Herbert1405241469

Those are very well done. That's my problem as an amateur photographer, I can't find beautiful models What camera / equipment are you using?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ has tons of walkthroughs. I'm sure they'd have some for final fantasy.I've tried a bunch of RPGs, it's hard to say which type I prefer. I guess it depends on the game itself. Like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG were good, but Morrowind/Oblivion were good for other reasons. I'm not in so much for the Diablo and those types... I played Vampire: The Masquerade, which was alright, but not my cup o' tea. Vampire: Bloodlines was much more fun.

Yeah, the drag and drop stuff is good for beginners, but actual programming gives you the most control over any game. I was going to buy the book they released for Gamemaker training but most of it, from what I saw, was just the drag and drop stuff, and didn't have more than a couple chapters on the actual GML language. I was slightly disappointed

I believe they are making another game based on that Universe, but the characters are all pretty much left out, and you'll be getting new ones... Though I'm sure they're going to find ways of bringing a couple of them back. I would play the new one, once it came out, sure.

Easy way to make text-based games I've used in the past is Microsoft's QBasic... It's old, and DOS-based, though, but stuff I made in 1998 still works in windows xp. I made a "Paradox Simulator" in QBasic that was just a rectangle and the player played as a circle, that could move around via WASD keys. The cool bit was that the player could hit T, and essential go back (or forward) in time, and see himself moving around, as the program recorded all movements. I wanted to expand it into a real 2D sprite-based game in Gamemaker, but couldn't replicate the process of recording and playing back the character's movements. My ultimate goal is to make a FPS 3D game implementing time travel unlike anything ever seen before, but the programming involved is momentous. The biggest problem being how the AI would handle the "Past" version of the player if conditional variables changed... You can't just "replay" the characters movements like it is in my demo if the environment is changed... The changes to the past would need to be calculated in Real Time, and would require a massive load on the CPU and data storage... but I do think it would make for a kickass game

Well I just finished the expansion... Overall, I'm not entirely satisfied with the F.E.A.R. experience. I find that the Half Life 2 story line is much richer, and is preferable, though F.E.A.R. is good for those action buffs who like Counter Strike and non-stop action... I like Half Life 2's approach... They give the player an intense scene... like action, or horror ("We don't go to Ravenholm")... then once the player gets through that, they give the player some dialog with some characters (character development and whatnot) and then move the player along... F.E.A.R. IS PURE ACTION. The moments you do have some quiet, they switch gears to being creepy, making you look around, so you never really get a break at all... The game pushes you around to try to scare you. I do admit, there were some scenes where the level would sort of fall apart like it was being taken down on the set of a theater and you wouldn't know what the heck is going on, but the rest of the time, they throw you in a black void with fire and have these weird poltergeist creatures attack you at all angles, which is more annoying than anything... There were only 2 real moments that were semi-scary, and the rest really didn't have that much of an effect of me, because it was over the top... There were two instances in F.E.A.R and Extraction Point where Alma jumped out at me that was really effective... But, the whole time I'm playing this, I'm wondering why she's even playing with me... I mean, I see videos on screen of her walking up to a baddie and ripping his flesh to bits, leaving nothing but a skeleton without even touching the guy... yet she jumps out and tries reaching for me while I'm climbing a ladder, and fails to destroy me... Levels are a bit more varied, which is good. The car parking lot is cool, because the pillars can break apart, and the last level with the hospital is pretty creepy, though overall, not as creepy as some game hospitals I've had to navigate through (Silent Hill 2 I believe.) They overdid the blood on the walls, and all over the place. At some points, you can hear your character walking in puddles of blood as though you were walking in puddles of water after a rain storm. There's so much blood, you wonder how many bodies it took to create it all. Rather than making it creepy, I became immune to the sight of it... Disaffected, rather. Massive Spoilers and Rants: I find out later in the first game that the main character, that you play as, is in fact Alma's son. Yes, Alma is your mother, yet she's sending waves of ghouls after you to kill you... Yet, these same ghouls will attack your enemies and a voice comes up "You're safe now..." and about 10 seconds later, another squad of bad guys comes out to kill you. If Alma is really trying to help me, why isn't she killing everyone for me, and if she's trying to kill me, why are there times she appears to be helping me? To top it all off, the guy in charge of the soldiers trying to kill me is the main character's brother... yes, Alma had 2 kids. He's trying to kill me, Alma's trying to kill me.... Why can't they just let me in on their plan for revenge and it'll save me the trouble of killing all his soldiers! By the end of Extraction Point, his soldiers are pretty much controlling the empty shell of the city. I want to be on the Winning Side!! Alma! Why hast thou forsaken your son!!! Doing some reading on FAQs sites, there are 2 Alma's... One's the young girl, and the other is a naked teen-aged girl. One is out to kill you, and the other is like the mother figure... Don't know anything about that, but it is irking me. Another thing that ticks me off about this game is that they kill off all the characters you have sympathy for. One guy that fights along side you for awhile gets flung around by some invisible force and you get to watch him squeal in pain as he gets flung into walls... Which was in fact a decent memorable moment in the game... and They kill off the only female NPC you have sympathy for, and there's nothing you can do about it. I actually jumped off a game building when I had the chance, at one point, because the situation made me feel so hopeless. At least if the developers of Half Life 2 decide to kill Alyx, the female heroine, I'll feel remorse. There's nothing to be felt when the female in F.E.A.R. dies... I was sort of pissed off, but really, there's no emotions to be felt other than "Oh damn, those bastards killed another one of my teammates! That sucks." One thing I hate about FPS games, is the whole "Run here, pull a lever, unlock the door, repeat..." It's those moments, where I can SEE where I NEED to go, but can't until I run for 5 minutes in the opposite direction, killing 50 baddies just to flip a switch to open the door to where I needed to go.... Ugh. Why do they do that other than to make the game take longer to beat? I have a rocket launcher, why can't I just blow a freakin hole in the wall and go that way?? There's just not much accomplishment feeling involved in killing guys to unlock a door. Anyway, overall F.E.A.R. is a good action game with a nice Creepiness factor, and is worth a look if you have a high end system, but in my own personal opinion, I prefer the story plot of Half-Life over what they've developed so far with F.E.A.R.

Well, I just beat it. The ending got a little more intense, but still not as scary as some games I've played (Thief III's "Cradle", Half Life 2's "Ravenholm", and Condemned: Criminal Origins top it in both psychological and "jump out at you" scary fun)... But it does improve in the final levels of the game.The plot is a little confusing in delivery up until the final levels where you have a couple of people throw in an explanation... Any type of "plot twist" is rather lost by confusion. The final sequence was done well, and there is a bit o' dialog after the credits, so stay tuned once you beat it... just so you know.Overall, it was a pretty standard FPS, though its highlights included the cool slow-mo effects, and the realistic physics. You shoot a guy in the head, his head springs back realistically. You shoot his leg, he'll hobble and won't be able to walk on it. The AI was decent, though I didn't have the effects turned all the way up, so I might have lost some. Seemed pretty standard, they didn't rush into situations where I could pop them off one by one. They took cover and threw grenades. I do wish it would have had more stealth, though. There are some decent Melee moves, but you hardly get to use em. Dual pistols was my favorite, though most people prefer the shotgun.With the Gold edition, I also got the Expansion, which I heard only takes about 5 hours to beat, so that's definitely not cool, considering I saw that it cost just as much as the director's edition at Best Buy...Some minor things:Looking for health and reflex boosts took away from the game... It made me run around the level like a nut trying to find them, instead of truly immersing myself in the atmosphere of the game. They should have done it somewhat differently, like automatically upgrading you every level or so, because looking for the boosts encouraged exploration, but it also made for a lot of wasted time and boredom running around the level after killing everyone.Alma is really quite a memorable female game "villain." I'd say she's right up there with SHODAN from the System Shock series.Overall a good game, though it could have been better. I'm going to start the expansion "Extraction Point" which includes new weapons and baddies, and I'll fill you in once I get it done.

I know I'm a little late on this, but I finally got around to buying F.E.A.R. Gold from Best Buy a couple days ago. This one comes packaged with the director's edition and the expansion pack all on one DVD for the price of just the director's edition ($39.99)I figured, for the money, might as well try it.At first, I was disappointed in the fact that my computer seemed to be unable to handle it. I have a 2.4 ghz P4, ATI Radeon x800 pro (256 meg) and a gig of RAM, and the game stuttered like a mofo. I had to go Low on all the Graphics options, and "Medium" for Graphics card options. It gets a decent framerate, but Half Life 2 gets better, though this game has some nifty filters involved...Graphics-wise, it sucks if you don't have a high end rig, because you don't get the cool bullet time effects, and environmental effects are minimal if you put it on low... At Medium, you get some post-filtering and bullet decals. Bullet time, the game's highlight, is cool. It's done much better than the Matrix game (I forget what it's called, but it had Niobe and Ghost, not Neo).... You turn it on with a click, and it regenerates when not in use. In all reality, it almost makes the game too easy at some points.... At the middle difficulty, there are health packs everywhere and I'm always stocked to the max (10). So Dying usually only happens if I try exploring and jump off a building or the bottom of an elevator shaft or something.Gameplay, it's a bit better than Doom III just because it's not pitch black all the time... This is the first game where you're actually discouraged to use your flashlight, because the A.I. can see it. These other games with darkness like Splinter Cell or Condemned: Criminal Origins tick me off, because the developers give you night vision or a flashlight, but when you don't use it, you're totally blind... Which raises the question... WHY IS THE A.I. ABLE TO FUNCTION IN THE ABSOLUTE DARK?? This game, F.E.A.R. has dark areas, but at least you can maneuver without a flashlight in most cases.So far, what I've played, the basic "Plot" is almost the same as Doom III, in that you're just trying to follow some dude the whole time... In the mean time, you listen do phone messages and upload data from laptops (sort of in the spirit of System Shock's emails) to get an idea of the back story.Basically, this commander who has the psychic ability to control thousands of troops with his mind, goes crazy and starts killing people, so you have to kill him to contain the problem... In the opening sequence, the mission controllers are talking like "Oh yeah, just take this one guy down and all the soldiers deactivate and are controlled..." Yeah, right. Like it's ever that freakin easy!At the rate I'm going, I'll have his entire army killed before I can get to the bugger! Sound is top notch. Atmospheric music done very well. The problem really is that I'm not really scared. I'd just played Condemned: Criminal Origins, and that brought about more psychological fear than ....F.E.A.R is so far. There was a sequence where this lil girl keeps popping up and they employ a lot of scary bits, but really, compared to Condemned, it's just not as potent. (I do think Condemned runs on the F.E.A.R. engine, and if not, it's almost alike in execution).You never leave First Person mode, which is good. Keeps you in the mindset of your character (a la Half Life).The levels get to be somewhat repetitive... Right now, I just finished up part of an office building... All I have to say is, damn I hope I never have to work in a building like THAT! Maze-like, it's as though the developers only considered gameplay rather than realism... Real office buildings aren't that confusing. But hey, it's gameplay we're after so whatever. They did the same thing with Condemned. Sometimes it didn't even feel like being in a school when in fact I was... There are a lot of buttons to remember, so take that into consideration when remapping the buttons. Flashlight, grenades, aim/zoom, shoot, melee, slow-mo, jump, crouch, walk/run, Use...... etc. It can be quite a lot at first, even for a seasoned FPS gamer.Another cool feature is the kicks combos... If you use the Melee key when jumping a certain way, you can do kick combos... Problem with this is you hardly ever get close enough to use them. When you do, though, it usually takes out a baddie in 1 hit.That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, really... They can take half a dozen shots to the chest with armor (and maybe 2-3 in the head before they go down) but you can kick them and they die. Go figure.Dual handguns are nice. Done very well. I liked that...Weapons in general are pretty cool. Some are better than others, but you're never lacking in weaponry... That's sort of why I'm not so scared in it, I think... because I've always got a kickass gun, whereas in Condemned, all you had was a board or whatever you could grab, and a gun once in awhile if you were lucky. and even then you had to conserve ammo because you only would get 3-6 shots. Makes for a lot of head shots That's all I can think of so far... I'll review it more once I beat it.... That's one thing I hate, having a game be decent but screwing up the ending... Well, at least knowing there's an expansion that continues the story is some consolation at least!

Sunsets can be cool, but eventually you have to add something to make it stand out... I always wanted to get photos of new looking cars in the setting sun, like they use in car promos they have for their new models. It's on my "to-photo" list

I picked up Dreamfall being in the mood for a good ol' fashioned Adventure game, and that is what I got. Dreamfall is the sequel to The Longest Journey, which I heard was indeed very long. Dreamfall sure took long enough on its own though. I don't recall how many hours I had in it exactly, but it sure was more than I'm used to putting into games nowadays. I haven't played The Longest Journey yet, which was probably a dumb move, since after playing Dreamfall, I now have no motivation of putting forth effort into its predecessor. Dreamfall did for the Longest Journey what Deus Ex 2 did for Deus Ex 1... You get new characters to play as, and when you do run into characters from the first game, they're changed in their personality to where you feel nothing towards them... For example, in Deus Ex 2, you run into the character you play as in Deus Ex 1, JC Denton. In Deus Ex 1, JC Denton didn't really show emotions, but he had a personality, if that makes sense. In Deus Ex 2, they plant an artificial intelligence in him, and he's essentially just a drone now, with no personality traits or any resemblance to the character you played in the first one... Regular A-hole (from what I can remember... I haven't played it in years now). Well anyway, in Dreamfall, you run into (and play as) April Ryan, the protagonist from the first Longest Journey. I don't know exactly what she was like before (other than YouTube clips) but in Dreamfall, she's a regular self-centered *(once again)* A-hole. I can understand that she already saved the world, and wanted to be free of responsibility, but she could have had a nicer attitude towards the protagonist of Dreamfall, Zoe. So you play as Zoe Castillo, a 20 (I believe it was 20...) year old girl who finds that she is bored with life, and listless. I can certainly relate... Well, the listless and bored with life part.... not the being a 20 year old girl part ... Otherwise I wouldn't have been spending my time playing a video game, eh? ha So Zoe meets up with an old boyfriend of hers who happens to be doing some big story for an underground newspaper, The Hand That Bites (a very witty title, I must say). Well he disappears, and Zoe is thus sent on a quest to find him, with the help of one of her girl friends, who keeps calling her sweetie, which makes her oddly sound like she's trying to make a pass at her all the time I kept expecting the friend to betray her, with some lame plot twist, but it never happened, which is good. All the while Zoe is looking for her guy, this weird little girl keeps popping up on video screens that looks oddly like the chick from The Ring, who keeps telling Zoe to save April Ryan... Over, and freakin over again. At first it was cool and all, but by the 6th and xth time she yells at you to "FIND APRIL!!!", it gets pretty old. To make it worse, when you do eventually meet up with April, all April does is dismiss Zoe in a cutscene, and the characters part, once again.... Despite the fact that April apparently doesn't need saving, the little girl continues to yell at you to save her. *Spoiler* *And when April finally is in need of being saved, Zoe can't even do anything about it!* End Spoiler* There is also an Assassin on the "Bad Guy's Side" you get to play as, who has an eventual "change of heart" but this is rather lamely done, with hardly any reason for him to do so, other than some dialog between April and him. Ranting aside, the graphics and sound are top notch. Well the sound is. The ambiance is good, and the music is terrific. Very good music. The graphics lack in textures in some areas... They could be better, but overall the landscapes and scenes are well done. The controls took some getting used to, until I managed to find "Reverse Mouse" because for some reason, when I moved my mouse, the camera would move opposite... So I had to actually reverse the mouse to get the mouse to be UN-reversed. The camera works a bit like Splinter Cell, though not done as well while moving, but still decent. It's a typical adventure game, in that if it ain't nailed down, you probably need it. The puzzles are realistic in nature, since they are pretty much environmental and common sense predicaments, but the lock picking, and hacking bits can be quite a mind bender. The lock picking involves 4 circles, with symbols on each quad, (as if it were a clock, it'd be on 12, 3, 6, and 9) and you have to line up the symbols so that they match a certain sequence... This just takes patience and a bit of skill... No time limit thankfully. The hacking, though, is a pain. you get a grid with randomly generated characters... such as a semi circle over a square with 2 semi circles under it. it looks like a 10x10 grid, and the characters move, and you have to find the one lit on the bottom, usually doing this in a sequence of 4 symbols, before time runs out. This one is just a pain in the *bottom*, but it can be done. Not trying to spoil it or anything, but the ending is just downright depressing, once you realize just what happened to everyone you met or played during the course of the game. I heard they're making a 3rd game, which I hope resolves a lot of stuff, though there weren't a lot of loose ends, from what I can recall... They tidied up the plot pretty decently. Overall, I'd say it's worth it if you're into adventure gaming, if you're used to listening to hours and hours of dialog.... There's plenty of gameplay, but there's just as much talking. Your dialog choices don't impact the paths the characters take, but rather just the dialog itself... if you answer angrily, then the rest of the dialog will be angry, etc. but the results are the same. I'd recommend looking on ebay, rather than paying retail. There's not really any replay value, even just to relive the story, just because the game is so darned long. For a slightly better game, I'd recommend "Shadow of Destiny," but if you liked The Longest Journey, this game's worth a look.

Ah, well I just beat the game. Not bad. I'm glad I got it, though I did run through it rather quickly. There's pretty much no real replay value except if you want to find all the birds and metal, but I have better things to do haha. Well, anyway, the whole bird and metal thing was never explained, but they do seem to unlock stuff through those achievements in some concept art. I still have a few I haven't been able to unlock, but really, the payoff isn't really all there for it. I could spend another 15 or so hours replaying this on other difficulties, but all I'm going to get is concept art, which really isn't all that exciting. Ebay has the game cheap, and it's worth the buy, but retail price is too much.The gameplay was pretty intense, though not perfect. Psychologically, it was very effective. The game was creepy as hell, and the environments were dark and spooky. Every level took place in some destroyed building, which made the game rather linear, but exploration is rewarded with finding birds and metal and weapons and medkits. Some of the levels, though, were just odd. One level took place in a school (where I got to die for the first time at the hand of a 400 pound angry kitchen lady with a cleaver...) but it was in such disarray, I couldn't really say it was a school until half way through the level I saw some desks and a chalkboard... All places stereotyped as creepy are included, so if you have any fears of going into a basement, attic, or burned-out library, this game will amplify your fears...The last level was by far the hardest, though not impossible. The final boss is tough, and I kept having to reload my last save because he beat the crap out of me... I found his patterns though, and figured out how to avoid his hits, since there are set patterns of his motion capture...*minor spoilers*----------------------------------------They never explain the plot, unfortunately... Why everyone went nuts, and what the conspiracy is... Just some hinting, but nothing directly. The whole game reminded me of Twin Peaks, if you are familiar with the TV series at all... Same thing... there's some Evil personified, and it's possessing people... and once you get to confront the Evil at the end, it still exists in the hearts of men (and your character, who seems to be going insane the whole time).*end spoilers*----------------------------------------Overall, I say get it if you liked F.E.A.R. (though I've never played F.E.A.R, I heard it runs off the F.E.A.R. engine and performs at a better framerate. It's really creepy, and it'll leave you with maybe not nightmares, but truly bizarre dreams, that's for sure!

I've been looking for a good survival horror game for a couple weeks now, having beaten the ones I already own... I was out with a friend and picked up "Condemned - Criminal Origins" for the PC for $14.99 on his recommendation. I've been playing it for about 4 hours now, and so far, it's all I've wanted with a new survival horror / psychological thriller, but it's not without its flaws.First impressions:Well I have a 2.4 ghz P4, and a Radeon x800 pro, and the game performs well enough on the high to maximum graphics settings. There is some frame rate shuddering at checkpoints and really large open areas. The game letterboxes the screen, even at 1024x768, so there are black bars above and below, but you don't notice it after an hour or so of playing. Sound quality is good, with good atmospheric sounds, and voice acting is extremely well done.The plot so far is progressing, but I heard the ending is rather unbelievable, but I'll let you all know it once I get it.This game was ported from the xbox360, and I must say that it is one of the best ports I'd ever played on a PC. There is no major graphical problems, and the controls all work fluidly. I was going to buy Resident Evil 4 for the PC, which is supposed to be a good game, but I heard that they ported it horribly and it doesn't even support a mouse... I don't like console game shooters just for that reason... I prefer aiming with a mouse.Back to Condemned, the levels are very large, but somewhat linear. When the level isn't linear, it's easy to get lost and wander around in circles. There are certain doors that require a specific weapon to open them, such as a fire ax. This sort of ruins the realism for the simple fact that the game forces you to scour the level for a sledgehammer, when you could just as easily shoot the padlock off, or pull it with a crowbar... Though this is somewhat unrealistic in effect, it's a heck of a lot better than the old "Find the key to unlock the door" bit they used for all these years.The "puzzles" are all environmental like that. Using weapons to break doors down (using the fire ax, you almost feel like Jack in "The Shining" )During the game, a very intrusive popup comes up when you are near "evidence" that you need to pull out CSI-type equipment for... this furthers the plot by finding clues about the serial killer involved in the overall scheme of things.One of the weird things for me as a PC player is the Achievements you can get when playing the level. I'd had a Xbox360 for awhile, so I know somewhat about them, but really I see no point in it other than the possibility for replay value. The achievements for this game involve finding dead birds and pieces of metal throughout the level. To my knowledge, these don't unlock any bonus content, so I don't know why they included it in the PC version...The AI is somewhat dumber than I'm used to... I'll see one scuttling across the end of a hallway, and I'll see his elbow sticking out from behind a pilar, and he'll cough and make tons of noise, so it's not as "jump out at you" scary like Doom III would be (where they come out of nowhere and jump you) but there are moments where you'll look over a ledge and a random guy will yell out "**** YOU!" and you'll have to have quick fingers to whap him.That leads to combat... The melee system people were complaining about isn't too bad. You can only carry one weapon at a time, so you'll often find yourself having to choose between the compact revolver which doesn't do as much melee damage (You can pistol whip) but has 4-6 rounds left, or a shotgun with 1-2 rounds left that you can have a great reach with if you need it for melee. Guns you find in the levels are usually not fill of ammo. You never find an extra clip anywhere, so if you kill 2 baddies, each with a .45, you will have to choose between the two .45's, whichever has more ammo, because I don't believe you can take the clip out of one and store it... The weapon inventory is somewhat realistic, in that you won't be toting around 4 shotguns, 6 handguns, and a shovel (which sometimes can happen in FPS games.) but it sucks, because you have a satchel you carry around with all your CSI equipment in, which in theory should at least have enough room for you to put in an extra pistol... or if you could put it in your belt or something, but you are forced to pick and choose between a gun with 1 bullet, or a sign to defeat your foes...You find yourself appreciating guns more in this game... You rely more on melee, and getting a gun is really a treat. One thing, that is good for playing, but bad for realism is the taser you get... One charge will shoot across a room and stun a baddie, but it takes awhile to recharge... while the bad guy is stunned, you can pull the weapon out of his hand, but that's usually a bad idea if you don't have a ranged weapon, because he'll just grab you and headbutt the crap out of you (which you get yourself out of by wiggling the mouse back and forth). The taser makes the game easier, but you tend to rely on it too much... One shot by the taser, and you can take your fire ax and whap the guy in the head, and he's dead (in most cases).You can kick, so if you manage to knock a guy down, you can kick him in the head to finish him... There are also "Finishing Moves" where if you get a guy on his knees, stunned from low health, you can press 1-4 on the keyboard to either snap his neck, bash him, etc... those are pretty cool, and add variety to the kills. There are a lot of variety to the kills.The fighting is violent, which makes it all the more real. The motion capture used by the bad guy models is flawless. The ragdoll physics once they fall, though, is sort of lacking. They can usually hit you closer than you'd expect, and blocking is really hard, because they can hesitate and when your block goes down, they bonk you like crazy.I'll post more once I get more to the story and whatnot (no spoilers).

Well, first day off the fast. Started off with a glass of apple juice. I've been munching pretzel sticks, but trying to to eat too many due to the sodium. Had a thing of yogurt. So far, no stomach cramps or anything.Any longer than 3 days, you have to go easy, but I was just at that peak where I could ease back into normal food rather easily.Yeah, Good things: I lost weight. And I cleaned out a lot of gunk out of my intestines. Didn't pass anything weird or unexpected, which probably would have happened around day 5 or 6, but I feel much better now just with what little I had to eat.

Day Three Stats: May 16, 2007 - 6:20pm Systolic Pressure: 118 Diastolic Pressure: 69 Pulse Rate: 56 Weight: 166 http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Well, I'm done. I can't take it anymore, and I'm exhibiting signs of starvation. I hate the lemon drink, so I just drank water all day. The lack of sugar dropped my levels, and I'm dizzy. I'm sorry I can't finish the whole 10 days, but since I can't stand the lemon mix, I can't drink that much every day (that I need to live on this diet). I'm going to try weaning off it with apple juice and yogurt, and I'll pick up some probiotics tomorrow so I can get good bacteria back into my stomach. Sorry to everyone. I guess I'm not cut out for hard core fasting. Overall, this diet/detox would be worth it, but I feel like the time I wasted in my house watching movies and playing video games is time that I could have spent more productively. You can't go out very much if you're on this diet, because you run the risk of an accident in your pants if you're not by a bathroom.... That and you're totally loopy feeling if you don't take the required dosages of lemons and maple syrup. I have low enough blood pressure as it is, this diet isn't helping me any. My suggestions for anyone wanting to do this... Try the mix before you buy the whole 10 day's worth. If you can't stomach the crappy taste of the mix on the first day, there's no sense in spending all that money because you'll want to quit. I was gagging on the stuff, so rather than quitting, I just drank water. Well now I'm dizzy and weak and totally unhealthy. Don't let this happen to you!

Thanks for the encouragement Day Two Stats*: May 15, 2007 - 3:42pm Systolic Pressure: 110 Diastolic Pressure: 64 Pulse Rate: 68 Weight: 166 It's actually the morning of Day Three at the moment. Yesterday I was thinking of quitting today, and I still am, but this morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom, I still had brown stuff coming out, which means I'm not yet totally clean. I took the salt water flush this morning to get rid of gunk still in there. It's weird, yesterday I was about ready to quit, but this morning, I had some knawing feeling that I need to stay on it... I'm just going to take it day by day. I'm tired, weak, and bored. That's the biggest thing, keeping yourself busy so you can conserve what little energy you have, and keeping yourself away from food. I'll keep you posted.

Day One Stats*: May 14, 2007 - 2:20pm Systolic Pressure: 110 Diastolic Pressure: 63 Pulse Rate: 62 Weight: 170 * Averaged from 3 separate checks within a 5 minute period at rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------- YouTube Video Link - Day Zero http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Well, day one sucked. To be honest. The whole day I just wanted to chew on something. The lemonade mix turned out horrible because I think I put in too much pepper. Tomorrow I'm going to make it glass by glass instead of a concentrate, because it didn't work right. Woke up around 9am, mixed the Quart of salt water with 2 teaspoons of sea salt and got it down. It sucked, because I wanted to throw it up, but I kept it down. Took about 20 minutes or so to kick in, and it kicked in hard. It didn't hurt, thankfully, but there's little warning before you feel it ready to blow out your pants. Started as solid, but progressed to liquid, and finally I was just shooting clear water. Weird feeling. The "butt pee" was done by Noon or so, which was longer than I'd like. I think I'll lower the dose of salt water just so it doesn't last so long. As I said above, the lemonade didn't turn out, so I didn't get in my 6 servings, but I took in the maple syrup separate to keep up my calories. Didn't lose any weight, but I'm sure that's because I've been drinking so much water. Parents think this is crazy, and I'm starting to believe them... Day One, and I'm already doubting myself. I just have to keep my hopes up that I can get through this without screwing up and dying haha. My blood pressure went down, which might explain the low moods today. I ought to start taking my temperature too, but I'm not in the mood now. The laxative tea smells, and my excretions smell like it, so it makes me gag now to make the tea since it reminds me of time in the bathroom. I can see why people quit, but I want to lose this couple of pounds and get into fruits and stuff. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I don't even know if anyone is reading this, but it's on record anyway for future finders of this Day Zero Stats*: May 13, 2007 - 1:20pm Systolic Pressure: 117 Diastolic Pressure: 68 Pulse Rate: 69 Weight: 170 * Averaged from 3 separate checks within a 5 minute period at rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------- YouTube Video Link - Day Zero http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here begins my first real blog (with accompanying video blog on YouTube), in my experimentation with the Master Cleanse I've been researching. Hopefully this will be scientific and thorough enough so that people will be able to use my experience in knowing whether or not the darn thing is worth it. I feel like a newbie compared to all the people that have done this already, but I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents. For more info on what this cleanse involves, check out: http://therawfoodsite.com/mastercleanse.htm (The PDF of the book they have is available if you look for it on Yahoo or Google) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Current medical conditions of my own: -Low thyroid levels at times, but not taking medication other than herbal supplements. -ITP, but platelet levels last checked at 156,000, which is normal. It's been stable for over approx. 4 years. Last Meal: A hot dog and hash brown, with red Vault. Vitamins included a multi-vitamin, Ester-C, B6, Iodomere, Thytrophin PMG ----------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, I'll list the materials and costs. I'm in Erie, Pennsylvania, so the costs and brands may vary. I'll be posting feedback on all the products as I experience them. (Prices don't include tax.) Nightly Tea - Smooth Move herbal Stimulant Laxative - $4.75 for 16 bags (Night Zero, drinking it starting at 10:04pm) (First Impressions: Ugh, too hot. Tastes bitter, not enjoyable. I'm not a tea person) Morning Salt Water Flush - Dietary Foods Sea Salt - $1.80 for 3 pounds. Water - Distilled Wal-Mart brand - $0.69 Koldrock Brand Distilled water - $1.20 (Currently using Koldrock for the tea.) Cayenne Pepper - Rated 35,000 Units (Woman that sold it to me said it was mild) - $0.56 for 1 oz. Lemons - Wegmans Brand - $3.98 for 6 (Look ugly, washed them thoroughly with soap to get rid of crap they put on em) Maple Syrup - NOW brand, Grade B, Certified Organic, Kosher - $7.99 for 16 fl. ounces ----------------------------------------------------------------- Current formulas for mixing concentrate and dilution: Concentrated Lemonade Mix - (6.25 Servings) 6.25 oz lemon juice (12.5 tablespoons) 6.25 oz maple syrup (12.5 tablespoons) 0.31 oz cayenne pepper (0.625 tablespoons) Concentrate Mix with Water - (3 Servings) 24 oz. distilled water 6.3 oz Lemonade Mix Salt Water Flush - (1 Quart every morning) 1 quart distilled water 2 teaspoons sea salt Lax Tea - (1 Cup every night) 8 oz distilled water 1 tea bag (Poured boiling water into cup on teabag, covered with a lid, and let set for approx 10-20 minutes) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Of course, I'm not a medical man, so I don't condone or endorse any of this stuff. I'm simply a guinea pig relaying my experiences to you on this fast. Do what you want, I'm not responsible for your health or anyone's health but my own

I'm going to make videos detailing how much stuff costs and what brands I use. I'm going to be as scientific about this as possible, because people just sort of do it, and talk about how they feel, but newbies to the whole thing have no idea what's involved unless they really research what's going on...Just reading the pdf, you don't know that you'll be pretty much peeing out your *bottom* when you use that salt water flush hahaha. Or more scientific things like body temperature, and whatnot are not recorded.Just some notes I've picked up on the internet, which I anticipate and will confirm if they happen:-You'll get really cold since the heat from digestion isn't going to be there.-You're going to need the bathroom anywhere from 5-10 minutes from using the salt water flush, and it typically lasts an hour or two. So it's best to wake up extra early to allow this not to interfere with your day.-You need to use the lax tea the night before, or the salt water flush isn't as effective, and may give you a headache if it isn't..... "released" shortly after you drink it.-Day 3 is typically the day you start to not feel hunger or desire for food, but you hate the lemonade.-Day 5 or so you start to like the lemonade again.-Day 6 or so you lose parasites you didn't know you had (if you have any).-When coming off the diet in Day 10, you can't eat right away. You start weaning off by drinking watered down Orange Juice, then the next day maybe some fruit, and finally you can almost eat by day 3 or so.Some claims also include people's eyesight getting better, which would be another benefit for me, since I'm nearsighted and I feel like it's getting worse.Sense of smell is increased.You're going to get a nasty coat on your tongue by day 3 or so, and it won't go away till after the fast (so it seems, the one guy did it for 40 days and had the coat for most of the time.)This coat on your tongue, the fanatic Master Cleanser people say is toxins leaving your body, and that when your tongue clears, then you should quit the diet, but in fact, my hypothesis is that this is most likely thrush, and therefore not anything but bad bacteria, so I've read that you need/should take probiotics after the fast to gain those healthy bacteria back to fight off bad bacteria that causes thrush and canididia or whatever else you need to digest food. I'll most likely combat this with hydrogen peroxide, but I need to do more research.That's all I can think of for now. I'll post a pre-fast video hopefully tomorrow, once I calibrate my video equipment. I have to go buy measuring glasses and whatnot so I have a set all to myself. More later as I think of it...

Well, being as how I'm adventurous and like to pursue alternatives to those stupid pills doctors like to chuck at me when I'm not feeling good, I've found a little thing online called The Master Cleanse, also known as The Lemonade Diet, which really isn't a diet at all, but rather it's a sort of detoxification of the body. I've done a ton of research on the whole thing, reading people's blogs that were doing it, and Youtube videos of people that are in the process of doing it to see how things went, and if it was really worth it and whatnot... So after about 3 days of just looking up stuff, and research, I decided to go for it. I'm going to go about this in a very scientific manner, so that my experiences can be used by the internet population to either try it if it works, or avoid it if I die Some background info on the diet itself: The goal is not weight loss, though that's a side effect and can be beneficial. Here's the daily regimen: -Night before you start, you drink an herbal laxative tea. Go to sleep. -Wake up the next morning and drink a quart of water mixed with 2 teaspoons of sea salt, and get ready for an hour in the bathroom, because you'll be busy for the next hour or so -After you're done there, which is the Purging stage of the cleanse, you go about your day drinking only this specially prepared lemonade drink, which I'll describe below. -That night, repeat the herbal tea, and repeat this for 10 days. Well, the first response I got from my friends and family about this was "OH GOD THAT SOUNDS UNHEALTHY" Well, healthy or not, there are tons of people that have done it, and haven't died, so I figure, if nothing else, I will lose a few pounds, and release crap in my colon that is killing me anyway. The lemon drink mix goes as such, you'll have to look up the PDF of the guy's book, or buy the book itself, which is $6.50 or so, but I'll get into that later as I go into the video journals... The drink you drink all day is this: -2 Tablespoons lemon or limejuice (approx. ½ lemon) -2 Tablespoons genuine maple syrup (Not maple flavored sugar syrup) (VERY IMPORTANT TO FIND GRADE B, GRADE A IS CRAP FOR PANCAKES!!!) -1/10 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (red pepper) or to taste (Good for metabolism) -8 oz water, room temperature Combine the juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper in a 10 oz glass jar w/lid and fill with the water. Shake it up and drink. (Cold water may be used if preferred.) Use fresh (organic) lemons or limes only, never canned lemon or limejuice nor frozen lemonade or frozen juice. (Source: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) Sounds sick, but people think it's pretty good. Anyway, once I start this, I'll keep vitals up such as weight and overall feelings and whatnot. When I get videos going, I'll post the link here too. I just had a huge dinner tonight because we had guests over so I'll most likely drink the first lax tea Sunday night, and begin in earnest on Monday for my first day. Now, there's a guy on youtube if you look it up that documents doing this cleanse for 40 days! And he is still alive, so I'm hoping i can cope with 10 easy. Some goals of mine that I'm doing this: -Regulate my thyroid since it's under producing, and I don't want to take Synthroid the rest of my life. -Fix my yucky morning breath by cleansing my system of crap I've been harboring all these years from Burger King and McDonalds -Purge myself of any parasites, which as been known to happen on day 4 or 6. And my final goal is to have this fast/cleanse act as a gateway to eating more fruits and less junk foods. I'll keep you all posted. If anyone has any experience with this at all, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions.

I think because he included a link with no info that this is just a spam post...But, sort of to back it up, I've been taking 500 mg of Ester C for a couple years, and it's really helped me out, both by not having a lot of colds, but also it helped raise my platelet count when I had ITP in high school.

I agree with the previous post, about Gamemaker. I've made several demos for games I've wanted to make and it's totally simple, so long as you know how to use it. The big thing is making the 2D sprites. You'll need a photo editor, and an animation program.Once you do that, you'll need to sit down and draw out some level designs on paper, so you'll have an idea how the levels will be laid out.Then do some character sketches to get an idea what kind of character design you're going to have.Once you get that stuff all down, you'll need to whip it up in Photoshop or equivalent program, and start making sprites. Once you have some placeholder characters set up to test with, then get to designing the levels. Work out the collision detection and all that fun stuff. I prefer Top-Down view games, as opposed to side scrollers (a la Mario Bros.). Just my personal preference for making games.Then you'll get into more confusing bits with the Artificial Intelligence programming, which you'll need to learn the game code programming. There are tutorials online for that.Keep at it, and keep building and you'll have yourself a hot new title in no time I was a member of the Back To The Future fan bulletin boards a few years back, and they made a fan game with Doc riding a time travel bike that was very well done. There are tons of resources for Gamemaker online, and I believe they're working on making it 3D capable soon, within a couple of versions or so.... So keep an eye out

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No it was the guy in charge of the whole place. I can't remember his screen name on here. OpaQue I think.I didn't buy credits from someone that earned them, it was from someone with the power to just increase my credit count themselves.

Hey, I bought a year's worth of credits last year, and I'm starting to run down again (since I don't post here that often, and hosting is that good I want to help keep it up by paying for it.)Do you know how I can do that again so I can keep my hosting? I don't know if I need to go through some other site or what. I paid someone through paypal, is all I can remember. Any help on keeping my hosting would be greatly appreciated, thanks