Hurlshort

I just read a review for Final Fantasy Whatever, the new one coming out at the start of March. It looks good. I'll have to decide whether I'm up for another JRPG. I enjoyed the FF games when I was younger, but lately every time I try a JRPG I get tired of it very quickly.

I never went down to talk to Jack because she is insane and living in the bowels of the ship.

I believe it also has to do with how much coffee you drink and what type. Many of the Starbucks drinks are barely coffee, they are 90% sugar and milk.

If the grind is really bothering you, just drop the difficulty to easy. It makes the combat much faster and then you can just focus on the story aspects.

Oddly, I though the Deep Roads were the biggest combat grind. The big key (which is super reminiscent of every MMO out there) is to pick up multiple quests per hub, so at least you are only trudging through an area once. But again, I've been more impressed by the way they handled it in ME2. Maybe DA2 will feature similar improvements.

That sounds like every RPG ever. I agree with you though, in fact a few of the ME2 quests have delighted me with an almost lack of combat on the missions.

You need to check your brain, it is currently malfunctioning. It's been a rough week, I've been super tired. My wife is 6 months pregnant, my daughter has discovered that she can postpone her bedtime by saying she needs to go pee every 15 minutes, and Ashley broke up with me in Mass Effect 2.

Monte made me laugh out loud in class It almost sounds like Obsidian is just acting as a consultant on this project. Sounds like a good deal for them, they get some extra income, and they probably aren't going to take a big hit if it crashes and burns. I could be wrong, but that was what I got from the press release. It really doesn't sound like this is a full scale project like AP or FO:NV for them.

It always SOUNDS exciting. I actually thought the original Fable was a decent little adventure. I played the sequel and was enjoying it until it totally crashed on me. I've never had such a buggy game on a console, to be honest. I probably won't touch the third one just because of that. It basically corrupted my save so I could not finish the game.

I'm right there with you. I might replay a game years down the road when I've forgotten the story a bit, but story based games are typically one and done with me. JA2 and Xcom being the exceptions, but again the bulk of the game play is unique in every play through there.

To deliciousness land?

Heh, that was a pretty funny typo. Why do you buy games to irritate me, people?!?

Really? I've never heard that ever.

It sounds like you expected it to irritate me. Why would you ever buy a game with that attitude?

Pshaw, I got a 4500 on the SAT's and I was drunk, and had lost an eye the night before to an angry parakeet.

Just Space Quest 4-6? That's a shame, I'd really like to see the VGA version of 1.

I totally don't get the SAT scoring system anymore. I thought 1600 was a perfect score? I got 1130 back in the day, fairly average. I just took it the one time, I figured my grades and extracurriculars were good enough to get me where I wanted to go, and they were.

I actually hate the smell of coffee too. I've banned it from my house, my wife has to sneak out and make it in our garage when she wants some. I'm pretty unreasonable about it too, I rush down the coffee isle in the grocery store to avoid it. Burnt coffee totally clings to surfaces too. But I've never heard of any issues with second or third hand coffee odor, so there isn't much justification for my intense dislike.

I'm not sure if it would really take off in the same way. It would probably hover around the same popularity as cigars. The difference is the addiction level. Sure, people get addicted to weed, but it isn't near the same rate as cigarettes. I read in a study that something like 75% of smokers want to quit. That is insane. Basically 3 out of 4 people are not happy to be smoking, but they are addicted to it. You just don't get that with any of these other substances. If those 75% actually could stop smoking, this whole thing wouldn't be an issue. It would be too rare to warrant any real concern. Like pot, it would be something that lots of people try in High School and college, but most people stop doing when they get older, or rarely do.

Making it illegal will not work, as someone already pointed out it is a huge industry. Prohibition was also a huge failure, so I'm not sure why we would ever go down that road. I challenge the statement that it isn't still pushed as the 'cool thing to do.' There is a reason the tobacco companies give away free cigarettes on the sets of movies and TV shows. Hollywood is absolutely filled with smokers, and the rest of the US looks to those celebrities as role models. It is sad. Again, the only solution I see is a drastic shift in the culture of smoking, and maybe a drastic shift away from where folks idolize movie stars.

To be fair, those fake cigarettes were pretty goofy. I'm not sure how that replaces to coolness factor of smoking. I love Bill Hicks, but I'm not sure if a guy who died at 32 because of cancer is the best spokesperson for the cause.

I'm not being shahoozled (is that in the dictionary?) as I've always been a big anti-smoking guy. I just hate the smell, it makes me sick to be exposed to it too long. Really, all this research and evidence is simply justification for my intense dislike of cigarettes.

Geez, I better get some body armor! Did you know teachers in certain Los Angeles schools get an extra stipend that is referred to as hazard pay?

So smoking is as unpreventable as bacteria in the soil? I haven't said anything about hating smokers, I haven't even said everyone should quit. I realize is is a serious addiction. I just would like to see people never take up the habit in the first place. It just seems like a choice that has tremendous negative consequences, far outweighing any of the positives.

I'm not really sure I understand the whole "there are worse things out there to worry about" argument. I found this on a SIDS website. It was not an anti-smoking website, it was just an informative website on how to possibly present Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the leading cause of death for infants. Now the third hand smoke research is fairly new, but it could mean that even if you smoke outside, when you come back in and pick up your child, you are still exposing that child to danger. That seems pretty serious to me, and it is something that is easily prevented by not smoking at all. Also, I've never had a neighbor BBQ 12 times a day, so I'm not buying that deflection either.