mikeszekely

I mostly agree. T3 is in my list of top 10 worst movies I've seen, probably. But I enjoyed Salvation. Didn't love it, but I was entertained. TSCC was one of the best shows on TV, though, and definitely the best handling of the Terminator franchise since T2.

You really have to think about that?

It's alright. For as often as people go to Wikipedia for information, it's important to remember that it's not always the most reliable of sources. After all, some deranged Boston fan, unwilling to accept that a simple heart attack struck Delp down, could have edited Wikipedia to falsely give him a more dramatic end. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. I did a quick check for a more reliable source, and turned up an article from Guitar World. Brad Delp: Details Emerge About His Tragic Suicide

Wait... who, or who now?

That's what Wikipedia says.

I believe you're correct.

I assume you mean the 15-19 at the bottom left? I think that's something like Gi Mix (or "gimmicks" per the katakana). The kanji means something like "skill." I don't see any scale information, but they're Takara Tomy toys, and they do or will retail for 2100 Yen. Those model cabins are also Gi Mix.

Doesn't upset me. You're the one losing another two hours. Oh, and for the record, I didn't say beans about the movie before I saw it, and although I didn't like it, I promise to not purchase any toys or the DVD/Blu-ray, nor reference the movie during discussions about whether or not my childhood's been raped.

I saw it this afternoon. I'm usually pretty generous (I liked Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation, and even Dragonball Evolution, after all), but I gotta say I didn't care for it. I wasn't a huge fan of G.I. Joe back in the day, so I might have been willing to overlook the changes to the characters or even G.I. Joe becoming a world organization instead of an American one, but I just kind of thought it was boring. I was checking my watch during while the Joes were chasing the Hummer in Paris, wondering and hoping that the movie might have been close to the end. Snake Eyes was cool enough, though. Even with the mouth. And Scarlett and the Baroness were HOT.

I find Tom Clancy's writing style to be rather tedious. For the most part, though, I'm with Vostok 7. It's hard for me to think of movies based on books that weren't inferior.

So I picked up the PC version of Dark Athena on clearance, and I was reminded of another video game company blunder that I'm surprised it's taken six pages to mention. SecuROM. Starforce. Tages. Any over the top DRM. Don't get me wrong, I know piracy is a huge deal. I myself have downloaded more than a few games, although as an instinctive collector I have a tendency to go back and buy the games I really liked. Registering a CD key, Steam, Games for Windows Live... those things I can deal with. But at some point, publishers crossed a line. Then we wound up with limited installs ala Mass Effect (at least EA released a tool so that uninstalling a game would give you an install back). Or the DRM software screws up your system. I know that after I installed the GOTY edition of Oblivion I had problems with some games, including Oblivion, refusing to accept actual game discs as legitimate. Getting back to Dark Athena, the game uses online authentication and allows for installation on 3 PCs. Of course, in the last few months I've gone from Windows Vista to Windows 7 beta, then from Windows 7 beta to Windows 7 RC1, then had to reinstall Windows 7 after upgrading my hard drives, and will likely be upgrading from Windows 7 RC1 to a retail version of Windows 7 by the end of the year. Had I installed Dark Athena when I was still using Vista, I'd already have to be calling Atari to get them to activate the game, which is too much hassle. Instead, I'm going to look for a crack, and I have no intention of activating the serial in the box. And while all this is going on, other companies are looking at different solutions. Bioware has already said they'd rather offer incentives like DLC to encourage people to actually buy the game, and EA has promised huge DLC for The Sims 3, going so far as to call the mass piracy of the game, "a big demo." Stardock went with the novel approach of using just a CD key and a low price point, and gamers thanked Stardock for not using onerous DRM by buying 200,000 copies of Sins of a Solar Empire in the first month after its release. To summarize, piracy is a problem for the PC gaming industry, and it's only natural that companies would want to take steps to discourage it. But when customers are forced to crack games that they legitimately bought, something has gone terribly wrong.

My problem's more the opposite. Between not working, and... not working, I don't have the money to buy much of anything to play.

I've got WipEout HD, but I haven't got Fury yet. I probably will soon, now that the ad thing is fixed.

QFT Anyway, good news! Apparently Sony has already stepped in an fixed the ad problem in WipEout HD. Okay, everyone like Mario Kart, right? So start with Mario Kart. Now, replace the cartoony power ups with more explosive ones. Then replace the Super Mario Bros-themed levels with crazy futuristic cities. Replace the Super Mario Bros-themed music with top-notch electronica. Replace the Mario characters and their go-karts with anti-gravity ships that look less like the ones in F-Zero and more like missiles with cockpits. Then make the whole thing crazy faster. Voila! WipEout!

mikeszekely, same as my MW screenie. Not sure when they started the ads. I haven't even bought Fury yet, and I'm starting to be grateful for that.

I already brought it up in the PS3 thread, but it's definitely a blunder. In-game ads doubling WipEout HD load times.

Ads increasing WipEout HD load times. I don't mind ads in games. A billboard, a poster, or clever product placement can make some games, especially sandbox or racing games, feel more real. But State Farm commercials in place of loading screens? Not cool. Especially when it more than doubles the average load time from 8 seconds to 19 seconds. It's one thing to use ads to defray rising development costs, or to sponsor cheap or even free games. But adding very obtrusive ads to a game people already paid for is crossing a line.

If we're going to mention that (which, surprisingly hasn't affected me... yet), we might as well talk about the ol' "Disc Read Error" issue on the PlayStation 2 (which did affect me once) or the Wii24Connect causing the Wii's GPU to overheat (which also affected me).

I don't know how much this helps, but when I look at my MP Starscream, there's a black piece of plastic that rotates connected to the end of his shin, and a blue piece that folds up and down connected to the black piece by a pin. A small square with two small lines is molded into the top of the blue part, close to the black. This solitary panel is painted kind of a grayish silver. If you're going to paint any part of TC's foot silver, that'd be the place to do it.

I think the one on the left is David's and the one on the right is the factory's. Not 100% sure, though. The fact that we have to ask should show how good a job you're doing, David.

That would depend on a bit of factors. But as far as I know, not in this case... the Cell has 256MB dedicated to it for system use, and the RSX has 256MB dedicated to it for graphics, and neither can use the other's, while the Xbox 360 just has 512MB of RAM that is used for both system and graphics. I read the same article you did at lens of truth, and while they talk about reducing the number of objects on screen at a given moment to keep things in line with the 360's capabilities, they were also implying that the final versions would be equal. Clearly that's not the case. If the differences in the way each console's RAM is set up, doesn't explain it, perhaps its worth pointing out that the RSX has 24 pixel-shader pipelines and 8 vertex shader pipelines (32 total pipelines), and the custom ATI job in the 360 has 48 pipelines that can be used for either pixel shaders or vertex shaders. So maybe the PS3 could have had more objects on screen or rendered more polygons, but maybe the Xbox 360 does a better job of filling in textures?

But here's the thing... the PS3 doesn't have 8-9 processors, and the Xbox 360 doesn't have "dual processors." The Cell is a single Power Processing Element (aka the main CPU) with 8 Synergistic Processing Elements served up on a single chip. And, if I recall correctly, developers are limited to using only seven SPEs because at the time they were starting to manufacture the PS3, it was assumed that some SPEs would be duds. The Xbox 360 uses a processor called the Xenon, which is sort of like three modified PPEs on one chip.

Yeah, sorry if it looked like I was addressing my comments directly at you or calling you out or anything. I didn't mean to, I just thought that you're quote segued into David's before I added my own two cents (even though your post actually came after). By and large, I agree with what you're saying, that some people avoid certain literature because of ideological differences. I already mentioned that there seems to be a number of people who are almost irrationally anti-Christian. To be perfectly fair, that goes both ways too... how many Christians (Pentecostals?) have condemned Harry Potter for "promoting witchcraft"? The point I mean to make is that people who do so are often doing themselves a disservice. I mean, it's one thing to look for news that slants your way... it's almost impossible to find news that isn't slanted anymore, so you might as well find one you agree with. But when it comes to fiction, I think you can enjoy a story for what it is regardless of the ideology. I've already mentioned that I think the Bible (and specifically the Old Testament) has some great stories. Or if we're looking at something more modern, I happen to LOVE Star Trek, even though the Socialist utopia the Federation represents strikes me as impractical in the real world.

I can't comment on Dr. Strangelove, but I couldn't disagree more on 2001. I loved all of the Space Odyssey books (well, except maybe 3001). There was just something in Clarke's writing that really sparks my imagination, especially the way he described the mundane day-to-day life of space travelers. Kubrick, it seemed, tried to capture Clarke's descriptions by overly long shots of astronaut exercise. And don't even get me started on how Kubrick turned Bowman's coherent experiences from the book to one big acid trip. I'm not exactly qualified to comment on how preachy Narnia is or is not, since I've never actually read the books. But I feel like David's question is worth coming back to. It often seems to me that in our so-called "intellectual" society that reading up on Buddhism (Siddhartha was assigned summer reading at my college before my freshman year even started) or other non-Judeo-Christian religions is encouraged as broadening your horizon or appreciating other cultures. Yet anything that smacks of Christian is regarded either scorn or outright hatred by these same "intellectuals." Can Narnia be divorced from the underlying Christian tones? Even if it can't, is it impossible to enjoy the story if you yourself aren't Christian? Again, I can't really say, because I haven't read it. But I have read the Bible... as an agnostic, no less. Modern law, as well as the English language, are both heavily influenced by the Bible, and to have any kind of truly intellectual (as opposed to "intellectual" in quotes) discussion on law, history, or language it only seemed reasonable to study the available material. And I've got to say, even if you don't believe it, there's some good stories there. Especially the Old Testament stuff... the story of Exodus, for example, has a hero rising up to challenge the oppressive establishment. There's magic, there's supernatural killings, even a chase scene. Maybe the writing could use some work, but the fundamentals are certainly solid. In fact, the themes that come up in Exodus have been revisited in many other stories. Like Star Wars.

I guess you guys missed the memo, but we like EA since they started publishing new original IPs like Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, and Brutal Legend. We also appreciate that they've slowly been dialing back on DRM for their PC titles, referring to the rampant piracy of the Sims 3 as "downloading a big demo." If you need to know where to redirect your hatred, the answer is Activision, mostly for their continued exploitation of existing IP, often without the original developers (Guitar Hero, Call of Duty), but also for their unwillingness to publish games that don't fit with their IP-whoring model. At one time or another, Activision was supposed to be the publisher for Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend, and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. I'm honestly surprised they hung onto Prototype.