Hurlshort

This is the final death throes of Computer Gaming World, one of the oldest gaming publications in the business, so it's definitely a bummer. CGW (and eventually GFW) partly died because they didn't whore themselves out to publishers like PC Gamer and all those other publications.

Oh, so it was just a poorly written sentence. I honestly thought you were talking about the RPG aspects of NHL 09. Why don't you try writing a complete sentence instead of resorting to name calling?

Hopefully they'll continue with the Be A Pro mode, flesh it out a little more. I want to deal with the press and develop a reputation in the league. I've been playing the Pro mode for awhile now with NCAA and Madden, so I was actually pretty happy with how much they did manage to make it a unique experience. Of course they have a long way to go to improve it, but it was a good start to the concept.

I enjoyed the random planets. And the fact is they were optional for the most part, so it's a silly complaint.

I'm in a large kin (guild) for LotR Online, but we have a private chat room for the small group of folks I play with the most. We all joined the kin together so it's nice to keep that group tight, while still being able to take part in the big kin events and raids.

Actually, there are sections of the Great Wall that are built on rather high mountain tops. It gives credence to the theories that the Wall really wasn't built only for defensive means.

I can't really remember the last Superbowl blowout. It's been good for awhile, with some pretty major upsets. No one expected the Patriots to beat the Rams a few years ago, and last season no one really expected the Giants to beat the Patriots.

Alfreddson is getting a bit long in the tooth, not sure how old Spezza is. Tavares is an easy choice for any team, though. You don't turn down talent like that.

With Titan Quest, I played through the first act and felt I has suitably completed my adventure. I can only take about 20 hours of clickfesting.

Ghost Town - Funny. We don't get enough Rick Gervaise (or whatever his name is) here in the States.

David Gemmel, may he rest in peace, is a fantastic fantasy author.

Actually I never stated I would dislike a game because it is a hundred hours long. I wrote earlier that I enjoyed BG2 tremendously, but I didn't finish it. When I say I don't have time for a 100 hour game, it is definitely a personal preference. I like playing most of the new games. I want to play a game for 20 hours or so and then move on to the next title. So of course I'm going to prefer a game that can be wrapped up in 20 hours. But honestly I finish very few games, so it's not much of a factor when it comes to making my purchase. Some games pull me in and I find them easy to play over a long period of time. JA2 and some MMO's come to mind. I'm not sure what all the hullabaloo is about. That's just the way I play games. My comment was in diect response to this: "And saying "nobody wants to play 100 hour games any more" might be true of some console-addicted twitch gamers, but it certainly isn't true of the sizeable numbers of grown-up gamers who like strategy and RPG titles."

For starters, I'm not sure it takes 100 hours to read a 500 page book. Depending on the writing style, I think it might take me 20 hours, and I'm a fairly slow reader. Plus, books that I finish usually have an engaging central plot that propel the story forward. There just aren't a lot of games that have that. And I agree with Morgoth that books are a much easier form of entertainment to doll out in small increments. I can read in my car, or lunch break, or wherever and feel comfortable with that. Getting into a game requires a good deal more for me. I have to remember exactly how to play. I don't have to spend a couple moments remembering how to read every time I open a book. It's not completely intuitive. It's definitely not something I do before bed to wind down. And what makes you think I have a single hour every day to play? I don't, most nights I'm lucky if I get my daughter into bed and have twenty minutes to myself before I have to get to sleep myself. For a lot of games, that just doesn't cut it. So I go a full week between a game session quite often, and sometimes after a full week away I feel like I've lost touch with the game story and gameplay. And at that point, it's easy to just stop playing altogether.

Nice hand-eye coordination.

I'm a grown up gamer who enjoys RPG's and strategy games, and I just don't have the time for 100 hour games. But I also don't have to complete games to enjoy them. I probably won't beat DA. I didn't beat the NWN games or BG2, but I played them enough to warrant the purchase.

Smells like murder to me Aristes. What did she do to deserve that?

It doesn't even make sense most of the time. I'll be driving along in my yugo, or puttering around in a boat, doing no harm to nobody. Then some jeep will come tearing after me like I just blew up the town mosque.

Gosh, I bought a lot. I'll put them in order of excellence. 1. Fallout 3 - best game in a few years for me. 2. Lord of the Rings Online - MoM - legendary 3. NHL 09 - still playing it 4. GTA4 - Pretty amazing city brought to life 5. Saints Row 2 - May turn out better than GTA4, not sure yet 6. Fable 2 - Good...still haven't finished it yet 7. Wii Fit - great family fun 8. Spore - Meh, at least my wife likes it 9. Braid - should be higher, forgot about it for a bit. Unique. 10. Gametap - not a game, but this service has been fantastic, letting me play many games I wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm playing Far cry 2 as well. It is stunning looking, and sneaking around with sniper rifle is a lot of fun. Still, the whole "entire country out to kill you" is pretty obnoxious and will probably make me quit sooner rather than later. I'd pay for a mod that removed respawning enemies. If I knew clearing out a guard post mattered, it would make it a much better game.

Maybe I don't understand what you mean, but Gump seemed flawed to me, he was not the sharpest tool in the shed. Gump was a saint, despite being a simpleton. His intentions were always good. He saw only the positive. He was capable of amazing feats. Buttons has a strong sense of right and wrong, and like Gump he is good natured, but he's also a playboy and he commits a few acts that are clearly wrong. He's a much more complex character.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon always has problems in love, just like King Kong. I heard Benjamin Buttons is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, and that fits. The setting and tone are there, along with the fact that all wealthy and successful people suffer from depression. Not to say Kelverin's post isn't somewhat accurate, but it really just has an entirely different tone to it. Buttons is also a flawed character, unlike Gump. They are both fantastic films to say the least.

Well, at least we can blame some of the deformities in Fallout 3 on irradiated water.

Heard it was a Forest Gump rip-off. True? The same guy wrote both screen plays Not in any way. Now that you mention it, the narrative style is the same, but the story is dramatically different. Gump is heartwarming, Buttons is heartrending.

I've been joking around that the Cards are a lock for the Superbowl with Warner, but maybe I'm on to something. It is a treat to watch the two best receivers in the game. Fitzgerald and Boldin are just fantastic, and they don't seem to have the same ego problems that plague all the other big time recievers in the league. Hopefully Boldin will be ready for next week. The Colts have really mastered the art of playoff choking. I thought the Chargers were done when they fumbled in the end zone towards the end of he game, but they found a way. Peyton really should have 3-4 rings at this point with the teams they've fielded over the years. He's a Hall of Famer, but man... I think it might be more Harrison than Manning though. They guy disappears in the playoffs.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Depressing as all hell. Actually, it was really just a poor choice for me. My grandmother passed away last night. It was expected, she had been close for awhile, but the movie really is all about getting old and dying, and it was very hard to watch in certain parts. On one hand I can say it was a great movie, and on another I can say it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen.