mikeszekely

Here's another link, this time straight from the source. Bandai Games press statement

Not bad box art, either. Better than the original cover for AEUG vs. Titans, although not as good as the Japanese cover for Gundam vs. Z Gundam. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't import that one. I'd already imported AEUG vs. Titans, and was holding out for just this announcement for Gundam vs. Z Gundam.

Well, I'm going to let my hopes get up on this one, because the story you posted wasn't entirely untrue... apparently, Bandai USA was going to hold off on AEUG vs Titans until the Z Gundam box set, which we all know just came out recently. By that time, Bandai USA knew that Bandai Japan and Capcom were upgrading AEUG vs Titans to Gundam vs Z Gundam, so they figured to just hold off and skip straight to bringing us Gundam vs. Z Gundam. As for the Cube game, well, the Cube's just not that profitable for third-party publishers (hence Capcom's decision to bring Viewtiful Joe and eventually Resident Evil 4 to the PS2). As much as I like Gundam, I don't imagine that the PS2 games have put up any kind of remarkable sales in the US... I really doubt that it would have been worth it (from Bandai's POV) to bring over the Cube game.

Story from Gamespot. To summarize, Bandai announced that Gundam vs. Z Gundam will be getting a US release this summer. Psyched? You betcha.

I wouldn't say that expectations were spoiled because we played the first one... it's just KOTOR II is built on the original KOTOR's engine, so it doesn't offer up any real improvements. And, KOTOR II is buggier and shorter, with a weaker story (and some plot points that they just never finished fleshing out) and some unimpressive characters. Seriously, the best character was actually rehashed from the first KOTOR! (Although I do have to say, Atton and Handmaiden are way cooler than Carth and Bastila... now that I think about it, I didn't care for too many characters from either KOTOR.) No plusses and a few minuses mean that KOTOR II just isn't as good as the original. That's really not to say that KOTOR II is a bad game, though. It's just a little rushed through development (it originally wasn't supposed to be out until February), and Obsidian just isn't the developer that Bioware is (although few are). If you loved KOTOR, you should at least enjoy KOTOR II. And if you like KOTOR II, and never played the first, do yourself the favor and play it! As for Battlefront, it was fun in a sort of "kill everything that moves like it's Dynasty Warriors" sort of way, but it got real old, real fast. I can't believe you're playing that online more than Halo 2. Halo 2's multiplayer is the only thing that redeems its let-down of a campaign mode.

Looks like pre-orders are starting for Ace Combat Advance. From the story (especially the reference to General Resources), it sounds like it'd be similar to Ace Combat 3... but I can't imagine how it'd play, or even that it'd be worth playing, on a GBA.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/18/news_6116499.html You'll notice that, while EA outsold Sega 2-to-1 on the PS2, Sega's football makes the top 10 on both the PS2 AND the Xbox. Madden, on the other hand, only seems to have made an impact on PS2. One thing's for sure, it's a sad time to be into sports games.

KOTOR II, in my opinion, is really borderlining on fan-made game. I mean, Obsidian took KOTOR's engine, and basically crafted a buggier game that's shorter and has a much weaker story. Plus, as previously mentioned, it takes FOREVER to get a lightsaber. Prestige classes for your main character and a few extra Force powers don't quite make up for the fact that KOTOR II is essentially a rush job. In the end, I'd say the only area where KOTOR II really shines is characters... while some of the characters, including ALL of the villians, are sorely under-developed, other characters were rather interesting. BTW, the way I beat that tank droid was to leave my party in the control room nearby, the go face it myself. I'd throw some Force Lightning at it (Dark Side or Light Side, Force Lightning is the best Force power in the game), then run away, heal up a bit, charge back in with more Force Lightning, etc, until it was dead.

I wish I were. They tried to snag the NBA, but the NBA shut them down, and now they're supposedly trying to get the MLB, but so far the MLB wants more than EA is willing to pay.

EA's got the Arena Football League You know, the NFL and the AFL might have done some pushing to try to get some good financial deals, but come on! EA really isn't going to be happy until they have a monopoly on sports games.

Another superthread? We already got the newbie questions, the aircraft thread, and anything Transformers related MUST go in the Alternators thread, even if we don't give a rat's ass about the toys. Now cars? Hey, why don't we make one official movie thread, one official TV show thread, one official videogame thread, and then one official non-Macross anime thread. Eventually we can have it so this entire forum consists of 20 threads with 30 or so pages each. Seriously, all this superthread stuff has got to stop. I does nothing to make the boards neater or easier to read. The old threads die out, as they're supposed to, and fade away to make room for new threads. Superthreads just force you to sift through multiple pages of posts before you can contribute, and after awhile, the posts aren't even really related anymore.

Actually, according to your results, the winner's the Zentraedi.

Nintendo DS - 9,170,000 vs Sony PSP - 3,270,000 The handheld wars are over before they even started.

Apparently, some kind of contract with the Devil. Boll takes game franchises, makes them into horrible movies that don't even have much to do with the actual games, and cause many people unbearable agony. In exchange, Satan gives him a donut. Boll wouldn't have anything to do with the new Doom movie, would he? You know, the one that has nothing to do with Space Marines, Mars, Hell, or Demons, but instead has montsers mutated by a virus and, of course, SWAT.

While I LOVE Feel the Magic, I can't help but be a little dissapointed with Sprung. Instead of having multiple endings depending on who and how you hook up, you either say the right things and go on to the next stage, or you don't and you lose. Far too linear. It lacks a lot of charm and humor of the Japanese dating games, and replaces it with your typical jock meets babe kind of story. Lame. You want a fun DS game? Get Mr. Driller. I can't put it down.

"Mega Man" - 1,750,000 vs "Legend of Zelda" - 1,580,000 Kick ass, my all time favorite videogame franchise trumps one of the Big N's most popular. I wonder if porn ads have anything to do with it?

Okay, I was just researching this stuff today! Here's basically what I got... first, mod chips. Mod chips are available for the newer PS2, but only a few specific ones. If you order a mod chip, make sure it's compatible with V12 PS2s (that's the slim ones). As previously mentioned, though, it's a bit easier with the slim to just go for the old disc swap. The new Swap Magic 3.3 is compatible to load both CD and DVD-based PS2 games, but NOT PSX games. However, it's still not quite as easy as it used to be, though, to trick the PStwo into thinking that the lid is closed. You can try to rig it yourself, or for about $4, you can order a kit that comes with three pieces of plastic that are designed to fit into very specific spots on the PStwo to allow for you to open and close the lid and still trick the system into thinking the lid is shut. If you go that route, apparently you can argue that you didn't void the warranty, which is nice since the PStwo actually has a one year warranty. Another option is to replace the PStwo's lid. They sell lids that are kind of like toilet seats... the whole thing closes, but there's a part in the middle that still opens so you can get at the disc. If you're going to get a PStwo, disc-swapping might be the way to go. If you're set on a mod-chip (I've been perfectly happy with my DMS3), you're better off with the older PS2's. Believe it or not, but the laser on the PStwo is actually supposed to be LESS reliable than the older ones, even with all their "Disc Read Error"s. Mod-chips are supposed to aggravate the problem. One seller actually sells pre-modded PStwo's, but instead of just soldering the mod-chip, they apparently modify the laser as well to try to make it more reliable.

That car looks spiffy enough, but I've never been big on Jags, or European cars in general. I'd rather have a Japanese car with a more reliable and fuel efficient engine that, sure, doesn't have the ridiculous number of horses, but doesn't need them either because they're not so ridiculously large.

Good deal, I'll probably pick it up then.

China's problem isn't just that they need to learn how to build better fighters. Industry in general needs to modernize, or they're always going to end up with subpar fighters. Right now, Taiwan is more likely to build a better fighter than China.

Okay, to everyone who keeps saying that Zeta is the most overrated Gundam, I would challenge that the 08th MS Team takes that award. Zeta is full of human characters dealing with the war, and their own short-comings, in their own ways. Zeta also has some of the best mecha (Gundam Mk II, Marasai, Gaplant...), and blends the the human side of the story with some solid mecha action. The 08th MS, on the other hand, has jack diddly squat. It was by far the worst of the Gundam stories, save G-Saviour. Aside from the Gouf Custom, the mecha were ugly as sin, and that initial bit about they make the MS combat seem like tank warfare was not only not fully developed, but not that great to begin with. I'd be willing to forgive all this if the characters and story were any good, but the characters were horrid, and the story went nowhere. When I say that, aside from G-Saviour, 08th MS is my least favorite Gundam, I don't mean least favorite as the one I like the least of a group of things that all really kick ass, I mean it's my least favorite like Macross 7 is AgentOne's least favorite Macross. 0083 is similarly overrated, but not as bad. Everyone seems to love 0083 because it looks gorgeous, has some great mecha, and has some over the top combat scenes. If you like all that, but don't care much about story, then 0083 is perfect for you! I'm just not super fond of it it because I do happen to care about story, and 0083's not just lacking in story, it has more holes in the plot than Michael Moore's got in his boxers. And Keith, yeah, 0080 is small and incosequential... but that's the charm of it. It's so human. You're not seeing the war from the whole picture the way you do in the original TV series... you're seeing it as it affects a small group of people in an out-of -the-way colony. Bernie, Al, and Chris aren't the heroes of the One Year War like the crew of the White Base... they're just three people who are doing what they think is right in their situations. They're not Newtypes... they're just human.

I think we're still talking about the J-10. The Chinese had some deal to get the Lavi's avionics suite for use in the J-10, but they still had to do their own FCS, which they were having trouble with, and they were still trying to build one with a single F-16 engine, although they planned to use the same engines as the Su-27. I guess they just found it easier and more economical to just go with the Su-27 outright. Still, the mainland Chinese government is prideful, if nothing else. I could see them going through with the J-10 project, winding up with a subpar fighter that's a bitch to fly, and still field it because it was homegrown.

Where do you get stuff like that? My one friend was a huge Sega nut, and he'd LOVE that Dreamcast one.

You'll solve that mystery when you decide how to spell "Miria." As far as I know, the "Ko" in "Komiria" is the same "ko" whose kanji is "Child." In this case, "Komiria" would be something along the lines of "Miria Jr."

I don't mind contradicting him. I studied Japanese for four years with a native speaker, and have had plenty of native Japanese friends including one from Kanagawa, two from Nagoya, and one from Nagano. Fact: there is no "R" sound as we have in in English, although Neova is correct that Westerners who learn Japanese usually pronounce them as "R"s. However, that does NOT mean that they're pronounced as "L"s either. From the mouth of a native, it's really almost perfectly in the middle between "R" and "L." Try this, if you want. An English "RA" sound is made with the tongue back in the mouth. An English "LA" sound is made with the tip of the tongue slightly past the teeth, against the bottom of the top teeth. A Japanese "RA" is made with the tongue near the top front of the mouth, behind your front teeth. And for the romanization thing, words that should be written in hiragana or kanji would be written as normal, with the first letter of the sentence or of proper names being written with a capital, the rest lowercase. Words that would be written in katakana may be italicized or written in all capitals, or they may just be written like the rest of the sentence. For example, girlfriend would be written "gaaru furendo." In proper romanization of Japanese, there are no "L"s at all, and certainly not to differentiate between hiragana or katakana. Now, the thing is, the rules were made up by Westerners, for the convenience of westerners. "L" can turn up when the romanization is done by the Japanese themselves. This could be a personal preference, or just plain Engrish. In Millia's case, part of the issue at hand is that it's not a Engrish spelling of an English name, or one way of romanizing a Japanese word. It's a totally made up name. In katakana, it's spelled "Mi ri a" because, however Mikimoto envisioned her name to be, "Mi ri a" is the closest you can get with phonetic Japanese. Mikimoto and Big West may have had a different spelling/pronounciation in mind for the official spelling, but I personally know nothing about that. I kind of liked Miria myself, but Millia or Milia seems to be more popular around here.