mikeszekely

I think it's crazy that they're going to take itty-bitty Powerglide and make a toy that's potentially bigger than Jetfire.

Quoted For Truth(iness)

I had some money in Rickshaw Bank, but I'm worried they might be taking me for a ride.

Yeah, it could happen to any one of us... with substance abuse problems, if he did in fact OD. Since Ledger was my age, I'm going to assume we watched the same shows, and say that maybe he should have listened to those G.I. Joe PSAs. Hollywood's gotta find some new hobbies.

You could say the same thing about the Dawn of the Dead remake... no moral, no backstory, and plot was run from zombies. Cloverfield succeeded where DotD failed because the POV made it interesting. We've all seen monster movies; it didn't matter where the Cloverfield monster came from. Cloverfield gave us a new perspective, what it's like to be an average Joe when it hits the fan... DotD gave us zombie babies.

Yeah, but if they would have made this like the standard Godzilla film, it would have flopped. Cloverfield leaves you unfulfilled on the story, and now your curiousity is piqued. They can make a sequel in the standard Godzilla mold now, and it's practically guaranteed to do moderately well when everyone that saw Cloverfield goes to see it to figure out where the monster came from and what happened to it.

I LOVED Mass Effect. Even then, though, my second playthrough stalled. That's probably part of my problem, then. I'm replaying with the same Shepard to get the Achievements for hitting 60 and mastering the weapons I failed to master last time. For what it's worth, I really haven't liked a Final Fantasy since VI. IV was my favorite. I couldn't even finish XII. I'm sick to death of the same cookie-cutter formula that most JRPGs seem to be running with right now. But I just finished Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, and while I was pretty tired of it by the end of the game, I really liked it for what it was, as I don't think I've ever played a game with a story quite like it (any story that begins with the literal end of the world is bound to grab my attention). I enjoyed it enough that I picked up Persona 3, which is amusing enough as the game is 1 part dungeon crawler, 1 part SMT lite, and 1 part Japanese high-school sim.

You're arguing with me? But I'm agreeing with you.

If only the Cloverfield monster weren't so expensive. It'd be fun to play "Cloverfield vs. Transformers"* on my desk. *Did I mention I turn 28 in two weeks?

Ditto. The older I get, the shorter my attention span gets. I play a JRPG these days, and around 35 hours in I'm asking "is this thing ever gonna end?"

Maybe space suits are too bulky and unwieldy for arc welding. Maybe they use force fields to keep a pressurized atmosphere inside the dry dock. And it's worth noting that a Constitution-class vessel is, what, a fifth the size of the Macross? Yes.

Cloverfield was the production code name, and so many people figured it out that the name stuck. I've also heard the rumor that Abrams took the name from a street or something. I kind of like my own version, where Abrams and a friend are lying in a field of clover on a beautiful spring day, looking up at the clouds. Friend: "That cloud looks like a sailboat. What do you see?" Abrams: "Space monster. Dude, I'm totally going to make a movie about a space monster eating New York."

Yes, arguably. Personally, I don't care how detailed the licensed car modes were, I thought the Alternators were a little boring.

I'd see a faux aftermath documentary. And as cliche as the government/super-scientist angle is, I want to see it now. I mean, the movie would have totally bombed if they'd show that angle first, because it's so done-to-death. But having had average Joe's perspective, now I want to know what the government/super scientist response was.

Honestly, I think it's good that people like you can watch it and like it, but for completely opposite reasons. I mean, it's a fact of life that not everyone likes the same stuff, but even with different tastes we can find something to like in TFA. That says a lot about the quality of the show's writing and the amount of character that's already been demonstrated in each of the characters (something that Bay's film, for all it's explosions and detailed CGI models, completely failed to do).

Saw the movie today. I think were this movie really worked was that instead of focusing on the story and the hero scientist hooking up with the military to deal with the monster, the whole focus is on what it'd be like to just be an average joe when a giant monster starts stomping on your city. It's strengths are also its weaknesses, though, as the characters are poorly developed and often obnoxious, the movie is slow to get going and a little short, and when the movie ends you feel a little like you're missing part of the story.* Overall, I'd recommend it. I sort of doubt it'll hold up to repeated viewings, but for the first viewing, it's an almost unique experience. *Paramount seems to agree, and there's a rumor that a sequel's already been greenlit that will cover the events of the same night from a different POV.

Teaser trailer's fine. I mean, why read into it so much? It's just a teaser. If the welders were wearing space suits, it'd have given the trailer away. The dramatic impact of the trailer is that you don't really know what's going on until they pan back and you're like "That's the Enterprise!" It's slightly more impressive in motion than in the stills, where you can see the turbines in the unfinished Busard collectors spinning. Anyway, just like Transformers had that teaser with the rover on Mars getting kicked that really didn't show anything, this teaser isn't meat to show anything. Closer to its Christmas release, I'm sure we'll see more plot-relevant trailers.

Yeah, really. I don't get you guys talking about how unique or interesting Lockdown is. I dare say he's a little cliche. He reminds me of a bad Star Trek villian. I mean, I'm not saying episode 7 was bad, but that it was far from my favorite so far. And the grumpy old guys aren't really my thing, either. Ironhide was one of my least favorites in G1, Kup was my least favorite new character in the 86 movie, and Ratchet's my least favorite of the new Animated Autobots. Prowl's interesting because he's a dick, Bumblebee's a good modern take on the small, scrappy guy that was his G1 counterpart, Bulkhead is a surprisingly lovable lummox, and Prime is just bad ass. Ratchet's the grandfather I make excuses NOT to visit.

I wasn't a huge fan of episode 7. I mean, yeah, it had some great characterization, but Ratchet is probably my least favorite character so far, and I'm just not feeling Lockdown either. 5 wasn't great, but I think Meltdown might make an interesting recurring character in the long run. Still looking forward to them getting back to Dinobots, though.

I wouldn't say it's stealing anything. I mean, okay, I can kind of see how it's silhouette is kind of similar to the SDF-01, but that's like saying cats ripped off dogs because they both have four legs.

While some Wal-Marts were rumored to have piles of Starscream sitting on clearance, non-Wal-Mart internet sellers were already selling the US version for $100, and $100 pretty much falls in line with the Japanese pricing for the original MP Starscream and Skywarp. Hasbro cut corners, or Takara has been overcharging from the get-go, take your pick. If you can find a Wal-Mart Starscream, I'd say pick it up. I haven't had any issues with mine, and I think he might actually be my favorite MP toy (Prime being too heavy, and Megatron is difficult to pose on his skinny legs, plus some joints were really tight and others kinda loose). But I wouldn't cancel your preorder until you actually find a Wal-Mart Screamer, because despite the rumors of clearance, I found mine in late November, and never saw one again.

Says the people to the man who's system has been horizontal since launch day and hasn't red ringed yet. AFAIK, the system's RAM, GPU, BIOS, southbridge, and another chip that might be for audio are all on the left side of the unit, or the side that's the top when the system sits vertically. For all I know, the hot air can't exit the system fast enough, and using the whole heat rises notion, the heat from the CPU rises and mixes with the heat from the rest of the system over most of the system's critical components.

Crud. I know one of the guys at Kotaku really liked it, but I played the demo and thought it was crap. Why couldn't they just credit everyone's account with that many Microsoft Points instead? That way I could get Omega Five or some extra Rock Band tracks.

New Castlevania DS screens?

I owned Tryppy, Metroplex, and Scorponok (oh how I wish I knew whatever became of them!). I'll tell you this much, I remember Metroplex being a little fragile compared to Trypticon, and between the two, Trypticon was by far the favorite. But Scorponok was really good too. He didn't have any electronics gimmicks, and his city mode wasn't the hottest, but he was great in both scorpion mode and robot mode. Considering that we were happy if a Transformer's arms moved up and down at the shoulder back then, Scorponok had excellent poseability in his arms. I'd be really hard pressed to say which was actually better.