Johan

It says "Cortana wo sukue", which should be something like "Rescue Cortana".

This video is interesting because it demonstrates how these two rhythm games have permeated our popular culture. I think it's hilarious that (and interesting how) they decided to incorporate Guitar Hero and DDR as metaphors for people breaking free from the masks they have to put on for every day life.

For all of you envisioning the NES version of Contra on this compilation, keep in mind that Konami is talking about the arcade Contra, which is somewhat different. The NES port was actually a significant step up and (in my opinion) more entertaining.

@ bouchert: Fantastic comment. This really is the core of the issue. I've been playing FFXI for 2 years now. Why SE never implemented a windowed mode on FFXI-PC is beyond me. Sure, it allows PC users to do other things while playing, like looking up mission guides, IMing, etc., but PS2 and 360 players do that while they play too! Just on a different machine. Having FFXI run windowed does not give any sort of unfair advantage, which has been the argument by SE to justify not allowing it. The plugin architecture for Archbell's windower is more of a grey area, but still I don't think seeing your party members' or pet's TP unbalances the game in any way.

It sucks that Windower is considered a hacking tool. I does include some plugins that unfairly give advantages to players, but the core software functionality itself (allowing FFXI to play in windowed mode) is something SquareEnix should have built-in to FFXI from the start.

Given the keywords found, it sounds to me a lot like something you'd see in the Marathon series (sounds like some of Durandal's ramblings, actually). The image in the text even looks like a Compiler (though it is obviously generated from the Oblivion desktop picture linked above).

Also, the key in the box mentioned earlier, the box is made out of 7s. The number 7 was used constantly in the Marathon series.

Boy a new Marathon game would be awesome...(and no, Halo doesn't count, even though they are related)

Bomberman, but here's the catch: the winner is the one who gets the shot. That way it's more fair - the loser doesn't keep getting more and more drunk, thus making him worse of a player, and losing again, getting another shot, etc. The winner would eventually get drunk enough that sucky players actually have a chance at victory.

"I don't know if anybody plays FFXI only but there is a large ammount of bigotry against american gamers. But while it is horribly wrong, there are origins to this."

I play FFXI, and while I wouldn't call it "bigotry", I can say there is a definate animosity towards non-Japanese players - the Japanese players rarely are willing to party with non-Japanese players. It's not about race/nationality, though. It's just culture-shock.

In the eyes of the Japanese players, everyone else is rude, self-serving, arrogant, and offensive (whether any of this is true is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm not going to argue it one way or the other). They are used to people behaving a certain way in a group environment, like MMOs, and are shocked, confused and offended when people do not behave that way. That's why most JP players in FFXI only seek other JP players to form a party. The language barrier can cause problems at higher levels, but the auto-translator in FFXI works fairly well - they just don't want to deal with "rude people."

And I can understand that, knowing how the game works. It can take upwards of two or three hours to form a party, depending on where you're at. If you're investing that amount of time _just to get started_, you don't want to have one or more of your party members drop off after 15 minutes of fighting mobs because "I'm tired, thanks for the PT, bye! *offline*". That's just rude - and it happens all the time. FFXI takes a commitment of time, and a commitment to others, and they don't see non-Japanese players as being able to commit to anything.

Right or wrong, accurate or inaccurate, that's how they see things. You can see this as racism, or as people just not wanting to bother with disappointment and culture shock.