mikeszekely

Exactly. Just because no one is as awesome doesn't mean that there can't be other slightly-less-awesome-but-still-pretty-good actors out there. Kinda like movies, right? Fight Club, for example, was an awesome movie, despite not having Arnold in it, and despite the fact that it wasn't as awesome as Conan the Barbarian.

Well, I think the important thing to remember is, I'm not looking to run top-of-the-line games. Not today, not ever. I know it sounds odd to dedicated PC gamers, but I don't play FPS on PCs at all... just the occasional RPG. My computer runs Nevewinter Nights with all the max settings, and only lags in very large, busy areas like Neverwinter's central hub... and that's as is. A gig and half of memory should be plenty until it's time to replace the whole computer (and I'm not canabalizing any RAM out of this computer... it's PC2700). It's also very likely that I won't canabalize the video card either, since I'll probably invest in a newer one that's better designed to work with a newer mobo and a dual-core CPU set up. To that end, Az, I'm looking to get off as cheap as possible. The only realy game I'm looking into buying for PC in, say the next 12 months, would be Neverwinter Nights 2. Granted, NWN2 isn't scheduled to release until July or so, so no concrete system requirements are out there, so it'd be hard to say what I'd actually need to run it at decent settings. But, to put it another way, the 6600 is a consideration only if I can find an excellent deal, and the 6600GT is simply out of the question. Once we start getting that expensive, I'd rather just wait until I start building my next PC.

A7, you totally missed a ton of the awesome episodes! Like, the episode where Mr. Garrison invents the "It," the sex ed episode, Towlie, the Passion of the Jew, the crab people, the PSP episode... Well, I guess it'd be hard to list all the good ones... I completely disagree. South Park and Family Guy are the only two shows I've actually bothered to collect on DVD. For me, it's never really been about the shock value, but more about the way they take issues, and totally rip them apart, while throwing in some really off the wall stuff (like having Dio perform "Holy Diver" at the school dance). If there's a funnier way to tell the nation, "You take everything WAY too seriously," I don't know what it'd be.

So here I am, ressurrecting a long dead thread. I thought that, when I upgraded the drivers, that I'd solved my problems and could live contented and free until the time came to upgrade the whole PC. Unfortunately, Obsidian decided to develop a sequel to the one PC game I ever truly cared for, Neverwinter Nights. I was looking at some screens and thinking, to myself, "I really want to play that game, but I'll bet it won't run on my system!" And since the game is slated to come out in Q2 of 2006, I doubt I'll be ready to replace my whole PC, since the 2.6GHz Pentium 4 with HT that's in there will likely serve me fine until I'm ready to upgrade to a multi-core machine and Windows Vista. And why put off the inevitable? Neverwinter Nights Diamond came out, and it's only $10 more than the Kingmaker expansion. I wanted to get Kingmaker anyway, and the extra $10 seems worthwhile to replace the multiple CDs for Neverwinter, Shadows, and Hordes with a DVD-ROM. Might as well upgrade now and max the visuals on that. So, for around $80 at newegg, I can buy two 512mb RAM sticks, and that'd take my system up to a gig and half (no sense in going all way two 2 gigs now, since I'd have to buy four 512 sticks and toss the two 256s that are already in there... stupid motherboard with its stupid paired RAM...). But processor and RAM only go so far... Which brings me back to my shitty 64mb GeForce MX440. The little bastard must go! And that, of course, brings me back to where I was when I started this thread... what to replace it with? I've decided to stick with nVidia, simply because that's what's already in there. Naturally, it'd still have to be AGP since I didn't replace my motherboard. And it'd still have to have a DVI out, since I'm still using it on my TV. Despite the fact that I'm upgrading mostly because of a game, I still don't consider myself much of a PC gamer, so I still don't want to spend a lot of money (besides, the more I want to spend on upgrades, the more difficult it'll be to convince the other half to go along with the upgrades, especially since she doesn't use my computer). Long story short, I've narrowed it down to the FX5200, the FX5500, the 6200A, or the 6200. I leave it to you guys to educate me on the pros and cons of those cards. I know earlier in this thread, the 6600 was suggested. Once we get that high, we're getting a little pricey. I'd need a pretty convicing argument for that over the 6200. Thanks in advance.

We already have that: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...T&f=26&t=1985&a 342411[/snapback] The Oak's a given. I meant other favorite actors, like Edward Norton or Jason Statham.

Kinda like what they do to you in the narrow corridors of the Tantive IV. Or worse, when you have to defend the reflecting pool on Yavin for 2:00. They enjoy unlimited respawns while they think your ranks for the two minutes. I still haven't finished that mission. Which space missions are you talking about? The objective based space missions (which were a lot more fun) in Rise of the Empire, or the point-based generic missions in Galactic Conquest? In Rise or the Empire, you're better off just doing what they tell you to do, and hoping you have enough respawns to do it. In Galactic Conquest, I found the key is to use the pilot class for the regenerating health, grab a bomber then go for the vanguard ships first. After you take out the vanguard, attack the main ship until the shields go down. Then go for each weak point (engines, sensor array, bridge, com tower, and life support). You can pretty much ignore the enemy fighters, since it's first one to 180 points. Fighters are worth maybe 10 points, but you get a bunch of points for killing the vanguard ships and the weak points on the main ships.

Okay, Collin Farrel's been in some crap movies lately, but I thought he was pretty good in the Recruit. And to hell with you all, I like Will Smith. Aside from that, I'll pretty much agree with everyone else's lists, especially Michelle Rodriguez and Nick Cage. And then I'd like to chime in with Halle Berry and Renee Zellwegger (open your goddamn eyes, woman!). Okay, that was fun. A1, you wanna start another topic so we can talk about what actors we actually do like?

I couldn't disagree more, which does make me a little curious, which version are you playing? I'm on Xbox, and I ran through a round of Galactic Conquest on the first one right before I picked up the new one, and I gotta say that it feels pretty much the same. If anything, the blaster pistols are slower. Prepare for the ass-rapings. Which brings me to my one real complaint about the game... in the Rise of the Empire mode, the game goes from too easy to too hard in a flash, and the problem mostly seems to stem from the fact that your team has a limited number of respawns to complete each objective, while the enemy is infinite. Around the Tantive IV mission, your side is team killing itself with grenades while you're being over run. Galactic Conquest is another mode they had to go and muck with. I liked it fine before. Now they had to go and make it overly complicated. *Sigh* Well, it's a nice diversion. Now onto Castlevania...

To be fair, then, I'd like to point out that Fusion was really my second experience with Metroid... the first having been the original. I'm mostly (blissfully) unaware of the continuity, having really only played the original, Fusion, Zero Mission, and the first Prime (and of those, only having finished Zero Mission and Fusion). As far as the gameplay goes, yes, Fusion was a tad more linear, with the computer telling you rather obviously where you needed to go. But it was still a fun little romp.

That would have kicked much ass. A, I think John Woo optioned the rights to Metroid, and B, I kinda liked Fusion.

I got my Episode III at Best Buy. Yes, the lithograph is pretty lame, but $15 - $3 (from the fries I ate at lunch), plus the fact that Best Buy is on my way home from work were more compelling reasons to stop at Best Buy. Over the years, I've heard a lot of complaining about the PT, but I think a lot of that is that the OT has been placed on this pedastal, not so much that it's inherantly better. At work, to promote Star Wars Battlefront II, we put a New Hope and Return of the Jedi in our TV towers. From inside the store, we could hear but not see the films. I can safely say that the dialogue and acting is most definately as bad in those films as any of the prequel trilogy. The disparity is that, as younglings, the orignal trilogy captured our impressionable imaginations, while the prequels failed to live up to 20 years of fanboy expectations.

You know, a movie based on Castlevania might not be all that bad. There's plenty of story and interesting characters, afterall. But to be a good movie, it would have be directed by somebody else, and be not at all like the article describes. (Especially since it sounds like it's going to be an origin story that will run contrary to the origin story in Lament of Innocence.) At least Peter Jackson is involved with the Halo movie. Maybe it'll be good, and then maybe people will wake up realize that videogame movies don't have to suck.

Yes, I know it's a lot to read through, but we've actually been discussing the 360, along with the PS3 and Revolution, in this thread for months now. In summary, yes I'm getting one on launch day, yes it's the $400 one, yes I have played the demo unit, no I'm not super impressed, but yes I love the controller, and yes I'm still cautiously optimistic for Perfect Dark. I'm also hoping to get DoA4 (not that it's super impressive or anything, just that I'm a DoA fan the way other people are Soul Calibur or Tekken fans), Tiger Woods, and Need for Speed. And a second controller.

I remember loving this show as a kid, but I can't imagine liking it today. Then again, I loved George Pal's movie as a kid, and I'm still fairly fond of that...

Speaking of fun with vehicles, I actually got a Warthog stuck in the fan on Zanzibar. It kinda grinded near the top for a bit before exploding...

Now, when I watched the first few episodes of Turn A, watching the WaDom burning the turn-of-the-century style landscape seemed, at least to me, very evocative of of the Martian tripods burning the Horsell Commons in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. (And I do mean the novel, not any of the various adaptations.) Now, we already know that in canon Gundam, mankind has made it out at least as far into the solar system as Jupiter, and one of the various Gundam mangas (F-90?) had the Oldsmobile Army, a Zeon remnant, based on Mars. If so much animousity can be had between those living on Earth and those living on the moon or in orbital space colonies, all within the Earth sphere, how much more so between the Earth and Mars? If a major war were to occur within the Earth sphere, one large enough and with enough casualties to limit mankind's capacity for space flight, Martian colonists would be left to fend for themselves. And perhaps the years of seperation would create very different societies with different values, and different technologies which would make the two sides seem alien to each other... even as the resource-strapped Martians eye their native home with envious eyes. 340573[/snapback] What you just described is basically the exact plot of Turn A, with Mars substituted for the moon. 340727[/snapback] I realized that, a bit belatedly, but I was thinking less idealistic children running around, Earth mobile suits of a traditional military design (none of the over-the-top stylistic crap that's been spewing out of SEED) against more alien looking designs for the Martians. I guess I'm implying a bit more passage of time... Earth blasts itself back into the stone age, and enough time has passed that they're back up to building mobile suits, while the humans on Mars terraformed it, then bled it dry. And while they'd have common ancestory, I'd want them to seem more alien to the Earthlings.

Nothing useful to add, just wanted to chime in with the group that hasn't had any problems with Xbox Live. Looking forward to going on Live with the 360.

Now, when I watched the first few episodes of Turn A, watching the WaDom burning the turn-of-the-century style landscape seemed, at least to me, very evocative of of the Martian tripods burning the Horsell Commons in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. (And I do mean the novel, not any of the various adaptations.) Now, we already know that in canon Gundam, mankind has made it out at least as far into the solar system as Jupiter, and one of the various Gundam mangas (F-90?) had the Oldsmobile Army, a Zeon remnant, based on Mars. If so much animousity can be had between those living on Earth and those living on the moon or in orbital space colonies, all within the Earth sphere, how much more so between the Earth and Mars? If a major war were to occur within the Earth sphere, one large enough and with enough casualties to limit mankind's capacity for space flight, Martian colonists would be left to fend for themselves. And perhaps the years of seperation would create very different societies with different values, and different technologies which would make the two sides seem alien to each other... even as the resource-strapped Martians eye their native home with envious eyes.

Sure, humans aren't running out of ideas. Authors aren't running out of ideas. Film makers aren't running out of ideas. But Hollywood is most definately running out of ideas. I can't think of a summer blockbuster that's come out in the last few years that wasn't a remake of an older film or an adaptation of a TV show, book, or comic book. The most original Hollywood gets is when it remakes a fairly original movie/book/TV show.

The absolute worst reason in the world to not buy a console. My local Wal-Mart had their's up and running. Didn't feel like watching movies, so I tried both of the playables. Call of Duty 2 is... well, it's like every other WWII shooter out there. Seriously, if you've played any of the Medal of Honor games or the first Call of Duty, you know what you're getting into. And Kameo... for a game that's being called "Rare's answer to Zelda," it's kinda funny how it plays nothing like Zelda. In fact, the control scheme seemed downright sloppy. I don't get why Rare seems to think lately that third person action platformers should have FPS controls (Conker suffered this same defect). Graphically, I'll admit that I wasn't really wowed, but I didn't really expect to be. I think one developer said that the closer we get to reality graphically, the less room for improvement there is. And while the improvements don't jump out at you the way the leap from the NES to the SNES did, that's not to say they weren't there. You tend not to pay attention to it in the heat of a firefight, but Call of Duty 2 was a very detailed game. Planes were making bombing runs in the distance, and when you'd reload your weapon, you could see the serial etched onto the side. The biggest thing worth mentioning, you've probably heard before... but yes, the Xbox 360 controller is simply sublime. The angle of the handles, the shape and thickness of the handles... just perfect. Yet the overall design feels lighter and smaller (although just as sturdy). The shoulder buttons are easy to reach and press in a way that feels totally natural (unlike offbrand Xbox 1 controllers with a second set of black and white buttons on the shoulders), but when it comes time to use the triggers, it's like the buttons aren't even there, so they don't get in the way. The D-pad is slightly improved as well, although the X, Y, B, and A buttons are basically the same, as are the analog sticks. To put it simply, the 360 controller really is the most comfortable controller I've had the pleasure of holding.

How's the quality? When I think of video on the GBA, I can't help but think of the horrid GBA Video carts. I heard it uses MP4... you wouldn't happen to know if it comparable to to PSP quality (home-encoded vids for the Memory Stick, not the UMDs)? Also, how big is the Play-Yan? I'd never really considered this before, but this might be a way to smuggle a few eps of SEED Destiny to work...

Oh yeah, I forgot what I originally meant to post... Over G screens. For those who have been out of the loop, Over G is the game formerly titled World Air Force. Taito decided to go with a name change to indicate that Over G is more an evolution of the series, and not a real sequel to the popular Energy Air Force games for PS2. Frankly, I don't care what they call it. They can call it Taito Presents a Game With Airplanes if they want, as long as it sees a Stateside release. Those screens look amazing!

Don't forget, though, that the trend has been shifting away from the "more expensive in Japan, less expensive in the US." Both the PSP and the Xbox 360 are cheaper in Japan. With a $400 Xbox 360 and $60 next-gen games, Sony may feel just as comfortable to launch at $400 in the US. The 360, of course, could retain it's price advantage by eliminating the "Core" package and dropping the price of the real package to $300.

Have I mentioned lately that I like the Micro better than the DS? If it weren't for Castlevania, I could have gone a year without touching it...

Add me to the list of IV fans. That was a great game. Unlike VI, VII, and VIII, it had that fantasy RPG feel of the original. Each character was unique and had a lot of depth. The story was interesting and imaginative (you went to the moon, for crying out loud!). Every Final Fantasy since has been lacking in at least one catagory, and complain about VIII all you want, Final Fantasy VII was the worst offender. The game was ugly, most of the characters were under-developed, and the story made little or no sense. I think most of its popularity is due to its fans' absurd obsession with Sephiroth. What versions would that one come in? I certainly wouldn't mind a Sora Aoi or a Minori Aoi version...