Sundown

Heh, what I don't understand is... if Snake knows he's gone in a few months, why bother wasting a bullet? Why not take a cruise, play some shuffleboard... have a lobster and play a round of bingo? You know, do what old people do? Now I'm curious who's going to play Snake in the English dub? Hayter? Can Hayter pull off a gruff, older sounding version of himself? His voice isn't quite as baritone as the Japanese voice actor's, so the discrepancy in age will be more noticeable... wonder how he's going to pull it off. Maybe they'll only do recordings after waking him up in the middle of the night, so he sounds properly tired and bitter.

No prob... my other thoughts for "fixing" the vague narrator of the prologue were using a different font and larger margins for journal entires, or lacing the prologue itself with more personal references like "we" or "our", that suggest not an all see-ing narrator but someone in your fictional world. Might also wanna experiment with dropping the Prologue title all together, to give it a grittier feel? I usually imagine prologues as being told by an omnicient narrator, and having it be both a prologue and a journal entry may be a bit confusing.

Hope you don't mind some constrictive criticism. I like some of the ideas and background presented so far, and the story being told first from the point of the aliens encountering humans is a nice twist. The are are a lot of elements that I think could work... but the writing style so far seems a bit sterile. It feels like a treatment or screenplay, where the author is clinically describing things in a way that disperses the drama and emotion that should be there. I feel like someone could effectively animate or film the scene based on your setup, but reading it, I feel removed and distant from the telling. And from what I've read, I feel like the chapters suffer a bit from over-exposition (which is something even prolific sci-fi writers are often guilty of)... there's a rule in writing-- Show, don't Tell. Explain if you can through dialogue, thoughts, or actions. Chunks of exposition here and there are fine, but nearly two pages of it, full of sci-fi-y terms and names thrown at the reader before we get to the first line of dialogue can be a little bit overwhelming. And I feel like we should get a hint that the prologue is a journal entry earlier on, and would let the reader understand at least why that section is written with an expository tone. And I just realized why everything continues to feel sterile in the first chapter-- everything is written in present tense! This tone doesn't work very well in novels, and can be tiring to read in large chunks, and worse, can sound amateurish. In either case, it sounds like something from a text-based computer game. That's probably not what you're going for. Making the switch to a more standard past tense might help a lot.

Pretty sure it's FoxDie. It's actually suggested in MGS that Snake has it and that he might be affected by it soon-- and if I remember right, Naomi actually sought to kill Solid along with everyone else. In fact, the trailer has Naomi telling Snake he has six months to live, and that he's lasted this long because he's no ordinary man. I don't think she was referring to his broken hip.

Being the grunt that I am with a keen sense of survival, I'd target the CF's and hope the aces ignore me rather than provoke the ire of a Roy, Hikaru, or Max. At least mixed in amongst the brownies, I'll have a chance. =P He did. It's called Macross 7.

As wierd as playing Old Snake feels to me, and as much as I want to play as the younger Snake that we only got a taste of in MGS2, MGS4 looks really intriguing. Meryl still looks young-ish and Otacon only looks about 35-40, so I'm guessing that this actually takes place no more than maybe 10 years after MGS2, and that Snake's appearance is due to Foxdie's effects on his body. And he doesn't seem to be having trouble holding up his M9. In fact, he seems quite capable of the arse kicking. Yes, Raiden looks awesome, and I'm glad to see him in this form in the game, taking up the role of the uber-ninja.

So what do you think, David? Is the 1/48 everything we've made it out to be?

Actually, they are exactly that-- The Legion of Superheroes. They're an apparently somewhat popular and long running team in the DC future continuity, who, on and off through the years, have had their own series. It's not like they just took Superboy and threw him in with a bunch of random characters-- well, at least you can't blame this series for doing that. Blame comic writers for doing that 40 years ago. All pre-emptive bashing should really be directed through your nearest time machine. Anyway, it's the other major DC teen team besides the Teen Titans, even though it's pretty obscure to those outside of comic geekdom. They have already shown up in the JLU animated series, and it's obvious that WB's trying to cash in on yet-another teen-oriented ameranime series in the cloth of The Teen Titans.

I want to clarify that I'm not trying to belittle. I'm simply stating a fact as someone who's thought over the issue, is a little jealous, and wish he had the guts and resources to uber-dork it out himself. I would also need more socially maladjusted friends to do it with. (I keed, I keed. I know some of these guys are probably pretty decent guys to hang with.)

Yes, but Jedi robes also expose one's uber dorkness to the world. It's much easier hiding behind a Stormtrooper helmet.

I just hate the ring because it looks like poop, especially not really aligned with any axis of the planet or the deathstar that was exploding. It just felt odd to me that both the dreadful explosion of Aldaraan and the explosion of the ominous Death Star would go, "look at meeee... I'm soo preetty!!! Colooors!" For me, it detracted from the mood and storytelling. The original just seemed a lot more blunt and to the point with its classic Star Warsy quick explosive poofs. It was a poof that simply said, "owned!"

Enlighten me. How does the ring make no sense? I'm not being difficult-- I actually think the ring looks dumb, overused, and like a Star Trek VI ripoff. But I need real reasons to hate it.

Max is obviously alien or of Zentran heritage. Obviously. It also explains Milia's attraction to him and his superhuman abilities. What were you saying? And Max once roundhouse kicked Chuck Norris in the face. No, there isn't a punchline to this.

Heh, taste is (almost) entirely subjective... someone who has an art background might see things in a design they appreciate, or be better at vocalizing these things, but that doesn't make that design any better in an objective sort of way. Even if their opinions are more informed and more carefully made, their sentiments aren't any more valid that someone who's less trained or renowned. The supposed brilliance of a design might be lost on the rest of us but if it is, then design's failed its job if its target audience was the rest of us. Not saying your friend's wrong, and her observations are valuable, but the real test is still "does this look like arse to you?"

Ahh. Thanks JB0. I just had a giddy giggle fest to that. Poop jokes make me laugh. Especially if they're worked into otherwise non-poop-related discussion so brilliantly.

What were you expecting? Oh NoeS!! Lucas actually gave us what we want!! What happened to my rapeage?! JihAd!! Or did you mean you were expecting more fanfare than this?

We've seen 20 seconds of Spacey's Luthor, and I think it's way too early to say definitively. There *are* definitely moments in the trailer where Spacey appears cold, calculating, and icy, especially at the trailer's start, and I hope this is as representative of the character as the more outlandishly insane bits. There's no reason the two can't work together, and if anyone can pull it off, it's Spacey. Of course he's also bound by the script. I'd have to say that I'm not excited about routh either. And they do seem to be blowing a lot of air into his face and hair (and hence the squinting). I'm guessing they wanted to portray a greater sense of speed and a more realistic depiction of flight, but it does make Supes look like a pansy when he's squinting in the windstream. That line didn't sit well with me either, but I consoled myself after realizing that the crystal was probably something he extracted from the Fortress of Solitude shown earlier and was intending to exploit. And it's exactly that-- advanced Kryptonian alien technology, and primary to the mythos established in the older movies. So it's still a very Superman thing, and wasn't just cheese for cheese's sake.

Whoo hoo! Something right happened in geekdom for a change, but this means I have one less thing to whine about. Wait, no... where's my HD-DVD/Blue-Ray version?! Based on speculation from elsewhere, think it's possible that the Non-SE OT was actually remastered for a future HD-DVD release (perhaps as a 30th anniversary promotional), and it was decided to transfer the masters to standard DVD's as a quick and easy money grab while they were at it?

Wow, I actually thought it was the right kind of cheese. It wasn't flamboyant and outlandish, and was hitting the right Donner-esque notes, but I guess I would have preferred the trailer (and movie) to be toned down just a touch. Still, it looks promising, mainly for Spacey's Luthor, even if I have issues with Lois with child and Supes' tinny voice and metro sensibilities. In spite of all that, I'm still excited about watching it. Eesh, not a fan of Welling here. I don't even think he's particularly Superman-ish. Pouty Metro Superboy, maybe, but I'd rather that sort of portrayal be kept to the teen-pandering TV network it spawned from. =) Boy, I really miss Reeves. As for X3, I was pretty underwhelmed by the one clip I saw of the Fastball Special and Wolvie fighting a Sentinel (entirely off screen).

Sulu-Trek? An TMP-era Excelsior-centric movie? I can dream.

Actually, I believe it was first introduced and detailed in the graphic novel. I followed RT pretty avidly then, and it was supposed to be the first time they attempted to explain some of that stuff.

Deeep....

And my favorite: loading up on sports skills with strength bonuses that all stack, giving yourself a character with a physical strength of 54 (out of a normal starting 3D6), able to smash through walls, bend steel bars, and punch peoples' heads off in one blow-- just because you boxed, played hockey, weightlifted, did gymnastics, and was a ballet dancer.... okay, and because you're a mutated bear, but mainly because you played lots of sports. A power-gaming, min-maxing friend of mine did that in TMNT. He got a few good rolls on background which gave him more sklils, and then ludicrously capitalized on the rediculously imbalanced skills system.

For someone who actually likes quite a few Kevin Smith films, I don't see the appeal of Clerks outside of a few memorable monologues. Watching it was pretty aggrivating, but this one might be more consistently funny since it's probably washed over with mainstream appeal. I don't think we're supposed to take Smith and his work that seriously. His strength's in comedy laced with engaging, thought provoking dialogue... and if that's the sort of stuff that makes you laugh, he's done his job. If not, move along. At any rate, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Chasing Amy yet. Probably my favorite of his films, the one that takes itself the most seriously and has the most heart, and even makes Ben Affleck watchable and likeable as an everyman-geek. That's gotta count for something.

That would have been perfect. A somewhat reoccuring theme in Alien/Aliens is making it to a place of safety, getting a breather, only to find it threatened by aliens again. There's just no refuge from them even so close to home. And it was even perfectly foreshadowed by Ripley's own dream in Aliens. Synopsis: Aliens wreak havoc on Gateway. Survivors fend for their lives. Earth promises to send help, but of course, it will "take time". People die... the situation gets desperate. In response, Earth reports that threat of contamination is now too great, and no rescue team will be coming. The survivors are now the most alone people in the world, cut off from their home still visible outside their window. Of course, in reality, the rescue mission has changed into a xenoform retrieval mission. Under advice from Weyland Utani, it's determined that the mission could be performed with less risk and complication if the human factor was allowed to "elapse". Alternatively, the mission might simply be an extermination mission, but an attached Weyland Utani advisor of course has his own agenda. Either way, no one expects the survivors to last as long as they do, who are now caught right in the middle. By movies' end, Gateway blows up. I don't know how or why. It just has to. Also cool. Mostly.