Southpaw Samurai

One thing I don't like about Grievious, which is the same issue I have with a lot of the prequel stuff, is that he exemplifies the fact that Lucas has fallen to the beliefs that flashier is better and the more you can have of something, the more kick-ass it is. Your Jedi are pathetic fighters unless they have some special lightsaber and/or can leap and flip around with reckless abandoned. Now...watch out! Here comes the best fighter around! Dual-wielding is old...this guy can DOUBLE dual-wield! Plus he can not only leap around, but crawl on walls and ceilings! It just feels childish.

One didn't fear Vader because he could suddenly pull out a half dozen lightsabers or because he was into worthless displays of acrobatics. You feared him out of his presence and the fact that he never really gave away everything he could possibly do to you. Yoda was a great Jedi despite the fact that he got winded climbing up onto tree stumps. Even as a kid I could understand that, and appreciate it as an adult.

Four. I believe his two arms split into two apiece...that's why he has a thumb on each side of the hand.

More of Rohby's recast cannon pictures to convince those of you who held off to beg for him to do a second run.

For some G1 toy comparison, here's a red cannon Streak

And another crappy group shot, this one with the BT/Alts showing off their new toys along with their G1 ancestors...

I've always been torn over the Sideswipe alternative transformation. On one hand, it does give him more of the G1 appearance (granted, rear end as opposed to hood for chest) and from some angles (as Eriku's photo above shows) he looks simply awesome. But from other angles, he almost looks weird...like a well endowed old German granny or something.... it's sort of a shame there's no way to flatten it just a little bit more...

Stormtroopers have incredible accuracy. They never once miss getting in front of a hero's blaster shot. It takes a tremendous amount of speed and accuracy to catch a laser with your head or chest.

I think the battle at Minas Tirith is the main reason ROTK didn't do as much for me as FOTR, or even the weaker Two Towers. Tolkien's pacing of the battle was almost perfect and could easily translate into film without much conversion (the one glaring piece would be Theoden's speech, which in the book does a 'a little while earlier' flashback right before the charge. Jackson decided to put it in directly before the charge, which would seem odd for a relief force to stop so close to the enemy to deliver a long winded speech). They could've interlaced it in earlier and perhaps worked in some uncertaintly as to whether they'd make it to Minas Tirith in time to keep the tension).  Instead, we get a whole set of unneeded events...all of which look pretty, but serve little real purpose.

Now I'm rambling....

Are you talking about his famous "Where is rider... Where is the horn that was blowing?...." soliliquy? I thought it was appropriately timed in the movie. The version in the book is much longer, but I think the one he said in the movie was almost more like a prayer or mantra of some sort. It spoke of the loss of all hope for the party at Helms Deep and really set the mood.

I think he's referring to Theoden's "Ride for ruin and the world's ending" speech in RotK before the Rohirrim charge...it did feel a bit odd pacing-wise as well.....I just hope that the crowing at dawn is in the Extended version, that gave me shivers when I read it

Yep, the pre-Pelenor Fields speech is what I'm referring to. Chronologically by page, that is where it occurs, to some effect. But in the book, it actually jumps back in time a bit to before the moment the Rohirrim arrived at Minas Tirith. In the book, Theoden wisely uses the virtues of surprise and shock to charge his horsemen into the Mordor army's flanks...a very wise decision by a cavalry commander. In the movie it bothers me that a) he would show up and then take the time to give a speech, meanwhile allowing the orcs to wheel about and prepare and b) that the orcs for some reason didn't react in any sort of timely manner (granted, their movie-bad guys).

Even though I dislike the fact that Gandalf and the Witchking won't have their non-action, but tension-filled standoff, I also hope that however their encounter goes, it ends with the cock crowing, and the horns of Rohan blaring. It was a very potent moment and I hope Peter doesn't ruin it (still waiting to watch the EE until we can get a bunch of friends together).

You know....all this talk of potentially subverting kids to Macross with some kind of Valkyrie gift got me thinking.

At work we have a 'giving tree' (gotta avoid any religion-specific descriptions) where some local Twin Cities poor children were wish for something and place it on a card and we can take cards off the tree and try to best match their wish within about a $20 price range (pretty sad when you think about it if a kid was creative with their wish). I'm going to go look tomorrow and cheat a bit and read as many as I can without getting caught. If one of them asks for a plane, a robot, or a Transformer, I think I'll grab that card and then dig out one of my old spare boxed Yamato 1/60s to donate. Hopefully the kid won't be too young and break it immediately. I won't even feel bad about breaking the cost ceiling because I would've paid nothing (this year) to buy it. Best to share the love. Too bad I was never interested in getting any of the chunky monkey re-releases as they would make better gifts for a kid of undetermined age.

I do have an extra MPC or two, but I wouldn't give that to the most hated person on the planet.

Multiplayer's pretty fun...wouldn't have bought the game if they didn't include the four way. There are problems playing multiplayer, though. You have you expected 'everyone has to stay on the same screen' issue that any of these action-RPGs have. What makes it worse here is that there's a couple of places where it would've been easier to have one person go off and do what they need to. This can be done in the game's original intended single player mode. In multiplayer, everyone else has to get as close as they can (often involving ledges) for the one character to do their thing. This is made worse on timed levels.

The other major gripe about the multiplayer mode is that it often feels tacked on. Any menu/character changes can be arduous for the person not controlling the menus. Choosing who plays whom can be frustrating until everyone learns to enter the game one at a time and switch to whom they want. Also, sometimes the controls for the single-character levels seem to jump randomly from controller to controller. Speaking of which, the BIGGEST gripe I have is all the single or limited character levels (which are basically every other level while you visit the mansion). It basically comes down to four people having fun and then suddenly one person playing and three either falling asleep watching or cracking jokes about Magma asking if people are an item. We just recently hit a set of back-to-back two and three character only missions. Sadly, I fell asleep as the odd man out both times.

All the problems tend to come from the fact that the game initially was intended for one player. I'm sort of glad that they threw on the multiplayer options, but I feel the need to warn anyone who wants to play the game through completely with three other buddies.

I still think they should have made Hound a military HUMMVEE. If I could find a 1/24 model or toy of a HUMMVEE, I'll mod it to show you guys.

I don't know. A Humvee Hound would probably have been fairly large and wide. To me, Hound's always been on the smaller side...a nice little scout. So as much as he isn't a military vehicle, I like his current Alternator mode. Trailbreaker might be a cool civilian Hummer, especially since he was sort of a large, wide G1 guy. Alternatively, as much as I like the idea of Brawn being tiny but one of the strongest Autobots, he'd also make a good potential one. To me their physical vehicles don't have to match up as much as the overall 'personality' both their modes inspire.

You gotta admit, though...if your childhood is going to be raped, having Heidi there makes it a bit more pleasant.

Besides, this is hardly raping anyone's childhood since the Star Wars characters have been whored out commerically since their inception. I think my all time favorite, though, still has to be the Darth Vader vs. Energizer Bunny from around the Special Edition days...

Im not getting Half Life 2.  Why should I have to have a net connection and be forced to register the game just to play the solo game?  If Valve dies out the game then becomes useless, or has a chance to become useless.

It's only a one-time authentication. If you can post on Macross World, you can authenticate your Half Life 2. As for Valve going out of business, thats the same "risk" that players of games like Diablo, City of Heros, and nearly every other online game live with. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.

Have to agree with Bloodcat on this one. There's a difference between an online-designed games where you know you will only be able to play as long as there's a server running and standalone games.

I have a number of old games that I pull out from time to time to play. While I may need to tweak things to get them to run on the newest OSs or play them on my old PCs, I can still play them. The same for old console games as long as the hardware still works. I would say that in many of these cases the companies responsible for developing or publishing these games no longer exist (or no longer directly support the software). If they all required online registration everytime I installed them, they'd be worthless and unplayable.

I understand the need to protect intellectual property and ensure people have legitimate copies, but this trend may actually drive legal purchasers of the games to seek out the very individuals who crack games in order to play games that are out of date (in essense, becoming a 'gateway' to more illegal activities).

It would be same as you putting in an old favorite movie that's only currently available on VHS and your VCR telling you it can't play it because that tape is out of print and the distributor is out of business. The thing is, the game industry doesn't see a need to keep any kind of history, which is why it may never really mature into anything more than a shallow entertainment medium.

Nice, I gotta hand it to Lucus, he knows how to put together a good trailer.

I have to agree. If you remember, the teasers and trailers for TPM and AOTC both looked incredible too, although the end results of the full features vary from person to person.

I'm not letting myself get hyped up. Too much of a Star Wars fan still to not go see it by its first weekend, but I'm not going to go crazy over it unless it actually delivers.

Frankly, the wild, dental hygiene challenged Sidious lightsaber scene does the same thing to me as seeing Yoda flipping around with a lightsaber. Something just feels wrong about it....

Speaking of the Witchking at the end of this preview...

<<<SPOILERS>>>>

Does it bug anyone else that he supposedly handedly beats Gandalf? In the books, it was one of the coolest scenes in ROTK when the Witchking enters the gates of Minas Tirith and Gandalf alone is standing there to confront him (everyone else being cowed in fear). They pass words and the Witchking starts talking trash and you're just about expecting this big grand clash of titans when suddenly dawn strikes and the horns of Rohan sound (the Rohirrim basically launch a surprise attack on the flank of Mordor's army, unlike in the movie where they prance around and giving any legitimate, non-bad guy movie army enough time to react). Realizing he may be needed to turn this tide change, the Witchking disengages with an unspoken 'I've got something to deal with first.' way.

Unless Jackson seriously alters his editing (which he didn't for the previous extended editions), the scene can't play out like that. Apparently the Witchking breaks Gandalf's staff, which is a really big deal. Sure it might make Eowyn's victory seem greater, but that alone was accomplished in the books by Gandalf's (who had not only defeated the Balrog, but came back stronger and more confident) uncertainty that he could take the Witchking and the verbal beating the Witchking gives the white wizard. Sure he may have beaten Gandalf, but it -not- happening makes the imaginings of what it might've been like more interesting. Certainly Gandalf wouldn't have gone down easily and if he did fall, he probably would've 'died' again, not just run away with his cload between his legs.

<<<END SPOILER>>>

I think the battle at Minas Tirith is the main reason ROTK didn't do as much for me as FOTR, or even the weaker Two Towers. Tolkien's pacing of the battle was almost perfect and could easily translate into film without much conversion (the one glaring piece would be Theoden's speech, which in the book does a 'a little while earlier' flashback right before the charge. Jackson decided to put it in directly before the charge, which would seem odd for a relief force to stop so close to the enemy to deliver a long winded speech). They could've interlaced it in earlier and perhaps worked in some uncertaintly as to whether they'd make it to Minas Tirith in time to keep the tension). Instead, we get a whole set of unneeded events...all of which look pretty, but serve little real purpose.

Now I'm rambling....

I'd definitely be up for some recasts of the shoulder cannon/launcher. It's amazing how much better they look with it (again, it's all nostalgia, I guess). I doubt anyone cares about firing....as Anubis said, I could live with it even all cast together (although having the missile separate and being able to choose whether to put it in or not would also be nice to make some variety.

I suppose the ideal custom would take parts from both toys. Scavenge the windshield and headlights off of a Sideswipe, and the rest from Dead End. A custom head would be needed because Dead End's face really does look grim as it was pointed out. Still, all that needs to be changed is the face.

I've been thinking of that, given that I agree that the red windshield will look odd, if not outright wrong, and the headlights aren't going to look that great against yellow. I'm half wondering if there is anyway I can darken the rear window without emphasizing the reddish tone. A dark rear window wouldn't look too bad (heck, since I'd probably keep the custom in robot mode, even leaving it read wouldn't be horrible.

As for the head, it doesn't bother me that he looks unfriendly. The cartoon made Sunstreaker a sort of whiny-egotist, but from the toy's card, I always felt he was a more cold character (still egotistical, mind you), whereas Sideswipe was the more personable one.

Takara/Hasbro just needs to get off their duff and release a Sunstreaker. We've gotten a ton of Smokescreens...give us the one easy repaint all G1 fans really want.

Also any one done the Dead End custom repaint to Sunstreaker?

It's been something that's been nagging me since I picked him up a week or so ago. Everything about him screams Sunstreaker. I already know what I would want to do color-wise, but am fiddling around because I really don't have the skills or proper tools. It's been at least seven years since I seriously painted a toy/model. I suppose I'm not too frightened about the basic stuff (face, eyes) as much as I'm concerned over the card body. Don't have an airbrush anymore and was never a fan of brush-painting car bodies.

Does anyone have any suggestion on a yellow paint to use for the car body parts that should work well with Alternator plastic? Preferably one of those that comes in a spray format so I can work around my lack of a good method of application without brush strokes? Also, has anyone tried taking apart Sideswipe/Deadend? I can do good chunk by masking, but it'll be much easier if he comes apart cleanly without much damage. Prefer to ask before testing myself.

I may just have to buy a Binaltech red Meister and custom up a Cliffjumper head because I like the way he looks in red...it'll be funny that Cliffjumper will look out of place all fancy and diecast-like.

Yep, the 20in LCD was too good to not throw in...and I generally have disliked LCD quality.

I've had mostly good experience with Dells. My 486DX2 and first Pentium were both Dells and served me very well and the one time the mainboard died, they had another out to me with a guy to swap it (I suppose very useful if you don't know how to do it) within about 48 hours, if I recall. For almost a decade I had since been putting together my own, but I've had a lot of experience supporting Dells at work. Generally speaking, the old CP (and C600/800) series were pretty tough and rugged and I liked them for everything but their general bulk. I'd say they were superior to the Compaqs/Toshibas of their generation. Their LS series had basically the same problems as all the lightweight versions do...too much hot stuff crammed into too restrictive a place. And its hard to convince people that when your processor is a sliver of the size of its comparable desktop version it's going to be slow, no matter what its listed speed. We've gone Compaq/HP in the recent years (bought out by a company that basically lives, breathes, and dies with Compaq/HP), so I can't comment on the most recent Dell generations, unfortunately.

The nice thing about the Dell desktops (at least the Dimension series) is that they are almost entirely standardized so if you're in need of a massive overhaul, you can grab one and use it as a base to upgrade (until the next time there's a motherboard form factor change, of course ). I do agree that it would've been nice to get an AMD instead of Intel, but I suppose I can live with it for now...

They had a similar deal (40% off) on desktops last week. I decided to swallow my pride of putting together my own PCs and load the puppy up on anything that they weren't gouging on. It's always nice to buy a $3000 PC that you could've put together for maybe $2000-2500 for just a little over $1500.

Some of those Inspiron laptops are on par with my old desktop in raw general power. You always have to be weary of mobile versions of processors and graphics cards, but some of them look like they'd make good LAN party gaming machines without having to lug around desktops and monitors...

Here is the first shot of the new concept, I look forward to yout input.

Hey! It sort of looks like a squared off version of my old 'F/A-59 Cavalier' design.

F/A-59 Cavalier

Very cool to possibly see a similar design done in 3-D (you would think I would've gotten around to trying to model it in the past decade or so since I drew that, but I just never got into 3-d modeling as a fun hobby). I think my original inspiration came from one of the old Transformer Targetmaster jets, except he was a dual-cockpit design and instead I went with an asymetrical one-side's the gun option.

I do have to agree a bit with Lynx. The stuff I've seen so far from you is great, but you do what to watch designing everything towards a similar point. Even in a short period of time a company will have different looks, even if minor. I know its difficult to do (besides the fact that they're all suffering from my poor rendition skills of the early nineties, my fighter doodles, although often different in design, do all appear like they came from the same mind).

I may have missed them, but have you done any renderings of your craft in fleshed out scenes (with lighting, background, etc)? I think all I've seen is sort of 'civilian book on military vessel' type of art against white backgrounds. It would be interesting to see a rendering in their 'native habitat' so to speak.

I do feel obligated to applaud those cosplayers who were enthusiastic and/or definitely playing out the characters with vigor (the two that come to mind that I know who they were impersonating were Cobra Commander and Cid Highwind although there were others, such as the 'Eater of Sooouls!'). Say what you want about cosplayers, but I always applaud someone who throws energy into whatever they're doing (of course, unless they're negatively affecting someone else, like an enthusiastic serial killer).

If you haven't ventured into the folder of that movie to watch any of the other clips, it's definitely worth it. Todd Roy (the guy you see talking/holding the steady cam in this video) is a very cool and funny guy and has similar (although not as outright hilarious) videos from other cons, both comic and martial arts. He himself is a independent actor/director who makes (campy) martial arts movies, so he's really laughing with a lot of these folks, not at them.

Since the phrase has been mentioned already, I don't suppose I can get into trouble for showing the original image that featured it. It's fun to know it still lives on (first saw the image at least 4-5 years ago...in fact, someone did a similar one where it says 'Everytime you send that damn image, God kills a domo-kun' with a domo kun being chased by two kittens.

Are the levels in general as confined as the demo one? It just felt wrong to have a game where you could change into a motorcycle mode, then have the driveable area be as wide as a supermarket aisle with obstacles. For some reason it felt worse than the 'bubble ceiling' over the ground missions in Battlecry. I'm hoping it was just because the demo level appears to be the prologue or tutorial type level of the game.

Until I hear something really enthusiastic about some part of the game, it's definitely an eventual rental or 'well, it's only $10' type game for me, which is a shame because I am a fan of the Next Generation/Mospeada mecha. I don't really feel the need to pay full price for an 'okay' game.

Weren't most of the original G1 regular sized first release Autobot cars from the same toy line (a Microman spin-off, iirc?)...after all, most, if not all, had to the cockpits for a little guy (much like the Dinobots and the Seekers).

Different transformations styles would be nice, but it might be hard to keep them from looking too 'robot with car parts hanging off' while maintaining a good level of articulation. Besides, as someone pointed out, most of the car companies probably are emphasizing having the front end by the chest to show off the body style.

You know, I was looking over my old G1 guys (have all of the Autobots from the first two years from my childhood, although a few aren't as complete as they once were) and was thinking how potentially easy it would be to basically perfectly copy the modes, but put in more articulation with today's technology. Sure you'd run the risk of more breakage if legs could be bent and such, but it would depend on the market you were selling it to. Almost all your first season G1 regular size Autobots could be redone almost identical to how they were (with maybe some face adjustments to look like the cartoon if people preferred), but with individual legs, more arm articulation, and even more hip articulation. You might need to up the scale a bit, but people are showing interest in larger scales with the alternators anyway. That would make all the old G1 fans happy without whining over who doesn't look correct....but, then again, you do have all the car licensing issues, so that idea is pretty much null and void.

Okkkk.....the jaguar mode is just cheesy.....

To be fair, I believe that was just supposed to be the seller's goofy interpretation (and maybe even a commentary on how wrong the bipedal form was for Ravage).

Still, it irks me. I'd almost rather have a more human head if they were going to make Ravage humanoid. While I was an early proponent of Ravage as a Jaguar with a feline robot mode, I'm almost really digging the notion of a motorcycle as you could then have a Rumble as the rider (regardless of what he transformed into). Tell me Rumble doesn't reek motorcycle punk. Buzzsaw and even Laserbeak would also not make cool bike names, but could work for their animal forms.

I agree. Better to have a car (maybe license a Jaguar type?) that turns into a four-legged animal (if you can make it look good) than have some weird Egyptian cat god looking robot. To me, whether he just growls like the old cartoon or can actually speak like in the comics or Beast Wars, Ravage should always look like a predatory animal, not a humanoid.

It's a real shame that one Scion (I think it was Scion) commercial where the robotic large cat transforms into one of their cars really was more of a morph. Otherwise, it would be perfect choice for our favorite Deceptikitty.

If Ravage is a car, though, and you eventually make a Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, etc, would Soundwave have to be a car carrier ala Ultra Magnus? Would bring a whole new visual look to "Ravage...Rumble...Laserbeak...Eject!" as cars fly off him.

Personally, I always liked the content old spirits. Was a nice way to close it. While I'm sure Lucas has some logic as to why we have a young Anakin and old everyone else (Anakin redeems himself at the end, so wouldn't the death of the 'good' Anakin happen as an old guy anyway...even if it's a 'second death'?...if Vader's 'not really the good Anakin', then where's Lucas' big redemption story. Is Lucas afraid of old age now and wanted to give Anakin a bigger reward than being a happy old man-spirit?) what REALLY bothers me is the shot of Hayden they've chosen. He doesn't have that kind, gentle, 'I'm now happy with my existence' look that Shaw had in that scene. He's got this crazed stalker look...or a 'I'll be back...muwhahahah!' look. Maybe it's just because they had to use some other shots of him because of shooting conflicts or maybe it's because Hayden just can't express anything but psycho stalker, but it's the way he looks that really ruins the scene now, not just his appearance.

Having seen this scene in motion, the one shot sadly DOES give you an idea of how bad the whole thing looks, btw...

Besides, by the time of episode IV, with no Jedi left to fight, it would probably be cheaper to use subjigated citizens as soldiers.

That's one thing that's disappointed me about the Stormtroopers=clones information. Logically, if you were a dictator of an expansive empire, you'd almost certainly WANT to draw upon your population for the army, whether be it from direct draft or making it seem like the 'cool' thing to do.

First of all, you eat up a good chunk of the energetic, able bodies young men (and maybe women) who are bound to be a troublemaking part of the population. Secondly, you then get to all but brainwash them through drills and emphasizing the 'nobility'of their cause and loyalty to their nation. Thirdly, you can glorify the military to the point where those who don't serve are considered less worthy and even unfit to hold office or even be listened to, which weakens the effect of dissidents who don't go 'through the system'. Fourthly, you're providing jobs and pay to the lower classes of the population. Fifthly, you're making anyone who rebels forced to fight their own sons, nephews, and husbands, which can easily eat at their heart.

I could go on, but my point is that by making your army an outside entity with no attachment to the populace, you strip all that away. You provide no extra jobs, you let the young and reckless run rampant, you alienate the people from their troops, giving them no incentive to root for them or reason to not kill your men. All you have is fear and while time has proven again and again from the earliest days to the present that fear can control and manipulate the masses, it's not deep rooted and can easily be overturned if the people are ever given something to doubt the validity of what they fear.

So it's not entirely logical that the Emperor would employ clones in the OT. Then again, it's also not logical that someone would hire a thug that can't accurately shoot someone who's sitting across the table, so I suppose it fits in the Star Wars universe...