mikeszekely

I think I have maybe five pilots left to finish original mode, official mode already done. I've got 96 missions played, over 45 hours, and over 50,000 kills. It's obsessive on the Xbox 360, because they spaced out the Achievements just enough that that you feel you're only a few more missions from unlocking another (ex, the next one I'll get is for 100 missions, followed by completing it with everyone in original mode).

You guys are so lucky. I could only find Cheetor, Optimal Optimus, and the Fallen. I really want Ultra Magnus, WW Megatron, and Rodimus Prime. The first run sucked big, but it seems they've ironed out the plastic to die cast ratio and improved the joints. Long story short, I only own three, I hate GI Joe Megatron, I barely tolerate WW Prime, but I really love RID Prime.

The good: VF-1 toys on every toy shelf in America. The bad: It's Robotech.

Look, you and dejr8bud can batty at us about how they'll never do it, or you can show your support for Macross and the notion of English subtitles on a future HD release. Maybe you guys are right, and maybe they never will do it. But at least I'll know I did something besides bellyache. And anyway, I'm not talking about setting up distribution in North America. I'm suggesting that if/when they do an HD in release in Japan, that they simply include English subtitles on them. Since both Japanese Blu-rays and HD-DVDs will play on American players, adding an English subtitle option would allow us American fans to import from the Japanese market. It might cost a bit to do their own subtitles, but I seriously doubt it would cost them too much to license them, especially from fansubbers. Wasn't there a rumor that they already licensed Mangas? In any case, there are over 4000 fans on this board. If even a quarter of us were willing to import Japanese Blu-rays or HD-DVDs with English subs, that's still 1000 extra units they can sell. And while you'd surely want a nice HDTV to get the full effect, all you really need is a player, which are steadily declining in price. EDIT: Batty? When did MW get a language filter?

It's out? Damn, the past two weeks have flown by! I didn't even finish the second one... I got stuck on the mission where you have to shoot down the ships, and you fail if more than four or something get away. Frustrating, because the lock on system is so crappy for it, I can't keep track of which one's the closest to leaving the area. And then I got distracted by Dynasty Warriors Gundam (I've got nearly 40 hours into it).

You don't need to spend $350 on another Pro. You already have a hard drive, headset, wireless controller, etc. The Core system is like, what, $250? $270? The minute I can buy a 360 for $200 I officially consider it worthwhile to just buy another one.

I've heard that, since they draw power from the system, they actually cause the system to heat faster, and do more harm than good. I can't confirm or deny that, though, as I've never used one.

I already contacted them, and I don't feel my time was wasted. Stop being a negative nancy.

I went to Walmart, K-mart, and Target today. The G1 Jazz repaints are hot, but other than that, all I saw were a few of the deluxes from the video game. Oh, and a Fallen. Tempting, but I didn't really have the money on me.

Yep. But what do you do? Leave it alone and wait for the inevitable failure to be replaced by Microsoft, or try to improve the unit you have and at best not have any issues, at worst, you have to buy a new unit? The Core pack is getting cheap enough now that I'd almost be tempted to just buy another unit anyway if mine died so I could still play while the original is in the shop, and then when it came back I'd have a backup.

I'm with ChrisG. It's not like when I watch anime, I'm staring at the bottom of the screen and nothing else. I can easily read the subs quickly and almost out of the corner of my eye without taking my eyes off what's going on. And the whole "you miss what's happening during the action scenes!" doesn't really jive with me either, because that's usually when they're doing the least talking. What's more, almost every dub I've experienced ranged from bad to horrendous.

It's not a matter of overestimating how big a percentage the English-speaking Macross fans make up of the total fanbase. I think it'd be great of the licensing issues were resolved and all of Macross saw a legitimate US release... but that's not what I'm asking for. All I'm asking is that Bandai Visual/Big West include English subtitles on any future releases of any Macross on either Blu-ray or HD-DVD. I don't think it would cost them too much to license Animeigo's SDF Macross subtitles, or Manga's Macross Plus and Macross II subtitles, let alone to buy them from a fansubber for DYRL, 7, and Zero, and by including those subtitles they can increase the market for a product that's already intended for their larger Japanese fanbase to include English-speakers willing to import. EDIT: I used the contact information provided to send Bandai Visual my proposal.

Right, but I figure that a lot of anime and/or videogame fans already have plenty of experience buying online from stores physically located in Japan (or Hong Kong, for that matter). I think I speak for the majority here when I say that I wouldn't mind buying a solid HD remastered Blu-ray release of at least one Macross production from CDJapan, Play Asia, Yesasia, Amazon Japan, etc and letting the credit card company worry about the dollar to yen conversion rate. Or USD to HKD. Or whatever. Doesn't anyone on the boards here have some contacts at Big West/Bandai Visual? Maybe we could petition for English subtitles on any Blu-ray or HD-DVD release. If enough of us were interested, I'm sure they'd realize that expanding their potential market to include English-speaking fans would be worth the cost of licensing Animeigo/Manga/fansubs, if not to create their own subtitles.

Well, I don't think the handful of people who replied are the most scientific sample, so although the replies so far give me the feeling that horizontal seems slightly healthier than vertical, the number of deaths in each position is just as likely to level out with a larger sample. Enough people have reported problems, or a lack thereof, in both positions, so I suppose it's a matter of personal preference and neither position is inherently healthier for the unit. I do like Steve68's idea of attaching feet to the bottom, though. I may try it, but then again, my unit works (well enough that I've put over 30 hours of Dynasty Warriors Gundam in over the past week), so I'm actually afraid to so much as move the damn thing for fear of jinxing it. If it ain't broke...

Am I the only one who's thinking "meh" on all this remastered stuff? I don't have a DVD player that can play R2s, and even if it could, my Japanese isn't nearly good enough to watch without subtitles. Not to mention that, while it might not be as pretty, I have the Animeigo TV release on DVD, ripped it to divx since my DVD player plays divx, not to mention my computers and PDA (or with a quick reencode, my PSP or iPod), plus the FX DYRL DVD, also ripped to divx. It's not like I'm exactly at a loss for ways to watch Macross already. If they really want to get my attention, they'd release this stuff on Blu-ray. If Big West were smart, they'd sidestep the license issues with HG by including an English subtitle track on the Japanese release; since the US and Japan are in the same region for Blu-ray, we English-speaking fans can just import them from Japan.

A.) I don't do eBay. Ever. Under any circumstances. B.) Borders sends me a coupon in my e-mail every week, usually between 20-30% off. So instead of buying online from anyone and then sitting around waiting for it to be shipped, and either hoping that it doesn't get stolen by the neighbors or that I'm home when UPS tries to deliver it so I don't have to drive to the local UPS facility to pick it up, I can drive five minutes down the road to my local Borders. Immediate gratification, less hassle.

A lot of my friends who've had their units die kept their units vertical. Mine's a launch, and it's never been anything but horizontal. The only other person I know personally (sorry internet friends) who's 360 hasn't been sent back to Microsoft (not launch; maybe from six months after) also keeps his horizontal. Quick question, for those of you who've sent some back and for those of you who are still on your first, how do you orient your unit?

Well, I guess that rumor went unconfirmed, which is fine. Still, the art style is very comic bookish... not sure how I like it, but I'm inclined to say that I still prefer the textbook look of third edition. I can't believe that's from the same guy who did Fiendish Codex II! The link you included has a lot of great info, thanks! Reading it almost makes me excited for 4e... almost, until I remember that it's supposed to be more like Sagas, and as I mentioned, I don't really like Sagas. The bottom line for me is that while I do think that a lot of 3.5e needs simplified and streamlined, I thought Sagas took it a little too far.

Man, I wish I had a basement, with a good gaming table, and more money for books... instead I got married, live in a tiny apartment, and do less interesting things with my money like pay bills and what not. Occasionally, if Borders sends me a good coupon, I might buy a book, but I guess that'll stop soon, since I have ZERO interest in 4th edition now (didn't like Sagas, and I'm not a fan of the WoW style of art they're supposedly switching to). That and the fact that I haven't been interested in any of the 3.5 books that they've released since Drow of the Underdark. Oh well, maybe the third edition books will drop in price; I can go back and get a few I missed.

Component can handle 1080i, and most (if not all) 360 games so far only support 720p and/or 1080i. The only advantage I can see is if you're going to get the HD-DVD drive and intend on watching a lot of HD-DVDs in 1080p (also assuming that you have a 1080p display, which I personally don't). Frankly, I filled my HDMI ports with the PS3 and an upconverting DVD player, and I'm content to leave my 360 component.

So I hear that Wizards is going to use Forgotten Realms as the new core, but to simplify it they're going to advance the setting 100 years after some major disaster so they can pretty much toss out everything we know and love about it. What's more, there's a rumor that they're doing away with the law/chaos alignment axis, and re-writing the entire core cosmology in the process (for example, there's no real difference between demons and devils now).

Oh, you have. You really have. I mean, until SEED Destiny came along, I think Wing was probably the worst of the Gundam series. It's like the Reader's Digest version of the entire UC Gundam series from the original up to Char's Counterattack, except you replace the AEUG with whiny pacifist idealists and dysfunctional 14 year old shonen.

Who said Factor 5 makes good games? Lair's the first game they've made in nearly ten years that wasn't Rogue Squadron (or Battle for Naboo, which is basically the same thing). And at the risk of sounding controversial, the Rogue Squadron games are nearly as over-rated as Final Fantasy VII. I think half the reason the series got the press it did was that the original was a damn fine looking game for the N64, and the other half is that it's Star Wars. If it weren't Star Wars, but some generic space shooter, everyone would be complaining about how hard it is to see what you're shooting and asking why, even if you can't get a target lock, the HUD doesn't at least mark enemies. We've got technology that can do that already on our fighter planes, and you tell me a collective civilization that can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other can't make a decent HUD?

You should be fine. It's not that the PS3 has any special protection against viruses. It's more like how PC software doesn't work on a Mac (unless you have the Mac version, but that's still different). Viruses for Windows, which most of them are, don't work on anything but Windows. To infect a PS3, you'd need a virus written for the PS3... and even then, you can't run software on the PS3 that isn't digitally signed for it. If someone could figure out a way around that, you'd see SNES emulators before you'd see viruses. Because Roy and Roy Focker already signed up on PSN? BTW, if you eventually sign up and want to add me, my PSN ID is mikeszekely, same as here.

Ratchet was, originally, the Transformer I was least interested in from the movie. As far as toys go, though, he's actually my favorite. His transformation isn't too difficult, and the automorph doesn't make you afraid you're going to break it. What's more, he's got minimal kibble and better poseability than any of the other Voyager or Deluxes.