Terpfen

Generally, when a show completes its run, it's at the height of its popularity, is it not? Imagine trasitioning from Eva ep 26 to Gundam X episode 1. Quite a jarring experience, especially when Eva apparently hit all the chords anime fans like--underaged fanservice, animal mascots, Christian symbols, and a dash of super robot style in the mecha designs. So, Gundam X had to compete with Eva--regardless of whether or not they were airing concurrently. This is kind of like how, when a video game does something perfectly, all successive games are compared to this one perfect video game. RPGs are judged by whether or not they're as good as Final Fantasy. Action games are judged by whether or not they're as good as Metal Gear Solid. FPS games are measured by whether or not they're as good as Half-life or Halo. Point is, Eva is one of the reasons Gundam X didn't do well. Period.

I wasn't watching his thread. I stumbled upon it and posted what I thought because apparently comments were welcome (but I guess that doesn't apply to those who don't like the kit.) I actually have completed a mk.II. The problem is, I don't like it, so I'm not going to show it off. At the time, I was a noob, and I used a flat white in conjunction with a gloss black. The result is not pretty. I have more sense now. I guess the lesson to be learned here is that honesty doesn't mean anything, but mindless praise does.

You're not thinking here. Yes, the PG is larger. Yes, it has more parts. However, it's the same design. Painting its surface pieces would actually take less time than a HGUC or MG, because the parts don't need any seams filled, and they're broken down exactly by color. You group the parts together, you spray them, you let them dry, you assemble. Job done. So let's say you want to save time. This is simple: you don't paint the internals that you'll never see. This could save you time on the arms in particular, and definitely time along the torso area. Or you could take the third option: continue treating PGs as expensive toys, rather than the models that they are.

Bandai isn't out to screw UC. No one is saying that--at least, not that I've seen. What Bandai is out to do is make UC a sideshow to the main thrust of Gundam--the alternate universes. This is why UC has been restricted to side story manga like Lost War Chronicle and Blue Destiny. UC is still quite popular--Mobile Suit Gundam, not Wing or SEED, is Sunrise's flagship show (yes, after 25 years, MSG is still their most popular show.) Bandai continues to use the MSG theme in each of its new AU series--well, the exception now is SEED-D, which is using Zeta as its basis. If UC wasn't popular, Zeta wouldn't be getting a movie re-release with new scenes and a new ending. If UC wasn't popular, the Master Grade and HGUC lines would've died five years ago. If UC wasn't popular, 08th Team wouldn't have taken three years to complete. F-91 and V simply weren't appropriate to kickstart a new Gundam timeline, but not because they weren't good. F-91 was supposed to be a TV series, but instead the first 13 episodes were condensed into the movie we have now. In a form like that, there's no way F-91 could've done anything. As for V, the problem there was that the series was TOO complete, leaving no window for continuations and sequels. You have a point about Tomino not liking V Gundam, but you forget that Tomino thought MSG was the end of the Gundam series--he didn't want to make Zeta, ZZ, CCA, F-91, V, or Turn A. He definitely didn't conceive of Sunrise letting other directors in on his property and making 0080, 0083, or 08th Team. And he most definitely did not conceive of alternate universes like G, Wing, X, or SEED. With that said, I agree that the UC series are mostly stale. Kid's colony gets attacked, kid steals Gundam, kid becomes amazing pilot and happens to be the most powerful Newtype around. The manga are equally formulaic--they all happen during the OYW, they all involve some secret Zeon project, they all have "only in anime" characters and plots. But UC is hardly unpopular. MSG is still Sunrise's flaghship series, and Zeta is often cited as a fan-favorite series. CCA, 0080, and 0083 are still highly popular. F-91 had quite a bit of sequels and prequels, with one (Crossbone) even directed by Tomino himself. X didn't fail because it was UC-like. X failed because it took half the series for its plot to begin kicking in, and because it was the third Gundam series to air in a row, and it aired next to Evangelion. Bandai had exhausted Gundam fains in the first place, and then they put X up next to Eva. X is not a bad show, but with those kinds of circumstances, not even Tomino could've produced a winner. One more point: the alternate universes were conceived very differently. G was originally going to be a remake of MSG, with what eventually became the Shining Gundam acting as a new RX-78. They were, but then they stopped. SEED's planned sequel was scrapped during the second half of the show. This is why SEED's ending is rushed. For months after SEED was completed, officials were asked about a sequel and said none was going to happen. SEED D's announcement was a complete surprise, and it's quite different from the originally planned sequel. Yeah, kind of like those old early '80s Macross kits.

Yes, I'm well aware of that. What you'll notice is that EAX is NOT in Doom 3. The deal was to implement EAX in the Doom 3 engine at a later date. Games which will license the Doom 3 engine will have EAX implemented. Doom 3 does not. Difference.

Er... it's not good because it's an OOB job done without full painting, but rather done with the "only paint what "needs" to be done mentality. Some examples of good mk.IIs: Y2's HGUC mk.II. Studio Slam's HGUC mk.II. Mekomu-Delta's MG mk.II. Gasdam's HGUC mk.II. Suezou's HGUC mk.II. Just building the kit straight out of the box and slapping some barely-visible scratching effects does not make a kit worth giving the thumbs up over. And these mk.IIs I've linked to aren't anything truly special--two modified the Titans themes, one has a custom color job, one is posed with the B-Club flying pack, and one is just built up as a regular old Titans unit. Some, like Y2's, are modded, but since we're talking about paintjob, the mods are irrelevant. It does not take much effort to get a decently painted model out the door, and I think if you're going to spend a triple digit figure to buy something the size and cost of the PG mk.II, you really should do something with it besides show off its colored plastic.

Problem is, the Hi nu has "a following." Stuff like SEED designs have "a market." The two are not the same. Just think of how many people wished for a large-scale GP03... and then proceeded not to buy it. Of course, Bandai made a 1/144 Meteor... which tells you just how popular SEED stuff is. I'm sure it's selling well, too, and you'll see a Meteor II in SEED-D. You won't see a Master Grade Hi nu for a long, looooooooong time, though. Maybe after the MG Aries.

That's... really not that great a job, nor very inspiring camera work.

id doesn't like EAX, so they went with their own 3D sound system. Two benefits: one, it's tweaked perfectly for Doom 3. Anyone with a 5.1 speaker system will tell you that you practically NEED one. Two, since Doom 3 is also being ported to the Mac, Linux, and Xbox, you run into the issue of hardware compatibility. With that said, the sound engine doesn't really suck up any precious CPU space--the game runs perfectly on any reasonable rig.

I don't know about an Advance of Zeon, but there is an Advance of Zeta, which deals with how the EF handled former Titans in the wake of the Gryps War. It's like Sentinel, only minus the quality.

Given the sheer amount of OYW-related shows, this wouldn't exactly be "different." Folks, Bandai does not like UC. Learn to accept this. We've had ONE whole new UC series after Bandai purchased Sunrise in 1993. AU Gundam is wholly a Bandai creation, for merchandising purposes. And people go out and buy this crap no matter how ugly it gets. Folks, Gundam was lost the day the Master Grade line went retro.

As far as I know, Yokoi's last job was designing the N64's controller. Maybe he did go to Bandai, but if he did, then I haven't heard about it. A better way to phrase this is, "Nintendo's customers love minor variations and improvements." After all, if they didn't sell, Nintendo wouldn't keep making them. DS might be a response to the PSP, but I doubt it's a stopgap. The second screen does hold plenty of possibilities, though I do agree that not every game will benefit. Plenty will, though. For example, if Konami develops a Metal Gear game for the DS, the primary screen could be used to control Snake, while the secondary screen could be used for everything from controlling guided rockets (while still being able to view the environment around Snake in the primary screen) to displaying a security camera's point of view when Snake gets appropriately close enough, thus helping the player to avoid detection. Football games can use the second screen to show the gamer how his selected play is unfolding. You select the play, and after the hike, you can look at the second screen to see white lines snaking out in real time, marking the exact overhead position of all your receivers, blockers, etc. A nice implementation for racers could be to use the second screen as a rear view mirror, to see just how far back the other guys really are. And if we're dealing with a Mario Kart game, you can put the mini-map of the track on the second screen as well, freeing up space in the first. If we get a Gundam game on the DS, the second screen could be used as a gimmicked-up enemy tracker. Lay down green coordinate grids on a black background, and have a tracking pulse emit every three or so seconds, with returning blips marking the general location of a target. And of course, in keeping with Minovsky physics, the tracker's range would be extremely low, making sure that the player can't just cheese his way through levels by knowing exactly where that pesky Dom is. If I can come up with ideas like these, I can't wait to see what professional companies can do.

Early on in the game, when you return to Mars City, go to the bathroom near the entrance. Walk right up to the center of the mirror and look straight in it.

Sorry, but SEED is an Okawara franchise through and through. There are two lone exceptions: Strike Gundam and the Blue Frame and Red Frame Astrays (and I'm not referring to the various add-on packs for the Astrays, nor the Blue Frame Second and Red Frame Second.) Strike Gundam and Astray were designed by Junichi Akutsu. Astray was left alone according to Akutsu's art, but Strike Gundam was "cleaned up" by Okawara. Everything else in SEED is a 100% pure Okawara design, and everything we've seen of SEED Destiny is a pure Okawara design as well. Keep in mind that just because Fujioka and Ishigaki are on board for SEED Destiny doesn't mean they'll design anything significant. In Fujioka's case, this is his first time working on an animated Gundam series, and so he's the junior of the project. Expect him to design things like MS carriers, or to create a couple of "monster of the week" MS that pass through the Okawara filter, ala Strike Gundam. In Ishigaki's case, Bandai always makes him design the capital ships, and they usually keep him away from the mecha. After Gundam X, they refuse to give him top billing for anything.

Gumpei Yokoi didn't resign, he was just reassigned. He designed the controller for the N64, IIRC. His career wasn't killed by the Virtual On, but rather by the car that hit and killed him one night.