Keith

Got my copy of Gundam Battle Universe this morning, and first the bad news. 0079-0087 are all the same missions from Chronicle. As far as I can tell, the only new time periods are definately 0088 & 0093, though hopefully there will be a good number of new extra missions. And the good news: Graphically, the mobile suits definately seem to look better, not sure if it's my imagination, but they look a little meatier in detail. Flying mobile armors, wave riders, etc, is fixed. No longer do you waste your SP trying to shoot while flying, now you can home in with guard, and safely fire away. Flying melee is the only way to use SP while in an MA mode. Actually, I haven't tried using the GPO3 yet, so that may still be broken, but the Zeta is much improved. All MS points & unlocked suits/characters carry over to the new game, as do your made characters & control preferences. Stage scores & pilot stats don't carry over, so you'll have to earn S/SS & raise your pilot stats all over again. I've played all the way through AEUG ZZ, and the missions were plentiful, "Plu Pllu Plu" is there in all her glory, as is crazy bum with a hat Yazan. Stages are a bit too recycled though, Moon Moon looks suspiciously like Jaburo. But so far the couple of CCA missions I've played have all new backdrops, and the Jegan is dead sexy. All of the guages have been cleaned up, and made more visually pleasing, and the support system works exactly as well as it should. Just hold select, pic your option, and your wingman is good to go. There's also a bit of a stat increase when you're near death, almost like the reivive special in Gundam Vs Zeta. With that, the Battle series has nearly everything the Vs series has. And a definate improvement is felt. Overall, unless there are more unlockables I don't know about, it's not as big of a mission upgrade as I'd like, but the engine revisions & new ZZ & CCA stuff definately make it worth it for me.

I got more of the impression that Mr. Bilrer was someone who was aware of, and is opposing Grace's group. Making Alto undetectable to them once entering his house was the big tip off. As well as how the SMS have been a thorn in Grace's groups sides, complete with adopting the apparently unexpected VF-25.

Nah, it'll be a super rock ballad that Aimo is just the bridge to. Man I want tickets to that concert

I'm actually starting to believe Graces faction could be the Protoculture related groupo (instead of the Vajra) in the series. When you look at their crazy level of technology, cyber-conciousness, replacement bodies & the know-how to re-integrate into them, and of course, the dimension eater itself, that just seems a bit too far ahead of what Earth has developed. I'm not going to say SA, since really, their purpose would have been filled with the exiting fo the Protodevelin, and their mission would have been the capture of, not destruction of a human-like race. But at this point, It looks to me like the current state of the Vajra may have been a result of normal members of hte 117th foiling an earlier plot. Current theory is that they are remnats of one side of the Protoculture conflict who see humans as too close to the "lighter" side of the Protoculture, or perhaps just another PC influenced world (lost member of the Stellar Republic) who are some really tweaked mofo's. And really, all they'd have to do is sneak in as a Rogue Zentradi group to go unnoticed. Mind you, all I really have to base this on, aisde from their insane level of technology, is the comment about "500 thousand years of Protoculture history", which could be a translation error. But if that actually is the line, it seems a bit out of place for a normal "bad" human group.

Keep at it, I didn't get in until 2 in the morning when I got in, but it finally happened. The ISP randomizer sure as hell didn't help.

Finally got into the shop last night, and tryed out the new maps this morning. So far my favorite is the coppertown-whatever it is. Kinda like midtown maelstrom, but with a more western ghost town feel. Also a lot more hiding spots. The sewer one is interesting, complete with a couple swimming parts, and virtuous vista seems to be another level right out of the game, and has some nice wide open parts, with lots of tall grass.

He once admitted to me in a PM that he didn't really hate Basara that much, he just enjoyed the game of it.

Not bad at all as far as recap episodes go, though it still doesn't to flying bicycle. Alto is officially the luckiest center of a triangle in anime now with that duet going. I will say this though, if at some point Grace winds up killing Sheryl, I'll never be able to look at Beldandy again! Someone needs to stop her. Also, thought the next ep was titled

I'm just glad I went for knife mastery before they broke it. Considering you had to be smart enough to sneak into stun range before being caught, I don't see any reason to break the auto-lock feature for ground kills. Maybe if we write them enough they'll fix it in the next update....and hopefully voice chat too.

Someday....

I'll be paying for it as soon as I can get into the damned shop. And no, you don't have to buy a new character to change clothes, that will be handled through the rewards shop. Basically, as you play through rounds, you earn points, and those points can be applied to different clothing items at the rewards shop. Assumedly, you should be able to change in and out of items at your leisure once you've purchased them, but I'm not 100% sure on that, since I can't log into the shop to purchase the update.... In general, I like the new upgrades though, its much easier to see your connection status for one, but the knife has been severely gimped. The ability now exists to set up clan games, and assumedly clan vs games, so once we all get together, we'll be able to do that. And woohoo! I'm finally up to level 4!

Why would they disable higher compatability hardware, for lower compatability software? I'd believe downloadable for the low end models, but that's no reason to gimp the higher end models. Now downloadable import compatability is something i'd pay for.

For clues on how likely it is Kawamori will rap up Hikaru, Misa, & Minmay's story with a follow up OVA fo rmore closure see: -Escaflowne -Arjuna -Aquarion -The Daichi's

That sounds like a fat wad of BS to me. Besides, when HG refers to "creators" they're usually referring to Tatsunoko staff who had nothing to do with Macross.

Sony better have something epic lined up for TGS.

Even I've given up on that. and a hardy "boo!" at Bamco for not releasing Katamari & Ace Combat on the PS3.

Definately interesting news, though I wonder how far along they've gone on the PS3 developement side. I'd hate to see FFXIII turn into another xbox MGS2.

The PSP will play PS1 games (via remote play) from the same region that your PS3 is from. -Insert PS1 disc into PS3 -Make sure your PSP is registered for remote play -Connect PSP to PS3 via remote play -Play PS1 game on your PSP -Profit! The only use it has if if you leave the PS1 game in your PS3, leave your PS3 turned on & connected to a network, take your PSP someplace else that has wifi access, and remotely connect to your PS3..I think! With all taht said, I I'd gladly pay $20 dollars for a downloadable patch for the PS3 that lets you play import PS1/PS2 games, but still blocks out pirated games.

Meh, wasn't big on the first one, dont' see myself bothering with this one.

Trying watching it, made it most of the way with 20 minutes left, then stopped pretending to care & watched something else.

That was pretty awesome, if only there were more, and on DVD.

D pad works fine for the battle games, so it should be just as fine for ace frontier. As for the 40 fighters, my guesses would be VF-1A --Cannon Fodder --Max --DYRL Max --DYRL Hikaru --DYRL Kakizaki VF-1J --Full Aarmor --Hikaru --Max --Milia VF-1S --Roy --DYRL Max --DYRL Hikaru VF-11 --VF-11B VF-17 --VF-17S YF-19 VF-19 --VF-19S --VF-19 Kai YF-21 VF-22 --Max --Milia VF-25 --Alto --Ozma A Destroid or two Maybe a couple Varuta mecha Regult Glaug Quadran Rau We'll likely have to wait for the next revision for cooler stuff like Angel Bird varients, Pheyos, VF-9, VF-14, VF-5000, etc.

I actually agree, Sheryl does look a "lot" like Ranka's mother. At this point, I really wouldn't be surprised if she was a clone, one commissioned by Grace or Grace's party, to fill the role Ranka has taken. Regardless, she's still my pick for the winner in the triangle. Sure Ranka's pulled some major Alto points in the last couple episodes, but she hasn't touched Sheryl's "Misa-ness." Speakign of which, did anyone ever find that full Chunky Misa Doujin?.. Considering their ability to communicate with Ranka, and that much of their technology is PC based/incluenced, I really don't understand why the Vajra can't open up a comm channel to the Frontier fleet if they wantt to talk. We know Zentradi translator's exist, so it shouldn't be "too" difficult to exchange enough information for a translator between Vajra & human languages. But awesome explodyness all around this episode. it's going to be hard to top for the final episode big showdown.

Before I read back through the topic, I just finnished watching it, and PIN POINT BARRIER PPPPUUUNNNCCHH!!

What if Grace is like some kinda crazy Miang (Xenogars) type character. Some kinda psycho Protoculture AI remnant that was found with the Vajra.