Warmaker

This is awesome with Armed Assault: "Sergeant, what's that popping sound overhead." (From behind a stack of sandbags) "It means you're getting shot at Private!"

Do they really need to do an even more extensive version of Lucas' Special Edition on Evangelion? They're still selling regular NGE stuff like hotcakes

Macronized chickens. Hmm... the horror, the horror

Yeah, I'll wholeheartedly agree that Fallout 1 and 2 put Rated "R" in RPG Groin shots. Headshots. Targets getting shot apart from a successful burst of fire, and the wonderful wet sound. "Melting" Prostitutes that "aggro" Become a Porn Star! The descriptive text during combat was half the fun I still recall finding a Star Trek spoof in the original, where in the middle of the wastes I found a crashed shuttle, complete with the bones and torn uniforms of Red Shirts strewn about. I wonder how a movie version of Fallout would come out. Mel Gibson's Road Warrior is the next closest thing in existence, but there's no mutants, whores, and not too much gore.

So, has anyone tried Armed Assault (PC)? I know it released elsewhere before the US did. This is another one I'm contemplating since I did enjoy the predecessor, Operation Flashpoint. The original OFP was at its best with the infantry combat and hardcore focus on unforgiving realism. Vehicles were a bit clunky and a compromise for accessability, which was a letdown for me, but oh well. Sniping in OFP was really a great achievement if you knew how to do it. It's not your Average Joe Sniping Gallery. But again, infantry combat was awesome in OFP. It seems Armed Assault is still pursuing the ultra-realism route, which I like and hope to try out soon here in the USA. Not enough realism in FPS games these days due to the core game engine compromises for "accessability," i.e. oversimplification.

Baa Baa Blacksheep!... but not IL-2 game If you're looking for only Pacific Fighters, it should be quite cheap. Honestly, I would not pay more than $29 for it since 1946 has been released. I think it retails for $39. But you should be able to find Pacific Fighters quite cheaply.

Yeah, I remember when Fallout Tactics came out, a bunch of us were saying, "Why this? Where's Fallout 3?"

Flight sims have been quite underground compared to the 90's. Here's my personal list of the best of the newer flight sims (military only): Modern Jet-age Falcon 4.0: Allied Force - Basically 4.0 with all it's patches and alot of fan attention and updates for realism. Falcon 4.0 was released in 1998 and the flight sim community still really cares for her. IMO, the most adored and actively used military flight sim ever. WWII IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 - The IL-2 series is the best of the WWII flight sims in the last few years, and there weren't that many of them... that were decent anyways. Anyways, the 1946 pack has everything of the IL-2 series. The original IL-2 game and all expansion packs: Forgotten Battles, Aces Over Europe, and Pacific Fighters. It even has the downloadable Sturmoviks Over Manchuria upgrade. There's some glaring omissions with IL-2, especially the Pacific portion, but it's still pretty dang good. It's a rather short list since flight sims have been low profile for years now. Other portions of flight eras have sadly been under represented. Korean War flight has been last done by Mig Alley but that was 1999 or 2000. The last good military helicopter flight sim was the Apache vs Havoc series starting from 2000. The last good one before that was Jane's Longbow 2 from the mid-90's. Honestly, the last good, major crop of flight sims were from the late 90's or 2000.

Will the Minmei doll sing a Mari Ijima song or... "To be in looove?"

X-Com Interceptor was the space flight version. X-Com Alliance was the shooter, IIRC, but I never tried it.

I'm afraid I'll be drifting Off Topic, but I feel I need to say this. It's not my style, but there are enough guys that do not think much of women. I have a good friend that I still hang around with since I first joined the Marines. He treated the girls he was with like complete trash. He was great with his friends, but his girl? Hell no. He did some really bad stuff for the "relationships" let's just say, on a regular, repeated basis. I was always amused by this. My style was nowhere near like his and I had trouble retaining a girl Him? Different girl all the time, all treated the same, and each coming back for more Heh, go figure. Anyways, I don't hate. I congradulate.

Fallout 3, eh? We'll see how this turns out, since the original Fallout was really great. I also look forward to going back to my Fallout playstyle. Be polite, goody-two-shoes, and diplomatic until my character has been insulted or wronged. When that happens, the big guns come out. My sidekick dog also (remember Dogmeat?). Roam the wastelands as a gunslinger, righting wrongs, and kicking alot of a** along the way It would also be awesome to see this description again: "Raider was critically hit in the eyes for 143 point of damage and dies instantly, unfortunatly he doesn't have time to enjoy the air rushing towards his brain." Hooray for the "Bloodymess" Perk!

I loved X-Com Apocalypse. It was really the only X-Com game I had alot of experience in. I never played Terror From The Deep. I never saw it in any stores. Same thing with the original X-Com, and this was the mid 90's. At that time, Apocalypse was new, so it was easy to find. I was introduced to the franchise pretty much half-way through it's time. Now, like I said, I never played the original. But the real-time criticization I've read and heard of Apocalypse, is it aimed at the tactical (troopers, urban maps, etc) or the geoscape? The geoscape was real time. The tactical game was toggable to real-time or turn-based. Me and my friend tried real-time and it wasn't to our liking. But you could select turn-based in your options, and that's where the fun was The tactical game did suffer in that you didn't get vehicles for the tactical gameplay like tanks. Yes, you could get tanks, but only for the geoscape. Fallout - One of the first PC games I ever bought. I had my first computer when I was stationed on Okinawa. I can still remember the level of immersion that game presented. It oozed style and supported a wide variety of gameplay. You could be a heavy handed brute, a sharpshooting gunman, or a smooth-talking character. What's funny is if you roll a female character with a good appearance. Lots more "options" and dialogue Simply put, my style of play for Fallout was: Speak softly and carry a biiiiiig stick (gun) and I would go far. Nothing that a whole inventory full of ammo couldn't solve. Especially the groin shots. Or a critical hit from a Laser Rifle. Or a critical hit from an automatic weapon. Awesome death animations...

It's even more ridiculous when you consider this franchise was allowed to be ran into the dirt The last official X-Com game was in about 1998, X-Com Interceptor, and it was awful. My friend who introduced me to the franchise had it... and it was "bleh."

Completely true! Model's undergoing a W.I.P., combined with the tools, paint, and assorted modelling equipment do not make beautiful sights (except for the builder and other modellers). Oh, and the paint smell, too... and the tools laying around. Lots of chicks don't like seeing tools laying around. Once you do get a "Man Room," you're set. You can display your hobby collections, have a place to work in, etc. The perfect place to store and display your geek items also, i.e. Star Wars stuff and such. These rooms work great since it allows you to display your stuff AND it's all confined into one room so the stuff does not get scattered. Wouldn't the proper name be your own "Geek Room?"

Troubled production, at such an early stage. Kind of funny actually if it wasn't so pathetic

So... if they're reairing the full thing, what was not suitable to be shown for the "best possible version" to begin with?

Oh, there would be "seeding" alright

Only when I play video games In real life affairs?... I'll do a Bill Clinton. Define "sick."

(Lame Joke) "Hey pilot, is that a Gun Pod in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Overly long development usually results in really bad games. When the development takes so long, there's usually alot of drama going in the background, like lots of people leaving (big turnovers), different publishers with different expectations on how they want the final product to be, etc. Again, Daikatana is the prime example. That game had way too much stupid s**t going during development, including ridiculous, expensive luxuries for the team. End result was the greatest laughing stock in FPS history to be released. And it still is, IMO.

From my X-Com Apocalypse experience with capturing: At around the mid-portion of the game you could acquire a sort of short ranged Stun Gun that doesn't work 100% of the time. It works against humans and aliens alike. If it works, the target becomes incapacitated for a varied number of turns, but they WILL get up given time. The average "blue" humanoid-like aliens were easy to stun if you got a shot. Same goes with any humanoid-like ones, even the flying-psi-capable ones. But the face-crawler-thingies that jump onto a person's face and take control were small and tremendously fast. Using the Stun Gun on them was quite difficult and usually failed due to misses. Apocalypse did present an "Ace." Gas Grenades that incapacitate. Its effects were 50% immediately effective. If the targets lingered for another turn, they were usually down afterwards. Just like the Stun Gun effects, the targets will recover given time once the gas dissipates. Once the targets are incapacitated, I usually have a nooblet trooper go in and disarm the opposition while other troopers cover him. This goes for alien and human opponents alike. It was a good way to ensure I captured strange alien artifacts for my scientists when I get back. It was also insurance just in case the mission "involves more fire and explosions than usual" afterwards, which may result in the destruction of alien / human equipment that could otherwise be seized. It is also possible to incapacitate the enemy from normal fire, but it's of course not the reliable means to seize an NPC. Another good piece of fun: Incapacitating your opponents, run in and seize all weapons, stand back in a firing squad. When they come to, they panic since they have no weapons. Then my X-Com troopers shoot them. If I get tired, and they still don't wake up, execute them. But usually, at the very least, I retain 1 captured specimen per alien type for research. The rarer types that are incapacitated are taken prisoner usually (like the flying psi-capable ones). The common ones like the blue humanoid-thingies, usually don't fare better. There's generally lots of them. My troopers will execute all "blue" ones except for 2. But even the "rule of 2" isn't a guarantee for survival. 1 will be observed by the scientists. The other 1 will eventually be "examined" on a cold slab Another good piece of fun 2: Incapacitate your opponents, run in and seize all weapons and gear, have someone run to the middle of the enemy group, set a demo pack to go off in 2 turns, then run away. In 2 turns, that's when they start waking up. When they do, say hello to Mr.Demo Pack and their alien ancestors, and tell 'em X-Com sent ya. Another good piece of fun 3: Just like the above two. Only difference is that I set fire to the area with the incapacitated enemy. I sit back, wait. If anyone wakes up and runs out of the fire (and usually have caught on fire and in panic), my troopers shoot them. Give them the "Aalya Secura Treament" of many shots. Another good piece of fun 4: Incapacitate them as usual. Disarm them as usual. Go to a target, set a Demo Pack to blow in 2 turns, place the demo pack in the enemy's equivalent of a backpack. Run far away and seek cover. They'll wake up and then...

Both systems are quite capable. The big differences will be the game libraries. That's what will seperate these 2 eventually *(IMO). I also tend to think that Japanese developed games will be more predominant in the PS2 since Sony is afterall a Japanese company and they have had a long history of big libraries ever since the PS1. If you're a big fan of games originating from Japan, this may be a significant deal. Heck, even the PS2 is still going very strong despite the newer gen consoles. * - Still early, IMO. I know the PS3 is nowhere near as successful as it's predecessor, but it hasn't been out there as long as the 360. I know the 360 did well here on release in the USA, but in Japan? It was collecting dust (I was on deployment in Japan during its release and had some fellow Marines looking into them out in town). Time will tell how the PS3, Wii, and 360 perform in sales.

I first saw the picture on a book talking about the Tomcats' history and its extensive Hollywood-level of publicity. But the image shown on my previous reply was from another forum I frequent. The same forum that gave us this!

As someone mentioned not long ago: ROBOTECH Anyways, I didn't catch Fox's "take" on Escaflowne. I recall seeing it broadcast in 1999 or 2000, something like that here in the USA but I didn't watch it since it was the dubbed version (I'm a subbed loyalist). Two other reasons I bypassed it on TV: - I saw it on a training excercise via my roommate's VHS tapes in 1998. - American TV, espec. at that time, had a nasty habit for butchering transferred anime's for broadcast. I'm glad I saw the regular Japanese & subbed version. The later movie can't even touch those works.