JsARCLIGHT

This is my surprised face: I have a feeling the only people who did not see this coming were blind beggars on the streets of Calcutta... then again they don't see anything coming anyway.

Just a question, but how can people with only a Silver membership (and the one week delay) play AC6 online and encounter the missing maps?

I'm shocked they didn't do something like that sooner. With as hard as they push the Gold memberships you'd think they would phase out Silver just to make some more coin. Heck, I upgraded to Gold a while back and never even use it... it's there if I need it but I just never use it. This kind of shenanigans makes me want to keep it "just in case" now.

To Cory: Yeah but to be blunt that is all useless droll... you never have to use any of it in the game so including it adds nothing to the gameplay. It's more or less jerkin' material for sci-fi geeks. Having all that info in your game but no connection between it and the game pretty much is like having a feature that lets you read the newspaper in a GTA game... except none of the stuff you learn about in the paper is applicable to anything you do in the game. At the beginning I was actually reading all that gobbledygook until I realized it has zero bearing on the game. It's all just in there to make you say "oooooooh they really thought out this game"... but they didn't... if they would have thought out their game you would not be playing the same darned building layout over and over again. All they did was write reams of nonsense backstory and "lore" that you gain nothing from reading other than saying "gee, the writers sure got paid on this game". It would have been so much neater if by reading the codex your character gained insight into the world and it opened up new dialog choices or actions... like reading how the ship works means your character has the option to do something along those lines or solve some problem that comes up later in the game based on that knowledge that would have not been available to him if he had not read that material. Instead it's a reference manual to the mundane. IMHO the point of a video game is application of the data, not just data for the sake of data. In my mind why bother telling me what a Koala eats, how much a beach ball weighs on Mars and how my space suit channels my farts away from my face if I have no use for that information in the game? At least they could have snuck in the typical "password" tricks to force you to read the entries like most games do so you can write down passwords to open doors. To Mike: My complaints on Bioshock were not about it's atmosphere but about it's repetitiveness of certain elements. Bioshock had wonderful level design and lighting, but it kept falling into video game and movie cliches every now and then for it's "setpieces". While that is not a "bad" thing it certainly detracts from the game when you notice the "game" setting itself up. Kind of like the "lulls" in the Call of Duty games. You totally clear out a level of badguys then when cross an invisible line all of a sudden they flood the place out of nowhere. That is not a fault of the game's atmosphere but rather one of it's play mechanics. I will not argue that ME "looks good" but it has no functional variety. Everything is well lit, evenly laid out and bland. The game has no "mood". You enter places that are supposed to be ravaged or under attack and they look just like every other place you've been in. The most notable is Edit: I'm not trying to be an ass but I myself to a good degree have become a pseudo "art director" at my company and I just pick up on all these things these days that people oooooh and aaaaaah over that are more or less bland. Sure it looks nice but thematically it's not well thought out or laid out. The biggest gripe I have about ME is it's lighting... it's just so uninspired. At times it has these little specks of good lighting in it but it seems to waste those elements on mundane shots. Then in other situations that IMHO really call for some neat mood lighting it just blankets the scene in bland ambient light. Heck, simply "moody-ing up" some of the lighting in some areas of ME would have made quite a difference to me. Instead the future is quite well lit and relatively clean, even it's war zones are quite orderly and clean. When playing many levels of ME, not just the side missions, I kept thinking how they would have benefited from little things... lower the ambient drastically, add more concentrated lights, a tweenie here, a finger there, a gobo or two on the light sources and bam what was once a well lit, static and emotionless area of a level (like the tram station at Noveria that was supposed to have been a site of a gory death) can become an ominous, looming, foreboding place that you venture slowly into with trepidation and fear rather than just another room you tromp into and then leave.

The 360's HD DVD drive has it's own AC power, plus it's size is actually very small. You can set it next to your 360 or somewhere else and it really doesn't take up that much space. As for making your 360 run hotter that is pretty much untrue. My 360 is actually noticeably cooler and quieter running HD movies than it is playing games... mostly because it's internal DVD drive is not running. For what it's worth the Xbox'es HD DVD drive is probably the cheapest "best" HD DVD player you can get provided you already own a 360. It's cheap, it piggybacks the 360 and takes advantage of the 360's internet connection and menu system for updates to movies. Compared to my friend's Toshiba standalone HD DVD player I'm glad mine is the Xbox unit.

If they'd just spool to the HD it would not be much of a problem. I mean Oblivion pretty much required a HD and people didn't crap themselves over that. I still can't figure out why these new consoles come with hard drives when hardly any games use that function.

I believe most of my issues with ME's atmosphere come from the cookie cutter nature of the game. They were not setting out to make a cinematic experience through linear story telling, they set out to make a random world... as such their random world recycles a lot... well in truth it recycles way too much. Admittedly comparing a "use and reuse" game like ME to a linear scripted game like HL2 or Bioshock is not really fair. HL2 and Bioshock benefit from a lot of uniqueness because they don't have to worry about making twenty some planets and forty some building interiors... but at the same time damn... how many times when playing ME do you enter a base or a freighter and say to yourself "ok, first hallway into a foyer that only has one door into a big room full of crates into another hallway into another foyer but this one has TWO doors that lead to two nearly empty rooms!... But WAIT! That crate! It's... gasp... different!" ME's level layouts always made me wonder if every building in the future rolled off of some huge assembly line somewhere. It's almost as if one huge company got the contract to build every building in the universe and they used prefab tilt up structure for all of it. I wonder how they were able to get such seeming uniqueness and randomness out of KOTOR levels but ME is just so darn repetitious.

Actually IMHO Mass Effect fails at setting an atmosphere. Sure it tells a story and sets a plot but the atmosphere of the game just feels... meh. Everything is so repetitious in it's layout and look, nothing really has a unique "flavor" to it in the game. One planet looks just like the ten others you were on an hour ago and none of them set a mood or give you an emotional response. It's all brightly lit generic hallways linking to generic rooms inhabited by generic enemies. Sure they'll change out the textures every once in a while but it all feels so "been here before". The same argument can be made for Bioshock... it was very good at setting it's atmosphere of creepy but that look and palate just continues through the whole game with minor tweaks. They did a good job of "livening it up" with asymmetrical level designs and ever changing enemy skins though. You have to admit that unlike ME when playing Bioshock you don't say to yourself "Deja Vu! I've been here before!" every time you land on a planet or board a ship. HL2 has spots that take your breath away, both from a cinematic sense and an emotional sense. Ravenholm was creepy as hell, City 17 was eerie and looming. Heck Bioshock always seemed to find a new way to creep me out around every other turn. Mass Effect was bland... I know it's the "future" and all but when I board a derelict freighter or land on a hostile enemy world infested with Rachnai I want to be creeped out like I was playing Ravenholm or Apollo Square, not focusing on how "the same" everything looks. ... and "atmosphere" and art direction are quite weak in the game world. Six or seven really well designed, atmospheric games compared to what, a hundred? two hundred? It's just like everything else. Out of a hundred TV shows only one or two are "good". It's because there are far more folks looking to make money than make art.

Which keeps bringing the topic back to innovation... more notably it's strange absence. I myself would love to see solid numbers on actual REAL hard core anime piracy. Meaning the stuff that is copies of what is available rather than some taped off of television fansubbed entitiy. If I had to bet, I'd bet that the actual amount of true hardcore stolen stuff is quite low compared to the fansubs. I'd also like to see what kind of expectations and return on investment the anime importers think should be happening. I mean, IMHO I would place a large share of the "failure" of the current world of imported anime on the general "suckiness" of the imported product rather than piracy. The exact same line of reasoning that rises when people look for answers when Hollywood is "off" or when the music industry is downturning. Is this a TRUE age of burgeoning internet crime or is that being blown out of proportion because folks refuse to admit it's instead an age of crap shows and unliked movies? Are people "voting their displeasure" by "stealing" the media rather than paying for it?

But you have to admit that the whole situation is a catch22. The "system" moves slowly due to not just the time it takes to process the proper licenses and agreements and translate and print up the materials but the financial "risk" of releasing anime. If you believe the reports then anime sales are dropping and people put the blame on downloads. If lower sales are inevitable then the chance of more anime being imported drops as well because businesses will not want to risk the loss. People are mad because it takes so long (or not at all) for anime to come to the US but the anime that does come and offered for sale (according to the sellers) is being undermined by the downloads which means those companies will most likely not bring in more anime leading to people complaining the anime they want to see is not coming to them fast enough so they download more anime. It's a destructive cycle if left to continue... From a business sense if I was a domestic distributor who was looking to import anime the first thing I'd do is surf all the torrent sites and see how "available" the show I wanted to import was. If I saw a ton of it easily available and all over the place I'd choose not to import that title out of fear no one would buy my legitimate release. After all, as the importer it costs me a lot of money to legitimately import and release a show... it costs the pirate fansubbers nothing but their time. All the while they work outside of the legal license system, which means they do not suffer the time setbacks that I as a legal importer do. I have to wait until the series is finished and then jump through all the hurdles of licensing it and talking with the makers, writing checks, ramping up my own people to translate and design packaging etc. etc. etc... while the fansubbers can rip, translate and upload the same material the week it hits the Japanese airwaves. It seems to me the thing people want to see is the one thing that is not entirely possible, which is a simultaneous US/Japanese release. It takes a big company with deep pockets and ambition to pull that off. They DO do it every once in a blue moon but it's just not financially or logistically possible for everything to do that. It would be like someone making a TV show for a niche cable channel like A&E or the History Channel knowing they will have to make TWO edits of their show during production, one for the US market and one for the Japanese market. At best it adds to their production time at worst it doubles their production budget... and most TV shows, Japanese or American, are bootstrapping as it is.

I myself enjoy Half Life 2... for no other reason that it's a fun romp. It's the first game that I've ever played that makes you feel "smart" when you do something goofy like launch lawnmower blades at people or grab enemy grenades and shove them down their throats with that gravity gun. That and HL2 has something few games truly have these days... atmosphere. A lot of games fumble and paw at atmosphere but they never really pull it off IMHO. It always feels like you are playing a corny video game.

Which is why I personally believe our current "system" favors the corporations, restricts the artists and makes criminals out of everyday people who just want to see/hear their materials. A new system is needed before the "pirate life" corrupts an entire generation into thinking that is the only way to get their entertainment. It's a noble approach to wish to patronize the creators of the materials you enjoy, but if you believe the numbers you are in the dwindling minority. Edit: I'm not trying to say I favor the "big corporations" or the "little kid in his basement downloading songs". I personally sit in the middle. I neither want the greedy corporations to "win" nor do I believe the media downloaders are innocent. All I really want is for people to be aware of the laws and know when they are "crossing that line". I cannot say that I am "innocent" of downloading things as I am not... I just try to limit my use of it and shield myself, and those I care about, as much as possible from the very long, sometimes indiscriminate arm of the law.

And it almost goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: Keep it above boards guys. No religious debate, sniping or goading please. In other words, talk, praise or bash the art and the "artist" (ok I spit my drink up a bit typing that) and not the source.

Well, viewing the activities through the eyes of the law, laws are still being broken... all of them not necessarily by you. Just a simple listing of legal infractions are the original broadcast material recorded and redistributed (rebroadcast) over the internet without permission of the creator by the fansubber, illegal distribution of copyrighted material (via downloaded materials) by the fansubber and from those come the civil suits for damages. Compensation from damages in court may include items such as lost profits from the infringing activity, or statutory damages ranging from $250 to $150,000 for each infringing copy or higher if the court feels that the infringement was committed "willfully." The lion's share of copyright law, and it's infringement, is done by the fansubber in this case, or the "disseminating party". The person who illegally copies and distributes the copyrighted media is the primary one in the hot seat. HOWEVER the second you as an individual share that illicit file you too are liable for the same infractions as the fansubber and in some cases, and under some courts, you can also be held liable for simply being in possession of the illegal material. In the eyes of the law the final purchase of a legitimate release does not negate the participation in illegal activity beforehand. It's comparable to stealing a crude copy of a book, reading that copy of the book, then going out and buying the real book afterwords. The final purchase of the real book does not forgive the initial theft of the book's materials... even if the stolen copy was sub par. And that is the thrust of copyright law... the "thing" you are watching/listening to/reading is not just a "thing" (as in an item you can hold in your hands) but it is also the idea, the intangible substance of what it is. And when it comes to artistic media, which transcends a physical form in many cases, the "idea" is the thing... and obtaining the idea through unsanctioned or illicit means is still theft. Even if you have no legitimate access to the media it is still seen as theft. The legal argument that "you had no other road to obtain the media so you downloaded... but you purchased it later" doesn't hold up in court sadly. Hence the confusion and quagmire of media copyright law.

You know, I just noticed the 1080p TV I'm looking at has a 15 pin VGA input. I guess that settles my need for a new Xbox... the old soldier will march on! Now in OTHER non ME Xbox talk: Anyone playing Orange Box?

How has the reliability been with the newer HDMI equipped Xboxes? I've been thinking of buying a new 360 with HDMI out to go with my new 1080p TV purchase this holiday season but I have this nagging feeling that my old 360 has been such a trooper but I fear a new one will fry in two days. By all accounts of reason that should not happen and my old one should have broken ten times over by now according to everyone I've talked to... but I fear Murphy's law that the second I replace my old unit with a new one the new one will melt down.

At which point I will rename it the Grand Theft Auto 4 / Xbox 360 thread. In all seriousness I beat ME and find myself really bored with the game. So much work for so slight of differences it seems.

I *finally* beat the game tonight... but I had to cheat my difficulty back down to Normal because I just couldn't survive the last few fights. I guess my levels were too low and my stills too weak to survive on Hardcore at the end. Even so I finished the game on level 49. I'm not sure when I'll get back to playing it again as I still have to finish Orange Box. I fully recommend the pistol and sniper rifle. Especially at the end my sniper rifle with the crazy nuclear rounds (not their real name, I forget their real name, but the ones that gave you like a 500% damage bonus but that instantly overheated the weapon) and as much coolant as I could fit in completely obliterated anything in nearly one shot. I know others here love the hell out of that Assault Rifle but I played through 90% of the game on Hardcore the first time through using only a pistol and a sniper rifle and found those to be "the only way to go" for long range accurate fire. Everything else is a close range bullet hose.

The important thing to keep in mind about consumer rights pertaining to television shows recorded in your home is that the US legal system views most of the law as "doorstep" law. Meaning they will generally not bother you with whatever you do with their media that you recorded at home on your VCR/DVR/DVD burner etc. as long as that media does not "cross your doorstep". That "doorstep" interpretation has to do with dissemination and distribution as it relates to the '76 Copyright Act, and this is the part of the law that the most people are confused with. You ARE legally allowed to record programs off of TV, Cable or satellite for view in your own home. You ARE legally allowed to show your recorded copy to as many people as you wish, as long as you do not charge them to view it and it is done (and this is the "doorstep clause") in the privacy of your own home. The "Privacy of your own home" can be legally extended to your friend's house, your parent's house and other "private" locations to which you can bring the recorded media. The caveat is that you CANNOT legally distribute or disseminate that media by any means. That means if you take that program you recorded off of TV and put it on the internet, make copies of the tapes (even just "for friends") or duplicate it in any way and give it to people other than yourself (for as stupid as it sounds the law only allows people to make copies for "their own personal use") you have now broken the law as the material you recorded has now "crossed your doorstep" and left your "control". I'm not sure how Japan's copyright law functions (I am only familiar with the US laws), but I do know that the two countries have had agreements since 1906 and that Japan was one of the countries involved in the UCC Geneva agreement in the '50s as well as being party to every following international copyright agreement since including the most recent WTO accords. International copyright agreements ensure that member nations all uphold and agree to enforce each other's copyright laws as they pertain to their individual nation's programming. Which means a television show recorded off of Japanese TV is subject not only to Japanese copyright law but by extension of UCC Geneva and all the international accords that came after it those programs are also protected under US Copyright law. Which all that mumbo jumbo means a TV show copied off of Japanese TV and "redistributed" (even for "free") in the US is bound by Japanese copyright law. If the Japanese say (like we do) that distribution and dissemination of privately recorded materials is illegal then we in the US uphold their law. Is anyone here familiar with Japanese copyright law, specifically how it applies to "fair use" of home recorded media from broadcast and what caveats are on the distribution and dissemination of that copied material? If I had to -guess- (and guessing with the law is BAD) I'd guess that their law is just like ours, perhaps with only a handful of differences... but without knowing the actual law and how it relates to the consumer it's a very bad area to be in when engaging in possibly illegal activities. And as I've said before in this thread that is how most people "get in trouble" with copyright law... they do not property understand it or even know it at all and they -guess- as to what they think it means or how it applies to what they are doing. And that is how the Government gets them. They wander right into the trap thinking they are in the "right" only to discover after it's too late that they are in big trouble.

My Xbox 360 5 free HD DVD's finally arrived today with no substitutions. About freaking time...

I always liked Macross from back in my big "anime watchin'" days in college and one day in the late '90s early '00s I just started using dogpile to search for Macross stuff. Kind of an "out of the blue" thing. I found my way onto MW but didn't join or post until like very late 2000 or 2001. Truthfully I lurked so long and suddenly came into the light was because the other message board that I spent all my time at switched over to private membership and it's discussions dried up and, let's face it, I needed something I liked to talk about while I goofed off at work. Now I own my own "shop" and when I'm not telling my minions what to do I'm on here keeping you slugs in line.

Now take all those problems and jam them into a toy half or a third the size it really needs to be to function properly.

That sounds more like the gimmick of "limited edition" rather than the theory of limited return. The theory of limited return is not about "added value for added price", it's all about a company knowing they will never sell out and they price their product high so the ones that do sell cover their margins. There is nothing special about the product outside of the fact that the maker feels it does not have the market clout to be a "winner" and they hedge their bets. The limited return principal flies in the face of basic supply and demand logic and few companies actually try to employ it, because it can turn on you in a heartbeat. It's not accepted "smart" business sense to distribute an item you have little to no confidence in at a higher price. Modern business is all about volume rather than set piece sales, which means a practice like limited return is only used by "desperate" men in strange circumstances... which IMHO describes the US anime industry well. They are selling a virtually unmarketable product which has low initial demand, low "face" and low prospects. It's like trying to sell a left handed hot pink handgun that only takes golden bullets... they know they'll sell one or two of them, but that's about it. So they hedge their bets, only make a small number of them, spend nothing on marketing them, rely on word of mouth to build "face" and price them so high that even if they only sell one they break even on cost.

Well, now that the "next generation" of media is here (Blu Ray) which shares a region code between the USA and Japan if the chips fall right we may actually see dual country anime releases become more common. I believe a few anime releases on Blu Ray like Tekkonkinkreet have been released simultaneously in the US and Japan. And seeing as the format shares regions Japanese can openly import US movies and vice versa.

From what I remember it does share some story elements and plot devices with Laputa, but really only in the same sense of how it shares story elements with Jules Verne. I recall it being very "borrow heavy" in its designs and story elements from various sources but overall I don't remember it being anything like Laputa outside of a few story set pieces that bear similarity. I mean, there are only so many story arcs and plot elements that go around before everything "copies" something else. But the underlying point of Nadia being "borrow heavy" rings true. It's a Gianax show, which means the parody/homage is thick. Even when watching it back in the '90s I thought it was a little over the top in some of it's homage. Nemo in particular.