1) Yes. EVE Online. Sorry. I did like Parasite Eve, though. I was all set to finish the Chrysler Building when my memory card reset and I lost everything except my Legend of Mana data. This is why I avoid third party products.

The fundamental idea behind hardcore is that your reward for doing well is nothing special; it’s just the ability to play the game. Your punishment for doing bad is taking that way. I’ll give you a perfect example: XCOM Enemy Unknown’s hardcore mode removes the ability to load and saves everything you do. If somepony dies, they die. If you fail a mission, you fail. If you lose all support, you start over. You could lose some thirty hours or more of work and have nothing to show for it. EVE isn’t a textbook example, but it is very much hardcore in the scale of how much you can lose.

“Nintendo hard” isn’t really hardcore. I’m not all that at video games, but I’ve beat Contra without dying. All it takes is practice and memorization. That conditioning, basically.

[omitted], I beat Megaman X2 without dying and getting the secret upgrade; and that took 3 hours! 3 hours of not dying once!

2) Bon-Bon: We don’t even have a leaf blower. And last time she used one she-

Lyra: Oh! Hamtaro and Bijou were my favorite! I liked Oxnard too! Cels, I want to watch it again! I wish it still aired…

3) No! That’s not me! That’s not who I am! [/Chowder]