Just to clarify I dont have "hate" for Tebow.  I thought it was funny that Denver burned a 1st rounder on a QB that, by pretty much all the experts opinions, is a project qb at best and doubtful to ever be an effective NFL qb.  Since I am a Lions fan, I feel completely entitled to laugh when I think someone else may have wasted their 1st round pick, as the Lions try hard to make an annual event of it.  This year I think Detroit is pretty safe unless they drafted Suh with the intentions of playing him at wide receiver.

Yeah  Square should be slapped for the chapter 13 boss.   4 tries with the fully upgraded cherub crown and it insta killed my leader every time.  I did not launch my controller into orbit but I sure wanted to!  Its bad enough slogging thru all the negative stautus effects but come on, insta killing at the last minute is just plain cruel.

well the Lions drafted Suh as many expected.  This video make Lions fans at least a bit happy.  ESPN's science video...  watch the hit near the end...  its scary   http://espn.go.com/blog/sportscenter/post/_/id/43405/the-sport-science-of-ndamukong-suh


Tebow in the 1st round?!   
 

If the sensai refuses to properly address this issue, then unfortunately you should move on..... and proceed to the nearest police precinct to file assault charges against the jerk.  Seriously, this guy is a bully at a very criminal level and hes going continue to injure people whether you stay or go. Im sure theres probably a waiver people sign to cover these situations but there a major difference between an accident and a beat down.  If this is habitual as you say, then waiver or not, he is assaulting people and needs to be brought under control.  If the police are not an option then I heartly recommend a blanket party.

I quit playing WoW awhile ago.  It became more work than fun.  I also swore that if they jumped on the micro transaction gravy train I would not be coming back.  I guess Im waiting for Old Republic now.  Nice way to make money though, program what amounts to a fancy mount skin and jack millions of people $25 for it.  P.T. Barnum was a n00b compared Blizz

[Spoiler]

quick tip regarding the farming of sprint shoes 

Spoiler for Hiden:

Farm mark #7 with the collectors catalog.  He drops both the Crown and the Tiara.  The drop rate blows but I got 2 tiaras and 4 or 5 crowns in about 30 minutes or so.   Plus the quest pays off with 5 bomb cores each time.  Great upgrading mats.

aurora scarves plus sprint shoes = 5 stars on almost everything.    Also the scarves stack on the ATB fill speed.  Equip 1 and your refill speed is + 10%  equip 2 and its + 15%   Im not positive but I think you can buy them in one of the shops as well. 

watched the season finale... helluva cliffhanger there.  Ill be very pissed at Fox if they cancel this now.  If they do, they had better give us a movie or something to at least wrap up what they started.

well at least WoW skipped the whole micro-transaction thing and went full speed for the wallet.  $25 for a fancy mount skin?!  They do know how to separate a fool and his money dont they?

I almost hate seeing these teasers as the game is still about a year away but damn it has the potential to be one kick ass mmo

as well you should be

yeah I never really used the 3 healer paradigm, I set it up more just to see how fast it healed.  2 and a sen are my major heal default.  Still having all 3 with heal capabilities gave me a few more ways to shift things around.  I even played with a Heal, Syn and Sab paradigm just for fun.  I like to try various options out for the fun of it.

Maybe its just wishful thinking but I actually believe that Chuck will get renewed.  I know its on the bubble but I just feel like its done well enough, especially for NBC to deserve renewal.  Another show that may get renewed is Human Target.  Its actually picked up a bit in the ratings and since its been a short run replacement series it they may actually give it a chance to find itself for a season.

hope it all goes well!  The things is, this is probably going to be more traumatic for you than it will be for frankenpup,  Ive been there myself.

the only time I pumped points into an off class before maxing the others was to get the 1st healing spell on a toon so I could set up a triple heal paradigm.

of the pre order bonuses listed Id have to go with Amazon, real money trumps all and 10 bucks is 10 bucks! 

not sure of the interest here but D2D has Call of Chuthlu on sale for $4.95   I always wanted to try that one out   for that price I cant resist

actually they are having a spring sale and many titles are up to 80% off... if youre in a lull that might be a nice place to search for a few games you may have passed on earlier

[Spoiler]

this series had one of the best set up and payoff scenes ever.  Early in the series when Morden is asking people on B5 what they desire...  

Spoiler for Hiden:

I love Vir's answer and of course the eventual payoff when he gets his greatest desire... one of the truly awesome moments in B5

well thats pretty cheap of you.  If everyone thought like you the company would probably go under!  Oh wait... never mind they already did

You may want to do some research into Red Dead Redemption before you completely write it off.  From what Ive seen of it it looks fantastic.  I know everyone has different tastes and maybe the western setting isnt your cup of tea but the solo play isnt a "sandbox" thats more for the multiplayer part ( which seems to be a positive to me ) and the the rpg solo play looks to be very well developed with a lot of depth.  Also the graphics Ive seem so far look absolutely gorgeous.  Im not saying you should jump right into this but you may want to see whats up with it post release, after some of us jump into the game and get a chance to experience it,  you just might be suprised.

Dont get me wrong I didnt dislike Gran Pulse.  It is fantastic graphically and I have enjoyed the time I spent there.  It just felt so different from the earlier portion of the game, as I said with a kind of disjointed loss of focus.  Since Im not using a guide and the map system basically blows ( worst part of the game by far )  Doing the marks became quite difficult.   A better implemented mapping system would have helped a lot.  I ended up grinding CP and saving most of the marks for later.  I felt like if they had put a few villages or such in Gran Pulse and worked some of the quests that way, it would have given you a home base kind of thing and things wouldnt have seemed so scattered and helter skelter.  Thats just me though, Im sure there are many who are happy just the way it is.  Of course these are minor complaints about the game overall.  I ve found it to be a lot of fun, very engaging and beautiful visually.  In many peoples opinions this may not be the #1 FF of all time, but it is certainly a worthy addition to the series and one of the better games to hit the market this year.  I may nit pick for discussions sake but I think Square/Enix did a fantastic job with this game and I hope they continue to put out more FF solo JRPG's  Please S/E dont get sucked into the MMO vacuum and stop doing what you obviously do better than anyone else.

Is Lionheart the weapon of choice for Light?  Ive been rolling with the axis blade for the ATB bonus'  Ive upgraded it to the 2nd star level at this point.    Oh and it seems that youre not in the minority on the party choices Gratch.  Hope, Fang and Light seem to work the best, tho I do want to test out Vanilles death ability sometime.  Im pretty close to the end myself now.  Ill also agree with you on the open world bit.  You spent so much time being pushed through a tight, linear game, it did seem to lose focus once it opened up.  It seemed the open world was basically a large grind area to get you prepped for the end game with no real story.  I really think they could have done better with that, it was a bit disjointed after 20 plus hours of being squeezed through a tube.

I really cant add much here except to say, if its a western and Clint is in it its worth watching.  The Good, Bad and the Ugly is one of my favorite all time movies and Ive watched it pretty much every year on the sunday after easter for the last 20 years or so, I invite friends over and we have a big spaghetti dinner and watch the film.  Its kind of a tradition.  Yep and tommorrow is the day 

[Spoiler]

and for you CP grinders I found the best spot in the game.  you can get 6600cp in under 30 seconds and it respawns quickly with just a short walk away from the spawn point.   

Spoiler for Hiden:

If you use Cocoon in the sky for a reference point and call it North, in the steppes in Gran Pulse theres a spot to the NE, just before the path to Mah'Habara.  At this spot theres a Behemoth King and a Magawhatever fighting each other. You will always get pre emptive strike entering the fight. Also the beasts are at 1/2 hp when you engage them.  You must target and kill the Behemoth immediately as he form shifts and heals rather quickly, the Mag is a wussy and drops easily once the King is down.  I use a 3 rav paradigm and always finish it in 30 sec or less.   At the top of the path leading to thes guys is a save point, just run a bit past the save point and the fight respawns.  Easy CP

this has been mentioned like 5 times already

 Just trying to help.  Actually, Ive been playing the game without a guide and have tried to avoid reading alot of spoilers, so I missed where this has been mentioned.  Also I figured since there are people like me who are not as far into the game as the powergamers, Id share what I had found to be a major help.  Ill just apologize in advance in case I post any further info in the future that may have been mentioned prior to my post as I still plan on avoiding the major spoilers in this thread.

[Spoiler]

and for you CP grinders I found the best spot in the game.  you can get 6600cp in under 30 seconds and it respawns quickly with just a short walk away from the spawn point.   

Spoiler for Hiden:

If you use Cocoon in the sky for a reference point and call it North, in the steppes in Gran Pulse theres a spot to the NE, just before the path to Mah'Habara.  At this spot theres a Behemoth King and a Magawhatever fighting each other. You will always get pre emptive strike entering the fight. Also the beasts are at 1/2 hp when you engage them.  You must target and kill the Behemoth immediately as he form shifts and heals rather quickly, the Mag is a wussy and drops easily once the King is down.  I use a 3 rav paradigm and always finish it in 30 sec or less.   At the top of the path leading to thes guys is a save point, just run a bit past the save point and the fight respawns.  Easy CP

[Spoiler]

Mark 7 has some serious immunities.   Heres a hint on how to 5 star it.   

Spoiler for Hiden:

Hes vunerable to COM attacks,  just go with 3 COMs as you main paradigm and have a med sen med healing paradigm for emergencies.

wtf!?  nothing in Michigan?  screw em  I hope they cancel tour.

Yeah I have a palm pre thru sprint with the 450 data everything plan.  I get a 25% chase corp discount ( I also got the phone free along with a really cool touchstone charger) so its costing me in the neighborhood of $60/month.   The Pre is a very nice phone btw, very happy with it and I love the any mobile anytime that sprint has.  I havent even come close to using up my 450 anytime minutes as most of the people I talk with are using cells now.  Also my free nite minutes start at 7pm unlike many carriers who start at 9pm.  Sprint is doing well by me.

agreed,  I do believe it is more a merger of technologies, so as you say its more about semantics.  The concept of a home entertainment pc ( or HEPC ) is not that different from what both the xbox 360 and the PS3 have been headed towards.  To that effect, the HEPC can be viewed as the next incarnation of the console.  A box for streaming video, net surfing, communication, gaming, social networking, programming and productivity....  etc.  So I guess in truth you can say this is really about the evolution of home entertainment and the articles author splashed with a bit of sensationalized doom for effect.

I can see where youre coming from KG but the article is titled as  "  Japanese Video Game Guru Says Console Days Are Numbered "  Seems to be pretty straight forward as to his opinion of the consoles future.  and then theres also this quote  " Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid surprised a lot of people by saying that the video game console is dying, and the future is a much more open solution"  One of the reasons I think the whole open source idea is coming strong is the concept of the home entertainment pc.  Its the new niche product in computing right now but it is a growing force.  Microsoft itself has been working on getting the pc out of the home office and into the entertainment center for awhile and I believe the day is coming.  Computers are smaller and far more powerful than just a few years ago and the TV's we have in our living rooms now are fully capable of displaying fantastic pc graphics.  Why game on a 19" monitor when you can bust out with a 50".  The adaptability and upgradability of a computer is a huge advantage over a locked in console.  Dont be suprised if the whole console is making the pc obsolete thing is reversed and the home entertainment pc ends up killing the console.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20100407/1725458918.shtml

Yep it appears that the people in the know feel that the day of the video game console is numbered.

I will be getting this game, probably on day one for sure now.  I mean an open west multiplayer area with 8 man posse shootouts,  how cool is that.  I still look forward to the whole western rpg setting but the mp could be one hell of a blast as a party game.   

ME2's story line was assemble your group from the dregs of society and take on the big bad.  In FF13 you, well lets see I guess you assemble your group from the dregs of society and take on the big bad.  Sure theres character color in both games though honestly ME2 did more to develop this thru the loyalty quests, but still both games follow the same basic idea when you really look at it.  Where ME2 rose above was in presentation.  Far better in my opinion.  FF13 tends towards weird cut scenes and without the datalog you wouldnt quite understand what just happened. Thats not to say I dont like FF13, Id   I think its an excellent game.  Im having a blast with it and it is what it is, a JRPG.  ME2 is not a JRPG.  While they have their similarities, they are different factions of the rpg genre.  Using what you like in one to rip the other is kind of a waste of time since they both have very strong followings and appeal across a broad spectrum of individuals.  Certainly its cool to compare and contrast the differences in the two but understand that what you like in a game may be completely different from someone else.  This doesnt make you right or wrong, you just have different tastes.  Myself I enjoy both games for what they are and am glad they have thier differences.

this is kinda gray.  Im sure RS wants good pre-release hype and wants any positive accolades to be very visible.  I saw this as them saying regardless of the reviewers spin please make sure he acknowledges the positives.  The internet is like a downhill snowball, just a small push can get a monster rolling and once it gains momentum its very hard to stop.  Anyways, the reviewer was not too bright.  He could have just replied and said I will write what I think, refusing to kow tow to RockStars request.  Instead he decided to try to make himself a hero of freespeech.  I doubt very much his choice was altruistic in any way.  He saw a chance to make a name for himself my smacking Rockstar on the nose.... and he promptly got smacked back. Im sure he will parlay the "honorable victim" card into another position somewhere but IMHO what he did was worse than Rock Star and just as self serving.

[Spoiler]

My predictions for Shaw and the show:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Shaw drags Sarah out into the desert, but doesn't kill her, he'll be pissed off as all heck, but he knows the real people that killed his wife was the Ring who gave the order.  Instead, he'll fake killing Sarah in order to appear he's gone rogue, allowing him to join the ring with less suspicion.

I'd rather see 

Spoiler for Hiden:

Shaw actually get to the point of being about to kill Sarah and have Chuck put a slug in him.  What better way could Chuck truly pass his red test and prove how deep his feelings are for Sarah?

actually you both kinda nailed it

Nailed it!

well they definitely pulled it off.  The big pay off was just about perfect.  I do believe that they will go back to a more lighthearted tone now that the dynamics of the show have changed but Im glad that this 13 ep arc chose to go a bit darker.  It was worth it.  I also believe that Chuck will be renewed.  Its a bit unique compared to whats on tv these days and its definitely one of NBCs best products, they should grow it not kill it off.  If theres someone in programming with half a brain at NBC they should see this.

on the good side of things, Chapter 11 is open and the "tough" stuff is spread out.  You could probably spend as much time in chapter 11 as you have in the previous 10 chapters.

ok I retract my "not a sit com" statement and now begin preparations for copious amounts of regurgitation if this ever sees the light of day.

[Spoiler]

I really think they got the difficulty level on the bosses just about right.  Some have killed me, taught me a few things and then I go on to drop them.   I am running this game without a guide, mostly because it is so linear that I want the surprises built in the game to be meaningful.  This has vastly increased my enjoyment of the game as I feel I earn a boss kill by going it alone.  I do have one major complaint about the game.  Once you hit Gran Pulse the map system is absolutely crap.  No stable map points as the map rotates with your characters orientation, the quest marks are screwy and it seems finding anything is part guesswork and bitching spiced with the occasional location epiphany.   I really enjoy the combat system though, that they definitely got right.  It has a lot of variety and is just plain fun.  Im at the point where I just one shot the chapter 11 final boss Damn was that a long fight) and need to decide should I stay or should I go.  My biggest problem right now is I need GIL.  I have like zero cash so any gil grabbing advice would be helpful.   Heres a tip regarding bomb core grinding made silly easy.  

Spoiler for Hiden:

 The mission 7 hunt is repeatable, easily 5 starred  (use 3 peeps as COM ) and drops 5 cores.  The boss spawned very close to the c-stone so its a quick grind.  Bonus:  if you have the catalog theres small chances he will drop the T-crown or T-tiara

ok for the record its not a sit-com,  its an animated series.  Who knows where hes going with it but there are some decent people attached and with everyone from Family Guy to Robot Chicken cashing in on the comedic cash cow, you expect George to just sit back?  Hell, if anyone has the right to poke fun at Star Wars, its Lucas.