Hurlshort

Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe The Richard Sharpe Collection By Bernard Cornwell

Oh, pick up Frolov, he's going to have a good year and he scored two goals last night. My picks (now that I get the scheme): Langkow, Ruutu, Niewendyk (who is Malone?), Morrow, Frolov

I want games to be shorter in length. I don't enjoy many 3 hour movies, and I don't finish many games that take more than 40 hours. Games in general used to be much shorter, across all genres. Adventure games used to actually be the big sellers (Kings Quest, Monkey Island, Quest For Glory, Space Quest, Maniac Mansion...) and they were all beatable in one sitting if you knew the way through it. I think the expectation of a long game actually killed adventure games, because you can't tell a great story if you are stretching it out for 50 hours. Does a shooter really need to be 50 hours long? I think that just convinces the developers to put in more mindless filler. Give me a succinct storyline anyday. RPG's are a bit different because they often have a degree of freedom. You don't have to follow the main storyline in games like BG 2, Morowind, and many of the Ultima's. You are given many side quests that have little to do with the over-arching theme. That's actually my least favorite part of RPG's. If my childhood friend has just been kidnapped, I don't want to clean up some freakshow circus tent. I want to move forward with the friggin rescue. I spend $50 on games. I expect more than 5 hours of entertainment, but if I get a solid 15-20 hours then I am happy. I want good entertainment, not mediocre time filler.

Can you pick and choose or is it just one row you can take. The Ruutu line is good because Hecht, Robataille, and Yzerman are all solid. Personally I like the Czerkawski line, lots of speed there. If you can pick and choose I'd say Ruutu, Hecht, Czerkawski, Frolov, and Morrow

I play Ice Hockey every chance I get.

I question whether this game was actually play tested. You can't change your lines or pull your goalie when you are the away team. I can change the opponents, but not my own. Also, it seems impossible to get open, take a good shot, and score. But it's way easy to score one-timers and such. That's typical EA hockey though. Still, it's pretty, and I like the varied player animations.

Just be patient

Canada is part of America, and Canadiens may object, but it's tied pretty closely to the US. Sir-Tech was a legendary Canadien developer as well.

I'm not even talking about publishers, since they really don't "make" the games. I'm talking about development houses. You listed a few European developers, great, but you also listed a bunch of American companies that created genres from scratch and revolutionized the gaming world. Sierra and LucasArts still hold huge chunks of gaming history, and no European company has come close to replacing them. Blizzard still releases the top games of the genre. EA still controls a sick amount of gaming development. Id still created Doom. I'll give you Alone in the Dark. There is a game that set the tone for a genre. But that's one game, and American developers still control the PC market. I'm not arguing consoles, because consoles suck in comparison. I would like to see you try not to buy any games developed or published by American companies. This also means burning all the previously bought American games you have.

The US is a country of contrasts. I keep hearing people bashing America because all this censorship, but the fact is most of the best games come out of the US. I can name maybe a habdful of quality games to come out of Europe in the last decade. Japan is probably second, but the fact is many of their games don't translate well so I'm not sure about that. They also release sequels like crazy, whereas original content is a bit more common in the States. I just don't like blanket statements about what crap America is. We have problems, we have a lot of people on the right and left of the political spectrum, and we have religious zealots that argue with overboard athiests. But you still buy our crap, so get over it.

Forsberg does all those things in real life...thankfully he's built like Louisiana levee and breaks pretty easily. EA should have made his chance of being injured stat super high.

I don't really think scoring is going to take off. I think it will increase with the home run passes, but goalies are still better than they have ever been. Right now the NHL has a wealth of outstanding goalies, and even with smaller gear and not being able to play the puck as much, they are still going to dominate many games. I also worry about the enforcement of obstuction, hooking, and holding. They've been trying to cut down on this for years, and every year you get a ton of penalties for the first 15 games of the season, but eventually the refs and the league let up. I'll believe it when I see it. So I think 25 goals is a decent amount.

Congratulations to both of you!

Messier vs. Gretzky is a silly argument, because they were both awesome leaders. Don't you remember Gretzky leading the Kings to the Stanley Cup finals? They didn't have the talent that Messier's Rangers did, but they still got there and Gretzky led the way. He elevated a lot of young guys to play awesome hockey. They didn't win, but they never would have gotten close without him. Messier had a ton of talent on his cup run team. NY shelled out big cash to win that Stanley Cup, and it still took 7 games to beat a much less talented Vancouver. Speaking of which, what happened to Pavel Bure? Scott Stevens is a real leader. If anybody messed with his team, he killed them.

I'm sure some crazy person will go through and fix the rosters, as well as adding all the prospects. I just won a thriller in OT. Going up against a good goaltender is rough, I though I was going to lose until I scored in the last minute.

People keep complaining about the cost of MMO's...that is silly. I've played in NWN Persistent World communities for years. They are great, and can offer some experiences that I'll never see in a MMO. They can actually limit the player base and keep out the wankers, which is a joy. But... It doesn't have the stability of a MMO. My character might be corrupted, the servers go down more often, and it relies on many volunteer hours. This is common stuff. It's not common in WoW. WoW is also an entirely different type of game. I don't play it expecting to change the world. I think there are some cool storylines, but I know I won't finish any final boss and feel complete. I play WoW because I have good companions. I have personal goals I want to accomplish. It keeps me from buying some of the crap games that come out every month. I easily put in enough time to cover the $15 a month I pay. If I felt that time was wasted, I would stop playing, and then I'd cancel my subscription. Someday I will get there, but probably because my companions have gone on the bigger and better pastures. How is that a waste? Do what you enjoy.

I actually kinda like the flopping goaltenders...it simulates the fact that once a goalie goes down, the net opens up a bunch. It may look a bit silly, but until they figure out a way to show a goalie drop to his knees, it's the best we have. I do agree that there are a lot of goals scored...I'm going to try it on hard and see what happens...hopefully the defense gets better.

I suck at defense. I keep going for the big hits, and when I miss it leaves the forwards pretty open. I started on medium though, and scoring seems pretty balanced. Anyone trying hard? Does it just mean superhuman goalies, or is it actually realistic?

Are you playing 2006 or 2k6 Alanshu? I got 2006 for the PC, because I was worried about roster updates and I don't have Xbox live. I lost my first game 4-3, buggers scored with less than a minute to go. Defense is pretty tough, and the AI cycles the puck well. So far it's good, but why does the interface look like it's made for a console? There is barely any mouse support.

If you liked "Kung Fu Hustle", make sure to check out "Shaolin Soccer". Basically the same cast and special effects. I rented "City of God" recently and was really impressed. It's like "Goodfellas" but set in one of the worst cities in the world. The director just released a new movie that's supposed to be great, "The (something) Gardener"

NHL 06 is actually priced at $30, while NHL2k6 is at $20. So technically I could buy both for $50. I'm going to the store today...still not completely sure though.

None of these sites had good reviews anyways. Only Computer Gaming World has decent reviews. The rest of the reviewers are illiterate monkeys. I'm serious, I saw a special on 60 minutes.

So far I've seen an 80% review for NHL 2006 from PC Gamer (which I don't really trust as a reviewer.) But I've played the PC demo, and the gameplay was much improved over last year's flop. I think I've made up my mind to stick with EA. Heck, I'll probably pick up the Sega one eventually anyways. I'd really like to see a quality hockey title for my PSP. That Gretzky game was choppier than hell.

Because I'm impatient and plan on getting it as soon as it reaches the store..plus why waste $10 renting the two games?

I've been trying to decide whether to buy EA's hockey game or Sega's. I'm getting it for the Xbox, and Sega's is $20 while EA's is $30. EA always has a much better Franchise mode, and that is important to me, but the last EA version had horrible gameplay and I switched to Sega. This year I tried the EA demo and it looks to be much improved. Which should I buy? The cost is really a non-issue.