mikeszekely

There's a lot of stuff in Ace Combat 5 that reminds me of 2, but no, you can never ever get rid of the wingmen. They're main characters... in that sense, AC5 is more like AFDS.

Hmm, I'm at 16b. B path again. I wonder if, once you start an A or B, you're stuck with it for the whole game?

David - Yeah, I missed 12a, but I was just thinking that you missed 11b! Because that was my favorite mission so far! I'm not crying over the F-15C. When I was a kid, I always liked the F-14 better. As an adult, I respect the combat capabilites of the F-15 family, just as I respect the F-16 family, but I'm not a huge fan of either. I tend to like fighters based on appearance, reguardless of performance. And in the long run, it doesn't matter, because it looks like you get the F/A-22 reguardless (althought the YF-23 comes after a story branch... you either get it or the F-35, which is why I suggested you'd be better off if you could get the B paths).

Wingmen kills are definately supposed to count, but the wingmen suck. Trust me. After 13 sorties, this is how my team stands: Name - Total kills (air/ground) Blaze - 327 (169/158) Nagase - 10 (9/1) Chopper - 7 (6/1) Grimm - 5 (5/0) And considering how long it took me to fill up the F-5E's bar, I think your wingmen could get maybe one or two kills and it'd look like the killbar for their plane didn't go up at all, simply because it's such a small fraction of the bar. To that end, I'm not going to really focus on building up killbars now. Better planes unlock reguardless (I got the Su-27 after 12b; I would have got the F-15C if I'd gotten the A route on the coin toss). Then, after I beat the game, I can go back and focus on specific planes until I unlock them all.

You do recall correctly. It was ridiculously short on RAM, yet state of the art (at the time) in other respects. One developer said that the PS2 was like driving a Ferrari with bald tires in the rain... a few limitations make it difficult to really push the system. Combine that with the fact that the PS2 is a bitch to program for, and many developers complained loudly... even as they jumped on the PS2 bandwagon.

To each there own. To me there is nothing more boring than a Short RPG (or now a days any RPG in general) or A FPS. And games with better Gameplay than Graphics are always a plus in My book. I'll go for gameplay over graphics, too (I still like to play the classic NES Megaman games for just that reason)... but the gameplay in GTA3 got boring to me fast, hence my lack of interest in San Andreas. I'm not a huge fan of FPS, but I do think Halo had solid gameplay. As for RPGs, KOTOR and the Baldur's Gate games rocked, but the Japanese stuff (ESPECIALLY Final Fantasy) seems to be less about being good games and more about being stories that make you say "What the hell?!"

Yeah, I went after priority targets too, but my wingmen are losers. After 9 missions, Edge was the only one with more than three kills. I order them to attack, they fly around. I order them to disperse, they fly around. I order them to cover me, and they fly around... while following me. Wingmen kills do boost your kill points for whatever plane you're flying. Later, say you're flying the F-14, and you give F-16s to all your wingmen, you build points for your F-16 and your F-14. I got to the first branching story path... the coin toss seems random. Mission 11b kicks ass, by the way. Anyway, my current hanger is 4 F-5E, 1 F-16C, 1 F/A-18C, 1 F-14A, and one A-10A. I have enough points (finally) to buy some F-20As, I just haven't had a mission where I get to play in the hanger again yet.

You don't have to confirm everything yes/no. You have the option to ignore them. Depending on the situation, an reply of silence could mean you're busy, you don't know, you thought the answer was obvious, you really meant "no," but you didn't want to say anything that would lower morale, or you're just flat out ignoring them. Anyway, 9 missions down, and I STILL don't have enough points to unlock the F-20! All I've flown was the F-5E... now I'd kinda like to start using the Tomcat... but I've put so much effort into unlocking the F-20, and I think one more mission ought to do the trick... Oh, and I got three medals so far. One thing that really stand out when I play AC5 is that, in AC4, you had your time limit, your primary targets, and then other stuff to blow up (or the occasional get xxxx points in the time limit). I knew where everything was right away, and I knew that I could take out all but one primary target, kill other stuff until I had enough points for an S rank (and more money to buy planes), then take out the last target right before time was up. In Ace Combat 5, things just seem more confusing and hectic (and, therefore, more realistic). There are enemies flying/sitting/driving/floating everywhere, new ones are constantly popping in, and it's not often that you have specific mission-required targets. You just kill what you can find, then look for more.

Variety is actually one of the reasons that I bought all three systems, although I haven't found much use for my Gamecube. Well, aside from Ace Combat, the Xbox basically has (or will have) everything on your list. I mean, Star Wars Battlefront was more or less built for the Xbox, San Andreas will DEFINATELY make it to the Xbox (It'd be out for Xbox now, if not for some deal Rockstar signed with Sony), probably with an overhaul like the Xbox editions of GTA3 and Vice City. And Gran Turismo 4 is getting screwed so that Sony can rush it out in time for Christmas, and all the while, Forza Motorsport is looking better and better. You got me on Ace Combat 5 (especially since that's what I'm playing now), and MGS3... although as much as I loved SoL, I'm not really hyped for Snake Eater. Maybe if Konami pulls another "Substance..." Console loyalty only hurts the loyalists. I'm not saying Halo is better than GTA, because that's like saying playing football is better than eating pizza... two vastly different things. I'm only saying that I think Halo 2 will outsell San Andreas. And I'm not arguing that that Xbox is better than the PS2, either. I happen to enjoy both a great deal, and because I'm open-minded and don't claim any loyalty to either Sony's beast or Microsoft's beast, I have a greater selection of games to choose from. I can enjoy Ace Combat on my PS2, I can enjoy Halo on my Xbox, and I can enjoy... um... well, I'll let you know if I ever find anything that I really enjoy for my Gamecube.

Another thing to consider (although I doubt that you bought too many of them), is that you supposedly get kill points from your wingmen, too. That is, you may fly and F-16C, but if you've only bought one but bought four F/A-18Cs, and so give one to each of your wingmen, then you'll get points toward both the F-16 tree and the F/A-18 tree.

You're right, you can't deny that being a good launch game helps. But it's still very high on the sales charts today, and you can't really say that it's one of the only good games on Xbox now, since most blockbuster titles appear on both Xbox and PS2 (Xbox will get San Andreas in the spring), plus great exclusives like Knights of the Old Republic and Fable.

Okay, I looked at the strat guide... and while it gives detailed tips on how to get through each mission, it fails to explain what (if anything) determines whether you take an A path or a B path. Well, I've only played the first six missions. Kinda want to take my time, since it's still two weeks until Halo 2... but anyway, so far, I've only flown the F-5E. Now, the strat guide seemed to suggest that by the first mission where you can start buying new fighters and assigning them, that I should have the F-20A unlocked... but actually, I have maybe half the kills I need to get it. I did unlock the A-6E, F-4E, MiG-21bis, F-16, and F/A-18C, though. As I'm not hugely fond of any of those, though, I'm thinking I might just keep flying the F-5E and go for the Tigershark (although it might be fun to to buy the F-16C, fly that a hell of a lot, and get the F-16XL, which is my favorite F-16... but then again, if I stick with the F-5E, after the F-20A comes the X-29A... decisions, decisions...). It's just a shame that the game's halfway done before I'll get to fly the Gripen, and I'll almost have it beat before I'll get the F/A-22 (Sorry, David, I do like the YF-23 a lot, but I'm also rather fond of the F/A-22).

Pass for me. The original DotD was fun, because it was so cheesy, and maybe a little because it was filmed at the mall about 20 minutes from my parents' house. I thought I'd get a kick out of the remake... heck, I even learned to except the running zombies... but what a piece of crap the remake turned out to be. They stripped anything even remotely resembling a plot away, and replaced it with mindless zombie carnage and shock value. It's as if the people behind it said, "Screw telling a story, blood and violence sells anything!" Sadly, as dumb as the current crop of teenagers seem to be (no offense to any teenage board members, but in any case, if you're smart enough to have found this board, you probably feel worse about your generation than I do, being that you put up with them more), the creators hit the nail on the head.

In terms of sales, it is. It's been, what, three years since its release? But its still consistantly high on the sales charts. Statistically, something like two copies of Halo have been sold for every three Xboxes (which doesn't seem accurate to me... I don't know anyone that owns an Xbox and doesn't own Halo). Mind you, I'm not saying GTA is a better game or Halo is a better game... they're really very different types of games, and there's no law that says you can't like both, or dislike both, or prefer one to the other. The only reason to bring up Halo 2 is a thread about San Andreas is to speculate which mega franchise is likely to sell more copies. That said, though, if you've never played Halo but you own and Xbox or know someone that does, do give it a try. PC enthusiasts tend to rag on it (and Xbox in general for lacking the keyboard/mouse setup they're used to), but it probably really is the best console FPS to come down the pipe... and before anyone says anything, I used to only play Goldeneye and then later Perfect Dark exclusively in the FPS genre. I've branched out a bit, and had fun with the Medal of Honor series and Nightfire, but Halo is the only one that really sucked me in, and definately the only one to hold my interest on the multiplayer front... to this day, when my friends come over, we usually fire up Halo.

I don't know. halo 2 would have to put up some serious sales #'s according to this story. GTA : SA Record breaking sales At my store, we had about 160 preorders, and we've sold maybe 150 total copies over two days. We have over 300 preorders for Halo 2. San Andreas may be setting records today, Halo 2 will be breaking them later.

We have the bundle for sale in-store. (Gamestop)

One of the versions of Juon also implied that, because the curse killed people who visited the house in nasty ways, that the victims would become killer ghosts too, which was another way of spreading the curse.

It SHIPS exactly one week from today. Unless you live in California, that generally means it won't be in stores until a week from tomorrow... that is, not until Tuesday 10-26. Most games aren't street dated the way movies are. That's right, I'm quoting myself. I warned you guys a WEEK ago that the 25th was the ship date, and that it wouldn't be in stores until the 26th.

Well, at the Gamestop where I work, we had it in at 7:00 tonight, and we had a long line by 6:30. However, the line was pretty much gone by 8:00. We had a busier first day for Vice City, and we had a busier first day for Madden 2005. Don't get me wrong, San Andreas will have strong sales right throughout the holiday season... but then again, so will Madden. People like some of the writers at Gamespot who think San Andreas will the biggest game of the year are way off. Madden will probably outsell it on the PS2, and Halo 2 will probably sell more than Madden and San Andreas combined. In any case, I know we had about 160-ish preorders for San Andreas, and over 300 for Halo 2. I think San Andreas ultimately suffers from the same problems games like True Crime suffered from... they're old hat now. GTA3, although I got bored with it pretty quick, was an innovator with it's huge city and open-ended gameplay. Vice City worked because it was supposed to be more of an expansion than a sequel. And it was kinda cool to be taking jobs for the big crime family, and Vice City had that 80's flavor working for it. Not to sound racist or anything, but I'm tired of hearing about inner-city gang violence, I'm tired of the violent, thuggish image that the rap industry is pushing on black children today (why can't more young black men look up to Tiger Woods instead of DMX or Snoop Dogg?), and I don't think San Andreas is going to work the way GTA3 or Vice City did because crime families and the 80's made for good TV, but drive by shootings is too evening news.

Where'd you find the TV version of Juon? The American Grudge starts off very similar to the theatrical Juon, then kinda moves into the TV Juon. It's basically a remake and amalgamation of the TV and movie versions. Yeah, there's more gaijin hanging around Tokyo, and they've got Hollywood behind it, but with Shimizu directing, make no mistake- it's a Japanese movie.

HUGE SPOILER ANSWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Hawk was supposed to be a fighter trainer. In the game, it's considered a fighter. Smaller weapon load, but faster, more maneuverable, and smaller. The Jammers don't seem to get specific missions. The difference between the Jammers and the fighters is that the fighters might have something like QAAMs, but the Jammers have... well, jamming pods. The strat guide goes so far as to suggest that Jammers are better assigned to your wingmen than to fly yourself. The biggest thing I've noticed from the strat guide is how very similar it is to Ace Combat 2... branching stories with unique missions and planes, medals, and enemy aces.

Just got back from seeing the Grudge. From what I can tell, it starts off pretty similar to the Japanese theatrical release of Juon, then goes into something more like the original TV Juon. All in all, very creepy, but not as scary as the Ring. Not as much plot as the Ring, either. I'd still give it two thumbs up.

One thing worth noting... whereas in previous AC games, the planes have been either dogfighter, multi-role, or ground attack, the planes in Ace Combat 5 are divided up as either Figher, Attacker, Multi-role or Jammer. Not sure how that will work out in the game.

You can find a pic in the strat guide. And I guess that "Falken" is German for "Falcon." HYPER-HUGE BIG-ASS SPOILER THINGY! DAVID, SKIP THE REST OF THIS POST! AND REMEMBER TO PUT SPOILER WARNINGS IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT SPOILERY STUFF!!! Okay, the Falken... well, it's damn ugly. It's tail fins are canted inward, like the VF-17, and they're sitting on the engines, which jut out from the back of the plane. The body is short, with stubby little forward-swept wings. There's no visble cockpit seams, and no canopy... just a bunch of white dots that I assume to be cameras or some kind of similar sensor, since the description boasts that the Falken's cockpit sports a 360 degree view. The worst thing, though, is the nose. From the front of the cockpit to the tip of the nose, it looks like a sharp spike that's longer than from the front of the cockpit to the back. Underneath, the intakes remind me a little of the Delphinus series from Ace Combat 3, with a big-ass laser weapon. After David has a chance to play the game, I'll try to scan it and post some pics (pics are a little harder to avoid than text descriptions).

Okay, the official strategy guide is out. According to it, this will be the full plane list. SPOILERS, DAVID! Unless you want to know what planes are in it. I'm not typing how to get them or anything, just what they are. Also, this is how they're listed in the book, so any inaccuracies for names aren't me, and this isn't the tree, just the list. F-5E Tiger II F-20A Tigershark X-29A MiG-21bis Fishbed MiG-21-93 F-4E Phantom II F-4G Phantom II Wild Weasel F-4X A-6E Intruder EA-6B Prowler F-16C Fighting Falcon F-16C Block60 F-16XL F-2A F/A-18C Hornet F/A-18E Super Hornet EA-18G Mirage 2000 Mirage 2000D MiG-29A Fulcrum A-10A Thunderbolt II YA-10B F-14A Tomcat F-14B Bombcat F-14D Super Tomcat Tornado GR.1 Tornado GR.4 Tornado F3 Tornado ECR MiG-31 MiG-31M F-15C Eagle F-15E Strike Eagle F-15S/MTD Su-27 Flanker Su-32 Strike Flanker Su-35 Super Flanker Su-37 Terminator F-117A Nighthawk JAS-39C Gripen Typhoon Rafale M Rafale B F-35C YF-23 Black Widow II F/A-22A Raptor FB-22 Concept Su-47 Berkut S-32 MiG-1.44 Hawk X-02 Wyvern (Returning from Ace Combat 4 ) Falken