Thursday Next

So, it has come to this... Yeah, I loved the Monster Arena thing in FFX. I'd be a bit miffed if they charged to make all defeated monsters available in FFXIII-2. However, if it rocked up as a bit of free DLC, I'd be chuffed to bits.

They were probably too busy looking at your dress to be phased by your shoes. @Dean, if you haven't already, you should talk to your dad and friend about career opportunities. See if they would be ok with you scaling back to weekends or a couple of hours in an evening. I'm sure your dad would rather you got on with a career than helped out him and a friend. You should never burn your bridges, and you shouldn't renege on a deal, but you've got to look out for number one. Sort of on this topic, by the way, if anyone is in the Guildford area between 1st July - 30th Sept and has a law degree (or preferably has done or is on the LPC), I'll be picking up an intern. It's only minimum wage (unless I can wangle more, just setting reasonable expectations), but I write a first class reference, and much as you might hate on EA, it looks pretty damn good on a CV.

From the comments: "I am new here on Kotaku, but does the poor judgement of quality articles have to do with Brian Crecente leaving? Taking wild guesses here". Pretty sure that's not the case. Just taking a wild guess myself.

On the scale, this sits waaaaay below AC/ME2 in my opinion. So far as bullshit DLC goes. It's Prince of Persia ---> Assassin's Creed ---> Dragon Age ---> ME2 --> Deus Ex ---> FFXIII-2. PoP was pretty much, pay to finish the story. Class A dick move and was not purchased despite me really liking that game. Assassin's Creed skipped some of the middle of the story and put a big feather hat on it by telling you. I did purchase it since I was curious about the extra story and I had enjoyed the main game fully. Dragon Age nagged you about extra stories that might interest you. It was a bit fourth wall breaky, but at least it was up-front. I nabbed a code through a colleague, but would probably have bought it. Mass Effect 2 hinted heavily that you could have more allies, but didn't have Shepherd mutter to herself every time she walked past an empty room "if only [DLC CHARACTER 1] would occupy that empty room there... *sigh*." I've never actually played a Mass Effect game. Don't know why really. Deus Ex skipped some of the middle of the story, but didn't tell you it had. I've not bought that DLC, might pick it up at some point as I need to replay it anyway. FFXIII-2 says, this is a place to fight facsimiles of monsters and heroes, but has nothing to do with the story, and you can dress Serah up like a slut if that's your bag (it is my bag, and she is running around in a bikini). I would like it if the Colliseum let you fight any monster that you have in your bestiary, especially as it would make capturing them a less time consuming / luck based process, but I certainly don't think the empty Coliseum or the "soon to be refurbished" Serendipity make the game feel less than complete. They're just obvious places to tack on extra stuff out of the way of the story so you don't have to do any complicated ret-cons or anything.

No such thing as bug free mate. Possibly the first release in a while without any known open issues.

That's me... http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-4.62&soc=-1.69 Some questions are a bit confusing... Like "It's ok for a mother to have a job, but her first duty is to be a home maker." OWTTE. If I click "Disagree" does that mean that I disagree that it is ok for her to have a job? Or that I disagree that her first duty is to be a home maker?

If you were to crack the Xbox or PS3 version (not that I'm suggesting you do) you'd find that the same nfo was used for all platforms. The "Insert/Play" gag applies to the console version more than the PC one.

Once you've installed that app though it takes what? Seconds? I never even notice that it does stuff when I connect it, it all just seems to work.

All of the game is optional... No one makes you play it.

It's "not-ruh dam". You pronounce it like Judy Dench has taken a job as a stenographer.

Who are you calling crazy? They were mocking me! With their annoying green and pinkness... One tiny, but HUGE gripe I have with the game is that I completely completed single player, but I think I died trying to get a Riddler trophy in hideout. So now, even though that task is done, the icon still sits there, taunting me. I've tried going back, talking to people, everything, but the icon will not go. I vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

To use a more extreme example. If you give a guy a gun and watch him shoot someone with it and do nothing to stop him you're considered an accessory to murder. It's a crime in America at least. I think in this case the catholic church are considering themselves accessories to sin. But that's written down in statute. There is a law that states "thou shalt not give a dude a gun so that he may shoot someone." There is not, to my knowledge a commandment that says "You shall spill your seed on the ground, and if you catch anyone else trying to do any different then by jingo you will make it inconvenient for them." unless there is. I mean, if there is a something in the Bible that says "You must enforce God's will." or "You shall not suffer another to act against God's will." then sure, it would mean that the Church would have to break a rule so, there's some element of a case there. But all the Bible I remember from my CofE days was about "Spreading the Word." not "Enforcing the rules."

I don't get what you're missing. Ethan has spelled it out quite a bit but I'll try one more time. By paying for it, they are enabling it. If I gave a drunken bum $10 he'll go buy a bottle of booze with it. That makes me an enabler into something I personally believe is wrong. Many people may turn the other way when someone DOES something they disagree with, but to encourage that by paying for it is quite another thing. I'm missing the bit where giving another person an opportunity to sin is a restriction on your religious expression. Basically, I think that the application of the rule is a load of old bollocks, if the Hospital don't want to provide for their staff to use contraception, then that's obviously legal. It doesn't make it any less of a dick move and in my opinion amounts to them forcing their beliefs on their staff. In my opinion a company forcing its will on individual employees is far worse than forcing a company to allow individual employees to do something that the company may not approve of.

The wage for this should imho be the difference between JSA and minimum wage, JSA should be paid as normal. That way everyone wins. Dean gets more money, effectively making the minimum wage. Tesco get a cheaper workforce since the government pick up the first £45 odd. Government get to put people into jobs and look good. EDIT: Tried to look at the details of that job and it sent me in circles, that is a fucking hideous site.

I think this varies by course more than country. Law involves a lot of rather expensive, terribly heavy books.

Didn't have to grind any trophies apart from getting a lucky coin, which requires gil, time and cellotape, and going 10,000 steps on a chocobo (riding chocos seems counter intuitive when you have to fight enemies to get strongerer) which necessitated an elastic band. Some people struggle with 100 preemptive strikes in a row, I got it through normal play cos I'm a flipping ninja.

79hrs 13mins 48secs. Platted.

Well isn't that a handy get out out clause.

But that's my point. I don't see where it violates their religion. They aren't forced to stock, provide or sell contraceptives, just reimburse people who have already bought them. If you can point out what part of religious dogma prevents this, then I'll happily accept it, but I honestly don't believe that there is any religious rule that prevents a Catholic Hospital from reimbursing someone for having purchased birth control.

In all my days I've never heard even an attempt at a halfway decent explanation for the human appendix or coccyx. Any Christians here fancy a shot at it? Why do we have a stub of a tail and a useless, broken cellulose digester? Oh and you are not allowed to talk about the ineffability of God's plan.

Ummmm... good question. Will check tonight. Or I could plat it tonight and give you the total plat time.

But how is having to pay for an employee to get contraceptives a restriction on the Hospitals religious expression? They should have every right to express through memos, poster campaigns or direct communication, that they consider the use of contraceptives to be against God's will. They just shouldn't have the right to deny that product / service to another, even if they are an employee. Like I said, God didn't do it that way. He left temptation right there in arms reach. Catholic practice seems to indicate that you put temptation there to be resisted (hence altar boys).

That's where the question of Liberty comes up. Just as I would not expect a Jehovah's Witness organization to pay for a blood transfusion or a Christian Scientist organization to pay for anything! I'm not Catholic and I'm not opposed to BC pills but I am opposed to the government telling a church what to do. To me, that's an infringement on one's Liberty! Also, I really think the whole ZOMG! People NEED Birth Control is a rather annoying argument to me because BC generics are quite cheap. Walmart, Target, Walgreens, various grocery stores etc. in the name of Capitalism and competition have these wonderful $4 generics programs that include Birth Control pills (some are $8-$9 apparently) which is less than the copay on most insurance plans. http://i.walmart.com...ricdruglist.pdf http://sites.target....drugs_condition Seriously, this is a great program for more than just BC. A local NY/NE chain of grocery stores (Price Chopper) is even giving away free Diabetes meds and antibiotics! When someone I know had Lyme disease all their meds were free! The catch is of course that while waiting the half hour for them to fill your prescription you'll most likely do your grocery shopping there. Sounds like a good deal to me. Been out of this for a while, so apologies for the late reply but... It may be against the Catholic Dogma to use contraception, but it does not say anywhere that Catholics have a duty to physically stop anyone else from sinning. God gave Adam and Eve free will and then put the Apple tree in their garden and said "This tree over here, don't touch it." So the Catholic Hospital would not be impeded in their religious expression to say, "These contraceptives over here, don't use them." I thought the whole religion thing was about resisting temptation and being tested in your faith and what not.

I'm two trophies away from platinuming this one. imho it's easily in the top 3 FF's to date, possibly even number 1. I've got the collectors edition, but been without internet at home for the past couple of weeks and I have to say that even without the DLC extras it feels like a very complete package. Looking forward to the Sazh DLC. Hopefully we'll get a Snow one too, I want to know what he's been up to while I've been gallivanting up and down the time stream.

I like it. Yay positivity!