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Which EFer, by circumstance or otherwise, is most like you?

"Freaking crazies," I muttered to myself. I had seen a lot of time under the gun. And yeah, some of that time was spent on the ideological side of things. But I always told myself it was a gimmick. Something to divert attention, to recruit followers. Power is the only real religion in this worl- erm- galaxy. Stuff's simpler that way. I look around the damp concrete dwelling, illuminated with only two torches at the front. I was part of a crowd, incognito. I hoped. Everyone wearing the same itchy brown robes. At the front, a single man faced the crowd, as oft these gatherings go. "My children! The promise of the Singularity is nigh! The Machines have guided us to this moment-- the uplifting of the human race, to be at one with the true God! Deus Ex Machina!" "DEUS EX MACHINA!" Everyone, including myself responded. I tried to sneak a peek at the guy next to me under the hood. He sharply turned, locked eyes with me. I couldn't look away, his piercing blue eyes, they weren't natural. He quickly turned back to the "prophet", forgetting I even existed, engrossed in the deep booming words. Holy shit. This wasn't about power, these guys are actually nuts. 3 months trying to get this far in the organization, trying to discern the location of a biological weapon. Function unknown. The lead was sketchy in the first place, but too many SPECTREs died just to ignore the validity. The prophet raised his hands, sleek black augmentations. Possibly military grade. "Now, MY BROTHERS! The vehicle for our SALVATION!" Quickly, he turned to the left, pulling off the brown tarp from a vaguely round object. The object was sleek and metallic. Perfectly fit the profile for a missile. A panel opened up, probably controlled through a neural implant. He clearly took something out, but I can't see it well enough to get a read. "NOW BROTHERS! WE TAKE THE FIRST STEP! AND REST ASSURED! THE REMAINDERS OF HUMANITY WILL SOON FOLLOW!" His thumb twitched and the cylindrical object in his hand lit up with lights. "DEUS EX MACHINA!" He screamed as he tossed it. The canister explodes midair, and what looks like smoke poofs out and rapidly defuses, and all of a sudden, everyone around me goes beserk, leaping up into the air with their tongues out and screaming. A huge dude in tight-fitting robes shoves me aside to get to it. Not panicking, I quickly seal my hardsuit and open a subvocal comm to the team of trained agents outside. "We have a breakout in the building, sub basement! Visual on the weapon, I repeat visual on the weapon! Be advised, hotzone in place, seal hardsuits! Go go go!" I quickly draw my pistol, shoving through the insane crowd to the front where the Prophet is just standing there serenely. Something's wrong. The crowd doesn't even notice me as I push through. I'm about 6 feet away from the prophet now, gun drawn, he acts like he doesn't even notice me. "GET ON THE FLOOR, NOW!" He doesn't respond, but something on the HUD on my helmet catches my eye. This guy doesn't have a heartbeat. Shit. BOOM!!! Everything's gray. Dust goddamn everywhere, brown robes, screaming. I faintly recognize dark figures through the debris. Carrying the missile away. I try to push myself off the floor, I think I cracked a rib.

24, for showing about a hundred innocent people, including children, dying in a slow and painful fashion, gets the same TV rating as... Family Guy. Seriously, why is this show rated TV-14? It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is apparently worse for people according to people than a show frequently depicting torture and executions (sometimes of innocent people). Anyone else have any ratings misfires they've noticed recently?

Abandoned Warehouse. Nighttime. Adam Jensen with all abilities fully unlocked with a combat Rifle against Batman with all of his toys. To make this fair(er), Batman knows where Adam is, but Adam doesn't know where Batman is.

No, I'm not talking about Iron Man, Cap, and Thor, but the Big Three POWER wise. A guy named John Cimino (you should read his analysis on Wolverine vs. Captain America) who runs a blog named "Hero Envy" (and who knows quote a shit ton about comics, seeming to own and know like every one ever made) had this interesting tidbit to say: To know the Marvel Universe you have to know about the "BIG 3". These 3 characters are at the top of the food-chain when it comes to levels of power for the greatest Marvel Heroes. These 3 characters strike the most fear and gain the most respect from opposing opposition. These 3 characters are without a doubt The Marvel hierarchy of ultimate power. They are The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor and The Silver Surfer. Yup, these guys are the standard, and every other hero that wants to be deemed "super" is measured up against them to see how high up the ladder they are and regarded among peers. Here is how the "BIG 3" rank in certain categories between each other." Strength and Durability: Hulk Skill and Mindset: Thor Overall Versatility: Silver Surfer You can make an argument on who ranks second and third in each category between them, but there is no doubt that the character listed as number 1 is the rightful owner of that power-level. While Hulk has the edge over Thor in their battles, Silver Surfer has the edge over the Hulk, which leads me to this write up where Thor has the edge over Silver Surfer." Thoughts?

I thought this merited its own topic. I think this article's pretty stupid personally. "Game mechanics", mechanisms seperating the cutscenes and the actual gameplay are always going to exist because games suck otherwise. I have no problem with it and I never have. Using the writer's own example, how many people would want to play as a nervous, unresponsive protagonist who dies or is seriously injured from one shot? Gameplay separated from the narrative is a problem, yes, but not like that. I'm ok with playing a soldier who dies in one shot in a cutscene but is a bullet sponge in gameplay. Thoughts?

Round 1 (SWAT Tactical): Combatants armed with dragonskin ceramic armor, AA-12 automatic shotgun, MP5k submachine gun, grenades, claymore mines, and C4 for tactical battlefield restructuring. Deathstroke does not have an enhanced healing factor. Fight takes place in an office building, tight hallways, lots of cover. Round 2 (Sniper Showdown): Spread out across a 3 square mile ravine, it's desert with brush foliage. Armoring has desert camo pattern. Combatants have a .50 Barret and a M9 Beretta. Both are in desert camo. Combatants not aware of any other combatant's specific position, only general area (lets say within 500 sq. yards, so it gives them a lot of wiggle room). Survival conditions limited-- no food or water, no protection from extreme heat/cold. Barret and M9 each only have 2 magazines of ammunition. No winner if combatants cannot find and kill each other within 2 weeks.

An interesting article I found. Not necessarily true in every aspect in my opinion, but still an interesting one. What are some of your favorite science fiction universes as a whole, and why? What sci-fi universes do you think maybe have some potential, squandered or not? Keep in mind I'm not asking about characters or even plotlines specifically, but a universe as a whole as in it's history, culture/mix of cultures, potential to say something significant, etc.

I've always admired that statue. The red, stark banner. No Gods. No Kings. Only Man. Ironic now. I turned back at the squad. Not a lot, but we get the job done. I've been with them for a mission now. Don't know a whole lot about them, but enough. I'm not going to lie, I question what we're doing sometimes. I would be surprised if they didn't either. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought about up there. Rapture's changing, that much is for certain. I feel my pistol in the holster. Secure enough. I put on my helmet, and now I'm Spaceman... No, not different... The same... Man... I look up to the banner again, it gives me some sort of outside willpower, some force. I think Ryan gave us the start point of the mission here for a reason. Right here, the entrance in to Rapture. I can smell the salty air outside, hear the waves splashing, the actual Sun. My heart twinges, just a little. I discreetely look back at the others. What are they feeling? Can I tell? At least my features are masked by the helmet. With heavy steps, I descend down the marble steps, onto the bathysphere. the funny thing is, even though freedom's so close, it's so far away. Nowhere to run to. We're in the middle of the ocean. I open the lid to the Bathysphere and step in, waiting for the others. "Well, ready to go kill some monks?"

Hey, so I stole Sirmethos' idea and decided to do this thing. This week's theme is Video Game Protagonists. Voting closes next Friday, upon which I will write the article on EF's main blog. I only included people from games I've actually played, so in case you're wondering why I didn't include Solid Snake or Kratos or Nathan Drake-- I don't have a PS3. Basically, if there's someone not on the list, add a comment saying who, and every person who likes your comment will count as an additional vote. Of course, this opens up the opportunity for a person to vote twice, but whatever. I'll see if I can actually write an article on the person, and if I can't, but he wins, I'll see if someone else might be willing to write it.

I thought some of you guys would be interested in this: http://www.youtube.com/user/lore?feature=watch

I think most of us know that while there are female writers in the industry, they're in the minority, and most of the conventions and the like of the comic book industry were, and still are, created by males, geared towards males. So how would comics be if they were originally written by women and geared towards women?

Simply put, who are some of your favorite characters that got Worfed? For those of you that don't know, the Worf Effect is when you have a super badass/powerful character who keeps getting beaten to establish the badassery/power of another character. It's named after Worf from Star Trek. Here are a few to get started: 1. Silver Surfer- Uber powerful herald who can throw energy blasts that can stagger Galactus, and fight in a black hole with no visible discomfort. Also thrown out the window every time a cosmic evil shows up. 2. The Vision- Anyone who's read a run of the Avengers knows what I'm talking about. If the Vision isn't around to establish how powerful a character is, then its usually Wonder Man, despite being close to Thor's power level, the guy doesn't have a stellar record. 3. Dr. Doom- Although this is constantly retconned to be Doombots. 4. Revan- Super badass from KOTOR 1, gets taken out fairly easily by the new Sith Emperor in direct combat to establish how powerful the Emperor is.

So, as probably a lot of you have heard about already, Casey Hudson is taking up suggestions for what ME4 would be on. Here's my input, due to the ending of Mass Effect 3, I'm having trouble realizing that a sequel is an option. The endings for ME3 were so huge and universe-changing that a sequel would have to be almost like three different games. Unless they establish one ending as canon, and you can imagine how well THAT would go over with fans. *shudder* ME4 will NOT center around Shepard, that's confirmed, the trilogy is done. As for the new protagonist, there's considerable talk about it not being human. An elcor hero? Your thoughts on the new game?

So now he's got a cool new armor, although we haven't really seen any considerable feats from it other than the fact we know it's considerably stronger than the Bleeding Edge armor (upgraded villains Tony had trouble taking on were dealt with effortlessly, multiple at a time, by this new armor). So what do you guys think the specs might be? Cooler anti-matter bullets? Even more energy generation? We see that Tony is now able to use micro-repuslors in the air (as part of Stark Enterprises swarm initiatives) as weapons to decimate large scale, powerful entities (such as the extremely powerful entities in Mandarin's rings). What more do you think we'll see, especially as we move in to this Marvel NOW crap and we get a new writer on Iron Man (which I'm skeptical of)?

The first poll is completely subjective. It's just which ship you think is the coolest. How you rate "coolness" is entirely up to you. The second battle takes place as long range (more or less like a real space battle would, at hundreds of kilometers at least).

Here's a question for you guys- in R rated movies, death is serious. Death is big. You see Clyde shoot someone in the face, a man's intestines hanging out in Saving Private Ryan, it impacts you. But in PG-13 movies, violence is treated lightly. You see Bond casually shoot dozens of people, but it never really impacts you. Could this lead to a desensitization to violence among young viewers? Isn't PG-13 violence, in some ways, more dangerous than R-rated violence?

20 Collectors armed with Collector Assault Rifles and Collector Particle Beams vs. 30 Predaliens vs. 20 Elites with Fuel Rods and Dual Plasma Rifles. This is a combat situation in an arena with ample cover for the Collectors and Elites. The fight is taking place in a low light condition.