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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    Not sure how you're finding it, but after kitting out my Odyssey and trying it on a few missions, I went back to my Sovereign. And yeah, I know that my alts can do the mission on any level and receive the ship, but it looks like they have to be a Commander to use it. Both of my alts are still LTs. My science toon will be a LT Commander soon, but my tactical toon is only a level 2. And even then, my Engineer toon flew cruisers, and I was planning on using science ships for my science toons and escorts for my research toon (and buy two more character slots so I can run a Klingon and a Romulan).
  2. mikeszekely
    Excellent! While I hadn't played in awhile, and I wasn't planning on playing again until the Romulan expansion, I'm glad you told me about this. Between whatever bonuses I had, special events I'd played, and ships I'd bought, my main toon had gone Constitution, Constitution refit, Excelsior, Galaxy, and Sovereign, plus I'd done last year's anniversary mission to net an Odyssey. An Ambassador was the only "Enterprise" he didn't have, so he just completed the set! I'll probably run the mission with my alts tomorrow, although they're both too low to use it and one of them is supposed to be doing science ships and the other tacticals. (I really ought to buy two more slots so I can play the Klingon and Romulan campaigns).
  3. mikeszekely
    There's an event to get a free Ambassador? What do I do? I must have this!
  4. mikeszekely
    Depends. Is money an object? The way I see it, you have two choices. The best choice is probably a Surface Pro. They start at $899 for a 64GB, and $999 for 128GB. It comes with a stylus (with Wacom tech, if I'm not mistaken), and is a full-blown Windows 8 PC with an Intel Core i5 CPU. You can buy a keyboard cover for it, so it can do double-duty as a laptop. Since it's a Windows PC, you can install Word on it (although it's sold separately), but it's also a little thicker than most tablets. If there's a Staples around, they should have it on display if your wife wants to check it out. Money is an object? Then I'd go with the Galaxy Note 10.1. It's an Android tablet, with 16GB of storage (although it's got a microSD slot). The stylus, called the S-Pen, is the Note's big selling point. Samsung includes plenty of productivity apps designed around the S-Pen, and there are apps in the Google Play Store that claim to be compatible with Word documents, but it doesn't actually run Word (yet), so your mileage may vary. The Note 10.1 should run around $450. At my Staples, the Note 10.1 isn't on display, but the slightly smaller Note 8 is, and I think it should be similar if you wife wanted to play with one before buying. Now, you could try the non-Pro Surface. I think it's $499 for a 32GB. It runs Windows RT, which is a modified version of Windows that runs on ARM CPUs. The plus side here is that Windows RT devices come with Office RT, including Word. The downsides, though, are that it can only get new apps from the Windows Store, since regular Windows programs aren't compiled for ARM. Also, unlike the Note and the Surface Pro, it doesn't come with a stylus.
  5. mikeszekely
  6. mikeszekely
    I'm not really a toy collector the way some board members are. I started collecting Transformers when Hasbro's first wave of Classics came out, and that was mostly because I was running high on nostalgia. I didn't and don't collect other toys, including Macross. As much as I love video games, I don't collect toys based on them, either. That being said, I'm seriously tempted to buy that Elizabeth.
  7. mikeszekely
    I did! I've been thinking about it, and the horror in Infinite is a lot different than in BioShock. It didn't matter where you were or what you were doing in Rapture, the place always felt wrong. That pervading sense of wrongness built a current of tension underneath it all. In Infinite, it's all about the contrasts. One minute you're enjoying Columbia's breathtaking scenery and enjoying a carnival, the next you're ramming a skyhook through a cop's face. Later you're climbing the tower of an experiment and getting attacked by a giant bird-monster thing, before moments later watching Elizabeth celebrate her freedom by dancing in the evening sun.
  8. mikeszekely
    On the one hand, that's the best Arcee I've seen. On the other hand, I was never that into Arcee, and I can't imagine paying whatever they wind up asking for her.
  9. mikeszekely
    Well, I'm not happy, because 1313 looked pretty sweet, but it's not like it's the end of Star Wars video games. Some of the best Star Wars games of the last decade have been done by external studios, like KOTOR (BioWare), Battlefront (Pandemic), and Lego Star Wars (Traveller's Tales).
  10. mikeszekely
    I've now finished the original and Infinite... can we be pals again? I have a copy of BioShock 2 that I'm going to install and play. I'm just going to wait until the weekend. I've been blowing off my classes to play video games and now I need to catch up.
  11. mikeszekely
    Hmm... I might pick up Eject & Ramhorn, but I'll pass on Rewind and Sunder.
  12. mikeszekely
    Anyone who wants to argue that games aren't art needs to play BioShock Infinite. I'm still digesting the story (I only found 60-something Voxaphones), but that ending... it was just incredible.
  13. mikeszekely
    I really wish more developers would take a hint from BioShock. You can make a 1st person shooter with a single-player mode that has compelling characters, a fantastic story, and a is worth buying without blowing 90% of your budget on copying Call of Duty's multiplayer.
  14. mikeszekely
    How'd you finish so fast? I've devoted all of my free time since Tuesday to it, and I don't think I'm more than halfway.
  15. mikeszekely
    I'm not disagreeing with you there; I'm impressed that it went on as long as it did. I'm not mad that it's being cancelled, I'm mad that the creative team is being given the axe instead of a full season to wrap things up.
  16. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I downloaded and installed it. I definitely intend to go back and finish it. That said, I'm playing Infinite first. Because it's awesome. The Skyhook might be my new favorite thing ever.
  17. mikeszekely
    Yeah, it's starting to sound like they might get to tie up all the plotlines they planned to... http://www.theforce.net/topstory/story/The_Clone_Wars_Team_Reportedly_Being_Disbanded_150781.asp
  18. mikeszekely
    Sorry, the first BioShock came out at an awkward time for me, when I was transitioning from console gaming into PC gaming. That made it really difficult for me to get into. I'm a lot more into PC gaming now, and I've got a better setup, so I'm all ready for Infinite.
  19. mikeszekely
    So, here's the thing. While I played the original BioShock, I never finished it. Maybe because I'm weird, I even bought BioShock 2 at some point, and never even installed it. So all the coverage and hype about Infinite over the last year has been completely lost on me. Background noise. Didn't care that a new one was coming out. Then the reviews started coming in. My, that's a lot of perfect scores. Suddenly, my curiosity is piqued. I kinda do want to play this game. But maybe not $60 want to play it. On a whim, I look for it on Steam. I don't care how good it is, there's no way I'm playing it on a console. And I see that they have pre-order bonuses, some of which would only be available if enough people preordered the game. With three hours until launch, all of the bonuses were unlocked. Bonus 1: some extra DLC junk. Meh. Bonus 2: A Steam copy of BioShock. Well, I have a disc, but I guess a Steam copy is convenient. Maybe even the push I need to finish it, right? Bonus 3: A bunch of crap for Team Fortress 2. Which I don't play, since I'm not really into multiplayer. So extra meh. Bonus 4: A Steam copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Hey, wait a second, that game's pretty new. And it got really good reviews. And I didn't buy it yet. So $60 for an excellent game that's less than a year old and what could be the game of the year 2013? TAKE MY MONEY!
  20. mikeszekely
    So I'm thinking it's probably been around a year or so since I played STO (I remember playing it heavily after I moved in the fall of 2011, but I'm not sure how long). I might have to get into again, though, since they announced their first real expansion, Legacy of Romulus. Not only will Romulans be a playable faction, but stuff's getting added to the Klingons, too, so you can start either faction at level 1 and not have to play the Feddie stuff first. I'll have to see how many character slots I have, and maybe even buy one or two more.
  21. mikeszekely
    Patlabor's one of those things I always meant to watch and never did. I mean, somewhere around here I have the movies on DVD, but I've never watched them. My only experience with Patlabor is the first episode of the TV series (which I'm given to understand is much lighter in tone).
  22. mikeszekely
    Year of the Snake Optimus came today. He's not as exciting as Omega Supreme. I realize that he's a toy from another, simpler time in Transformers toys, but still... His alt mode is pretty crappy. His trailer is kind of oddly shaped, about as long as as tall as MP-10's, but shaped in a way that it looks like a shorter, taller trailer tipped to the side. The cab has an antenna that is out of place, has what is obviously the back of Prime's head sticking out of the top, and has Prime's forearms just hanging in the back... they don't even peg into anything! His bot mode is worse. Almost none of the cab's mass is anything but torso, giving him a bloated middle with small lower legs and feet and stumpy arms. The antenna is even more out of place without Prime's shoulders filling in the space underneath. Adding to his girth is the fact that his lower legs, rather than forming the back of the truck, actually tuck under the back of the truck, so in bot mode that part of the truck folds up onto his butt, further bloating his torso when you get the sense that the mass would have been much better on his lower legs. He's got some articulation, but poses are still limited by his enormous gut and the fact that his legs/feet can't rotate so his toes point more outward. His trailer gets kinda cooler, though. It tips over, and some doors and hatches open up to reveal four drones. They're actually kinda cool. There's a fire truck with an extending ladder and a turret on the front, a helicopter with a fold out tail and spinning rotors, a sort of drilling machine with a drill that spins as you roll it along, and a submarine that... doesn't do anything. As was the case for all of the Unicron Trilogy Primes, he's got a super mode that almost redeems the toy. Unlike Armada and Cybertron, where the whole trailer becomes part of the super mode, this Prime's super mode comes from turning his drones into limbs, and flipping the antenna up to make a helmet. Like a Scramble City combiner, any drone can become any limb. I sort of get the impression that, given the order of the drones, that the fire truck and helicopter are his default arms. They're the only two that have regular, fingered hands in arm mode. The drill just has the drill in place of a hand, and the sub has kind of a funky claw. Honestly, though, I like the claw hand, and I like that the copter's rotor is fixed when it's a leg. His proportions are a lot better in super mode, and he's got pretty decent poseability. Again, I wish his legs could turn so his toes point outward, but all the drones in arm mode can bend at the elbow and rotate the forearm. His helmet looks dumb, though, being attached this his back. His transformation also calls for him to open his chest up, but I think he looks fine with it closed. He's got one more gimmick, which is the reason I bought him. He can combine with Year of the Snake (or Energon) Omega Supreme. Unfortunately, this mode is pretty lame. His trailer's still not involved, just sort of sitting off to the side. His drones connect to special ports on Omega's legs, right arm, and right shoulder. On his arms and legs, they just add bulk without function. On his shoulder, the drone does sort of look like a shoulder-mounted weapon. Unfortunately, to accommodate Prime's head, Omega's head drops into a plate that flips out to that side. The plate is supposed to look like a missile launcher, which is cool, except Omega's head only goes down maybe a third of the way. I gather this might not have been an issue on the original toy, since the original toy's head was removable, but on Year of the Snake Omega his head bumps into the drone and keeps the missile launcher from getting completely vertical. Adding insult, Prime fits inside of Omega almost entirely in truck mode. To fit, doors on Omega's back have to be opened so that the entire back half of the truck can stick out. From the front it's not really noticeable, but from the back it looks like a truck crashed and got stuck in Omega's back. All-in-all, I recommend Year of the Snake Omega Supreme, but I'd advise a pass on YotS Optimus Prime.
  23. mikeszekely
    It kinda looks like Kickback's on Endor...
  24. mikeszekely
    The Galaxy Nexus was pretty top of the line when it came out. And the Nexus 4 actually does have an LTE radio. The problem is LTE is a badly-fragmented standard, and at the time it wasn't really feasible to have LTE radios for every LTE standard for a phone that was being sold unlocked and carrier free all around the world. From what I understand, recent developments will make LTE more likely on the next Nexus. Besides, they gotta hold back a little. How else do you sell a phone unlocked and contract-free for $350? Google subsidies only go so far. As the owner of two Nexus devices, I have to tell you it's worth it. Vanilla Android has gotten better than any Android skin. Plus, you get updates fairly immediately. On a device like the One or the Galaxy S4, you have to wait for Google to release the update, then wait for HTC/Samsung to customize it and build it into a ROM for the device, then the carrier has to approve it, and before you know it you're getting Ice Cream Sandwich two months after Google released Jellybean.
  25. mikeszekely
    I don't know. Sure, the one with wings makes you think Divebomb (who doesn't have that crazy crest), but the other four don't really resemble the Predacons. The one with wings could as easily be Cutthroat or Wildfly.
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