Without being able to replicate and evolve we wouldn't have any of the above. That is, the first thing that needs to work in any sort of living thing is the ability to replicate. So, I gotta give props to the genitalia! booya!

Depending on the item, you could re-acquire it. If it was the Wraithguard, there was an alternate (pretty cool and non-cheating, actually) way to get it, and it went on your other hand. People that went a little psycho and decided to off Vivec himself ended up having to go this route.

The Elder Scrolls games (also Bethesda's) are more open then Fallout 3 in that sense -- you can ignore the main quest easier, and even when you complete it, the game continues on.

By the way, Fallout 3's third mini-expansion will change the ending and allow you to continue playing once you complete the main quest. Why they didn't think to do that right away confuses me, since they could have just looked to their Elder Scrolls games from the get-go.

What? Only a handful of web browsers? COME ON MAN! I want at least 15 browsers including Nutscrape 4.7, maybe five or six 2-D graphics applications, about 80 video and music players, four office suites, 10 instant messaging clients, and just about everything else there's a MS version of. I WANT OPTIONS! Hard drive space? Whatevah that is cheap as free. Boot times? Hey I gotta go pee sometime don't I? Customized installs? AS IF!

No seriously, what the fuck, I spend enough time deleting shit I'm not going to use from any newly purchased computer already. I don't want to have to delete yet MORE. Damn, if they want to punish MS they don't have to punish me while they're at it -_-

I agree totally on Conroy and Hammill. When I measure TDK against other Batman films, I also measure it against Mask of the Phantasm, heh.

TDK is FAR, FAR, FAR from perfect, but it is so much closer than the other serious live-action Batman films that it's no contest as far as which is the best of those.

I don't know much about the English voice actors for Cowboy Bebop... I only watch subtitled foreign-language stuff if I have the opportunity.

I didn't think Cowboy Bebop was close to Batman: TAS in terms of overall quality (especially given the last two episodes of Bebop where they realized that they had this big story arc planned all along and had done zero with it up until then). That said, I think it's something that can grow into a franchise that delivers something better than the anime. A movie may well fit into that strategy, but Keanu Reeves turns it into instant fail. Spike is a charismatic, funny character who is actually skilled in martial arts, and Keanu can't even go 1-for-3 as far as that goes. It's ridiculous, but of the big-name actors out there I know of, I'd say Ben Stiller is as good as anyone else for the role. If you want a "perfect" (true-to-form) Spike, I can't think of anyone appropriate so an unknown would have to be cast.

Oh well, at least we've heard nothing about the EVA remake as of late. A good thing if you ask me. Cowboy Bebop, even if you don't want it "tarnished," can be transitioned to live-action far more easily than Evangelion.

Keanu Reeves + martial arts = fail. I'm just hoping it will be so bad it will be funny, the way the first 10 minutes of the Dead or Alive movie was.

Even if he were a karate champion he would be a poor casting choice for Spike, though. Heck even Ben Stiller is a better choice, I'm not kidding. For real they'd need someone I haven't heard of, because I can't think of someone who actually fits the role well at this point.

The majority of songs are crap as opposed to not crap, so that's not surprising nor encouraging.

Concrete block, same exact car going at the same speed in the opposite direction = same thing. That's why I said the ratings test a Hummer colliding with a Hummer and an Odyssey with an Odyssey. Physically, it's the equivalent test, points of impact included.

A test of a Hummer colliding with an Odyssey would give you significantly different results for both cars than the crash-into-a-wall test.

That's why crash safety ratings are totally worthless in the real world.

My points are merely rebuttals to unsubstantiated statements by others. Your "obvious" deduction is nonsensical.

The part about hitting a tree is an anecdote that hardly translates to a Volvo being safer than a large SUV in general. Like I said (maybe in another post, which you apparently DID read...) most collisions are with other cars. Of collisions with other objects, probably just as many are with animals as with something like a tree (probably more). In all these cases, the more massive vehicle with a greater ride height is an advantage. Feel free to dispute that, of course.

I don't drive a Hummer but if I did, the fact that it's a much safer vehicle to be in in the case of a collision with another vehicle would be a major reason for it. When you're sharing the road with a lot of SUVs and pickups, being in one yourself keeps you safer than if you drive a light car with a lower ride height.

You drive a POS car and could care less if it gets wrecked. Exactly. Most people aren't in that situation, so they give the H2 way the same way most drivers give your recklessly driven scrap heap way.

Fire the vehicle examiner. You only need 1 crumple zone in an impact; it doesn't matter what car it's on. The Hummer will use the Volvo's body as the crumple zone, simple as that. This is high school physics.

Have you ever actually *seen* collisions of large SUVs and trucks with light cars? The SUVs AND their passengers fare significantly better than the other car and its passengers, by far most of the time. You have a stiff bumper hitting a much softer part of a car body, which absorbs all of the impact.

See a reply of mine to the same kind of comment as yours, up above.

It may be a pain, but considering lorries and buses squeeze their way through most areas it's more an issue of parking than driving. Although some "car squeezes" would probably be very difficult to go through.

In a minor accident, the Hummer and the driver would both survive intact. In a major accident, the Hummer just uses the other car to soften the impact. It doesn't matter which vehicle has the crumple zones, you know, as long as they crumple.

See, crash ratings are, well, the same thing as a Hummer hitting another Hummer, or an Odyssey hitting another Odyssey. What would the crash rating be for a Hummer hitting an Odyssey?

Most collisions involve more than 1 vehicle. (Yes, a few involve cars hitting trees, or deer, etc. In the tree case, the Volvo may do as well as the Hummer, depending on the tree size, etc. In the case of hitting a deer, the Hummer will do far better than a Volvo because of its greater mass. The greater ride height also does a lot of good in that case, since your bumper/grille will hit the deer rather than the windshield.)

Ah yes, because only SUVs use gas...

Big engines use lots of gas. People like to talk ill of SUVs and will pass by an M5 thinking only "hey, nice car!" Take a look at actual car mileages sometime -- just grab a Road & Track and take a look at their car review history near the back -- you may be surprised at who the biggest offenders are in terms of mileage.

Not to mention, there's a certain, shall we say, CONTRADICTION when one criticizes a Hummer driver for driving short distances, and then for using lots of gas. Well, which is it? Someone driving a Civic 50 miles to work each day is using a lot more gas than someone driving a Hummer 5 miles to work each day.

I'm not trying to defend bad fuel economy here. There's lots of room for improvement in that department. But if you're concerned about it, may as well be sensible.