JsARCLIGHT

I can understand some folks being pissed that some character dies in a really crappy way but that happens a lot in real life. So my picks are my three all time "you have to be SH!TING me" deaths anime, by that I mean characters that died and you just went ballistic and almost broke the disc: 1. Wolfwood in Trigun. He was the only reason I watched that stupid show and when they killed him off I turned off the disc and sold it it pissed me off so much. I loathe Trigun to this day thanks to that ham-fisted bumfuggle of writing. 2. The Wife of the main character in Windaria. When that movie ended the way it did I should not have been suprised that she was dead... everyone else on the freaking planet was! But for some reason that movie just loved to twist the knife on you and make you feel generally upbeat and positive. 3. Yamagata in Akira. Totally cliche, very predictable and to be honest not all that unexpected when it happens but the fact that you never see him die and it is Tetsuo that kills him really pisses you off just as much as it did Kaneda and Kai. Yes Yama was an arrogant asswipe punk but he was funny as hell.

I guess then it shows how old I am and how "non-sprekenzie-compu-geek" I am. I still think in terms of the '80s. To me, "Gone Gold" has always meant Michael Jackson sold a million Thriller albums.

I saw a good number of people get "shot" shot and you are on some levels very right. The human body does all sorts of strange things when it suffers trauma... who is to say what face they will make or how they will react when shot. Most people have this strange look of disbelief on their face along with the onset of shock. But one thing is true, unless you hit someone center mass in the head they do not slump over dead like they do in the movies. Most shot people live for minutes, even hours, before they bleed to death. It is all and all a very sick topic. ... as for the "Censorship" of star wars and like properties they still belong to the creator and if the creator (Lucas, Spielburg, or anyone) wants to alter their movie to reflect their own tastes then they can do it. This whole concept might have grounds if the Film Board was forcing (pun intended) Lucas to edit out the violence but it was the man himself that changed the film. I can forgive Spielburg for giving radios to the FBI guys as he made Saving Private Ryan, one of the bloodiest, goriest, killingest war movies of all time... but Lucas technically has no excuse other than his newfound morals and "won't someone think of the children" logic. Then again Darth Maul getting lopped in half is way worse than Greedo taking a shot to the chest. You didn't see Greedo's body pop in two and fall down a shaft.

I thought it was the same thing as the record industry in that games, like albums, can go "Gold" and "Platinum"... meaning they hit a certain very high level of sales. Well then, that title is very deceiving then. Certain sites (mentioned in my other post) never seem to claim "Gold" status on games that suck only on games that everyone wants that seem to sell tons before they are even ready to ship.

Most games "Go Gold" nowadays thanks to stores like Gamestop, EBGames, Best Buy and others offering pre-sales on titles that have not even reached alpha compiles yet. The second someone says something about a possible release of a game these stores slap a price on it and start offering pre-sales. Hell... they were preselling that Nintendo DS seconds after they got pictures of it.

I think the title is bad ass. I tracked down a bootleg "Revenge of the Jedi" poster (back when that was the working title of RotJ) and now I can get a new Revenge of the Sith poster when it comes out and have bookends! Of course for some reason I am getting my hopes up that this new and final SW movie will not blow... I could be pleasantly suprised or horribly let down again. Dammit, George! Make the new movie good! LET SOMEONE WITH TALENT DIRECT!

Hey that second cover looks like you could easily photochop the cast giving you the finger!... you know, like the final episode did to it;s audience!

I'm pretty sure it ended it's run and entered syndication. They are releasing the shows on DVD now from what I hear. Perhaps it will get a restart when the third feature film shows up... generally the super hero shows are like that, they need a "reason" to keep them going as their toy sales and viewers tend to fall off when there is not a lot of hype.

Video game peripherals are just as diverse as real world combatants. Some folks prefer handguns, some prefer SMGs, some prefer knives and heck some even strap TNT to themselves and run at you. For as many different ways there are to play there are as many people to play them that way. I still do a double take when I see those guys with the keyboard joysticks and even the old school Power Glove. I figure if you can play a game by sheer will of the mind you will have a one-up on me and my mouse/keyboard. As for the PC vs. Console argument I think the only thing the PC has going is more power and better looks but it comes at a higher price tag. Like I said earlier, some guys like me will pay extra just to have more power.

I have heard from someone in my office that the new BA release adds more bonus materials as well as an "alternate ending"... sort of like an X-Men 1.5 release they added more bonus stuff to the DVD and re-released it at the time the sequel is due out to draw more sales. Generally from what I have seen when it comes to crazy nuts uber box sets like the Spiderman 1 set, the Scarface set and others basically you are paying double for the same DVD you would get if you bought the normal version just you get tons of extra hoo-hah and a big cardboard box to put it all in. If you totally eat up those crazy extras like a scarface money clip like me then the big crazy box sets are worth it... otherwise you are better off just getting the normal movie as you are not missing much. The best T2 DVD release I would say is the ultimate edition that I have with the metal slipcase. 2 discs, different cuts of the movie, very good picture and sound quality, easter eggs galore and enough features to keep you up all night. Unless they release yet another even better version I think this one is the king of the hill.

I've seen many people I know and love pass on in my life and it is never easy. You have my deepest sympathies. Take a lesson from death, live life to it's fullest and raise your daughter to not just remember her mother but honor her as well. A life lived well in the memory of a loved one can achieve wonderful things and honor their lives more than any word or single deed can.

Being a PC fan my comments here might be seen as somewhat skewed but in my eyes PC gaming is a "rich man's hobby". As others have said you have to keep dumping time and money into your PC every few years to stay in the system requirements zone to play the new games... but consoles are just a one time purchase and then you can play the games automatically. Plus with consoles having internet connections and such the lines between a PC and a console are blurring. It's hard to justify a PC purchase if all you do is play games and look at boobie pics on the internet as the consoles with internet browsing can do that easily at a tenth of the price. I myself am a hardcore audio/videophile. I own a brand new (thank you state farm insurance!) HDTV and DTS entertainment center... when I buy my computers I am the same way, at the time I buy them I check all the boxes and demand all the top of the line things even though I'll most likely never use them. For god's sake I have two DVD-RW drives on my computer and I have yet to burn even a single DVD! Yes it is a "Waste of money" to some people and I don't really need all that power and crap as all I do at home is play games and surf the net but I just want that hemi if you know what I mean. If given a choice between a nice V-6 and a Detroit Diesel V-10 I'll take the latter... just to have the extra power. I have the disposable income (no kids, good job, semi-understanding wife) so to me the PC is a nice "investment"... even though it is nothing of the sort. Consoles just seem wimpy compared to the uber deep-blue twin fan whine of my PC... But that is just my opinion. ... plus wives tend to see the PC as a "tool" and not a "toy" even though they could not be more wrong.

That may have been because they called Global "Taicho" every now and then which is a familiar term that technically means "captain" I think but it is more a term of respect and not rank. Like you could call your platoon sergent Taicho or your soccer team coach Taicho... or you could call your Ship's Skipper Taicho.

Correction: $55 dollars! Plus tax! And Shipping! And honor of buying an Id game surcharge! ... sorry I'm still bitter over Id's grab for another five bucks on their price... you don't see that nice boy down the street HL2 trying to scam another Lincoln do you? Then again he never comes out of the house to play and just yells at us from his window.

the Kevin and Bean show on 106.7 KROQ Los Angeles kept referring to him today as Shamalamadingdong. Obviously someone here gets the reference... because you know, making fun of someone's name is totally rude, offensive and racist. I guess some folks on this site don't watch much television or listen to the radio. So I guess Agent One and I should drop the line "Girly Men" from our vocabularies as well because it is offensive to gays and feminine men. I'm not racist, if I where racist then you would have read a racial slur and not a play on his name. So I guess all the guys that call me "Andy" instead of my normal last name Anderson are racist rednecks too? I'm trying to have fun on a web message board, not spread hate propaganda. These are the jokes people, laugh at them.

I also saw Signs in the theater and wanted to try and get my money back but the people I was with would not wait for me to yell at the ticket window people and threatened to leave me there. The twist was more of a long drawn out plot point rather than a crap in your popcorn twist like Sixth Sense. ... and just for the record to those who think I'm harshing on Shyamalan, I am but I'm not. He is falling into a rut in my eyes (and the eyes of many film critics) that I would like to see him get out of. I would like to see his take on something other than the same old spooky suspense movie.

I always assumed they held naval ranks in Macross as they fly planes off of a carrier type ship. Every time I talked with anyone online or at cons, etc. and used army rankings for the people they corrected me that Macross used Naval ranks like Gundam. It seems most of the subtitled versions of DYRL are split down the middle as two DVD versions that I have have two different rank systems used in the subtitles. The FX version uses the army system but the other one (not sure who made this one) uses Naval ranks. Seeing as the compendium lists army ranks I guess that must be it... but it seems wrong for some reason to me. Has Kawamori every stated positively about the rank systems used? I know the TV show must use army style ranks as Hikaru is definately called a Sergent in one episode. I suppose the same then carries over to DYRL. Very confusing. Not many armies of the world have carrier based fighter wings arranged in army ranks.

It's good to stay skeptical. I'm waiting until it is on my shelf for a week before I start singing it's praises. I, like almost everyone else that is posting here, want these things worse than anything... but I still have this nagging little voice in my head saying "It's Toynami... they'll brick something on this toy. Don't get too worked up yet." The more you get worked up about it the more you will be let down if it turns out to be a total dud. Then again, "dud" these days is in the eye of the beholder. I love my 1/48 Yamatos but sometimes you see people who will drown a bag of puppies rather than buy another 1/48 due to their dissapointment with them.

valk23 I have the same card and the alpha runs very well on my box... I'm not sure how much of that is the processor and memory though, but it runs very well... fullscreen not windowed like it defaults to.

Yes, he is a one trick pony. All he does are suspense movies with a horror feel and a twist at the end. He is the J.K. Rowling of the movie world, he can only do one thing and hollywood only wants him to do that one thing. Just like how people accuse Lucas of just doing star wars sci fi (even though the man has indy and american grafitti under his belt). If the man came out with a romantic comedy, war story, teen drama or a cops and robbers piece then we can talk. Until then all I see is one trick: writing slow suspense movies with a sh!t on the audience twist at the end... even though the "twists" in Unbreakable and Signs were dumb. Edit: and before anyone can say it his first movie "Wide Awake" bombed (with a total US gross of only $305,704 I can name one theater run doccumentaries that beat that) and his writing credit on Stuart Little is in the capacity of adapting someone else's story. Come on Shamalamadingdong! Let's see a cop movie!

I can run it with no problem. I also have the three level "alpha" of the game and it runs like a champ on my home box. Unless the code has changed severely I should not have any problems... ... and for those fixated on numbers my home box is a Pent 4 HT 3 gig with 1 gig of ram, Raedon 9800 Pro card and a bunch of other crap that I had to have like my DTS sound card and receiver. Now to my rant: $54.99? Why don't you take the left nut while you are at it Id? Why is it when companies release "next gen" games they always try to "next tax bracket" the price tags?

Well that settles it then, Max is one rank ahead of Hikaru.

It might come down to what they call Max when he is leading them into battle on Protoculture Island. Do they call him Taii or do they call him Chui? Or do they just use that catch-all Taicho for "Leader/Captain"? I'm at work and have no access to my DVD to run the scene and see what they call him. My thinking would be that both he and Hikaru are Ensigns (2nd Lt.) at the start of the movie... Hikaru jacks a trainer and goes AWOL, then his status must have been changed to MIA... durring this, Max is promoted to lead Skull. My guess would be he would have only received one grade promotion to a Lieutenant JG (1st Lt) as he was only leading one other guy at the time. Perhaps when Hikaru came back and was given his promotion to Lt. JG Max was given a field promotion to Full Lieutenant (Capt) because he was now in charge of more people. It all comes down to what they call him when they are talking I would think. And for those who are interested this chart explains Japanese Naval Ranks vs. US Army/Navy rank and has the japanese phonetics: Taisho = Army General = Navy Admiral Chujo = Army Lt General = Navy Vice-Admiral Shosho = Army Major General = Navy Rear Admiral Taisa = Army Colonel = Navy Captain Chusa = Army Lt Colonel = Navy Commander Shosa = Army Major = Navy Lt Commander Taii = Army Captain = Navy Lieutenant Chui = Army Lieutenant = Navy Lieutenant(JG) Shoi = Army 2nd Lt = Navy Ensign Edit: someone in the office just told me they *think* Hayao Kakizaki calls Max Taicho, meaning catchall "leader" but he refers to Hikaru as Lt. JG Ichijo. So if that is right then we know what rank Hikaru is at that point but Max is unknown. He could be the same as Hikaru but Kakizaki uses the familiar "Taicho" to indicate Max is the leader even though he is the same rank as Hikaru... or he could be a higher rank and poor old Ensign Kakizaki (soon to be seagull food Kakizaki) just hates calling his superior buy their rank.

I am not impressed with him... but the promise of his upcoming projects like: M. Night Shyamalan's Bath Robe, M. Night Shyamalan's Buick Dealership, M. Night Shyamalan's Comic Adaptation of his Adaptation of the Importance of Being Earnest, M. Night Shyamalan's Secret of Nimh, M. Night Shyamalan's Wristwatch of doom and the much anticipated M. Night Shyamalan's fall from grace and eventual bussing tables with the cast of Party of Five. Sorry but to me M. Night Shyamalan = Pompous one note pony.

Hence that is why I feel so sorry for California folks. It's not your fault your state has spiraled into the chaos it is in.