David Hingtgen

Luckily *(or unluckily, depending), I live in Eastern Iowa---we have Wal-Marts all over in rural farm towns, where probably 1% or less of the population has HDTV. If there's not one in town--I know several towns less than an hour away that are sure to have some in stock. When I had the money for a 360, I knew exactly where to get one when they were still "sold out everywhere"--drove over, and picked it up. Probably the only 360 they've ever sold...

I was at Wal-Mart an hour ago---but didn't go by the electronics area. Is that 100 bucks for all Wal-Marts, you just have to be lucky and hope they're in stock, or what? I would so pick one up for a hundred bucks now, and just hold on to it until I get my HDTV in a few weeks/months.

I plan to play online tonight. Just "whenever I get around to it". Xenogears Id, plan to be in 5-10 min Team battles, might try siege.

Using Skywarp parts (or just not changing the color of that particular sprue) makes a lot of sense--because nothing else does. Making that whole sprue grey would apparently make a grey nosecone too----which'd match the animation a whole lot better than "random silver". Have I mentioned that F-15's cannot have bare metal nosecones? (Most any plane with radar can't) I assume Hasbro intends the "bright silver" paint on the upper rear fuselage and nose to represent bare metal--too bad that's 2 areas the F-15 never leaves bare...

You have to get it in orange to get the cool wheels? That sucks. People have wanted those wheels ever since they found out the Holden SS-V came with them (and were on the G8 show car). They look a lot better on black/red/blue cars... Thanks for the info though. 6 speed auto only? Strange, would have figured the super-special edition would have introduced the 6M, as it's supposed to come out a little later than the 6A.

If anyone really hates Beast Wars I don't know what to say---it's got one of the better storylines out there *period* IMHO, and is by far the best TF story out there. It's kind of like saying "I hate ST:TNG and DS9 because they're not TOS". Umm, well, it's hard to argue that TOS had better stories and plots. You may hate the setting and look, but for raw character development, stories, etc---TNG and DS9 blow away the original.

Still, why BLACK? I have many things made of various types of unpaintable plastic, but many come in colors other than black. Black is by far the most common, but it can be molded in most any color AFAIK. If there's a toy-type plastic that is inherently black, it's news to me. I mean, most TF parts are molded in color and not painted. It's not an issue for most molds, as you just mold the unpaintable parts in Autobot red, or silver, or whatever color matches the rest of the toy. Ironically it's usually the painted parts that don't match---see "car doors and roofs molded in clear plastic to have transparent "glass" then painted on the outside to match the molded fenders, hood, etc". Look at Yamato---they have plenty of POM unpaintable parts, molded in VERY LIGHT GREY. ::looks at 1/60 Roy::

I can post this in both the plane and car threads! One of the coolest jobs in the USAF has to be chasing down landing U-2's at 140mph. They used to use Z28's, but now it's GTO's: http://airteamimages.com/displaybig.php?phtID=58010 http://airteamimages.com/displaybig.php?phtID=58009 http://airteamimages.com/displaybig.php?phtID=58011 For those wondering, the U-2 is so hard to land (and so senstive), that they have fellow pilots drive alongside while landing, calling out the plane's altitude and attitude to the pilot during the critical last seconds---they literally call out foot-by-foot at the end. And the pilots practice a lot driving to be able to be in position--it's easy to get there too early (plane can't land if you're in the way) or too late (you'll never catch up if you're 5 secs late). Apparently they can make the turn off the taxiway onto the runway at over 100mph while accelerating to 140, and the tires only last a month. They sit on the taxiway, waiting for just the right moment to go, then floor it to catch up so that the plane and car hit the same speed at the same time (as the car is accelrating but the plane is slowing).

I've always thought Australia should go with F-15E's. Much better long-range striker than a Super Hornet, and plenty capable of going against a Super Flanker at range with the newest electronic fits like the F-15K and S. PS---I can post this in both the plane and car threads! One of the coolest jobs in the USAF has to be chasing down landing U-2's at 140mph. They used to use Z28's, but now it's GTO's: http://airteamimages.com/displaybig.php?phtID=58010 Just search "U-2" there for more pics.

VF5SS, knock it off. Make your arguments without demeaning people who don't agree with you.

In case people don't understand that sentence, for some reason "bitch" is in the word filter, and it replaces it with "batty".

Basically you get an artbook, a "guide to the universe of Mass effect" (aliens, tech, history) and a "making of" DVD that also includes hundreds of concept art pics. Plus a ton of themes and gamer pics, and a partial soundtrack.

mechaninac already mentioned Fry 2 posts ago.

And on DS9, Dr Bashir (possibly) became his own great-great-grandfather...

Well, I just pre-ordered the Limited Edition of Mass Effect. (Online only).

The Su-33 may not officially have uber-stats, but it still "breaks the law" when the CPU is flying---the Strigon ones can run away from you at Mach 10, and do Kulbits all day long. Same for the CFA-44---I have seen it do "anything it wants". F-16 is gimped, and it shouldn't be. Also, they made the F-2A way too good, weapon-wise. That's expected though, it's Japan's plane in a Japanese game. Doesn't handle as well as the regular F-16 IMHO. No idea how the real one compares. I think the Super Hornet and F-2 should have their weapons switched.

Don't do the tunnels, then. They're operation C I think. Do A and B, take out the fortress---mission over, tunnel-free. You only have to do the tunnels if you want the "All operations" achievement. Do it later, in free-flight. I think I went with a Rafale, simply because it's smaller than most other planes that can do that mission well. (I miss the Gripen in this game) Other things: SOD's are very good in this mission, also try rockets. So many enemies so close together. Spam allied attack help---it refills with each operation completed, and you can't save unused ones.

The best tracks in AC6 are early---mission 1, 2, and 3. After that---meh. Though I do kinda like the children's choir at the end, it's not as cool as the other choirs. PS--people seem to be confirming what I suspected----online, the points you get are based on what you're flying, and what you shot. Taking out a Mirage with an F-22? Few points. Taking down a F-22 with a Mirage? Lots of points. I'm going to try a new tactic next time online---fly the Tornado with ECM. Avoid being shot down, as opposed to trying to shoot down everybody else. If nothing else it'll really frustrate all the F-22 and Su-33 users. (The Super Hornet seems to be much worse agility-wise than it should be, don't know why---no AMRAAM or QAAM either---if it was better dogfighting I'd fight with that with ECM---but the Tornado's high defense is a huge benefit online)

Countach: The only car I've ever had a poster of in my room. And it was up there for years. I still have to get one of those 1:18 AutoArt or Kyosho models of it. (this should go in the car thread though) PS---Mike, I just picked up MM Advent tonight. PPS---I was a Target today and saw all 4 types of 360 out now--Elite, Pro, Arcade, Halo. Just to make sure---the HDMI equipped Pro says so right on the front of the box, on the list of features, right? Because I haven't seen one yet I think.

That means Hiro and Claire are like half-cousins or something.

Good, it's not just me--I didn't think I'd gotten THAT much worse from not having played PGR for a long time. (Overall, the Test Drive and NFS series have usually had my fave handling for cars (and car choices), but that's going WAY back----recent NFS is all ricey street racing, not my thing)

Same here--the Countach (especially say 85-87) is still the coolest-looking car ever. I still want one. I may have to wait 20 more years, and buy one that's 40 years old (hopefully some will be below 40 grand then) but I still plan to get one some day. I've always wondered--why do only expensive cars look cool? Is it some silent agreement among car manufacturers? I mean, does a Corvette actually cost more to LOOK how it does? Why can't someone make a sleek, cool-looking car in the 20-25K range? (Well, they did--the 4th-gen F-body---but why are others so rare?)

Just played the PGR4 demo after a AC6 session (got 2 more achievements) and I really, really sucked----far worse than I've ever done in any driving game. I thought PGR3 was OK, but 4 just seems to handle differently or something---I just couldn't make any turn at all. Weird, because any game with Lambos gets my attention (I'm sick of all the Ferraris everywhere, and I've always liked "the other Italian exotic car maker" better)

All right, forget the F-4's. We have hundreds of F-16A/B's, and F-15A/B's. Plenty of pilots/training for them. Just upgrade them to use the AMRAAM and they'll certainly be at least "decent".

You know, with the zillion F-4/14/15/16's in the boneyard--couldn't we win just about any aerial situation through sheer numbers of reactivated planes? It seems the F-22 etc are always needed for some "ultimate showdown with a large, advanced enemy"---but frankly nobody has the sheer numbers we have available. I'd gladly send a thousand old F-4's against the largest Flanker fleet in the world, and expect to win.