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Has anyone else seen this yet? It's footage of Mario Strikers Charged's online system. http://gonintendo.com/?p=17071 - Check out the second video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RITpEjanIoA - Here is a YouTube link to it as well. Seems the following is in place. 1. Leaderboards (along with a player of the day feature that is upated every minute) 2. Seasons (last 3 months) 3. Friends Lists 4. Invites (if friends are online) 5. Guest play (only one of your Miis can be used at a time but others an play with you online from your console though) 6. Seeing what you friends are doing online (if they are can play, are in a game already, offline) 7. Ranked and Unranked matches (unranked are friend coded, while ranked are done with a match maker based on your wins and losses) 8. Positive points system. You gain points in everything you do though on the other hand. Players of the day are based on points gained. However you lose points if you quit a match before it's completed. Also the lobby looks pretty good as well and you use Miis as your profiles with them being shown, at least faces. Also I think it's also been said that ranked matches are region locked, meaning if you are in North America you can only play those in North America, etc. Though I believe friend coded matches (unranked) aren't limited like that. I can't wait to get this. I just hope 3rd party developers can deliver the same type of content. Wouldn't be surprised if Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii have the same online setup for Mario Strikers Charged. I wonder if the Pokemon game's online is being done or redone in a similar manner.

Had seen the comericals but didn't bother knowing Fox would most likely cancel it like they do so many other good shows. Fastlane (even though I can catch reruns on G4TV (only reason I watch that channel, I still miss it), Firefly. So many others.

Nice. Always enjoyed Highlander. Though I wish Endgame ended differently as I like both Conner and Duncan. Just hope they keep Queen for the intro music wise.

Cool. Seem like they are including 8th MS Team and 0080 into the game from the looksof that last image. Who was that character on the far right there though. Don't recognize him. Edit: Ah nevermind, someone from BlueDesitny. Just read the ANN article.

Nice. I'm a huge Babylon 5 fan and while the price is a bit high I'm sure some place will have it on sale. Though this might be one of the few times where I pay the full price. Though by July, hopefull I'll have gotten a few interviews in and finally have a job so I won't have to worry about price to much then.

Currently watching and it's really going to be sad when SG1 finally goes off the air. Granted there are the movies and the characters can still show up on Atlantis but there is nothing to say they will or if the actors will be avaliable to do that. It kinda feels like Farscape again but at least SG1 was allowed to go on for so long and few shows can say they last 10 seasons with movies as well. So they did have a great run. I just wish we could get a few more seasons to see more of Ben Bowder's, Claudia Black's, and Beau Bridges characters. They were new to the show but have really fit in well with the remaining cast. Especailly this season. Wasn't really feeling the Ori at first but they've really started to be interesting as time went on. Between them and the Lucian Alliance things were going well. Not the same as the Goa'uld but no worse. Just different which I think is what they were going for and that difference takes a while to get used to since the Goa'uld had been the main bad guy for so long but even with that they are still there with characters like Baal running around. Atlantis is really good though and I'm really interested to see what new things they are going to the throw the characters into. What I really like is that I can see the SG1 and Atlantis teams just hanging out together as while each team has similar roles that are filled the characters personalites are differnet as such that they would mesh well with each. At least I think so.

Ah I love and yet hate "what ifs" at the same time. The Empire I think would have handled things better. I really think they would have never allowed the Vong to gain a foothold and took them serious from the get go which is what the Republic didn't do if I recall correctly. They would have brought the entire Empire down on Vong from the start I think. If we take into account the weapons they had during the EU or would have had things would have gone really different. Even if the Vong managed to gain a defensive position in the galaxy the Empire would have been blowing up planets and actual stars left and right I think to get rid of the Vong. Well this is what I like to think.

haha. Would be interesting if they decided to cut her out of the movies. Wouldn't have a problem with it at all since I could stand her. Though I at least hope they wil give Shinji at least something that might be able to grow into a backbone. If you are going to have a main character that weak at least give viewers a supporting character they can get behind or see things from their point of view. I'm really curious as to how they'll end this. They already tried the whole philosophical approach with the TV sereis. At least that's what I think they were going. Then they pretty much killed everyone off with the movies. What other directions can they go in now? Seriously if they drop the ball on an ending again they should just put out a guide explainings point by point in simple terms. Animation wise isn't really working to well for them. At least stop being vague and spell things out. Making people think is one thing but with Eva its something beyond that.

Well perhaps because they happen to be well developed games and are fun. Think what you want about the show, the games are pretty damn good and have been since they first came out with a nice about of depth to them.

That's what I loved about the novel version of Revenge of the Sith. The inner workings of the characters throughout the story were extremely well done and really added a whole new level of depth to the story I felt. I can still remember the opening chapter as the author sets the scene with the families together getting the news of the attack, how Anakin is called the Hero without Fear and Obi-wan is the Negotiator (glad that was kept in the films). Dooku's end in the novel actually made me really apperciate the character a whole lot more and to a degree feel sorry for him. Which is something that didn't happen in the movie. Another thing is that I felt the opening space battle in the novel blew away the battle in the films. Though the ending fight in the movie was a LOT better in the movie then then novel. Guess describing space battles is easier to pull off then lightsaber battles which really should be seen no matter what. One of the primary reason I feel the X-wing series of novels were so good and why the Jedi focus ones really don't hold a candle to them I feel unless they are largely character driven and not action driven which sadly the NJO was. Then again it could just be personal choice. The RoTS game did have a number of clips that weren't shown in the film. The whole sewer like scene in the beginning while on GG's ship. A number of them should have been kept in since they weren't that long. I still wish the whole Jedi Temple assualt from the game had been filmed. It would have been long, but I don't think anyone would have complained about time if they were watching that.

Shadows of the Empire is indeed a great book, one of the better ones. I didn't really don't like Zahn's work to much but that's mainly because I can't really stand Mara Jade to much but that most came from that crap he pulled with her and Luke in the Hand of Thrawn series. Some of the EU novels and games are pretty good. The standouts for me in terms of novels are the following. The Thrawn Trilogy (Heries of the Empire, etc) Jedi Academy Trilogy I, Jedi Shadows of the Empire Children of the Jedi (I really liked this to be honest, it gets a lot of heat from some eu readers) X-wing series Prequel Novels (Cloak of Deception, Revenge of the Sith). A lot of these books really stayed true to what Star Wars is and was when compared to the films. Far to many of the novels come off as generic science fiction stories that are only Star Wars in name. It really was at it's worst when DelRey took over the novels with the New Jedi Order (which is just plain horrible, no planning, and its like the writers forgot what character development and logic actually was). The Dark Nest trilogy from parts of it I read was no better and I haven't even wasted to the time to flip through the Legacy of the Force novels as it just seems more of what was done in the NJO from those I talk to. The Clone Wars comics were pretty good as well and I haven't kept up with the new Knights of the Old Republic comic as I'd like but it was good as well. The games I think have always been the best representations of Stars Wars outside of the films. Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, X-Wing Alliance, etc. Star Wars Galaxies went downhill when they started to focus on the Jedi when they never should have been a class. They never should have gave into that nonsense. They could have gotten away with getting better swords to melee characters I think that at least looked similar to lightsabers and that could have satisfied people. Though Jump to Lightspeed is always fun for some decent spaceship combat. I'd rather have that as a MMORPG by itself. In fact when I played a lot before I stopped some time ago I spent a lot of time in space for that reason only coming down to planets once in a while to upgrade or go to my house.

Getting Pearl myself. I just happen to like the look of the Pokemon on it's cover more. Decided on Super Paper Mario in the end. Haven't played any of the Paper Mario games but I really need a Wii game fix and it seems to be the best one out after Zelda. I can't stand the ports being put out. Anyway can't wait to get it. Just hope I actually do. Stupid Amazon.com told me I couldn't ship the game to my PO Box so I put my street address (which is what I use for Fed Ex or UPS). Due to where I live all my mail goes to the Post Office but found out this morning they shipped the damn thing USPS and now there is a chance it might get sent back to them because the Post Office really wants mail to have the PO BOX on it or it will be returned. Now I have to hope I can get them to look out for it and explain what happen so they don't send it back as this wasn't my fault. Sent a email to Amazon and if I don't get a response soon they'll be getting a call in hopes this is fixed if it is returned and doesn't happen again. Frustrating to be told I can't have it shipped to a certain place but they end up shipping it in the method that takes it there anyway.

Deciding on a new game has been pretty annoying. Have Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance at the moment. I'm really interested in Dragon Ball Z: BT 2 but can't decide between getting that or Super Paper Mario or maybe even Godfather: Blackhand. Really want something with action which all have but something that looks really good. They each are so different from each other so it's hard to decide. Leaning more toward DBZ since I hear that has a ton of content in it. SPM sounds like it will be over in 20 hours and not sure at all about Godfather: Blackhand Edition. Anyone know how long that is? Also for the sake of saying it my Wii number is the following. 0587 7374 3127 1173 When an wii number is put in does that person's console nickname come up under it or do you have to assign a name to the number yourself?

I really haven't been following the series for a while now. What twist have taken place, which ones are you talking about. Don't care about being spoiled. Though spoiler space might be needed. Thanks.

Cool. I've been reading the manga of Sakura Taisen (really wish the games were translated but the manga is the next best thing), finished volume 4 and not looking forward to getting #5 and #6 when it's finally out. Love the series and characters. I've been interested in checking out the other teams as I only know of the Tokyo team. So I take it this one is way after the original teams existed right? How far long after Ogami's team is this one suppose to take place?

This was a great episode but damn, 2008 is a long time to wait. At least it will give me time to catch up on this season as I missed a number of episodes toward the end and really just caught the season finales.

For those interested, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released on the Wii's Virtual Console today. http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=11061 Finally something I can spend my Wii points on. Still hoping Star Fox is released or one of the better Street Fighters or Super Metroid. Though I really want Earthbound and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time as well.

Ah thanks. I got the lure already but was in the wrong place it seems.

I'm currently stuck trying to find a reekfish in order to get into the snow mountains part of the world. I took a break from the game a few days ago, perhaps I should have kept playing since I can't remember where to exactly go. I'm down by the boat rental place fishing but no luck.

That is a pretty damn good quote and not a thing HG is going to want to hear. I'm curious what other reviews will say.

I knew from following this production from the start, even before it actually began I was going to take a wait and see policy with this. Things have just been wasted. They had a great chance to really make Robotech it's own show and not just a show that resulted form the combination of three series. They had several jumping off points to go in an original direction but almost all fell flat. Not so much from lack of interest I think but due to quality. The comics and toys being the main issue. The games were okay for the most part but telling the developers to skip the Robotech Masters saga (which I believe was the case was wrong, can't go wrong with tank action). However all they've done is taken past material, butcher it and try to call it original. Allowing Tommy free run was the major problem from the get go. The man has no clue what he's doing. That's from a purely content point of view. Visually I don't know what the hell they were trying to do. This is what happens when you jump on the CGI bandwagon without thinking if it was actually a good idea or needed. There is nothing wrong with traditional styled animation. You don't need CGI for everything, especially when you are working on a budget. If you have limited funds then CGI shouldn't even enter the picture. Much of what I've heard about this film hasn't made me feel good about. Even the trailers what I've seen had me really worried and just disappointed. Was I expecting something great? Nope, hardly. Did I want something at least decent, yes. Don't think I've gotten that. Personally I wish they had continued with the video games. Those were pretty enjoyable and actually was able to move the RT story along and actually add to it in a decent manner. I see no reason why they couldn't have made that their focus and played to the shows strengths. Didn't have to be a big budget game series either, just one that looked decent and had decent game play. Tried to build a name for itself with a decent publisher and just advertised the hell out of it. I do have a feeling though when this is finally out and things are looked at and it doesn't actual bury the RT franchise (at least it will rebuild RT interest among its fans) someone will get fired in the end. Actually the firing should have happen a few years ago.

Not so much. It wasn't bad in the sense it was a poorly done RPG or didn't look good (it was strong in those areas) but because it was barely a game I feel. You did far more watching of cut scenes than you did of playing the game. It was the cut scenes that moved the game along and what you did gameplay wise was pretty much to get you to the cut scenes.

That is exactly how this series should be described. I've never felt more ripped off in relation to a game then I did with Xenosaga 1.

I have to pick up that recharger. That or buy some rechargeable batteries. It might be cheaper that way since i already have a recharger.

Next week they are showing a new episode and last weeks again after it with a repeat of the new episode an hour later I believe.