mikeszekely

What?!?! Don't get me wrong, Ringu wasn't bad... but better than the American version? Let's see, Reiko was an annoying character who stopped every ten minutes to cry, causing me to actually root for Sadako... who was herself more a vehicle to carry the plot than a real character. Combined with the generally sunny backdrops where Ringu was filmed, and you have a movie that was only marginally scary at best. The cursed video wasn't really bad, but they only had that one obscure clue to go on. As for the American version... Seattle's rainy skies and the muted lighting set a better atmosphere, and while I do agree that silence can be scary, the Ring's soundtrack worked for it. The cursed video was longer and more disturbing, but left a series of clues that actually made the story as much a mystery as a horror story. Samara was a genuinely terrifying character (the scene near the end with the TV gave me nightmares... the first time that's happened since I was seven or eight and I saw Stephen King's It on TV). And Rachel's son was kinda creepy himself. The one thing that Japanese version does win out on is the ending... some people complain that the American version over explains things, but that's not really it... it's just that the Japanese version is... well, I'll just say better. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it. I haven't see the Japanese sequels yet... I heard Ring 2 and Ring 0 were good, though, and Spiral sucked... which is kinda weird, because Spiral was the second novel, and there was no novel for Ring 2. Well, maybe Suzuki's novels just aren't as good... I heard Loop was pretty bad...

I wish every game could "not suck" due to that. Gameplay/control beats EVERYTHING. No matter how gorgeous the graphics, no matter how cool the hero, gameplay/control are the main things. Is that not what's wrong with X7? Zero's cool, X is cool, looks ok--but gameplay? Control? No, as always, Capcom nails control on Megaman. The main gripe is the weak story, going from 2D to 3D, no control over the camera (I might be griping about that for Castlevania later...), and somewhat uninspired level designs for the 3D segments. Axl is like a weaker version of X, and his Copy Shot is cool, but ultimately useless outside of a few spots where they force you to use it to save some of the Reploids. Once you unlock him, X is the same X we know and love. Zero's a little slower with the saber, but he can reflect bullets, plus he gets some new weapons instead of just new moves. Abombz!!... I'm gonna have to disagree with you. While the 2D parts were sheer bliss, the 3D parts were lacking. Especially the bosses... it just didn't feel like Megaman fighting the bosses in large 3D areas. I stand by my original statment: 3D graphics, 2D gameplay.

Seems Japanese horror films are all the rage now since the Ring was so successful. Now we've got this Eye movie, and I heard that they're going to remake Juon, too. I don't know, though. While the Ring was an excellent film (both the Japanese and the American), seems silly to just jump on a Japanese horror film bandwagon. That'd be like saying that Hollywood fantasy movies are good just because LotR was, and anyone who's seen Dungeons and Dragons knows that that's just not the case. The Ring was good because Koji Suzuki is a good author, the Japanese director was a good director, and because Gore Verbinski did a damn fine job directing the remake.

Okay, as the most die-hard Megaman fan the world has ever known, I would have to say... it's really not that bad. See, here's the thing: we all have certain expectations for the way Megaman should play. And the simple fact of the matter is, unlike Mario or Metroid or Zelda or Sonic, but perhaps like Castlevania (more on that later), Megaman is NOT meant to be 3D. Capcom would have served fans better, and everyone I've talked to agrees with this, if they would have rendered the game in 3D, but retained essentially 2D gameplay, ala Viewtiful Joe or Klonoa. Once you recognize that, you start to accept X7 for what it is. The 2D parts are still fun, and the 3D parts... you start to get used to them. Yes, you can unlock X... to do so, you simply need to rescue 64 Reploids. I personally made it my mission to rescue them before beating any bosses, and it didn't take me too long to do it. After you have X, the game starts to feel more like Megaman, with a lot of running and jumping and shooting. Yes, I know that Axl can do these things, but Axl sucks, and his Axl Bullet is three times weaker when fully charged than X's X-Buster. To fix the voice acting, go to the options menu before you even start playing, and for the love of God, set the voices to Japanese! To fix the story... go play Megaman Zero 2. Unfortunately, the story in X7 will always suck and wreck continuity, and for what? Just to introduce Axl and set the stage for Megaman X: Command Mission. If Capcom wants to continue the X series, which I hope they do, they need to stop abusing it. X6 was rushed out to set up Megaman Zero. X7... another rush job to set up another series. To that end, I want to be appointed to direct any new projects relating to the Classic or X series. Since Inafune abandoned them to work on his precious Battle Network games , I'm the only one who can save Megaman! Well, except for those guys doing the Zero series. Kudos to them, as the first Zero game was brilliant, but Zero 2 was still 100% improvement, and the best Megaman game since X4. If they can continue to improve and don't muck up their story (like X did), the Zero series has the most potential. Oh, as for Castlevania, I picked it up... and for those expecting a 3D Symphony of the Night, you're all going to be let down. The RPG elements are gone, the castle is not a large, interconnected beast that will you must get new powers to reach new corners... essentially, there's a hub in the middle, and you teleport to each level. And instead of exploring, it's mostly you find a door, but you have to find and push three switches to unlock it. When you do... there's another door, and more switches... The only thing keeping it from sucking outright is the gorgeous visuals, tight control, fluid gameplay, and excellent soundtrack. So, I think of it as more like a hyrbid of Devil May Cry and Castlevania than a 3D version of 2D Castlevania. Actually, since Leon has a block move, I'm having a lot more fun with Castlevania than DMC. As far as games in general go, it's not bad, but not brilliant like it's 2D cousins. Too many games, too little time, really... although I beat Megaman X7 and Megaman Zero 2 already, I still have to finish Casltevania, Viewtiful Joe, and Time Crisis 3... and in less than a month, since Need for Speed Underground, Final Fantasy X-2, and Mario Kart all come out right around three weeks from now. And only about two weeks or so to play those before Ninja Gaiden...

What exactly is Gundam Evolve, anyway? I think I'd like to see them. Where should I start looking?

While it's true that in Japanese (as in English, with differences in American, Australian, and British dialects) the difference in dialects is usually just some local words that mean the same thing, and can in most cases be understood by people that don't speak that dialect but still speak the same language, that's not always the case. Check out Chinese. Today, all of the different Chinese dialects use the same grammar and is written with the same characters (well, mainland China uses slightly simplified versions). A person from Shanghai can write something down, and a person from Beijing will understand it. But if they read what they wrote in their local dialect, it's basically a foreign language to them. Lots of us know that Cantonese Chinese and Mandarin Chinese is different, but there are actually many many more different Chinese dialects. They're just not as well-known because mainland China and Taiwan use Mandarin Chinese for their "official language," while Cantonese is commonly spoken in Hong Kong (and even at that, I think people in Hong Kong usually can speak Mandarin, too).

23. 24 at the beginning of February.

I love how David provides us with technical information without committing himself to an answer!

For transforming mecha, Zeta Gundam is an excellent choice. In my opinion, it's probably the best Gundam series out there, and probably two thirds of the mobile suits transform in that one.

I don't know about that one. Afterall, the USAF picked the YF-22 over the YF-23, which a lot of us at MW consider the inferior plane. But, the YF-22 was cheaper and more conventional than the YF-23. A government doesn't have to have money problems to limit their military's budget. Usually, if there's an overt threat, the military gets more money, but in times of peace, it's put on a budget. For example, when the ATF competition was going on, the US was still involved in the Cold War. When the YF-22 was declared the winner in 1991, the program called for 648 planes at $86.6 billion. But since the Cold War ended and the subsequent military reviews, by May of 1997 that was cut to 339 planes and $58.3 billion. In 1999, proposals were made to delay funding of the initial aircraft for two years, and in the end some experts predict that there will be as few as 125 for the final production numbers. (source: Superfighters, from AIRtime Publishing Inc.) In the years since Space War One, the UN military has had to deal with Zentraedi seperatists and anti-UN terrorist groups, but at 2040 they were more or less in peace time. The YF-19 would definately have been a lot cheaper than the YF-21 and would use more conventional technologies (no BDS, BDI, or mission adaptive wings), scored high enough with Isamu as the pilot, and perhaps most importantly, was left standing in the dust of the Sharon Apple incident. The UN probably felt that the YF-19 was good enough, and left it at that. (More budget concerns would affect the deployment of the VF-19, again paralleling the F-22). After General Galaxy gets around to re-tooling the YF-21 design, they have eliminated some of the most costly systems, but were still left with superior fighter. General Galaxy re-submitted the design to the UN, and they decided to purchase the design in limited numbers for special ops because it was superior. Data or no data, spec ops groups always get the best equipment, while the grunts get the cannon fodder equipment.

Okay, for those of you who didn't get my first post, I was joking. But because my wife actually likes these kinds of movies, I rented it for her. Now, this was the first time I'd seen it, so I can't say how it's different from the screen version... but I have to admit, although there was absolutely nothing to the movie... it wasn't really that bad. Oh, and the Pussycat Dolls scene was pretty cool, since that's supposed to how they actually do it on stage.

My only beef with Evolution is that it started to reinvent the X-Men (kinda like the Ultimate X-Men comic book), but ended up rehashing comic book storylines (Apocolypse, that whole thing with Gambit, and now maybe Phoenix and Nimrod...). Not to mention that half the rehashed characters whiney teenagers (Shadowcat, Boomer, Rogue, Ice Man) and the other half are bland immitations of their comic book selves (Wolverine, Magneto, Cyclops, etc). Okay, I guess that's two beefs.

If you watch the battle in episode four, it's quite clear that Guld is the better pilot. While Isamu wasted ammo and made very few shots connect, Guld bided his time forcing Isamu to expend his ammo, while carfully removing Isamu's fixed weapons (blowing off his fast packs, stealing his gunpod and even nocking his head laser off). Only after Isamu was rendered virtually defenseless did he try to deliver a killing blow with his micro missiles. But you could argue that althougth both Guld and Isamu were really pissed at each other it was only Guld who was fighting to the death and tring to kill Isamu. isamu knewing the truth had no desire to kill Guld. Plus it would have been Isamu who won the fight. Guld put all his eggs into one basket so to speak and failed. If Isamu had wanted to kill him he could have blwon guld sky high ater Guld thougth he was succesful. Or maybe Guld is a simply a better tactician, while Isamu can handle the vehicle better. We do know from those little colored bar chart thingies that the 22 was killing the 19 until Isamu became the team's test pilot.

In other words, it's bait to get more cash out of the target audience(horny teenagers going "D00d, it has boobies!1111"). ... Which is pretty much what I suspected when they slapped hte unrated label on it. What? You mean there aren't any boobies? I am so taking my copy back to Best Buy.

Don't cry, guys! Check out page 42 of the October issue of Popular Science magazine. Lockheed Martin, with the support of an unnamed backer, is trying to develop a new supersonic business jet. Wind-tunnel tests and computer studies have already show that low-boom jets are possible, they just need to get the full-scale prototype built. According to the article, Gulfstream Aerospace and DARPA also have low-boom jets in the works, but LM is likely to finish theirs first.

The VF-19 is tomorrow's cannon fodder. The reason the aces get the VF-22 is because it's more expensive (and they'd already settled on mass producing the 19), but is still the superior plane.

Need I mention that a good number of anime viewers will probably end up not buying official releases after downloading or buying HK bootlegs... Not particularly. With Keiji Inafune as my witness (he's the guy that created Megaman, and Abombz!! can testify that that means a lot coming from me), I swear that if Macross Zero ever sees a commercial US release, I will definately purchase it. Before anyone remarks that my oath only covers Macross Zero, I'd like to point out that I'm not an anime fan. I used to be back in high school, but I kinda lost interest in all except Macross and Gundam. And most of the good Gundam stuff hasn't been commercially released... yet.

1. I'd rather watch it on the 27" TV than the 17" monitor. 2. I'd rather enjoy the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound on the speaker than the tiny sound my little PC speakers would put out. 3. Believe it or not, broadband internet is not available everywhere. (Comcast technically services my area, but the wiring in my building is too old, and as of yet the landlord doesn't see fit to do anything about it.) I don't care to tie up my bandwidth for two days to download it when for $10 I can have a disc and a case that play on aforementioned TV and surround sound and looks nice with the rest of my DVDs, subs be damned. Anymore questions? <_<

Point.

At least you're okay, and at least it was your car. Like a week after I got my license, I was speeding to make a greenlight, understeered, over-corrected, didn't re-correct to avoid hitting some old guy's 'vette at the intersection, and wrapped my mom's car around a phone pole. The front end was pushed halfway to the dash (thank god for the cabin's frame!), and I wrenched my shoulder to boot. For that reason, I got to ride the ambulance to the emergency room... which was good, because if I wasn't hurt, my mom probably would have sent me!

Is there a decent PCEngine emu that's not Magic Engine? The idea of paying for an emulator doesn't sit well with me. I tried Hugo 2.10, and just a regular pce rom file to test it out... at first it's okay, just a little flickery... then all the sudden it jams up.

Not to mention passive stealth. The active stealth on the VF-19 goes down, it's gonna have one mean radar signature...

F-22 and the YF-23. It's a shame we couldn't have had both...

Not big enough, IMHO. VF-22, hands down.

Pretty modest for a walking dictionary on the subject, David.