Amentep

There are still plenty of other hobby magazines on the newsstand though. Ham Radio, model rocketry, sewing, body building, all sorts of esoteric hobbies still have magazines. If computer gaming was stil an esoteric hobby, it woudl probably still have magazines. It had a lot more magazines when there was a lot less money in the business. Newspapers are a different kettle of fish from hobby magazines. Bad example. However, you have to admit, as news-information is increasinly moving to an online distribution model and thuse being easily available to the average computer user, it makes sense that a magazine devoted to something that uses the computer as its base of operations would be hit harder than say, Ham Radio that wouldn't be as intrenched online, necessarily. I think - I won't swear to it - that I still have two issues of CGW around the house here in a box that were my brothers...

My personal preference is for dark hair.

Played in the last 5 years Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Planescape: Torment Final Fantasy VI/III Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Katamari Damacy Borrowed and played again in the last year Phantasie M.U.L.E. Would play now if I had the systems up to play them on Dragon Force Arcus Odyssey Shining Force II

A reminder that EA once released a lot of different game genres... *reminiscenses (sp?) the days of "Seven Cities of Gold", "Hard hat Mack", "Archon" & "Racing Destruction Set"* I think I could use a remake of "Racing Destruction Set" :sad: I remember Racing Destruction Set. Wow, I'd remembered the game for years but couldn't think of the name of it (a bit like that game where you bought a giant monster and set it loose) Seven Cities of Gold I remember playing, but never finishing. ARCHON was the game though! I remember many epic battles on that game. Never played Hard Hat Mack though...platformer? Phantasie was a great game. hell yeah though that fight with the Kraken was a huge jump in the difficulty level Yeah it was. Man I loved Shining Force II so much that I actually got all my characters up to level 99 once... It was actually the first (and only game) I assisted on an online FAQ for (Mostly spell progressions for some of the wizards and I found a weird "issue"? where I got Talos' sword on a random drop; unusable by any party member and I held onto it thinking there was going to be some character who'd use it).

hmmm, no way I could ever get a true list like that; changes too much. So ten I really liked (and played a whole lot): Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Planescape: Torment Dragon Force Phantasie M.U.L.E. Arcus Odyssey Final Fantasy VI/III Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Katamari Damacy Shining Force II

Yeah I never finished Rune either...

Yeah, I kinda gave up accurate depictions of mythology in games ages ago. I generally just hope its fun these days.

Yup, the original version with Vincent Price. Then there was THE OMEGA MAN with Charlton Heston in the 70s. And NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD has its origins in Romero's failed attempt to get the rights to film the book. Last two movies I've seen was Demons and Demons 2. First one is a lot better, although they're both enjoyable (and both contain the flaw (IMO) of being internally inconsistent in how the demons are handled), but the theater setting gives a nice claustrophobic feel to the preceedings while the high-rise setting of the second film isn't used very well at all.

I liked 6 better than 8 and like 7 pretty well. I also like I and II (very much like some old computer games I've played, like Phantasie from SSI). I don't think I ever beat III (but what I played was fun) and V was only "okay" to me, the story kinda made me go "meh". I really didn't like IV that much.

Well I know VIII sold well, but it seemed at the time that most of the diehard FF fans hated the game. I liked that it tried to be a bit more ambitious in what it was doing even if it wasn't always successfull. But then I never really found it dull (and it is one of the few games that I actually spent time doing the minigame on in any significant way!) I remember getting into a long debate before about VIII vs. IX as many people thought IX was a return to greatness and I found it to be a disapointing mish-mash of story elements we'd already seen in the FF series before. That I favored VIII to VII was the like throwing down the gauntlet asking for a flame war!

I liked Final Fantasy VII; I don't think it was the best in the series (still favor VI personally) but I did enjoy it and played it through several times trying to get all of the stuff (never did beat all the ultimate weapons, but then I was never big on 100% completion). I'm one of the few who favored VIII to VII, and I didn't care much for IX when many loved it. So I'm a bit out of the norm for Final Fantasy players anyhow (and I haven't bothered with XII, so I guess my interest in the series has waned).

Other than strikes that limited seasons, and scheduled changes to start dates that altered when the season began/ended, the only break Doctor Who suffered was between its 22 and 23 series. Even if you have to count that break, Stargate would still need another 12 seasons to tie the pre-break series. Basically I don't understand the logic there at all, as it seems to be based solely on an arbitrary interpretation of how the BBC renews its shows, I guess. Mind you when you open up to all types of shows, they're all eclipsed by news programmes and soaps (some of which started on radio over 60 years ago).

This one's bugged me on several games.

Watched THE HEAD, low budget German Horror film from the producer of The Horror of Spider Island. Silly film - possibly poorly re-edited in English as certain sequences seem to be out of order.

Haha, thats what I pictured. I am Legend was pretty boring for me too. Please Will Smith or whoever is responsible, stop making mediocre movies out of excellent books. I Robot was enough. Just stop. Please stop. Great...now all editions of I am Legend will have Will Smith's image plastered over them. I watched Predator over the weekend. Still fun after all these years. To be fair, the movie I, Robot was never intended to be an adaption of the Asimov book (and in fact, is more like the Eando Binder (Earl and Otto Binder) short story, I, Robot that was the first part of the Adam Link, Robot series; Asimov wanted his book to be named Mind and Iron anyhow). The movie was an original script (called Hardwired); it was only after the studio optioned the spec script that it grafted the Asimov connection to the film (as it owned the option on the novel). I AM LEGEND started off strong but goes all wrong as it goes on (and diverges from the novel further and further...)

I'm always surprised they never really seemed to deal more with that, but yeah it seems like the doomed love of Gwen has a bigger pull. But then I never had a problem with the marriage, so I'm easy I guess.

Wow...yeah...um... I always thought D&D had mechanics in place to get XP for doing anything that the DM felt deserved XP (exactly like the GURPS example they use) not just for killing stuff. Am I missing something?

RIP Dave Stevens, creator of the Rocketeer and the guy who is probably most responsible for the resurgence of Bettie Page's popularity. He passed away after a long fight with leukemia. http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/20...vens-1955-2008/ http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_03_11.html#014911

I've heard BND is as good as OND was considered to be bad. I think that the basic premise, of everyman loser Peter Parker making a deal with the devil to bring back his elderly (and dead before) aunt doesn't *work* for me, but it seems the resultant comics have done well for Spidey fans (excepting the die-hard marriage fans).

I have played none of those games, but I think I agree. Hit Points are not representative of your character's actual health, they are representative of your character's action-hero mojo. Especially in a modern setting where 1 bullet would realistically mean incapacatation or death, the health bar makes little sense. If John McClane can fall six stories and get punched in the teeth a dozen times with nothing to show for it but a dust-covered sheen of sweat and an attractive scratch on his left cheekbone, why shouldn't our RPG characters? I'm reminded of a set up used by some RPG or another I read some time or another in some dim and hazy past that suggested that the "HP" (they didn't call it that) was really the PC's ability to *avoid* injury. IIRC they had a double mechanic, if someone attacked you and scored a "hit", you lost some of your "avoid damage points". When the ADP were used up then a hit actually DID damage your HP, leaving you severely injured (and in the P&P world, looking at recouperation time). So if someone shot at you, rolled a hit, and you had enough ADP to cover the "damage" you'd take, your were able to avoid being shot. If not you got shot in a body part, possibly fatally. If you jumped from a second story floor and had ADP to cover it, you did an action-movie land and roll. If not you broke something. And so on or some such.

Not bad, as far as I know. I live in a gated community, and the unsavory folk probably can't afford to live here... Sounds like a lot of savory folk couldn't afford to live there either! I know I couldn't. Congrats on the move and good luck with the job

Its not even wanting Aunt May more than his wife thats the worst part, its sacrificing his life with his wife in order to save the life of a 95 year old woman who should have been dead years ago anyway. That's kinda my point - Peter wants his Aunt who was already elderly, already with health problems (and, IIRC, had died once already only to have it retconned into being an Aunt May imposter) to continue living rather than accepting that its inevitable that May pass on at some point. I dunno, its just kinda creepy that Peter would force his Aunt back into life without ever thinking about what she might want, or worrying about what it actually means in reality. Basically it just doesn't work to me. I guess Peter just really, really loved those wheat cakes that May kept serving...

I don't see it mentioned anywhere on Obsidian's boards, so I thought I would bring it up... Steve Gerber, the man who created Howard the Duck and wrote a lot of the more intriguing comics to come from the major publishers since the 1970s passed away February 11, 2008. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=146401 Mark Evanier has kept open Steve's old blog with various updates and threads for people to discuss their thoughts and such: http://www.stevegerber.com/sgblog/ I had been reading Steve's update on DC venerable Doctor Fate character (which was really well done) and even though I'd known how sick he was had always been hoping against hope he'd get the transplant he needed.

Huh, so thats a cranefly. Ive always know those as mosquito-hawks. The text was pretty funny. Mosquito Hawk seems to be a colloquial term that - depending on the region - can mean a Crane Fly, a Dragonfly or a Damselfly. Funny pictures though. Crane Flies used to creep me out when I was a kid and thought they were giant mosquitoes!

Curse of the Headless Horseman (1974) The plot description is that a group of kids trying to help a friend who has inherited a ranch run afoul of the curse of a murderous headless horseman. The reality is that a guy studying to be a doctor is willed a "ranch" which he has to make profitable in 6 months or lose it to the "ranch's" caretaker. The ranch is, actually, a small ghost town serving as a tourist attraction (complete with shoot-out show!). The guy's friends, a bunch of hippies, travel along and decide to live and work in the town communally to make it profitable in 6 months. Their plan seems to involve sitting around and folk singing most of the day, randomly wandering around, putting on a sub-vaudeville review for themselves, getting a local singer to sing to them and generally not actually doing anything towards making the "ranch" profitable. Meanwhile, the "Headless Horseman" comes and...doesn't really do much. The first night he sprays some blood from a knife on one of the kids. Later that kid is mysteriously shot by a real bullet! Only its in the arm and he's okay. Later the Horseman shows up with the worlds fakest looking severed head (which actually changes between shots) and splatters blood on a girl who runs out into traffic and is hit. He sprays blood on another girl, then is caught and revealed to be one of the kids. Seems he found what he thinks was gold and wanted to scare everyone off. Only now all of the guys seem to have guns with real bullets and all want the gold and all shoot themselves. We are left to believe that the Headless Horseman is actually GREED. All of this and quite possibly the worst, most intrusive narration in a film ever (which also completely fails to illuminate the film at all), plus shots that randomly shift from day and night, horrible and long sections of film comprised of bad folk singing, characters who seem to randomly appear and disappear from the town with no explanations (and often appear in the same local twice; for example after getting blood on his shirt the kid gives a girl named "Yo-yo" his shirt to clean (because even in communal living, the girls do all the house work). Yo-yo is sitting in front of one of the buildings on the "ranch" and yet after he gives her his shirt, the kid walks not 10 feet and Yo-Yo is clearly in the background again, now standing by a covered wagon!) An awful, nearly unwatchable film.