GhostMachine

They must be putting episodes up on On Demand after a new episode airs. They didn't have KGB vs. CIA up when I watched Rajput vs. Roman Centurion, but it was up last night so I watched it. Its looking like I'm going to have to watch episodes on On Demand. I wasn't able to watch Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu; that's 3 episodes I've missed so far this season, though one was because I didn't know they'd stopped airing re-runs of the episodes and something else I wanted to watch was on. The squad battle - if you could call it that - was pretty cool. The drop dead spike test was pretty awesome, as was the exploding cigar. I'd rather die from the spike than the cigar, because you might actually bleed to death from the cigar, while the spike's explosion is insta-kill. In Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu, did they actually test the execution stakes? (One thing I hate is listening to all the myths about Vlad the Impaler. A lot of the horror stories told about him were made up or exaggerated by his enemies, ie. propaganda. He wasn't nearly the monster he was made out to be, though he wasn't exactly a saint, either) Next is supposed to be Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer. That may be the first episode I actually have no interest in seeing.

I just hope the final kill isn't by exploding cigar..... As for Spartan vs. Samurai, from the Out For Blood special, which I still haven't seen (I saw the Spetsnaz vs. IRA fight from it, though), I've been thinking it over. Snd I think a fight between the two would go like this: Ranged weapons end up being useless for both sides; arrows can't get past the bronze shield and the Samurai dodges the javelin. The samurai can't get through the shield. If the kanabo does manage to hit at the right angle and breaks the Spartan's arm, that's the end of the battle right there: either the Spartan can't use his shield or he switches it to his other arm and can't use a weapon. And no way a Spartan armed only with a shield beats a Samurai. The Spartan's spear either breaks on the Samurai's armor, or the Samurai's katana chops the spear's tip off, leaving the Spartan armed with a staff, either way. So the Spartan goes for the short sword. Well, the katana is a lot sharper and is longer. Either the Spartan can't get close enough to hit the Samurai or he tries and gets his arm cut off. I can't see any logical way for a Spartan to win unless he scores with a shield strike then follows up with a killing blow before the Samurai recovers. Samurai would have the speed and reach advantage (due to the Spartan spear being next to useless vs. a Samurai's armor); a Samurai could get three to four katana strikes in in amount of time it would take for a Spartan to get one with any weapon. *edit* I hope the Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu battle is a full scale battle as rumored, because Sun Tzu is going to be using a siege/battlefield weapon. (N)

Is KGB vs. CIA a squad or one-on-one battle? So far this season I've missed that one, Rajput vs. Roman Centurion and Persian Immortal vs. Celt. But two of those episodes are now on On Demand. I just watched Rajput vs. Roman Centurion, but am going to wait to watch Persian Immortal vs. Celt. I will say this: I think that in a one-on-one battle, a Rajput would beat a Roman Centurion, due to the Rajput's weapons and fighting style (including their martial arts training). BUT I think if it was a Roman squad vs. a Rajput squad, it would be no contest in favor of the Romans. Because I don't think the Rajputs could get past the Romans' shield formation. Thought it was interesting the Rajput's sword-whip didn't get any kills at all. And they need to fucking leave siege/battlefield weapons out of one on one fights! P.S., Regarding the Vlad The Impaler spoiler, October.....

The wrestlers from this game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Wrestling_(Nintendo_Entertainment_System) Amazon is basically the Creature From The Black Lagoon and King Slender is based on Ric Flair.

Steam has a summer sale going on that started a couple of days ago and runs through July 4th. They have a lot of good discounted deals and daily specials. (As I'm typing this, the specials will change in just under 18 hours) The sale has games from various publishers discounted (for instance, all Rockstar games are 25% off, all Valve and Capcom games are 33% off and all NovaLogic and Tripwire games are 50% off) Right now the daily specials include Left4Dead 2 (including The Passing campaign) for $10.20, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition for $7.49 and Company of Heroes Complete Pack (the game and 2 expansions) for $24.99 Haven't bought anything yet, but I picked up 3 different games during their winter sale.

KGB vs. CIA will probably start out with one side discovering they've been wiretapped/bugged and following it to the source where the combat commences. If the show makes it to season 3, I'd like to see the following: 1. No siege/battlefield wepaons unless its appropriate (Alexander using a Ballista vs. Attila was a joke), and no vehicle mounted weapons AT ALL. 2. If one side has a sling as a weapon, it doesn't even get tested. Give the edge to the other side's weapon automatically unless its something that's total crap. 3. Spartan vs. Spetsnaz!

The FYE store at the local mall just got a whole lot of new anime in, new and used. Unfortunately, they didn't have what I was looking for (Blade Of The Phantom Master) and I didn't have a whole lot of money left after doing some shopping at the comics store. I picked up the Infinite Ryvius collector box with the volume 1 dvd and some extras for $2.99. Was marked used, but you can't really tell it (and I have opened it to make sure everything is there). Funnily enough, I looked around and they had some volumes of the series by themselves, all used, including volume #1. It was $9.99 by itself!

SPIKE has apparently stopped re-running the new episodes - used to run them again a couple of hours later, on the weekend, and again before the next new episode, but seem to have stopped. Pisses me off because I still haven't seen Roman Centurion vs. Rajput and missed last night's episode, even though I was pretty sure I knew who was going to win (and was right). The rumor is that Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu may not be a one on one OR a squad battle, but actually army vs army! NO WAY I will miss it if that's true. Now, regarding last night's episode, since I do read spoilers when I miss episodes:

The SEC commissioner has already said that there are no plans to expand and the conference is fine right where it is (yeah, right). But even if they do pick up A&M, they'd have to go after another team as well to balance things out. You can bet that the other team probably wouldn't be Baylor. Hell, I'd rather see them try and get Tulane back than pick up Baylor. Personally, the only Texas teams I'd like to see in the SEC are Texas and Texas Tech.

BINGO! Plus, if you made Peter Parker black, you'd probably have to make some of the other characters black as well. Flash Thompson a white guy bullying him would make Flash look like a racist, intended or not. A white JJJ blasting Spider-Man in the media would either have to stop or tread lightly once its revealed to the public that Spider-Man is black, or some people would question of JJJ's initials were really KKK. Captain America and the regular Marvel Universe Nick Fury wouldn't work as black because it would be downright impossible to believe a black man would have ever been put in their positions during WW2. A black Captain America would have to be a movie about Isaiah Bradley, not a black Steve Rogers, or would have to take place after the Civil Rights movement.

Nope. `Twas meant as a joke. (And someone at the other board I posted it at actually got that real quick) I just don't think there are certain characters that would work if you changed their race, because you'd have to change other things as well. On the other hand, people are upset over the live action Avatar The Last Airbender movie, because it has a mostly caucasian, instead of Asian cast. And even though I don't give a shit about that series, I can see why the people are upset and actually agree with them about the casting. (If I read right, what makes it even worse is that all or most of the non-caucasian actors in it play badguys)

I'll say about this idea what I said about it at another board: If it actually happens, then 'm going to write a Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu movie. Except in this he'll actually be a white martial artist turned rapper who is a fan of The Wu-Tang Clan and Shang-Chi is his rap name. And Fu Manchu will be an Afghan warlord turned record producer.

Joke answer: "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers. Real answer: "Back In Black" by AC/DC, or "I Don't Believe In Love" by Queensryche. When I was a radio dj in high school (keeping in mind that was late 80s), my signature song (ie, the one I tried to play every day) was by Billy Idol. "Eyes Without A Face"....but only because the station didn't have a copy of Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes".

Well, I said in my previous post that USC was getting a 4-year probation, but now I'm hearing it may be through 2018! And if I heard right, the total # of scholarships they're losing is one more than the # of players in their current recruiting class. I'm wondering if this will be used as excuse so that Kiffin doesn't end up coaching high school or Pee Wee Football, which is where he should end up next, and another college will be dumb enough to take the risk and hire him when USC fires him. *edit* Sad thing is, USC won't lose the 2004 AP National Championship, which is tainted, anyway. (Auburn deserved to be in the game more than Oklahoma) And Bush should lose the Heisman, but won't. Due to things like this, I think its time they figure out some way to punish former players who do things like this. Its not fair they more or less get off scott free. I remember when Alabama had to foreit an entire season, except their bowl game (doesn't make sense they got to keep that win), because Antonio Langham had played while ineligible. (And as a Tide hating Vols fan, I enjoyed that happening) Should be some sort of repercussions where schools can either sue their former players and get a chunk of their NFL salary to make up for part of the loss, even if its nowhere near what the school lost, or void their college credits/strip them of their degrees.

Also, a four year probation. And yes, as a Tennessee Vols fan IN Tennessee (In Knoxville, where Kiffin pulled his shit, to be exact), I couldn't be happier.

Let me give you an example of why I think my review booth idea would be good: The criticism over Denkinger in the `85 Series is that he refused to reverse his decision. Now imagine this scenario: World Series game 6, bottom of the ninth, home team batting with 2 outs and bases loaded. Full count and the umpire calls the batter out on strikes when the pitch thrown is clearly a ball. The review booth calls down and says `no, it was a ball. Run walked in, game over'. One of two things happens here: a. The umpire reverses his call and the game is done. b. The umpire is a stubborn bastard who refuses to reverse his call, the review booth sends security and a stand-by replacement ump down to drag the umpire out of the game and reverses it anyway, and the stubborn umpire is looking at a lengthy suspension (ie, will be sitting most of next season and is done as a post-season umpire for the rest of his career), if not being fired outright. Fix'd. I do have to echo the praise for both Joyce and Galarraga being Ron Burgundy (staying classy) about the situation. People can start beating the drum for more replay right now, and as slowly as the wheels of Selig grind, something may happen by 2015. Maybe. At least Joe West wasn't umpiring at first...Leyland and half the Tiger lineup would have gotten run for looking at him funny. Rather talk about Griffey getting the hint and hanging it up, or the Braves going all Frank the Tank (streaking) into first place. And this is still with two starters (Melky and McLouth) having their heads firmly up their asses and Chipper seemingly unable to wipe his ass without straining something. I approve your fix, because frankly I agree with it. Selig sucks bigtime as commissioner. The Joe West comment is funny because its so true. Like Ozzie said, fans don't go to games to see managers manage or umpires ump. Sad to see Griffey retire, as he's one of my favorite players and always has been, but I can completely understand why. He's a shadow of his former self. Couldn't care less about the Braves, though, and hope the Phillies can reverse their skid and take back first place. I sort of hate the Braves because I'm in a Braves market area where I happen to know there are just as many Reds fans (like me), yet ALL you ever hear about on tv is the Braves. Thankfully we get Reds games on our Fox Sports channel here; they switched from Braves to Reds a year or two back. (I'd also like to note that despite being a Reds AND Griffey fan, I was against the team signing him when it happened, and was glad when he left. I don't think he would have suffered those injuries he had with the Reds if he had stayed in Seattle, and the Reds might have been contenders if they had spent the money they paid him on a decent outfielder and good pitching.)

I meant 1985 and put 1995 by accident. I usually re-read my posts but didn't that time, so I didn't catch it. Baseball does need some sort of review system, and it definitely needs to have something in place to fix catastrophic fuck-ups on the part of umpires. Either something akin to the NFL's review system, except limit it to two or three challenges per game and it can't be used to appeal balls, strikes or whether someone held off on a swing. Except go to a commercial and tell us what the decision was when they return to the game instead of forcing us to watch the review when the game is on tv. (Show the replay, yeah, but not the umpires or whoever reviews it actually reviewing the play then discussing it, in other words) Or Add a review booth where reviews are up to the discretion of the people in the booth EXCEPT in the case of a clear fuck up by an umpire that decides the outcome of a game (including ruining a no-hitter or perfect game), where the review is mandatory. Again, no reviews of balls, strikes or choking up on a swing UNLESS its a game-ending play. Problem is, I think something majorly catastrophic, such as another World Series outcome being decided by a referee mistake, will have to happen before MLB gets off their asses and seriously considers instant replay.

Refs are only human, and they do screw up. The Kansas City Royals `won' their only world championship because of a blown call by Don Denkinger in the 1985 World Series, and this one will be right up there when it comes to all time boners. I feel sorry for Joyce, too, not just Galarraga and the Tigers. *edit* Okay, after reading Joyce's excuse, I feel a bit less sorry for him; he said he thought the runner flat out beat the throw! THAT'S STUPID!

The DVD set has all the Aftermaths on it, and in one of them Max said something interesting: that the edge they give to weapons has no factor in the simulation at all. Its just speculation on their part. And the Shaolin Monk vs. Maori episode shows that; the Maori got the edge against everything the Shaolin had except the twin hooks and still got the worst asskicking the show has had yet. I don't think they fudge numbers to determine who wins. I just think they sometimes ignore certain things (sorry, but Knight vs Pirate's outcome was WRONG), and you have to consider that they don't factor in things like training, martial arts skills, and other things. So the outcomes aren't going to be accurate. If anything, I believe in real life the Spetsnaz would beat the Green Berets by a bigger margin than they did.....then would all get taken out by Green Beret snipers. Another thing about Green Beret vs. Spetsnaz? I bitched that they had the Green Berets using an E-tool as a weapon. Well, on the Aftermath about that episode, Barry Jacobsen (who was on the Spartan vs. Ninja episode as a Spartan expert and is the show's historian, as well as a former Green Beret) told a story that pretty much put my complaint to rest. In Viet Nam (I think), a single Green Beret killed 27 enemy soldiers in a battle with one, using it sort of like a battle axe. Oh, and Barry is pretty much gay for Spartans. In one Aftermath segment on the DVD set with him, the doctor and Max, talking about their favorite moments on the show, Barry's answers for favorite warrior, battle, outfit, etc was almost always `Spartan', but he'd usually give his second choice as well. Almost makes me think Spartan vs. Samurai from the Out For Blood special, which I'm glad I didn't see (I did see the Spetsnaz vs. IRA fight) was indeed fixed. I still maintain, however, that Knight vs. Pirate was either fixed or needs a do-over. Another thing I found out from one of the Aftermaths? They film the battle with both sides winning, so the results don't get leaked before they air, since they have something like 120 people around. No word on if the footage of the loser winning is eventually destroyed or not, though.

Good theory, Lionheart. I also believe its possible Ben felt guilty over all the evil things he did and didn't feel like he was worthy to go inside. Don't know if its the writing, Michael Emerson's acting, or both, but I feel sorry for Ben.

I'd try to sort it out, but the way that ended, I'm not even sure the writers know what the fuck happened.... That ending was SOOOOO disappointing, and you should never do a finale and open more questions that don't get answered. The Jimmy Kimmel special should be interesting.

That ending SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED! Opened more questions than it answered, and we STILL don't really know what the heck the island was!

Yep. Landis should have little, if any, credibility. And if he has no definite proof to back up his claims, Armstrong should sue the hell out of him for slander.

Oh, that's not the only bad effect they've had. In the Out For Blood special, which aired to kick off season two . Glad I missed the other half of that special - the ancient warriors showdown - because I've seen people call major bullshit on it, and after reading some things about it I can see why. Sorry, but , so I'm glad I didn't see that portion of that special.

They almost never factor tactics or terrain (or even training) in, so that was no surprise. Still not the most contrived ending to a fight, though. That would be Pirate vs. Knight, where the Pirate won due to the Knight's stupidity and the fact the Knight didn't even try to move or get up while the Pirate crawled around, grabbed a flintlock, crawled back and shot the Knight in the face....because the Knight was too damned dumb to leave his visor down after having already been shot at earlier in the fight. (The ending really should have been the Knight seemingly having the drop on the Pirate, only for the Pirate to grab a blunderbuss - not a flintlock - the Knight doesn't see nearby and shoot him in the chest, not a flintlock to the face while lying flat on his back) Spoiler from tonight's episode: *edit* I consider Spartan vs. Ninja and Pirate vs. Knight to be the weakest episodes of the series. Spartan vs. Ninja was a stupid match-up and Pirate vs. Knight was complete and total bullshit from start to finish. (They tested most of the Pirate's weapons on plate armor....then completely ignored the armor in the results, when the blunderbuss was the only one that wasn't completely useless against the armor) Al Capone vs. Jesse James was also weak, due to: a. It being touted as Al Capone vs. Jesse James (ie, a one on one fight) not a gang squad battle, and the fight itself being a load of crap due to the set-up alone. (And two surviors from the winning side when all the other squad battles have only had one winner with bigger margins of victory? Please!) Worst offense they've had on the show, outside Knight vs. Pirate? Giving Alexander the Great a friggin' Ballista as a weapon in a 1 on 1 fight.