mikeszekely

Sent you an invite. And if anyone sends me an invite, could you please post your Steam name here? I got an invite from one ^1Vlad, and I'd like to know who it is before I go accepting invites willy-nilly.

Posts have been made in the Xbox thread and PS3 thread for sharing Gamertags/PSN IDs, yet no one's made any for PC gaming yet. Is that because PC gaming is more decentralized? There's still some communities out there, like Steam, and I wouldn't mind adding a few people to my Steam friends (especially since almost all of my other friends are exclusively console gamers). Anyway, my Steam ID is the same as my MW handle, mikeszekely.

But I don't think it's fair to judge it from a neutral perspective. Serenity is the end of Firefly; judging it without the benefit of the background that Firefly provides is like watching and critiquing the Godfather II without having see the Godfather. You're missing half the story.

Firefly was one of the best sci-fi shows on television in recent years. If you weren't a fan of the show (or never watched the show), then it's a good (but not life-changing) movie. If you were a fan of the show, though, it was a fantastic way of both wrapping up the TV series while setting them up for new adventures (if only in the fans' imaginations). Serenity is Firefly's swansong, and it's always going to be loved for that reason. I don't think that's overrating it; it's not like people are calling it the greatest sci-fi film ever or the Citizen Kane of a younger generation or anything.

Ugh... I've got over 47 hours logged in. I've flown 388 sorties, and shot down over 10,000 enemies. I'm currently at 64% for MS, 17% pilots, 50% parts, and 48% missions. I've finished all of 0079, 0083, 0087, and SEED. I'm missing a total of four mobile suits from 0079-0087. I've finished the AEUG mission in 0088, and I have all of the AEUG MS. I'm working on the Neo Zeon missions, but this is where I'm running into a snag. There's so many Neo Zeon suits to unlock, and at least five of them are over 1,000,000G (not sure how much Quin Mantha's going to be, but you can bet it'll be expensive). I'll go back and replay missions to save up for a suit, then just when I have enough and buy it, I'll unlock like four more to buy. And Quebeley is the worst offender... over 1,500,000G to buy. That'll unlock a development plan that costs over 1,200,000G. And what does that tell you to do? Equip a weapon rack (500,000G) and then buy 15,000 tune points for the Quebeley (not even sure, but I'll bet it's over 1,000,000). Once you complete all that, you can buy the mass-production-type Quebeley... for another 1,280,000G. And don't forget about Puru and Puru Two's Quebeley Mk IIs... each over 1,200,000G. When all is said and done, I could easily buy a V2 for what I'll have spent on Quebeleys... and that doesn't even figure the cost of the rest of the Neo Zeon units.

It's a charmingly bad movie. Which is to say, it's not good, but it can be fun to watch. So... fairly rated? I dunno. Everyone that keeps saying Serenity is overrated, though, is going to get smacked.

Peg fans are going to have the chance to buy the mold twice, since it looks like Peg's going to get redeccoed as Blurr. He's apparently going to have new weapons and a new head mold, which is pretty cool. So how many Classics 3.0 does that make for the Generations line? Peg, Straxus/Darkmount, Thrust, Blurr, and anyone else? I thought I remember hearing about another Seeker repaint...

Maybe some of the later or Extra suits, then? All I know is that I'm sitting at 8% on pilots, but over 40% of the MS. I'm currently working on finishing the Zeon/Delaz Fleet 0083 missions, and as near as I can tell I'm only missing maybe three Zeon suits from the 0079 campaigns and just the Neue Ziel of the 0083 suits.

Yes! The long, drawn out shots made space exploration seem more tedious than anything else. And a lot of stuff happened to Bowman after he went through the monolith gate in the novel, while the ending to the movie was just an acid trip on film.

Are we going to be like the local bookstore, and lump fantasy in with sci-fi? Because I'd like to toss my vote in for the entire Lord of the Ring Trilogy. Yes, a lot of the actors did a good job and there was some great visuals. There was also a lot of walking and crying. For underrated, I'll nominate Alien Vs Predator. Yes, it was bad. But considering that it seems more shunned than a medieval plague-carrier, it really wasn't that bad. It didn't try to be anything more than it was; a flimsy excuse to have two factions of extraterrestrial movie monsters duke it out. Besides, AvP Requiem came out later and showed us just how bad and AvP film really can be.

I'm not sure what the first three numbers are on the Record window (Maybe total sorties for the first one, dunno about the second, and maybe deaths for the third?). The percentages are MS unlocked, Pilots unlocked, parts unlocked, and missions unlocked. For me, it's 42%, 6%, 39%, and 29% respectively. I'd complain more about the repetitive nature of missions in the 00 campaign except that I keep replaying SEED missions and 00 missions for the cash. I'm currently showing that I have 14 available missions unlocked for 00 and 12 unlocked for SEED. In 00, missions 5 and 9 haven't been won, and in SEED it's mission 11. I'm currently working on the Feddie 0083 missions. I'd be farther along, except like I said I want keep unlocking MS, so I spend a lot of time replaying missions for unlocks or cash. Right now, I've only played four missions, but I'll have 11 MS for that campaign once I have enough cash to finish developing and purchasing the GM Quel. I don't think MS or pilot precentage has to do with unlocks. It's usually you have to use a suit X number of times, have a particular pilot, or use a particular pilot x number of times. For example, you have to purchase Aina to make Apsalus available to purchase, then you have to use Aina 5x and the Apsalus 5x to unlock the Apsalus II. I haven't bought any pilot that wasn't required to unlock an MS.

For those playing Gundam Assault Survive (just me and Keith?), are you trying to just beat the missions first, or trying to collect the MS, or some combination? I played some SEED and 00 missions for money, but refused to spend any money to better those MS if I couldn't beat a mission (so neither campaign is complete). The only campaign I've completed entirely is 0079, and that's because I've been actively trying to collect all the MS. I think I have all the Federation suits (34) and most of the Zeon suits (66). (Note that I'm only counting them if they show up in the campaign, so stuff like the Last Stand Gundam don't count because they only show up in the Extra missions.) Problem is, I need a psycommu part and a "new manipulator", and I have no idea how to get them.

One thing I've noticed that I thought was kind of a bummer is that War in the Pocket and the 08th MS Team each have just one multi-stage mission.

My local Target had the Monster-branded component cables for the PSP 2000/3000 on clearance, so I decided to give it a try. On the positive side, the quality seemed good enough. The XMB took up the whole screen, although it was a little fuzzy, and it was pretty simple to switch to the TV from the XMB (although I wish you could switch in by hitting the brightness button, since you can switch back to the PSP's screen with it). Games apparently play in a window, which was kind of a bummer, but since my TV's a 52" it's still like having a 40" screen for the PSP. Color was very good, and the speakers on my TV are much better than the PSP's. Blowing up a game that's intended for a 4" screen to 10x that does sort of show how the PSP is closer to the PS1 than the PS2 graphically, though. My one real complaint is that you're still playing from the PSP. The cable is a little short to reach from behind my TV to the couch (although I'm out of component inputs and I'm going to have to pick up a switcher anyway, which should give me another foot or two). It'd be really nice to hook the PSP up to the TV, then connect a controller to the PSP that I could use from the couch. Does such a thing exist? EDIT: While searching for the possibility of a controller working on the PSP, I did stumble across something called RemoteJoy Lite. You have to have a custom firmware to use it (so the PSP I can hook up to my TV is out, but my PSP Phat with a busted UMD door is in). There's a plugin you have to put on your PSP's memory stick and enable from the recovery menu, and a program you run on your (Windows) computer (you'll have to connect your PSP to your computer, and you might need a different driver so that Windows recognizes your PSP as a PSP and not a USB Mass Storage Device). The result is a program window on your computer that displays what's on the PSP. What's better is that you can use a controller. Sadly, the PSP looks pretty bad in fullscreen on my monitor (resolution of 1680x1050), so I opted to keep it windowed. Also, the program doesn't seem to handle the PSP's sound, so unless you want the sound over the PSP's speakers, you might want to rustle up an extra set of computer speakers (or if you're less lazy than me, you can unplug the speakers you're already using on your computer). I used it to play Gundam Assault Survive, and I didn't notice any lag. If you're running a custom firmware, you might want to give it a try, as I found the experience much more comfortable than hunching over the PSP's little screen.

I actually agree with Keith's sentiment. I have a PSP-3000 with the current firmware for the stack of UMDs I own (including MUF and GBU), and an old PSP-1000 that I use to figure out if games (especially imports) are worth the cash (jury's still out on GAS, but I have high hopes for the next one). In any case, update your firmware to 5.50 GEN-D3. I'm pretty sure that works with MUF, or there was a patched iso that worked with it.

When you go to purchase mobile suits and you're on the Feddie list, tap either square or triangle (I forget which at the moment) to switch to the Zeon list. By the time you get to A Baoa Qu, you should have at least unlocked the basic Gelgoog. You do tend to earn very few suits just by playing the game. Getting more suits is easy, but expensive and time-consuming. Since the suits from the SEED campaign and the 00 campaign require very little in the way of upgrading, I recommend doing those, as the higher-level missions can nab you between 300,000 and 500,000G. Anyway, the idea is that you'll start with a mobile suit of a type, like the vanilla GM. Next, you'll need to buy plans for a variant, like the GM (WD) or the GM Sniper II (Development is the second option from the bottom in the shop, btw). Then, you'll be required to buy tune points for the starting suit. Depending on what you're starting with and what you're building, it's usually between 1000 and 6000. One tune point doesn't equal 1G, though, so as I said, that can get expensive if you're dumping a lot of tune points into a suit you'll never use again. The third thing you'll need is to equip the suit with a specific part, which can also get very expensive. Most of the parts seem to be under 100,000G, but occasionally you'll need one over 500,000G. To make a GM Sniper II, you'll need to equip the GM with a long range scope. Once you've set the starting suit up, you have to play a mission with it. I don't think you have to win, and it can be a mission you've done before. When you're done, go to the shop, and you'll get a mission about how they developed a new suit. Of course, despite dumping a fortune on tune points and parts, you still have to buy the new suit.

Really? I know it got somewhat mediocre reviews, but I'm not really sure what all the complaining was about, besides a "lack of innovation." Personally, I loved it, especially the ending.

F.E.A.R. 3! Or F.3.A.R. Either way I'm psyched.

I keep hearing a ton of great things about it, but I've been busy with Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War III, Pokemon SoulSilver (guilty pleasure), and Gundam Assault Survive. It's going on my list of things to do, but I doubt I'll get around to it soon.

I swear, it's like I went to bed one night, and when I woke up a bunch of industry people were obsessed with 3D. I'm not paying extra for it at the movie theater, I'm not buying a new TV and some ugly-ass glasses to watch 3D movies at home, I'm not buying a new monitor and video card to get 3D on my computer, and unless Nintendo comes out with a killer app for it, I'm not buying a 3DS (just like I didn't buy a DSi and won't buy a DSi XL).

Play it a little longer. Until you start to understand how Kratos got to the point where he was jumping off the cliff in the opening cutscene, the story's not going to be much more than "Kratos chop."

Did you never play the first two? If you didn't play the first two, I wouldn't imagine that God of War III is anything but cheesy.

The PS3/Win7 communication just seems flaky sometimes. I mean, I have a couple of folders set up for sharing on my Windows 7 computer. Sometimes the PS3 sees it, sometimes it doesn't.

The Libraries are useful, although not earth-shatteringly so. Basically, they're virtual folders. You tell the Library which folders to display content from, and which one of those folders is the default location for saving to. For example, you might set the Videos library to display videos from the My Videos folder as well as any videos in your Downloads folder. The most useful thing I can think of for Libraries is if you have Windows installed on a small SSD. Windows is going to assume that things like My Documents and My Music is going to be under the C:\Users\XXXX\My Documents or whatever. You can folders for them on the D drive, then set the Libraries to show content from those folders and to use those new folders as the default save locations.

Yeah, there'll be some kind of item(s) in the shop that costs 0G. Purchasing it gives you money. The amount depends on how many/which saves you have.