Normally I would keep stuff like this for my "proper" blog and just use Giant Bomb for stuff about videogames but s I want some American reaction, as I am from the UK and can't understand your country's fear of Socialism and socialised healthcare in particular.
 
 I just saw this on Comic Vine
 ( check out Babs' article at Comic Vine) and while I thought it was funny I also think its message is pretty ridiculous, it basically paints an entire political ideology as violent, destructive and intent on chaos, when in fact socialism is probably the most caring political system, and, as a socialist I was a little offended that a political figure who (as far as I am aware) seems to have made very sound, un-cynical political decisions so far in his tenure as US President.

I also think this raises a larger issue about the United States - What the Hell is so scary about socialism? Why is that Americans seem to have been brainwashed by anti-soviet Cold War propaganda into believing that socialism means having your freedoms restricted and all choice replaced with government control?

Obama's health care reform plans suggest he is looking for a way to provide every American with some form of universal health care, this doesn't mean he is planning to take away insurance from those who have it and make everyone subscribe to a government healthcare system; he just wants to ensure that anyone who can't afford insurance and the extortionate charges from HMOs can still receive some form of medical treatment when they need it. This is a far less drastic plan than the one introduced to the UK by Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee (in my opinion the best PM this country has ever had) after the Second World War in which he introduced a system that would provide care "from the cradle to the grave".

The NHS is funded by National Insurance which also pays for the State Pension. Every single British citizen must pay this tax based upon their earnings and in return we receive medical care a very good health care system (I'm not saying there aren't problems in the NHS, but it is on the whole a caring, clean and efficient service). This does not mean that there aren't private health care services for those who want more (and can afford it) than the NHS offers, the most successful of which is BUPA.

I can't understand why Americans are scared of a system which means that everyone will be better looked after, people die much younger in the States than anywhere in Western Europe, Canada, New Zealand etc. Americans are scared of having to ask the government for permission before they receive treatment, and having health care tied down with bureaucracy, this simply isn't the case in any other democratic country with a socialised medical system, whereas the current system in America is one which can charge patients for not pre-approving ambulance trips with their insurance companies, and where doctors working for insurance companies are encouraged to deny necessary treatments via monetary incentives.

To me the United States of America's healthcare system is one which looks for any way not to treat people, because treatment costs money and death doesn't. This is appalling America has such advanced medical science, but the truth is that most people can't afford it (the average American now pays more for healthcare per year than the minimum wage - how can you not se a problem in that kind of system?)

One final point - why is socialised medicine in particular so terrifying? Americans already have socialised systems for mail, education, and libraries. These institutions have done nothing but good for the country. Please America embrace Obama's healthcare reforms, they're for your own good.

This was inspired by the long walk back from my girlfriend’s house which gave me time to listen to Gallows' album Grey Britain almost in it’s entirety which inspired what I think (or did at the time, I've chosen not to think too hard about it since in case it now seems crap) would be an waesome game:

The protagonist is a guy with long dark straggly hair, wearing a leather jacket zipped half-way on top of his bare chest; black jeans and a pair of black DM boots.
The opening scene is a bar fight, in which someone pulls a knife on the protagonist, resulting in the protagonist breaking the assailants arm and head butting him simultaneously. Protagonist uses this knife to cut open his hand and drink the blood before spitting in the face of an oncoming security thug, sucker punching another and striding out of the bar. This sequence exemplifies much of the game fluidly transitioning from gameplay (fighting people in bar) to intuitive QTEs (disarming knife-guy) to cutscene à la MGS4. In terms of fluidity there would be some kind of fight mechanic, where if the player performs a relatively simple counter at the attempted stabbing then the QTE is triggered, other similar events would happen throughout the game.

I should explain that the basic premise is the United Kingdom in a state of riotous disarray as described by Gallows, the inciting incident should be something obvious creating some kind of mutated zombie freaks (or something less clichéd, but I can’t think of anything). The protagonist can choose from numerous paths, either seeking to get to truth, attempting to aid those in need and restore order, or just revel in the chaos and accelerate the country’s downfall. The character himself starts of from a pretty instable position of anger and violence and is a distrustful cynic to begin with, however his personality can be altered according to the player’s actions.

The game takes place as a journey across Britain starting in the small city of Carlisle (just cuz that’s where I live) and ultimately leading to London via other major cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham etc. Along the journey the player encounters various groups of people ranging from Raiders/Reapers intent on destruction to people just trying to survive to those trying to preserve some sense of civilisation and help those in need, the player’s actions affect how other characters respond to him i.e. raiding a hospital is going to make Raider’s more likely to trust you, but “good, honest” people will regard you with hostility, this is affected by geography and the size of your reputation - a small time thief in Carlisle may not be trusted in Carlisle, but in other parts of the country no one will know. The player could also affect people’s opinions of him through Mass Effect style dialogue which has the mood, or general gist of a response rather than the dialogue verbatim - if you’re rude or aggressive obviously people are going to like and trust you less.

Another idea I had for a gameplay mechanic is some kind of anxiety system where when the protagonist is in secluded areas, especially at night them the protagonist becomes anxious which has a negative effect on combat and on dialogue options available. The player should also be made to feel more anxious through use of sounds and visuals in a similar way to how The Path becomes much more tense the longer the player runs.

An image I had in my head for a possible ending is the protagonist with a group of thugs swarming on innocents outside of the Houses of Parliament which is on fire, with the protagonist just revelling in the chaos and the violence.
This is an extract from my blog

Please, please, somebody, please tell me they noticed the very obvious similarities between Escape from NY and the Pitt. Firstly there's Wernher who looks almost exactly the same as Snake Plissken with his eye-patch, leather jacket and relatively long pushed back hair (admittedly his eye-patch is not on the same eye and he's not wearing a weird '80s "futuristic" skin-tight black vest with zips), not to mention his chiselled jaw complete with stubble. It's not just Wernher's look though, he has a badass attitude (demonstrated by how he doesn't really give a shit about the child as long as he gets the cure), plus he's apparently the only slave to ever have escaped from the Pitt.

Next there is the general look and feel of the Pitt itself, which looks much more trashed and strewn with broken junk than DC did, which was far more barren. This is not dissimilar to the look of NY which is filled with burning metal cans and piles of rubble and trashed vehicles (cars in NY, trains in the Pitt). OK so this is a pretty generic look, for any kind of post-apocalyptical/futuristic totalitarian urban environment, but still they feel pretty similar.

Another similarity is the fight they throw Snake into against a fucking huge, crazy looking dude with an insane beard to fight for his life after being caught by the Duke (more on him later). In the Pitt you have to fight in the Hole for freedom against an assortment of wack-jobs (yes there are rounds in Fallout and there is a crowd in Escape…, but these are details).

The Pitt is not controlled by roaming gangs like Escape from New York, and Escape… does not have a system of slavery. Both do, however have a tyrannical dictators, in the form of Ashur, in the Pitt and his equivalent Duke in NY. Both of these characters have an army of goons who terrorise and subjugate the rest of the population.

The costume’s and hairstyles of the Pitt also have much in common with the street-punk look of Escape from New York (spiked hair, ripped and fragmented clothing, wild beards etc.) just with the Fallout 3 twist i.e. many more spikes and a lot more metal (also those weird leather bondage things many of the slaves wear for some reason).

In short I have noticed many links between these pieces of entertainment; I just wanted to know if anyone else had noticed this

OK, I'm gonna jump in uninvited with an F of a lot of points here, some of them may be misguided or uninformed (this coming from the background of Downfall as well, so I'm not sure how canon):

1. Kendra is a government agent, but what exactly is her mission? How much was Kendra manipulating Isaac Couldn't a message have been sent to the Valor without being aboard the Ishimura? Did the gov. want to destroy the marker or retrieve it?
2. What was the purpose of the second marker? What did the government hope to gain from it? Were the Necros there before it? Was it designed to keep them there?
3. What happened to the original marker? What did it do? Where is it now? Who built it?
4. Did the hallucinations come from Hive Mind or Marker? Do Hive Mind and Marker have the same agenda?
5. Were the Unitoligists (loved the parallels with Scientology) really just a misguided group, who'd somehow got wind of the original marker and formed a religion around it, or is there something more sinister at work in its upper echelons?
6. Was Hammond really innocent? Did he have his own agenda, other than repairing the Ishimura and getting the Hell out?
7. Does Necrole kill Isaac at the end or could he have fought her/it off?

I realise that many of these questions are unaswerable as none of the elements of the Dead Space franchise provide the information, but it was all on my mind and I was wondering what people thought

My views are that the government found Aegis 7 and the Necromorphs and built the marker to leave them dormant on the planet protecting the rest of the galaxy; if this is the case then it is possible that the original marker, which was found on Earth was designed by an ancient alien race who had found Earth and observed humanity's violent and cruel tendencies and left the marker there to stop humanity spreading throughout the galaxy, but it only succeeded in slowing the human race not stopping it entirely, meaning that eventually the Necros could break free of the marker's power (of course this all just conjecture).
Nicole was dead before Isaac arrived at the Ishimura. The Nicole seen throughout the game is a hallucination; the locked door which she opens is also a hallucination, as is the attack by Necros. The game over is triggered because Isaac believes entirely in the hallucination and believes there is no way forward, coupled with the apparent death of his girlfriend he would be distraught and despondent and easily ready to admit defeat (i.e. give up).
The marker was designed to keep the Necros on Aegis 7 therefore manipulates Isaac into returning it to the planet's surface to fulfil its purpose. The Hive Mind tries to prevent this to protect her newfound freedom.

I really hope Isaac is alive so he can come back for Aliens style sequel where no one believes him and he has to assist the military, mainly because I think it would be cool to see some squad based survival/horror and maybe some co-op, but that might take the fright out of it.

Fuck 50 "G-Unot" Cent, the Ticallion Stallion himself, Mr M.E.T.H.O.D. Man, should get his own game, he's awesome in the Def Jam games, and has further shown his acting prowess as Cheese, nephew of Prop Joe, in HBO's brilliant show The Wire. Seriously Johnny Blaze (yes I am going to use every possible name for him) awesome in some kind of action/adventure, shooter, brawler game i.e. Butcher Bay meets Gears with problem solving. Plus you get to have a selectable squad including Redman and members of the Wu-Tang Clan as selectable sqaudmates (Red should be the default co-op character). The game would have an amazing soundtrack with choice cuts from, Meth(Meth vs Chef is a personal favourite), Red and all the Wu-Tang posse.
Somebody please make this game