Amentep

Hmm. Well, I can't argue with that. I think it's implied, however, that the "PlayDate" is very much a living person? Yeah I don't even understand anything at that link. It's like reading some bizarre foreign language made up of near-English. At any rate, whoever made the profile (and for the bear) probably is a living person (at least at the time the entry was made).

To quote (the stage direction of) Shakespeare - "Exit, pursued by a bear".

I was not fond of Bush either. While I could understand the rationale for going into Afghanistan, I always felt that his (and therefore ours as a country) reasoning for going into Iraq was disingenuous. I think there was also a gross misunderstanding of the region and its perceptions as well; some would argue this doesn't matter but I think anyone who thought about it a bit would realize that history indicates what we were stated to be doing would be difficult enough without giving ammunition for others by acting in a high handed fashion.

And does it have any sort of eating or feeding upkeep mechanism (hate that in games)?

There's nothing on the GameCrush website that indicates the "PlayDate" has to be an attractive young female human.

As someone who found some enjoyment in Oblivion (before my computer bit the dust) and in FO3 how directly comparable are the games? Are there classes? How much control do you have (if any) in character creation?

I don't think he's saying Bush had anything to do with 9/11 I think he's saying that 9/11 → war on terror → invasion of Iraq on "they have weapons of mass destruction" claims that proved false and that was establishing a precedent that the US could invade other sovereign countries whenever the US "believed" that country was a threat.

To be fair, the island sinking (I don't think the nuke blowing in 1977 necessarily sank the island) could have put a crimp in Jacob's plan. Assuming Jacob ever existed in the other timeline.

To be fair its kinda hard to condemn something without actually talking about it. "You know that stuff I hate? Yeah I really hate that stuff."

80000 dollars is still way too much. Unless they replaced the leg with a golden one with studded diamonds and breasts. Go big or go home. I really doubt the materials are the problem in terms of cost, the rod could not have been much more than $1k. In fact I get it out in a few months, I hope I get to keep it! A night at a hospital can run you $10-20k even without surgery. There are major problems with health care costs in this country. This bill doesn't fix that, but it could open the door to further reform. Not including the one night at the hospital, I think my broken ankle ended up costing me about $25,000; IIRC half of it was for the hospitals "stuff" during the out-patient surgery (including the plate & screws they put in) and the rest covered the doctor, anesthesiologist, etc. I'd imagine it'd have been a lot more had I paid for the night in the hospital (and the painkillers).

Sorry, Gifted1 you aren't my type. But he's got a big, robust...health insurance! Edit: Frankly I'm surprised that anyone is surprised about Ahmadinejad's statements, personally.

Except I think that that's a separate issue - companies don't have to prey on the lonely to be full of money-ravenous suits who only care about the money they can wring from others. But there are many companies and individuals that provide service to the lonely; I'm not sure that its necessarily a negative thing provided the lonely person is getting something that, for them, they feel is worth the money they paid. Didn't say it shouldn't be commented on, just that in my opinion as long as the customer feels that they're receiving reciprocity vis a vis what they get vs the money they paid then I'm not going to pass a value judgment on the business anymore than I would "web-cam girls" or "dating services".

Never played the game but nothing I saw on it during the brief few minutes I'd given to looking at it felt very inspiring. For those who like it, what is it about the game that makes you like it?

As long as the person paying feels they're getting something worth the money they paid, then *shrugs*

I've not seen the original in a couple of years and the new ones not out yet?

But did he knock people out while running missions for the SPA? Did he tranq anyone while co-director of the League for Industrial Democracy?

I seem to recall that you could knock people out as opposed to kill them, but knocking people out isn't really non-violent in the way I'd think a pacifist would be.

I liked the Ritchie/Downey SHERLOCK HOLMES as well. It wasn't quite the original series but I thought it was truer than a lot of adaptions. I found it funny that a lot of people were put off by "Battling Sherlock" when the novels - if my memory holds - has reference to him boxing and knowing Victorian era Martial art/self-defence method Bartitsu (misspelled "Baritsu")

I'm pretty sure you end up paying for it anyhow, either through raised insurance premiums or through local taxes to support the hospital. I live in a county that supports a local Level 1 Trauma center and they pull tax money to keep it running from the surrounding counties. Of course there's always problems with that which for years have threatened the place staying open... I'm under the impression that insurance ran hospitals will hike prices to insured customers to cover the fact that they're unlikely to recoup most of the money charged to insurance-less emergency patients and to make the hospital itself profitable. So - and perhaps I'm wrong - the question seems to be "does the money go to and come from the insurance company, the local government or the federal government in terms of subsidizing the health care of the currently uninsured".

Also, I kept finding myself humming the theme to "Moon Patrol" while driving the Mako and using the jets to slow down landings to actually jump the Mako like the buggy in Moon Patrol...

You were manipulated from begining by Elone, and only because she wanted to force Laguna to stay with her mother, and make them not die this way... Which ended up impossible to her... Ultimecia was mentioned for the first time on DISC 3 AFAIK... But wasn't Ultimecia looking for Ellone because her power was necessary for Time Compression? And Ellone was at the orphanage run by Edea? Dangit, my brain hurts.

I never hated the mako. That said, it'd have been nice if there was an easy way to tell what mountains it'd scale and which ones it wouldn't without trial and error.

Eh...SeeD, Solder...its been quite a few years since I played FFVII... VIII I always thought everything was manipulated by Ultimicia from the end of time - could be wrong though since like VII been years since I played it. Tidus, I dunno his desire to get back at his dad...still I could be wrong. Hmmm, I may have to poke around and read some reviews.

I never thought Kefka or Sephiroth were a women. Seifer never really struck me as effiminate either.

The thing is - to me at least - there's no difference in an internal force (being born better) or an external force (an anointing) in terms of whether the story falls under a chosen one criteria. Yes, to look at Cloud any of the SeeD candidates could have been used by Sephiroth like Cloud was - but the point of the story is he does it to Cloud. Without that Cloud has no way to follow what Sephiroth is trying to do. The same could be argued about Mass Effect - it could have easily been Kaiden or Ashley (or looking broader some other person from the shortlist of human SPECTRE candidates) who could have been brain blasted by the Eden Prime beacon. But it was Shepard who was. In both cases choices outside the direct influence of the protagonist end up with them being the one person uniquely positioned to defeat the villains. In the case of Tidus, its Tidus' dad who went on the last Pilgramage. I don't remember it being coincidence that he came out of the (fayehd?) to be involved in the events, but actually directly tied to his dad's actions. Note I say this as someone who wouldn't still be playing video games if it weren't for the Final Fantasy series and I mean no disrespect to those games which I've spent many hours on. I suppose we see the "chosen one" differently; I think there are circumstances that follow incidental involvement (FFIX comes to mind as Zidane gets involved totally due to circumstance) and those where - to my mind at least - events outside the control of the hero force their involvement . I never finished the 1st Drakensang but my experience with that is the protagonist gets involved in the main plot coincidentally (having gotten a letter from an old friend), but in FFVII I really think Sephiroth's choice of Cloud as an experiment subject puts Cloud on a path he has to follow just as much as if he'd been born with a specific destiny. Certainly the Breath of Fire series (you're the only dragon!) fall more into the "born different" category of chosen one (more akin to NWN2 or BG series) than the FF series as Orogun01 suggests, but I don't think that's the only form of "chosen one" story. Of course we may just end up disagreeing ultimately. Moving away a bit from this debate as someone who loved most of the FF series but has found himself slowly moved away from it (never played FFXII), is FFXIII worth returning to the series for? Was XII worth playing?