concertina226

What awful news :)I think it's really sad that rumours were spread that 12 of the 13 miners were alive and the poor families were given hope in vain. But I think that we shouldn't really be too hard on the ones who started the rumour, because they probably didn't do it with any intention of harming anyone.It actually is a very good idea to use robots to do the work down there instead of miners - just look at China... lousy mining processes and protocol, so many miners die every year, and they never learn...

O_O Woah... very serious discussion here... here's my 2 cents worth:I personally think that it is not sinful for anyone to celebrate Halloween. In the first place, many religions to a certain extent have influences gained from each other, and if you really went to the root of a lot of them, you might as well just not bother celebrating any of them. Christmas for example, was merged by the Romans, who wanted to bring peace between the pagans and christians. The Christmas tree is pagan, as is the tradition of eating lamb and eggs etc etc at Easter. So are you going to toss out your Christmas ornaments and the Easter Bunny now too? There is no real harm in any of this because of the fact that it brings millions of people together in peace every year. I am very certain that God does not disapprove of this.Halloween is an innocent festival/event/occassion celebrated more for children nowadays - there is no true religious meaning to it at all. Yes, the capitalistic nature of it does suck, and there will always be people trying to ruin things for other people, but if it bothers you, don't celebrate it, as people have said in this thread. If you really care so much about it religiously, go celebrate All Saints' Day and do it properly. But I highly doubt that God is going to go, "Aaah... you dressed up as Spiderman/Cinderella at Halloween... you have sinned greatly against me and I intend to smite you down in all my holy fury..." - please... could we get back to the important aspects of the Bible, the core themes of love, care, concern and compassion for others? As long as you do not hurt anyone through your actions (on this day as on any other), there is nothing wrong in celebrating it.Really, there is a huge problem with this religion that people cannot look beyond the words in the bible and grasp the core, essential themes. It's just like the Salem pilgrims saying, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" and going and killing people on that claim. I think God would prefer you dress up as a ghost and ask people for candy as opposed to taking another person's life - that's how I equate evil. Dressing up as Spiderman and running around for candy? Not quite on my panic radar...

Yeah I agree with you Saint_Michael... we can't live without books, they rock! All of the best ideas are from books, most movies and tv shows are from stories someone has written... when we study in schools and universities, we're essentially studying from books someone has written, noting down disciplines tried and tested through the ages... so how can one not think reading is worth while? quiksilver - I think u have a good selection of books there, esp. the LOTR series, but the others are right, you gotta get into HP! yoofus - I think ur signature is very offensive, especially in light of the recent London Bombings.

I'll definitely agree that "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" was not anywhere near as good as the first movie, you're right about that. The original was much better. To be honest, Super Mario Bros wasn't that bad a movie. It's main problem was that it didn't really look like the Super Mario Bros. games. Koopa looked more like a human than a giant turtle with an attitude, and the Goombas were not mushrooms. It was still good if you forget the connection to the video game and just enjoy the film I just meant that it didn't do so well in theaters, not that it was necessarily a bad movie.

Of the games I've played, I prefer the first Underground game. It did a good job of mixing skateboarding with a story that did involve the sport, culminating in a skate off/chase scene between you and your antagonist. The second Underground game was alright too, but it seemed to get away from the actual skateboarding aspect in favor of a story that, at times, bordered on the ridiculous, involving doing as much property damage as you can. I also didn't really care for the fact that there aren't as many pro skaters in the second game as in the first. In the first one, you had guys such as Tony, Bob, Bam, Eric, Chad, and Mike V, who were also in the sequel but you also had people like Bucky Lasek, Arto Saari, Kareem Campbell, Elissa Steamer, Geoff Rowley, Paul Rodriguez, and Andrew Reynolds. In the second game, they were all removed and replaced with skaters like aliens, snack vendors, and even a giant hand Granted, they both had some strange hidden skaters, like Shrek or Iron Man. I just prefer the first Underground to the second one.Considering how different the two games seem to be, I've got to admit I'm curious which direction the next Tony Hawk game, American Wasteland, is going to take. I've read some early articles about it, and it seems promising, with a good story and a nice focus on skating, with some on BMX as well. Is anyone else looking forward to this one?

Wheee Vacation! (Or as we say on the other side of the pond, Holiday! )I've had a lot of different holidays, but one of the best I ever had was in 2003, when we went back to my home country England for a whole month. We went to Hastings and it was one of the loveliest holidays I'd ever had. I really, really badly wanted to visit Hastings because there's so much history there and I'm a real history nut - as you know, William the Conqueror (invaded England in 1066, built Hastings castle as Wheee Vacation! (Or as we say on the other side of the pond, Holiday! )I've had a lot of different holidays, but one of the best I ever had was in 2003, when we went back to my home country England for a whole month. We went to Hastings and it was one of the loveliest holidays I'd ever had. I really, really badly wanted to visit Hastings because there's so much history there and I'm a real history nut - as you know, William the Conquerer (Norman) invaded England in 1066, built Hastings castle as a defence against the Saxons, and then they fought the Battle of Hastings at Battle, and on the spot where William slay the Saxon King Harold, he erected a cathedral, Battle Abbey, and both these places were about 900 years old so I was dying to visit them both!History aside though, it was wonderful being back there. We rented a lovely holiday cottage and bought food and had fun preparing nice English meals, roasts and stuff, eating our favourite foods we can't get out here in Singapore often... On top of that there was a beach, and a thriving town centre nearby with loads of interesting shops, and even a big new shopping mall! So it was like I had the best of both worlds... rustic country England versus more modern town centre... and of course, TV in England is absolutely brill... most people in the UK watch tons of TV... it's just so great there.... and so we shopped, ate, explored, watched tons of tv... and to crown it all off... on our last day there, which was also the day before my birthday, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out! :(Best holiday ever I think

Yeah, of the three games, I'd have to say the trailer resembles the third one the most. The trailer seemed to take place in a military base, instead of the caves and station areas of the first game, and the decor seemed to resemble the third game more, being more realistic (Which makes sense since it's a live action movie ) than the others.Now, I know there have been some game-based-movie flops, like Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter, but there have been ones that managed to pull it off, like the Mortal Kombat films, and, depending on who you ask, the Resident Evil ones. Unfortunately, the track record of this kind of thing is dubious enough that you can't really be sure if Doom will be a hit or a miss until it comes out. I'm hoping they do a great job on it though!

I've read some really interesting stuff about this game, actually. For one thing, it's not exactly a direct sequel to "X-Men: Legends." I know that one was supposed to be based on the "Ultimate X-Men" comics. This one, from what I've read, is supposed to be based more on the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline. It's not a direct copy, but it's based on it, featuring many of the same lead characters and locations. I know it's got new playable characters, such as Magneto, Angel, and Bishop, as well as just about all of the old ones. It looks like they're shooting for a release date of September 20th, according to GameFAQs.

Sim City is a really good game series. I've played Sim City 2000, but I'm not really that good at it. I end up spending way too much on roads between my city and the outlying areas. I also tend to unleash a lot of the disasters, just to see what happens. My personal favorite was the floating alien robot thing that flies through the town and zaps stuff. I always wondered though, was that supposed to do anything specific? I've had things catch on fire, as you'd expect from being blasted with an alien death ray, but I've also occasionally had trees pop up, which I thought was kind of weird.

I think Star Wars: Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight was really good. It did a great job of continuing with the heroes from the first Dark Forces game: Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors. The controls with all of the Force powers took some getting used to, but the character handled really well, and the graphics were pretty good for the time. I know they're nowhere near the level of, say, Doom 3, but they were still good. The story was awesome too, with all of the twists and turns traveling all over trying to find the Valley of the Jedi and keep it out of Jerec's hands, and I liked how you could choose whether you joined the light or dark side by how you act in the game.Of course, the only part I really didn't like was the level where you had to escape the cargo ship. The time limit on there was brutal!

LOL Yipster... *checks you into rehab and tells the docs not to let you out till the alien theory is gone* Yeah I watched all the documentaries about Tutankhamun, including the new ones about the 3rd new scan this year. But although there was no evidence of disease etc etc, it is still clear that he was very likely murdered. Tutanknamun was the only son of Pharaoh Ahkenaten, the heretic king, who was the only Egyptian king ever to turn his back against the Egyptian religious order of Maat and the gods and turn towards monotheistic worship. when Ahkenaten died, the people returned to Maat and Tutankhamun was forced to follow what the religious priests said. The documentaries said also that it seemed very clear that Tutankhamun was buried in a hurry, one reason why they believe everybody forgot about him and tomb robbers never found his funerary treasures. If you look at the pictures of Tutanknamun's tomb the way they found it, you'll see that all of the funerary treasures were stacked really haphazardly, like they'd been put in, in a hurry: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Just imagine... the treasures were really PRICELESS... why would you just throw them in quickly? People would normally take their time... but they didn't with Tutankhamun's burial. What's more, it's believed that the hole on the back of his head was caused by abrupt handling of his body by the mummy wrapers during the 90 days required to prepare his mummy before the funeral... Anyway, personally, I think that all this to do with Tutankhamun is a waste of time after a certain extent. Just because Tut's treasures were discovered intact doesn't mean that he was particularly important. There are many other pharaohs who lived fuller lives and accomplished many many things, as opposed to a 19-year-old who lived a pampered life and went hunting sometimes... i mean, come on! What about Ramses II, Ramses III, Seti I, Khufu, Khafra... even Akhenaten was more interesting!

LOL Ohmigosh you guys are so cute! :DIt's really refreshing to see you guys talking about girls and dating problems in this way, because from a girl's perspective, it always seems that girls are the emotional ones who obsess about stuff, while guys are calm, cool, collected and always know what they're doing...Over recent years as I've interacted more and more with the opposite sex I've started to realise that the whole "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" theory is real rubbish. In fact it seems to me that we create barriers between ourselves exactly by feeling, "hey what the hell is he/she thinking? he/she is a million light years away from me... i just don't get men/women".I think that personally all of us feel like a loser sometimes. And while you guys are sitting at the table at your prom feeling shy and stupid cos you aren't getting up to dance or just in general not mixing much with girls in public, we're probably sitting at the next table thinking you're just too cool for words and probably think we're too uncool, and that's why you're not coming over to chat us up.To me, the bottom-line is being honest and being yourself. Even if you think that being yourself means being a loser and uncool and you're never going to get that hot chick/dude, pretending to be someone you're not is far worse and really goes nowhere in the long run. My guy mates often tell me they have problems knowing what a girl is thinking, and they respect me for being honest... and it's the same thing with girls... we spend half our time wondering what you're thinking, whether the reason you're not calling is because we had something stuck in our teeth (as opposed to you lost our number )So here's my advice... embrace your quirks, be who you are, like what you like, and talk to people... talk to as many as you can and sooner or later you'll find a couple who not only don't think you're a geek, but actually think you're really cool for being just the way you are

I don't believe there are any flash versions of the game out there, but I could be wrong.Ohhh the remote mines! I remember those things. I was playing the game with some friends, and the girl I was teamed with littered the floor of the bunker with remote mines. I was walking through on the way to find our opponent (It was a two on one game, you see.), and she thought I was him and detonated the mines. As you can guess, I was pretty well dead.At the end of that round, I looked at her and said "You were supposed to blow him up, not me."

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I'd first heard this game was coming out. I really like Lego, and I really like Star Wars, but I really had a hard time believing they could put the two of them together in a game. All the same, though, I was willing to give it a shot.To put it mildly, I was blown away! I definitely feel that this is one of the best, if not the best Star Wars games ever made. This actually has a lot of the things you could hope to find in a game.The graphics are surprisingly realistic for a Lego game. The characters move pretty much as you'd expect Lego characters to move, and there are some nice lightsaber and laser effects. The levels are rendered really well too, skirting the border between real and Lego. My only real complaint is that there tends to be some slowdown when things get really hectic or there's a lot of smoke from explosions.The controls are usually pretty realistic, though there are times when they might be a little sluggish, particularly if you're working on swinging a lightsaber combo together. Thankfully, these times are few and far between. Once you learn the controls, which doesn't really take that long (The game itself tells you which button does what in the earlier levels.), you can pretty much dive into the game. You can play through different sorts of levels, from on foot to podracing to flying a gunship to piloting a Jedi Starfighter above a planet in the middle of a fierce space battle. There's no limit of things to do here.The story is basic Star Wars. Nothing more I could really get into, though the characters don't really talk at all, aside from the occasional grunt or shout as they fall off a ledge or something. You play as a variety of characters playing through the first three (By first, I mean prequel, the ones that happened first) movies, as well as a special bonus level, but more on that one later. All of the main characters are here, from Obi-Wan to Anakin to Palpatine to R2-D2.Speaking of sound, all of the important sounds are in this game, from the swinging and clashing of lightsabers to the sounds of lasers erupting from pistols or blaster cannons. They also could have gone with music that befits a game designed for younger gamers, but they didn't, thank the Force. You have music straight from the movies, all conducted by John Williams for your listening pleasure!This game also actually has a fair amount of replay value. You can try to save up studs to buy hidden characters, hints, or bonus features for your game, like one that causes all of the characters to be shown in silhouette or one that causes characters to wield tea cups instead of blasters, as well as the old standby, invincibility. As you go through the levels, you can also collect ten canisters which, when added up at the end of the level, build a vehicle to be shown in the parking lot outside of the diner you start the game in. While you're doing this, you can also collect studs which help fill up your Jedi meter. When it's full and you finish a level, you get a special Lego piece that helps build part of another vehicle that, once complete, opens up a hidden level.I'd actually give this game a pretty high recommendation. It's not as deep as Knights of the Old Republic or anything like that, but if you just want a fun romp through the Star Wars universe, this game is it