Special K

I have to say Xenosaga's card game was really fun. The rest of the game, now...

Maybe in terms of instrumentation, but the composition for those games was stellar (though I only played FFVIII, so I don't really remember the soundtrack.) If you've ever heard the fully orchestrated scores for some of those games, they're incredible. Oh, I forgot what one last good point to FFVIII. The last both's death animation was fucking awesome. EDIT: OOh, Anachronox. I loved that game. Very funny, very innovative, and the world really drew you in. Too bad it ended without a real resolution. Septerra Core was probably the most generic RPG I've ever played, not that it was necessarily bad. I never beat it though, couldn't sustain interest.

Was anyone ever into the hard-core PC RPGs, like Ultima? I appreciate the detail in those games, and tried to play IV (supposedly the best in the series?) but fuck. They're just way too complex. What other classic PC RPGs were there? Darklands was pretty awesome, but buggy and incomplete. Realmz was great. I only played Daggerfall, which I didn't cotton to, but I hear the third Elder Scrolls game was great, and the fourth is highly anticipated. FFX-2 is pretty much the girliest game eve made. 99% of the story sequences are the two girls giggling at one another, then Paine attempts to say something funny, but it's just awkward, and the other two girls encourage her like she's a baby taking her first steps. Then more giggling. The battle system's just awesome, though. One thing that really hurt the FF series, IMO is the regression of the composer. 4-6 had some of the best soundtracks, culminating with the best sountrack ever for a game in FFVI. VII wasn't as good, with some really good songs. then the quality of music just plunged. PC is the unquestioned master of one of my favorite, though nearly dead, genres, the adventure game. Gabriel Knight, all the LucasArts adventures, the Longest Journey. all great games with great dialogue. Indigo Prophecy was a really nice way to update the genre, and though I haven't beaten it yet, I'm about halfway through and it's a hell of a cool game.

X-Com, System Shock 2, Fallout and Planescape are all excellent games. I really don't think these games are quite as good as the SNES-era Square games, but i could see a case being made either way. They're, along with maybe Icewind Dale, my favorite PC RPGs by far. The Dark Sun games were pretty damn good too. I haven't played KOTOR yet, but I hear it's stellar too. A case could definitely be made for X-Com being the greatest game of all time. A squad-based tactical game that's actually creepy? Too bad Terror From the Deep was a dissapointment. Didn't they actually make X-Com for the PSX? the control must have been atrocious. FFVIII's only redeeming characteristic is Seifer, IMO. Terrible magic system, really uneven difficulty level, the plot starts good and heads downhill. The characters are pretty uninteresting I think. You know, for a series I adore, FF only has a good number of clunkers. 2 and 3, 8 and 9 are bad. 5 and X-2 had good systems, but really bad characters and plot. 4, 6, 7, and 10 are good. 1 was great for the day. Tactics is great, Tactics Advanced sucks. And I universally hate MMORPGS, and 11 looked terribly uninteresting even by MMORPG standards. 80 hours to get a Dragoon? Fuck that. PC obviously wins a best console ever competition, but I don't think that's really fair.

You must not have many real accomplishments. And our list is way better.

I can't wait for the next gen systems to come out so I can scavenge all the good games from the current generation for cheap.

Um, that's fucked up to say, but I don't see anything rascist there. If you call Mexico City a shithole, it doesn't mean you hate Mexicans, it means that in your estimation, Mexico City is a shithole.

FFVI is my favorite game ever, and I've never claimed FFVII is the best one. I'd probably put Suikoden II above it, honestly. FFVII is obviously not the terrible game that some people claim, though. Are there any terrible old-school games that get tons of play? I don't think so. There must be something there. And FFVII inspiring shit games still doesn't make it bad. Should we blame Mario 64 for all the terrible 3D platformers out there? No. Should we blame SFII for the cavalcade of terrible 2D fighters that plagued the 16-bit systems? That would be stupid. It might be worth noting, but it's ultimately meaningless. FFVIII was terrible, IMO. That doesn't lower the quality of FFVII. I like the GC's controller, actually. At least for the 1st-party games, it's very well designed. When you actually hold it, its buttons don't feel nearly as arbitrary and weird as they look. I think Gamecube definitely wins in hardware. A pretty good controller, no DVD playback, but you can buy a DVD player and a GC for the cost of an XBOX or PS2. And that system's TOUGH. I'm not buying a PS3 until at least a couple years after it comes out. Sony makes some inexcusably flimsy-ass systems.

I think Chicken Little looks terrible. I don't care to see CGI movies unless they're written by the Pixar team. Or are completely badass like Advent Children. Doom's just a huge bust. I think it cost about $80,000,000. Sheesh. I'll probably rent Shopgirl, but I've heard it's basically Lost in Translation minus the acting of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson (who is a terrific young actress, but plus the awesome Jason Schwartzman. I'll probably be seeing Jarhead in the theaters. I hear you get to see Jake Gylenhaal's Charlie Browns. Awesome!

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Bob, but calling Scarlett Johanssen hideous DOES, actually make you gay. (maybe blind?) Here's a picture of HiLLLary Duff for you to spank to, though. And to expand on UTSU's retarded sports analogy, Takeru Kobayashi is still the greatest athlete in the world. Two Takeru Kobayashi's could pedal farther than Lance Armstrong. No way could two Lance Armstrongs eat as many hot dogs as Takeru Kobayashi. Best athlete ever.

And as a nice coda to this discussion, FFVII just ranked #1 on GameFAQS best game ever poll.

T.O. and Douglas Threw fake punched for a minute then hit a chinlock?

Okay, best action scenes outside of epic war scenes. Hard to compare the two.

Excellent. It was a good episode to start on too. I think one of the things I love most about VM is the pacing. You've got one or two big long mysteries for the season (Who killed Lilly Kane, who raped Veronica, bus crash) A couple short arcs (drug-dealing loser boyfriend, Veronica's Mom, Nathan woods) And a quick'n dirty mystery of the week. Not to mention all the relationship stuff, and charactar development. And it also delivers on those mysteries. At least, so far. And the show never feels ham-fisted, juggling all these points.

Rorshach's by far the hardest to cast. I could see William H. Macy. Watchmen would be best served as a limited HBO series, honestly.

Amusingly enough, when I looked up the lyrics, the first site that showed up was a patriotic song site, with a disclaimer about how the song was not, actually, patriotic. And it would be awesome if AOL put up a pole. They'd be celebrating Festivus!

Shit, I thought it was a 'rah-rah' song. The Boss is fucking incomprehensible. This is one of the most hilariously lame pages I've ever read, about a hilariously lame song. 'Vertigo is spiritual shrapnel! Get Lacerated!' Are you fucking joking me?

Unless your WR corp is ridiculously weak, or you're playing in a small league (changes a lot, you said 16 players, right?) I'd trade Hines Ward for Chris Brown or Thomas Jones straight up. Are you kidding? Good RBs are such a rare commodity in my normal, 12-person league full of smart players, I traded Rudi and Randy moss for Tiki! I know it was crazy, but Rudi ain't shit to me as a starter or keeper, so it was basically Moss for Tiki. Do you play in a league that starts 3 Wrs? That's the only reason I could see you being hesitant. Priest is hurt, and sometime Vermiel has to acknowledge that LJ is running better than Priest (Outside of those two fumbles, and those were the first two of his career.) Get a starting RB while you can. It's about to buckle down. EDIT: Tiki, Lamont Jordan, Larry Johnson, who do I start? I'm starting Tiki and Larry right now.

Oh wait, I just remembered the ABSOLUTE BEST ONE. There was some Disney movie called 'Dinosaur'. During the commercial they played this cool wailing chorus with techno beats. I immediately cracked up. The song which has that chorus is just a filthy techno song from excellent dirty techno band Lords of Acid. My friends in the room thought I was losing my shit, then I played the song to which that chorus belonged. (Yes I own dirty techno albums) Here's the lyrics in full, of course they didn't appear in the commercial: 'The Crablouse' By Lords of Acid I wanna talk to you about forbidden pleasures of the flesh The most thrilling satisfaction for all mankind Better than everything you ever imagined in your wildest dreams: The secret of the crablouse Here's a message for the girls about vaginas And the consequence of fiddling with a partner Mind your labia they're never out of danger If you're gonna go to bed with a stranger Creatures might be hidden in his pubic area It's the crablouse that's out to get ya! It's gonna grab you by the pubic hair Shake your pussy when the bastard's there [CHORUS] It's there to stay, sucks all day It's there to bite, my parasite My love machine, my maddest dream Turns me on, makes me cum The little vampire, horny and so greedy It doesn't care about a penis and it's envy It's intelligent, nasty and it's sick A party animal, a pervert and a pig If a crablouse gets mixed up in your saliva Stumbles through your body right into your vulva Then waits patiently until a penetration Gets it out of there and right into salvation [Chorus] Now we know the little crablouse is a raver You can't get rid of it unless you use a razor It's unbearable, funky and so cool A real smartass and nobody's fool If you meet a guy who's scratching at his totem We all know that it's connected with his scrotum He might tell you that his undie is too tight But you'll know that it's the crablouse and you're right [chorus] It;s a pretty good techno song, too. That's gotta be the ultimate inapproprite song though. A fucking Disney movie.

Anytime 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' is used as an excuse for just good ol fun times. It's about Heroin. 'Start me up' for Windows '95. I'm pretty sure that's just a good ol fun rocker, but that's just wrong. And Green Day's Time of your Life song is actually called "Good Riddance" There you go for inappropriateness. Hate that song either way. Heard it played at a funeral, myself. It sucked. Any time a Toby Keith song is played, it's misused. There was an ad for some first-person shooter (Red Faction?) where they used the song "Go Ask Alice" (Not even subtly about acid) and while I could say it was misused, it was honestly awesome, and grabbed my attention. 'Thick as a Brick' is about abortion? You learn something everyday. Of course, I can't understand a word in a Jethro Tull song, so that's that.

I think I would bench Portis. The Eagles Run D has been very, very tough this year. On your QB situation, no clue since the Steelers D is all over the place. They completely stuffed Palmer, then let the freakin' Ravens throw all over them. My situation Larry Johnson v Raiders Lamont Jordan v Chiefs Tiki Barber v Niners. If Priest is confirmed as missing the game, I'll definitely start Larry. They should all have pretty good games, what do you guys think?

It's time to prepare for the playoffs. I just traded Rudi Johnson and Randy Moss for Tiki Barber. This leaves me very strong at RB, with Riki, Lamont Jordan and Larry Johnson, while I still have Marvin Harrison, Jimmy Smith and Jurevicius at WR, which ain't bad. EDIT: and that's a 22 point day for Delhomme in my league. Christ QB's are ridiculous in that league. I'd be winning on Carson Palmer alone. He's averaging 14 points a game for me, which makes him the second best QB and 10th best player overall.

Why did the stock drop to shit, now half its original worth, and Vince go from a billionaire to dropping off the face of the Forbes richest men list? Because of the collossal flop of the XFL and things like WWENY, with WWE making a lot less money, Vince has lost tons of money. I think Vince has always sort of hated wrestling, but he lost his shirt trying to expand. Hence, as I've said, Vince has lost a shitload of money in the last few years. As to what really pissed Vince off, I think you hve to look back to the XFL. He was fucking HUMILIATED by that. It set records for lowest rated network show, consistently. Someone who I think Vince probably had a good working relationship with, Lorne Michaels, went to hating Vince's guts. It made Vince into a laughing stock, and sent him back to his bread and butter, that carny shit that everyone thinks is a joke. THe XFL was Vince's chance at legitimacy. And it was one one of the most collossal failures I've ever seen.

You can definitely have a very big and fragile ego. Many rich and powerful men have lost their touch and surrounded themselves with yes men in an order to stroke their ego. Great, Vince'll put himself on TV more. I don't give a shit, I haven't watched the shows steadily for about 4 years. And WWE hasn't got a dime from me since WM19. This is one of the stupider conspiracy theories I've heard in some time though. It's not like the shows have gotten bad all of a sudden, they've been bad for something like 3 years now. No humor. Very few good matches. ridiculous, short running storylines. And Vince is still richer than I'll ever be, but he's lost a shitload of money in the last few years. He ain't a billionaire anymore.

Exactamundo. THough his getting the better of Keith in the debates was a nice twist. Jackie's more intriguing possibly having a flirtation with Logan. I just hate her with Wallace. What would he see in her? Lamb and Logan are each 10x bitchier and funnier than Jackie could ever be. You're still on the boards bps? You're avatar's a red x, BTW. Bring back Wade.