleeping around anyhow. Whether he's done it recently is beside the point. We know he's done it. Like I said, I don't generally get riled over politics, but I think the coverage was pretty uneven. I don't think it was a conspiracy, and I'm sure that the folks in the media would deny it, but I believe there was a discernable difference that was peculiar to this election. On the other hand, I'm not going to let it cost me any sleep. What's done is done and I'm pretty forward looking about stuff like this.

I'm not sure what I'll do either. Does anyone know if the WotLK class, I guess it's a death knight, will take the place of a character or will it just take one slot. If I have to sacrifice a character, I'll be pretty sad.

On very hard, Mirelurks can be tough just because of my current lack of ammo and the tight spots they force you to use. However, I use every underhanded advantage available. I'm going back in. Thanks for the info on Dogmeat. I also disagree with Azure about the massive open exploration prone world of Fallout 3. For one thing, it's something the game has in common with the previous Fallout games. For another thing, the exploration is great in and of itself. It's so far beyond Oblivion its not even funny. Random exploration in Oblivion was never this good. Monte Carlo mentioned how Bethesda responded to the setting. My take is that Bethesda never really shined until they crafted Fallout 3. I liked Oblivion well enough. It was a good enough game and I didn't regret buying it. ...But Fallout 3 is in its own separate category. No matter what they've done before, I really think Bethesda has kept the Fallout name alive for another generation.

Finally having broken down and read all the tenpenny tower stuff, I think it's the karma issue that's got folks so riled. For myself, I'll talk to him. If I figure I'd be fooled into helping him, I will. If I think I would see him as thoroughly evil, I'll kill him and suck up the karma loss like RN says. Either that or wash my hands of the whole thing.

Hey, if I leave Dogmeat in Megaton, does he just stay at my house? Does that robot butler feed him and whatnot? I prefer going around on my own also. Plus, at least on very hard, I don't think Dogmeat does enough damage to make it worth risking him.

The biggest problem on the hardest setting isn't that individual battles are super tough. The real problem is that it take much more ammo. I have to say that I should have pumped more points into small guns. No biggie. The biggest bummer is how many of my resources it took to off the I think the skills are excellent in this game. Usually you only take science for more of a roleplaying aspect, but I find that having a lower science skill actually makes the game tougher. I'm slowly building my resources up, although it's tougher with no points in barter. Ha. Maybe money will mean something for a while in this game.

I'm not sure that RN's comments were really meant for the whole tenpenny tower thing. (I still haven't found it and I've played this game A LOT.) I think he might have meant the whole thing with the cannibals. In that case, I agree. If the cannibals were hiding their activities and the PC had no reason to know what was going on, then bad karma for murder. If the PC knows what's going on, then good Karma for getting rid of a murderous bunch.

no ideological shift at all. mccain did manage 46% of the vote, in spite of media slant that was clearly against him. This is my sour grapes moment, because I really do think there was a palpable reek of bias among most of the media. I think this has more to do with the fact that we had, for the first time in our history, the feasibility of a black candidate. ...And he was the more articulate and charismatic of the two candidates by far. Hell, I am a conservative but McCain is entirely too unpredictable. We don't know how it would have panned out with one of the other candidates, so it's all a guessing game. I think McCain is a true hero. He deserves our respect for his many years of service to our country. I think he was quite gracious in his concession speech. ...But I can't be too terribly upset that he didn't win. At least we know that Obama is a liberal. Most of the time, we can't be sure of what McCain is.

Amen, bro.

I don't think it's all that Disney, and I don't mind some of the campy humor. I especially liked the super hero/villain quest line. Sure, it's the sort of humor that draws attention to the game design. I'm also sure that it will draw a lot of fire from the more vocal fans, but I don't always trust the more vocal fans, even when I'm one of them. haha Seriously, though, I did think it went a bit far sometimes. It's great to think it's funny (or even *gasp* cute) but when you roll your eyes, you know it's over the top. I was rolling my eyes about that chic from the So, yeah, I agree that it sometimes came across a little sanitized, but that's not really all that bad. Some of it was silly, but overall it did a great job. EDIT: I also cranked up to the hardest setting but it's still pretty easy. They should have kept the exp the same for every difficulty level.

I'd like to make a couple of points, Awesomeness. First of all, how many people are established racists and how many do you assume are racists without clear evidence. Second, if you hate racists, then do you mean the kind who lynch people of color or do you mean the kind who are suspcious of people of color and maybe don't treat them exactly the same. The point is, everyone has some sort of prejudice. It's endemic of society. Now, shooting someone in the head because he looks down on people of color would make you rather stupid and considerably more evil than he is. That would be like executing folks for being ignorant. Most folks who are racist are simply suspicious of people who exhibit a visible physical difference to themselves. It's not always translated into an urge for any specific action and most of the general actions are considerably less harmful than shooting someone in the face. The statements you've made in this thread seem on the reactionary and prejudice side also, but I figure you're just venting. No biggie. I can be a prejudiced person who gets reactionary and vents also. Just don't assume wanting to shoot perceived racists in the face makes you morally superior.

Yep. A great game with an ending that really bites. Specifically, what I hate is Still, after a couple of concurrent runs, I'm just going to start a new game and play it on hard. I don't care that I'll be level 20 super fast. That doesn't bother me and I just want to get my character just the way I want her as soon as possible. Since I played a guy twice, I'm going to switch to a chic for the next run, and that's so I can take black widow or whatever the female equivalent is. I dunno, though. I might just skip all the speech stuff, since I had two big speech people already. I was thinking of something different this time. Maybe I'd pick the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. perks right away and get them to where the bobblehead would make them all 10 and then get as many of my skills up to the max, as opposed to the last runs. Then I'll visit places I never bothered to see in the last game. One thing I have to say is how much fun some of the workbench items are. The is my fave, not because it's the most powerful, but because of the sound it makes when you fire it. comedy. I love it. I made four of them and repaired them. While it's not the most powerful weapon in the game, it's pretty damned good. I was one shotting with it by the time I'd made it to The next game, I'm going to be more or less karma neutral. I won't really go out of my way to do bad things so much as I won't completely sacrifice everything to always do good stuff. For example, I never charge for a single scrap metal I found. ...And I turned in tons of scrap metal. I literally lost count of it. This time, I'll charge. That's another thing, by the time the game ends, you have so much money, you can buy out several stores. Just nuts. Another perk I took the last game let me collect fingers from bad guys. I won't be wasting that one this time. I think I'll just take perks that raise my S.P.E.C.I.A.L and skills as high as possible. As close as I came to maxing my skills in the last run, I think it's feasible to literally max out my stats and skills by the time I'm 20, which will be way before the game is over. That will let me do anything. Hell, even super hard computers aren't a problem with a maxed science skill. The words are long, but you only have five choices anyhow. If I have any perks left over, I might try animal friend or something for kicks. I don't care if I have to kill animals. I would automatically take animal friend if it worked on rad scorpions, but it doesn't. The insect one, though? I've got to have it. It's not that rad scorpions are incredibly dangerous, just incredibly tedious. Since I'm not being a goody two shoes, probably more of a gritty good guy, I'm going to off that rat bastard who wants me to the first time he talks to me. I'll take Arkan's advice and blow it up once just to see what happens.

Yeah, the pundits call that the "hawt" factor in American politics. Seriously, though, Hillary was a cutie when she was younger. Laura Bush was a real hottie in her youth. I actually think Michelle Obama is really pretty. Now, if Dole had made it into office, I don't think Elizabeth Dole is or was all that sweet looking. You know, as much as she just struck me wrong, Palin is actually quite a pretty woman, rare in that she is prettier than the actress that portrays her. Hmm, pesident by way of hot wife? I could see it happening.