mikeszekely

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

I seen it last night and it was so so and since I only saw Buffy season 1 I didn't pidgeon-hole SMG as such her character in Grudge was decent. Personally I liked the pacing of the original, it was slow and built up to a pretty good climax (did I just say that out loud? ). This version was kinda predictable and the pacing was the opposite. BTW there was a Juon 2? As far as I know Juon I know was made as a TV movie in Japan and was re-shot for a theatrical release. And then there was a made for TV Juon 2, followed by a theatrical release of Juon 2.

If my wife doesn't want to go, I'll go with a bud. If my buds don't want to go, I'll go alone. I'm not a big on the entire horror genre, but movies like Juon/the Grudge/Ring I usually wind up loving.

Oh, I wish the fat mother would yell at her damn kids and hit them already. Kids today don't have enough discipline, and frankly, I'm more sick of hearing the damn kids crying and throwing a fit because their mom won't buy them some stupid Yu-Gi-Oh cards than the sound of the mother laying down the law. Spoiled-brat-b-gone, anyone?

Saw looks like the most retarded thing to hit the theaters since House of 1000 Corpses. As for the Grudge, it's got Sarah Michelle Gellar, it's got a Hollywood budget and effects, and it's in English, but it should still be closer to Juon than the American version of the Ring was to the original, since Takashi Shimizu directed both the Grudge and Juon.

And the F-35 they include probably won't be the F-35B. It must be hard to model STOVL controls onto the PS2 pad when every other button is used to control the fighters already. Air Force Delta sure didn't do it that well.

I can't say for sure, but I'd assume so, since the Japanese are pretty into wrestling, and the games is from Konami.

Well, as I feel that The Oak is the closest thing humans have to Jesus or God, it really wouldn't make sense to have him play some character with god-like powers. Seriously though, there are a ton of other actors that I like, I mean come on... Like Van Damme, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, or anyone else in Predator. Little known fact: VD was the original predator, he was replaced before the final cut. Even less known fact: Shane Black (Hawkins) wrote Lethal Weapon at the age of 22. His script for the Last Boyscout was the first to break the one million dollars mark and was sold for 1.75 million dollars. He also wrote Last Action Hero for The Oak, his co-star for Predator. He's considered to be a pioneer of the modern action films. YEAH!!! Forgot about that.... Yep everyone in Predator kicks ass. Except Van Damme. Seriously, dude, that guy's a pussy. The other guys are buff manly men, like AgentOne, but Van Damme is like an immitation manly men who's really a pussy.

AMEN!!! Reeve played Supes well, but not Kent. To date my favorite Clark Kent is, and most likely always will be, Dean Cain. he makde Kent seem more human, not a caricature. Yeah dude! Dean Cain! That's the dude from Lois and Clark!