Life

I'm going to revive this: 10: The Logical Adventure of the Zoombinis (PC) 9: Fire Emblem (GBA) 8: Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) 7: Portal (Xbox 360) 6: Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (NGC) 5: Bioshock (Xbox 360) 4: Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA) 3: Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) 2: Baten Kaitos Origins (NGC) 1: Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360) Sounds about right. Honourary mentions go to Madden '01 and Madden '09, NHL '04 (that and Madden '01 were part of my childhood), MMBN4:RS (I love that series and Red Sun started it off) and Starfox Adventures (what a fun game, it was Zelda for Starfox).

Baten Kaitos. Remake both games. Life would be grand. I would not be down for a third game in that series. It's too excellent.

Yeah, that doesn't exist in the Xbox version.

Are you sure you're going to the right spot? Egothor Forest actually looks like a mountain. West side of Hypionia.

Once you get the Kritian Bell from the Kritiya in Aspio, go back to Rita's house. I believe the rest of the party is there. Again, I don't know how to use Patty but if you want to avoid spells with Karol, either tank them with Magic Guard or use Karol's Dash Attack in Free-run. It works wonders.

That. Judith is built to be a glass cannon if you can master her skills. She's very effective on aerial enemies and characters (vs. Schwann Oltorain, Zaude bosses, Tarquron bosses...) but needs practice if you want to unlock her full potential.

I want to play this patch.

I said that I'd get around to it so here we go. Karol Capel: Karol's your tank. There, I said it. Karol can easily soak up the most damage in the game due to his high base HP and natural defense (shares best armours in the game with Yuri and has natural defensive skills to back it up). The funny part is, you wouldn't guess it based on his artes. A lot of them do quite good damage, he's got both Recover (Nice Recovery Smash) and a good heal (Nice Aid Smash) which can be upgraded twice. And let's not forget Coil Beat (25% Attack) and the Destructo series (Spider Web slows the enemy while Booing is a P.Att de-buff for 20 seconds) as status effects Yeah, about that heal. If you have the patience (and have beaten Goliath in Zaude), you can actually eventually get Nice Curing Smash. That's an instant 50% HP heal for 30 TP. As a comparison, Estelle's Nightengale is a 48% heal for 55 TP after waiting for the spell to cast. What the hell, Karol. Karol's Burst Arte is probably the best in the game because it's almost guaranteed not to get interrupted (360* hit with the focus in front) and Ultimate Punishing Blast is probably the first Mystic Arte you'll get (sleep at the Inn in Dahngrest a few times after finishing the Manor of the Wicked). Karol's extremely effective during the early part of the midgame and just as his damage starts to drop off, you'll get to Zaude and can pick up the Mjolnir. His only weaknesses are his two-hit combo (mitigated by his Mighty Charge abilities) and his slow movement (Motion Change is supposed to make him move faster but it's unconfirmed). And even so, he's not useless due to these two problems. Repede: Repede is probably the hardest character to understand because his strengths and weaknesses are so well hidden. But he's fast like greased lightning and probably has the single best attack arte in the game (Demon Spear). The first thing of note is that Repede has the best collection of Move/Support skills in the game. As in he gets Item Thrower long before anyone else (absolute key if you play on Hard or Unknown and you're facing a difficult early boss like Poseidon or Gattuso (for the record, Estelle is the next person with Item Thrower and that doesn't happen until Capua Torim). You can even extend that list to Dreaded Giant since Estelle will be the only person with Item Thrower besides Repede at that point (everyone should have it by Gigalarva). After that, Repede relies on his natural speed, Move and Support skills (Runners, Speed Up, Dash, Item series and Bark) and his terrific artes to keep pace with your other heavy hitters. Gale Dog grants invulnerability (I've dodged both Brilliant Cataclysm from the Zaude end-boss and Brave Vesperia from the final boss with Gale Dog, for the record), artes like Demon Spear, Pyre Spear and Cyclone Shot make mincemeat of flying enemies (bosses too) and Slash!!! is a decent Mystic Arte (I'd say middle of the pack behind Yuri/Rita/Judith). Oh and he steals shit with Thievery. Repede's only weakness is that he's not particularly excellent at being an offensive beast or defensive giant. Sort of like a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none character. Fielding Estelle with him lets her make use of Lovely Dog (gives her excellent stats) but don't expect Repede to soak up damage like Karol and Raven or dish it like Yuri and Judith. He sits in the middle but doesn't suck at anything. If you're going to use Estelle but no other women, field Repede too and turn on Lovely Dog. You'll enjoy the results. Raven: Best healer. Second best mage. Only pure long distance character. I'll start with Raven's issues first. There's three of them: his inability to fight effectively without skills, bows and arrows, and his crap BA/MA. Done? Excellent. Raven easily has the most pronounced weaknesses and strengths. If you learn how to master his strengths, you'll forget about his shortcomings in a heartbeat. Raven's skills are vital to his success in combat. Do not leave home without the following skills active: Change Style 1/2, Stun Magic, Chivalry, Hunter, Long Step and Long Range. That totals 51 SP on top of the basics (Roll, Backstep, ect.). It'll take a while but these are all vital (Hunter and Stun Magic less so but both are excellent on Raven. With these, Raven is a menace to enemies whether on not they are in his face or not. Learn to love Just Like Dancing. Once Change Style 2 goes up, start playing around with Raven's artes. He's got 4 of them that will change with the range and I almost guarantee that Flying/Falling will be part of your repertoire (both are that good). And then there's Love Shot. Once you've used it 200 times (and Raven will easily do that), he'll shoot three arrows that heal 15% per arrow. That means Raven can heal 3 people for 15% each or one person for 45%. Instantaneous. With no maximum range. Oh and it costs 18 TP for a mage. If I were Karol, I'd be fuming right about now. He pays almost double the armount of TP for 5% healing. It's quite spectacular. I'll tackle Judith later.

Then explain why Matisyahu got taken off the Rototom bill even though he is American and is not public about his political beliefs.

This only extends to circumstances where said Jew doesn't volunteer the fact that they are Jewish. I'm as white as the driven snow and I personally have been spat on for being Jewish (I was religious and wearing a skullcap at the time). So there is no thing as white privilege for Jews.

I don't know Patty because I have the Xbox version but I'm assuming you're facing Pterobronc (Giganto in Mt. Temza). If you've only gotten to Mt. Temza because you're trying to get Judith, skip Pterobronc. If you've already come back and you have the full party, here's what I suggest. Judith and Raven are both amazing against aerial enemies, especially Raven with his long range and healing. Give Judith Aerial Force (x1.2 damage on aerial enemies) and control Raven. I'd round out the squad with Rita (she's quite excellent from midgame onwards once she starts really gaining a lot of skills) and either Estelle (if you're paranoid about healing) or Repede (he's quick and if he's got Light Spear or Pyre Spear, a complete menace). Work up to OL level 3 and then let loose. Every character has their strengths and weaknesses but the weaknesses are so minute if you know how to tweak each character from the midgame onwards (I personally say that the midgame starts when you get to Nordopolica for the first time). I'll give a bit of a runthrough on each character (no Patty or *secret* character since I don't get them in my version). Yuri - Yuri is basically instant utility from Baction onwards. There's no reason why he shouldn't learn Guardian Field because it does damage and heals, his damage options with artes is pretty impressive but the main thing about his is his ability to link artes like nobody's business. The Super Chain skills allow for you to go in almost any direction, the Tension Series (from the Tyrant Fist) can force OLs without using the gauge and he gets Combo Plus early and Combo Plus 2 around midgame (synth a Real Knight Sword). All in all, Yuri is pretty solid aside from no real range (Azure Edge and Azure Storm is about it). Estelle - Funny enough, Estelle will be at best your second best healer (at worst, she's only better than Yuri). She's still great at it, especially if you can manage to teach her Nightingale (Ruby Wand teaches Crucible which will let you use it instead of Nurse). She's a lot better at offence than you'll be led to believe, especially once she gets Grand Chariot (Flamberge teaches her Chain and you can make one after the Sands of Kogorh). I personally think that she's got the second best Burst Arte in the game due to rivaling Yuri/Judith/Raven's damage and then tacking on a status effect for you. The only issue is aiming it properly but it's much easier to aim than Raven's. Skill-wise, focus on her support skills and use her in the same party as Repede once you pick up Lovely Dog. Rita - Rita's weak earlygame and stupidly powerful late. If you want to power her up even more in the midgame, get her to learn Demon's Lance, Flame Dragon and Riot Horn, especially Flame Dragon (Spiral Flare is terrible but Flame Dragon is an amazing upgrade). Unfortunately, the Milky Way that teaches Resilience (no interruptions while casting) is only found after you've reached the spot of no return in the final dungeon (gotta go past it). She's great without it, mind you. Don't worry about defensive skills for her, make her purely offensive. I'll tackle Raven/Judith/Repede/Karol later because those four are a lot more intricate than the above three. Yuri, Rita and Estelle work in any given party.

Resurrecting this run (I've always thought about it but never had the patience to go through with it). I know that nobody else is going to play it now but I'll finish it this time. Actually managed to beat Vargas with Edgar at level 7 but it involved a lot of misses, close calls and timely Hi-Potion heals. Next time I try this, I'm coming with at least 7 Hi-Potions (barely squeaked by with 3). And now Ultros turned out to be a bitch. Thank god I had drafted Sabin before the route split, I had forgotten that he'd be present for the Ultros fight. Level 2 Banon cannot survive MT Tentacle unless the RNG is terrible. He's got 57 HP and I've seen Tentacle do exactly that. That translates to a Game Over. I ended up fighting a battle so that he'd get to Level 3 (83 HP) and healed when absolutely necessary. As long as you beat out Ultros to when he targets Banon, you're good. Edgar got both the Gigas Glove and Hyper Wrist while Sabin had the Hermes Sandals. Took a while but I finally managed to beat Ultros to the punch. At least next time, I'll have Ramuh, Drill and really useful Relics.

I am not really an FFVII fan. I keep trying (and I'm trying now, I just finished Cosmo Canyon) but I'm a lot more partial to VI and IX because those actually feel like completed games. There are a lot of things in FFVII that make me believe that it was a rush job (trying to actually make Aeris likable, for example). I am absolutely down for the removal of Fort Condor. Entirely. Don't even get me started on the stupidity of when you have to go back for battles there (the two during specific story events in Junon, making sure the buggy doesn't break down so it's after you get to Cosmo but before you start the Cave of the Gi...). It's a terrible idea for a sidequest. Aeris needs to be eliminated entirely from the plot. Grandjackel posted a great way to explain everything that Aeris represents in the story without needing her. Sure, Midgar would need to be reworked a bit but she's so pointless in general. It actually frustrates me that she gets her good weapons early (Fairy Tale) when I'm trying to level up early Materia. Get rid of her and the game will be better. VI and IX were a lot more polished than VII was. Obviously, VI has gotten a remake but the script basically stayed the same and it's still better. Every single human character (Terra/Celes/Sabin/Edgar/Setzer/Relm/Strago/Shadow/Cyan/Locke/Gau) exhibits more personality in their WoR recruitment scene than Aeris does during the entire game. As for IX, it was bright and cheery and brought a lot of nostalgia to players, even with a dark as shit 2nd half of the game. I'd love to try the remake but in my opinion, the issues with FFVII has nothing to do with the fact that it's outdated. Its central problems are in both the main story and sidequests that people refuse to give up. I am stoked to see how they play around with Red XIII and Cait Sith, though.

Yes, a rap song. Deal with it. The lyrics explain the corruption of power very well. There is a problem with a bunch of your examples for the good. Not all of them were in power long enough to turn. Caesar and Napoleon, for example. In addition, Frederic the Great wasn't so great (in his eyes, I personally would be "less than human" since I'm a Jew), especially when you look at his track record with the Polish. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Probably not absolutely but it doesn't take much.

AND... we missed the EURO again. We had Belgium and Wales in our qualifying group, no chance we'd have made it. It just gets frustrating year after year to miss both the World Cup (because the Arabs refuse to play us when we're better than 90% of their squads) and the EURO (because we're not good enough to hang with European teams). Especially after that loss to Wales in March (my bar got overrun by about 500 Welshman who flew in for the game).

Probably the best time in the past 20 years.

Ok, here's what I need to happen. Bills win in Philly (Philly is a mess so this one is do-able) AND Steelers loss in Cincy (Cincy is the better team by a mile, if Pitt wins, they need to lose 2/3 for the Bills to overtake them) OR SD win in KC (not going to happen so we might as well hand the first playoff spot to KC) Surprisingly, the Bills don't need the Jets to lose a game as long as we win out and beat them in Week 17 (we'll own the tiebreaker). KC and Pitt are the problems and the Steelers are probably going to be the team that folds to give the Bills the Wild Card. Aside from that, it's between those 3 teams.

None. Would love to keep it that way. That being said, there aren't many Israelis on this site anyway.

You're OK. Same thing happened to me with my date. She got sick day of (talked to her over the phone and she sounded out of it) and my phone broke, pretty much nullifying a date. Ask her when she's free.

Cocaine's fine as long as you're not using it more than once every couple of months. LSD is great for raves. Marijuana and hash are two of my best friends. Alcohol is just great in general. Sorry, I live a life. I don't spend 16 hours a day behind a computer. More like 10 hours a day in a professional kitchen. Let me put it this way. You're 15 years old, kid (younger than my youngest sister). You're still in high school. I'm 24. I have a full time job, bills, rent and friends to hang out with. When you mature, you'll realize that most of the world acts like me rather than you.

I'm bringing this back from the dead. Major spoiler ahead:

You want to go up against an ex-combat soldier? Be my guest but I don't fight fair.

That's because Pats fans only recognize four teams in the NFL. 1) Patriots 2) Giants (AKA Patriots kryptonite in SBs) 3) Seahawks (the NFC's version of the Patriots) 4) Whatever team Peyton Manning plays for

That game made me feel dirty. I actually considered not watching the second half because something felt wrong. You need to rewatch the game rather than look at the score. The Seahawks had at least 1 TD called back (on a terrible OPI call) and a lot of strange holding calls (including one that was actually called because the refs missed the Steelers offside on the play) that just happened to be at the most inopportune times for the Seahawks. It was not fun to watch because it made you think that the refs were actively rooting for the Steelers. The only other time I remember reffing as blatantly bad as that was Bills/Pats last season where we got an "unsportsmanlike penalty" for celebrating a tackle on third down or some shit. Wasn't a taunt or anything, Jerry Hughes slapped a teammate on the back in a congratulatory manner and drew a 15 yard penalty on it. Because we haven't been to the playoffs since then. Of course I'm mad. What gets me so riled up about it isn't even the play. I hated Ralph Wilson for months because he blackmailed his own head coach into starting Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie. Flutie had gotten us to the playoffs. You don't bench him because he doesn't look like a Superbowl winning QB and Rob Johnson does. Flutie won the Grey Cup something like 3 times. Johnson hadn't done anything in his career. I still don't get it. With Flutie playing, we win that game. If anything, we almost won that game despite Johnson so that says a lot. I have a lot of pent up anger over the end of the '99 season. As much as I hate to say it, we deserved to lose those Superbowls. But the '99 Wild Card game? Fucking Ralph Wilson.

I know I said Jasper Fforde (seriously people, check him out), but I do quite enjoy Rick Riordan's writing. The feels get me every time.