mikeszekely

There's some theory out there, damned if I can remember it, that says that x ammount of energy is required for a population of a certain size to achieve a certain level of technology. It's without question that technology has grown incredibly in the last 200 years, as humans learned to create electricity with generators and pipe it into indivdual home, and to power engines and and the aforementioned generators by burning various fuels. Technology growth has also begun to slow down. We are burning fuel at ever greater rates as our planet's population grows, but we're essentially burning the same fuels we've been using since World War II. To continue significant advances in technology, new fuel sources must be worked out. Nuclear fusion, some kind of chemical mix that's easier to produce and burns cleaner and more efficiently than oil, hybrid technology... those are short-term solutions. To that end, anti-matter research may not give us anti-matter reactors to power starships in our lifetimes, but they will be the method of choice for future generations. And to the pessimist that worry about the research coming out of the military... most of the technology we use today... laptop computers, cell phones, GPS navigators, the internet, satellite TV, commercial flight, nuclear fission... we have today because of the military. And we haven't destroyed the world yet.

There are plenty of top tier games being released these days, so I don't have time or money for a game that's "just okay." Especially because the only reason I bought Battlecry is, after ignoring all the Robotech garbage, it's Macross. Not being a fan of Genesis Climber Mospeada, and definately not liking the bastardized Robotech, the game's gotta be a lot more compelling than "just okay" to get my money.

Ah, the hell with that. I personally don't need yet another version of a movie I already have, especially when I prefer the TV to DYRL anyway. For the 25th, I want a new Macross TV series.

The Philippines should think about purchasing the Swiss JAS-39 Griffen. It's the "F-5" of the 21st century. I thought that Sweden didn't export their fighters. In fact, I thought the reason why they had Saab develop fighters in the first place was so that they didn't have to import any. No reliance on foreign fighters plus no exports equals neutrality.

Sony didn't show cooler games, they showed PS2 port after PS2 port. I'm not going to buy my games twice, once for the PS2 and once for on the john. Same as I'm not buying my movies twice, once on DVD, and once on UMD. The problem with this so-called "marketing to the older crowd" is that everyone assumes that the older crowd wants more bells and whistles and has more money to pay for them, which really isn't the case. To that end, I think that the PSP has a lot in common with the N-Gage. If I'm going to buy a cell phone, I'll buy a nice cell phone. If I want an mp3 player, I'll buy maybe the new Pocket VAIO. If I want a portable movie player, I could buy a nice portable DVD player, but I think I'll stick to watching movies on my laptop when I'm on the road. And if I want a game machine, I'll buy a machine dedicated to playing games. I'm not willing to spend $300+ on a handheld. I'm definately not willing to spend that much when the reason it's so expensive is because they added a ton of features I don't want. I'm especially inclined not to buy said handheld when all of those features chew the battery life down to around 2 hours average. I'm not a Sony hater. My PC, my VCR, and my laptop are all Sony. I liked the PSone, I like the PS2, and I'll probably buy a PS3 at launch. But it's gonna be a cold day in hell before I blow $300 on the PSP.

The Gundam ones, yes. The Jolly Rodgers one, not really. It's how most basketball shoes look these days. And when you look at the kids wearing basketball shoes these days out in public, their shoes are really the last of their fashion faux pas.

******ACE COMBAT 3 SPOILERS*************** For the American version, there were some planes you unlocked reguardless, and some planes you unlocked based on how many points you had. You had no real way of knowing how many points you had, but basically it had to do with your rank... something like A was 3, B was 2, C was 1, and D was 0. For the Japanese version, you were only allowed certain planes for certain missions, based mostly on which path you took through the story. Here's the complete American list. Bear in mind that the names are as they are in the game... some purely fiction, others fiction upgrades to real planes. Oh, and yes, the Japanese version implies that the planes, all of them, have real cockpits. I assume that in the future, they decide it's safer for the pilot to have an armored cockit with some kind of VF camera... ala the Varauta fighters in Macross 7. EF-2000E Typhoon II MiG-33 Fulcrum SS F/A-18U HornetADV F-16XFU Gyrfalcon R-101 Delphinus #1 R-201 Asterozoa F-16XA Sakerfalcon F-15S/MT Eagle+ F-22C Raptor II F/A-32C Erne Su-37 Super Flanker R-102 Delphinus #2 R-211 Orcinus Su-43 Berkut R-103 Delphinus #3 XFA-36A Game RF-12A2 Blackbird R-352 Sepia XR-900 Geopelia UI-4054 Aurora X-49 Night Raven In addition to those, the Japanese version had: A/F-117X Nav Hawk R-311 Remora The story for the American version is summed up basically (in 35 missions, with one bonus mission) as you're a pilot for UPEO, a peace-keeping force that works for the Neo United Nations (NUN). Two corporations, Neucom and General Resources, are duking it out. You eventually discover that it's because of a group called Ouroborus, who were trying to get the two corporations to wear each other down so that they could step into the power vacuum, and that they're being controlled by a rouge AI. It's implied that you are also actually an AI. The Japanese version is much, much more complicated. UPEO, Neucom, General Resources, and Ouroborous are all fighting over the prototype X-49 Night Raven, and it's pilot, a girl named Rena who'd been trained since a young age to be a kind of super-pilot. You begin the game working for for UPEO, but throughout the game there are different points where you can shift your alliance. What you decide determines what missions you play (56 total if you play through every scenario), what planes you can fly, and what ending you get. As you play through the game, you'll eventually meet Rena, as well as Dision (you first encounter him as the pilot of the F-15 in "Joint Maneuvers," but he'll eventually get the Aurora, as well as a few other characters. The real gist of it all, though, is that Dision and his lover were killed awhile back, and you never actually meet the real Dision, but rather a computer program that simulates Dision's personality. This was possible because he participated in a program called Sublimination Project, which apparently was some sort of project to download people's conciousness into the Electrosphere (which was kind of like a world-spanning digital world that replaces the internet in the future). You yourself are apparently a program created by a guy named Simon (who is responsible for the Sublimination Program). Depending on the path you pick through the game, you may destroy Dision and/or the Night Raven, but Rena might survive. You may also take another route and meet other characters, but Dision and Rena seem to be the most important. Say what you will about Ace Combat 3. Yes, it's a very different creature than Ace Combat 2 or Ace Combat 4. Yes, it would have been nice to have more cool real-world fighters, and yes, a lot of the purely fictional fighters are freakish and less than cool. Yes, the American version was as much a hack of the original as Robotech is of Macross. But it was still a very ambitious game in Japan with an incredible sci-fi story and some really unique missions, and either version sport some of the best visuals you'll see on the PSone (Sorry, David, but I think the fighters in AC3 are much more detailed and much less polygonal than AC2, with better lighting effects including glare from the sun and around the afterburners). Maybe the AI was a little off at times. Maybe it doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the Ace Combat family. With that in mind, I stand by my original opinion... AC3, by no means, sucks... it is, in fact, quite good. The only game in the series that truly sucks is Air Combat, which, like the original Ridge Racer, may have been pretty cool at the time when games were just starting to venture into 3D. But the ugly graphics, nasty controls, limited missions, and even more limited plane selection make for an awful game in retrospect.

I'm thinking about it. I mean, the price seems reasonable, the newer DS games like New Super Mario Bros look pretty good, confirmed titles in development like the new Castlevania should be promising, and it plays all my GBA games, so I might very well trade my SP for it. That said, though, I'm thinking I'm gonna hold off for a little bit. There's too many console games coming out right now, and I can't afford everything.

LOL, isn't that just sick??? another case of a 30 year old aircraft out burning some of the newest kids on the block... (although, the Tornado isn't really NEW, per say) ...and neither is the Hornet. In fact, if all was right and just in the world, the Hornet would be phased out as planned with the F-35B, but no larger "Super" Hornets would be replacing the F-14. Instead, the F-14 would be replaced with either the Super Tomcat, or a plane that kicks ass the way the F-14 does, like maybe a Navy variant F-23. I just ran through Ace Combat 2 last night and Ace Combat 3 today. Aside from the lack of real-world planes (including the F-14) and the inclusion of some freaky-looking fictional birds, I think the thing that turns most people off about it is the fact that it doesn't really seem to fit with 2 or 4. In those ones, it's straight up military. You have military style briefings, fly real-world military planes, and take part in a campaign against a foreign military. Ace Combat 3 is far more sci-fi... more so, if you've played the Japanese one (the "rogue AI" piloting the Aurora used to be someone named Keith... and was also the the pilot of the F-15 in "Joint Maneuvers"). You get your briefings via a computer, you fly some fictional craft against other fictional craft, in fictional settings like Geofront and Megafloat, seemingly all by yourself. It's true that AC3's soundtrack was a little dull at times, but it fit it's unique atmosphere better than Ace Combat 2's rock soundtrack. Overall, though, I'd still say it's a damn fine game. Anyway, I digress. I didn't pay enough attention during the briefings in Ace Combat 2, so I didn't catch much in the way of names. And Ace Combat 3 takes place around a lot of artificial places like Megafloat and Geofront. I did manage to pick up a few names, though: Waiapolo Mountains, Port Edwards, and Expo City. Now, if anyone can remember if any of those are in AC2 or AC4...?

I looked but couldn't find it. Link? Did find this though, very interesting and cool: <<<Unlocking new aircraft is a bit more complex than simply beating a mission and getting a new plane. Instead, the game totals up a record of how many kills you've earned with each aircraft -- once the kill meter is full, it unlocks a new plane that descends from the first plane. Racking up kills with a vanilla F-16, for instance, might unlock the improved Block 60 variant. Focusing on a particular plane you like, then, will unlock more planes like it, but at the same time, you'll have to develop skills with a wide variety of aircraft types to unlock the complete selection of 50+ planes. >>> That'll rock. Start with F-14A, then you can get the B, then the D, as you gain more experience. Which also explains the many F-16's we've seen. Hmmmn, wonder if the Super Hornet comes from the Legacy Hornet, or is considered its own line. And it also means you won't get a dozen different Flankers unless you want to spend time doing it. I think this is a great idea---if you really like a plane, you can get better versions of it. Wonder if you still have to save up money to pay for them, or buy weapons like in AFDS? That's sounds like it could be a good idea, as long as it's F-15 to F-15S/MTD, and not F-15 to F-22. I mean, I'm cool with the F-15, but I'd rather fly other planes. My favorite planes, though, are the two ATF. I'd love to see more X-planes, like the X-44, or even concepts like the VG wing F-22 and F-117 that were being considered for the Navy. David, while I understand that someone who loves real planes as much as you do would be really turned off by the fruity totally fiction designs in Ace Combat 3, it's really a shame that you couldn't have kicked back with a fictionally upgraded real-world fighter and gotten into it. I was actually dissapointed a little with Ace Combat 4, because while I liked the gorgeous visuals, real-world fighters, and more military less sci-fi story, the fact that it was half as long and filled with mostly ho-hum average missions after a game as long and with as much variety in missions as Ace Combat 3.

Yeah, I don't know... I'm probably the biggest Megaman/Rockman fan on the boards. I mean, I've been playing Megaman since it was first released on the NES. I'm trying to hunt down a PSone copy of Super Adventure Rockman, as it's pretty much the only Rockman/Megaman game I've never played (yes, I've even played Rockboard and the obscure Wonderswan Rockman games). But Rockman.EXE, aka Megaman Battle Network, is too kiddie... and I've got enough vices (I've bought Burnout 3, Demon Stone, SRS, ESPN NHL 2K5, ESPN NBA 25K, X-Men Legends, Star Wars Battlefront, Guilty Gear X2 Reloaded, Megaman X Command Mission, Pokemon Leaf Green, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, just in September). I'm not about to go buying into something like a collectable card game or anything else where I have to keep buying more packs of things like cards or battlechips, so while I'm likely to buy the next Megaman game, Battle Network or otherwise, even if it's as lame as Battle Chip Challenge, I can't say I have even a little interest in buying a PET.

Out of curiousity, David, what makes you say that Ace Combat 3 was crap? Granted, familiar planes like the Eurofighter were made less familiar, and the rest of the planes were totaly fictional... and yes, the story in the American version was a hack of the original Japanese version. But I don't recall playing Ace Combat for story... and two thirds of the planes were at least based on real aircraft. Aside from that, the gameplay is basically the same as Ace Combat 2 (or 4, or from what we can see, 5). And while Ace Combat 4 was mostly "blow stuff up until the time limit), Ace Combat 3 had some interesting missions. A couple that stand out in my mind still are the one where you chase the train, the one where you had to take out the smoke stacks so that the blimp wouldn't crash into them, the one where you take out the big virus facility, and the one where you fought the Night Raven inside Geofront. And 36 total missions! I mean, did Ace Combat 4 even break 20? I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking Ace Combat 4, because I loved it... but I liked Ace Combat 3, too. Maybe the Delphinus did look stupid. Sure, it would have been cooler to have an F-14. But to call a good game crap just because it's missing the F-14? C'mon. The only game in the series that was crap was Air Combat... and let's face it, Air Combat had nasty controls, ugly graphics, ridiculous paints, and lame missions.

We don't have any local independant chains around where I live. And I work at Gamestop. So, I know where I'm getting mine at... already have it preordered...

I mostly got it because my two best friends moved away after college, but we all have Live. Next best thing to them actually being in my living room. Ladic, I realize that with MMORPGs that you're paying for a service. I mean, they have to maintain a lot of servers, plus dish out patches and SMALL updates. But let's face it... $50 for a game you can't do jack with unless you pay their monthly fees is too much. And if you want the REAL updates, you have to buy the $30 expansion pack. And $15 a month to play a game I already paid $50 is borderline extortion, IMHO. Hell, $15 a month is more than I spend on TV. If the monthly fees were a little more reasonable, and if you got the game for free if you signed up to play (ala what Sony used to do with Everquest on the PS2), then I might think differently. But it really doesn't matter what I think... law of supply and demand. There are enough people willing to buy a game, then pay to play it, that it's profitable enough to justify that kind of business model.

You mean you are planning to miss all the time? Sorry, couldn't resist. Graham I'm actually decent with the Storm Trooper. Moreso than any other Imperial unit. The Storm Trooper is hella better than the standard Republic Trooper, although with that mini rocket launcher, I think the Super Battle Droid is my favorite. Yes yes, I've heard many a times now that the regular Rebel commando is supposed to be very good. But I never play as the Rebels. They're my absolute least favorite army.

Is it October 25th yet? Seriously, the more I see, the more I want.

Most of the earlier PS2 games were short... they wanted to hurry up and get stuff out for it, and they were focused on making the games look pretty. What you wound up with were games like ZOE, AC4, Onimusha, and the like... games that looked nice, were fun, but rather short. Ace Combat 5 is forutnately looking to be one of the biggest in the series, with a roster of planes that's rivaled only by Airforce Delta Strike (but once you weed out the early 50's fighters, and the Chinese/Israeli/Taiwanese fighters that no one's heard of, AC5 could actually have the better roster anyway. It absolutely kicks ass that the YF-23's going to be in it.

Wait a minute. You mean there's one "Story" mode where we follow the story of Blaze and his wingmates in the Wardog Squadron, and then there's another mode where we basically get to play a souped up AC4? Killer.

Close. It's Reiko Nagase, and she was the short-haired cutie in R4.

Halo on the PC must suck. Either that, or you were expecting a frag-fest game, ala Unreal. Personally, I can't stand those kind of games. I need large, open environments where I can stalk someone before I kill them, instead of just getting the biggest gun I can find and fragging the hordes around me. And anyway, there is no month fee to play games on Xbox Live. There is a $50 per year fee for the Xbox Live service, which is worth it. Much easier to find your friends and host private matches. Once you have your Xbox Live service, the games are free to play online.

Live isn't $70 then $50 a year. Live is $50 a year. The $70 package is a starter kit that gives you the headset, a game, and a year of Live. Don't get me wrong, I think it's ridiculous to pay to play a game you already paid for. I those MMORPGs are more or less robbery, given that you pay $50 for a game and then have to pay $15 a month to play it, plus another $30 for any and all expansion packs. But with Xbox Live, you're not really paying to play the game. You're paying for a service, and I think (now that games are finally coming out that I really want to play online) you get your money's worth. I mean, if it was some kind of monthly gig, I could see some complaining, but it's just a once a year thing. I buy two or three games a month, I think once a year I can buy one fewer game and renew my Live subscription.

You think driving an AT-ST is fun, try driving an AT-AT. You feel positively omnipotent, blasting mortals on the ground, blasting turrets, blasting just about everything as you slowly meander toward your goal. Occasionally, you get hit by turret fire, but seeing how little damage it does adds to your omnipotence. And you'll really get a kick out of the first time a snow speeder tries to tie you up, and you nail it as it circles around the front, watching it spin away in a firey wreck.

Argh, i don't know how to explain... I would like to know which are the VFs that have the most accurate proportion in all modes, imean those Valk in wich the proportions of the parts don't change or don't change too much from fighter to Gerwalk/Battroid, example: in battroid it have smaller wings and a bigger head that in fighter, so, its porportions are wrong from fighter to battroid. In another words if it help: The VFs in wich there is less anime magic in the trasformation porportions. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the VF-22 would be it, because almost everything folds into the inside. From the toys, I'd say the VF-11 doesn't seem to require much anime magic from fighter to Battroid, but I can't say much on Gerwalk. The VF-19 is probably the worst... in going from fighter to Battroid, limbs get bulkier, and the torso gets shorter.

Third Strike will be part of the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Although it's out for PS2, it won't be out for Xbox until January... I suppose because they're adding more Live features. And don't forget, SNK vs. Capcom Chaos is the end of this month (September, for anyone who reads this in October and thinks they have a month of waiting).

You mean like "Legacy"? You'll be happy to know that in the final Xbox version, you can set the left stick to Turn/Move, and the right stick to strafe/look.