Warmaker

The positives: Max & Millia Valks (minus the breasted one... ridiculous) That the series ended

I think a similiar Macross II thread was in the Model or Toys subforum a while back. Anyways... I've watched Macross II twice. Once from a friend's VHS English dub copy. Another in Japanese with subs (my traditional realm, subbed anime). There are a few good things with Macross II. - Character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto - VF-2SS - UN Spacy uniforms - Silvie Gina That's about it. The negatives? - The story didn't make any impression on me. A bit underwhelming, especially since I was eagerly anticipating anything Macross related in the 90s. So I didn't know the existence of DYRL? and FB2012. - I utterly despised Hibiki. Not as bad as the Guld and Isamu from Macross Plus, but I still hate him and found him quite annoying. It was too bad he was the main character just like Isamu, so the irritation permeated throughout the show. - They blew up the SDF-1. W...T...H...? Probably to make a statement, or make the story seem more important than it really was. I noticed the same thing with Star Wars books where they kill off Chewbacca to lend weight to a story arc of theirs. - The *ahem* love that (abruptly) "blossoms" between Silvie and Hibiki towards the end of the show. It came out of nowhere, so suddenly. Like a bolt of lightning out of a bright, sunny day with clear blue skies.

I'm not too familiar with Jennifer Garner's work, but Elektra was just sooooo bad that it wasn't good Even B-Movies can be good in a twisted way, but Elektra was Theatrical Homicide.

Shark Attack 3 Bad acting, AWESOME line (A bit of profanity involved, naturally)

That clip was SWEET! Spiderman was such an a**hole But better yet: Special appearances by Captain America!

Is that the one with the Flying Piranhas eating people on dry land? Or am I thinking of some other horrible 80's movie?

#118058 IF this thing works, I wonder what franchise is going to get massacred before the cavalry comes in?

"Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Macron 1! FEEELL THE POWER!!!!" I remember the theme song from Saturday morning cartoons, but I can't remember squat about the show itself. That's a good thing, I take it? Also, of the shows listed, the only one I even recall watching is Robotech. Though I'd like to pick it as worst adaptation, I'm not so sure compared to the rest on the list. They seem like Big Game Winners to me.

Another remake? Like, no waaayyy, dude! Is it going to have, like, lotsa guns?

I always thought that the delays in the JSF program were mostly with the VTOL variant, and the USN/USAF versions were coming along just fine. Hmm... When the JSFs come over to the Fleet, I'll be transitioning over from Hornets to them. I can then proudly say I've been a 3 platform maintainer Oh, and the nice jabbing between the companies at the end of the Hornet shortage article's good fun, too!

Cute kid getting supervised with a very cool gun. Nice one to start with!

I can't recall non-Enterprise characters having the Enterprise's logo on their shirts in the TOS. Guys like Commodore Decker, starbase personnel, etc. had their own logos.

I don't care about the car! I care about how short the skirts are supposed to be!!! I'm sure Kirk wouldn't have it any other way

My first opinion about those shots: The skirts aren't as short as the original ones. That's a bad thing

Word! Macross 7 just needs to be left alone. No need to rip open old wounds

I vote for "Lawn Dart"

There's lots of tricks in coming out on top against the powerful Mongol invasions. But the most successful involves time and space... delaying actions, making the Mongols pay for every victory, wear them down over time and distance, all before doing a final counteroffensive. In Shogun Total War, it's easy since you're the Shogun in control of a unified Japan. Japan also is very hilly and mountainous. For the Japanese that are infantry oriented, that's a huge plus. Take advantage of the numerous hills and mountains of the interior of Japan, and you could really make the Mongols pay when they get further inland and away from the beaches and plains. In the plains and beaches, the Mongols are extremely tough. Their mobility and arrows will murder you. But in the steep inclines, mobility goes out the window, and things are more even. Your own ranged units will be more effective from elevated positions. And then send those crazy No-Dachi equipped Samurai down the hillside once the Mongols are tired and engaged In Medieval Total War, the faction you pick and your location plays a huge role. If you're based out of Eastern Europe, you're in for a hard time. The Mongols will arrive fresh with stack upon stack of troops. All good quality, all the "3 Gold Chevroned" experienced elites. Compare that to playing as England, France, or Spain, where the Mongols will be worn down by the time they arrive even in Central Europe. I've gotten used to dealing with cavalry-ranged-centric armies from all my playing in modified Rome Total War. I'm used to being the Romans with heavy infantry trying to come to terms with the horse archer and heavy cavalry based armies of the Parthians and later Persian Empires. I treated the Mongols with the same philosophy when I played Medieval Total War. Speaking of the Total War games, there's tons of mods. I recall some people were working on a "Three Kingdoms" and "Sengoku Jidai" mods. Not sure how far along they are, but I have doubts. It sucks in the regard that some of us were hoping to see a "Sengoku Jidai" Total War game with the game engines they're using now, but I don't think Creative Assembly will ever go back again to the setting that made the Total War series a name to begin with.

How about these 80s Ninja shows? The Master - TV series. Had the badguy from The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly as the main guy. Ninja III: The Domination - Ninja movie! I don't recall Ninja I or II at all during the 80s, but I saw this one lots of times on TV! American Ninja - My Dad took me to see that in the theater in downtown San Francisco. Of the Nobunaga's Ambition games released in the USA, I only owned Lord of Darkness for the SNES. For some reason, I felt NA2 on the NES was better. I don't recall the assassination animations on the NES. Probably because all of my Ninjas were incompetent boobs. Have you ever tried Creative Assembly's Shogun: Total War from around 2000? It was great for the armies, field combat, but I did miss the development, provincial details, and more expansive characters / character information from KOEI's NA series. One of the cool things was the various, short cut scenes from certain events by your agents. Priests (even Christian), Spies (internal security), Ninja. There could be cutscenes for the results of their actions, success or failure. There were maybe 2-3 variations for failure or success. A few were even hilarious, especially for failures. Incompetent Ninja + This new thing called Explosives = Ensuing Hilarity Some of the units were great fun. Warrior Monks were devastating, especially due to the effects of morale. But the counter was being a Christian Daimyo. Then there were the expensive, powerful, but single-man Kensai. The Mongol Invasion expansion pack introduced another setting to depict the Mongols arriving long before the Warring States period. Great fun fighting the landed Mongol forces. Their cavalry were quite nasty. It also introduced female spies / assassins also (Kunoichi?). They too had their own cutscenes for failure or success. The cool stuff was when these agents faced off with Ninja.

Speaking of Nobunaga's Ambition, I just found out that an official US release was made late in 2007 for Nobunaga's Ambition: Rise to Power. I'm going to swing by Gamestop after I get off work and get my copy for my trusty PS2. It has been a LONG time since the last Nobunaga's Ambition was released in the USA. Even then, Koei for some reason has a very spotty record of releasing the NA series in the USA compared to the RotTK series. The RotTK series may be behind in the USA compared to the Japanese releases, but it never skips a version which sits at RotTK XI right now. Compared to Nobunaga's Ambition, the only US releases I have ever seen or heard of: NA2 on the old NES from the late 80s or very early 90s. NA: Lord of Darkness on the SNES during the mid 90s. And that's it. It's been more than 10 years since that SNES release for a new NA game to come out in the USA. I've always been disappointed by it since I always figured Samurai would be instantly recognizable in the USA, more than the figures from the RotTK setting. As for me, I've watched alot of Samurai shows / taiga dramas from one of the channels in the San Francisco Bay Area. My favorite was "Nobunaga: King of Zipangu" Hey, speaking of Samurai, recall the Ninja craze of the 80s?

Seeing Zhang He in a fairy-like appearance in Dynasty Warriors was a letdown for me. In the RotTK games, he was such a good, balanced, all-around effective, bada** general to have.

I haven't read the books. But from what I do know of the fictional side are from the games Koei has put out that are set in it. The strategy games "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," especially as time progressed, usually has alot of nice "cliff's notes" of the characters. I spent alot of time poring through the characters reading these summaries. My first exposure to this whole thing was the old NES "Destiny of an Emperor" game which my friend rented way back when. We put alot of hours in to beat the game before he had to return it. I still recall the cool character portraits for Zhang Fei and Xiahou Dun in that game. Zhang Fei looked crazed and Xiahou Dun had that cool eyepatch, pirate look to him It was really fun finding as many characters to recruit in the game and levelling them up. The next one I tried was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms II" on the SNES. Again, my friend rented it and we were putting in alot of hours playing hotseat on the campaign. It was fun enough that we both bought our own copies. He got it for the SNES and I got it for the Genesis. Of the more recent RotTK games, I bought XI and IX. RotTK IX was the one (I think) where you had a mode where you could select a character and play solely as him. Try to join a faction, work your way up, be a governor, general, etc. RotTK XI was a big departure I thought with the combat systems. I had control of the duels? Never mind, I'll send Lu Bu in. But the biggest departure was the strategic map w/ turn-based play. The map showed EVERYTHING. Army movements, battles, etc., and it wasn't limited to just the action in one province. It was a real meat grinder with your armies. I still recall a campaign I had with a made up leader who started South of Ma Teng during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. It was fun being another factor in the chaos and fighting the huge alliance led by He Jin.

So no FM5 release here in the US? Well, that sucks, but I can't say it surprises me given the spotty record of how this series has been brought to the US. Of the FM games, the only ones that I've been able to get were FM3 for the PS1 and FM4 for the PS2. Being a FM fan in the USA is like being an anime fan in the 90s. You had the chance to get some of the good stuff with alot of legwork, but also a snowball's chance in hell in getting the rest.

I wonder what the name of Micro$oft'$ new OS will be in 3-5 years down the road.

Pfft... Maybe if Boeing worked out a sweeter deal to the USAF they wouldn't be in this predicament Actually, this annoys me more when I think on it afterwards. It's like someone telling you to buy their goods, and if you didn't, trying to force your hand in buying it still. If the Europeans worked out a better deal for the USAF than a patriotic, American organization, GREAT. More power (and money) to them. I'm sure Boeing will have ample opportunities to fleece the US taxpayer later. They need to get over it. They lost this one.

The Federation in Kirk's era, I have always felt since watching it as a kid and comparing it to later series, was much quicker to go to war... or at least start gleefully firing their Phasers and shooting Photon volleys. The great example is the episode with the Klingon & Federation push onto the Organian planet where the inhabitants outwardly seemed backward. The Federation, especially in that episode, was going full bore towards war. No talk of diplomacy to bring things to a peaceful halt before full-fledged war between the Klingons and Federation. The only reason diplomacy was being used at all was to gain an advantage for the upcoming war. Kirk was sold into it also, and the Feds sent their best to diplomatically bring the Organians into the war (and act as a base of operations) before the Klingons do. Even at the beginning of the episode, you already hear of strong Starfleet military movements for war. None of this space-hippie-cr*p of the TNG era Federation. The Romulans even performed unprovoked strikes on Federation outposts along the Fed-Rom Neutral Zone. The whole episode with the cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey. There was no active, declared war between the Romulans and Federation that you hear of. The Neutral Zone was obviously placed as a "no-mans-land" between the two powers because of a recent conflict (Trekkie gurus, correct me if I'm wrong). Even with no war between the two powers, a Neutral Zone in place, the Romulans were blasting Federation outposts for kicks. When the Federation got news of these outposts being destroyed by something (which I'm assuming they had a fair guess who was doing it), they sent its best, Capt.Kirk to deal with the problem. When it was obvious it was a series of military strikes by the Romulans, Kirk dealt with it in military fashion. And Starfleet it seems had no problem with it. Look at it like this also: Are there any so blatantly unorthodox Starfleet Captains or above that can maintain or had a long career in the TNG or later eras? No, none that I'm aware of. I do recall one TNG episode where this is exemplified even more. There's a treaty in place between the Federation and Cardassians due to a recent conflict. This certain Nebula Cruiser captain, a famed veteran of that conflict and friend of Chief O'Brien, had suspected the Cardassians to be secretly shipping armaments into a region that violated that treaty and threatened the balance of power in that area should war erupt. This captain went around proving it in a very unorthodox fashion, even resorting to combat against suspected Cardassian shipping. Despite his attempts at informing Starfleet, they wouldn't believe the Cardassians would even attempt such a thing. Starfleet dispatched Capt.Picard to figure WTH is going on and reign him in. In the end, despite obvious proof that the Cardassians were violating the treaty, that Nebula captain was canned, despite his glorious service in the past and having proved himself right to Picard. Picard then says that the Federation will now "keep an eye" on the Cardassians... after the fact that a decorated captain had to sacrifice his career to even get the stupid TNG Federation to look at the Cardassians. The Feds have had many recent conflicts which always seemed alluded to in the TOS, i.e. Romulans and Klingons, especially the Klingons. I always felt that due to the common occurence of skirmishes and war, the Feds weren't shy of going to combat / war during Kirk's days. They weren't going to take s**t from their rivals. As for the Post-Dominion War period, I'm curious to see how the Federation will act militarily and diplomatically compared to its recent past and the TOS era, especially given a few years. Some TOS inspirational goodness