mikeszekely

To get this thread back on track, I'd like to go on record as stating that I like videogames. Very much. Dynasty Warriors 6? I hadn't heard about that, unless that's what they decided to call Musou Orochi in the States (Musou Orochi is basically Dynasty Warriors vs. Samurai Warriors.) Well, I've only got time for one Warriors game, and I'm holding off for Dynasty Warriors Gundam.

My day, good sir, has officially been made.

Animated looks a little Justice League, very cartoony, and not really robot enough for my tastes. That said, I'm still probably going to get both Primes, Starscream, and Megatron (if they stick with the G1 colors).

No, I mean there's absolutely no deluxes (aside from the protoforms, which are looking more like pegwarmers), voyagers, or leaders. I am yet to see the repaints, leader Brawl, or 2008 Camaro Bumblebee. There haven't been any Voyager Megatrons here either; I found mine in Cleveland. I'm trying to cut down on the number of Transformers I'm buying, since I bought all of the deluxe and voyager Classics. I'm trying to limit my movie purchases to just the characters that had screen time, although Wreckage looks really bad-ass. Like G2 Megatron. Oh, and we don't have any Fleet Farms here. There's no Kohl's in my town, either, but I think there's one in the next town over.

House of Flying Daggers was bad. I don't mean the movie was crappy. I mean that, for an HD transfer, it looked pretty bad. The DVD version upconverted looks better.

People actually want a DS, even the non-lite ones. Nobody wants an old Xbox. Law of supply and demand would figure that the DS is worth more.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not accusing you, or anyone else on these boards, of crying racism. When you mentioned it, I read it more as you pointing out that someone inevitably will, and of course, you were right. And yeah, to a casual observer, maybe it does look like whitey shooting up black people. But as I mentioned, the game is set in Africa. Should realism be thrown out in favor of racial sensitivity? I don't think so. And while I vehemently oppose racism, I think that over-sensitivity only serves to isolate a race further instead of allowing people to simply see a person as a person, instead of as a black person, a white person, a jewish person, or a muslim person. So, a game where you play a Klansmen and shoot neighborhood blacks would be highly objectionable. A game about a military operation in an African country that let you shoot innocent black villagers, again would be objectionable. But a game in a franchise that's alre.ady had games set in other parts of the world that happens to be set in Africa, where a virus turns the locals into flesh-eating zombies? A franchise where we've already killed white zombies and Hispanic zombies, some of which may also have been jewish zombies? Well, I'd hope that we could look past the color of their rotting skin, and agree that zombies of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and religious beliefs are all equal. Equal threats to humanity. That said, I admit, I'm a young white male. And maybe I would feel differently if I was black. Or jewish .

I think the fact that you can like some VFs and hate some is a testament to Kawamori's talent, as the different VFs are supposed to be manufactured by different companies. Shinsei's models and General Galaxy's models do not look alike, but within Shinsei, you can see similarities between the VF-11 and the VF-19, for example.

I really dig the site. All it needs to be perfect in my opinion are the mecha from the games.

I don't know how the rest of the country is doing, but there isn't a Voyager or Leader to be had in the Pittsburgh area, and the only deluxes are the protoforms. I had to go all the way to Cleveland to find a Voyager Megatron, and I still need the new Camaro Bumblebee... just to have the actual figures that were in the movie. I've totally missed every other deluxe.

I can't argue with your logic. DVRs and on-demand cable programming have already proven the digital distribution model for video. I can't say I like, though. I like owning physical media. I've never bought a song on iTunes, because I'd rather buy the actual CD.

And yet, there wasn't a lot of fuss when you were shooting Hispanics in RE4. Because they look white? Capcom chose to set RE5 in in Africa, I'm assuming for plot reasons. And they've decided to use a character already established in the franchise, who happens to be white. Regardless of Redfield's race, it wouldn't make sense to shoot white zombies in Africa. People might want to consider that before they start crying racism.

I have a friend in Sheffield Village, at the Waterford Circle apartments. Waterford is just of Detroit Rd, and you can see the on-ramp to 90 when you get to Detroit Rd. He works 8-5, and he says it takes him 25-35 minutes, depending on traffic. When I interviewed there and went to his place after, it only took me about 25 minutes. Most of the traffic thins out once you get past Westlake. The thing about me is right now, I live in Greensburg, PA. From where I'm at, I'm used to the convenience of having a Target, a Wal-Mart, two parks, a Best Buy, and a mall all within 5 minutes. I'm also maybe 15 minutes to the PA Turnpike. Meanwhile, the closest real city to me is Pittsburgh... and that's a good 45 minutes to an hour from here to downtown... which I avoid anyway. I'm kind of contradictory. I don't like cities, but I like convenience. That's why I'm eying Avon... it's a lot like Greensburg. Westlake reminds me of Monroeville, which I've never really liked. Elyria is a little too far west and a little run down. Avon, though... right off 90 (and 90 dumps me out right onto E 9th), it's close to that one mall, Best Buy, Avon Commons, Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle, and Sheffield Village. The lake is a short run down Abbe Rd. And it's maybe 20 minutes to the Westlake Mall or Crocker Park. The apartments around Avon vary wildly... I'm looking at two places, both owned by the same people, right by Lorrain County Community College, and it's about $525 for two bedrooms (yeah, I know I'll have to deal with a lot of the college kids, but I already have Pitt Greensburg and Seton Hill University students for my neighbors, so biggie). But there's lots of places labeled "resort-style living" that are closer to $1000. The building is the Penton Media Building. If you turn left onto St. Clair, and then right onto 6th, the building has it's own parking garage. Parking was a little pricey when I went, but it looks like employees get a pass. What's the line between the north end and the south end? I'd guess the PMB is closer to the north end... I mean, it didn't seem to take me long at all to get there when I got off 77 (coming from Pittsburgh that time, 77 to 14th, then Prospect to 9th). Actually, I think the PMB is really close to the Federal Building.

It was actually the Japanese cover art for the fourth and final game.

Where in the greater Cleveland area are you at? The company I'm trying to get into has an office on E 9th St, so I've been looking at apartments around Avon (near Elyria), since it's a pretty straight shot on 90. Might consider Westlake, but Avon seems more conveniently located.

The in-game graphics and character models look pretty good, if a little SD. But as someone who's never liked Yoshitaka Amano's artwork, I'm not digging the CGI renders for the characters.

Thanks! I'm digging the fighter sketch on the upper left corner of the right page. Reminds me of the VF-22.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that one. I liked III on the DS, but IV is my all-time favorite in the series.

Well, I can't do it now. I live near Pittsburgh, but I'm trying to get a job in Cleveland. It would suck if I sent my 360 away, had to move, and the guy who ends up moving into my apartment back in PA thinks he got a moving in present why my refurb turns up. If I wait until after I move, then I'm faced with that same dilemma... by the end of the month, I'm looking to have picked up Tiger Woods and Dynasty Warriors Gundam, even if I have decided to wait a bit on Bioshock. Do I really want to be without a console? I could probably entertain myself with Metroid Prime 3 and Heavenly Sword, but only if I'm sure I'd have my system back before November, when Ace Combat 6 and Mass Effect hit. And besides, Microsoft sends back refurbs. Yuck. EB/Gamestop has them used/refurbed for something like $180. The new Cores are out of stock pretty much everywhere, but that might change if they really do re-release it as the Arcade. Anyway, that should go for $279. I don't know what the trade-in values are, but I don't think you could work it out to get one for under $100 if you went new. If you just bring in your console, they should (at least, my store used to) just keep the controller and cords from the new one, but even if it's working, I don't see them giving you too much for it. Of course, you do have that memory card you can trade, too...

I'm with JsARCLIGHT. The competition between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, if nothing else, has kept the discs priced reasonably and competitively. I already own a PS3 and an Xbox 360, both of which I bought for gaming purposes. Might as well buy the HD-DVD player for the 360 and buy my discs on whatever format it's available on. As for Bay's whole temper tantrum, he might jump off the the boat, but that boat's going to keep on sailing. I'd read that the CGI models for the film cost so much that Paramount decided they're in for three films minimum. And at the end of the day, yeah, Transformers certainly exceeded most of our expectations, but there are certainly better directors out there than Michael Bay. As long as they don't get Uwe Boll, I'm fine.

Since there's a lot of talk about avatars going on in this thread, I'd like to go on record as saying that I really like my own avatar. Megaman Zero kicks ass. (Sorry, I was feeling left out.) But to stay on topic, there's some mention of design sketches of the new VF going around a few pages back. Were they posted in the old thread? If someone has them, could they please repost them?

Apparently, there's a rumor going around that the Core is being tweaked and rebraneded. The newly dubbed Xbox 360 Arcade will supposedly have the HDMI port, upgrade from wired to wireless controller, and come with a 256mb memory card that comes with 5 free XBLA games. Most of the forums I'm reading have the usual belly-aching that it's still a useless sku and only retards would buy it. I kind of disagree, though. Yeah, if you download a lot of content from the Live Marketplace, you'll probably still want the hard drive models, but a 256mb memory card does have enough space for game saves. If you don't care about XBL, you're poor, or your cheap parents are telling you they won't buy you a 360 because it's too expensive, a price that's $70 lower might be attractive. Plus, there are people like me. I still have a launch-day 360. And so far, so good... but I live in constant mortal terror that it will die on me every time I turn it on. Sure, it's warrantied for 3 years against the Red Ring of Death... nearly two of which have already passed. But what if I don't want to wait for weeks for it to be replaced with a refurb when a game like Mass Effect is begging to be played? Or what if it waits until December of 2008 to throw in the towel? I've already got a hard drive and headset, so buying a new Core/Arcade with a slick new Falcon chipset, or even a Zephyr model with an improved heatsink, works better for me than buying another Pro. (Yeah, there is the lure of the bigger hard drive that comes with the Elite, but I don't honestly download more than the occasional demo, so I'd probably opt to save the $170 up front, and then just buy the bigger hard drive later if I decided I'd need it.)

Well, then I was under the wrong impression, although it reaffirms my belief that many studios jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon because of copy protection. Better, of course, being a subjective opinion. An opinion I presented largely for the objective reasons listed. BD-J actually has already been implemented, by the way. Crank, Speed, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Chicken Little are just some of the movies that use it. For the most part, BD-J is mostly just used to make slick menus, although Pirates uses it for an interactive game. 1.1, aka "Final Standard Profile," is mandatory by November. AFAIK, it requires to players to add support for a second video decoder and a second audio decoder. 2.0, or "BD-Live," adds internet support, although no 2.0 compatible players have been announced. Mind you, the support being added is already mandatory for HD-DVD. This is, of course, the most subjective of criteria in the format war. And while I certainly agree that both formats get plenty of crap, it is my opinion that most of the movies from Sony and Fox line the very bottom of the proverbial barrel. While I can't in good conscience say that Disney movies are crap, aside from the Pirates movies there's nothing in their catalog that I'm really interested in owning. For me at least, Paramount, Universal, and Dreamworks happen to have a slightly more interested catalog. So I'm not presenting as gospel the fact that HD-DVD exclusives tend to be better than Blu-ray exclusives. I am, however, stating that as my personal belief, and combining it with the facts mentioned previously as my reasons holding the admittedly subjective opinion that HD-DVD is currently the better format.

Aside from the higher maximum storage capacity, I don't believe that Blu-ray was ever the "consumer's choice." I was under the impression that the movie studios all jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon because BR supposedly offered better copy protection. Copy protection that, as far as I recall, was already cracked anyway. Blu-ray really didn't take of until the PS3 was launched, and PS3 owners snagging the Blu-ray versions of films helps explain why when the same movie is available in both formats, the BR outsells the HD-DVD (hell, I've contributed myself to that with TMNT and 300). And overall sales of BR discs are likely higher due to having Sony Pictures shoveling out pretty much every movie they release now on BR exclusively. Oh, and let's not forget about corporations like Target and Blockbuster trying to make up our minds in the format war for us. Despite owning a PS3 and no HD-DVD player, despite having bought a handful of Blu-rays, I've always thought HD-DVD the better format. HD-DVDs (including 300) have interactive bonuses that Blu-rays don't. Many HD-DVDs can be flipped over and played in regular DVD players, which is a nice bonus when you only want to buy one disc to watch on the home theater at home, or take over to your HD-less friend's house to watch. And yeah, Blu-ray has more titles to pick from, but for every one Pirates of the Carribean, you get four Are We Done Yets. HD-DVD may not have quantity, but it's got quality, with stuff like Serenity, the Matrix Trilogy (okay, maybe we only want the first one, but still), and now Star Trek, Transformers, and Battlestar Galactica.

You still need a Cube controller. On the flip side, though, if you hold down one of the shoulder buttons on the Cube controller when loading a Virtual Console game, you can use the Cube controller instead of the Classic.