mikeszekely

Lockdown's bot mode looks pretty good, but his alt mode still looks kind of cartoony. Ratchet's Deluxe bot mode looks similarly great, but his alt mode looks kibbley. Brawn and Scattershot do nothing for me. HA Barricade's pretty disappointing too. I was hoping for a little more improvement from the Deluxe, but aside from more detail he's looking pretty similar. I'm a sucker for jets, though, so Skystalker and Mindwipe are looking kind of cool. The Bayformer designs are easier for me to integrate with Classics Decepticons than Classics Autobots anyway. Still, the only one I'm guaranteed to try to get is Bludgeon.

Didn't that just come out like two or three days ago? I'm kind of interested in it and Brutal Legend, but I've just been drifting away from console games. Since I didn't get any of the DLC, I picked up the Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition and I've been having a blast with that.

Extra glad I've waited so long on GBU. Play-Asia has a preorder up for Gundam Battle Universe (Gundam 30th Anniversary Collection). for about $20 less than it previously was.

Nope, I'm way to manly to cry at anything mentioned so far. But I always shed a little tear when I watch the Transformers movie (the '86 one, not Bayformers) and Optimus Prime dies.

I decided to compromise our suggestions: new campaign, same system data. I get a kick out of unlocking stuff, and this will force me to play with mecha from the right era, but I'll keep all my tune points and shop level.

No. I picked the cheapest option, which is to ship it regular air mail. They gave me a coupon with it, so I'm thinking if I order Gundam Battle Universe from them, I might spring for UPS. It came today though... after I'd pretty much done everything besides the Ultimate mode and the Chronicle missions on my old busted PSP with an ISO. I'm thinking it might be fun to just start the game over from scratch, though. The colors certainly stand out more on the PSP-3000.

Was it Play-Asia? I still haven't got mine, and mine supposedly shipped on October 2nd.

I just completed the mission, like you did, with a B by avoiding the enemies the first time. I came back to it later, after I'd unlocked the the era restrictions, with the YF-21, grabbed the head, dropped it, killed everything, then went back for the head. I wound up with an S that time. For the record, I've got either an S or an SS on every mission aside from the Chronicle missions. Although no unit seems to have an overwhelming special like the YF-21 did in MAF, judicious use of the pin-point barrier can keep the YF-21 from taking any actual damage. The advice I was giving was for protostar8 and others who were having trouble with AFOS in the Zero campaign. Stuff about units and boosters may or may not apply the Chronicle missions.

Step 1: On the Player tab, make sure that you're using the VF-0A (as you likely don't have the VF-0S yet, unless you bought it in the Shop). Also, make sure you're using "Booster Equipment." Do the same for your partner. Step 2: As best as you can, complete the first part of the mission without losing your booster. Step 3: Pushing the "X" button to boost, in Fighter mode, fly high and over the AFOS so that you're behind it. Step 4: Switch to Gerwalk, and do your best to stay behind AFOS. Fire your gunpod until it's empty, spam Missile RS at it until you're empty (I believe it's L+Square to change your missile type). Step 5: When you have enough energy, press triangle + circle to unleash your special attack. If you're partner's special is full, press select and then d-pad down to order your partner to use his or her special. Step 6: When AFOS teleports, focus on getting behind it again, not attacking it. Step 7: When AFOS flashes, it's about to unleash it's special attack. Focus on staying behind it. If it teleported first, listen for the audio cue that it's going to fire a special, transform into fighter, and boost-fly to get behind it. Step 8: Repeat the above steps as necessary until AFOS is dead.

I voted fighter, and I was going to write my explanation for my vote, but anything I'd have written really boils down to what eugimon is saying here.

Compared to what you're saying now, perhaps. But you're original post reads more like, "Change is good and everyone should learn to like to the movie designs" than "change happens and if you don't like how Transformers has changed don't collect the new ones." My counter point has nothing to do with choice, because I didn't feel you're implying one here either. It really sounds like you're telling Pete to stop being a cranky G1-er and change to accept the new TF designs. To that, my analogy stands; not all change is good, and Pete or myself or anyone else who doesn't care for the movie designs doesn't need to change. We're within our rights to ignore the crap out of the movie toys and stick to buying Animated, Classics, or G1 toys. After reading your follow-up post, I think you actually share that sentiment. But I'm sure you can understand how your first post might not have conveyed that.

Suppose you're visiting your parents for the holidays... only to find that your dad decided that he was always, deep down, a woman. And he's already had the operation. And he wants you to call him "Mom" now. And he's got a new dad for you to meet... Moral of the story: not all change is good.

If you complete missions (specifically the era-clearing missions or a lot of the Extra missions) with an S-Rank, that'll sometimes do it. If it doesn't, try buying them from the shop. By the time I had a shop level of 20 or 21 I think every unit was available.

Check your pilot, partner, and support character. One of them may not be compatible.

I don't think you're picking on me, Pete. I do read the Transformers thread, and compared to your posts there, this was pretty tame. I agree, Macross Zero's love story is better than DYRL. Which factored in to me rating it better than DYRL. What holds it back from being higher in my personal Macross pantheon is how irrelevant the story is. Some handful of very limited-production mecha duke it out over a space monster that disappears without adding anything to the Macross mythos? What about that monster? The events were classified until recently; they could have given us some deeper insight into the Protoculture or human evolution, and they could have used it as a better tie-in to Frontier than a simple episode about them making a movie. I don't know, I guess it just feels like a missed opportunity. Yeah... except that Basara didn't know much of anything about his Valkyrie, aside from the fact that he got it from Ray. And Ray apparently got it from the military, as part of some sort of clandestine project that he cooked up with Max's blessing. (This was the reason why it had to be services by the military, and why it had missiles.) I guess you could make the case that we don't really know if the Fire Valkyrie was red and hand a face when it was given to Basara, of if those were Basara's idea of after-market mods, but we do know that Mylene's Valkyrie and the Storm Valkyrie were built with faces (and speaker-boobs) from the get go, as a continuation of a military project, and are NOT indicative of civilian Valkyries (the VA-C-3 and VT-1C from Dynamite 7 are probably better examples). But my point about them and their departure from military norm, as well as my critique of some of the more stylized ships in the fleet, aren't specifically aimed at them but the atmosphere they bring, if that makes sense. SDF Macross, Macross Zero, Macross Plus, Macross Frontier... they're all real-robot shows. Sound Force drove Macross 7 into the realm of sentai. I'm not saying this to hate on Macross 7; I'm actually in the camp that enjoyed it. This is just my reasoning for why I enjoyed it less than some other Macross.

Couple of things: The unit list on the previous page is complete, as I finally unlocked the last one. I've got S or SS ranks on most of the missions now (excluding Chronicle... I gotta beef up some units first). Tips for the last few would be appreciated! They are: SDF Macross Campaign: Let's Play Game (Battroid Attack), A Sad Doll (Satan Doll) Macross Frontier: Aimo (Mother's Lullaby) Extra: Ishtar, The Super Dimension Fortress Famitsu Enemy: Aimo (Koi no Uta) To elaborate on Graham's question and what Keith and I were saying, none of the units have an overwhelmingly effective-against-everything special like the YF-21 did in MAF. This means that beating a lot of bosses and star units really comes down to spamming Missile RS or whatever special you do have. Units with melee specials are great against star units, but useless against big bosses, so that drops them down a notch. Units with Missile RS tend to be slightly more useful than units with Missle MS or Missile C, and units that have both Missile RS and either Missile MS or Missile C tend to be even better. Units with some kind of FAST packs tend to be the most useful because of elevated stats and an extra layer of health. The VF-0, SV-51, VF-1, VF-11, and VF-2SS don't have the base stats to really hang with the VF-25, even though they have FAST packs. The YF-19, VF-19A, YF-21, and VF-22 are close, but only three particular units offer any real incentive to go with them over a VF-25: The VF-22S(MFJ), the VF-22S(MJ), and the YF-21, because they have Pin-Point Barriers (the VF-22S(GK) and VF-22S(WG) don't). The YF-21 and VF-22(MJ) lack multi-lock missiles, and the VF-22S(MFJ) lacks Missile RS, but their FAST packs make up for it (and the fact that the YF-21 and VF-22S(MJ)'s specials are useless against big bosses), plus they still allow fighter mode to be use in atmosphere. Especially after you unlock the stat de-limiter and max the PPB's stats, careful use of it can get you through a lot of levels with zero actual damage. To answer Murphy's question, it's hard to say for sure, because new stuff keeps appearing based on your shop level (so buying tune points for the Type-14 wasn't a total waste, because it'll contribute to your shop level). Here's what I can tell you, though. From top to bottom the shop categories are: Character: you can buy more pilots and support characters here. Unit: Unlock units and FAST packs, or buy tune points for unlocked units. Mode: buy game modes and modifiers BGM: unlock more music Movie: unlocks the prologue and closing movies for the different eras. Don't waste your money. Wallpaper: Not 100% sure, but I think you can buy more loading screens. Title: When you play online, you can buy titles for your player card. Icon: When you play online, you can buy portraits for your player card. Since I was focusing on the characters you make at the beginning, I'd say just worry about Unit and Mode. Unit's pretty easy to follow. If it's grey, you can't buy it because you already unlocked it. If it's blue, you're buying tune points for a unit you have. If it's black, you're actually unlocking the unit. I think you should be able to unlock most units through regular play, but it can be useful to buy a better one sooner. As for Mode, that's a little trickier, unless you can at least read katakana. I'll try to highlight a few anyway. Depending on your shop level, you may see one or two options where the third character is a dash. The first and cheaper option will let you tune a unit below it's base stats. The second and more expensive will remove the tune point limit for all units. One option, beginning with the good ol' Latin letters EX will allow for EX mode. Basically, after you buy it, you'll see a picture of a unit for every mission description. Use that unit for triple tune points. Lastly (and this is for everyone who can't read Japanese), learn this character. It's usually read as "ji" or "toki", and it means time. One of the more expensive mode options starts with this character. Buying this option will allow you to use units from any era on any mission (for example, the VF-25G in Macross Zero missions, or the YF-21 on Frontier missions).

I think I might be a minority, but I think my least favorite part of Macross is actually DYRL. Only Dynamite 7 could be worse, and that's just because it's so pointless. Yeah, the animation is great. Yeah, the Strike Pack is cool, as are the Boddoleza ship and the Meltrandi ships. I liked seeing the Macross with the ARMD carriers the way it was supposed to be, and that first big fight was one of the best in Macross. But while it's all very visually stimulating, the story is a hack job compared to the TV series. None of the characters besides Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa have any development in the movie, and even then it pales to the their growth in the series. DYRL serves as a supplement to the TV series, one that fulfills a need to see the characters and mecha from a great but poorly-animated show in greater (physical) detail. It's worth watching occasionally for that reason, but it's such a pale imitation that 9 times out of 10 I'd rather watch the TV series. Macross II would be my next least favorite. They story is a such a carbon copy of DYRL's that it's hard to get excited about it. Silvie, Hibiki, and Ishtar get enough development and are likable enough, though, and I really like the animation. Macross Zero would be next. I thought it looked fantastic, but it feels so shoehorned into Macross continuity, and for what? It's all so self-contained that, aside from an underplayed familial relationship and an episode of Frontier where they're trying to make a movie about it, it add anything to Macross lore or continuity besides headaches. After Zero comes 7. The concept is a ridiculous hippy fantasy, Basara is possibly the least dynamic main character in all of Macross, and Sound Force's valkyries (as well as a lot of the ships in the Macross 7 fleet) fly in the face of serious military design. The plot is grounded in Macross lore, though, and a reason is given for why Sound Force's singing affects the Protodeviln. Some episodes can be delightfully irreverent and self-deprecating. Sound Force mecha aside, there are some good looking designs in the series (C'mon, you know Battle 7 is awesome, and this is the show that gave us the VF-17). And the animation is pretty good... when they're not recycling it. After 7 comes Plus. Slick mecha but piss-poor character designs (with noses a swordfish would be proud of). Top-notch action is driven by an adequate story. After Plus is Frontier. I like how Frontier gave us a more realistic look at the colony fleets (no pyramids with "E=MC²" written on them, just military ships and domes). Frontier is populated with great, well-animated characters. I love the references and homages to past Macross series, and I appreciated the blending of serious episodes with more light-hearted ones, as well as the blending of action episodes with character-driven episodes. My biggest gripes with Frontier are that the Vajura were lame and that the plot got a little too convoluted at the end for its own good. The best Marcoss is the original TV series. What's not to like? A great cast, classic mecha, and story that captured our imaginations. The only complaint is the poor quality of animation.

Yes, especially the with the Armored packs. The only older valks that are on par with it are the YF-21 and the VF-22S (and even then, really just the Max and Millia versions). Due mostly to lame special attacks and no FAST packs, the VF-27 doesn't even hang with the VF-25. I'm down to just needing FAST pack Klan Klan. Anyone know for sure how to unlock her? The only Frontier mission I don't have an S or SS on is Aimo (or Mother's Lullaby, if you prefer the katakana).

I guess if you didn't get yours, I shouldn't be too worried yet. Mine shipped two days later, and I'm on the other coast. On an unrelated note, I updated the spoiler-ish list of units on the previous page. Just two to go until the list is complete, and I'm reasonably sure what they are.

For you guys that ordered from Play-Asia, about how long did it take from the time they emailed that they shipped it until you got it? I got my email Friday 10-2, and I was really thinking that it should have been here by now.

Here's a list of all the playable units. Game's spellings, not mine (mostly)

Maybe, but I doubt it.

I went with Normal from the get-go. If a Macross game was made from a flight-sim engine to begin with, then I'd consider Real. But the lineage here is the Gundam Battle games, so I knew I'd want to stick with Normal.

In what part of the store? So far, I've only been buying units. I'm down to needing just 10 of them. That stat unlimiter sounds useful for the enemy missions...

Since "Get Free" on the VF-X2 soundtrack.