David Hingtgen

Heretic! Well, at least now I know who to blame for the movie failing/bad reviews/new ship sucking, etc.

Regardless, I have to agree. The Enterprise is probably the most iconic starship ever. People who have never seen Trek and don't even know Kirk's first name can identify the Enterprise. It really doesn't need/shouldn't be changed. It's a timeless design. My money's on it looking NX-01ish though, no matter how many people complained (and still do) about NX-01 looking wrong for its era, and Trek in general.

That Scarface F-18 really sucks IMHO--it still has the Top Hatter's markings on the fuselage. Those are very distinctive. Maybe the re-texturer guy assumed those were inherent to the F-18 or something, and not part of VFA-14's current scheme. (Plus it has the same black and yellow tail) That's the laziest AC6 repaint by far. (And you KNOW a Jolly Rogers Super Hornet would sell)

Ok, poor wording. I understood after about 5 secs that Link headed directly towards the current location of the stylus, not the "path" the stylus took. But I still ended up having to "draw" the path, as he literally ran straight to the stylus--regardless of cliffs and walls in his way. So you have to constantly reposition the stylus to get him to follow a path around obstacles and not just run into everything--effectively constantly drawing a path parallel to his actual route. And I still couldn't see. I don't have big hands, I pretty much blame the odd positioning. Link's at the top of the screen, not centered. And that introduced a lot of issues, to me at least. I think I'll just replay Oracle of Ages and Seasons, I only ever did those once. (Minish Cap may be prettier, but not as good IMHO---doubt I'll ever replay it)

In AC6, grading is PURELY on points scored. Kill as much as you can. Each mission/submission has its own requirements---in some, 10,000pts is enough for an S, others want 70,000pts. Other AC games are more dependent on going fast, but "amount of stuff killed" is always the primary thing---and in AC6, it's the only thing. You actually want to go slow---if you kill just the required targets, you won't kill much overall. Kill everything BUT the targets to get a lot of points, then kill off the targets to complete the objectives. Some missions though, just killing the targets may be enough (or nearly so) for an S. Others will require you to take out 95% of what's on the entire map. If you want S's, use a plane that can wipe out large formations of ground targets at a time. Or something unbeatable in the air to take out many non-target planes. The CFA-44 is well-known as basically being the "S-earner". Might want to wait until you have that. (S's are certainly possible with many planes, but it's much faster and easier with the CFA-44)

Shawn and Graham are the only ones who knew, no mod was informed AFAIK---we all saw it the same time you guys did. Hurin?

90% of my GBA playing is with my GC's GBA player. I like having a real controller and a big, bright screen. Honestly, the best thing in the world would be a DS Lite player for the GC. Just eliminate the touch-screen parts. (Most of the games I like don't use it at all past the first screen, or only implement it as a small gimmick at the insistance of Nintendo). PS---tried the Zelda demo at Target. Didn't like it at all. Moving Link with the stylus just doesn't work, because you can't see. Link is always near the top of the screen, so to move him up/left/right, you have to have the stylus (and your hand and fingers) near the very top of the screen---which means the entire rest of your hand is covering the entire screen. The only time you can see, is when you're commanding Link to head due south---then your hand is mostly below the screen, and you can see. I tried for several minutes, but got frustrated as I just could never see more tan 40% of the screen, and Link had almost no ability to get around corners etc. If you "take the turn" too early by 1 pixel to get in a door, you have to draw a fairly complex path to get him to back up and out and over and try again---his turn radius sensitivity sucks for when he's stuck/in a corner. Maybe if I had a foot-long stylus, then I could keep my hand hovering around the perimeter. DS is for quckly tapping areas IMHO, not "continuous drawing". Constant drawing on the screen obscures your vision, whereas a quick tap doesn't matter much. Note that I am a HUGE "Gameboy Zelda" fan and consider Zelda 4 to be among the very best of all Zelda games. But this just annoyed me.

...because the YF-21 is based off of the YF-23. It's kinda like the whole "VF-1's painted as F-14's" thing. There is no equivalent for the YF-19 or VF-11 etc. It's the "real life" scheme for the YF-21. And it's also why Dobber's Flanker-esque camo is so cool on the Sv-51. It's a scheme the "real life eqivalent" wears. (or nearly so, Dobber's camo is his own design/variation, though based/inspired by a NSAWC F-14) It's not so much the scheme itself, but the fact that a brilliantly *appropriate* pre-existing scheme was used. If Kawamori ever makes a valk that looks like an F-15, then the Compass Ghost scheme will look very cool on it and be worthy of fawning over. Until then, it's just a misappropriated scheme. (Since each scheme is designed for a certain shape and pattern--F-18 camo doesn't work on an F-16, F-14 camo doesn't work on an F-15, etc) You can sure paint it like that, but it won't "work" like it's supposed to. The shapes on any feathered-edge two/three tone grey scheme is not just random blob shapes. They spend a lot of time testing and designing the pattern. (Admittedly, Hornets and Gripens have very generic, almost identical schemes that do not seem to have been designed for them really---there's no outline masking at all and many straight lines)

Hmmmn. I've still been holding out for an acceptable color. (I have a PILE of unplayed DS games now). Don't really want to wait 6 more months or however long it takes until the new one comes to the US. (And still really want Navy above all---maybe the new one will finally bring Navy over here)

Just FYI, every one of those VF-22 schemes are simply your standard F-14, F-15, and F-22 schemes. Plus a few experimental Heater-Ferris schemes (possibly F-14, but they remind me more of the ones F-4's wore). ::minor annoyed rant:: I'm always surprised how every time the standard "Compass Ghost" F-15 camo shows up on a valk, people all go "ooooh" and "aaaahhhh" like it was some amazing artistic masterpiece. No, it took 30 secs to photoshop a pre-existing design. It's the scheme every F-15 wore for 20 years, on a different plane. Nothing more. PS---the original "Low Vis" VF-1 toy is exactly that---the F-15's Compass Ghost scheme--both pattern, and colors. Nothing more. (Which is why it looks good and realistic--it is one of the most effective and common low-vis schemes in the real world--but it frankly doesn't take much creativity/work to come up with the idea on a valk)

Hmmmmn. I've never known rubbing alcohol to affect plastic like that. I've had plastic parts soak in sealed containers of 99% for days and it does nothing. (Though 99% will leave a slight white deposit/film on almost all parts with only a few minutes' contact--never figured out why). Anyone tried 70%? That usually won't strip paint, but I presume the silver paint on a US MP-03 is very "weak"---TF paint often is, and all metallics are inherently "weak". PS---same question as Mike Z----where's a good place to get MP Megs now, with the "least damaging" plug attached?

Oh, I play evil. Went through KOTOR 5 full times. 4 of them evil. KOTOR 2? 3 times, 2 evil (yes, I know it's not Bioware's). JE? 3 times, 2 evil. However, "killing everybody" or "scaring them away" closes a lot of plot lines/quests. Or at the very least, makes every side-quest much shorter. There is ALWAYS more to do, playing "good". Every quest is longer. You meet more people. You get more backstory on the game, plot, people, culture, etc. That is why I always play through "good" the first time. It will be inherently slower, but so are you, since it's your first time. You WANT to explore every nook and cranny, find every little thing you can. Find all the special armors and weapons, etc. But the second time through? You already know just about all there is, you just want to kill everything and see how that changes things. And you can still "cheat" and do the one or two "good" things you remember lead to awesome rewards, and it won't affect your evilness rating much. But if you were evil the first time, and went through quickly and just killed everybody--you never really know what's different as you'll never miss what you never knew was there. And if you make the "good" way the second time--it'll seem REALLY slow and frustrating, as all these whiny people who need your help will make it seem like it took twice as long as last time through. In summary: Evil is fun, but good makes it a deeper game. But Doing evil, then good, makes the good side slow/tiresome much of the time due to how you remember the first time and how many more fetch-quests etc there are. Plus you tend to have less money playing good which has a small but constant effect on playing. But playing good then evil---makes evil that much MORE fun because it seems faster and easier.

The wings won't even attach in GERWALK mode without locking the torso. There's an upper pair, and a lower pair of slots in the sides of the chest. The wings peg into the upper pair in fighter mode, and the lower pair in GERWALK. The chest didn't lock in battroid, but it was diecast/heavy so it wasn't quite so floppy.

Hey, that 3rd prototype has a TARPS pod. Well, I assume it's intended to be a telemetry pod etc, but it's clearly a slightly modified 1/72 F-14 TARPS pod. Hmmmn. All of us F-14 modelers always have tons of spare TARPS pods, since every kit ever comes with one, but most F-14's can't use them.

And the Penny-Arcade response to A. Creed reviews: (not linking at the moment because it'll be a different URL tomorrow, but it's on the front page now, scroll down) Hmmmn. Will wait for more. Honestly, if it does depend a lot on "doing everything" vs "trying to beat it as fast as possible" then that does make a big difference--heck, Bioware RPG's are that way, and part of the reason I always do "lightside" first. Then you see everything and take your time, helping people etc. "Evil" is for the second playthrough, going as fast as possible and just blowing stuff up. It's actually never as fun the second time, as you do encounter a lot of "I just did this" and "this is slowing me down" moments as you're probably just re-doing the core plotlines, not all the side stories. I don't have time for a sandbox game now--ME is out in 6 days, and I want to get my last few achievements for AC6. I might snag (or rent) A.Creed when I have more time--like January, after I've played ME 2 or 3 times and there's nothing coming out for a while.

...just like Kitty Pryde.

You know, that's actually identical to how the ORIGINAL YF-19 toy did it. Still surprised Yamato "forgot" how they did it on the old 1/72 one...

That was the most YF-21esque pic I could find, as the flaps were all out, kinda like the morphing wing.

YF-23 #1 paint! All gunship grey with white/blue tail striping.

I emailed my brother, will see what he says. Could easily depend on if he works late tonight/tomorrow.

Ahh, Lil'formers: http://www.lilformers.com/comic0067.php

MS does have a surprisingly helpful guide for Live, that is quite specific to your exact equipment. Not that easy to find nor well-known though: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connectt...ivitywizard.htm Also--I'd suggest unplugging (not merely shutting off) everything you have that's connected to the net. Wait 2 mins. Then plug it all in to your 360, and not allow anything else to even be connected at all. Power on your 360 first until it gets to the dashboard. Then power up your router etc. That's what it takes for my 360 to connect, but it works EVERY time. (30 secs isn't enough of a gap, it will be messed up as it will "search" for the PC as it "remembers" being connected and ignore the 360) Basically, if it can 'sense' a PC in any way, the 360 tends to get ignored.

Ok, the main issue is really beating Co-Op 2 before the timer runs out, but I did find in going through my last campaign that rockets really ARE that awesome against Aigaion (I took it down with an A-10), so much so that even just 2 people may be possible, and certainly could be done with 3.

Anyone wanna set a definitive time for Wed/Thurs/Fri night for a co-op? Also---Ace Combat 5 is being shipped en-masse to Best Buy etc as a greatest hits title (PS2). It's the best in the series, so go get it if you don't have it. Got my no-damage and attacker-only medals tonight (same playthrough). Multirole and guns-only next.

Basically--the sites I agree with often rate it low, the sites I think are full of it rate it highly.