Spatula

Watched it and in the slim minority that doesn't quite like it. It was watchable, but I never digged into it. Also, it suffers from the same kid meets nirvash and Eureka and goes on a larger than life adventure. Sigh. And as I stated before, its not the smoothness of the animation I'm after, its doing the pain staking frame by frame animation traditionally seen that really impresses me. I thought I made a thread about this at one time.

So I'm late for the party, and watched the Frontier episode 1 just earlier tonight. Can I say I'm totally underwhelmed? I understand there's a cliche start for many Mecha animes where the pilot wishes he could fly the skies and so just conveniently happens that such a desired mech crashes before his feet and he's like ALLLLLLLLLLLRIGHT. LISTEN TO MY SO-. I've seen countless mecha animes that use this formula of KID WANTS TO BE A PILOT, WAR ERUPTS NEAR KID, SUCH TECHNOLOGY CRASHES TO KID, KID HOPS IN AND STARTS TO KICK ASS which all just so happens to transpire within the first episode to "kick start" the series I'm utterly sick of it (I must say though, Gurren Lagann's take of it was quite hilarious and fresh, I don't know why, but that I enjoyed). I don't mean to take it out soley on Macross Frontier, but you know when the horse is dead, yet you keep beating it with the cliched ugly stick to make it bleed somemore of the same old formula. One may argue, "well what do you expect, its how many mecha-style stories start, it's an unwritten rule", and I'll just go, "fine"... As for the animation, yes, the CG is well done, but this makes me miss old school 80's and 90's traditional animation so much more. It's a real pity we'll never see any mecha shows animated alla DYRL or even Macross Plus. What I don't like about CG animated flight scenes is that its the paradox of animation, its TOO smooth, and loses out on the slight jitteriness that makes 80's high quality animation, well, nostalgic. I still found Macross Zeros use of CG not nearly as distracting and managed to mix the right amount of CG to still make it look 2D without having to step into 3D boundaries. The characters are passable, though I have no liking for Alto nor Cherill at this moment. Those will just have to grow on me as the series progresses. Will I continue to watch Frontier? Yes, absolutely. I'm interested to see how much they can explore after 25 years of maturity and its only the first episode, but I'm keeping my reservations and my hype down. Did I see any big pluses so far? Hell yes. I LOVE the fast packs for the VF-25s. Very stylish and it does suit well, 50 some odd years of mankind's progression in the Macross timeline from the first series up to now. There's my 2 cents. Here's to episode 2.

No wonder my screen is taking close to 30 seconds or more to load up the blades when I exit a game. Good thing I'm doing solo games - specifically Bioshock, which I normally hate horror or creepy type games, but damn this just takes the cake in terms of atmosphere and story telling so far. THIS ONE IS TOO FAT THIS ONE IS TOO TALL THIS ONE IS WHY DO HUMANS HAVE TWO EYES WHY DO THEY HAVE TWO LEGS, TWO ARMS, TWO BREASTS, ITS TOO SYMMETRICAL - AND I SHALL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Doctor, I would like a face lift. Ohhhhh let's perform facial surgery. My scalpel please. Wait.....doctor......STOP CUTTING! Just a few more insertions GET ME THE CHIEF MEDICAL WARD ----- ~~~~~~~~~~~ What Picasso the Spanaird did with a paint brush to human faces, I shall do the same with a surgical knife!

Ah yes, that repeated gunfire is both prevalent on both the 360 and PS3 versions as experienced by myself. It's annoying, but a glitch that occurs quite frequently. I have played terrorist hunts where it says there is 1 remaining tango, but he never shows up! We eventually fail the mission because time runs out =/. I haven't had freezing at the opening screen, but yes, the MP does have a few bugs. The SP works fine so far.

A laptop mat, I should try this out. And where is it buggy in the R6 Vegas? Most of the SP worked fine for me and I've played through it twice.

Is there an automatic MUTE ALL IN FORUM button, or do you have to do a player by player basis.

I avoid H3 really all together as the single player was pretty bland and underwhelming. There was one time a 12 year old had quite the "vocaularic audaucity" with the most colorful of languages to comment about said username during a session of R6 Vegas. Thankfully the host and 2 other mature players kicked him out pretty quickly, and he was added to the block list.

Post pictures of your video game console and/or PC setup! As stated in the title, I’ve cultured a rather bizarre internet hobby, and that is to check out other people’s various gaming/pc/HDTV setups to get ideas of how I would set mine up. Throughout my explorations on various sites including CNET, [H]ardforum, AVSforum, IGN, and the likes, I’ve seen the good, bad, and absolutely ugly. In this thread, post pictures of your HDTV, PC and entertainment media setups, just for fun. A few simple rules to follow: 1) Keep images to a maxium of 800 X 600 (or smaller) to not stretch the forum tables. 2) Host your images on photobucket, imageshack, or other image hosting websites. Do not attach your images. 3) Post a clear description of what is in your setup including the specs for your TV/PC/Consoles to reduce spam posts that just depict a picture of your setup with not any real discussion value. 4) Please please please! Try to get the best picture that is possible with a decent digital camera. Nothing makes your setup look worse than it really is with a terribly poor web camera/cell phone camera gimmick. I understand not everyone here can exactly afford an SLR or high quality digital camera ( I just so happened to get a Canon Rebel XT SLR just recently) but try to minimize the blur and maximize the focus with good lighting and all. 5) Mods are free to adjust any of the rules as they see fit, naturally. So to kick things off, here’s my setup: Samsung LNS 4095D HDTV LCD – 40 inch Xbox 360 Elite Playstation 3 60 GB upgraded to 160 GB Playstation 2 - big box old school style – 39000 SCPH Nintendo Wii Panasonic DVD-S53 Monoprice 5 X 1 HDMI switcher Sennheiser 555s for audio (not pictured) SHOW ME YOUR TIE!

That is what NOT to do, it even said so in the instruction booklet =D. Mine is vertically now, and there really is no reason for me to put the 360 console horizontally. Even my Wii is vertical, which fits perfectly in my TV stand case. I think this is somewhat of a reason for me even wasting $30 a on that Intec vertical glow stand that does cooling at the same time, just incase I did knock it over, somehow.

That is correct. Creed for $39.99 CDN / about $40 USD for both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Again, this is not the normal price, its usually $59.99. I'm honestly playing other games more than that now, after killing my first target. Hearing I have to do this 9 times out of the many reviews I read was more of a chore than anything else. I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Might start either Orange Box or Bioshock tonight.

One major benefit of the External HDD though is you can do a system backup that saves your PS3 system state as well as all game saves. It takes up about 4-7 GB of space depending on how much stuff you have on your HDD to begin with, but extremely worth the time and effort to do (which is press a few buttons and MAKE SURE the power doesn't go off when its backing up), but a relatively very safe operation to do. I should make a habbit to do this every 3 months or so.

True, however I still consider the flexibilty and ease of a PC to store my MP3s and movies more user friendly and not having to worry about too many compatibility issues, and connect the PC to my HDTV to basically arrive at the same "media hub" solution.

The PS3 needs to have the Hard Drive in FAT32 format. However, I’ve tried using an external HDD 500 GB Seagate Free Agent on it and had the same “problems” as you. Having an external HDD defeats the purpose since you cannot perform downloads in the background no matter how you format your HDD – one of the major points of having a larger hard drive in the first place. Instead I got an INTERNAL 2.5 SATA II 160 GB5400 HDD from Seagate – the ones used in laptops (so there are no compatibility problems as the original HDD is a Seagate brand) and replaced it within 10 minutes. This procedure does NOT void your warranty, as it is described how to perform this in your PS3 instruction book, but there are plenty of internet tutorials out there, and you don’t need to be an electronics expert to do this. I don’t know too much about computers and I could easily pull this off. And having 300 GB for your PS3 is well, somewhat redundant, unless you plan to keep EVERY single demo released and play them constantly, again defeating the purpose of getting a retail version of the game.

Indeed, after owning all 3 of the current consoles, I do like each of them somewhat equally, however now I'm spending most of the time on the 360 due to the tons of games I'd love to try (despite many of them are also cross platform with said PS3). I really don't care who wins or what the market conditions are, I just want to have fun.

After a crazy Boxing Day sale (Canadian version of Black Friday on Dec 26), I managed to snag 4 Xbox 360 titles at Best Buy and received 1 as a gift. Assassin's Creed $39.99 Bioshock $39.99 The Darkness $19.99 GRAW 2 $19.99 And received Orange Box as a gift. I planned on picking up Ace Combat 6 as well, but it was selling at the regular $59.99 price, I'd forgo it and work on the other games as well. So far I have 12 games in my colleciton, not bad considering I've owned the console only for about 2 weeks including the very underwhelming but somewhat enjoyable Halo 3, the GOTY material Mass Effect and Gears of War, beating both those on the weekend. Dead Rising was pretty good, and got through all the case files on my 2nd try. The package also came with Forza 2 and Marvel, both which I haven't spent much time on. And I've beaten R6 Vegas 2 times already (which I also beat on the PS3 version). Does anyone here experience their Xbox 360 shutting down after maybe 20 minutes of inactivity if you are in the dashboard and don't touch anything? I don't have the auto shut down enabled, but mine just completely shuts down and wondered if its a built in mechanism. I bought this Elite just on December 17th or so. Also, as posted above, my Live username is Delicious Bunny.

I bought a Playstation 3 - 60 GB just during the Summer in late July if I recall, and upgraded it to a 160 GB HD. If anyone would like to add me to their PSN list - "Spatulaorama", and I play a lot of COD4, but I'm more on playing my newly acquired Xbox 360 now, so I keep both my systems on and simply switch with an HDMI switcher.

That's a super nice find, David. I got about 16 of the 21 keepers and so far have completed the three main missions - Tau, Feros, and Noveria. This is pretty much most of everything I've ever wanted for a sci fi RPG, although I wish they expanded more on the main missions rather than the side missions - I find those boring having to land and every planet looks the same (in terms of topology - the vegetation or lack of might differ) with the same gravity constant and how your Mako reacts to it - kill some Geth or Pirates and get out. Every out post looks the exact same with perhaps a few crates moved here and there. But in summary, the main missions are a lot of fun. Feros reminded me of some Resident Evil action while Noveria reminded me of the Aliens movie, moving down those corridors and then hearing a Rachni screaming charging at you. Btw, I haven't been around MWF for a while, everyone okay?

I see. This would explain how Tashiro and his fleet can return to earth within their own life spans (let assume they get back while Takami is still alive - Kimiko's daughter) since the Eltreum has warp drives, I think. Seeing Gunbuster in such a damaged state with probably minimal propulsion for vector adjustments to blast them in a proper trajectory back to the Earth does make sense now, a bit, I guess, despite where the BH bomb being some 250 million light years away, LOL, I just found out Rei Sakuma is the same seiyuu for Amano as she is for Nina Purpleton in Stardust Memories. Man, I hated Purpleton so much, XD. Aina for the win.

Good sirs, I have finished rewatching the Gunbuster 1 series on DVD, the ones from Bandai Visual / Honneamise (bought them for a super cheap price $32 from Best Buy, after they screwed up with the pricing tee hee), and I must first of all, say how much of an experience it is to rewatch it again, especially during the first time, I found myself getting too caught on to the technicalities of time dilation, and struggled to focus more on the character building. In merely six 30 some minute episodes, I've grown to appreciate Noriko and Amano’s struggles, with episode 5 easily bringing me down to almost tears. I watched it in two sittings; from 4:00 pm o 6:00 pm MST for episodes 1 to 4 December 18, 2007, and 1:30 am to 2:30 am MST December 19, 2007. In other words, I’ve finished watching this approximately 15 minutes ago. I don’t know why, but this time around, it was far more easier to really appreciate much more of the ending, and found it more satisfying this time around than the first time. I’m going on a wing here and assuming all who have posted here have seen it, so the following is obviously a discussion of the ending – hence spoilers. SPOILERS BEGIN ***In episode 2, we see Noriko and Amano using borrowed rocket boosters from one of the capital ships to investigate the mysterious object in warp speed – or light speed, please feel to correct my potentially incorrect scientific nomenclature. Noriko jumps onto the Luxion traveling in warp space, meaning perhaps a minute there in warp time is 3 months time on earth, which is understandable and comprehensible. She sees the chronometer and it indicates 2 days after the first space battle which then young Ota escapes into the last escape pod, leaving Admiral Takaya. When Admiral Takaya returns to the bridge, did he engage warp speed and then was vaporized by the aliens, leaving the rest of the Luxion intact, therefore the momentum as well as the engines would remain intact for 2 days worth of time warp, equaling approximately 7 years of earth time, only for his daughter to discover the ship? How does 12 seconds extra warp time equate to approximately 6 months overshot of Noriko’s/Jung’s birthday while they had 10 minutes to complete their assignment and return in approximately 2 weeks (as Jung said they would return just in time for the birthday celebration) should the mission have been a success without Noriko’s sidetrack? If 12 seconds were to equate 6 months, we could say 12 seconds of warp time is 15,778,463 seconds of earth time ( 6 months). Again, please correct me if I’m wrong. More on this later. ***In episode 5, we see that perhaps, I can’t recall very well since its 3 am of this writing, that 10 years have elapsed since the events of episode 4 and Noriko on constant guard and service duty onboard the Exelion hence her non aging as its only 4 months for her – which is now put out of main service yielding to the new Eltreum. Amano is probably still roughly the same age from the time of episode 4 to 5, since she was serving mainly along side Noriko. ***Who did you feel more sorry for, Toren Smith or Linda (episode 4) in regards to their deaths? I actually felt quite sad for Linda. Despite my multiple rewatchings of far more ghastly animated works (Urotsukidoji Parts I to V – German version), my heart goes out to Linda, despite her lack of any meaningful screen time compared to Toren. Maybe we didn’t see how Smith died, or the immediate consequences, as compared to getting your space machine’s life, along with your own life, squished into scrap metal. It brings back bad memories of Kaori getting squished by Tetsuo’s two fat lipids during his uncontrolled mutation - ala Otomo’s Akira. RIP both Smith and Linda (and all the 20,000 plus ships destroyed in episode 6). ***Futhermore, is there a timeline for the Gunbuster 1 events? For example, 2015 A.D. Luxion is destroyed – Noriko turns 8 years old 2021 A.D. Noriko begins training at the Okinawa Girls School perhaps a few months after that (4 months according to Noriko’s thoughts of how short her training was before entering the space program) 2021 + 7 months for the Exelion to be completed (actually around 2022)… 2022ish – the two pair fight the first major wave of alien ships in episode 4 2032 – 10 years of earth time or 4 months of warp space time serving on board the Exelion. 2048 – 15 years since Amano and Coach Otas reunion, making her about um, 33 something? She was in high school when she left to the space force, meaning she shouldn’t be more than 18 years old at that time. Kazumi Ota, now a Lieutenant Colonel, is the new coach and such, obviously spent her time on earth training her new troops. Indeed it was a joyful reunion since 15 years elapsed from Episode 5 to 6 between Noriko and Kazumi. ***Lastly, how long did the Gunbuster travel from its final mission back to Earth equating to 12,000 years of Earth time. Using the mathematics provided stated above earlier and reiterated again: “If 12 seconds were to equate 6 months, we could say 12 seconds of warp time is 15,778,463 seconds of earth time ( 6 months). 1 second of warp time is 1,314,872 seconds earth time 1 year of earth time = 31 556 926 seconds of earth time 12,000 years of earth time = 3.786 X 10^11 seconds of earth time 3.786 X 10^11 of earth time / (1,312,872 seconds of earth time to 1 second of warp time) In other words 3.786 X 10^11 seconds / 1,312,872 seconds =288438.71 seconds of warp time 288438.71 / 60 seconds to a minute = 4807minutes  80 hours  3.33 days. Hmm, 3 days of warp time for 12,000 years. Yet, 2 days of warp time onboard the Luxion for 7 years. Someone correct me here. ;_______; And I love how Capital Tashiro hears Noriko’s want for a welcome back, and Earth holds its promise 12 milleniums later. END SPOILERS Mind you, I’ve been on quite a slew of mecha related shows including Gundam 08th MS team and 0080 War in the Pocket, so Gunbuster would somehow flow naturally, as I just felt like in a mood for it again. It should be noted that character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, worked on both the Gunbuster project as well as 0080’s characters, as well as - you guessed it - Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. I should also get around to buying Diebuster when it’s a thinpak – no way I’m paying $20 for only 2 episodes times 3 DVDS. Sorry, I liked Diebuster, but not at the $60 range.

I just checked up this page of ADV vs Animeigo of DVDs, and I was about to order the $39.99 version, UNTIL, I was met up wtih the shipping price of a whopping $39.99 to Canada. Paying THAT MUCH for shipping is something I cannot do. Comparing costs here IF I was just going to go with Macross set, It'd be $80 from Robotech for the 1 box set incl shipping while $100ish from Rightstuff for the 3 box set, and I think i'd go with the $100 set, the black box does look cooler too. Then just tack on $50 more of animu stuff for free shipping, like the Mospeda and SC episodes. Americans always get the better deal, free shipping for $50 and up. And their both by Animeigo, so yeah, I'm getting the "more preferred" version between this and the ADV ones. Your thoughts?

I meant like...does the story of Southern Cross and Mospeda is on the same epic level as the original SDF Macross series? I don't want to spend $50 and find out its a half baked attempt by Big West to churn out more cash cow back in the 80s. As long as they carry on the story after Hikaru and Misa left off (although its a whole new cast that is introduced) and has some good relevance back to the SDF series, then I'm inclinded to check it out. Also, does Shoji Kawamori or any of the regular Macross staff had a major role in making these "sequels"?

Damn, it's either down to this or more UC Gundam DVD stuff that I still haven't seen. Of course I'm posting on MW so I should appease my friends. :3 How is the Mospedia and Southern Cross (in original Japanese langauge but subbed)? Is it worth my moneys for $25 a set, so $50 in total?

Hey guys, I want to get the Region 1 DVD set of MACROSS, NOT ROBOTECH (lol), but the Robotech store does seem to have the original Japanese language with English sub version remasted and all that jazz for $39.99 for the full 36 episodes. http://www.robotech.com/store/viewproduct.php?id=93 Is this too good to be true?

Speak of the devil, I'm just in the finishing stages of building the VF-4 from the first go around since last year, so yeah, the little box has been collecting dust for about 1 year now but I broke it out. This was my first resin I've worked with EVER, and most of the build was fun - I just wish I used superglue instead of some crap epoxy which bleed all over. It was also my fault for rushing the project as I didn't make sure that especially the back engines and fins fit properly together - I don't think its the cast's fault. Just let me upload some of the pictures when my camera is ready, and you might get a good idea for the final product. Again, I recommend this new batch, as the canopy and the landing gear are a tad hard to work with. Also the mini slabs of details were hard as hell to cut out from the molding, so I just ignored them and prayed to God I wouldn't be missing too much details. The panel lines are deep and pronounced.

Bumping this a bit, so does anyone have the Gundam Fix 0017? My dude can't hold his beam cannon because it looks like I'm missing a piece, or that I'm looking at the wrong piece to attach.