Haha! Excellent... a serious Python fan, it would seem.

Witty topic ;)

Never bother with a V, period... especially for a beginner. It's an unstable shape that can make for unstable playing.

The best guitars on the market for beginners, or even in general as good mid-range (these days I don't consider them high-end) is Ibanez, hands-down.

They play the best, have good construction and are versatile. They also have great sound and can be had at great prices.

I played Ibanez exclusively for many years, before moving on to 7-string ESP baritones, which is all I will play anymore.

Les can be friggin' heavy and cumbersom (weight distribution I've always found odd), I wouldn't advise it.

Well, as someone who owns quite a few firearms, I can tell you that the majority of gun owners they're basing that off of live in the south and Midwest, because it's virtually impossible to obtain a firearm on the East Coast.

I moved from NJ/NY to AZ and out here you don't even need a license to carry, only a license to carry concealed.

Truthfully, why should we not own the most firearms? Especially these days...

With all the crime and illegals etc. in this country, it only makes sense to be armed.

For example, despite my extensive training in martial arts, there might come a time when that is not enough.

I refuse to ever leave the house unarmed, and insist my wife do the same.

With things getting worse in the world and so much garbage happening/being "aimed at" the U.S., I feel it a necessity to own firearms to protect one's self and one's family, period.

Not even close to King in terms of style. Lovecraft's writings are far more in-depth, thought-provoking and palpably atmospheric, and far more descriptive in writing style. He is very "wordy", but if you can grasp the essence and follow his writing, it offers something that no other author has ever offered, in many ways.

As far as films go, there are a few films that have been made based off of Lovecrat's stories and the Cthulhu Mythos:

Dagon (a must-see and perhaps the best), From Beyond and a four-part film (four "mini-films") called The Necronomicon.

A few other films have been based off of Lovecraft's writings as well, just look around.

Even John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" is loosely based on some extremely Lovecraftian concepts.

Actually, a moderator on their forums stated that no such announcement of a Sept. 30th release date has been announced.

IGN is the only place that changed their released date in the game's profile.

Gamestop, Amazon and here at GameSpot the release date for PC is still saying Sept. 5th as the release date.

I don't think anyone really knows at this point.

It's extremely frustrating, especially for a game that was supposedly made primarily for/on PC (which makes this all-the-more confusing) that the PC version would be continually delayed like this, but it seems they're intent on treating PC gamers as "second-rate" and giving no demo and no information.

Not much we can do about, unfortunately.

I certainly believe graphics and value do indeed effect the score they give (how could they not?) they're just not listed as separate things anymore. It's all-inclusive.

As for the new .5 rating method, its far more sensible due to the fact that: 1) it's just numbers that give an initial at-a-glance idea of the quality of the game; and 2) any number scoring method that's on a .1 scale (i.e. 8.6, 9.3 etc.) is simply over-complicated, ridiculous and not necessary.

I used to run an large online publication reviewing music, and have written for others, and there's simply no need to make things that complicated.

Think about it: what's the point of a 9.6 over a 9.5? Or an 8.7 over and 8.4?

On a .5 scale, you can actually be more accurate and far less frustrated with the complication of trying to figure out whether or not to give something one extra point or not, or for the reader, deciding if one extra/less point really makes a difference.

Remember, don't get so hung-up on number ratings either. Read the reviews, as the reviewer might have given a lower score to something that, if you were to read about what the game has to offer, might be something that you would like, hence enjoy perhaps more than they did.

It also makes the reviewing more definitive, they truly earned the scores they get (generally speaking): so if something gets a 9, it's excellent. If it gets a 9.5, it's damn near perfect. But what would a 9.3 make it?

It's just a pointless method, and I'm very glad that GameSpot has finally adapted to the new .5 method.

Actually, seems like a technical problem.

I'm not actually new here (not by a long-shot) and have always seen rated games show-up immediately, which they did.

I was up until all hours working last night, and all my currently rated games were there for hours (even after I refreshed, logged in/out several times), then this morning a few were gone, but somehow just mysteriously reappeared ten minutes after your response, just now.

As for the issue of level not raising, I totally had indeed forgotten about that, which is why I wanted to make sure it wasn't a system glitch as well. Thanks for reminding me.

Any mod can feel free to just delete this thread. The rated games issue must have just been some glitch in the system.

Thanks.

I don't "collect" games, but I do keep whatever I feel I might eventually want to experience again. I do eventually get rid of games if at some point completely lose their original appeal and/or I'm sure it's not something I'll go back to playing.

I keep the games that I know I will continue to get something from, and very occasionally keep ones that just have a great aesthetic. One example of that would be DOOM III. There's nothing there anymore in terms of gameplay, but... it's Cacodemons, man... gotta hold onto that. Heh heh.

The rest, like I said, have to have something to offer that I know I'll eventually want to play/experience again in the future.