Radd

My guess is that they couldn't get Liam Neeson back for one reason or another. A shame. I hope I'm wrong and that there's possibly an extended/altered version of that scene for a future DVD release. Heck, knowing Lucas it's quite possible he'd try to get Neeson back later when he's available and film the scene for the DVD release or some kinda prequel Special Edition version. I know, wishful thinking.

I have felt that the Gamecube is the most technically impressive hardware from this generation. There's several games on it that boast graphics the likes of wich I've not seen on either of its competitors. Sony's success seems to stem from their third party support, wich in turn stemmed from their head start/install base and highly exaggerated pre-launch hype. On that note, Nintendo downplayed the graphical power of the Cube before it launched, and many people expected it to have less impressive graphics than either the PS2 or the XBox. With that in mind, it's quite possible that the Revolution won't be suffering in the graphics department as much as many are currently speculating.

Yeah, lots of people complained about the Senate scenes in Clones, but I thought they were both interesting and vital to the story being told. I suppose it helps that I'm a fan of shows like Legend of the Galactic Heroes so I don't need action every 5 minutes to keep me interested. There was actually a Senate scene or two cut from Clones that I though added to the film and should have remained. I was looking forward to the events actions leading towards the formation of the rebellion, and was dissapointed to see they didn't make it into the final movie. I'm with everyone else hoping for an extended cut. Maybe even a Prequel Trilogy box set with extended and deleted scenes for all the movies.

I think I had one of the Pong games. I recall being able to switch between regular Pong and Pong Hockey and things like that. Whether it was PS or VO I couldn't really say. Sometimes I consider paying my parents a visit and rescuing the old 2600 and 5200 they have sitting around. I'd have to track down some wires for them though.

What Chowser said. Big metal panels slid over all the windows, or at least the broken windows.

So we're already at the phase where people are tossing their opinions of the show back and forth in complete disregard of what the thread was originally about?

I didn't think tossing Hayden into that scene was a terrible idea, but I thought it would have fit much better had they used make up or something to age him.

Watch it for the themes, music, and character developement. In these points I think the show excels beyond most anime. However, the animation quality is mediocre, if consistant, and the mecha action isn't all that...well...actiony. There's a few good mecha scenes, but not at all the caliber of DYRL? or Macross Plus.

Please, credit where credit is due. Ian McDiarmid once again did an excellent job.

Finally saw the movie and I liked it a lot. Of course, aside from the romance scenes, I really liked Clones too. Regardless, Ian McDiarmid is the best part of the prequels, in my humble opinion, and especially after seeing him in Sith I'd like to see him getting bigger roles in other movies.

Sony was rewarded handsomly for lying to their customers. I mean, geez, can you imagine if the Cube or the XBox had gotten the lion's share of the install base and developer support? Both are much better pieces of hardware than the PS2. On top of the PS2's lacking hardware, the first year or two of the system's life had almost no decent games, meanwhile the Dreamcast was regularly pumping out excellent games until it's early death at the hands of Sony's hype machine. The PS2's success was a big loss for gamers if you ask me.

This is also what Nintendo did for the Cube. Do you remember the claims Sony made about the PS2 before it launched? Do you remember when they showed the realtime rendered ball scene from FFVIII and claimed it was running on the PS2, when it was really running on several SGI machines? Sony hype should never be taken at face value. I'd go so far as to say their hype for the PS2 was outright lies.

Whoa, wait a minute! What's this? Where can I find more info on this downloading of old Nintendo games to the REvolution?

Ya some of the dialogue is pretentious and annoying but Oshii's still the king of dialogue like that. I'm far more forgiving of pretentious dialogue when it actually makes some kind of sense. Circular logic, backwards moral justifications being spouted back and forth, and being wordy just to make it seem like you're intellectual rather than posing actually well thought out reasoning makes it far more offensive.

I thought the story was complete garbage. Nonsensical, pretentious dialogue that makes Mamaru Oshii's work seem humble and straightforward. Deunan conviniently forgets several characters from her past, she forgets that she's holding onto the very thing she's sent to find, I mean if this was the movie 'Momento' I'd be able to forgive how bad her memory is, but it's not, and it's absolutely ridiculous. The Elders' and Gaia's plot to do away with mankind and replace the world with stable, emotionally neutered bioroids steps up to the border of nonsensical and leaps forward into the abyss, not this plan itself but how they went about putting it in place. Were six giant walking cannons firing at point blank range really neccessary? I read the manga after seeing the movie, so knowing the book was better didn't cloud my judgement or ruin my appreciation for the movie at all, but knowing that the plot was completely different for the book only made my indignation at having wasted my time watching this movie all the greater. The section of the story that the movie is oh-so-loosly based on is fairly short, and I don't see how a competent writer would have much problem turning it into a screenplay. But no, instead they had to completely change the plot, completely change why things happen, and completely change...well, damn near everything but the character names. I did not care for the CG animation, however it didn't bother me that much and would have been easy to overlook had the story been up to measure.

Most SUVs are glorified station wagons. The Hummer was cool, but the H2 and H3 look like they were designed by Fisher*Price, and by all accounts what's under the hood isn't even related to, or as powerful as the original Hummer. Crap like the Armada is just a bad joke. This thing looks pretty cool, but hardly a working man's vehicle.

So is the Micro nothing more than the Advance line's Gameboy Pocket? I was expecting something with DS quality graphics, but at a more practical price point and sporting longer battery life than the PSP. This is an unexpected move for Nintedo given that the portable market has been so important to them. However, if they lighten up on the touchscreen requirements for DS developement, and drop that handheld's price a little, they could still keep their lead just because the PSP is trying to do what so many other handhelds have tried. Going with better graphics, but a much shorter battery life and a much higher price. "They tried and failed?" "They tried and died!"

So far, the Revolution is hands down the best looking hardware design. Simple, but effective. I can't stand the PS3 or the 360 case designs for both practical and asthetic reasons. Of course, I don't buy consoles based on how the case looks. The games will ultimately be the deciding factor on whether or not I buy one. Nintendo has produced my favourite consoles in the past, so it's likely they'll continue to produce games that make their system worthwhile to me. We'll see. I've been decidedly lacking in enthusiasm for this new console generation. Of course, since I heard that the rumour of Revolution sporting touchscreen controllers was bunk, and in reality it would be touch sensitive buttons, I've been more keen on Nintendo's console than previously.

It's honestly just too early to really say. I'm certain people will once again flock to Sony's system, making it the most supported no matter how powerful or weak it is compared to the other consoles. This time around, it does indeed appear that it will be more powerful than the XBox 360, but time will tell. I hate trying to decipher a system's potential power. Anyone else remember when people were claiming the tech spechs proved that the PS2 would have better graphics than the Cube, and that the XBox would completely dominate everyone? I'm withholding my vote until the games are here.

I never put much faith in tech specs. I still recall people pointing at the PS2 tech specs claiming they were definitive proof that the PS2 had better graphics than the Gamecube. Still, I can't wait to see some game screenshots. I dislike the rounded design of the actual system. Looks like it will be impossible to stack other equipment on top of it.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

There's not really much that's caught my interest recently. I'm going to check out Monster soon. Been downloading plenty of first episodes, but most of them have been pretty bleh. The best I've seen is a series called Trinity Blood, and even that couldn't keep my attention enough to finish the episode. Been watching Bleach. It's a good show, but very "tournament-shonen" in style. No actual tournament, but it's got the same feel and pacing. It pulls this off better than most shows. I'd say it deserves popularity quite a bit more than DBZ Jr., Naruto. Still, it always seems to be on the edge of falling into the tournament-shonen trap. It hasn't yet, though. Been holding off on GitS:SAC 2nd Gig until some decent subtitles are out. I've no problem waiting until it's on DVD here. Loved the first season. About to finish up Last Exile, Giant Robo, and Karekano. All good shows, though not that new. Last Exile being the newest is already a year or two old. I've seen Robo and Karekano before. Robo is one of my alltime favourite OVAs. Looking forward to Geneon releasing the new Tetsujin 28. Seen a fansubbed episode and it was excellent. Eureka 7 looks like it could become good, but it's riding on too many cliches at the moment. Once the story kicks in a bit more I hope things pick up. I love the designs and the characters, and can appreciate the themes.

Uxi is right. As far as video and DVD, Lucas has never really milked the franchise. In fact, I remember Lucas stating that the reason he was holding off on releasing the original trilogy to DVD is that he wanted to release one big set with all the changes, updates, deleted scenes, and everything for all 6 movies. When he said that, there was a huge uproar against him for not doing the very thing people complain about him doing even though he doesn't do it!

Eh? Did the Nintendo Yakuza break into your home and take your games? Cause...they do that.

They're playing at AnimeCentral, so of course that just means that damn near the entire crowd will be otaku only interested in their FLCL stuff. I forget the other bands that are playing, but there's a list on the AnimeCentral website. I'll definitely keep an eye out for those other bands, maybe grab a few songs of you to see how they sound. I don't listen to nearly enough new music lately.