Only $51 billion from 1996-2001? Could that be because of, say, U.N. sanctions? Those severely crippled his oil-selling efforts, even counting all the oil he illicitly sold to Russia, France, and Germany.
Plus, I heard his oil-drilling infrastructure was pretty crappy. Iraq's oil reserves are largely untapped. The whole Halliburton thing gets a lot of flak, but there clearly was a need to get an oil company in there with a lot of know-how to clean up the mess that is the Iraqi oil industry -- oil counts for 90% or more of Iraq's total GDP, after all.
The war was clearly not about oil, and it's quite obvious that not a drop of it is going to be 'stolen', but don't underestimate the boosting effect cheap oil can have on an economy.
Interesting. Which of his games was this again? And in which way was he "foul" -- temper, manner, humor, or smell? I'm sure nobody will get in trouble for telling us which game it was.
And of course, when all American's TV broadcasts suddenly stop, the US will turn into a postapocalyptic cityscape with dazed citizens wandering the streets not knowing what to do without TV...
Maybe Homeland Defense should encourage people to maintain a supply of taped TV shows just in case.
Hey, that means shareing TV episodes over P2P is patriotic. Take that, RI/MPAA!
We invade whoever we want? If that were the case, why haven't we invaded Cuba? I mean, it's a hostile communist nation, it commits human rights violations, we don't trade with it, and it's right there. (70 miles off the Florida coast.) Plus we've got a sizable ex-Cuban population that continually calls for the invasion of Cuba.
I mean, it's not a military issue. We even have a base there, the recently famous Guantanamo Bay. If you thought the march to Baghdad was quick, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Heck, even the after-war would be easy, with that pro-democracy group in Cuba, and all those Cuban-Americans that would move back.
So I ask you: If the United States is a Terrible Imperialistic Power(tm), then why is Fidel Castro still ruling Cuba?
There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".
Correction: The word "south" is nowhere in the title of the country. Technically, it's the "Republic of Korea". North Korea, on the other hand, is supposedly the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".
I can't really say that any confusion between the two is possible, though. You just have to remember which one has internet access, electicity, food, democracy, prosperity, etc, etc.
"I'll always be a Japanophile gamer at heart, though, so I can only hope that Japan's gaming industry figures out a way to escape from its financial and creative slump. Only then I can get back to being an elitist, Japan-loving snob."
Well, I guess if he's happy with his own self-image, then the more power to him. Still seems kinda sad, though.
I just wanted to say that I agree. As far as gameplay goes, the party members were more than just materia slots (FF7), and the magic and GF systems weren't damned annoying (FF8).
Terminator 3 may be bad, but you forget that Atari is the current publisher for the Unreal/Tournament franchise, Bioware (outside of Star Wars), and that Driver 3 looks pretty snazzy.
Remember, the current "Atari" is actually the old Infogrames.
> If it was a game, they wouldn't need to say it would come on a DVD, so more than likely, it's not a game.
Well, some early PS2 games were actually CDs. You can tell which because they're the blue-bottomed ones. Twisted Metal Black, for instance, was on a CD.
You do know that most Playstation2 and all Xbox games come on DVDs, right? It doesn't stand for Digital Video Disc, by the way, it stands for Digital Versitile Disc.
Why would they specifically mention that it comes on a DVD? Seems weird to me, but this is from a Japanese magazine.
From what I heard and read, SHODAN (the boss in System Shock 1) had an awesome boss fight game. I won't spoil it, but you can see it if you play it. System Shock 2's SHODAN wasn't special to remember.
Incorrect, SHODAN from SS1 was a lousy boss fight. Her incarnation in SS2 was significantly better.
I wish these xbox threads could manage to keep one basic truth in mind: Xenophobic Japanese consumerism is a myth! It's a standard cop-out that foreign goods manufacturers use whenever _they_ fail to design something the Japanese would want to buy.
This is generally true, but there is a grain of truth in their arguments. For instance, one of the complaints about Final Fantasy XI in Japan was that it seemed "too American." But that probably didn't cause it's low sales as much as the fact that it's an MMORPG.
Is it just me, or are camera problems becoming pretty much a continual problem in third-person games? It seems like we're almost due for a revolutionary new system that will make this issue a thing of the past.
Wait, that doesn't make sense. While it's true that in America's Army you always see the other team as the terrorists, the win-lose ratio is always the same. In each and every round, one team defeats the "terrorists", while the other team is defeated by the "terrorists".
Yes, I know it always displays the Army as the good side, but it certainly doesn't show the Army always winning. Unrealistic, yes, but necessary for game balance. For another example of sacrificing realism for balance, see Desert Combat
... or the problem with the xbox over Japan is exactly that, western games?
Apparently the Japanese market didn't like the good Western games they brought over before, so they're going to try bringing some bad* Western games over. To tell the truth, this doesn't sound like a bad idea.
* (Note: I hear Outlaw Volleyball is actually pretty good, gameplay-wise. Better than the volleyball portion of DOA: Extreme Volleyball.)
The logical successor to the Peter Principle is the Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to where they can do the least damage: management.
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Don't forget about the fantastic Crimson Skies released recent. Which has great single- and multi-player modes.
Only $51 billion from 1996-2001? Could that be because of, say, U.N. sanctions? Those severely crippled his oil-selling efforts, even counting all the oil he illicitly sold to Russia, France, and Germany.
Plus, I heard his oil-drilling infrastructure was pretty crappy. Iraq's oil reserves are largely untapped. The whole Halliburton thing gets a lot of flak, but there clearly was a need to get an oil company in there with a lot of know-how to clean up the mess that is the Iraqi oil industry -- oil counts for 90% or more of Iraq's total GDP, after all.
The war was clearly not about oil, and it's quite obvious that not a drop of it is going to be 'stolen', but don't underestimate the boosting effect cheap oil can have on an economy.
Interesting. Which of his games was this again? And in which way was he "foul" -- temper, manner, humor, or smell? I'm sure nobody will get in trouble for telling us which game it was.
Maybe Homeland Defense should encourage people to maintain a supply of taped TV shows just in case.
Hey, that means shareing TV episodes over P2P is patriotic. Take that, RI/MPAA!
We invade whoever we want? If that were the case, why haven't we invaded Cuba? I mean, it's a hostile communist nation, it commits human rights violations, we don't trade with it, and it's right there. (70 miles off the Florida coast.) Plus we've got a sizable ex-Cuban population that continually calls for the invasion of Cuba.
I mean, it's not a military issue. We even have a base there, the recently famous Guantanamo Bay. If you thought the march to Baghdad was quick, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Heck, even the after-war would be easy, with that pro-democracy group in Cuba, and all those Cuban-Americans that would move back.
So I ask you: If the United States is a Terrible Imperialistic Power(tm), then why is Fidel Castro still ruling Cuba?
Correction: The word "south" is nowhere in the title of the country. Technically, it's the "Republic of Korea". North Korea, on the other hand, is supposedly the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".
I can't really say that any confusion between the two is possible, though. You just have to remember which one has internet access, electicity, food, democracy, prosperity, etc, etc.
Well, that list was just silly. Japan has not now, or ever had, a monopoly on "Epic RPGs". You need to crack open some PC RPG games there, 'boy.
Also, non-Japanese developers have been making tons of platformers lately. Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, etc. etc.
His words, not mine:
"I'll always be a Japanophile gamer at heart, though, so I can only hope that Japan's gaming industry figures out a way to escape from its financial and creative slump. Only then I can get back to being an elitist, Japan-loving snob."
Well, I guess if he's happy with his own self-image, then the more power to him. Still seems kinda sad, though.
Gamers being U.S. are of not text liking schoolchildren by translated?!
MOVE ZIG!
when was the last time the Republicans successfully concealed a conspiracy. . .
Well, there was the 2004 election...
Oh wait, Gen. Clark told me to keep quiet about the whole time-travel thing. Forget I said anything.
I just wanted to say that I agree. As far as gameplay goes, the party members were more than just materia slots (FF7), and the magic and GF systems weren't damned annoying (FF8).
Terminator 3 may be bad, but you forget that Atari is the current publisher for the Unreal/Tournament franchise, Bioware (outside of Star Wars), and that Driver 3 looks pretty snazzy.
Remember, the current "Atari" is actually the old Infogrames.
> If it was a game, they wouldn't need to say it would come on a DVD, so more than likely, it's not a game.
Well, some early PS2 games were actually CDs. You can tell which because they're the blue-bottomed ones. Twisted Metal Black, for instance, was on a CD.
You do know that most Playstation2 and all Xbox games come on DVDs, right? It doesn't stand for Digital Video Disc, by the way, it stands for Digital Versitile Disc.
Why would they specifically mention that it comes on a DVD? Seems weird to me, but this is from a Japanese magazine.
And to run that PC version of Starflight, don't forget about DOSbox
From what I heard and read, SHODAN (the boss in System Shock 1) had an awesome boss fight game. I won't spoil it, but you can see it if you play it. System Shock 2's SHODAN wasn't special to remember.
Incorrect, SHODAN from SS1 was a lousy boss fight. Her incarnation in SS2 was significantly better.
I wish these xbox threads could manage to keep one basic truth in mind: Xenophobic Japanese consumerism is a myth! It's a standard cop-out that foreign goods manufacturers use whenever _they_ fail to design something the Japanese would want to buy.
This is generally true, but there is a grain of truth in their arguments. For instance, one of the complaints about Final Fantasy XI in Japan was that it seemed "too American." But that probably didn't cause it's low sales as much as the fact that it's an MMORPG.
Is it just me, or are camera problems becoming pretty much a continual problem in third-person games? It seems like we're almost due for a revolutionary new system that will make this issue a thing of the past.
The revolution already happened, but nobody paid attention (much less bought the damn thing).
I don't like FF7 much myself (I prefer 6, 8, and 10),
Did you try FF9? Lots of people skipped it for some reason, but it was actually pretty good.
If you did try it and didn't like it, you don't have to explain. I already know why.
For the record, I'm not marking you as "Foe" because you're anti-American, but rather because you're droll.
Just so you know.
Wait, that doesn't make sense. While it's true that in America's Army you always see the other team as the terrorists, the win-lose ratio is always the same. In each and every round, one team defeats the "terrorists", while the other team is defeated by the "terrorists".
Yes, I know it always displays the Army as the good side, but it certainly doesn't show the Army always winning. Unrealistic, yes, but necessary for game balance. For another example of sacrificing realism for balance, see Desert Combat
"That would be awesome!" (art by Tycho)
That should both keep prices down, and forever thwart hackers! /dreamland
Apparently the Japanese market didn't like the good Western games they brought over before, so they're going to try bringing some bad* Western games over. To tell the truth, this doesn't sound like a bad idea.
* (Note: I hear Outlaw Volleyball is actually pretty good, gameplay-wise. Better than the volleyball portion of DOA: Extreme Volleyball.)
The logical successor to the Peter Principle is the Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to where they can do the least damage: management.