mikeszekely

I saw the Rundown, and I really liked it! In fact, I'll probably buy the DVD when it comes out. Yeah, I'd say that the Rock is a better actor that people give him credit for. I could buy him as Conan, but probably not a Terminator. Not to mention that Sean William Scott is hilarious, both on camera and off (did you see him on Leno when he kept flirting with Leno's second guest? Good times...), and Christopher Walken is just brilliant.

No kidding. Apparently they're already talking about T4 going ahead without him, and his abscence from Hollywood will hardly help King Conan get the green light anytime soon. T4? It ain't T without Arnold. In Reese's flashback from the original Terminator movie, that Terminator didn't look anything like Arnold. I think they used different ones now and then and after the first one, the "Arnold" versions were probably special models meant specifically for John Conner. I rather like the idea I read a year or two ago that hinted T3 might have the *human* that Arnold's Terminator was based off of. Make it something tragic. Older hero of the resistance maybe slightly out of his prime, but copied by the machines first to undermine and then to demoralize. And I liked T3. Especially the ending. No offense, but to like the ending to T3, you pretty much have to ignore T2's message, since they're basically contradictory. Not to mention the lame cliches and sight gags in place of T2's darker stories and T1's classic on-liners. Oh, yeah, and the fact that the supposed brilliant leader of humanity in the future is whiney sissy? After T3, I'd expect the brilliant leader of humanity to be the vet. Sorry... T3 had a nice car chase with the fire truck, and that's about it.

funny. i got busted so many times in HS for playing games on my TI-83 My TI-86 kept me awake during trig class in HS. Damn! I was lucky even to have a calculator that could add... And Trig... did I even take that? Funny, I don't remember. I was more of a history, language, and poli-sci student than math or chemistry.

No kidding. Apparently they're already talking about T4 going ahead without him, and his abscence from Hollywood will hardly help King Conan get the green light anytime soon. T4? It ain't T without Arnold. T3 wasn't Terminator with Arnold...

As long as we're talking about sequels that spit on the themes of their predecessors, let us not forget Terminator 3. Granted, it took the whole movie to do it, but it still did it.

I must correct you here. This Valkyrie Development History states that the VF-1A Valkyie first flew on November 29th. This was in the year 2008. Nanashi's Information Group http://manuals.macrossmecha.info/vf1/fact/...tory/index.html "...development team completed basic design 2005; one non-transformable VF-X flight test machine and one transformable VF-X-1 produced; first flight February 2007; space-worthiness tests begin in June 2007. Decision made to formally introduce the VF-X1 November 2007. and "Development and mass production of VF-1A starts November and December of 2008...." http://macross.anime.net/mecha/united_nati.../vf1/index.html Also see: http://www.anime.net/macross/story/chronol...1999/index.html "November 29 Maiden flight of the first trial production VF-1A variable fighter." -Macross Compendium Thanks, WJ, but you'll notice that I have the correct dates in parentheses. The date of 2006 I took from one of Aegis' earlier posts. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt of having got that date from a legit source.

In the interest of protecting you guys, the consumers... I reprint my post from another forum about the N-Gage... Now, as I was saying... don't waste your money on the N-Gage. The concept was great on paper, but console sucks. It's cheaper to buy a nice cell phone and a GBA SP. Oh, you wanted it for the mp3 playback, too? Since it'll cost you another $100 for 128MB N-Gage memory card to save your mp3s too, just buy a seperate mp3 player, anyway. You'll probably spend less money and end up with a better phone, mp3 player, and game console. It wouldn't be fair of me to make these arguements without explaining, would it? So... Why is another cell phone better? To use the N-Gage as a cellphone, you hold the top part of the console (where the shoulder buttons would be on the old GBA) to your ear, with the screen down. Not only will you look so lame that Ralph Wiggum would beat you up, but you're going to end up with thumbprints all over the screen. Finally, the official carrier for N-Gage is TMobile. Don't like TMobile? I heard AT&T will also provide service for N-Gage. Sprint? Maybe. Verizon? Nope. Bottom line, you can get a cheaper phone with better features and have more plans to choose from if you just buy a seperate phone. Why is it better to buy a seperate mp3 player? N-Gage uses proprietary memory cards. That is, memory cards that only work for N-Gage, about $70 for a 64MB and $100 for $128. Now, depending on how much memory it comes with, you can get mp3 players for under $100. Yeah, there are some more expensive ones, but those are the ones that count their memory in GBs. Also, they tend to use common memory cards like Compact Flash (which is like half of what it'd cost for N-Gage card) for their memory upgrades. And BTW, since the N-Gage memory card goes where the game card goes, you can't listen to an mp3 while you play a game. Why is the GBA better than the N-Gage? While the GBA may be sticking to 2D, those 2D graphics look good, and a lot of the games play like (or even are) classic SNES games. As for the N-Gage, PS2 graphics? Not even close. PSone graphics? Closer, but trust me, games still looked better on the PSone. The graphics are blurry, with choppy framerates. Control on the N-Gage sucks. The demo game we had to play was Tomb Raider, and while Lara was always a ###### to control, the N-Gage version is so bad that it's unplayable. The vertical screen makes almost no sense. Oh, and to change games (or swap out games for your card with mp3s), you have to remove the back cover, pop out the battery, get the card out, put another card in, put the battery back in, and put the cover back on. Oh, and since the game cards are about the size of a quarter, definately expect to lose some. To play the game, you have to have to go through several complicated menus. For ease of use, N-Gage definately gets an F-. Oh, and what about those games? Well, as I said, for the 3D games, they looked and played better on the PSone. For the 2D games, like Sonic N, well, most of them are ports from GBA games. Except that they looked and played better on the GBA. Bluetooth support for multiplayer was a great idea... except that the changes of two humans anywhere near each other who actually bought this turd AND copies of the same crappy game are so slim as to be impossible. In conclusion, if you want a great portable gaming platform, get a GBA instead. If you were looking for a cool device that included many different functions, you're better off buying the devices seperate, or at least waiting for Tapwave's Zodiac (game machine + mp3 player + Palm Pilot, compatible with all current Palm Pilot applications and with two hot swappable secure digital slots). If you want 3D, PSone-ish looking portable gaming, wait for the Sony PSP or the Tapwave Zodiac. And if for some really sick reason you still want an N-Gage, do yourself a favor and wait a few months until they're on clearance.

Reagan and Arnold... huh? Agent One, sounds like we have similar taste in elected officials! As far as Arnold's movies goes, I think I liked Predator, T2, Total Recall, and True Lies the best. And of course, you can't forget Conan. Collateral Damage wasn't half bad either. The worst movie he ever did though was End of Days, followed closely by T3. One wonders how one Terminator movie can be and all-time great, and the very next one is crap and cliches... not to mention that the third Terminator takes the message from the second one, takes a dump on it, and throws it out of the window of a moving bus.

What? I didn't think Squall was whiny. To tell the truth, I don't remember him having much personality at all... and Rinoa was annoying? No way! She was the coolest girl in Final Fantasy since Rydia, and super hot to boot! Oh wait... you must have VIII confused with X. Tidus and Yuna... now there's a whiny hero and an annoying female lead!

Actually, I never cared for Final Fantasy, and it's kind of annoying that Sephiroth or Cloud end up being voted the best videogame character of all time by a bunch of kids who's first videogame was probably Final Fantasy VII... instead of truly classic characters like Mario or Megaman. But I digress. I picked VIII, just so it would get some loving, but I'm actually very partial to both VIII and IX.

Not too suprising, I thought like three out of four people were Harry Potter Fans.

Not really. That's how I got Metroid Fusion long before it was released. Unfortunately I haven't seen any of those kits (and I don't mean the e-reader like some may think) on the market anymore. Did Nintendo make some kind of injunction against them? Lan Kwei even took them off his site. It's also how I've been playing Rockman Zero 2 while I wait for the US release. But, what I meant was that there are emulator programs out there for the GBA, too, and I'm not talking about the kind that let you play GBA games on the PC. I mean the kind that let you play NES and what not on the GBA. Nintendo sued Lik Sang. Lik Sang stopped selling the kits for the time being, but filed a counter suit. Their arguement is that the kits are legitimate development tools, very similar to the ones Nintendo uses themselves, and that the kits themselves are not illegal. They argued that it's unfair to punish them because other people flash GBA roms to them, which is illegal. Kind of like needles aren't illegal, just using them for illegal drugs, and when you have a problem with junkies, you don't sue the needle makers. Anyway, that's the last I heard of it. There are still places out there that sell them, though. Since this forum really isn't the place to be discussing things like that, I'd say to just to a search for it on Google.

You are kidding, right?

Little know secret: you can do emulation on the GBA. I made one GBA "game" that was Megaman 1-6. Good times. Naturally, I went GBA SP. You get all the games of the Gameboy/GB Pocket/GB Color days (minus Kirby's Tilt and Tumble, which I can live without). Then you get all the great GBA games like the Castlevanias, Megaman Zero, Megaman and Bass, and the rest. To top it off, you get a nice folding design, front lit screen, and a rechargable lithium ion battery. Good deal!

It's Optimus Prime! The real one! None of this crappy Armada/Beast Wars/Beast Machines/Robots In Disguise/whatever the hell other crappy remakes they've done! That's the one from my youth!!!

Yes, but like I said, I think SW-AG is a new idea Kawamori had to explain things like why Battroids don't break when the crash into buildings. You know, the stuff we previously had to explain by saying "anime magic" or "well, that's hypercarbons for you." Then, most likely, SW-AG will become a retroactive addition to all the other variable fighters. And it's a simple fact that the SW-AG cannot be a reference to the pinpoint barrier used in the VF-19, VF-22, and YF-21, because the pinpoint barrier system was developed on board the SDF-1 in 2009. We see that clearly in Macross TV. The ones used on the AVFs are just scaled down versions of that. They'd go with whatever worked. If the problems with the VF-1's engines left it unsuitable, they would go back to what did work, and refit it for combat. Like I said, probably to test the transformation system. You'd still need a variable fighter that can fly and manouever properly to test that, and if the fusion engines aren't reliable, causing loss of control, crashing, and the like, that'd make the VF-1 more or less unsuitable. Build a few specials that are basically VF-1s designed for conventional engines, and you're back on track for testing. Cut for budgetary reasons. The technology was too expensive to use at the time. The technology for it becomes cheaper, it shows up again in the VF-19, which was developed by Shinsei. Shinsei, as we know, is the result of mergers between the companies that originally developed the VF-0 and VF-1. Also, you're assuming that the VF-0 was built to test them just before the show. In fact, it seems more likely that their was a YF-0 earlier than that for testing the technologies, and the VF-0 is a limited production version of it for actual combat. I see your point... there was no reason to build so many. In fact, probably just 1-3 YF-0's. The design probably went into limited production, as I said, because it used conventional engines, and the reaction engines in the VF-1 weren't reliable enough for combat yet. Easy. The YF-0 probably didn't. But to get it ready for combat, the controls in the VF-0 would be updated to allow for it. Remember, it's really about control. The transformation system itself allowed for it. No. Sure looks like it to me. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't, and it was, engines aside, technologically superior to the VF-1, why bother fielding the VF-1 at all? Why not refit it for reaction engines and adopt it as the main variable fighter for the UN forces instead?

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/news/news_6076338.html Current estimates are putting it around $1000. I'd say it's worth it, except that I already have cable TV, and a Sony VAIO PC with a DVD+RW/DVD-RW drive, and Giga Pocket software to record TV on the PC. And since I'm burning DVDs on the PC, I can use different software to copy my friends' DVDs or make copies of mine for them (not as simple as you might think). Sure, my PC only has an 80GB hard drive, but I'm willing to bet that the hard drive of the PS2 can't be used for game saves... probably just recording shows and storing video information for the DVD burner. So... yeah, I guess it's really not worth it.

actually, i meant the "G" thingy and the big yellow thingy Well, you know how a satellite reciever has that big dish for collecting signals, and then that other part that directs the signals collected by the dish into... um, wherever it goes after that? Like your TV, if you have DirecTV or something? I think that "G" thing and the yellow thing are that part, that sends the singal to your TV. Or, in this case, the monitors in the bridge.

While the first VF-1A flew in 2006 (although the Compendium has it listed as the VF-X-1's first flight as 2007, with the first VF-1A's not actually going into production until December of 2008) it seems they had problems with the engines right up until 2009. It's possible that the VF-0 was originally built, perhaps in smaller numbers, as a sort of re-designed VF-1 to use conventional engines BUT to test other areas of the VF-X development. Like say, transformation. I'd assume that they'd want more reliable engines for testing something like that. Then, when they got word that the Anti-UN had a working variable fighter, they retooled the design to get it combat ready, maybe built a few more, then sent it off to war. During it's role in the VF-X program, it might have been considered a YF or VF-X plane. But, having fulfilled whatever test duties it had, and now being used for actual combat, it might then be reclassified as VF-0. The Compendium doesn't say anything about the VF-0 being a test bed for technology beyond the VF-1. It says that it's a testbed and trial production model for advanced jet engines and Overtechnology designed for future variable fighters. If the VF-0 is a page from the same VF-X program that gave us the VF-1, then any technology tested could indeed apply to the VF-1. Overtechnology is a broad term... it could refer to the SW-AG, the cyclops radar, or even the transformation system itself. Simple fact is, we don't know enough about the VF-0. We don't know if it was built from scratch long into VF-1 development, or if it was part of the VF-X program, or what. We know that when the VF-0 is deployed, the VF-1 is just about finished, but we don't know how old the VF-0 is by that time, either. If it was built to be a testbed, then adopted for combat later, it could still be older than the VF-1. I'm still inclined to believe that the VF-0 and the VF-1 have common roots, and that the VF-0 is either older than the VF-1, or a production model of something older than the VF-1. Although the Compendium doesn't explicity say that other VFs incorporate SW-AG technology, I don't think that Egan cares to go back and add it to to all the variable fighter entries, and I think that Kawamori implied it. It explains things like why all Hikaru's crashing into buildings at the beginning of Macross TV didn't do any damage to his Battroid. I don't think it's a reference to the pin-point barriers used on the AVFs, because they're clearly scaled-down versions of the pin-point barrier they accidentally discovered on the Macross much later.

Are you kidding? The secondary fire modes, plus some imaginative new weapons, made Pefect Dark twice as fun as GoldenEye for multiplayer. GoldenEye was great for running around huge multi-player levels demanding more thought and skill for killing than simple run-and-shoot games like Unreal, but in the end, you were still shooting at each other. Perfect Dark, with weapons like Proximity Mines and the Laptop Gun, took that to another level by allowing more clever traps. The multi-player in PD was actually so good, it took me a long time to get into Halo (I had my Xbox for almost a year before I bought it). As much as I'm looking forward to Halo 2, I can honestly say that I'd rather Perfect Dark Zero came out first. Well, I didn't play much multiplayer with Perfect Dark. My gaming friends (whom the majority turned out to be chauvanistic males that didn't like being consistently beaten by a girl) had developed the habit of joining forces/ganging up on me and killing me and/or doing whatever possible to put me in last place. Although one time I had an incredible comeback and managed to finish 1st over the 2nd place player with 5 more kills, I had basically stopped playing multiplayer with them. So I played PD mostly on 1 player mode or with my sisters which bored me. I have always found FPS to be too easy since I first played one online in 95 and why I do not like them. Anyways, I'll give it another whirl with your recommendation. My new co-workers make better gaming buddies than my friends back in Boston. Then again who's to say in a couple years they won't stop ganing up on me too. Oh yeah, Perfect Dark was only so-so for single player. And it all goes downhill when Elvis shows up. For single player, Halo beats the hell out of. Halo's multiplayer is fun, especially when you have a bunch of people, a big enough TV, and a 5.1 set up. As fun as it is, strategy is limited pretty much to where to ambush your opponent, and with what weapon. But Pefect Dark was a masterpiece for multiplayer. The levels were big and interesting enough, the weapon variety was good, and the secondary fire modes on weapons, plus remote weapons like proximity mines and the laptop gun, made for some great strategy. I remember, in fact, when my friend, my brother, and myself were playing a free for all... I saw my friend go into a room with only one exit, so I put a laptop gun in front of the door. If my friend tried to open the door, the laptop would shoot at him, leaving me free to hunt my brother. My poor friend was pretty limited in his choices... try to shoot the laptop gun before it shot him, or get killed by it, and hope to respawn somwhere else. He went for the first choice, by the way, but it ended up working as the second. Ah... good times.

Exactly. And like I said, it's not that there aren't any games from that era that I still enjoy... but I love the new stuff, and I love to think about what's down the pipe.

Here's a theory you guys can try... Not only do the mounds NOT contain Khyron's ship, the SDF-2, or the ruins of Macross City, they don't contain the SDF-1, either. Not even part of it. My reasoning here is very simple... 1. The SDF-2 was in construction, but not back to back with the SDF-1... it was actually being built on the moon! 2. The SDF-1 was not destroyed during Khyron's suicide attack. After the attack, the SDF-1 was repaired and refit, the wreckage of Khyron's ship was cleaned up, and Macross City continued to prosper. 3. The setting of "the Robotech Masters" saga is actually not even earth. So even if the SDF-1 had been destroyed, and buried with Khyron's ship and the SDF-2, they would be nowhere near the mounds seen in "the Robotech Masters." Mechamaniac's right. I have nothing against Robotech, as if it weren't for RT, I might not have discovered Macross. This Matt fellow is trying to explain why two parts of RT don't quite fit as if he genuinely thought that Robotech is an original creation, and had no idea that Macross and Southern Cross are actually two seperate entities. If something from the Macross saga doesn't seen to fit the RT Masters saga, it's because they're actually unrelated. If the explaination given seems weak, it's because it's trying to cover for the fact that Macross and Southern Cross are two totally different shows. It'd be like taking the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the Drew Carey Show, and combining them into one show, and then telling everyone that Drew Carey and Philip Banks are the same character, but the reason why he was black before and white now is because of a genetic mutation. Of course it's lame, but it you want to believe that it's really one show, you have to buy it as is. If you want the real story, you have to... well, accept reality, watch Macross, and then go to Macross Plus when you want a sequel, not Southern Cross.

Amen! Though I did like Shanghai Noon and The One, I rather see Police Story or Fist of Legend before it. Martial Arts will never fade away. Believe that. And I liked Kiss of the Dragon! But my favorite Jet Li was High Risk. I think there's an R1 floating around under the name "Meltdown," but I have a Chinese DVD, so I'm not sure.

Taratino + stereotypes that further confuse Americans who think Chinese and Japanese are the same thing = monumentally bad movie.

If you are going to base your judgement on a system based on the majority of its games..... you might as well just make the PSX the worst console ever. The system had a 1 good game every 20 bad games.... thats a pretty ugly curve. Not only that... but in a few years every single PSX game is going to look ugly, simply because low res 3D games don't age gracefully. Many members have posted lists of games that not only hold up well against recent games, but many are being ported to current consoles. If you want a complete list of SNES games that are either comparable to PSX/PS2 games or surpass them.... I will gladly take the time to write a full list. We are not saying PSX games are not original... we are simply saying that, even being original... doesn't mean they stand the test of time well. And you consider this to be something good? BTW.... SNES RPGs were already there... without the need for the graphics Halo had a story? You are kidding right? Did your brain fry because of the repeated rooms? Half Life had a much better story then Halo. Jedi Knights had a much better story then Halo. Those games were either 2 or more years older then Halo, those 2 were the real revolution. Halos story, IMO, doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of Half Life. And Halo being fun is debatable. So you are saying that, this little turd was better then most SNES games? MGS 2 is a turd because you watched more then you played. Those early GB games had more game play and revolution then MSG2 in its entirety. AC04 will not be remembered by its story... it will be remembered because it was a fun and extremely well executed game. For a gamer.... your views are extremely messed up. You are putting originality over execution. It doesn't matter if a game has the most amazing story of all time.... if it doesn't play well... its not a good game. Its all about playing a game, not watching it. You are making yourself sound like a casual gamers.... who values flash over substance. I look like a casual gamer? How about you guys who went NES or SNES look like the "games are for kids, I played mine back in the day, but now I'm an adult and I don't do that anymore" crowd! Now of course I don't believe that's true of all of you, and you should give me more credit, too. If there wasn't something to what I'm saying, then the PS2 wouldn't be dead tied with the SNES. Sadly, it seems that I'm the only one who's not afraid to stand up and defend my choice, while the rest of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube crowd is afraid that the NES/SNES crew will beat them up and steal their lunch money. Never once did I argue against the fact that there's a ton of crap on the current consoles. And I never argued against the fact that, down the road, most of the games on the current consoles won't hold up. What I am arguing is that most of the games on the NES and SNES didn't hold up, either. And what I did say is that I pick the current consoles because they are current, knowing full well that 10 years from now, I'll be picking whatever is current then. As a gamer, I respect the systems of the past, but embrace what's current, and will continue to embrace what's new in the future. How is that messed up? That's how the industry was able to evolve! Do I see that evolution as a good thing? Damn right I do! If playing everything and looking forward to the next new thing instead of stagnating on an almost 15 year old console is casual, I'm proud to be casual. And yes, I do value originality... originality is what made the games you guys keep bring up from the NES and SNES eras memorable. You've named maybe 20 SNES games, not all of which I think stood up well with time, from a library of over 500 games, many of which were so-so shooters or lackluster beat 'em ups. Do I think Enter the Matrix, bad as it was, was better than Super Mario World? Hell no. Do I think it was better than the majority of the SNES library? Most definately yes. And while EtM definately needed a lot of improvement, it was still an ambitious project and I'd still like to see another developer try something like that again, hopefully to better results. Do I value originality over execution? I don't think so. I think games like PaRappa, Samba de Amigo, and Viewtiful Joe have been executed quite well, thank you.