Hurlshort

A great actor can get on screen and hold an audience's attention with nothing more than his presence. Watch Glengarry Glen Ross for a perfect example of that, the whole movie is shot on a couple of stages with no special effects, it is just actors giving great performances. The subject matter isn't even interesting, but the actors are. Special effects are cool, but they don't make a film great. The Star Wars prequels had fantastic SFX, but that didn't help them.

He's got to make up for the last few months!

Alright, I'll play Honest Hearts! Geez, you guys are a tough crowd.

After deductions, I'm paying around 10% for Federal taxes. My state taxes are more of a hassle though.

Also, it is an MMO, so the pacing is totally different from the KotOR's. Still, there are some great stories mixed in there, so I hope you enjoy it.

My healthcare insurance is a private company, but I don't think they give a damn about my healthcare or quality of life either.

I read a baseball or hockey book now and again. To be honest even my historical fiction tends to have swords in it though.

Do try to play it before Lonesome Road. Lonesome Road is the one DLC that brings all the other stories and vanilla game together. Old World Blues has most relevance to Dead Money Ok, I'll just do them in order then.

Just finished Dead Money. It was fantastic, I think I might prefer the length and depth of these DLC's than the full games. It's more focused and I can keep my attention on it easier, knowing that I'm not too far from the end. I'm thinking about picking up another one, but I might jump over Honest Hearts, as it looks like the other two are more relevant to the story I just played.

Sounds like a fantastic trip! You might want to just rent cars to get from point A to point B, and then use public transportation in the big cities. Your first three cities in particular are close together and have decent train and bus options. I agree with GD about the baseball game. Also I highly recommend Yosemite. The RV idea isn't necessarily as expensive as some might think, because you save money in a lot of ways with it. You wouldn't actually drive it in the big cities, you'd find a park on the outskirts and rely on public transportation. For example, I take my RV to San Francisco regularly, but I don't actually take it into the city. I go to to a park that is right next to a ferry that goes into the city. Then I get a nice boat trip and catch a bus or a trolley anywhere I want to go. That being said, they aren't cheap to rent. You save money on food and lodging a lot of the time, but it will still be twice as much as renting the car, and there will be times where it is a pain to have even a compact RV. It's more about the comfort it offers, it basically gives you a home for the trip. Good luck! How many weeks are you planning on making the trip?

I thought this had more to do with the IRS finding a way to get all the reliable tax shelters to start disclosing how much US citizens really have. Regardless I really have no input here. These are typically people with a lot of money, so it is hard to really understand the rationale. Are taxes that much lower in the UK? Is it just easier to hide your money from the UK than the US? I have no idea.

Have you thought about using an RV to see the country?

Made it to the Sierra Madre Casino. Creepy.

This guy is literally just breaking into the market, so it will be interesting to see what he turns into. The user reviews are phenomenal, so I'm predicting big things.

Tale, the thread title itself is a dig at EA, even though it doesn't use the word evil. It isn't an uncommon sentiment around here, so I'm not sure where you are going with this. I've also said that I fully support criticizing EA for legitimate reasons like DRM or handling developers badly. But they are a business, and I think criticizing them for making money off their products is silly.

Oddly enough, Penny Arcade just did a comic and an article on this stuff today.

I just think it would be more productive to convince people to not spend money on it, rather than going after the company for offering it. Because when you phrase it as OMG EA is teh EVIL EMPIRE it just sounds silly. They are selling video games, not withholding the cure for some disease. You can convince people that DLC and microtransactions are bad for the consumers without sounding ridiculous.

I was a bit confused by the interview, why didn't they mention Chaos Gate at all? It's not like this is the first Warhammer game done up like Xcom. I'm excited nonetheless, Chaos Gate was a blast.

This a completely consumer driven concept, so I don't get all the EA flaming. It makes sense to flame them when they grind up a developer, or they use draconian DRM. But this is very basic business, they are offering a service and people are buying it. Also EA is a much healthier company than people are making it out to be. Financially it brings in a ton of revenue. It has had some bad quarters where expenses were too high, but it really isn't close to ruin.

I had quite a few coins myself, maybe it's just subscribers?

That's interesting. Is that because of the greater prevalence of high speed in those countries? I wonder if there are any (bogus) legal restrictions that may be affecting things as well (I dislike the CRTC that affects how much US content can be shown in Canada) It's an issue with HBO and the cable companies. Basically they don't want to tick off media giants like Comcast by offering an alternative to cable. So they tie in their streaming service to an actual cable subscription. The cable companies probably don't mind if they offer it in Nordic countries though. It's fairly ridiculous how many roadblocks are set up for this stuff, but it's all business and contracts.

Volourn is the closest we will get for Canada. I'll take up the reigns for Mexico, I do have a lot of family there. Viva la Mexico!

Don't take it too seriously Fighter, the general consensus is that Oby has never actually been to Russia.

Also, someone must be buying all those pulp fiction novels, they are in every airport and corner market in the world. Plenty of authors would be thrilled to sell like those pulp fiction books. I'm not saying there isn't room for art in games, in fact I think we are in better shape for the future than ever before. All these new avenues for release allow small development houses to thrive and get major exposure. But the big studios have gigantic expenses, and AAA titles are very pricey to make. They are going to take as few risks as necessary, and they are going to seek revenue streams every way imaginable.

Right there is what is so insidious about government run healthcare. It makes a public interest in your private activites. I can see why the US Government wants it so bad. It is the ulitmate backstage pass into everything. Ban smoking, can't have that it makes you sick and we have to pay for it. Ban guns, you poor dears might get injured and we have to pay for it, ban red meat we might have to pay for your heart surgery one day. Not a soul in the government, ANY government gives a damn if you live another day. All they want is control over you if you do. You want people to live healthy? Make them pay for their own god damned healthcare. THAT will get their attention. No one should be asked to pay for poor decisions that someone else made. Except that is basically the system we had, and instead of unhealthy people footing a large bill, they just go bankrupt/default/die. So then the hospital raises the costs to cover insurance/deadbeats and those who do pay for their healthcare get a bigger bill. It's a terrible system. I don't want government involved in health care, but I also don't want a $70,000 bill when I have a kid. That is literally how much the bills came out to for my son, who spent a week in NICU.