The Man in Blak

That's almost damning with faint praise, considering his competition. Plus, I imagine that they'd probably have 1985 NL MVP Willie McGee on the all-time Cardinals team in Center, despite the fact that Lankford has better stats. But that's neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that his current production, OBP notwithstanding, isn't anywhere near his prior levels. He's filled the "scrappy veteran" role to a T in St. Louis, but he's got to actually be good to warrant consideration for the Comeback award.

Picture the San Francisco offense without Barry Bonds and remember that, past Jason Schmidt, they have lifesized cardboard cutouts on the mound. These guys are 9 games over .500 with no pitching and the best power hitter behind bonds is MARQUIS GRISSOM. I'd love to be a homer and throw Rolen's name into the MVP mix, but it's got to go to Bonds.

If I were to pick a Comeback player, it would have to be Ray Lankford. Here's a guy who was absolutely considered DONE. He didn't play organized ball at any level last season. This year, he's hitting 266/365/435, and building his case as one of St. Louis's all time greats. Kweh? Lankford's been splitting time in LF all year with other "All Time Greats" like So Taguchi, Colin Porter, and Marlon Anderson. I know the career OBP is good and he is a member of the 200/200 club, but are you seriously considering him one of St. Louis' best ever? With Brock, Gibby, Stan the Man, and the Wizard? Hell, Lankford's not even the best comeback player candidate on his own team, with Chris Carpenter coming back and having an absolute career year after sitting out a year due to arm surgery.

Jesus tap-dancing christ , can we get some spoiler tags?

I'm thinking Ugueth Urbina, actually, since the Braves are still in the race (!) in the NL East.

I'd agree with this except in the case where a person spends their entire career with one team. Which, thanks to the modern era of free agency, is likely to never happen again.

Arthur Rhodes?

Watchmen The Dark Knight Returns Kingdom Come Ronin (Frank Miller does Samurai Jack years before Cartoon Network) Sandman, Book 1 League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Vol. 1 Battle Royale, Vol 1. Dark Phoenix Saga X-Tinction Agenda (Yeah, I know - ain't it crazy?) And, finally, a hardcover version of Welcome Back, Frank, which covers that whole plotline, a special "dentistry" issue, and The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe. Depending on where you shop, you may be able to get this at a HUGE bargain (I snagged mine for $15).

You know, I'd say that Plastic Ono Band was criminally snubbed, but...when you look over the list...it's really hard to rank it against a lot of the choices. Just a helluvalist, with a bunch of titles that I need to pick up.

Its more of an early 70's Iggy thang than Bowie... Have you heard his solo album?

The theatrical ending is the only ending that matters, the other endings shown on the DVD were alternate endings that they didn't use. Good point, except that there was a theatrical re-release of 28 Days Later that had one of the new endings. Overall, if they go with Teke's plot point of the Infected somehow stowing onto one of those planes, they could take it from there and easily run with it for 100 minutes or so. However, Boyle brought a very distinctive visual sense to the first one so, if he's not on board, I think this one's going to lose a lot of steam.

The guitars you're referring to are the open case entries, though, and they don't carry those anymore (at least not to my knowledge). I've just seen two different stores with a closed-case box of all the materials, so that's why I recommended it. It goes without saying, though - look at your guitar before you buy it.

Yeah, which would have a little more power if Weiland hadn't already cashed in the "self-deprecating junkie" card on STP's "Tumble in the Rough." The album's all right, but it ain't exactly anything new and it has some really abysmal moments ("Fall to Pieces", specifically). The lyrics are dreadful, Weiland has deteriorated horribly as a vocalist, but the sound of the GNR vets in the back is great and the songwriting, while not really straying outside of your typical rock convention, is pretty tight. And "Slither" is one hell of a single - A&R reps must have creamed themselves when they heard that song. It's just missing something, and it ain't Axl. Personally, I blame Weiland, who will certainly trip out on some flavor of heroin in the coming year and morph back to David Bowie-wannabe Scott Weiland, complete with eye shadow and song lyrics that mention masturbation at least three times each. He's just trying waaaay too hard at this "rock thing" nowadays (The guy celebrates "M.W.A - Mass World Annihilation" on his section of the liner notes) and his voice sounds awful (listen to tracks from VR versus, say, an acoustic cover of "Plush"). Give it a rest, Scott - for you and your family's sake.

Another place to check out might be the place you least expect: Wal-Mart stores in select areas have a guitar and amp package with a gig bag for under $200. http://www.musiciansfriend.com might not hurt either.

Yeah, I'd echo the movie licensing, as well as the move towards dividing the titles into genre-specific imprints like Marvel Knights. The X-Titles look to be taking a huge regression, however, with Claremont doing everything within his power to undo or tarnish Morrison's run on New X-Men. I'm a fan of both writers, but Claremont could potentially create an even larger disaster than he did when he punished X-fans everywhere with the Neo.

Jose Offerman.

Grimsley smashed a chair against the locker room wall after hearing that Curtis Leskanic had been released by the Royals last week, so this one's no surprise. I'm absolutely stunned that the locker room atmosphere has turned from Pena's ultra-enthusiasm into near-mutiny with Baird's ultimatums. Just one of the most painful seasons in recent Royal history, in my opinion.

Or Jose Offerman.

Care to expand on that?

Celes Terra Luca Magus

It's because all of the guys in Korn have their shit heavily detuned. (Isn't it something like Drop D tuning, and then two whole steps down on top of that?) That clicking noise is the banging of the strings against the fretboard, due to the low string tension. Hell, considering how embarassingly bad they've been in recent years, I'm surprised that they haven't detuned it to the point where the strings just drag along the floor.

Goodie Tourney Quarter-Finals: Nina – Breath of Fire (Series) vs Celes – Final Fantasy 6 Citan Uzuki – Xenogears vs Kain – Final Fantasy 4 Terra – Final Fantasy 6 vs Fei Fong Wong – Xenogears Cloud – Final Fantasy 7 vs Tir – Suikoden (Yeah, Cloud being here is pretty damn stupid.) Baddie Tourney Quarter-Finals: Death – Castlevania (Series) vs Grahf – Xenogears Luca Blight – Suikoden 2 vs Jowy Blight - Suikoden 2 Queen Zeal - Chrono Trigger vs Ghaleon - Lunar (Series) (By a country mile.) Kahran Ramsus – Xenogears vs Magus - Chrono Trigger

Personally, I hated the direction that Morrison was taking. I guess it all depends on whether you're a big fan of superheroics or not. When Morrison wrote that book, it seemed like the first time in forever that characters grew as characters. Rather than being mired in their own now-all-too-conventional characterizations, the New X-Men changed - Emma Frost fell in love with Cyclops and, being the amoral person that she is, did something about it.. Cyclops (who probably got the biggest boost from Morrison) finally started having some key personality flaws (i.e. he's a superficial horndog). All of the other issues were distilled down into their most essential components - the team didn't sit around at the mansion and just wait for someone to come blow it up (a key flaw to Claremont's decline in the 80's), human/mutant relationships were placed from different perspectives during the Jumbo Carnation storyline and he even made a wonderful contribution to the X-Men Mythos (the whole idea of the mummudrai, which I know I just horribly mispelled, is terrific). The other X-Books, on the other hand, basically sat in stasis while Chuck Austen rewrote Romeo and Juliet for the mutant crowd (whafuck?) and Chris Claremont earmarked all of his stock plots in the 80's for yet another repetition in X-Treme X-Men. I guess, for me, it was just a welcome change. I love the classic Claremont era of X-Men, with the Dark Phoenix and Inferno, but the franchise had since become known as a pinnacle of capitalistic desires, as Marvel shoveled out as many titles as they could with an X in front of them. It was time for something new.

At a school where there were tons of radical professors. Which means that he went to college in the United States.

One game that I haven't seen mentioned yet that hits nearly every single category you have: Revelations: Persona (Playstation 1) Random Battles - Persona has random battles and two different "overworld" perspectives: a first-person dungeon perspective, a la Phantasy Star I, and a ghetto birds-eye view as you wander around town. Stats Allocation - With each level up you get, you're given three points to put into your different attributes. Good Battle System - The Persona series has one of the most unique battle systems that you'll find in a game. Though the actual combat itself is relatively standard turn-based fare, Persona gives you the option of negotiating with enemies for a non-violent victory. While going around and bashing monsters with your baseball bat helps out your experience, winning certain battles through negotiation can get you little monster tarot cards, which leads directly into... Added Customization - Persona's magic based system involves the use of Esper-like Persona monsters that have certain attributes and magic spells. Like Final Fantasy VIII, the Personas gain experience and levels along with you, depending on how often you use magic. Even though all of your characters start out with a certain persona, the key to getting powerful techniques involves collecting monster tarot cards through negotiations and mixing them together to create new Personas. There's a large variety of possible Personas, each with many different attribute boosts and magic skills, leaving you lots of room to mix, match, and experiment. Though you didn't mention it, Persona also has the perk (or flaw, however you look at it) of a modern-day setting, complete with guns and crazy enemy designs. Both Persona and its sequel, Persona 2, fit your specifications pretty well. Other options: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2) - TONS upon TONS of item and character customization, wonderful FFTactics-esque battle system, and parody upon parody of RPGs and anime, but no random encounters. I can't emphasize enough, however, just how much time you can spend building up your characters and items. Final Fantasy X (PS2) - The turn-based battle system is lots of fun, there's a ton of character possibilities through the sphere grid (which is like a board game, where spaces have certain ability boosts and you get the ability to move about the grid with experience points), and the battles are random. Also, like Disgaea, there's a lot of room to build your characters up and the Arena provides challenges for a long time after you've beaten the game. Grandia series (PS2) - Phenomenal mixed turn-based/real-time battle system, but quasi-random encounters (Monsters are on the map, just like in Chrono Trigger, but how you approach them can determine initiative for the battle). There's a little bit of extra customization, through building and maintaining your mana eggs (which function, basically, as spellbooks). Games to think twice about:Suikoden series (PS1/PS2) - I know they've gotten lots of recommendations throughout the thread, but for every one of your prerequisites they get right, they totally screw up two or three others at any given time. The battle system throughout all of them is dreadfully mediocre and, in Suikoden 3, encounters are downright weird and counter-intuitive, with your characters having to move in pairs. Suikoden 3 has a great deal of character customization, but the other two series involve pre-determined stat increases for level ups and little or no decisions in character development (other than what rune/magic they wield, which is mostly irrelevant). All of the games feature random battles, though.