Akilae

Personally, I found FFX to be even more boring than Xenosaga... looking forward to Xenosaga II. At the rate their going though, by the time the entire story arch is near complete my kids will be playing it for me

Cause in the near future, all branches of the U.S. military use the F-18. Introducing.... the next generation MBT: M-18 Hornet!! err... it's been a long day, cut me some slack

I think cause the human body is more susceptible to being nuked? After all, presumablly the AI would reside in a hardened bunker and therefore immune to being nuked. If the AI launched neutron bombs, then it would be even better...

Dunno much about BDUs... but if they're wearing something that *I* footed the bill for, then it better be worth it. One question I DO have though: what advances are being made in terms of winter gear? Are we heading towards Gore-Tex and the latest in mandmade fabrics, or would the Army break out the heavy wool stuff when it comes to fighting in sub-zero temperatures? It just seems so long since the US has had to fight in cold climates that you don't actually see much of winter gear. As for dress uniforms... I heard once that the Navy actually has a pretty decent design. Got a friend who got all hot and bothered seeing guys in Navy whites (it's a she btw, just in case there's any confusion about that).

Just to see what all the habub was all about, I went and rented Resident Evil. I found it surprisingly entertaining, albeit a tad bit thin on plot. But we gotta be serious here, Predator hasn't been about plot ever since that first shot of Ventura's minigun. A lot of it was just pure eye candy. While I do think the mile-long wristblades look a tad overdone, I'll still wait and see if anything can wow me like the meat-cutting disc in the second Predator. After watching the specials and hearing the words "shoulder cannon" and "very large", I'm prepping myself just in case one of the Predators reaches up and materializes a photon cannon out of thin air Anybody notice... one of the Predators is literally towering over a human, while at the beginning of the trailer, a Predator is looking UP at the Alien. So unless there are differences in elevation... we're looking a VERY BIG aliens, warriors the size of the original queen.

whoa... deja vu... first a whole new discussion about AVP, then the Japanese tourism thread is alive again. Thought glitch had occurred in the Matri...... err.... nvm. Guess I'll catch the trailer when I have access to fatter pipes, but haven't the masks (been there since Predator II though..) and the new disc already been covered in previous specials?

.rar = compressed file, get WinRAR to decompress. Not a paper starship, but I always thought this was very cool: http://aliens.humlak.cz/aliens/Aliens_papi...rcraft/m41.html The M41 pulse rifle from Aliens, complete with removeable magazine, sliding foregrip for grenade launcher, and even comes with grenades. Favourite Private Hudson quote not included Site also carries link to WinRAR if anybody doesn't want to search for it. EDIT: Spelling.

eerrr.... I'm gonna stretch this as far as it goes.... Batman, despite being billionaire Bruce Wayne, feels need to distance himself from his real identity.... and decides to drive an old busted joint.... till somebody comes and shows him the new hotness.... alright I give up, it's just an ugly car that no amount of plot twisting can save...

Just out of curiosity... anybody know exactly why SRW hasn't made it over yet? Consider: FFT (and FFTA) made quite a splash in the states. Not to mention that almost all anime fans would be well versed in terms of giant mecha and what not... Well, since even Growlanser is being localized, I guess we'll get SRW one of these days...

pffft.... payroll for 2000+ sailors, or the development budget for the so-called "Arsenal Ship"...next-gen naval support for ground troops, ring a bell? well, I guess they need something to do with the funky decor of the next-gen ships. But it's nice to know not all of the Iowas are having their hatches welded shut and interiors gutted. Caught this flick on cable once about the Iowa explosion and investigation... man they made it sound like all the old battlewagons were literally falling apart. Then again, might be true, since they don't seem to be as glamorous or high-profile as, say, carriers. To get this mildly on topic... what do the Iowas look like under the waterline that make them so special? Everything I've seen seem to focus on the deck, where all the excitement is. A lot of schematics I seem to find also cut off at the waterline...

whoa... late to this thread... always figured myself for a PC sim gamer (Aces over Europe, B-17, etc.. yes, I enjoy bombing runs and sitting in a ball turret, call me wierd. Now if only they could put out a B-29 sim...), but this REALLY looks good... and if it's got Dave's mark of approval, it's good as gold =) Like the screenies, esp. this one: http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/...13021157157.jpg mm.... you can be my wingman(er.. wingwoman) anytime Is Ace Combat 4 really worth it? I'm rather leary of PS2 flight games due to the lack of a proper stick... not to mention my only other arcade flight game on the PS2 is RT: Battlecry

Since we're on the topic of the old battlewagons, here's a question that I could never figure out. Just how many of the Iowas does the US have maintained in battle-ready condition, with all the gears just waiting to be dusted off? I read through fas.org but couldn't make much sense out of it. Yes, I'm slow... but compounded with the fact that they made it sound like a lot of the Iowas have been mothballed, pressed into service, then mothballed again many times... I know some of the ships are already just empty hulks... just want to know how many we could press into service if needed :-p

hmm.... take away all the Star Trek stuff (LCARS and whatnot), brighten the place up a tad, and it's actually a respectable, albeit too futuristic looking, pad...

Well, as we're fond of saying in NY... pigeons = rats with wings.... so I guess the deer are like... very large rats with antlers? But indeed, Nara, deer, well worth going. Wish I had time to go when I was there...

I'd highly recommend Kyoto... I spent three days there, and only scratched the surface in terms of what there is to do in that place. Railway station staff? Didn't know there were those, I just walked up to the machines and guessed my way through the menus :-p It's not TOO hard though. Tips for Kyoto: I stayed at the Kyoto Tower Hotel. Easy to spot, you can never get lost (just look up and you know the way home), and the area's VERY convenient, right across the street from the JR station. The hotel staff also speaks passable English, if that's important. Most of the shops don't speak English, but people are more than happy to converse in sign language and an occasional finger pointed to whatever you want to buy. Invest in a Lonely Planet guide, very useful. Among the things it recommends, Johnny Hillwalker's (he's Japanese, his real name escapes me...) walking tour of Kyoto is very nice, and pretty much takes you to all the major spots in the North-Eastern quadrant of the city. The dude speaks good english, and takes you to the local shops, no tourist traps. He stops right at the foot of Kiyomizu temple, you can go up, come down, walk a bit further north, and arrive at the Gion geisha district, spend a few hours as a geisha groupie (if you're lucky...), and end a day. In fact, you can see all of Kyoto pretty much like this, if you're not averse to working your way through town by sign language and simple english/japanese. Places to see: Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Nijo-jo (a must if you liked The Last Samurai), Higashi Honganji (free tea served!!), Gion, Miyozuki, Nintendo, JR Station, many, many more.... If you're into old-school anime, while I was there they had a whole Atom Boy exhibit going right inside the JR station, dunno if it's still around though. If you REALLY feel like taking a local tour, English-speaking guides are available, ask your hotel concierge for details. Tours range from half-day trips, one-day Kyoto trips, to one-day Nara trips. Be warned: these guides DO take you to tourist traps. Since you're in Kyoto, Osaka is just a half-hour JR ride away if you take the express line. The Osaka New Hankyu Hotel is a very good place to stay, although I found their english to be a tad more limited than Kyoto Tower. Like most ppl here already said, try to have somebody that you can call in an emergency... preferablly somebody that knows Japanese. Makes life easier. JR Pass is a must if you plan to be there for quite a stretch... you can even ride on the Nozomi with that pass!!

So.... I guess this means we'll get carriers that are as agile as frigates, as fast as hydrofoils, have an RCS no larger than an ocean wave, and look like they're 50 years ahead of their time :-p but isn't ship building dominated by the likes of Newport News, Electric Boat Co., etc..? From what I remember reading, Grumman's death bell was the cancellation of the F-14 upgrades... then they merged with Northrop. What was the last straw for Northrop? The YF-23?

From the rumors I heard quite a few years ago, Northrop/Grumman was getting out of the fighter business due to poor sales in (then) recent years... beats me, these things surface every now and then.

People, it's really quite simple... there exists a boundary between being a child and being an adult, it's called puberty, and it spans quite a few years (mentally and physically). There is no magical thin red line that suddenly makes it legal to have sexual intercourse with these young adults. Modern societies have such lines in order to facilitate legal procedings. I've seen 22 year-olds who are so sexually naive that one would feel guilty simply thinking impure thoughts about them, and I've seen 17 year-olds who understand the full burden that it carries. Interpret that how you may. In a hopeless effort to get this topic back on track, that is on battered looking valk... what is the mech it seems to have crashed into?

What, you mean it's NOT real? Graham I think it's a general dumbed-down umbrella-term for the Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, etc. type of dinosaur. In any case it is, strictly speaking, not correct terminology and you'd never hear any paleontologists talking about one. Aren't they called apatosaurus' these days?

Hey everybody, he doesn't know... lol ahh.. but I'm pretty sure it's the Yamato... unless there's something I'm totally missing here... again.

The Blackbird was manufactured solely in the US. However, the raw material, titanium, was actually imported from all over the world. Russia, being a huge titanium mining country, ended up supplying most of the material to build the Blackbirds overflying their airspace.

uhh... is that the Yamato attached to the left arm???

Doesn't the SR-71 count for sustained supersonic cruise capability? Or does it not count because it uses afterburners? I had an uncle that used to work at Grumman.. and from what he told me, they had some very solid people working in there... just no people skills

The danger here that I see is that companies will now aim for commercially popular games that aim for broad appeal... as if they don't do so already... just that they'll be even more risk averse, and we'll get more games like Deus Ex: IW...

ah yes... Cheney... also the man responsible for cancelling the SR-71s... and ordering the destruction of all the tooling and jigs for THAT wonderful piece of work. Granted with the onset of UAVs there's almost no need for the SR-71 (I guess), but it was what he said during the Gulf War (when offered the Blackbird's services for a fast recon of the area) that really gets to me: something along the lines of "Darn it, No! If we let that bird back in, we'll never get rid of it again!!!"