Garple

I love you Patrick, and I love playing on Xbox live with you to hear your crunchy, tasty British accent, but I've already started a thread for this, called "[blank] say the darndest things."

I'll admit I haven't played a lot of Forza, but I've never felt like I was going fast at all while playing it. The series that gives me that is Burnout.

I'm sure government agencies read the fucking Idle Thumbs forums (NOT!!!).

Hi. I love your username.

Haha. Booked the TV? Fuckin' room mates.

If you haven't seen Ong Bak, fucking watch it. Tony Jaa is your god, no matter who you are.

Do you have to love cars to enjoy this game? I love my own car, she's a Geo Tracker that I've been with for 3 years but I'm not a big car guy in general. I have this game now...but I so far, I don't quite get it. It's gorgeous, but other than that...am I missing something?

Were you high when you had this idea? I'm not trying to insult you at all...I'm just wondering. Also...I'd be glad to participate if it gets off the ground (fun fact: Groucho used to be a serious aspiring writer. He's been published in elimae, Thieves Jargon etc...)

Yaaaay!

In class!?!?!

YES YES YES! For some stupid reason I'd put off buying this but I did so the second I saw a screenshot of the retro mode. It looks like so much content and, dudes!, it's only 400 points.

The appeal of the constitution is that it is supposed to keep our leadership from having unlimited power. It doesn't work very well because it's a piece of fucking paper and the people who enforce or interpret it are the same people it is supposed to keep in check. Call me conservative, but I think having an outline of the boundaries within which a nation's government operates is extremely important, even if only to keep things in perspective. We need a record of our nation's official modus operandi so we can keep track of when it changes and how. I would never want to hand over the reigns of power to a government that had a completely blank check to make up the rules as it went along. I'm well aware that the constitution is sidestepped to an extreme degree and often (and that there is even a clause built in that technically allows for this, paradoxically), but at least it provides something that is inherited by every administration that takes office so that there is some consistent framework as a foundation on which to build new policies. At least we have a rubric that helps us to determine when "the US government" is not doing what it, by definition, is supposed to, and something to point to when considering how such an issue can be corrected. I'm not saying that the constitution we have is perfect, or even good. I'm just saying I think it's valuable to have one, even if the best justifications of it are more conceptual than practical. It makes for an organized approach to judging your government. And we all know that being judgmental of your government is one of the main reasons for having a government in the first place

Stalker was so cheap that I actually bought it with the future in mind, figuring I'll someday have a computer than can run it. Then I got Rome: Total War for 2.50 which I can actually play, currently.

Yeah, It's not a great game, but I love drawing the most ridiculous things and then flying them through shmup levels. That's why I recommend the demo and not the full game. There's just a simple lizard-brain thrill for me in the core concept. Also, isn't Jump! fucking gorgeous? Especially for an XBLIG game. Arkedo is very professional and they have a very distinctive flavor to their games. Have you played Swap!, their other game? That one's nice too (maybe not as good as Jump! but worth a look, for sure).

Wow...that's really interesting, Murdoc. Did/do you go to art school? And thanks for this, because it's always bothered me that people won't let me call something like POP cell-shaded. They know what I mean, and what else do they expect me to call it? I've always felt that the prominent colloquial usage should (in most cases) supersede the technical definition, so that we can all be closer to being on the same page in our discussions.

Yes...Giant mechanical man etc...! Also: I've heard it's not compatible with xbox 360 but you could play it on a PS3, PS2, Gamecube or Wii (I'm playing on Wii). I've seen the small PS2 consoles at Gamestop for like $60, and I think it's pretty valuable to own a PS2 if you can spare the extra cash.

I've only listened to one episode so far, but I don't think he's trying to be bipartisan so much as his views don't slot into either of our political system's two neat categories. He actually seems to me like a classical conservative in that his main interest seems to be in protecting the constitution and keeping politicians from getting too much power and superseding the checks-and-balances system and/or the voters' influence.

Or Metal Gear Solid...yuk-yuk.

The GOW collection is a very nice package/good value, but I've recently been playing Spartan: Total Warrior (a last-gen multiplatform game) and, so far, I think it's everything God of War and it's ilk should have been striving to be but seem to have never even thought of, so I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy God of War anymore.

I want to give a shout out to "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" because I'm sure most people wrote it off like I did as frat-boy-comedy-nonsense...and maybe it kind of is...but with a self-awareness that makes it satirical and elevates it above its roots. Plus Danny DeVito's never been funnier.

Yeah, fucking exterminating rats in sewers has got to be outlawed as an opening rpg sequence...and that goes for any close equivalent too (giant cockroaches etc...).

There's a Dante's Inferno game coming out for the iphone. No relation to the EA one.

The Atari tennis game is incredible...There's an excellent Activision Classics collection for the psx. Also: in that collection Stampede is really good. I'm amazed that such fun can be had with one button games, having been born too late to have ever been immersed in that sort of thing outside of occasional visits to the past with stuff like Donkey Kong or Space Invaders. There must be someone here who has extensive experience with gaming at the time when it was joystick + one button...could you please share some of those experiences with us, maybe even recommend some titles we may not know of?

Book the Third: in which Jon Cole gets comfortable enough to start shooting back. I like it. Edit: Jon, I'm not giving you a hard time. I'm just saying I like it that you're challenging people. I, for one, am too drunk to respond intelligently. But still, good on ya.

I know very little about this game...but I imagine it as Dante's Inferno...the good version (has anybody played the demo for D's I? Fuck that shit).