AngelBird4

JBO You hit a lot of it right on the head... I work for a developer, and if we spent time making the things that the fans screamed for, we'd get our asses laughed off and we'd tank in about two quarters. Most developers can't think beyond what's out right now, the thought of creative directors going no further than 'Give me Prince of Persia meets Tetris' or some such. The fans, oh please... worse by a long shot. If you watch a mod community there may be glimmers of hope, but by and large, developers have got to get it together to break out of this cycle. I think a radical tech infusion may cause some ripples down at the software level. Don't want to pay 600? Fine, prepare to get left behind... gone are the days when teh companies could suck it on the hardware and hope that titles made up for it. They let that ship sail for too long. You gotta pay for the system now, same as with PC gamers. That's part of why they try to integrate other useful bits (DVD functionality, etc)... anyway, don't like it? All right, but I can name 8 companies that won't be developing for PS2 and XB after 2007. (uh, rephrase, can but I think it's a no-no) Anyway, it's nearly a no-win situation, and unfortunately too many folks pay attention to what the fans want (as voted on with their dollars) and crank out same old same old... and it's another fine line to walk, knowing when to break free from a convention and safe and marketable (and hopefully profitable) genre or title, to go after something groundbreaking. These days, when anyone's got a great new title or piece of hardware, all of a sudden half a million 'experts' who claim to have seen or know something (...do these guys think we don't read the forums... to laugh at them?!), or who think they need to be hip and cynical, start trashing you. So advanced word of mouth (yeah, right, based on nothing) gets you second guessing yourself, so maybe you back off of a feature, a new piece of tech, a new gameplay idea... and get smacked by your 'fans' for not going far enough, or for being reviewed as 'well, this is really just XYTitle with a new coat of paint' or some garbage. My take: good on Nintendo for telling it as it should be and taking this all the way to release.

Hmmm... guessing this comes in under the newbie header, as it's a hunt for info that may be out there (didn't see zip about it) I'm trying to put together a Macross pilot roll call for a couple of illustrations, just the original series or DYRL. Aside from the usual group of idiots, are any of the others (I'm guessing pilots as they're in flight or pilot gear) named? Scenes in the TV series (dashing out of the restaurant to get to the Prometheus) or in the DYRL concert audience or getting squashed, etc... So far: Focker Ichijo Jenius Kakizaki Warmaker Jenius I do mean fighter pilots, but even Defender or CAT or even the pilot who got tagged by an asteroid (Misa's chauffeur) or such...? I don't have any of the box art illos of the old kits that may have a call out (except for the above K Warmaker on a... 1A?)... so if anyone's got anything, I'd really appreciate finding out. I'm going to watch DYRL again tonight to listen to the background chatter and see if I pick anything up, but thought I'd toss this in here as well. EDITED for goofed spelling and to try to clear up a point...

Okay, heck of a first post topic (Hi) but none-the-less, a good one, and I've got some familiarity with these so... yeah I'm biased. BUT... to back myself up. I figger Roy's the kind who, lush as he is, still has a bit of 'might not be here tomorrow' awareness to him, and I'd think that as he can get it, he'll aim high each time. That been said (and no, I don't mean he's buying the best stuff every night, just... you know, a litle one-upmanship at the bar...) Glenfiddich or Edradour. Probably a local sake, if he can't get one he might have grown up with. Sapporo or TsingTao... would hedge to Sapporo. I'm sure he's led the squadron in more than a few rounds of sake bombs... probably got a special Skull Bomb named after them or something. :-) I don't see him being a mixed drink type, unless he knows he's flying in a few hours and gets something a little less nasty (but Claudia did say... well, the man can drink) Anyhoot, hi to all...