JsARCLIGHT

Or if you would have read the two paragraphs in the booklet on the backstory. The HALO booklet for the first game actually contains more backstory than the game itself. While HALO does have one of the better stories out there as far as FPS games go (as I said originally) It's story is still cut and paste generic sci-fi filler material. I actually went back and replayed the first few levels of HALO PC last night just to remember why I didn't like the game but liked the story and I found that 90% of the game's story is designed so it gives the player reason to have something new to shoot at or some new simple puzzle to solve. The rest of the story is incidental material, all very generic in the sci fi world. What makes HALO so fun for people I think is that it is a game, an interactive experience, rather than a noninteractive movie. Turn HALO into a movie and it will be so-so at best given it's current plotline. I should probably rework my original post to say that the premise of HALO is what would make a good movie... the actual plot would need a good deal of tooling to make it entertaining outside of a game environment. Game plots are almost always lame because half of the story is made by the player as the game plays out... in a movie you just sit there and watch.

I actually thought that HALO had the best story out of all the new crop of FPS games... albeit the story is quite dumbed down and simplified in spots but overall the elements of the first HALO game's story and the story progression lend themselves very well to a movie. I must admit that while I found HALO 1 on the PC to be slow, repetitious and tepid compared to other PC FPS games the story was certainly the highlight. Final execution of the movie on the other hand is another story.

To me Walken will always either be Zorin from View to a Kill or The Continental from SNL. The cowbell thing has been done to death as has gangster Walken from his films. The man truly shines when being comedic. His mix of funny and "I'm going to harm you" evil just work on so many levels.

Uhhhhh.... then how come everyone, including Walken, says he is a native New Yorker born and raised? I'm pretty sure he was born in Queens in 1943.

This one is for Agent ONE. May he use it with extreme predjudice.

One of my favorites...

I know Clint had an 8 shot snubbie S&W N frame in the movie Blood Work but that came out in 2002...

That is the glory of Christopher Walken as a cannidate... so many double entendres and wordplays to have! He's not just Walken... He's Running! For Office!

Still... I'd rather be Walken than Kerry'd.

If it is for real all the man has to do is run Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" video as his commercial spots. Boffo.

I think if we turn this into a Christopher Walken appreciation thread then it will be just fine and Officially Schwarzenegger... I mean... dandy. I love Christopher Walken. He not only rocks but he can improve any movie he is in in my eyes. I love him the most in cameo roles like Pulp Fiction and Sleepy Hollow.

Don't forget Twins! Anyway... back to Thundercats. Seeing as I never really watched the show when it was on TV I might have to get the DVDs and finally get around to watching it. I pride myself on having seen most of the modern day "80's cult shows" but I'm still in the dark on Thundercats.

1/6 is 12" GI Joe / Dragon scale dolls with cloth clothing. My wife and I collect 12" Military dolls and we will DEFINATELY be getting these, no matter what their quality. With the Aoshima toys and these my long dark days of having no decent aliens toys are over!

Well poo... how come they are not in stores?

Legend of the Galaxy Rangers was one of my all time favorite cartoons in the '80s. I liked it more than Robotech even... heh. I have the two FHE commercially released VHS tapes of the show but to my knowledge there are no plans to release it on DVD which is a shame. For the record it is just as purile and dopey as any other kid's show in the '80s complete with stilted dialogue, goofy bad guys, impossible plotlines and dorky alien friends with goof-ball humor... but for some reason the show worked for me. I think it was the whole "space cowboys" angle that did it... ... that and they actually drew their guns and (gasp) SHOT the badguys... albeit they didn't die and they never showed blood but people actually got "hurt" in the show and that was kind of neat for the time. The only reason Robotech one-upped it in my book was that LGR did not really have a cohesive story... it was the typical "bunch of random episodes" kind of classic '80s kids cartoon.

Waitaminute... that was supposed to be Earth? I'm guessing I did not watch enough of the show... I thought it was some sort of weird alien world.

I remember when this show was on TV. I also remember how I thought the opening animation was kickass but the actual animation in the show was just "ass". I could never stomach this show back then... then again I was in my teens when it was on and the plodding stilted dialogue (which was bad even for an '80s kid's show) just wore hard on me. ... plus I can never get over those '80s shows that only had one girl. "Smurfette Syndrome" was rampant back then. Makes you wonder sometimes... either Cheetara was getting plowed more than the village crops or the Thunder Cats where all a little... ahem... you know...

It's the wave of the future. Being someone who has a #D component to my company I do not hire anyone who does not have at least some knowledge of general 3D apps and understand the basic workings of it. I myself have had to study and bring myself up to a level of understanding just to keep current with the industry. Here is a question put to some people: when computers revolutionised architecture and did away with all the hand plotters and hand plans did it affect the industry? Yes it did. It made things faster, cheaper and by result you now have more people cranking plans meaning the rate of crap design to good design is higher than ever. It used to be that only a big firm with drafters out the wazoo could design a building... now anyone with some technical knowledge and a computer can in their basement. The same can be said for animation now. Anyone with a computer, the knowledge and the right programs can make their own animation to a degree. Computers are the wave of the future and they will make things cheaper and increase competition. I see this as nothing but a good thing in the long run. Sure the level of crap to quality will increase but that always happens when signifigant financial barriers are removed from production.

The bad thing was that it was an art college and people needed those computers to do their work... yup... we where those a-holes. Heck, two of us didn't even use computers for schoolwork back then (myself being one of them).

My longest gaming session ever was in college on the LAN in 1993 playing Doom 1. Lasted a whole day... from the time the lab opened until it closed that night at 9pm. It was actually because of us that the school amended their computer lab rules to prevent people from playing LAN games on school hardware.

Then PM the damn mods. Don't make a goddamned thread about it that will INSTANTLY draw him and everyone else into it causing a mother-f##king logjam like it always does on this damn board. Forgive my harshness but I'm just getting sick of all this crap. If it's not some drama queen storming out it's someone else crying about something else or someone else. Agent One. I know you and you know me. Lay off of him for a while. Please. Let's try to go one week without petty poo from anyone. If we do then we might break some internet record somewhere. Once again sorry to everyone I'm just really sick of all this stuff. Remember, we're the adults here. Scary isn't it?

Can we possibly STOP fighting for one freaking week here guys, jesus. To both parties: Stop it. Just stop it. It takes two to fight which means BOTH of you are causing this and BOTH of you are to blame. Don't like what someone called you? Grow up. Tough. Get over it. Don't like someone calling you out to the mods for calling them names? Tough. Don't make the situation worse by continuing the fight into a new thread. To anyone in general: Please stop with the fighting. Why do you HAVE to get into fights over NOTHING? Oh hells no! He called me chewie toy crap! I have to defend the honor of my plastic toy for children! Aaaaaaawww snap now! He called my favorite TV show gay! I'll call him gay back! That'll show him! [Napoleon Dynamite] GAHD! [/Napoleon Dynamite] Guys. Shake hands. Walk away. We're sick of it.

All those threats prove is that there is a fanatical extreme to everything. Getting death threats just means you have become a large enough public figure to get death threats. Hollywood celebrities get them all the time as well as many people in government, business and sports. Case in point: does anyone remember the news story of those girls who at night went to neighbors houses, rang the doorbell and left cookies for them? Well they went to this one lady's house late at night, rang the doorbel and banged on her door only to leave cookies and run away but the lady thought they where burglars or Osama Bin Laden or something and had an anxiety attack and filed charges against the girls. Well that lady started getting death threats from people days after the story broke. There will always be a crackpot out there phoning in bomb threats, death threats, kidnapping threats, you name it... so my response to Mr. Thompson is "grow a pair and move on". If you are going to put yourself in the spotlight in a controversial way then you should expect this sort of thing from the more derranged people out there. At the same time the lunatic fringe is NOT the mainstream and they are by far NOT indicative of the average person. To generalize in that way requires downright CONGRESS level nearsightedness and prejudiced stereotyping. But fear keeps the sheeple in line and fear generates the worst legislature... always.

I personally think the ratings are just billboarding while the real thing parents should read are the contents listings. I know a lot of parents who are cool with their kids shooting the heads off of people and chopping up puppies for food but the sight of a female breast or someone saying "Sheet" puts them in a tizzy. To me, the real qualifiers of the ESRB system are those content warnings coupled with the overall rating. My point I was trying to make (allthough very hazy) was that MPAA ratings started out painting with a very broad brush and only recently have started adopting "qualifier" content advisory listings like "Fantasy Violence" and such because parents ARE just that lax that they will think "well, THIS movie was an R and I had no problem with it so this other movie that is an R must be just the same" logic. It's also not that easy to find the "true" rating of movies... they like to bury that sort of thing next to the casting and release info... whereas the ESRB has done a very good job of plastering BOLD monochromatic labels on the fronts and backs of packages along with their verbose content descriptions. A parent can look in the same place just about on every video game package and instantly know "what the game has in it"... the same cannot be said of movies a lot of the time. The trick, as it always has been, is getting the parent to actually take an interest in what their kids are playing. With as clear as the ESRB has made everything I'm personally shocked that everyone is STILL making a stink about it. It's like writing the words EXPLOSIVE on a box and people will still not read it and light the thing on fire. It also should be pointed out that parents don't read their own prescription drug warnings, instruction books on assembling crappy furniture and user's manuals on how to set their VCR's... It would not suprise me that if in the near future the same reactionist "do it for me, outlaw the bad things" rationalle soon bans blinking 12:00's because they are mocking their owners.

Just so people don't have to go looking for facts when others start lambasting the MPAA diatribe of mine above, here is a shorter listing of what the ESRB ratings entail: (Taken from ESRB listings on their site) EARLY CHILDHOOD Titles rated EC - Early Childhood have content that may be suitable for ages 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate. EVERYONE Titles rated E - Everyone have content that may be suitable for persons ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal violence, some comic mischief and/or mild language. EVERYONE 10+ Titles rated E10+ - Everyone 10 and older have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or minimal suggestive themes. TEEN Titles rated T - Teen have content that may be suitable for persons ages 13 and older. May contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes. MATURE 17+ Titles rated M - Mature have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence and/or strong language. ADULTS ONLY 18+ Titles rated AO - Adults Only have content suitable only for adults. Titles in this category may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence. Adults Only products are not intended for persons under the age of 18. RATING PENDING Titles listed as RP - Rating Pending have been submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting final rating. ESRB Content Descriptors * Alcohol Reference — Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages. * Animated Blood — Cartoon or pixilated depictions of blood. * Blood — Depictions of blood. * Blood and Gore — Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts. * Cartoon Violence — Violent actions involving cartoon-like characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted. * Comic Mischief — Scenes depicting slapstick or gross vulgar humor. * Crude Humor — Moderately vulgar antics, including "bathroom" humor. * Drug Reference — Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs. * Edutainment — Content of product provides user with specific skills development or reinforcement learning within an entertainment setting; skill development is an integral part of product. * Fantasy Violence — Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life. * Gambling — Betting-like behavior. * Informational — Overall content of product contains data, facts, resource information, reference materials or instructional text. * Intense Violence — Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death. * Mature Humor — Vulgar and/or crude jokes and antics, including "bathroom" humor. * Mature Sexual Themes — Provocative material, possibly including partial nudity. * Mild Language — Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use. * Mild Lyrics — Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music. * Mild Violence — Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe and/or violent situations. * Nudity — Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity. * Partial Nudity — Brief and mild depictions of nudity. * Sexual Violence — Depictions of rape or other sexual acts. * Some Adult Assistance May Be Needed — Early Childhood Descriptor only. * Strong Language — Profanity and explicit references to sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use. * Strong Lyrics — Profanity and explicit references to sex, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music. * Strong Sexual Content — Graphic depiction of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity. * Suggestive Themes — Mild provocative references or materials. * Tobacco Reference — Reference to and/or images of tobacco products. * Use of Drugs — The consumption or use of illegal drugs. * Use of Alcohol — The consumption of alcoholic beverages. * Use of Tobacco — The consumption of tobacco products. * Violence — Scenes involving aggressive conflict. Additionally, online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB. ... from the way I see it the ESRB goes well out of it's way to inform parents of the content of games moreso then the MPAA. For instance... I have in my grubby hands right now my copy of GTA: San Andreas for the PC and in my other hand I have my ALIENS Director's Cut DVD. Looking at the fronts of the packages I see nothing... NOTHING on the front of the ALIENS DVD. No rating whatsoever. On the front of GTA however is an almost one inch tall monochromatic icon saying MATURE +17 "M" Content Rated by ESRB. Now onto the back of the packages... on the back of the ALIENS DVD I have to squint... squint!... to make out a very tiny almost illegible "R" with "For Monster Violence and Language" hidden next to a THX logo. It is roughly half an inch by a quarter of an inch and in a lighter typeface than the other type on the back. I actually had to LOOK FOR IT on the package and it took me quite a while. Now to GTA PC's back... there it is in the lower right corner, a very clear and large "M", MATURE +17 ESRB Content Rating, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs... Easy to find, easy to read in type that is actually LARGER than the normal typeface of the game description. Once again it is in harsh monochromatic black and white and your eye is almost drawn to it it is so noticeable. Now just so it doesn't appear that I am pulling favorites here, now I'm looking at the cover for TEAM AMERICA: UNRATED DVD. This DVD actually brags on it's cover that it is "Uncensored and Unrated!" in huge red type... but once again on the back the actual parental advisory is mixed in beneath the various studio credits and widescreen notifications. If not for the larger font in a big UNRATED next to it a parent would have to scour the back of the package to see the warning. And the warning itself only says "Contains Adult Language and Situations". There is GD Puppet gettin' it on in this movie! WHERE is the massive disclaimer saying "GRAPHIC PUPPET SEX?" ... yes at this point it is late here and my brain has turned back into a pumpkin.