Yeah I didn't think of that. I just meant, they could put it on the GBA cartridge, which you can stick in a DS system.

You're right.

Ramza

The reviewer certainly has his own personal tastes, including a love for the job/ability system. He called FFIII the "second-best", with FFV being the "first best." So yeah...the man clearly likes gameplay more than story.

However, the fact that the story has been re-worked to include (GASP) real character development...yeah that's a big plus to me.

Also, having fiddled around with the Famicom version, it sounds like there are a LOT of improvements.

The one thing that bothers me is that, like so many DS RPGs, this simply could have been a GBA game. The second screen is barely used, and the touchpad is an optional element for movement and and menu selection.

None of my complaints, however, will stop me from preordering the game.

Ramza

That is fan-freaking-tastic. Brainwashed by the media, these moms are.

Ramza

I wasn't big into From Software until I discovered THEY made that game with US president in a mecha.

Ramza

Agreed. That's my standard for reviewing RPGs. Hence, why I haven't reviewed the Aht Urhgan FFXI expansion: the storyline isn't completed yet.

Anyway, I've gone ahead and rented this title, seeing if I can clear through it in a rental and review it. Personally, based on what I saw at E3, I'm excited about it. I'm glad that Ubisoft is releasing otherwise-not-going-to-be-released RPGs in the US and Europe.

Ramza

I've been through about four RPG burnout phases in my life (Burnout: Cycle is a game!! I was about to say it but I used "phases" instead).

They usually happen to me around console generation changes, though one happened right in the middle of the PS1 era because of personal reasons.

So, I should be hitting a burnout soon. Considering my next RPG on the plate is Enchanted Arms...yeah, it might be about time. :P

Ramza

I can't stand the following things in RPGs:

1) Programming or text-based errors that destroy puzzles (see the "Fate" puzzle from Tales of Destiny).

2) Good storylines with poor execution, or vice versa (lots of RPGs have this problem).

3) Killing God -- j/k I'm just being stupid. I don't mind using that cliche, depending on HOW it's used. I think all religious people ought to expose themselves to this sort of thing, whether it be book, film, or videogame. There is a primal urge (whether it be good or bad you decide) to rebel against authority, and if God's the ultimate authority...yeah. That's one of many motives to fight back at God.

4) RPGs with bad music, or a lack of a real score.

Pat

I agree. The use of imagery is sometimes the only way we can begin to piece together the ridiculous puzzle that is Xenosaga. And when they REMOVE imagery (in this case, blood) we'll have to just imagine the blood is there to make any sense of it.

I'm angry about this but I'm still gonna play it.

Ramza

I like HTKAM a lot, if only because I saw it around the same time I was being forced to read it for a class. And it made me want to use that as a presentation.

My mom liked HTKAM, and she's a big fan of the TKAM movie.

Awesome abbv.'s no?

Ramza

Screw common ground! I wanna fight 'bout particulurs!!!!! YEEEEEHAW sucka! :P

j/k

Neal's right. The point is that sex ed sucks, and it may be that it sucks inherently. But I thought my school did a pretty decent job.

Ramza

i liked the plot to vagrant story (PS1)...but it's only revealed in small parts.

I liked the char. development in Star Ocean 2 (also PS1).

Ramza

There were plenty of awesome songs in the game.

To me, the characters were very memorable.

The game froze on me a few times when I was a kid, in that first ice dungeon where you use cat claws to climb walls. I didn't like that.

I personally love the game. Haven't played it in probably...a decade, though.

Ramza

"Tonight's show is about the arbitrary promise of sexual abstinence: remaining a virgin and holding off having sex until some arbitrary cutoff point, like, say...marriage. Might be some new kind of kink, but it's also, BULLSHIT!"

"Kids everywhere are taking pledges not to get laid until marriage...WHAT THE FUCK *hasn't* gotten into them?!"

Granted, after the interview with 4 virgin young adults, Penn says:

"Deciding to remain abstinent because you like the idea is just fine...but imagine deciding at 15 to wait to fuck til you're 25...that's a ten-year striptease."

So, yeah, on the surface, they say they're not bashing abstinence. But earlier quotes seem to imply the general idea that "pledging" abstinence is unrealistic and...well...bullshit, as he said.

Explicitly, they certainly don't go too far in bashing abstinence, but I'd still say there are subtle implications in the monologues that say "yeah...like anyone's REALLY gonna stay a virgin until marriage."



Hear hear! Let's all give ourselves a pat on the back for not turning this thread into lame e-peen bragging or flamebait.

Ramza

Thank you Parn.

Indeed, I did no such thing. I did not say, or even imply, that Penn and Teller were too hard on the abstinence movement. I said that they're too hard on ABSTINENCE...like, as a concept. They basically said, "if you have a brain, you know abstinence is one dumb-ass idea."

As for this...



If you wanna do some actual *study* on sexual ethics past & present, you'll understand why some people consider marriage the point where sex is morally acceptable. If you'd like to go through the song-and-dance of how it makes sense to a conservative Christian, it goes like this:

There's nothing "magic" about it. You are simply making a commitment to the public and your respective deity that you're going to unite with another person exclusively. Sex doesn't "magically" become good at that point: sex, as a concept, is always good. It's just that it goes bad when people can sleep with whoever, whenever, and set their OWN *arbitrary* standards as to when sex is a good or bad idea.

I'm not force-feeding that message to anyone, even my own children. But the way P&T systematically bash this line of thinking as though it were COMPLETELY unreasonable is about as shameful as...well, as shameful as that militant abstinence movement they're mocking.

Ramza

I know we don't specifically have a rule against it in our boards list, but I for one would appreciate a *warning* regarding nudity in anything you link to. Y'know, the Asian girl that masturbates that they stick all over the show? Yeah, that'd be something worth warning people about.

My thoughts about the topic:

"Abstinence Only" is kind of silly education; it's a kind of prosyletizing, and it's generally done by Christians who find preaching abstinence as holy a practice as preaching salvation.

Rather, if a teenager *decides* they would prefer abstinence only, then it may be worth having an abstinence course for them, in which you can preach to the choir.

To everyone else (and hey, why not, even the abstinent teens too), basics on contraceptives and the like, it can't hurt to know. I know not every teenager is wildly intelligent and thoughtful, but one can assume that after giving the INFORMATION, teens can make moral decisions for themselves.

I'd like to point out, however, that the Penn and Teller episode was shamefully low-brow and more of a jab at conservatives than anything else. They went beyond villainizing the abstinence movement to actually villainizing abstinence, as though it were some IMPOSSIBLE feat (and they also called marriage an "arbitrary line," which is a pretty stupid comment IMO).

In my high school, we were taught all about everything...no abstinence-only preaching. The teaching actually bothered me enough to align myself with groups like CCLI, the Catholic no-contraceptives-so-you-can-be-makin'-babies-like-crazy organization (NFP, Natural Family Planning, all that...my high school gave it a bad rap). So, with enough luck, teaching kids the facts in an objective manner *ought* to push the already-backward-conservative kids (such as myself) to where their conservative parents want them to be, and everyone else has wild sex without getting their bodies into too much havok. Everybody wins.

Ramza