VT 1010

Already a thread for G.I. Joe 2 here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=34458&st

I haven't checked out the Wikipedia article, but there have been at least a few fights supported by first hand accounts, and they weren't just a bunch of fanboys. For a couple of them, there have been debates that seem to center around if he won. Nonetheless, the consensus by those that knew him personally (as in friends and family) is that he had been in several fights--some of whom have witnessed them directly. I don't know why you continue to deny this... It's not that I'm in complete disagreement with you, AgentONE. Though I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan, I too get annoyed by the "Bruce Lee could kick anybody's ass" comments as well. It's kind of like the old "my dad can beat up your dad" playground argument. It gets old and tiring real fast. In his day, compared to many of his contemporaries, Bruce was way ahead of his time. Nowadays, the gap has shortened considerably and the standards have risen. The conditioning of current professional fighters at the very least equal or (as is more likely the case) surpass his conditioning. In spite of that, Bruce was still indeed a capable athlete, fighter, and impressive martial artist off screen--even by today's standards. Let's at least give credit where credit is due. I'm not going to get into the _ing __un debate, but I agree that Wing Chun has flaws. Of course Bruce realized this as well, which is why he moved on to Jeet Kune Do. _ing __un worked well on small kung fu men in the confined spaces of Hong Kong. He soon realized that wasn't the case in America with everything being so big. I think it's clear the other guy wasn't in as good of condition as Cro Cop, seeing as he get winded awfully fast. There may be more power behind those punches, but it takes a lot of energy to move that weight around. If he had better aerobic training though, the results may have been different.

I'm afraid I disagree with you there. I wouldn't say to compete in the ring you have to be a showoff. It's true that some fighters are like that, but most of them are just like any other athlete: they mostly enjoy the challenge of competition. Also, Bruce liked to showoff on occasion too. His showmanship was a part of his popularity. IIRC, I think he didn't want to compete because of the rules. He trained for street-oriented fighting and they generally frown on eye gouging and biting in the ring.

I apologize for the following post being so long-winded, but there's a lot to address. I have to say I think Bas is spot on here. Bruce Lee was a great martial artist, but his grappling skills--though admirable for his time--were lacking by today's standards. This is not to mention modern training methods and (as AgentONE correctly stated) the size of the fighters. Nonetheless, given the proper time for preparation and training, I'm sure he could do quite well in a low weight class--he won a boxing championship before he even knew much about boxing afterall. BTW, AgentONE, did you actually watch the whole video you posted?. The debate over whether or not Bruce Lee could still kick ass in this day and age, how would he do in the UFC, etc. has been done to death. There never will be a definitive answer. All we can do is speculate. I'm afraid I can't say much there; however, the answer as to whether or not Bruce was a skilled martial artist and fighter has been fairly well established. As for my credibility here, I have met and studied briefly under two of Bruce Lee's students. I also frequently train with an instructor who is certified in Jun Fan Gung Fu/Jeet Kune Do under another one of Bruce's students. In addition, I have around forty or so books on the subject, have read and watched countless interviews, and have just done a lot research in this area. This is true for the movies. He would choreograph the fight scenes to look cool and that often entailed unrealistic fights. Off screen, in the real world, Bruce fought very differently though. This is backed up by home movies, pictures, and eye witness accounts. Excluding trapping, much of we he did later in his life was largely a modified form of boxing with various kicks and grappling techniques thrown in (this is not only backed up by his students, but also is in his personal notes). This has certainly been used to great success in MMA. In addition, three students of his (Mike Stone, Joe Lewis, and Chuck Norris) were able to use his concepts and techniques in full-contact sparring competitions successfully (they were all champions). This is by their own accounts. I realize that isn't the same as modern MMA, but at the time it was the closest thing they had (in the ring anyway). Actually what MMA has shown is that the most effective martial art is mixed martial arts. Hence why one dimensional wrestlers like ryan bader and brock lesnar lose to more well rounded fighters like jon jones and cain velasquez. Indeed. The Gracie's did quite well in the early days of the UFC, until the other fighters started cross training. Western wrestling, Judo, and Brazilian Jiujitsu are great arts, but tend to work poorly in isolation against a skilled MMA practitioner. Some of his students tried to get him to compete in tournaments back in the day, but competition never really interested him. Even if he had and was successful, I'm sure the debate would still rage on though. I think it's important to realize this. There were many other great martial artists out there, but Bruce just happened to be a famous actor as well. He's fast because he trained to be fast. Huge muscles alone don't slow you down. It's about training methods. And according to those that have been on the receiving end of his punches (and kicks), in spite of his size, he could still hit very HARD. He may not have the striking force of some today's MMA behemoths, but he still had a lot of force behind his fists. Let's also not forget the one inch punch he helped make famous. That's not true. According to footage shot outside of his films and eye witness accounts, he was just as fast--if not faster--than what was seen in the movies. In fact, while filming thier fight scenes for the Game of Death, Bruce and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar actually had to force themselves to go slower as it looked like a camera trick when played back. Though he wasn't the first, Bruce helped popularize cross training in a time when that was often frowned upon. Dana White has even called him the father of MMA. Also uncommon in the era was his training. Instead of the repetitious, unnatural practice of forms/kata, he advocated full contact sparring. In the 60s, it was almost unheard of to don a bunch of protective gear and go all out. Though Bruce didn't invent all of this, he certainly brought more awareness too it. I think it's important to at least recognize that. Bruce Lee didn't have a ton of ring experience (though he did have some), but he had a lot of experience in street fights. In his youth, he was quite the ruffian. And even when he got older, there was still the occasional challenger.

I got into LaserDiscs in 2007 and have enjoyed the retro hi-tech awesomeness too. There's just something so cool about it. And I'll never give up my Star Wars LaserDiscs--never! In order to get the most out of LD, there are a couple of things you can do. The first is ensure you have a good 3D comb (Y/C) filter (this is different from a 3-line comb filter). This is something that was as true in the 90's as it is now. If your TV doesn't have one, some A/V Receivers, Video Processors, DVD Recorders, and even certain VCRs may have them. In order to take advantage of a good comb filter, you need to use the composite video connection from the LD player, as the S-Video connection utilizes the players filter which (excluding the later, ultra high-end models) generally suck. The connection between the device with the filter and the display should be S-Video or better though. Unlike DVD or even VHS, LaserDisc is a composite format and needs a comb filter--and in order to get the best picture you'll need a good one. Next you'll want good video processing with 2:3 pulldown detection (for stuff shot and edited on film) and deinterlacing (for stuff shot and edited on video). Again, if the TV doesn't do a decent job then you can use a good AVR, dedicated Video Processor, or quality DVD recorder. The first two (especially the VP) will give the best results. Another option is to get a better LD player. No matter how good the rest of your equipment is, picture quality will still suffer from a poor quality player. Going from my Denon--which was by no means a bad player--to my CLD-97 was quite amazing. There was so much less visible noise in the video signal. One more thing that you might not have thought of is to calibrate the display to the LD. That, however, could be another post entirely. In addition to these things that can help the picture, getting a sound system with Dolby Pro Logic decoding will greatly enhance your LD enjoyment--especially for Star Wars.

Highlander II was so awful, I never got around to the others. I'm still hesitant. I knew the remake was going to be bad when I heard that Justin Lin was directing. In my mind, with the Highlander movies, there can be only one.

Kentucky does too. At least my cousin got a ticket for it a few years ago. I also don't hear them nearly as much as I used too. I admit all of this anecdotal though. Concerning ear buds, there are some that have different sized pieces of rubber included so you can adjust them to better fit your ear. I'm considering getting a new pair myself sometime soon; however it's more due to my current ones sounding like crap and not them being uncomfortable.

When was this? Do you have a link? I have to see this. Though it wasn't in a race, Lewis Hamilton did drive one of Aryton Senna's cars on an Episode of Top Gear. I've got the feeling that if they were to actually race in the older cars it would result in a lot of dead or injured drivers.

Spider-Man is an alien!:-P http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/19352/-spider-man-costume-ribbed-for-pleasure The more I see of this particular costume, the less I like it. I hope it's just a prototype wrestling suit and not the final version of the one he uses.

When done properly, they work faster and better than a regular manual transmission. There's a reason why Formula 1, IndyCar, and many other purpose-built race cars use them. They still don't have the same cool factor though...

It looks like Lois Lane will NOT be in the movie: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/19350/no-lois-lane-in-the-new-superman-

IIRC, Nolan isn't currently involved at this stage. He came up with the story and helped get it into motion, but he's letting the director handle the rest. Nolan himself at least stated something to this effect (I don't know about Goyer). Hopefully this bodes well for preventing the ego issue you mentioned.

Every time I look at the Hicks figure without his pulse rifle, it seems like he's playing an air guitar.

When they get a license to produce a figure based on someones likeness, there usually aren't limitations in accuracy written in the contract. So when they look like crap, it's the artist's fault for doing a bad job. So far, the most accurate commercial figure for Hicks is the Hot Toys version, but the gear is sadly still off. As for McFarlane, their stuff is incredibly inconsistent. The original Metal Gear Solid figures for example had a couple of good sculpts; however, some were a bit questionable and Snake's face just looked weird in particular. It's even worse having seen his face in better quality in more recent games. Oh--and those Thing figures look awesome.

Looks like there will be two separate versions: one with 3G and one Wi-Fi only. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-27-sony-outlines-ngp-asynchronous-gaming

The NGP may be less than $599. I hope it isn't $598.99. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/27/sony-39-s-yoshida-on-pricing-the-ngp.aspx

Things have just gotten more confusing. If this article is right, it may still be an Alien movie...sort of. The link may contain spoilers...possibly. http://movies.sky.com/exclusive-prometheus-plot-reveal-aliens-are-in-it EDIT: Looks like there's a casting update too. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/heat-vision/michael-fassbender-star-opposite-noomi-76403

Is he sure the RAM is actually working properly? Has he checked to see if one of the sticks is malfunctioning?

I haven't read Wizard in years. Having only read a handful of issues, I never really was that attached to it. BTW, I hope everyone realizes that the Frank Miller rant is from circa 2001 or so. EDIT: Nevermind, Jeremy007 already pointed this out.

The only thing I want from the next PSP is for it to not make my hands cramp after fifteen minutes of usage. Sometime having big hands is a pain...

Well if all else fails, we'll just have to do what we did in the old days to play the imports we legally own: mod/hack the system.

All of the prior Alien movies have had some sort of "artificial person." I'd be surprised if this one didn't. EDIT: Looks like that may have been answered already. Unfortunately, yes...

Probably not. The entire reason "Bishop" was in AVP was because the creator wasn't visionary enough to move past the fan-wanking. I'm sure that the writers are going to at least try something a little different...I hope. Don't get me wrong--I like the Bishop character from Aliens (and even the one from the recent game); however, I think it's best to move on. I hope the female lead isn't a shameless Ripley knock-off either. Now that I'm done ranting, I just need to take a breath and relax...

I hope the leave EVERYTHING from the AVP movies out of this prequel--and any other Alien movie for that matter.

Bill Murray (and some of the others, IIRC) weren't too happy with the second one. Whether or not he joins in depends on the script. Hopefully, if he does get involved, this will be a sign of quality. Either way, it doesn't matter how good it is; it still won't equal the first.