mikeszekely

Yeah. The best Star Wars material since the original trilogy came from Bioware. Even Obsidian's rushed follow-up was better than the prequels.

Why hasn't anyone fansubbed this? I'd give a dollar to see this.

I'd love to see and English version of Gundam Battle Tactics and a SotN port, too. But for games that are available now, has anyone else checked out Megaman Powered Up? I'm digging how, in New Style, you can "rescue" the Robot Masters if you kill them with your arm cannon, and then make them playable characters. I really hope Inafune decides to do more in the Rockman Rockman/Powered Up series.

I have a problem with every game on the headset. No one can understand a damn thing I say. Not a huge deal... I don't really care to talk to strangers when I play.

Likewise. It's fun to support a particular console or hate certain platform for awhile. But in the end, there ends up being at least one game that I have to play for just about everything under the sun. Did I tell you guys I actually wound up with an N-Gage? It's okay, though... I got it for free when Gamestop decided to stop carrying them, and that the demo units were up for grabs.

Or even better, use a microphone attachment that pauses the game whenever you start swearing at it. I can't say that I totally disagree with you... the diamond has had me doing some weird things, like sneaking an index finger up and around the front of the controller to hit the dash button in the Megaman X games to do dash jumps while keeping my X Buster charged. But a six-button layout wouldn't have helped that either. And the Gamecube controller? Designed by Miyamoto, worked well for Miyamoto's games, but it was a horrendous layout for everything else. Easily the most comfortable controller I've ever hated. So you're out of the action less time than usual. You still have to take your thumb off the action buttons. It's just stupid. The XBox S pad had you lifting off the directionals, which is usually a lesser evil. But as you said, it's hard to hit. The start button on the 360 controller is no farther away from the X button than the start button on the Genesis controller was from the B button, and I wouldn't exactly say that hitting either of them ever really took me out of action. Well, to each his own, I suppose. Until videogames evolve to a Star Trek Holodeck style experience, everyone's going to have different preferences. It's worth it. First time I've ever really felt like a third-party controller improved on the default in every way. It's more solidly built than the Dual Shock, feels better in your hands, sticks have better play, and to top it all off, wireless with vibration, excellent range, and excellent battery life.

Ha. If anyone, the RIAA are the last folks I listen to. I have a blog entry to prove it. Maybe not, but going digital does has made piracy somewhat more covenient. And I'd think it'd definitely increase piracy as far as comics are concerned. Right now, if I want to read the latest issue of whatever, I'd have to go down to the store and grab it. If I could bittorrent it, along with whatever backissue interests me, I know that would be a pretty huge temptation. 378858[/snapback] Comic book sales, like movie sales and music sales, are less likely to be suffering because of piracy and more likely to be suffering because the comic industry, like Hollywood and the recording industry, is shoveling out mass quantities of crap.

Over G picked up for US release Over G, the newest Xbox 360 installment of Taito's popular PS2 Energy Air Force series, has been picked up by Ubisoft for a US release. Ace Combat Zero next month, Over G in June... we had to wait forever after Ace Combat 4 to get a good air combat game, and now it looks like we'll be getting two over the next three months, and it's barely been more than a year since Ace Combat 5.

JB0, I simply disagree with you. Granted, I never owned a Saturn, so I don't have much hands-on experience with it. But in the interim between Dead or Alive and the new games that are just now starting to trickle out, I hooked up my old Xbox to play some Mercenaries and some Star Wars Battlefront II. And I am firmly convinced that 360 has a much better controller. Disagree. An extra set of shoulder buttons is preferable to six face buttons. The only thing six face buttons has ever been good for is Street Fighter. The black and white buttons had some uses, but on both the large and the small, they were kind of in the way. Moving them to the shoulders gets them out of the way. And, I'm sure David would agree with me on this one, four shoulder buttons is essential for games like Ace Combat and would have really helped on Air Force Delta Storm. Plus, retaining the analog triggers strikes a balance between having shoulder buttons and having the triggers. There are some games, like fighting games, where I'd rather have buttons than triggers. Microsoft managed to design a pad where both the triggers and the buttons are in easy reach without having getting in the way of each other. *sarcasm* Ah, yes, it was so much better craning my thumb at an odd angle to reach the start button on the S. And while it was hard to miss the giant start button of the three button Genesis pad, it was back in the middle on the six button pad. Meanwhile, you don't have have to lift your thumb to hit the start button on the 360 controller. Just slide it a little off of the X button. Not to mention that the 360 pad is much more ergonomic. And I was big fan of the S pad. I liked it much better than Sony's Dual Sh*t controller (although Logitech makes an awfully comfy pad for the PS2). But after playing with the 360 controller, then going back to the S, the S just feels a little off. The 360 controller feels perfectly designed to fit in your hands, but the S just feels almost perfect. My pinky aren't actually resting on the controller.

I wasn't going to get it, considering that it came out at the same time Burnout did. Burnout's really more my thing. Plus, I hated the original Ghost Recon. But, I hear that the GR series has evolved to the point that it's not really at all like the original. And GRAW is getting excellent reviews. I might just check it out after all...

Okay, I'm up for giving a bit more detail now, since I've played through most of Chronicle mode. The game is actually pretty simple. You have two kinds of enemies: grunts and bosses. Grunts typically pilot your cannon fodder, and can be killed in a few hits. They attack in waves of either three or six at a time, and I've killed as many as 45 in one stage. Bosses are much tougher. They may be piloting stronger MS like Sazabi, but even if it's just a Marasai, it's going to be a tougher fight than normal. Controls are pretty basic. Left stick for movement. L1 locks a target and cycles through targets. L2 goes to free look. R1 is your sub weapon... in the case of the Nu Gundam, that'd be vulcans. By default, R2 is jump, but in space, it's the same as using your verniers to dash (X). I switch them around, since jumping with X seemed more intuitive. Triangle is your melee attack. Circle is for special moves. Special moves use CP, and range from worthless (Gebera Tetra, shoots gun faster) to indispensible (F91, temporary invincibility). Square is for firing your main weapon. In an interesting twist, holding the button down charges it, and you have three levels. Depending on which MS you pick, you may actually have different weapons. For example, level 1 for Nu Gundam is beam rifle. Level 2 is a hyper bazooka. And Level 3 activates the funnels. The end result is a game that is still, by my estimation, so-so. The gameplay isn't as frantic as Encounters in Space, but it does feel like you're up against an overwhelming number of enemies at once... more like a war than a fighting game. And on the plus side, Climax simply has more playable Gundams than any other US released Gundam game (so far, I've played as the RX-78, the RX-79(G), the Ez8, Alex, the GP01 Full Vernian, the GP02, the GP03, the Mk. II, Zeta, Double Zeta, the Nu Gundam, and the F91... plus I hear all three Crossbones are in the game somewhere). Also, the Zaku III is playable, and that's a plus for me. On the minus side, the game can get downright frustrating... Amuro's final level has you take on cannon fodder, then a simultaneous boss fight between Gyunei in a Jagd Doga and Quess in the Alpha Azieru, followed by more cannon fodder and then another boss fight with Char in Sazabi. Also, while the game is heavy on Gundams, it's a little light on other suits. A lot of Titans suits, for example, including the Gaplant, Gabthley, Baund Doc, Barzam, Hambrabi, Palas Athene, etc aren't even in the game as enemies, let alone playable. And, even though there's a lot of pilots in a lot of eras in Chronicle mode, it's kind of short for a lot of characters, and you really don't feel like you're playing all of the most important battles. Take Char... for his First Gundam set, he only has two levels... the attack at Luna II in his custom Zaku, and then skip straight to A Baoa Qu and the Zeong. No Jaburo with a Z'Gok. No Solomon or Texas with a Gelgoog.

Okay, I got a copy of Climax UC. I've only played one mission so far. And it's... so-so. The models are more detailed than in the vs. games, but they also have a cartoonier look. So far, the Gundam game I've played that'd be the closest to this is Encounters in Space, but I think Climax might have ground missions too.

Too quick. Invest in that play and charge dealie.

Using defensive boosts will make or break you in this game. It turns out Xamel is a lightweight. So far, Raven Gundam was probably the hardest... kind of a letdown, since I thought Devil Gundam would be harder, but DG wastes too many turns ressurecting Gundam heads. I forget who's all piloting what right now. I usually have Tristan, Tremmie, and Aeon as my front line, and I do remember that they're piloting Zeta Gundam, Gundam Sandrock, and Gundam Mk II, respectively. Which reminds me, eventually you'll get a Gaw and be able to fly all over the place. You'll have a mission, but ignore it for the time being. I don't remember where I found it, but somewhere you'll find a chest with 50 Sandrock datas. And Sandrock was very helpful.

Link to what graham name means link for shawns link 376540[/snapback] That's an interesting site you found there. I told you we have an awesome name, Myk. But for something really different, why not try the Mikhalis variant?

There is no better name in all of creation than Mike.

Actually no.......V-Gundam "technically" is the end of the UC timeline.......but like I said Technically cause Turn A took place in the VERY OMFG WE'RE LIKE DINOSAURS BURIED DEEP IN THE EARTH Universal Century........but was like CC or something like that, dammit what was the turn a time line called? AND if you wanna get really technical, so far MS Saga New Dawn says it takes place in the UC Timeline. 376000[/snapback] G-Saviour is technically the end of the UC timeline. But I'm with Prometheum. Char's Counterattack ended the storyline that began with First Gundam. F91, Crossbone, Victory, and G-Saviour just don't have the same feeling that the earlier works did. To my mind, if you're going to watch Gundam, you have to watch at least First Gundam through CCA, and if you decided to watch more then you could go for Victory, or you could go for Turn-A. Oh, and I don't want to spoil too much, but later in MS Saga, they make very definate references to Future Century and G Gundam.

Are we talking about the same game? Because $65 is a lot more than $12. Maybe it was just a sale... a shame, I would have bought it at $12, but $65 is a bit much. 375979[/snapback] Yup, that's the game I was talking about. It was part of their New Years sale. $65 IS way too much, the game is fun and has some replayability (the hard mode has some cool MSV enemies, and you have the ability to replay the levels in a variety of OYW mecha-- like the Alex) but it's not worth $65. I would say keep your eyes open for it at a decent price on eBay or otherwise, the game didn't sell nearly as much as planned (and many copies were returned in the days following) so it should turn up in other sales as well. 376168[/snapback] Well, heck, I might as well watch and see if Climax UC doesn't end up on sale like that too. I'd even say maybe $30 is fair, and see if they don't end up in the "Gundam the Best" series or someone doesn't run a buy one get one on Gundam games.

For me, you put a space between the e and the s, make the first letters capital, and you have my actual name. Mike Szekely. Since that's boring, I'll explain that my Xbox Live Gamertag, Pharaohman, is one of the eight robot masters in Megaman 4.

When I was in high school, I was into comic books big time, although I was mainly into Image (Wildstorm specifically) and Marvel. Like Mr. March, I enjoyed WildC.A.T.s... until the end of Wildstorm Rising. I also liked Stormwatch and Gen-13, though by far my favorite was Backlash. Brett Booth's pencils were simply amazing (although in his earlier stuff, it looked like he sometimes had issues drawing women's hips). I hear he's drawing dinosaurs for magazines and science stuff now? Outside of Wildstorm, I read X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and X-Factor from I can't remember when until just after the Age of Apocalypse, and I was a huge fan of the various Spider-Man books until they ruined everything with the way they botched the whole clone thing (ironically, I liked the Scarlett Spider, and if they would have just left him as a player in the Spidey books instead of trying to replace Parker with him, things could have turned out much better). I also collected the various Venom series, from Lethal Protector to Along Came a Spider. In modern times, I'd all but quit reading comic books. Occasionaly, I'd buy a TPB (mainly due to Venom appearances) but usually wind up regretting it. I mean, I get that comic book sales are flagging, and I get that the writers are desperate to shake things up and try to bring something fresh to the table. But Marvel's been putting out mostly crap (and with horrible art, too... Humberto Ramos could never draw). They've totally ruined Venom, and they're well on their way to ruining Spidey himself. That said, I've been picking up the Ultimate Spider-Man TPB's as they've been coming out. USM ranges from great to mediocre, in my book. Bendis can definately write, and he captures the human side of young Peter Parker well (something that drew me to the character in the first place). Problem is, the last few story arcs have been pretty bland.

Where'd you read that? The game had control so poor it was mostly an unplayable mess. If you've never played a Gundam game on the PS2, do yourself a favor and go for Gundam Vs. Zeta Gundam instead. Are we talking about the same game? Because $65 is a lot more than $12. Maybe it was just a sale... a shame, I would have bought it at $12, but $65 is a bit much.

Thanks for that tip, as I haven't played that one. The quality of Gundam games is so hit or miss that I've avoided importing unless I get confirmation that I'm not getting a game like Zeonic Front. I've only imported AEUG vs. Titans, Alliance vs. Zaft, and Battle Tactics.

So, the newest Gundam game in Japan, Climax UC, hit the stores. It's got mobile suits from First Gundam and the various One Year War OVAs, Z Gundam, ZZ Gundam, Char's Counterattack, and F91, as well as some manga like Crossbone Gundam. With that many mobile suits, it's hard for me as a Gundam fan to ignore. It's also hard for me to ignore the fact that a lot of Gundam games sucked. So before I throw away any of my hard-earned cash, does anyone know if this game is actually any good?

That's not true. Big West could announce that they, in turn, were making a live action Macross, and it too would be a pile of flaming crap. Exactly. Z Gundam is probably my all-time favorite anime. I've loved every UC Gundam series, and even when Gundam is at it's worst (Wing, SEED), I'm usually at least mildly entertained. But have you seen G-Saviour? Live action = bad anime.

Post some pics then if you have! 375164[/snapback] 375190[/snapback] Considering that any movie with Devon Aoki playing my beloved Kasumi is an affront to... well, everything affrontable, I'd have thought this thread would be a total waste of time. Thanks for making it all worthwhile, Cory.