Slowtrain

Someone should cast a mid-western AMerican with no acting range as Robin Hood. That would be even more awesome.

Blasphemy. John Wayne was utterly convincing as Genghis Khan. I almost believed he WAS Genghis Khan. It was spooky, I don't know who cast that role but it was brilliant. Ah, Hollywood. How I loved thee once. *sniffs*

There will never be a better Genghis Khan than John Wayne!

This begs the question of course: why are studying a book of knots? Just a personal desire to better your knowledge? OR is it some bondage thing? Or what? A nautical bent?

That was my theory and it is not absolute by any means. I was merely remarking that there seems a tendency for people to like the first Fallout game they played better. Fallout 2 is bigger, faster, more, more, more, more. Fallout 1 is tighter, leaner, less goofy, and (more) original. I'm not putting one down over the other, merely stating that they are in fact very different. My preference is Fallout 1, but that's not a statement of the absolute worth of the game. Merely a statement of my preference.

lol. There goes my faith in the competence of fighter pilots. If they can't read their own radars they've got some problems. ANway, thanks for the info. Interesting stuff.

Also the F86d had an AN/APG 36, so as with most aircraft there was some variation on what electronics were in use at any given time. Don't know if that makes any difference, though.

Would it be safe to assume though that a trained and experience pilot would be prepared for and aware of the potential for incorrect radar readings? Isn't it likely that upon encountering something as totally bizarre as this contact apparently was, his first thought would have been that his radar was malfunctioning in some way. I mean, if he was stationed in Britain at the height of the cold war, he was most likely not a total noob. lol.

WHat do you think about his size estimate? He said his contact was the size of an aircraft carrier or something. I mean, you don't see too many flying aircraft carriers, regardless of their top speed!

7600 mph did seem extremely fast for an atmospheric ship of some sort. But I guess that's why they call them UFOs! For comparison sake the fastest unmanned aircraft the x43 has a top of roughly 6500 mph. And yes, I just looked that up.

otoh: who really knows: http://science.discovery.com/stories/week/...shoot-down.html

I read an article somewhere that discussed how in difficult econmic times reports of UFOs tend to rise. The article was talking about how when some people feel a lack of control over the events that are occuring around them, they will often "see" things such as UFO's.

I always wonder with EA. Are they really affected by the economic issues? Or did they just decide to sack some people to scare the crap out of all their other employees and get them ready for a pay cut or something. Probably I'm too suspicious.

Awesome. I am pretty stoked to play this game when the time comes.

Is it worth exploring in Fallout 3? In Oblivion there wasn't much point since a) evrything looked the same and b) the level scaling and leveled loot lists meant you weren't going to find much worth anything anyway. Has that been fixed in Fallout 3?

First of all, X2 is a better game than X3. They are very similar, but the developers made some changes that seemed to really diminish the fun factor. That is a personal opinion obviously, but it is shared by many others who played a lot of X2. However, they are still far more similar than different. So here's the deal: If the you play X3 as a linear space sim, such as WIng Commander, flying mission after mission and following the story, you will most likely disappointed. That's not really the way they are intended to be played. You CAN play it that way, but if you do, you will be missing 90% of what the game has to offer. Maybe 95%. In other words, the linear story missions are an insignificant aspect of the game. In the time I spent with X3, I never even started the story. WHich is pretty usual. X2 and X3 are both empire building games played from a first person perspective. You build factories and complexes, remote mine asteriods, search for ore, harvest space flies, build freighter fleets, trade with races, and protect your investment in all of the above from the predatory forces of the galaxy. Its probably worth flying a story mission here and there just for the amusement factor, plus you sometimes get free stuff when you complete a mission. But really, my advice is either sell your fighter and buy a frieghter, or use your fighter for personal transport missions. They pay well. Start amassing wealth. SOmeday you'll be able to buy you own carrier and fill it with 60 fighters. Then you know you've arrived for sure.

Combat promotions are tied to number and types of kills not directly to mission completion. When you complete a mission you should get some kind of message. Have you gone to all three sectors?

Isn't beating the kha'ak kind of an instinctive behavior?

X2 rulez. It took hundreds of life hours from me. I'm not as fond of X3. Still a fun game though.

My grandmother is deaf.

Kha'ak if wikipedia is to be believed. COuld be. Spelling made up names of super-powerful alien races was never my forte.

kahk actually.

Its not fun? I mean its basically like your character is walking around a map and a lighning bolt strikes him dead for no reason. What's the point? Except for forcing a reload? Trial and error is a give and take process between developer and gamer. The developer presents a problem; the gamer attempts to find an answer. Simply forcing death on a gamer's character without offering a chance to respond is the epitome of total crap game design. I think.

Didn't Fallout 2 do this as well? One of your favorite games?

I certainly agree that it can kill immersion if not well done. As Morgoth points out, respawning was OK in SS2, mostly because it was pretty subtle. Far Cry 2 has respawning that is about as subtle as brick to a head.