mikeszekely

You mean, aside from the fact that it's a pale immitation of the UC universe? Like I said, Hathaway's Flash, F-90 and Silhouette Formula, and Crossbone Gundam should be annimated. That'd help fill the gaps between Char's Counterattack, F-91, and Victory, and help make the whole thing more cohesive. They also help show how mankind was doing beyond the Earth Sphere (Mars, Jupiter). Then, Gaia Gear should be animated and made the official continuation of the Universal Century so we can all forget the abomination that was G-Saviour.

Gundam, for better or for worse, will never die. We may never get another good UC story, sure... but when the SEED universe has outlived its financial usefulness, another "reinvention" will occur, a new Gundam alternate universe will be born, and legions of 12 year old fans who either haven't watched the originals are don't appreciate the originals because they're not fully of flashy new animation will post things like "New-character-X would totally PWN Amuro!" or "WTF?! Char is such a rip-off of New-character-Y." 311906[/snapback] This don't appreciate the originals thing will only happen in US. In Japan, Amuro and Char are like national heros... 311910[/snapback] Somehow in a really lame sort of way the fact that they are national heros comforts me. 311911[/snapback] Yeah. I mean, I guess that's better than Yoda or Chewie...

Hasn't happened to me yet, and all I've yet to watch is 46 eps of Turn A, and then SEED Destiny.

Gundam, for better or for worse, will never die. We may never get another good UC story, sure... but when the SEED universe has outlived its financial usefulness, another "reinvention" will occur, a new Gundam alternate universe will be born, and legions of 12 year old fans who either haven't watched the originals are don't appreciate the originals because they're not fully of flashy new animation will post things like "New-character-X would totally PWN Amuro!" or "WTF?! Char is such a rip-off of New-character-Y."

Personally, I think any of the UC mangas that fill gaps between or after series should be animated, like Hathaway's Flash, F-90, and Crossbone Gundam. I'd also like to see them animate Gaia Gear, and official write G-Saviour out of the official UC canon. That said, if SEED is like a shallower, flashier "remake" of the original Gundam, and Desinty is SEED's Zeta... then most likely they'll animate some sort of ZZ version of SEED, and follow it up with a Char's Counterattack version of SEED...

Okay, I'll give the SPOILERS then... The reason that 0083 takes flak is that, while yes, it is pretty, and yes, it is action packed, it also suffers from plot holes and a change in director. The biggest thing was the relationship between Gato and Nina... it was a cliche that they pulled out of their asses when they changed directors that brought nothing to the story. But of course, there's also the fact that two thirds of the Federation Fleet was destroyed, Solomon was damaged, and a nice chunk of the US was devastated by a colony drop... but no one in Zeta is supposed to know about it, simply because a mysterious conspiracy swept it under the rug? Finally, the "Axis Advance Fleet," led by a child Hamon Karn, seems tossed in for the sole purpose of draving another connection to Zeta. We'd already been given to see in the original Gundam that there was both good and bad members of both the Federation and the Zeon. Zeta gave enough back story on the Titans when they explained that they were formed to hunt down Zeon remnants and got drunk on their own power. I didn't need an OVA with more holes than than a donut factory and an elaborate conspiracy to understand them.

I think that's exactly the point. There are certain parties on both sides of the political fence who want to demonize the ESRB for not giving GTA an AO rating, but A.) The ESRB rates a game based on the most extreme content in the game. Is it fair to consider content that was cut from the game, but who's coding was left in, and with some modification, could be re-activated? and B.) The game is rated M. An M-rating is supposed to tell parents, "if your child is under the age of 17, this game isn't appropriate for them." If you were one of those parents stupid/lazy/irresponsible enough to buy M-rated software for your children, you can't throw a fuss and say, "OMG, there's material in here that's innappropriate for my 10 year old! This game should have an Adult's Only rating!" If the ESRB is guilty of anything, it's as I already said... they're wasting time creating an E10+ rating so that games like Jak can avoid a T-rating and still be marketed to kids, when they should have come up with something to seperate graphic games like GTA, God of War, Condemned, etc, from games that are simply violent like Halo or Splinter Cell. (In fact, I find it ironic that Halo gets an M-rating, but the recent Alien vs Predator movie was only rated PG-13...)

Zeta is one of the best things since burnt toast. At the very least, it will increase your appreciation for all the little things that go on in SEED. ZZ is a kick in the pants at first, but quickly regroups into a decent series. Victory is freakni' awesome, easily up there with Zeta. If you're unsure where to start, while it is U.C., it's far enough into the future to stand well on its own. G gets a bad rap as far as I'm concerned, while it is different, it's still Gundam, just embracing the more Super Robot aspects of it. X is probably my least favorite, something about it just didn't click with me. While it is more original/less whiney than Wing, it has an odd habbit of borrowing Heaviliy from ZZ, and in my opinion enitrely misses the purpose of the Newtype concept. Turn A is good to a surprising degree. Strips away many of the standard Gundam trappings to bring a strong character driven story. And the OVA's are fun, but not essential. While I do see you picked up the original series, you may get more enjoyment out of picking up the 0079 Movies. Aside from the TV series bad subtitles (assuming you're picking up the HK version), the movies do a great job at condencing & enhancing the story (also with a good R1 subtitle rip by now I'd think). 311246[/snapback] I agree with almost everything you said... except switch X and Victory. While X missed the Newtype mark, I felt that it had a UC atmosphere with a degree of originality. Victory, though, I think suffered from being TOO far in the future and stands TOO much on its own. While the Victory and the V2 weren't bad, they were somewhat bland... and the rest of the MS and ship designs flat out sucked. I'll give it credit for having some very powerful scenes... but they're somewhat undermined by the fact that Uso was simply TOO young. I understand that we're dealing with a country that likes their heroes to be 15-18, but 13? C'mon. I also kind of prefer the TV series to the movie trilogy for the original Gundam. Yes, it's a damn shame that the subs are so bad on the HK set, but I feel like the pacing was off in the movies. The tragedy of some of the deaths made a lot more of an impact in the TV series. Whichever you pick, though, original Gundam, Z Gundam, ZZ Gundam, and Char's Counterattack should be required viewing, with Z Gundam easily being the pinacle of the Gundam franchise. (And yes, ZZ does start off extremely corny... but hang in there. By the end of the series, it's almost back on even footing with Z Gundam.) The OVAs are mostly fluff. Stardust Memory was an attempt to fill the gap between the original show and Z Gundam, but it actually creates more plot holes than it fills... but I guess people like it because it's pretty. War in the Pocket has little bearing on the rest of the story, but its a great character story. The 08th MS Team is a waste of time. The potential shown in the first two or so episodes is never lived up to, the characters were flat, and the mecha were lame (I have no idea why everyone is so taken with the EZ-. As for the AU, G looks dumb because, at first glance, it looks like Gundam meets Dragon Ball. It's actually a pretty entertaining, if different, character-driven show. Wing is... well... imagine if the latest boy-band flavor of the week were secretly rebel mobile suit pilots... and they're not actually in a band together (yet). Despite some irritating characters and flamboyant Gundam designs, it's not too bad in the end. And then there's SEED, which is mostly a pretty, shallow immitation of the original. I just started Turn A, and I'm waiting until I have all of SEED Destiny, so I can't comment on them.

I loathe the SD look, but otherwise the concept sounds good on paper. I'll check it out.

Gundam: True Odyssey is getting a US release! Apparently, this was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con. For those of you unfamiliar, True Oddysey is a Gundam RPG. The story is a totally original story that fits into none of the Gundam universes, but the mobile suits come from all over the franchise (super deformed, sadly). In towns, you're the humans in your party. Outside and in battle, your human party drives their mobile suits. Each party member will have special abilities that suit them to some suits more than others, and as they level up, they'll get better at piloting mobile suits. The mobile suits themselves are more like equipement, although the weapons the MS carry can be changed out, again, between series (there's a screenshot of the RX-78 with a Gelgoog shield and a Zaku's spiked shoulder). Battles are random and turn-based.

This is the most hilarious thing I've seen in years! I want to rip the R1 when it comes out, and reburn it with this guy's subtitles...

The grill and bumper need to be silver... Man, what the hell am I going to do for two more years?

And now Mrs. Clinton is pushing for legislation that makes selling M or AO-rated games to minors a federal offense. Frankly, I don't have a problem with that. I've had to talk plenty of moms out of buying games like GTA or Manhunt for their 10 and 12 year olds. Legislation doesn't solve the real problem though... parents who buy the games for their 10 and 12 year olds anyway. Also, I think that the ESRB needs to add another rating. Have you guys seen the E10+ rating yet? Frankly, I think its a waste of a rating designed to get parents who refuse to buy their kids T-rated games to buy previously T-rated games like Jak or Ratchet and Clank. What they should have done instead was to create a rating between T and M, to seperate games like Manhunt or GTA from games like Halo, which aren't nearly as bad.

I agree. I'd look for it the following winter, with the PS3, which is what I originally said. I hadn't heard anything about Bungie being upset about Gates' comments or not, but it's been an industry rumor before Gates said anything. All signs do point to a Holiday '06 release for Halo 3. Bungie's comments about what they're working on have been misleading. They've spoken a lot about what they're doing after Halo, but from what I recall, not specifically after Halo 2. Anyone who's finished Halo 2 knows Halo 3 is a given. I've always taken Bungie's comments as something more like Halo 3 was in development before Halo 2 was even finished, that Halo 3 will end the series, and that any talk about what Bungie is doing next means next after Halo 3.

Apparently, the Z Gundam box set sold well enough that Bandai is planning to do individual releases for the 10 discs, so it can't be all bad. Besides, unlike SEED or Wing, which were all flash and no substance shows marketed for noobs, Z Gundam is supported by more hardcore fans, who, like you (and me), will buy both.

This is exactly the reason why Microsoft will almost certainly launch at or very near $300. That gives them nearly a year at a price point already lower than what people are expecting the PS3 to cost, plus they can drop the price when the Revolution and PS3 come out, staying competetive with Nintendo and AND increasing a price difference between the 360 and and PS3. With more and more games being non-exclusive, I think a lot of people thinking PS3 now might start to find the 360 a more attractive choice... especially if Halo 3 really is released during the PS3 launch. When it's cheaper to buy an Xbox 360 AND Halo 3 than a PS3, it's going to take more than the "PlayStation" brand name to catch up.

I just kind of tuned out the voice acting. I mean, I know the story. I don't actually have to pay attention to Quattro's speech at Dakar or anything. What actually gets me is that they leave in all the really bad songs from the original Gundam (I find the songs that play on the Jaburo and A Baoa Qu levels especially irritating), but they didn't keep any of the songs from Z Gundam. Japanese voices would have been better, but not $30 better for me to get the import.

I think that's part of the problem. I think Marvel won't rest until every one of their franchises has made it to the big screen, no matter how few people actually care for that particular franchise.

I mostly agree. I mean, the movie was more about them turning into the Fantastic Four than actually being super heroes and battle Dr. Doom. That kid that played the Human Torch really captured the character, though. And Jessica Alba is hot. I'll probably see Into the Blue for that reason alone.

alien reasoning is fine for the buried for millions of years why not attack then. Still I do agree we probably should have in our excavations found at least one walker. Still this WOTWs is probably the best adaptation of HG Wells vision. I loved it, despite what I consider to be a few holes. 310535[/snapback] I think that about says it best. Under closer scrutiny, there were more holes than Pebble Beach, but the sheer presentation of it still leaves me thinking that it was the best movie I've seen this summer. Still, I really do wish that they could have used the cylinders. And I wish that the aliens could have been the bear-sized, sluggish, tentacled creatures that they were in the novel.

Behave in a way we find irrational... sure. But sometimes they just strike me as stupid. I mean... SPOILERS... If the aliens had researched life on our planet enough to know that our atmosphere was breathable to them, and that human blood had the kind of nutrients conducive to growing their plant-things, how'd they miss that there might be viral or bacterial microbes that might be fatal to them?

Ah, cut the guy some slack. Yeah, we've all had our beefs with him before. And yes, this news is old, but it first turned up while the boards were down. But as JB0 pointed out, for a change, he made a relatively non-irritating post. He's obviously not going anywhere anytime soon, and if he's going to post here, this is the kind of post I'd rather see him make.

Microsoft's J Allard has already stated that the Xbox 360 will be "in the neighborhood of $300." If that doesn't translate to $299.99, I doubt it'll be much more.

I agree, if they buried them millions of years ago, why not take over the earth when all they would have had to fight were a few silly dinosaurs. 310373[/snapback] Yeah, and if they were buried all that time, how the hell did no one notice them before? I mean, we can find little dinosaur teeth, but we missed alien mecha... in a city where we know, at some point, they had to dig out a subway system.

6-30-05. That would have been the Wendesday before the 4th of July weekend. I figured that out, when I went after the Psyco Gundam in Hong Kong with a Zaku I.