mikeszekely

Two screens. Yep, I can see how that's so freakish as to elicit comparisons to the Virtual Boy. Allowing for a touch screen and stylus as an OPTIONAL method of control, so that developers might be able to come up with some exciting and original new games... yeah, that really burns me. In all seriousness, you do know that the DS has four face buttons, two shoulder buttons, and a standard D-pad, right? And that games like Metroid Prime: Hunters have to option to play with our without the stylus? Now, when I think about how the DS allows for wireless multiplayer with just one copy of the game, plays all of my old GBA games, has interesting games like New Super Mario Bros and Feel the Magic at around the same price as current GBA software instead of just ports of the home console's games, and will only cost a $50 more than what a GBA SP cost until recently and probably half of what the PSP will go for, I think the DS is looking very interesting. Meanwhile, you can read my earlier post for why I think PSP might as well stand for Piece of poo Portable.

They have a system that plays PS2 games that you probably already own, but will have to buy again to play on the portable, which isn't really portable due the ridiculously short battery life, has little in the way of original content, that plays movies that you already own but will have to purchase again on the proprietary media, assuming that the movie ends before the battery runs out, has no protection for it's screen, plays mp3s, provided that you buy memory sticks for it and don't already have a better mp3 player like an iPod, will probably shatter the first time you accidentally drop it on the bus, and will most likely cost more than it would to buy a DS and three games for said DS. That sure sounds like a plan to get the number one spot in a market that Nintendo has all but monopolized for 18 years to me.

Hey, go easy, man. I work at a Gamestop. What's to pick on our prices for? You buy Mortal Kombat Deception from Gamestop, it's $49.99. You buy it from Wal-Mart, it's $49.94. While some places have their little local electronics stores that *MIGHT* sell them for a few dollars less, for the most part, I don't think six cents is that big a difference. And besides, Gamestop always drops prices first. We were selling Soul Calibur 2 for $20 weeks before anyone else. And not all Gamestop employees are the nerdliest of nerds. Granted, we get our share around the time we do seasonal hires, but for the most part, we don't discuss Star Wars and never do the "who would win..." thing. We talk about productive stuff, like the pros and cons of flinging cat crap off my balcony with a litter box scooper as a way to have a cat and still keep my apartment smelling fresh. As far as customers go, we do (especially on weekends, after they get their allowance) get the "Square is the greatest video game company ever simply because they made Final Fantasy VII" crowd, usually to buy the latest roleplaying or tactics game, or occasionally a Dragon Ball Z fighter. But at my store over here near Pittsburgh, PA, we also get plenty of rednecks looking for the new Cabela's Deer Hunt (did you know the new one is Live enabled? For what? Downloadable rosters updates?), fishing, or NASCAR game. But by far the bulk of our business, and EA's comes from the sports crowd that buys every EA sports game year after year. Oh, and we do get our fill of little kids. Mom's think that, because we have displays with demos in the front of th store, that we're some kind of day care or something. On Fridays evenings, we get more than our fair share of stoners, too. Sales pitch? Trust me, dude, we really don't care if you buy anything or not. They don't really pay SA's enough to care, although the store managers are mostly kiss-asses, so they might care. And trust me, we don't get comissioned. The only thing we might push is to reserve a game you're probably going to come back and buy the day it comes out at our store anyway, or to get one of those subscription/discount card deals. And again, it's not because we actually care about that stuff... believe me, if we had a choice, we wouldn't do either. But corporate thinks reserves are guaranteed sales (which, for all the cancels and no-shows, they really aren't) and that if you buy the sub with the discount card, you'll buy more used games from us (which, again, isn't true... you're not going to make special trips to Gamestop over a 10 lousy percent discount, and if you happen to be in the store, you'll either buy a used game or you won't. That little card isn't going to be the deciding factor), they force us to do it. SA's have actually lost their jobs because they didn't get enough reserves or sell enough subscriptions over a month's time. If you ever have an associate at Gamestop make a "sales pitch" at you, it's not so you'll buy something... it's either because his ass is on the line, or he wants you to hurry up and make up your mind already and get the hell out... or if they thought the kid was your son, more likely because they wanted the kid to get the hell out. We really don't like kids in our store. If you ever work on our side of the counter, you'd understand.

Yep. Supposedly, they used Protoculture cloning technology passed on from the Zentraedi to beef up the population for awhile, until cloning defects started to become too big of a problem.

I (and I may be the vast minority here) would rather not see a remake of the original Macross. Why should Studio Nue and Big West waste their time and resources to create a story that's already been created? Why should I spend money to acquire said series, when I already spent good money on the Animeigo release of the original version? Just so the creators can revist some subplot they intended to include, but never got around to? Or maybe just to have prettier animation? No thanks. The animation might not be the best ever, but SDF Macross is fine the way it is. Besides, there's plenty of other unexplored areas of the Macross universe. If Studio Nue wants to make more Macross, let it be brand new.

Eurusian Autocratic States Alliance? Seriously, I don't know. I thought ISAF was Independant States Allied Forces, and the other side was simply Eurusia or the Eurusian Air Force. David, I thought that one paint was the default Mobius/ISAF color, one paint was the Eurusian, and the third was either unrelated to both or perhaps a paint for one of the countries that made up ISAF. Did you happen to notice any other markings?

Hey, they released Robotech, didn't they? To go you one further, they tried to release the Sentinels, didn't they? HG doesn't seem much like a company concerned with quality as whoring their only franchise for 15 years.

No, see, while that'd be cool, I can't afford to pay more for the planes than the game. Some nice little ones, around 2 bucks a piece, and maybe then I could slowly buy all 50 something planes from AC5.

Actually, aside from Ace Combat 5 and Megaman X8, I'm done with PS2. And mind you, Megaman X Command Mission was the last game I'd bought for the PS2 in months. I have a perfectly good, ordinary PS2 with a nice mod-chip inside, so I couldn't give a rat's behind about the new PS2 design. If I were to spend any money on a new system, it'd be the Nintendo DS, but even then, I'll probably wait and see how it's doing in the spring. Now Xbox... I've bought the entire ESPN 2K5 line, Guilty Gear X2, SNK vs. Capcom Chaos, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, Star Wars Battlefront, X-Men Legends, and Mortal Kombat Deception since August, and a good bit of that's on Live, so look for Pharaohman if you want to play me in any of those games. Also, between now and the end of the year, I'll definately be snagging Dead or Alive Ultimate, Halo 2, and Knights of the Old Republic 2.

It has moving parts, but I shouldn't imagine that'd it have more moving parts than a GBA SP. The DS still uses cartridges. And what's wrong with your Samsung phone? I've had a Samsung phone for nearly two years now. I want to get a new phone, but only because the technology in mine is so dated now. I've never actually had any problems with it.

Forget figures of the pilots. I'd like to see them release a line of Ace Combat aircraft miniatures, along the lines of the Hot Wings series.

Are you kidding me? While Chevy and Ford seem to have the truck market cornered still, seems that for every Ford car on the road, there's three Hondas, and for every Chevy car on the road, there's three Toyotas. I personally drive a Mitsubishi, and my wife's looking to buy a Toyota Echo. My best friend drives a Toyota Matrix. While the senior citizen crown may still prefer their Buicks, Japanese I-4s are in.

No one will ever embrace it? HAH! Toyota dealerships have waiting lists 6+ months long for the Prius, and demand will likely be just as big if not greater for their new hybrid Highlander SUV. Not to mention Ford's new hybrid SUV. Change will come eventually, hybrids are merely a stop-gap method of conservation until the technology and infrastructure for alternative fuels like hydrogen are fully figured out and implemented. Not to mention that SUV's are just plain dumb. Need the space? Get a (smaller) pickup. Too many kids? Wear a condom. The SUV is a frivolous egobooster that people drive around to make them feel like theit lives are bold and exciting. The vast majority of people don't need them. By 2006, a lot of dealers will have hybrid vehicles. I think Mitsubishi is even going to have a hybrid Eclipse that's supposed to get almost as much hp as the current GTS model (206 for the hybrid, 210 for the 2004 GTS).

My ass. Where do you people think electricity comes from? You think your electrical outlet is some gateway to another dimension where electricity abounds? I'm no expert on how generators work, but I do know that most of them burn oil for fuel. I think I read in Pop Sci that if every gasoline-burning car, truck, and SUV was replaced with a totally electric car, we'd actually consume MORE oil to meet the increased demand for electricity than we would if we refined it into gasoline and burned it in the engine. Now how about we all stop blaming Bush and the Republicans for stuff that's only their fault in the minds of the extreme left?

Yeah, I was playing that. Until MK Deception came out. And I'm picking up SNK vs. Capcom tonight. Shooting Ewoks and Gungans is fun, but not as personal as the 2D ass-whoopings I'm going to be delivering, if anyone wants one.

Here's a tidbit for you... the Xbox version of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is apparently Xbox Live enabled... meaning versus matches in MK II over the net. Sweet.

Unforutnately, that'd be something like 75-95% of America, and probably 99% of the residents in Southern California. Well, if I go back to school in the future, at least I know what to study... looks like there's a huge demand for psychiatrists...

Portable systems aren't just for your workday commutes. I like to play my GBA on my lunch break at work, on the can when it's time for #2, and even a little bit in bed after I've tucked myself in for the night. The more I read about the DS, the more promising it looks.

Sure, the wingmen in Ace Combat 5 seem more likely to get kills than they were in preivous Ace Combats, but in all fairness, there's a helluva lot more stuff to kill. In preivous Ace Combats, I'd kill every white target, every red target. On the demo, when I tried taking out all the escort fighters, I ran out of time.

Not entirely correct. Advance Wars, Battle Network, Pokemon, Golden Sun, the GBA Astroboy game are all unique to the Gameboy systems. Also, the Cube version of Four Swords is actually a step down from the fun of playing GBA Four Swords. Not to mention the PS2 Astroboy being something of a flop, while the GBA game is one of the more memorable titles of the year. It could also be argued that the 3D Castlevania game doesn't quite stand up to a number of the GBA Castlevania games, I doubt anyone would clame Sonic Adventure 2 was better than the GBA games, and the console Mega Man games remain stale and dated in the face of much better sequels on the GBA like Mega Man Zero. I'm not trying to convince you to buy a GBA or a DS, if you're not likely to play a portable system, there's no real point in you picking one up, but to say that all the games are ports or rehashes that don't stack up to what's on the consoles is utterly false. I've found more games that impress me on the GBA than I have on the XBox. PS2, and possibly even the Gamecube combined. Hold the phone, Ladic. I love the Sonic Adventure series, never really cared for the Genesis Sonics. And the Sonic Advance series is Genesis, just prettier. And as for Megaman... while the Zero series is brilliant, and X7 less than stellar, Battle Network went from an innovative remix to a childish series that revolves around fetch-quests. Meanwhile, I liked Network Trasmission for its back-to-its-roots style of gameplay, Megaman X: Command Mission is excellent, and Megaman X8 is shaping up to be everything we'd hoped X7 was going to be. Anyway, aside from that, I do agree with your point. There's a lot to love on the GBA. And while the DS does seem a little gimmicky at times, it's still backwards compatible with GBA games, and although the titles I've seen so far fail to make any innovative use of the stylus or second screen, they've mostly been solid games in their own right.

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.