mikeszekely

I've had a MacBook since June of last year, and I love it. I bought it with the default configuration, figuring that I'd upgrade it myself later (and that's when the default was 60GB HD and 512MB RAM). I just upgraded the HD to 250GB, and I'll pick up RAM soon (yeah, I'm still running it with 512). I installed Leopard without a hitch (not a huge leap, but worth the price of admission), ran the Boot Camp tool, and installed Vista Enterprise, which is slow but still runs with Aero. In fact, the MacBook has run everything I've thrown at it. The one and only time I wish I'd gone with a Pro was when Neverwinter Nights 2 came out and I wanted to play it at work (back then it was XP in Boot Camp beta on Tiger), but the Intel GMA chipset couldn't handle it. But my desktop has a GeForce 6200, and it can't really handle it either, so... yeah, if you're not playing games, the regular MacBook should be fine. And if you need extra work area, I'm sure the Spaces feature in Leopard should help.

Nope. Saving my cash for Rock Band on the 360.

Sorry, I don't agree with that. Yes, we had to deal with a few fictional planes, or fictional upgrades to real planes. And yes, the US version had the story somewhat butchered. It still gave us around 30 missions with a lot of variety and solid Ace Combat gameplay. There were some memorable moments, like fighting the Night Raven inside that fortress, chasing the train, and taking out the virus factory. Do I wish we could have got the full story with branching paths like the Japanese did? Absolutely. Does that make the US version inferior to the Japanese version? Again, yes. But does that make it a crappy game? Not at all. Ace Combat 6, on the other hand, if 15 missions of shooting random crap so the guys on the ground can win the war. The story is weaker even than 3's butchered version. There's little variety in the missions. The boss fights are irritating (the CFA-44 doesn't just disappear off your radar, it does it while spawning dozens of drones and flying like the Ghost X-9), the aces are irritating (one Strigon pilot kept flying past me at high speed so he was out of even XMAA range, then turning so that when I was in range he was rocketing past me again), and the allied pilots are irritating (I give them the hold-down-the-button cover order, and promptly find myself shot down). And I wanted to jam a pen in my ears after about the fourth time someone said "dance with the angels." So for me, the order from best to worst is 2, 0, 5, X, 4, 3, 6, 1. Absolutely not, and I can't stand it when developers think that way, especially when the game has traditionally been single player. I buy a game to get away from the world, if it can't stand on it's singleplayer, then it's not worth crap to me. I'm too old; I don't have the time or patience to master a game the way I did back when I was playing Megaman on my NES. The last thing I want to do is go online to play with cocky, foul-mouthed 'tweens who act like Tom Cruisees when they're winning and even bigger Tom Cruisees when they're losing. EDIT: Apparently the language filter replaces "jack@$$" with "Tom Cruise." Slightly amusing, but can the mods tone the language filter down a bit? I'm pretty sure everyone on the boards is at least 13, so we don't really need to filter our language down to G.

Makes me wonder why the 360's player is still $180. Although, I know it's kinda late to be mentioning it, but I just found out today... anyway, if you buy the 360 drive at Best Buy, they're throwing in Heroes on HD-DVD for free.

I haven't played online, been trying to get through the campaign. And I don't care how good the online is (if it even turns out to be good), good online doesn't make up for shoddy single player. After finishing mission 13, without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that the game is definitely the worst since Air Combat, and I feel bad for people jumping into the series now, because they're never going to know how good the series actually is.

I overheard someone, I think Ghost Eye, say that in Mission 10. The developers have a sense of irony, it seems.

Physica died, and had almost zero character development until they wanted to give us a reason to care that they were going to kill him, but he was hardly a cannon fodder pilot. The very fact that he was in Diamond Force meant he was an ace, since Diamond Force was an elite unit. Personally, I'm torn. I can't decide if my favorite cannon fodder pilot was the one in brown Valkyrie #9 in SDF Macross or the one VF-11 pilot who ejected his cockpit right into the Elgerzorne's claws and got his spiritia drained every other episode.

Char had a reason. Everybody else just wants to be Char.

Castlevania. And yes, it is super hard, although they seem to give you enough lives and even if you use them all, it looks like you start at the beginning of the stage instead of a total game over like the old school ones. So as hard as it is (there was one room where I died several times trying because of those spear guys), it still seems beatable.

I only keep a computer until it stops running decent Linux distros. But my buddy has a garage full of really old computer hardware. I don't know the specs, because he organizes them by OS, not processor, but I do know he's got an OS/2 unit.

So, changing the subject a bit... anyone besides me upgrading to Leopard? I never bothered with Vista (for my Windows computer), since it seems like a lot to pay for a broken version of XP, but I'm actually pretty excited about Leopard. If you're wondering, which I'm sure you're not, on the Linux front I did install YDL on my PS3, but never really got into it. I had Kubuntu 6.06 (the KDE version of Ubuntu) on an old computer, but I got rid of it. If I can convince my wife to buy a Mac Mini to replace her aging XP computer, I might take her aging XP computer and save it for a Linux distro when KDE 4 comes out.

Absolutely agree. And it's not just that there's too many enemy planes, there's too many period. And unless you specifically order them to do something useful, they're useless. Get rid of the entire air force and go back to four wingmen, with the "Disperse" and "Special" commands. In any case, like I already said, 5 and 0 offered a lot more in the way of mission variety and story than 4, and I think a lot of it was that 4 was kind of laying the groundwork. Groundwork laid, Project Aces could focus on other stuff. I think it's the same case here... 6 is PA learning the ropes, 7 will kick ass.

See, if I'm going to pay that much for anime, I'm expecting a series, not a movie.

The VAT-127 is the sexy, Mr March, but as I understand it, one of the reasons the VF-5000 was developed was because the UN was dissatisfied with the VF-4's atmospheric performance... so a desert camo, even a canon one, kinda seems silly. So, I'm going to say I like the Nightmare scheme better, but I think a desert camo VF-11 would kick ass.

The PS3 does seem a little light on platformers. Are you guys getting the new Ratchet & Clank soon? It came out today in the US.

mikeszekely--- Pharaohman. If you send me a friend invite, please mention that you're from Macross World, otherwise I might reject you. David, I pretty much agree with your review so far. Even the cutscenes don't feel like they're telling me a lot of story. The cutscenes in 5 and Zero (and X, if you've never played the PSP AC) were all directly relevant to the main character(s). And while the cutscenes in 4 were from a bystander's POV, they focused on the main character's rival ace. So far (I'm up to, but haven't played, mission 6) the cutscenes have been largely irrelevant. I mean, the opening scene, sure, but the rest of the cutscenes I've seen have been about disparate characters affected by the war and their feelings toward the whole mess, but really have nothing to do with Garuda and what they're doing. I also don't feel like planes are opening fast enough. I have a feeling that this Ace Combat will end up being somewhat shorter than the previous ones, but six missions in I only have four planes (and even then, I'm still inclined to keep taking the F-16, although I think I'll grudgingly take the Mirage 2000-5 on my next sortie). There also seem to be fewer slots available, making me think there's going to be fewer planes to fly. I guess it takes longer to render an individual plane with as much detail as they're using, but it really just makes me crave Ace Combat 7, since they can use the same engine and focus on adding more planes. The missions themselves are a little dull. Fly around, and shoot some crap so the ground forces can do their thing. That's pretty disappointing coming off Ace Combat 5, which had A LOT of variety in the missions. I think part of the problem is the scale. You can tell that the developers wanted to take advantage of the 360's extra horsepower to fill the sky with enemies and allies alike... but some of the best moments in Ace Combat 5 were when it was just Wardog/Razgriz alone against the enemy. It's hard to complain too much, though. I do like the addition of high-G turns, airbases on the map on not just past the return line, and the bit about your missiles being smarter when you fly in a friendly ESM cloud. And while you don't necessarily get that "ace against the enemy" feeling, you're trading it for a sheer mass of chaos and explosions. Everything in the game is gorgeous... the planes, the contrails from your missiles, the explosions, and the scenery. At the end of the day, I do kind of wish the game were a little more like Ace Combat 5, but Ace Combat 5 and Zero both came later in the PS2's life cycle. I think it's more fair to compare 6 to 4, and indeed, I see a lot more similarity there. I'm going to enjoy 6 for what it is- a solid entry in the Ace Combat franchise, but not the best. And there's always hope that the effort put into 6 will pay off later with a 7th Ace Combat.

Well, Capcom's all about pushing those damn StarForce games (which, honestly, I liked better than Battle Network, but still). I only knew because, also as a huge Megaman fan, I'd hit up Atomic Fire until it closed, and from the moment Capcom announces a new Megaman game in Japan, I'll keep an eye one it and periodically check for updated US release dates. I'm torn between what to play... I love Ace Combat and Megaman both...

Ah, okay. I guess I was just under the influence of "teh internetz." I guess I just liked that explanation because it gives us a reason why the M7 and M3 VF-14s are different. Perhaps a variant, ala the VF-19A and VF-19F/S? Maybe the VF-14 in M3 wasn't up to spec for the Megaroad fleets, or vice versa. Or different customers... the Compendium listed both the UNAF and the UNS as customers for the VF-19; I've kind of thought that the UNAF would have bought more As, but with extra verniers and shorter wings, that the F/S types are more geared toward the UNS.

In Dynasty Warriors Gundam, you can play the Official Mode with Kamille and the Zeta Gundam from the first time you play the game. Beating Official Mode with Kamille will unlock him in Original Mode. Eventually, you'll unlock Roux, who also pilots the Zeta Gundam. Oh, and yeah, it's a much better game than Crossfire. I wonder if your lack of games is because Europe gets games last, or because you're using a PS3? I know I just came back from picking up Ace Combat 6 and Megaman ZX Advent, but if I had the money I'd probably have picked up Castlevania for the PSP too, and Ratchet & Clank, not to mention the new Guitar Hero... only to find myself robbing banks a month from now to find the money for Mass Effect and Rock Band.

My former employees at Gamestop are saying that there was a shipping issue, so even though you can get the game now, the faceplates won't be in until later this week.

7800 Yen seems kinda pricey. But if they have English subtitle tracks...

I agree that the the M3 VF-14 doesn't look like the Varauta mecha in Battroid mode, but I think the fighter mode looks more like an Elgerzorne than the rough VF-14 did. And actually, if you read the Compendium carefully, the Elgerzorne is supposed to be build from the VF-14, and the Panzerzorne is built from the VA-14. I didn't think that the rough VF-14 design becoming a VA-14 was a fan creation, but an official retcon to explain the difference between the mecha in Spiritia Dreaming and the finalized VF-14 in M3. Ironically, if you look at the Design Works book's entry for the VF-14, the rough VF-14 fighter and Battroid pics that are on mahq.net under the VA-14 entry aren't shown, but if you look carefully at the the rough sketches of the back of the Battroid, they'd be a match for the VA-14 Battroid. You can see the shoulders, the head lasers, and the chest cannon.

Sadly, yeah. I bought it at a used store for around $15, thinking that reviewers always pick on Gundam games, and that the HUD looked like the Gundam Battle games on the PSP, which I loved (especially the newest one, Battle Chronicle). I was appalled to find the game nearly unplayable.

Meh. I only use my 360 for gaming at the moment, although I'd like to get the HD-DVD drive down the road. But I'm sticking with component, because I'm not buying a new 360 (at the moment) just to have HDMI, and I don't have any more HDMI ports anyway. Besides, wasn't there a bit about not being able to pass audio over the fiber optic out of you use HDMI?

Not to mention, everything is tied to your Gamertag. Even if your 360 exploded and the hard drive was blasted into space, recover your Gamertag on your new 360 and you can re-download everything for free. Are the downloadable planes actual extras, or is it like NFS where you could pay to unlock a car that you'd get if you took the time to play the game anyway? Any good ones? I'd guess the F-22 is in the game anyway. I know you're a YF-23 man, David, and I do respect that... but I love me some Raptor.