Why wouldn't it be 1974 off the island? How would they time travel back to present time when they leave via submarine?
Faraday is probably still there since we saw him in that time period checking out the orchid station as it was being built earlier this season.
Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, and Sun were all taken off the plane via a flash putting them in the 70's while Ceasar, The Chick, Ben, Locke, and the other people on the plane are in the present
While I agree about not a whole lot of new things were added between Show 08 and 09...The tweaks and few new features they DID add make it well worth the purchase. Just being able to put my music in the game, use it for batter and pitcher intro's, and edit what part of the songs you want for intro's and HR celebrations makes it worth it. The creating of your own chants and taunts via Microphone is an awesome little touch too.
Gameplay wise they made it alot more smooth in every aspect. The ball feels like it moves like a real ball would move, speed and momentum wise. The Graphics are MUCH improved also. Last years game was so awesome I am glad they didn't mess with anything major this time around.
Patriots signed Fred Taylor. Love this signing since Maroney is garbage and with the RBBC they had last year they were actually pretty successfull. Only makes their offense more potent.
I'm willing to bet all those supposed "Plot Holes" will be filled by the end of the series. I have yet to see any real major plot holes to date on this show. That's what makes it so great, unlike Heroes which has a billion fucked up plotholes and it kinda ruined the show a bit for me.
I think all the things that are happening, we have to ssume have already happened. Daniel said you cannot change the future except for Desmond because the time rules do not apply to him for whatever reason that i'm sure will be explained. Charlotte didn't remember ever being on the island maybe due to some amnesia or something. Earlier in the series her and Miles had a conversation in which he asked her why she wanted to get off the island so bad when she spent her whole life trying to get back there. Charlotte asked him what he meant by that, and he said "Yea, what do I mean by that?". I think something happened to Charlotte that made her lose those island memories including Daniel visiting her in the past. On top of that, notw that Daniel knows she dies, he will try again to convince her when he sees her in the past...which will always fail because everything happens for a reason.