mikeszekely

I married a Chinese girl. It was kind of rough for awhile... I'd call her to see if it was cool with her before I bought something, she'd say "No, we don't need it" then come home with a bag of new shoes. And she actually tried to get me to stop buying videogames (first and foremost, I'm a hardcore gamer). Eventually, I just stopped asking her if it was cool with her if I bought stuff. I mean, it's not like she asked me. I did cut back to picking about only about two or so games a month, because realistically I was spending a bit on them. But for the most part, she learned that I don't tell her what to do or what to buy (or not buy). As long as I'm not going nuts and spending too much on games or other things and being reasonable, she can't really tell me what I can and can't do either. you got it easy. A few couples I know, the women started out nice and all, as soon as they are married... one of these girl were pulling in 170+k a year (which was more than her husband), quited her business right there to become a full time shopper a few years back, wouldn't drive anything smaller than a BMW 7, and spend at least 4k on clothes every month, wanted a bigger house in the most expensive part of town, I still hear her husband complain every once in a while. And two other couples were getting into things they can have and having food on the table at the same time. But then most women are not like this. p.s. I'm not picking on Asian women, just where I live does not have a large Asian community, words get around. Well, if my wife spent $4000 a month on clothes without quitting her job, we'd have negative numbers, and that's without spending money on things like rent, food, etc. And if she quit her job to be a pro shopper... well, she wouldn't get very far on a retailer's salary! As for the BMW thing... well, I'm kind of a car guy myself (although some people find it odd that my maker of choice is Mitsubishi). So naturally, in a perfect world, I'd want the car I want (and unless they start making newer ones again, that'd be a '99 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 Twin Turbo), and I'd want my wife to have the car she wants. It's just not a Bimmer. Almost as bad, though... right now she's into the Lexus SC 430 Convertible. But, fact is, we can't afford to restore a car, or to buy a nice luxury car. So for now, I'm keeping my '02 Mitsubishi Mirage... although we are probably going to sell her '98 Oldsmobile Intrigue before it gives us anymore grief (just in 2004, we had to replace a $400 sensor [and apparently not the right one, since the dash lights still didn't go off], a pulley and some cables that connect the steering together, and the starter... heaven help me if I ever buy another American car), and look at maybe getting a Corolla or something.

One of the biggest things that Chunx said that I'd never really thought about is how "user-friendly" the cockpit and HOTAS are. With little or no flight experience ourselves, we're used to just looking at the numbers... numbers that gave the F-14D or Tomcat 21 the edge over the Super Hornet in every case except maintainance. But if the Super Hornet is easier to fly, has a radar that's easier to read, etc, that can offset a lot of fighter's shortcomings. Well, I'm still not sure if I would agree that the Super Hornet really is the bird to replace the Tomcat... but Chunx' opinion is definately something to consider. And in any case, we do see perfectly eye-to-eye on one thing: if money weren't the object that it is in today's military, I also would have liked to see the VG wing F-22N replace the Tomcat.

Or, they could let it be branching. I mean whats to say you were a Feddie who became a Titan and then later a Neo Zeon? Or, an Ex-Zeon who got fed up with how the Titans were treating people and joins the AEUG. That'd be pretty cool. Ooh, that's a good idea. Perhaps they could also create mulitple endings for the different branching paths, with some of the endings being kind of "what if?" endings... like "What if Zeon won the One Year War?"\ Exacyly what I was thinking. Though I doubt it will happen, it's still good to dream! True story... when I was in 9th grade, my two favorite things were comic books and videogames. Me and my one friend thought it'd be cool if there was a fighting game with the X-Men, so he wrote a letter to Marvel, and I wrote a letter to Capcom. Now, it was probably just a coincidence, and we never did get reply... but about a year later, X-Men: Children of the Atom started showing up in arcades. Maybe we should write a letter, translate it to Japanese, then send it to Bandai Japan and Capcom Japan...

I married a Chinese girl. It was kind of rough for awhile... I'd call her to see if it was cool with her before I bought something, she'd say "No, we don't need it" then come home with a bag of new shoes. And she actually tried to get me to stop buying videogames (first and foremost, I'm a hardcore gamer). Eventually, I just stopped asking her if it was cool with her if I bought stuff. I mean, it's not like she asked me. I did cut back to picking about only about two or so games a month, because realistically I was spending a bit on them. But for the most part, she learned that I don't tell her what to do or what to buy (or not buy). As long as I'm not going nuts and spending too much on games or other things and being reasonable, she can't really tell me what I can and can't do either.

Or, they could let it be branching. I mean whats to say you were a Feddie who became a Titan and then later a Neo Zeon? Or, an Ex-Zeon who got fed up with how the Titans were treating people and joins the AEUG. That'd be pretty cool. Ooh, that's a good idea. Perhaps they could also create mulitple endings for the different branching paths, with some of the endings being kind of "what if?" endings... like "What if Zeon won the One Year War?"\

Why don't Bandai and Capcom just cut to the chase already? One Vs. game. Cram different arcade missions in. Then for campaign mode, have it begin in 0079 during the One Year War. Then do missions that stretch all the way through the end of 0093 at the end of Char's Counterattack. Maybe have players create a pilot at the beginning, then they could follow their pilot through the various conflicts. We'll say that if you start as a Federation pilot, you'd stay with them until after 0083, then you'd hook up with the AEUG, and finally Londo Bell. If you start as a Zeon pilot, you'd eventually hook up with the Cima Garahau long enough to fight alongside the Delaz Fleet in Operation Stardust, but eventually sell out to the Federation so that you could play as the Titans. Near the end of the Gryps War, though, you'd defect to the Axis Zeons, and then later Char's Neo Zeon.

Aw, man... I should have asked for one of those for Christmas...

In other words, it's like they took AEUG vs Titans, added a few mobile suits, jacked the Z Gundam music, put in all of the crappy first Gundam music, and turned it back into yet another One Year War game. Yeah, we REALLY needed another one of those. Forget it. I'm taking a pass unless I find a used copy at Starland, or until they just come out with Gundam ZZ: AEUG vs. Neo Zeon.

The game is out in Japan now, and I could import it if I wanted to... but again, I already have AEUG vs. Titans. Is it worth $60+ shipping to import Gundam Vs. Z Gundam? Are the few additional Z Gundam mobile suits worth it (especially since I heard they made the Gaplant a lot slower)? Was it worth it to add the ZZ Gundam? Did they bother to add any other Gundam ZZ mobile suits for the Axis missions, like the Gaza-C or the Zaku III? How different is it really from AEUG vs. Titans? At the moment, I'm seriously tempted to import it, but I'm restrained with the thought that it might just be an upgrade of AEUG vs. Titans, and that it might come out States-side anyway.

What's wrong with him taking credit for his own art work? He's not claiming the works in Macross Design Works. Just his own drawings, which were on the net before Design Works went to the printers. The only reason for getting lawyers involved would be for Kawamori, SN, and BW to by the designs for a later production as they're very good. That comment was in reference to mikeszekely saying that the images by greg lane were done by kawamori. it was sarcasm. Okay, before we continue this argument, let me stress that I am very much aware of the totally fan-created design for the VAB-2. They are the black and white images that hellohikaru posted at the beginning of this thread. I do not know the name of the fellow who drew those pictures, and if he is in fact Greg Lane, and if those images were the ones linked to at the bottom of this page (the links are now dead), then that would explain much of the confusion. I'm not trying to claim that Kawamori drew those pictures. I am, however, stating that the COLOR pics found on the same page are most definately Kawamori's. The color pictures are on page 24 of the Macross Design Works book, at the end of the "Color Works" section. The images are repeated on page 134 in the FBz-99G entry. According to the circles, the fighter was drawn in February of 94, and the Battroid in January.

*Buzzer* Wrong! The first pics in this thread are a very well-done fan design. The sketchier, color drawings in the one link ARE Kawamori. You can find those pictures in the Macross Design Works book, in the FBz-99 entry. The only fan thing about it is the assumption that it is, in fact, the VAB-2. While those sketches may have been earlier designs for the VAB-2 and inspiration for the FBz-99, there is nothing to indicate that they are, in fact, the finalized design of the VAB-2. then kawamori's lawyers should be told about this greg lane fellow who takes credit for those drawings, and to whome, credit is given on that website in question (http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/vab-2.html) "Images provided by Greg Lane" "Provided by" could simply mean that Mr. Lane scanned the images from the Design Works book, then gave the scans to Mr. Henwood.

If my wife ever told me she was worried about what her coworkers thought of me, I'd make damn sure to be as big an embarrassment as possible when I met them. I mean, I just don't get how she can ask something like that of you. It's like "you're an embarrassment, so change who you fundamentally are." You gotta lay down the law, man, before you find yourself without any toys and miserable.

Not necessarily, I watched CCA for the first time before I saw Zeta and I understood it fine. I'd recommend pciking up the original movie trilogy and CCA. Why bother skipping the best, though? CCA wasn't even that exciting. I reccomend the original TV MS Gundam and Z Gundam.

After you've wasted all that time transforming, then sure, it's easier to move an arm than the entire ship. But you could have probably moved the entire ship and got off one or two shots for all the time it takes to transform the damn thing. The only thing I can think of, and this is because it always seems like they don't start charging the gun until after transformation, is that perhaps the charged energies inside the gun are too hot, creates some sort of magnetic/electrical interference, or in some other way interferes with or damages the rest of the ship. That would necessitate the need to transform so that the gun could be held away from the rest of the ship.

*Buzzer* Wrong! The first pics in this thread are a very well-done fan design. The sketchier, color drawings in the one link ARE Kawamori. You can find those pictures in the Macross Design Works book, in the FBz-99 entry. The only fan thing about it is the assumption that it is, in fact, the VAB-2. While those sketches may have been earlier designs for the VAB-2 and inspiration for the FBz-99, there is nothing to indicate that they are, in fact, the finalized design of the VAB-2.

"Fully" being the operative word there. There are in fact two VERY short OVAs. They were bundled with some model kits in Japan or something.

You see how long it takes the battle 7 to transform so some of its defencive weapons wouldn't be clear to fire. Also the gunship undock from the ship while its transforming it won't have defence like the rest of the ship. the pinpoint barrier if it has one won't be as strong as the main. If I was attacking battle 7 with my fleet Ill attack the gun ship soon as it transform and maybe ram it with one or two of my ships to push it away and play keep away. The gunship will most likey be very slow and not very maneuverable compared to any of the other ships of the fleet. Also keep the escorts busy or destroyed since mac 7 they pop in the moments notice. edit: and to as Yeah, I never did really get into the whole Battle 7 transformation... seems to me like it would have been easier to just made sure the flight deck was clear of the gun section, then just point the bow in the direction of whatever they wanted to shoot at. I mean, the New Macross-class carriers mostly operated in space, so I don't imagine that angling the entire ship to shoot at a target would have been any more difficult than transforming the whole damn thing, and it probably would be easier to continue to launch and land Valkyries if it DIDN'T transform. That said, though, on the whole I like the Macross-class carriers. In their actual carrier mode, they look decent enough, and having the flight deck on the ship instead of attaching two smaller carriers makes sense to me. And while I don't see much of a reason to create a variable capital ship, the Macross-class looks fine in attacker mode, and even pays homage a bit to the original Macross by using the bridge section as the head, the engines as the feet, and the flight deck (in place of the entire carriers) as the arms.

Or, in other words, you can break it down like this, and with my personal rating on a 1-10 scale Universal Century (aka original) Mobile Suit (MS) Gundam (TV series, movies) - 9 MS Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OVA, movie) - 4 MS Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVA) - 9 MS Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVA, movie) - 6 MS Z Gundam (TV series, soon to be movies) - 10 MS Gundam ZZ (TV series) - 8 (it starts off like a 4, but ends like a 9) MS Gundam: Char's Counterattack (movie) - 8 MS Gundam F-91 (movie) - 7 MS V Gundam (TV series) - 7 G-Saviour (movie) - 1 Future Century (1st Alternate Universe [AU] Gundam) Mobile Fighter G Gundam (TV series) - 6 After Colony (2nd AU) New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (TV series) - 6 New Mobile Report Gundam W: Endless Waltz (OVA, movie) - 7 After War (3rd AU) After War Gundam X (TV series) - 8 Correct Century (4th AU, or possible the glue that binds all Gundam together) Turn A Gundam (TV series, movies) - no score, I haven't seen it Cosmic Era (5th AU) MS Gundam SEED (TV series) - 8 MS Gundam SEED Astray (OVA... I guess) - no score MS Gundam SEED Destiny (TV series in progress) - no score And before anyone says anything, yeah, I'm sure I'll get a lot of people that don't quite agree. A lot of people love the 08th MS Team, I personally thought it was the worst Gundam series I'd ever seen. Also, people tend to like V Gundam, which I thought was more like a decent AU series than a good UC series, and I also tend to like Gundam X a lot for some reason, even though most people don't seem to care for it. Go figure. On a similar note, Gundam Wing was (and unless SEED is working here, probably still is) the most popular Gundam in the States, with record ratings when it aired on Cartoon Network. For a lot of Americans, myself included, it was our first real taste of Gundam. A lot of people hold the series in high reguards because of it, but (especially when compared to UC Gundam), I find it to be a trite super-robot show full of pretty-boy pre-teen heroes. Finally, I don't care how much better the animation is, yes, I liked the original Gundam TV series much better than the movies, and yes, I do think that Z Gundam beats all, including the original.

This guy ;; Here's what EA says what their next gen Madden will look like Where did you find that picture at? It looks gorgeous..... That was from Magic box. Here's pic of the next gen NFS from EA I can't find any of these Next Generation images..... Here's the link I got it from http://www.the-magicbox.com/0412/game041202c.shtml In other words, it's conceptual art and NOT actual screenshots from actual games.

I think buying Criterion was bigger than buying Origin, since buying Criterion gave them Renderware, and the royalties from anyone who uses Renderware (including GTA, if I'm not mistaken). But I do see your point. In any case... my beef with EA is worse than my beef with Microsoft. I don't mind Windows XP, and I don't have Office installed on my computer. I use Firefox instead of IE. I hear about their anti-trust suits, but it doesn't seem to trickle down to me. Instead, I give Microsoft props for bringing me Xbox. But EA... they're just cockbites. I mean, first they wouldn't release games for the Dreamcast because they didn't want to compete with Sega Sports. Then they buy up little companies until they're the largest 3rd party developer around. Then they don't want to have their games Live enabled, because they want you to pay for their crappy service. Then they start stiffing their employees. Then, when they do have to compete with Sega Sports, they buy an exclusive license with the NFL instead of pricing Madden more competetively or actually working to improve the game. And now, they're buying a sizeable chunk of Ubisoft, who if I'm not mistaken, is EA's non-sports #1 rival. A good bit of that affects me directly.

Given that I'm a gamer first and foremost, and tend to spend most of my free money on videogames, I haven't been able to justify spending money on larger diecast planes or model kits. I did, however, try collecting some of the "Hot Wings" planes you used to be able to find in some department stores' toy section (I got mine at Ames). They were like Hot Wheels, I suppose, but they were planes instead of cars. I got the F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, F-20, F-22, F-117, B-2, and SR-71. I have no idea what happened to the company, though. I'd have liked to collect a lot more of their stuff.

Missed the boat on that one. They've been buying smaller developers up for years. yes, EA buys developers, but I don't recall them buying publisher And again, it's one thing to buy a smaller developer, but a totally different thing to buy into their largest competitor.

The NFL thing won't count for much, since you always have the option to play non-licensed football games, or non-football games. But when EA starts buying out their largest competitors...? Anyway, there's already rumors going around that EA will dump Madden and mark up their football game to $60 to make up for the ridiculous ammount they paid the NFL.

Everyone I know that bought it played it for maybe a week and shelved it. I borrowed it from one of my friends, and while the setup is pretty cool, control stick sensitivity is still an issue, and a lot of the buttons on the controller are used at start up, and that's it. I personally would have rather paid less for a slightly smaller controller, especially if anything that could have been eliminated would have made your field of view larger. In other words, I think it's a pretty cool idea, but for the price, you could buy an Xbox, a Nintendo DS, a PS2, or three brand new games.

You forgot Mechassault! That's probably the only mecha game for the Xbox that I liked.