mikeszekely

Hey, the boxy shaped torso is 'toon accurate. Personally, I'm really looking forward to him. I'm just not sure I'd like a Grapple repaint. Grapple was kind of lame.

Macross toys have always been to expensive for me. But yeah, I used to be very heavy into video games. I'd pick up 1-3 a month, depending on how close it is to Christmas, and I'd keep most of them. This year, I've traded in a good portion of my collection for what few disc-based games I've bought, and I've actually been more into downloadable games like Castle Crashers or WipEout HD. I've also cut back on books, and my wife and I limit eating out to once a weekend. And when that weekend rolls around, we've been doing stuff more like Eat N' Park than Olive Garden. And it's been at least six months since we've been someplace really fancy.

The game comes out 10-9 in Japan, which technically it is now. I've got custom firmware on my PSP, so I grabbed an .iso off bittorrent until payday. Well, I'll still use the .iso, since there's a crack on my PSP that requires me to tape down part of the front cast to keep the analog stick in line, so I can't really open the UMD door, but I want to legitimately own the game... you get the idea.

All I've done are tutorials, so far, plus the first real mission. Control is slightly different than the Gundam Battle games, to accommodate the fact that you are piloting a variable fighter, not a mobile suit, but for the most part very similar. Maps are larger, so you have room to fly in fighter mode. My best comparison so far would be a cross between the Gundam Battle games and the A.C.E games. I started my campaign with SDF Macross, so my hanger currently contains a VF-1D and a Destroid Defender. Color edit is nice... the default color is the same color that Hikaru crashed into Minmei's house, but I have it painted like Max's VF-1A (TV), but with green instead of blue paint. There don't seem to be any tuning point bonuses for Gundam Battle saves, though (I checked, I've got a GB Chronicle and a GB Universe save). Basically, if you like the Gundam Battle games, and you like Macross (if you don't why are you here?), you'll like the game. If you hated the Gundam Battle games, don't expect Ace Frontier to change your mind. For the record (and those without familiarity of the Gundam Battle games) this is more of an arcade game than a flight sim. Fighter and Gerwalk have their uses, just like they did in the A.C.E games, but also like the A.C.E games, the engine is built to accommodate non-variable mecha.

I'm not sure what Gundam Battle saves I have on my memstick... at minimum I have a Gundam Battle Universe save. So I hope to answer your questions about map size and bonuses in... about a half hour.

Well, it's good to know my favorite VF is in the game, but I'm crossing my fingers on a Diamond Force paint.

Confirmed? VF-27, VF-17 and YF-21. I hope? VF-22, VF-14 and VF-4.

I think something else to consider when comparing the Macross-Class and the New Macross-Class is their individual roles. The UN didn't have much in the way of warships before Space War 1. Compared the the ARMD and Oberth-Class ships, the Macross was easily the pinnacle of Spacy technology. Post-Space War 1, Macross Frontier has shown us that more Macross-Class vessels were built, and it seems likely that they (as well as leftover Zentraedi ships) were used as escorts for Megaroad-Class ships. Fast-forward to modern times (in the Macross universe). We've got plenty of advanced warships in the Frontier fleet. Uraga, Bolognese, Guantanamo, Valhalla, Algenix, and at least one unnamed class from Frontier. The New Macross-Class is a last-line of defense at the City/Island ships, behind a defensive perimeter of other ships and a screen of fighters.

Two more days... Well, I have a 1st gen PSP with modded firmware, and I'll keep it that way. But there's really only a handful of PSP games I've been into, so I'm thinking about getting a PSP-3000. Play my games on with the bigger screen, or hook it up to my TV, maybe, and keep the old PSP for homebrew.

Greensburg, PA. About 45 minutes to an hour east of Pittsburgh (or, for fans of Rolling Rock beer, about 20-30 west of Latrobe). You might want to check it again, because like I said, I was there Friday and they didn't have anything, then mysteriously an endcap (one of the sneaky back endcaps, at that) suddenly appears full of TFs.

I felt like heading out with a friend for a late snack. We stopped at the local Wal-Mart... this being the same Wal-Mart where I'd been as recently as Friday, and which never had Galvatron, Acid Storm, the Universe Ultras, Sentinel Prime, Swoop, Ultra Magnus, or Blitzwing. Lo and behold, they added a new endcap of Transformers toys. I didn't really look too much at the Animated toys, although I do still need Lugnut and Blitzwing to round out the main cast of characters, but I did snag Universe Sideswipe, Ironhide, Bluestreak (I refuse to call him Silverstreak any more than I'll call Octane Tankor), and a second Acid Storm (to become Thundercracker next time I'm at the hobby store for paints), each just $7.77.

Wow, that looks WAAAY better than the Vader TIE X1.

My bad. I was looking at a list of games Sony would have playable at TGS. The list looked like mostly PS3 games, so when I saw Gundam vs. Gundam I looked like they meant a PS3 version. I found another list, though, that has the games separated by system, and GvG is only listed for PSP.

Wait. The PSP-3000 is basically the same as the 2000, but with a built-in mic and a vastly improved screen. I think they announced it for the PS3 now, too.

I am using a custom soundtrack... I ripped the music from all the previous WipEout games (okay, I downloaded Pure and Pulse's soundtracks), then added a little of my own techno (mostly Elite Force and Sasha, with sprinklings of Tiesto and Orbital). Anime music in WipEout? Anything but techno in WipEout makes me a sad panda.

It's nice to see some characters, like Wheelie, Cosmos, and Beachcomber getting Legends toys, since I doubt I'd shell out for a Deluxe on them. But I can't help but long for a Deluxe Jazz and a Deluxe Warpath.

I gotta agree with Uxi and eugimon. Don't pass on the PS3 just because it can play videogames you might never be interested in (although you might... even if you're not into hardcore disc-based games like Call of Duty or Metal Gear Solid, you may find something you like in the PlayStation store). If you heard that Sony had a $400 stand alone Blu-ray player that was head and shoulders the best Blu-ray player on the market, would you still be thinking about cheaping out on a mediocre Insignia brand? The PS3 doesn't just provide future-proofing through firmware updates, it also provides solid audio decoding, excellent DVD upscaling, MPEG-3 audio and MPEG-4 video support, and DivX video support, making it an excellent media hub (even if I do archive my video files on DVD data discs instead of storing them on the PS3's hard drive, which I am too cheap and lazy to upgrade when I'd rather replace both hard drives in my desktop PC). You can even get videos from the PlayStation store directly from the PS3. Especially if you've invested in a good HDTV and audio equipment that can really take advantage of what Blu-ray has to offer, there's no compelling reason to cheap out now on the actual Blu-ray player.

Picked up the Blu-ray at Best Buy today. I would have bought it the day before at Wal-Mart, since it's more or less across the street, but despite listing it at $25.86 on the website, the store wanted $29.96. Audio wasn't really impressing me, but to be fair, I shut it off before any explosions, and I had the volume low because my wife had already gone to bed Sometime this week I intend to watch it fully with the audio up. I swear BD Live is turning out to be more annoying than useful/fun. I mean, I honestly rarely watch more than the actual film on the majority of my DVD and Blu-rays. Transformers rolls along, and I had to wait between 5-10 minutes for some feature I'm sure I'll never use, and now Iron Man comes out and I had the disc in my PS3 for almost an hour and it never left the loading screen. I gave up, stopped the disc, restarted it, and told it not to connect to the net. All this for, what, some stupid trivia game? Oh, not sure if it was mentioned before, but apparently there's a way to tell if you have a fixed Blu-ray copy or not. For the fixed version, look for a UPC sticker on the back of the case over the one printed on the cover. Defective one should just have the printed one. Also, look at the discs. If the movie is blue and the extras are gray, you have the fixed one. If both are gray, you have the defective one.

Seconded.

Old news. But still cool. I just think it doesn't really suit Prime. Maybe Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen, or Jazz.

Is anyone else here having trouble with WipEout HD? Although I somehow managed to totally miss Pulse, I don't recall having this much trouble with Pure. I'm on Vertigo, with one more point needed to unlock Headrush (and team Icarus). I've got a few golds and silvers, three bronzes, and one that I can't even get a medal. I don't really know what to adjust to get even one more point. The bronze medals are either time trials or speed laps where the best times I'm posting are a full second off of silver. On one of the silvers, a time trial at Ubermall, I've done all perfect laps, hit all the speed panels, and posted a time .2 off the gold medal mark. And the one I can't even medal in is the Rapier race at Sebenco Climb... best I've managed was 7th, and that was after a contender was eliminated. I started using Piranha, then switched to Harimau when I decided I needed better handling, then switched again to Assegai when I realized that Assegai has less shields, and the same speed and handling as Harimau, but more thrust.

We were discussing this over in the videogame thread after the Wii came out, but the gist of it is yes. While Megaman has always had pits and spikes, Inti Creates seems to have designed their levels entirely around pits and spikes, adding enemies as almost an afterthought. But in that sense, it really is about learning patterns. I got MM9 for the Wii, since I couldn't wait for it, and it took me until late Wednesday night to beat all the Robot Masters (and I was playing it A LOT). Thursday roles around, I grabbed it and WipEout on the PSN (since the DS3 is a better controller for Megaman than either the Wiimote held sideways or the Wii Classic Controller), and in about 45 minutes, I had finished off the Robot Masters again. Still have to do the Wily levels, though I've been putting it off. Anyway, Plug Man has the Rush Jet. That's all I'm saying.

I'll agree that Grimlock didn't do more than set things up for Maximum Dinobots, and that Mirage, Blaster, Kup, and Wheelie didn't add much of anything to the story. But the other Spotlights, while they do have a mostly self-contained story, are best read in the context of the -ation stories.

When you said you read Spotlight 2 and 3, but you missed 1, I have to ask if you've read any of the -tion books? While I can definitely see what FfN is talking about, with how's it sorta rushed at the end, I've really enjoyed it all so far. I like the modernized take on G1, and the re-emphasis on the whole "Robots in Disguise" thing.

I'm sorta on the fence with it. I recognize that every writer isn't going to be as good at writing Transformers as Furman, and I'm still making allowances for the notion that continuity could be fixed either by the end of the series or in one of the next. My biggest gripe with it is actually that they've managed to drag out a total lack of story for three issues by alternating between panicked humans debating on whether or not they're screwed, and Decepticons randomly pounding on military forces. Considering that Megatron's got his name in the title, his appearances in the book are barely more than cameos. Was it really a business decision on IDW's part to force Furman to wrap up his stuff? Because Revelation and Spotlight: Grimlock read like he's just getting bored with the whole Dead Universe storyline and he wants to get on with Maximum Dynobots.