mikeszekely

I mostly got it because my two best friends moved away after college, but we all have Live. Next best thing to them actually being in my living room. Ladic, I realize that with MMORPGs that you're paying for a service. I mean, they have to maintain a lot of servers, plus dish out patches and SMALL updates. But let's face it... $50 for a game you can't do jack with unless you pay their monthly fees is too much. And if you want the REAL updates, you have to buy the $30 expansion pack. And $15 a month to play a game I already paid $50 is borderline extortion, IMHO. Hell, $15 a month is more than I spend on TV. If the monthly fees were a little more reasonable, and if you got the game for free if you signed up to play (ala what Sony used to do with Everquest on the PS2), then I might think differently. But it really doesn't matter what I think... law of supply and demand. There are enough people willing to buy a game, then pay to play it, that it's profitable enough to justify that kind of business model.

You mean you are planning to miss all the time? Sorry, couldn't resist. Graham I'm actually decent with the Storm Trooper. Moreso than any other Imperial unit. The Storm Trooper is hella better than the standard Republic Trooper, although with that mini rocket launcher, I think the Super Battle Droid is my favorite. Yes yes, I've heard many a times now that the regular Rebel commando is supposed to be very good. But I never play as the Rebels. They're my absolute least favorite army.

Is it October 25th yet? Seriously, the more I see, the more I want.

Most of the earlier PS2 games were short... they wanted to hurry up and get stuff out for it, and they were focused on making the games look pretty. What you wound up with were games like ZOE, AC4, Onimusha, and the like... games that looked nice, were fun, but rather short. Ace Combat 5 is forutnately looking to be one of the biggest in the series, with a roster of planes that's rivaled only by Airforce Delta Strike (but once you weed out the early 50's fighters, and the Chinese/Israeli/Taiwanese fighters that no one's heard of, AC5 could actually have the better roster anyway. It absolutely kicks ass that the YF-23's going to be in it.

Wait a minute. You mean there's one "Story" mode where we follow the story of Blaze and his wingmates in the Wardog Squadron, and then there's another mode where we basically get to play a souped up AC4? Killer.

Close. It's Reiko Nagase, and she was the short-haired cutie in R4.

Halo on the PC must suck. Either that, or you were expecting a frag-fest game, ala Unreal. Personally, I can't stand those kind of games. I need large, open environments where I can stalk someone before I kill them, instead of just getting the biggest gun I can find and fragging the hordes around me. And anyway, there is no month fee to play games on Xbox Live. There is a $50 per year fee for the Xbox Live service, which is worth it. Much easier to find your friends and host private matches. Once you have your Xbox Live service, the games are free to play online.

Live isn't $70 then $50 a year. Live is $50 a year. The $70 package is a starter kit that gives you the headset, a game, and a year of Live. Don't get me wrong, I think it's ridiculous to pay to play a game you already paid for. I those MMORPGs are more or less robbery, given that you pay $50 for a game and then have to pay $15 a month to play it, plus another $30 for any and all expansion packs. But with Xbox Live, you're not really paying to play the game. You're paying for a service, and I think (now that games are finally coming out that I really want to play online) you get your money's worth. I mean, if it was some kind of monthly gig, I could see some complaining, but it's just a once a year thing. I buy two or three games a month, I think once a year I can buy one fewer game and renew my Live subscription.

You think driving an AT-ST is fun, try driving an AT-AT. You feel positively omnipotent, blasting mortals on the ground, blasting turrets, blasting just about everything as you slowly meander toward your goal. Occasionally, you get hit by turret fire, but seeing how little damage it does adds to your omnipotence. And you'll really get a kick out of the first time a snow speeder tries to tie you up, and you nail it as it circles around the front, watching it spin away in a firey wreck.

Argh, i don't know how to explain... I would like to know which are the VFs that have the most accurate proportion in all modes, imean those Valk in wich the proportions of the parts don't change or don't change too much from fighter to Gerwalk/Battroid, example: in battroid it have smaller wings and a bigger head that in fighter, so, its porportions are wrong from fighter to battroid. In another words if it help: The VFs in wich there is less anime magic in the trasformation porportions. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the VF-22 would be it, because almost everything folds into the inside. From the toys, I'd say the VF-11 doesn't seem to require much anime magic from fighter to Battroid, but I can't say much on Gerwalk. The VF-19 is probably the worst... in going from fighter to Battroid, limbs get bulkier, and the torso gets shorter.

Third Strike will be part of the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Although it's out for PS2, it won't be out for Xbox until January... I suppose because they're adding more Live features. And don't forget, SNK vs. Capcom Chaos is the end of this month (September, for anyone who reads this in October and thinks they have a month of waiting).

You mean like "Legacy"? You'll be happy to know that in the final Xbox version, you can set the left stick to Turn/Move, and the right stick to strafe/look.

Have you tried the Super Battle Droid on the CIS side? It's missile launcher makes it a little easier to take out turrets, but it's blaster is just as effective as the Rebel Solider/Storm Trooper/Regular Republic Soldier.

Um, you do know that the Star Wars Trilogy is out on DVD?

Spoken like a true console lover. PC > Consoles Spoken like a true PC fanatic. I like my PC. I'm having fun downloading fan-made modules for Neverwinter Nights and playing those. But for the most part, I'd rather play on the 27" (soon to be 54" widescreen) TV with the home theater, so I went with the Xbox version. Yeah, the missions do repeat, yes, the game is monotonous... but there's something to be said for mindlessly slaughtering hordes of enemies. I mean, it worked for Dynasty Warriors.

I like the regular Storm Trooper. I'm more evil empire than righteous rebel anyway. Is anyone actually going to bother to play as the Republic or Seperatists? Oh, and is anyone playing this on Xbox Live? I will be, my gamertag's PharaohMan.

Three words, guys: Star Wars Battlefront. I am so being a Storm Trooper.

Except that 90% of the PS2's online games require broadband anyway, and even though I have a network adaptor, the only game I'd consider playing online with a PS2 is Champions of Norrath.

I got Xbox Live over the summer, after I they finally rewired my building and I got cable internet. I'd considered asking then, but there weren't a lot of Live games I was interested in. This fall, though, there's going to be a ton of Live enabled games I'm going to be playing, so I figured now's the time to see who else on the boards is on Live. My gamertag is PharaohMan (all the other good Megaman names were taken), and I'm mostly in for the fighters (DoA Ultimate, MK Deception, and SNK vs Capcom Chaos), but I'll also be doing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, Halo 2, and the entire ESPN 2K5 lineup.

I'll double check that price tonight for you, but for me personally, it doesn't matter how cool it is, there's just no way I can afford it.

Dave, I was one of the first people to get that magazine. I tried to start a new topic, but the mods deleted it on the grounds that a demo is not worth of having it's own topic (and yet there's a three page topic on the Battlefront demo ). One thing I've noticed about the demo is that you can still kill enemy fighters by flying real slow toward them while they fly straight at you, and fire off two missiles just as soon as they're in range. IMHO, Ace Combat 5 feels a lot like AC4 in terms of HUD, control, graphics, and sound, but AC5 seems much more intense. It used to be you'd have to shoot down a handful of transports guarded by a handful of fighters, but (in the demo at least) it seemed like there was just a few more transports, but a buttload more enemy fighters who are about twice as aggressive as the enemies in AC4. Less than a month away now... Oh, FYI, in our sytem at Gamestop, we have a listing for a $99.99 version of Ace Combat 5 that includes a flight stick. Wonder what that's all about...? Well, I'm too poor with all the other games coming out, and I'm pretty comfy with the PS2's controller, so I'm passing on it... but if anyone else knows anything or plans on getting the lfight stick, tell us about it.

Think "Navy". Get it? The "y" at the end? http://www.anime.net/macross/story/encyclo...pacy/index.html No. There are other branches of the UN Armed Forces. Noted are: UNS - UN Spacy (Space Navy, get it now????) UNAF - UN Air Force UNN - UN Navy UNSAF- UN Space Air Force UNSM- UN Space Marines http://www.anime.net/macross/story/glossary/index.html Space Navy.... is not correct Space Forces... The U. N. Spacy does not use Navy ranks. Only the U. N. Navy does. The Spacy uses Air Force/Army ranks. So Space Army or simply Space Forces might be more correct. Studio Nue itself has not stated that the Spacy of "United Nations Spacy" specifically stands for "Space Force" or "Space Army." To claim otherwise is made-up speculation. The Japanese term for Spacy is "uchuugun." The same "-gun" is used for the Japanese term for navy ("kaigun"), army ("rikugun"), and air force ("kuugun"). Spacy uses the rough equivalent of World-War-II-era Imperial Japanese Army and modern United States Air Force/Army ranks for its ranks, but it also follows naval traditions for its overall hierarchy (fleets) and positions (CAG, ship captains). http://www.anime.net/macross/story/encyclo..._nations_spacy/ To go along with Egan here, you don't have to borrow a Y from the end of army or navy to get spacy... you just have to think about why army or navy might have a y at the end. Army = Armed Forces Navy = Naval Forces Spacy = Space Forces

No, you're not the only one who doesn't like Amano's work. I personally can't stand it. It's extremely sketchy all the time... and while you could argue his methold of half-assed drawing is "artistic," I could easily argue that mowing half the lawn is equally artistic. I think it's just that much worse that it became the art style associated with Final Fantasy... now you have a ridiculous number of "otaku" who think that Square Enix is the greatest developer ever just because they have Final Fantasy... nevermind that they have precious little else, and outside of a few key series, most of their stuff actually blows.

I have no idea how the X tv series or manga were, but it was a HORRIBLE movie. I remember once scene, the screen goes dark, and I'm thinking, "that was lame, but at least it's over..." Then the movie continues, and I was physically ill at the thought that the powers that be were allowing the movie to continue. Well, outside of Gundam and Macross, I'm not actually a huge "anime" fan. (Actually, I'm kinda against the idea of being a fan of anime in general. I can imagine that there are a bunch of people in Japan dressing like Bull from Night Court or Urkel, calling themselves fanatics (in their non-native English language, just like how "Otaku" feel the need to throw around what little Japanese they've gleaned from anime as if they were either experts in Japanese or as if Japanese is a normal part of English conversation), or going to big conventions because they're fans of "Americom," that is, American Sitcoms. Anyway, just like American sitcoms, I try to take Japanese shows on an individual basis. All that said, I liked Escaflowne and Marmalade Boy a lot, and I recently watched a show called "Midori no Hibi," which translates to something like "Midori's Days." It was a cute, if odd, show.

Norton... Norton is a system hog that acts as if it were your computer's administrator instead of you. And yet people are still convinced that it's better. Reguardless of your antivirus, always keep it updated. And antivirus isn't always enough. I reccomend some kind of spyware/malware/adware remover as well (which you should also keep updated), and if you're broadband, a firewall. That said, sometimes you get junk on your computer, like VX2, that's really damn hard to get rid of. You can check with companies like Symantec to see if they have tools you can use to get rid of certain nuisances (often reguardless of whether or not you use their software). But, sometimes you just have to reformat (or System Recover, for XP users). It pays to back things up.