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Dear Monte, I can't ever seem to get out of bed when I'm supposed to (!). Please help. Yours faithfully, elitenapper

That's being looked into, fyi. We can't have the rich becoming richer as the poor become poorer. Equal distribution of misery is a top priority atm. As for the quality of English footballers, I'm going to say that the team had, I think, sufficient quality to be world champions. The WC stakes just aren't high enough (individual awards can be earned without winning the championship, too), and they don't play as a team nearly long enough to be as compact as they are as part of their respective clubs. UEFACL/League tournaments are a much better representation of their ability... because they give a damn. The current setup means that competitions with the national team is something that pro footballers do on the side. Besides, nation-states are so pass

It is, unless it's Argentina.

Watched USA-Ghana, was great fun. I wish all teams had the same thirst for victory as these two -- Americans kept fighting till the bitter end, and this produced some awesome moments (goalie vs goalie head-to-head). Ghana's 2nd goal was pretty nice too. Overall I liked the way the US played better, with more discipline and less shenanigans, but I think Ghana deserved to win in the end, what with the lack of effectiveness of the American team and all. Then his close protection detail are doing a good job. But then again, regular people manage to sneak into a White House party uninvited, so...

Yeah. Then you find you can just arm everyone with bows and just have the guy with the boots of speed draw aggro while the mob in question gets pumped full of arrows. Then the feeling goes from frustration to a sense of vacuity and pointlessness. Numbersperson's Rule of Thumb: Good AI -> challenging games. Bad AI -> boring and/or frustrating games.

Uh-huh. I think it's pretty clear who has reading problems here. What, too many words in my post confused you? Maybe it's time for you to go back to something you are more accustomed to? Something with less words, more pictures and that is less likely to induce embarassing seizures in you? Here, this is some "semi-realistic military fiction" to get you on the right track. No need to thank me. edit: just spotted this gem as I reviewed the thread: Yeah, I'm an agent of the Man messing with your head! Time to up your meds, champ.

Second round? Hahaha, that's a good one! I'm looking forward to that game because it's the most interesting match-up so far, not because it'll decide who would be Spain's rival if we qualify. Funny about the US team, too. Just a few days before the tournament started I was talking with a friend about how they looked like they could give a few surprises to the "favourites".

Hahaha. I thought I was in your ignore list. Yeah, I kinda figured you couldn't stay away for long. No. Read the thread as many times as you need, if you can't keep track. You made an argument from ignorance (or speculated based on your lack of knowledge), and I offered counterarguments based on what I KNOW. For the nth time, WHICH point do you want to discuss in detail? The discussion cannot progress further until you refine your claims and make concrete points instead of vague suggestions. And also, please don't assume that just because your (lack of) knowledge comes from late nights with COD, everyone else is just letting their imagination fly. And, instead of researching the subject further, you just started imagining stuff and suggesting that the commandos had illegally executed a few activists, based on your assumption that they couldn't have scored headshots in the middle of a fistfight. And then you throw a fit when I dare question your intellectual rigour. My, I must really have hurt your ego. Get used to that feeling, and grow up already. Again, re-read the thread. I didn't say they were aiming for the head from the get go -- I was simply discussing this possibility, as it's an essential part of your "illegal execution" theory. I stated that hitting a person's head at a distance of less than 2 metres with a handgun is possible. No, this doesn't require a bit of proof, if you've ever fired a gun outside of a MW installment. I've seen a training drill for this, performed under high levels of induced stress. No, I don't have a YT link for you. Not everything is in YouTube. Shocking, I know. Um, so what? They tap the chest, then the forehead. That kinda works against your own discourse, btw, as it shows they are trained to go for the head. How does this relate to your other points anyway? Do you have any? Further, the instructor clearly says, "we're going live fire for the first time", and you can see their movements aren't that quick and automatic (one guy swept by another's head with a loaded, cоcked weapon; you'd know this is a VERY serious mistake, if you had ever had any actual tactical training), so they most likely aren't done training. Unless you are suggesting that the Israeli commandos were n00bs (proof plx), how is that video representative of an actual combat situation? Such as? My citing international law and how it relates to boarding rights under blockade conditions? My claims about 9mm Para being a common law enforcement caliber, and the relative lack of stopping power of jacketed bullets? My explaining the legitimate use of deadly force in self-defense? Those are all really easy to verify, even on the Internet, if you can use sources other than YouTube. I'm not going to do your homework, though. The other counterpoints cannot be made more specific until you concrete the statements those rebuttals were directed at. Get on it.

The biased ref'ing that people tear their shirts over almost every week somewhere in Europe, you mean. This was the same, but it attracted more attention because, well, it was a World Cup. The racism argument doesn't fly with me -- I think the outrage would have been similar regardless of who had been the host. Eagerly awating the Portugal-Brazil.

What's not to celebrate about being the janitor.. you get a swaggin jumpsuit. If you say so. I hear the hours and money aren't that great, though.

Oh yeah, and the argument that the game is an RPG could in turn lead to a discussion on ontological categories... awesome! But seriously, putting an arbitrary label on the box does not excuse bad gameplay. If anything, games define genres, not the other way around. There's no law that RPGs must have crap AI or clunky cover mechanics. Yeah, compare Blood Money's AI search/awareness routines with AP's, where a helicopter circling the area will alert everyone to your presence, despite the fact that you're behind cover. Compare the suspicion-o-meter with AP's "guard finds a corpse, gets mildly suspicious, forgets about the whole thing ten seconds later" system. Oh, and hey, I guess moving corpses out of sight and ****ing closing doors is way too much to ask in a game where stealth is supposed to be a valid way of beating most scenarios. Who cares about that anyway? You have The One Ring! But yeah, in AP enemies flank you and have unlimited grenades to drag you out of cover. I guess in that respect, AP is better. Dialogues and characterization are better too. A shame that all of that is irrelevant wrt the points I was discussing, don't you think?

Because he has opinions and expresses them? O-kay. I can understand where some of the complaints come from, at any rate. Hitman: Blood Money one-ups AP with regards to stealth, infiltration and AI without compromising gunplay should the player want (or need to) shoot his way through a mission, and without pulling stupid **** like invisibility magicks. And, um, it's a 2006 game. Once again, the gameplay of an Obsid game just isn't up to par.

Okay, I hope you're being facetious, but on the off chance you aren't, can you explain this to me? Are you afraid of losing street cred if suddenly you discover you're finding FOOL enjoyable? Or is it just Directive #4 of Old Skool CRPGers (No MMOs Evar) overriding your system? Not trolling, btw. I sincerely don't understand where you're coming from. edit: ah, this is because it's Herve's creation, right? I'm kinda slow atm.

I've never understood this thing with congratulating people on becoming the new janitor. Seriously, what's to celebrate about that? Oh well, good luck and keep a bottle of Alka-Seltzer handy.

Arguing from authority, am I? You have it backwards, bub. I have not made a single judgment call regarding this incident -- unlike you, I'm not happy to suggest conspiracy theories without having all the facts in, and I at least have the courtesy of extending presumption of innocence to servicemen regarding the possibility of extrajudicial killings, a very serious charge. Accusations of that caliber are, I think, not something to be thrown around as frivolously as you have. All I have done is, based on what I have been taught, show where your arguments fall apart (it's worth noting that you have not made a single rebuttal of any of the counterpoints I made). Man up and deal with it. "Oh, but I admit I'm fallible" just doesn't cut it -- of course you are fallible, you don't need to clarify that as if there was ever any doubt. That doesn't give you carte blanche to speculate wildly, and then throw a tantrum when people call you on your bull****. Oh, my. Is that special like losing your virginity? I feel kinda naughty right now. You received KM instruction in the army? Wow. Anyway, KM stuff is kinda nasty so I've actually been told that you're better off not doing some things outside of a wartime situation, which I'm not going to find myself in anytime soon. IMO it's just not worth landing your ass in jail and paying an arm and a leg for damages just to teach some punk a lesson. Depending on the law of your country, YMMV though. Hapkido has some useful stuff too.

Looks like you are starting to lose track. Feeling dizzy? Take a step back. Breathe in deeply. Now, either the commandos shot for the head on purpose or they didn't. If they didn't, how exactly were they "executing" anyone? Now, if they were actually going for the head, were they doing so from the moment they boarded the vessel? Was this before or after they were assaulted themselves? Is there any distinction in Israeli law between aiming for (and hitting) the head or the chest? Answer those questions first, then based on the answers, go ahead and try to make your case that the dead by headshot were "executions". Also, do read a few posts back, where I explained that point blank IS NOT execution-style. PROTIP: "the press said it was an execution, I'm just echoing what they said!" is not a valid defense. You are expected to have formed your own informed opinions before advancing conspiracy theories. Uh... the videos showed only parts. The boarding part, mostly. But they did eventually take control of the whole ship. The initial landing may have degenerated into a fistfight, but that doesn't fit with how most of the wounded weren't by contact shots but simply close range fire -- consistent with the cramped environment that is a ship. Once more, if it isn't on YT, it didn't happen, yes? Yeah, you don't know about me. And you don't know about the commandos for that matter, that's your problem. You are essentially pulling stuff out of your ass and expecting everyone to nod in agreement, based on whatever basic training you got as a naval radar operator and the few Tom Clancy novels you may have ogled. Sorry, I ain't buying it. Hmm? What do you want me to back, exactly? I'm offering plausible, easy to verify counterpoints to your 100% unsupported assumptions, estimations and "common sense" suppositions, based on what limited knowledge I have been imparted by people who have actually been on the line. LOL -- 9mm isn't "heavier" at all, it's the basic sidearm caliber for just about any police officer in the world (save the UK, crazy unarmed bastards). A) According to international law, a country that has declared a blockade has a right to board any ships attempting to violate said blockade. So the commandos WERE within their own jurisdiction. You must also have missed the post where I explained this. ADHD? The idea that the nationality of the perps has any relevance would be laughable were it not so widely extended. B) and C) are the same thing, a naval blockade is an act of war and therefore responsibility for enforcement falls on the military. Want to discuss the legality of the blockade? Go right ahead, you won't see me arguing either for or against, as there doesn't seem to be a uniform opinion even among legal experts. The fact remains that, according to the Israeli side, whose orders the commandos are bound to obey, they had every right to be there and do what they did. No, it's you who doesn't understand. Your argument goes like this: "this is some crazy japanese game in which some dude has mad aiming skills -- nothing in this game is to be taken seriously. Therefore, nobody IRL could have similar skills". Even disregarding the fallacies present therein (I'm leaving those for you to figure on your own), the bottom line is that you are using video games as a basis for an argument in your analysis of a real-world event. Do you really need me to go into details as to how ridiculous this is?

There's simply no delicate way to say this... you have no clue what you're talking about. For starters, you don't know if those who got shot in the head had only received those wounds, i.e. they were shot in the chest/extremities AND the head, with the headshot being the ultimate cause of death. You are also operating from the assumption that the commandos were aiming for the head from the get go (I suspect you are fixed on the idea that the soldiers performed a few extrajudicial killings for the hell of it) -- I'd like you to present evidence of this, and then reconcile that evidence with the fact that there were "dozens" of wounded, and "only" five deaths attributed to headshots. Further, all gunfire wounds treated were from 9mm rounds, a reasonably effective cartridge... unless one is using jacketed ammunition, the only one legally available to commandos given that hollow points are banned for military use. So it's perfectly possible that they shot for the chest first, failed to drop the attacker and had to keep firing. Right, because the situations a regular infantryman is going to be in are the same a commando will face, so their training regimes are the same. This also extends to hours spent at the shooting range, time spent familiarising with different combinations of weapons and ballistic effects in different environments, body armor, stress, CQC techniques, etc. Yep, in fact, the only difference between a commando and your run of the mill grunt is a pin on the chest of the former. There is no such thing as "special forces", just goons with guns. Or so says Calax, self-appointed expert on "semi-realistic military fiction". Yeah. If you can't find it on YT, it doesn't exist, right? Maybe you should try and wrap your mind around the fact that video games are not a reliable source and get a bit more real world know-how of these things before jumping to conclusions? Just sayin' That IS the MO for law enforcement worldwide. In general terms, if there is sufficient reason to believe that the aggressor is about to use or is already using deadly force against the officer(s) or bystanders, then deadly force is warranted right back. Deal with it. And by the way, 9mm guns aren't "big", at all. The desperate hyperbole only underlines your weak footing.

Jedi Knight games. :3So IRL swordplay = jumping and running around like a headless chicken, hitting the air with the sword in hopes that the position of a FTL (to account for lag) opponent will be coincident with one's blade? Whoa, what fencing style do you practice? Me wants. Never mind that he was talking about realistic damage (ie one hit kill). Which isn't the case either... unless you decapitate or impale the heart. Adrenaline > U

Do you have anything to say that they were aiming for the head, and that the headshots were the only wounds received by those killed that way? Do you have anything to say about IDF rules of engagement pertaining to their use of deadly force? Do you have anything to say about IDF commando conditioning techniques with regards to high-stress situations? Because I don't. Uh-huh. Because you were assigned to and completed your multi-year training in quick-response, high-risk units, and "semi-realistic" military fiction tells you everything you need to know about one day in the life of a commando, right?

Jedi Knight games. :3So IRL swordplay = jumping and running around like a headless chicken, hitting the air with the sword in hopes that the position of a FTL (to account for lag) opponent will be coincident with one's blade? Whoa, what fencing style do you practice? Me wants.

You haven't got any better at this whole "reading" business, I see. A lot of guessing and assuming there, champ. How many times have you been involved in life-or-death CQC scenarios? Got any commando training techniques you'd like to share with us, that you are basing your assumptions on? And, by the way, point blank isn't execution style... it's exactly the distance at which an attacker with blunt weapons or knifes would be shot at.

^ I don't know about that. Why did AP go from infinite to finite ammo? I'm not sure that's something to weep for, anyway. I mean, my suggestions could get in, but on the other hand, there's a risk that yours could too!

What pics are you referring to specifically? Apparently, photomanip is still all the rage.

That one started out as news, moved on to become a (more or less) mature discussion, and got locked because of personal attacks. I hope this one won't suffer the same fate. This one shows much more promise, though. I mean, assimilating Israel to NK? That's as serious and mature as debating gets, mate.

The WM was broken in MotB because it's a prestige class with very stringent requirements that is centered around dealing criticals to mobs. It's a one-trick pony. Take that away, and the character is a fighter with some pretty odd feat choices. A very, very large proportion of the enemies in MotB are undead and therefore immune to criticals, unless you hit them with a certain falchion... which in turn makes the WM insanely powerful given his high BAB and the fact that those mobs aren't supposed to be taking 3x damage from criticals. From zero to hero in one feat.