Graham

I'm not a big fan of the JSF concept. It seems to be too much of a 'Jack-of-all-trades' plane IMO. It tries to be too many things at once and does nothing very well. Limited payload, unless external pylons are added, which compromises stealth. No gun on some models (will they never learn). Sure you can add a gun pack in the internal bay, but that ties up space needed for other ordnance. Limited self defence capability. Can't carry Sidewinders internally (seeker head partially blocked by body) so has to use AMRAAMS instead. OK for medium to long range, but not so good in a knife fight (and when is BRV combat ever allowed anyway)! Poor rear visibilty. Not really faster or more agile than existing planes. No off-boresight targetting (like most US planes)! I know that the JSF is supposed to be 70% geared towards ground missions and 30% for air-to-air, but it seems curiously poorly suited for both IMO. And yes I know that the JSF is supposed to use internal weapons only for the early days of a campaign thus maximizing stealth and will only start carrying external weapons only once air superiority has been acheived. However, even with air superiority, there may still be ground threats that haven't been neutralized, long into the campaign. It always makes me smile when I read about how short range air-to-air combat is a thing of the past and that all air combats will take place at long ranges with missiles (people having been saying this for what, the last 50 years LOL!). In theory this sounds good, but modern rules of enagement are so tough, especially when operating in an environment with other allied forces aircraft, i.e. Desert Storm or pretty much every NATO/allied joint operation in the past decade, that getting a visual ID before firing is essential. I think the US is placing far too much emphasis on radar defeating stealth recently. It's expensive and difficult to maintain and Infra Red Search & Track (IRST) sytems are improving by leaps and bounds that an aircraft with a good IRST system will probably be able to detect, track, lock-on and fire at a so called 'Stealthy' F-35 or F/A-22 anyway. Personally, I think the the Europeans have the right idea about multi-role planes with the Gripen, Typhoon and Rafale, which I think are superior to anything the US has in the air, except probably the F/A-22. Graham

Note, as this is not a Macross question it is being moved to the 'Other Anime & Science Fiction' forum. Graham

Whoops sorry, thought I'd answered this a long time ago. It looks like I'm not going to need the decal set , but thanks for remembering. Graham

It also left a Valk's decapitated body lying on the floor next to his own severed head. A head which at this time has no name. I know his name. There can be only one! I have something to say! It's better to burn out, than to fade away! Graham

LOL....not true. The 1/55 is a very tough toy. Graham

I use forward view all the time in VF-X2. It's the only way to play! I've never had a problem with it on both my original disk or my bootleg copy. Graham

For those of you in HK, I found one shop yesterday that had the VF-0S in stock. It's that small hobby shop on the 1/F of Causeway Bay Center, just to the right as you go up the stairs. It was selling for HK$199, which I think is a bit too expensive. They had about 3-4 remaining. I didn't buy one. Graham

OK, I picked up Air Force Delta Strike (US ver) yesterday. Been playing it for a few hours now. As somebody else mentioned earlier in this thread, the gameplay and missions are sorta similar to AC4, just somehow not quite as good. I can't quite put my finger on what makes AC4 gameplay better, but it just is IMO. Still, the AFDS gameplay is not bad overall, although the yaw controls on the planes I have flown so far seem very unresponsive (I set the control settings to Ace B', which is pretty much the same as AC4). My biggest gripe with this game is that the dialog is the most annoying, purile, juvenile buncha horsecrap that I have ever had the misfortune of havinng to read plus the voice acting is awful. Graham

I'd love to know why the F-22 is not cleared to use it's thrust vecoring yet. First I've heard of it. Graham

Can some kind person please remind me just when exactly is the Blue MPC Alpha being released? I sorta remeber it was either Feb, March or May(?), but I'm too lazy to reread all the way through the 26 pages of this thread again. Graham

I wonder if the radio chatter will be in English on the Japanese version, as all I can buy out here is the Japanese version. I might buy this game purely for the English Electric Lightning, Tornado and the Eurofighter Typhoon, as I'm more a fan of British planes than I am of US planes. Not sure I like the funky color schemes though, sorta reminds me of the first Ace Combat game. Graham

In the past, I've suggested to Yamato several times that they should make a 1/48 accessory set, containing standing 1/48 pilot figures as well as non-articulated DYRL style hands (gunpod hand, open hand & fist), similar in concept to the 1J TV hands. Last time I mentioned this idea was about a month ago and they seemed fairly receptive to the idea, so there is a small chance it may eventually happen. Graham

Oh, you're still fighting against modern jets. The P-38 was slow, but very maneuverable. And they added rockets to it. Hmm....think I will give this a miss then. Graham

If you chose to fly a WWII plane, like the P-38 for example, do the missions automatically adjust so that the enemy planes are all WWII planes, or do you still have to fight against modern jets? Graham

Yup, you are correct, the Japanese release name is "Air Force Delta - Blue Wing Knights', not Blue Sky Knights, my mistake. I was thinking of picking this game up, but might hold off now. Does anybody know if this game features the Eurofighter Typhoon? (my favorite modern fighter). Graham

Presently Yamato has no plans to release Macross 2 toys and has indicated that it will probably not make any. Macross 2 is not very popular in Japan and even though it may be more popular in the US, Yamato cannot legally make Macross toys for the US market. Graham

The new series may be good, or it may not...................The point is I DONT CARE! I'm just so disappointed that SK and BW have let us down so badly by not making a new Macross TV series. It's ten years already since we had Macross 7 and it's about time for a new TV series. Could Macross Zero be the last hurrah for Macross? I'm now in the second day of my sulk after hearing this news, and I honestly feel like I'm close to losing faith in the Hoary Froating Head. Graham

Yawn...nothing there to interest me, except the Astrays which I've always thought were a pretty cool design. Mostly, I'm just so sick and tired of Gundam these days. About the only Gundam toys I would buy if Bandai made them are a FIX V2 Assault/Buster, the FIX grey Z-Plus C1 or a FIX Zeku-Eins (or any other Sentinel design). Graham

Is this the same game as the newly released 'Air Force Delta - Blue Sky Knights', or are you talking about a different game? I'm a big fan of the Ace Combat games (except # 3) and was considering picking up Blue Sky Knights to tide me over until AC5 is released. I've been looking online for reviews of Blue Sky Knights the past few days, but haven't been able to find anything yet. Confused. Graham

I'll get one of each, but only one. No multiples this time. I was never a big fan of Max & Millia's VF-1J anyway. Graham

I just tried Shawn's name and he is "Humongous Chimera". So Macrossworld is bought to you by: "Humongous Chimera" & "Innebriated Bluebird". My wife's name comes out as "Decoder Owl". One of my workmates got a cool name, "Black-Arts Stallion". Graham

"Innebriated Bluebird". Yup, that fits Graham

Sob....no new Macross TV series Damn Compendium for getting us all excited over nothing. SK, I'm very dissapointed! Graham

I've never seen this picture in any Japanese Macross book, so I assume that it is a pure RT work. The art style has vague similarties to Yoshiyuki Takani, the artist who did the box art for many of the old original Imai and Arii Macross models. Graham

I've never understood why the Guncannons in Gundam are painted bright red. I can acccept red mecha in Macross as it's only the Ace pilots who have the colored mecha, but the Guncannon is supposed to be a mass produced support mecha. Surely, a camoflage paint scheme of some sort (urban, jungle, desert camo etc) would make more sense. Mind you when it comes to all things military, I've always found Gundam far less realistic than Macross. Graham