Oerwinde

That was lab tests, same form used in diet pop. There have been reported cases of Aspartame poisoning in people who drink a lot of diet pop though. You have to be mad to drink that much though. And they're starting to use Splenda to sweeten diet pop now I think. Which is sucralose I believe, which is made from sugar. It actually does taste very similar to sugar.

I don't even know what he's talking about with DS. If he's talking about Dungeon Siege then it wasn't much of an RPG from what I've heard, as for it being dumbed down, the friends that played it said they could just leave it on auto and leave the computer for a while.

Northern Alberta is COLD. My dad lived in Cold Lake(gives you a hint) and he said some winters you could skate on the roads because they were covered in so much ice. And I'm sure if they gave it a try and didn't use a license (like that LotR RPG) they could do a decent JRPG style RPG. Which tend to sell pretty well. FFX I think had something like 4 million pre-orders in Japan, so don't tell me RPGs don't sell. Also, like Volourn said, their Sports games aren't dumbed down. NHL 2004 is one of the best hockey games ever, if not the best. (Too bad they screwed up with NHL 2005), And Sim City 4 is far from being a dumbed down game.

Vlad was just a prince who fought the turkish invasions ...he got betrayed by his nobles and the King of Hungary(part Romanian) ...spent time some tipe in jail...was reinstated and killed by his nobles He's called th Impaler because he used to Impale his nobles for crimes against the people <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They did some low budget movie about him that was really good. Excommunicated from the Orthodox church for marrying a Catholic was one of the things in the movie. Then she killed herself after finding out what he did to criminals... or was it that she killed herself after being wrongly told that Vlad was dead? Not sure which.

bump I need sequels, or a revival of the show, so everyone needs to see this movie.

Aspartame is a neurotoxin. High levels of Aspartame can cause nerve damage including numbness, twitching, and if you get enough, even paralysis. Oh and it has a nasty aftertaste. You need EXTREMELY high quantities of Aspartame to get those effects though. Like if you drank a 12 pack of diet pop a day, you'd probably start getting aspartame poisoning after a few months.

Well, the "No"s won the last referendum on separation, and afterwards Jean Cretien introduced a bill that would require a 2/3 majority in a referendum for Quebec to separate. Since they achieved a 49% yes at the last one only because of vote tampering (counters were instructed to void any "no" votes where the X went outside the circle in any way. Thousands of votes were voided because of it. Since then the voting rules have been changed so that ANY mark that clearly identifies your choice on the ballot is valid. You can even mark your ballot with a smiley face.) So achieving a 66% vote when separation isn't as popular as it was back then, and they couldn't even get 50% when they cheated, isn't very likely. The separatists caused the situation that lead to where the liberals are right now too. After that the federal government started a big campaign in Quebec promoting federalism and the idea that Quebec is an important part of Canada and should stay a part of Canada. Many Liberal MPs used this to siphon money for themselves, or pad the wallets of friends in the Advertising industry. Eventually these people got really greedy and went too far, taking out enough money for the Auditor General to notice. It originally was something like 140 million dollars was mis-spent or just plain stolen from government coffers, but after investigation it turned out to be more like 30 million. Which honestly is pennies to a government. Thats like the post-it budget. But the Conservatives started playing it up like it was a huge deal. Cretien retired from politics, and Paul Martin took over, and fired pretty much everyone who was involved in the scandal. Pretty much the only Liberal MP left from Cretien's cabinet is Paul Martin, and he's a much different politician. So now, even though no one involved in the scandal is left in the government, the Conservatives are still pushing the Liberals = Crooks angle, and its working. Liberal support is at its lowest in 16 years.

I'd love to work for Bioware, since theres no RPG developers in Vancouver, but then I'd have to move to northern Alberta. I like my 16 degree C winters thank you very much. Maybe if I manage to get a job in the art department at some time I could get a bunch of other guys and see if EA wants to start doing RPGs. Since its the only genre they don't do, and they're expanding EA Canada like mad (Opened a new dev studio in Montreal and are tripling the size of the Burnaby campus, which employs like 1300 people right now)

After living in Vancouver, and visiting several other areas(Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington State, Southern California), I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Vancouver is a liberal haven, which fits with my views, BC is absolutely beautiful, and it has the 2nd highest concentration of video game companies in north america (after California), so if I can get higher up in EA, and decide I want to try somewhere else, I can try for one of the other places like Relic, Radical, Rockstar, etc. Again, assuming I get the job. And yeah, the guy who interviewed me started in QA, then moved up to Human Resources, and dabbles a bit as a moddler when they need a little help. Thats eventually what I want to do, so it would be really nice to have a foot in the door.

Edit: And sorry if I'm rather defensive about it, but I've had this same convo w/several othes on the net, where they'd all jump and tell me, unasked for, how my drinking soda diet or not was so horrible, when all I'd say is "I luv diet Dew!" or some such silly thing. I'm just tired of it. Who cares. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Whenever someone around me has a diet soft drink I always respond with "Ugh... aspartame is naaaaaaasty." Then leave it at that. Apparently they're reformulating a lot of diet pops with Splenda, so I might switch to diet then, but as of now I can't drink diet because it just tastes really bad. Oh, and on topic, Canadian Mountain Dew A) Has no caffiene, B) Has no vegetable oil in it, and C) Is made with sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Which results in a much better tasting beverage(Mostly due to the lack of oil so it doesn't taste all greasy), but sadly no caffiene buzz.

The problem with the scandal is while it will result in increased NDP votes in the next election, because the Conservatives are the 2nd biggest party and the Liberals are a more center left party, it will also result in more support for the Conservatives as well, from the right leaning moderates who voted Liberal for the financial responsibility (The last time the Conservatives were in power they bankrupted the country pretty much) or the "Anyone but the ruling party" voters. More than likely we'll end up with a Conservative government next election, and the first things they'll do is cut taxes and social programs (since they need to get the money for those tax cuts from somewhere), sign up for the ballistic missile defense thing with the US, which is highly unpopular in Canada because its a waste of money, ban gay marriage, which something like 70% of Canada supports, and give us the first deficit in 12 years or so (Took the liberals 3 years to balance the budget after the Conservatives put us into a deficit, Liberals have been in power for something like 15 years). And when Conservative support drops because all the people who voted for them because they weren't the Liberals realize what they voted for, they'll get kicked out of power and either the NDP or the Liberals will replace them again. Major parties in Canada: Conservatives: Imagine Bush's Republicans, only not as arrogant. Liberals: Fiscally responsible, socially progressive, been in power for 15 years so more corrupt than most politicians. They make sure the budget is balanced so they can siphon money off for themselves. NDP: Social Democrats. Big on Health Care, Social Housing, The Environment, and Education. Likes to throw money at problems without really thinking about it. Bloc Quebecois: National branch of the Parti Quebecois, the separatist party. Unfortunately for them, Cretien made it nearly impossible for Quebec to separate, so they just try to make sure Quebec gets more than any other province. Mainly Social Democrat, but they hate the Liberals so much that they side with the Conservatives more than anyone else. Green: Environmentalist groups supported the NDP in the last election. Enough said. Only a major party because they're the only alternative to the Conservatives. Yes, thats right. Conservatives who are also concerned about the environment.

I know theres a bunch of Canadians on here and I wondered what everyone thought of the mess our government has become. Recently the NDP took advantage of the scandal smeared Liberals to force changes to the budget to increase spending for education, housing, health care, and the environment, while removing planned tax cuts for large corporations, keeping planned tax cuts for small and medium businesses in the bill. The Conservatives of course were outraged that the NDP could make a deal with the Liberals to make lives better for Canadians, because it doesn't include anything for farmers. Anyone else have any thoughts on this whole Conservatives don't want the government to work situation? EDIT: Just to be clear for non-Canadians, I'm talking about Conservatives as a political party, not ideological conservatives. Same for Liberals.

I posted this in the Games forum too, got way more response there http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=33653

If I get the job theres a small possibility, but I doubt it. I might be able to get an advance copy, but they probably QA that down in LA. If I don't get the job then theres no chance I will

Well, everyone over at CHUD and SuperheroHype are pretty excited about it, even the ones who were doubting it. It looks amazing for a 40 million dollar budget. I guess they saved a lot by going with all little known actors.

assuming it ain't at a buck an hour, 1.50 w/OT! taks <{POST_SNAPBACK}> $10/hr, Time and a half($15) after 8 hours in a day, Double Time($20) after 12 hours. I'm really hoping I get this job. I think there were a lot of applicants though, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

There was War Within that had 3 volumes of 6 issues each, Armada, which I didn't follow, but turned into Energon after that show came out, they did 2 volumes of 6 issue G1 stories, and an ongoing G1 story that picked up after those two. They also had stuff like Darkminds, Warlands, Ninja Turtles, various Capcom licenses, and a few more IPs. Apparently they went under because Pat Lee can't run a company and loved doing transformers so much he figured everyone else did too and signed them up to do all sorts of free art. But with the hours everyone was doing on this free art he couldn't afford to pay everyone because he wasn't making any money for the jobs. So they went bankrupt.

They actually did that? Well, after paying whatever "Social Competence Consultant" they hired to tell them it was a good idea, they probably felt they had to in order not to feel completely moronic. Btw, what kind of bugs was it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Most of the bugs were graphical. Missing textures, clipping, wrong models, etc, but there were a few sound glitches and such too.

I hope the new company the Dreamwave people are putting together can get the rights to do the G1 comics and keep the line going. It was just getting interesting.

Spore.

Yeah, by football I mean American. Damn Vin Diesel for confusing the world by making North Americans call Football Soccer.

Nope, they handle that down in LA. But you can blame me for pretty much any of the sports games except the football ones.

They weren't all in the trailer. Wash and Mal supply all the one liners in the show, at least 2-3 each episode each, and they only showed one from each of them. I really hope all the space sound effects are only in the trailer. One of the neat parts of the show was that there was no sound in space. EDIT: Oh yeah... Hell Yes.

To Volourn: The EA Canada headquarters is in Burnaby BC, half hour from where I live. The building is huge. They employ about 1300 people in that building, plus another 600-700 in one of their 2 other offices in the lower mainland. (One in Vancouver, and one down the street from their big one) They're also expanding the campus to make it big enough to bring the other two offices into the main one and hire another 1000-1500 people. The interview went well, started out with a little bit of a tour... one thing is for sure, with a cafeteria like that I'll definitely be eating better if I get the job. Anyway, we had to watch a video and pick out the bugs, I got probably 8-12 for each of the 3 games, my 3d experience helped a lot there. Then they split us into 2 teams and made us build a tower out of paper cups, straws, paper clips, and rubber bands. The winning team was the one with the tallest tower that was the most stable. We won. Anyway, then they interviewed us individually. All in all it was pretty good. The guys were honest about the overtime, but they said the real problems were in Tiburon and Maxis. Tiburon works them too hard, and Maxis just hated being bought out by EA and fights it every year. They said they do require a lot of overtime there, but you get paid for it. The EA building is awesome. Its built into a rock face, theres stonework inside with huge windows, and its set up like a university campus. The guy who interviewed me didn't know what Planescape Torment was. I'll know if I got it in about a week. My 3d experience and the experience with long hours at VFS should help me out. Edit: Oh and asking hockey questions didn't mean anything. One of them got asked about cars, another about baseball, and another about soccer.

I'm going to have to go with the Dreamwave comics. They took all the best stuff from G1, then made it more mature, and added their own cool twists. Even their Armada comic was better than the show.