Jaero

Read the conclusion - the reason is that no one is holding their feet to the fucking fire. The media is sucking the Bush administration's cock, and already declared him the winner - simply because they didn't want to be caught in the crossfire of another Florida. It's the media that makes politicians answer for their crimes, or so it was, once upon a time. Kerry conceeded because he didn't have this information. And if the situation is rectified, the fucking media will forever call Kerry 'the one who will give up before the results are in'. Fuck this country in the ear.

Welcome to Fascist Christian Fundamentalism!

I am! So, are there any other sites like this at which I need to read everything?

Grumpy... Gamer.... Hmm. WHY HAS NO ONE TOLD ME OF THIS SITE BEFORE?! If there are any others akin to Grumpy Gamer or Idle Thumbs, tell me now what they are and where to find them!

Martin Sheen.

I could probably get dual citizenship there through my father. Not a bad idea.

On the subject of Bush being a fucking idiot, listen to Jon Stewart. It's easy to write him off as a moron and go on with your merry life, isn't it? We were all guilty of that somewhere down the line, and many still do. But here's the thing - he's a fucking smart moron. It's the labels that we give him such as "simple" which create a fucking throng of apologists. I can't fucking stand apologists. For one thing, they can not think for themselves. They do exist on both sides, because to a degree they rely on the partisan labels of "democrat" and "republican" to decide where their vote goes. There are plenty of Republicans that I like such as John McCain, and plenty of utter shitheaded Democrats to match them. One of the last things that George Washington said at the end of his term in office, and the very reason for drafting his Farewell Address (click here and educate your damn self) was the political parties that began forming while he was in office. Though the Address is a bit too long to be posted here, what he said about political parties is that it is unwise to base our morals in groups of people as the President is an individual - that the erection of parties gives the voters an excuse to vote on the basis of the general beliefs of the party, and not what the individual stands for. Parties make us blind most of the time. We cease to think for ourselves when we affiliate ourselves with one or the other, as we have less reason to do so. This isn't the case for everyone of course, especially on these boards, however it's these blind voters that become apologists for Bush because 1) he's a Republican and 2) because people think he is more "simple" than someone who actually has a brain, and thus they are more inclined to shift their bias in his favor - it's as if he has a fucking disability. No! He's good at what he does (and make no mistake, by that I mean fucking up our country), but clearly he's very good at winning elections, making shady deals, and expecting the American people to follow him without question because the 'President' is supposed to be the greatest leader in the world, so much so that the concept of how 'great' the position is blinds us from the person who actually sits in that seat. Another cantankerous rant, fueled by rancor and depression because I voted for Kerry - someone who asked me to think for myself. I'm sure I got something wrong in this post, as I'm frustrated... Kinda. Yeah, and fuck you too, Media. Right in the fucking ear. Assholes.

I woke up sick this morning. My head feels like it's going to combust. My entire body is rejecting the election results. I'm sad that the populace is just accepting this crap without question. I was holding out for a second Civil War.

Well said. What's funny to my is this; Bill Clinton was crucified for getting a little under-the-table action. The thing is, Bill lied and no one died. Whether or not Iraq is a distraction or right or wrong, Bush lied to the Congress and the American people about why he invaded them. We've paid for that with American lives, but how many more will we have to lose before we realize that we're accepting all this crap because it's the President who says it - that doesn't give him absolute power or put him above the law - or it shouldn't, at least. The thing I'm afraid of, which is illustrated by the "Who do you think will win" poll in these forums, is that people voted Bush because they too thought he would win, and they were afraid of being on the losing side, whether or not they liked Bush. Maybe that's foolish of me, but at least the one thing we can count on is that four years from now, Bush will be gone. Well, he would have to, but he's clearly above the law as it is. Hooray for the free world being a hopeless mass of repugnant shit for the next 4+ years.

LOL! It scares me that for half a second, I considered the offer, Lindset. Fum, I made that post at 9:30 this morning. For me, that's dangerous. I had intended it to be funny... but given that I was comatose... um, not so much. But I did address the fact that I judged inconsistently, without having seen the whole site. So, my bad, but that is why I said "after the fact", since I'd already said it. Now I'm just confusing myself. Hmmm... I'll see your bet, and raise you the pot.

Umm, oops. Didn't know the general populous of the world had forgotten the ways of satire and subtle sarcasm. I'll try not to blow minds from now on.

I love when they enter the thread long after the real discussion is over to let everyone know that their thoughts on the matter are worthless because it's "just a game". I could be senselessly extreme and say that Hitler was just a politician. Snubs, Lindset... The comments in this thread were not solely about this game of the 'ragdoll' feature. Some were about violence in games in general. Regardless, it's called the expression of opinion. This thing we're on right now, it's called the internet. Put two and two together. And shit. People are going to express their opinions whether or not you like them, so it's a bit futile (not to mention rude) to come in after the fact and say something to the effect of "chill out, your opinion is stupid". For the record, I am not a disgruntled mother. In fact, I'm likely the target audience for most games of this kind; a young male, old enough to play and not violate the ESRB rating. God forbid someone other than a parent looking out for their children have an opinion such as this. From my posts in other threads, one should be able to guess that I'm opinionated and mildly cantankerous (and often tangential). One feature of one game is allowed to piss someone off, cochise(s), whether or not you like it. If you actually give reason enough as to why you don't think we should say what we think - please, join the actual conversation and tell us why. You can see what good the snide comments do in the aftermath.

Heh, my first run through the game, when I got to that part, I really didn't expect to have to fight. I swear, for some reason it took me 10 minutes to get through it. After 5 minutes, my main character and poor HK-47 went down, but for 5 minutes until I won, good 'ol Canderous kicked the crap out of all of them all by himself. Not exactly realistic, but that man is a tank.

Oh man. Reason #1 why it blows when your in-laws have bad taste in movies - the movie you couldn't pay me to take the effort to name, but which is the topic of this conversation. It was some holiday, I forget which, and rightfully so. I wasn't going to sit at the opposite side of the house, so I was in the same room; but I did at least have the nerve to take the laptop with me and said I had to get some work done (which happened to be a terrible tournament for a terrible game that Gamespy hosted - but even that was preferable). The first third of the movie, I was praying that it would maintain the poor quality of a generic action flick. Now, to my knowledge, Venice was never destroyed, or whatever city took it in the bum in that movie... After that, it went downhill faster than a lemming off a cliff. It ranks right up there with Charlie's Angels 2, Barb Wire, and You Got Served.

Perhaps. It would be nice to have dual-citizenship and all, in case I'm required to flee this crazy country for one reason or another. If I were Netherlandic though, I would be bereft of one of my best pick-up lines. See, my mother is Jewish, and being mostly Netherlandic (at least in appearance), telling people that I'm an Aryan Jew seems to perk them right up.

My father's Dutch. I am sadly entirely American other than that, born in Oregon, raise in South Miami, currently living in Jerry Falwell's home town. Damn you karma and/or fate.

Nope! I'm actually starting at UAT in Arizona (USA) in January.

Here's how it goes: People get the government they deserve. I'm personally hoping for Kerry, as I don't look to Bush to justify my own insecurities. But think of it this way, if we do get the 'village idiot', these will be his last four years. Never again will he be President. However, knowing the ways of he and his Cabinet, he will likely refuse to recognize that he's lost, or that he's not allowed to run for more than two terms. Sorry, it's early. I just woke up. I are teh grumpeh.

Ahem. May I ask... how far did you get?

Like Blizzard always does, they take all the games of any genre, and make a game that doesn't innovate like hell, but makes the genre 10x better with what's there. As far as MMORPGs... I have yet to play its equal. The content is great, the story/quests kick ass, and that's what really matters to me - the script. PVP isn't required, but their PVP systems seem to be the best and most balanced of any MMO. I mean, I could go on all day about how I'd waste away in front of my computer and starve to death because I'm too involved to go to the kitchen... The one downfall though, are the bugs. It is beta, sure. One, however, that has turned away dozens of testers already, is Error #132. Just read the Support Forum if you want to know about it. The solutions their techs give don't work. Some people have solved it by underclocking their systems, which is just... dumb. The game doesn't have any next-generation graphics, and yet manages to take up more resources and stress your hardware more than any MMO I've ever played. Granted, I need a new system, but even people with state-of-the-art computers get this error. For me, the error is systemic. I can reformat every week, and after a few days, I get it once, then again twice as fast - rinse and repeat - until it crashes before you even click the icon to open it. The techs seem to be in total denial that this error could be in their software. But it doesn't surprise me. All their technical talent left with Battle.net, and is now working on Guild Wars. Other than that, it's a great game. Seriously! Stellar!

Wow, drunks can make good points and just statements. That's a new one on me. Well said. Admittedly, I didn't give the site much time. I might have discovered some redeeming features if I did. And I do admit when I come across games like this, I write them off into the same category of "Shit I Wouldn't Play". This is something I would work on, but sometimes it's a Catch 22 where if I do a good job and judge a game properly, that would involve me playing it. I feel I've been desensitized enough. However, given the physics engine, I suspect (and I don't know this for sure), the whole 'ragdoll' concept seems like something they threw in just because they could. In Ernest W. Adam's words... "Bad Game Designer! No Twinkie!" If this game had an option in the menu where one could entirely disable the whole ragdoll feature, I might give it a swing. Thanks for adding your drunken insight, Metalmickey. I always prefer ranting with others, and not to others. It's boring to talk to myself, whether or not my voice sounds good.

Thanks for posting it, Kolzig. See, here's the thing that gets me, the real tragedy of this game (which lies in these answers): To me it seems that there doesn't have to be only one Burnout 3. That game is great, but not the end of the discussion in the genre. Even from the first Burnout, it was known as a crash-test simulator. Flatout on the other hand had the opportunity to take it one step farther, closer to the pinnacle of perfection, and instead - I think - took a nose dive right off the damn cliff. Doesn't seem to be the smartest course of action, unless their final testament of the physics engine is for them to test it on themselves. I would play this game, were it not such a terrible attempt to be violent (yeah, again, I play Shooters too) but also put such a real twist on it that it becomes desplicable. Burnout was something enjoyable because you could create car crashes and flip your car this way and that, play replays, and cause great havoc - that will sell any game. I admit that I did laugh with joy a few times when I played it. What Burnout did not do was (insensitively or not) introduce a sense of mortality that is in fact, no joke. People do fly out of windshields and die horrible needless deaths. They go splat on the sides of great tree trunks, they get crushed and body parts are severed. In your lifetime, you will know someone who becomes a victim of this if you don't already. Maybe in Finland it is not such a problem as it is in the states, and if it's simply an oversight their marketing folks made, or whether they just didn't care, I find it unforgivable. Were I to have caught one of the designers before the design document were finalized, I would have given them adequate feedback - because this game could have been saved, unlike Manhunt. I would say that perhaps it would be more appropriate to make the 'ragdolls' into Crash Test Dummies (either the band, or the real dummies; both would work). That way, you still get the ragdolls, but they are not real people. I agree that the physics engine is nigh-flawless, even though it's not entirely realistic (which it isn't meant to be). But the scenes I see are in real world settings. I would say detatch it from the real world - set it in the future, or in another setting, any setting would be better than ours. That way, you get all the Flatout, and none of the twisted maniacal gratuitous madness... etc. The second quote is fodder for my last point. I really like the answer Bugbear gave to that question. I like the fact that they approached unsigned artists to give the game a more finished 'Flatout' touch. It's a great way to give deserving artists exposure, which everyone could use. What I fear is that due to the nature of the game, and how it may be received when it's launched, is that it might do absolutely nothing to better the careers of those artists, or worse.

Something's very wrong with me. Every time I read the title of this topic, "I had a dream about Idle T.", I think it says instead, "I had a dream about Mr. T."