Ashura

Laugh, man. Laugh. Laughing can make you feel great. Do something stupid (within the law) and laugh at how stupid you are. Do it with mates if you can. The more the merrier. I've gone through some hard times too, and laughing got me through them. I'm not gonna vote either way, but it would hurt so bad if I lost a friend as close as yours was. So I'd say to take it slow. See if she still wants to be just friends first. If she does, be a friend. Nothing else. Work from there, but take it slow. BTW, I think she may have forgiven you. Apologise anyway if it will make you feel better, but if she's a true friend I don't think she would have held a grudge this long.

The Max Payne series has an amazing amount of diagnetic music/sounds (especially Max Payne 2). Right from the start of MP1, Max hears [SPOILER]the begging of his wife from another room during a flashback, and then after a small amount of progress hears her scream as the sound of bullets hitting flesh indicate the quietening of her screams for help.[/SPOILER] Absolutely amazing, and very important to the overall package of Max Payne and Max's story. The game wouldn't be the same without it. Also, Max Payne 2 has the same deal, yet taken even further. In a nightmare, Max [SPOILER]runs through a jail, hearing different versions of himself representing different emotions like fear, hate, insanity, and remorse speaking about what they feel and what they fear (you do see them as you go up the corridor, but you hear them before you see them).[/SPOILER] Walking up that corridor is one of the deepest and creepiest moments in gaming I have ever experienced. Developers need to realise that diagnetic music/sound is just as important as any other element of a game.

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']EDIT: since you wanted recommendations, I undestand that Doom 3 for X-Box will have a co-op mode. Isn't that freaking sweet? I'm going insane over it. If there's anything more fun than playing that game in the dark it's gotta be playing it in the dark with a friend. Preferably a hot chick friend who is good at FPSs but easily frightened.[/quote] IMHO, I believe that the single player experience in the Doom 3 style of game would be easier to get scared in (as games like these are always scarier when you're by yourself), and that seems to be a big premise of the game. Although, I agree that co-op with a hot chick friend who is good at FPSs but easily frightened would top that easily!

From the immortal words of Barney: "I like it!". If you want to see some other good examples of sprite ripping, visit [url]http://sfghq.emulationzone.org[/url] (The Sonic Fan Games HQ). Also, I would suggest sending these to the guys there Eggman, but add your name underneath, so people know that you ripped them. Also, ripping some of the main characters from Sonic Adventure 3 would be a good idea, as they'll get you quite a few brownie points with a lot of Sonic Fan Game creators. :D BTW, I'm not sure whether suggesting other sites is actually allowed outside of signatures, so if I've done something wrong, could someone please inform me so I don't make the same mistake again?

[quote name='Xyandar']hmmm.... I only know of the band named CKY lol...[/quote] The band CKY actually does about half the music for the CKY show. The other half is done by a great band named 'Him'. Bam Margera's brother, Jess, is actually a member of the band CKY, so Bam was allowed to call the show by the same name. Also, just as a bit of trivia, Bam's 'Heartagram' logo was actually borrowed from the band 'Him'. See, I'm like a well of useless trivia!

[quote name='Darius_Stomu']Over the years, I have realized this same thing. But the thing is, LP isn't something you can easily discard...at least it is to me. I have been listening to LP since I was, maybe, 10 and when I heard 'In The End', I felt my suicide tendency to withdraw. I didn't know why but I just dropped the knife and listened the song...so...really, LP is one of the few things keeping here.[/quote] I kinda know what you mean, Darius_Stomu. 'Somewhere I Belong' and 'Crawling' mean more to me than anyone will ever know. Especially 'Crawling'.

Yeah, I guess it was an alright game. But I really wasn't a 'Sonic' game. Throw any other generic characters in instead of Sonic ones, and the game would be worse than Croc. The great thing about the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Advance games is that the game requires the characters in it for it to be excellent (instead of just great), while Sonic Heroes needs the characters in it for it to be good whatsoever. The only reason I toughed the game out was because it was a Sonic game...plus I knew that the last boss battle would be absolutely amazing!

For old-school games, I'd have to say the music from the Sonic games (although, I'm just slightly biased!). I am constantly humming this at school, pissing everyone off! Second would have to be the Mario Bros theme. Man, that is catchy! For new-school games, I believe that both Kingdom Hearts and Shenmue (especially Shenmue 2) take this award together. Both had wonderful music that always matched the action happening on screen, whether it was a huge fight or a really sad moment [SPOILER](like Sora losing Kairi again at the end of Kingdom Hearts after fighting so hard to get her back...*sniff*)[/SPOILER]. Truly awesome. Ooh! I forgot to mention Initial D! The music in this game is truly amazing. The music in this is less dramatic (as its for a racing game, not one with sad moments like the previous two) but it matches the action perfectly! I can't imagine Initial D without Space Boy or Gamble Rumble...*sigh*. *goes off to play Initial D again*

[quote name='Zidargh']Anyway, I hope you realise the Shenmue series is going to be (and hopefully will be) 6 games long. They can't just climax something in the first game if it's going to continue. I personally thought Shenmue had a better ending than Shenmue II. Don't even mention Shenmue in this thread about 'crappiest games', even with the ending, the game never dissappointed me and I loved every minute of it, heh. ^_~[/quote] I didn't actually say that Shenmue was crap. Out of every single game that I bought (about 25) for the ol' DC, Shenmue was the only one that disappointed me in [U]any[/U] way. The game was brilliant. I just felt that at the end of the game, you hadn't accomplished anything. The beauty of Shenmue 2 was that you felt like you were getting closer and closer to Lan Di, [SPOILER]only to have him snatched from your grasp at the end of part 2[/SPOILER]. This is one of my favorite events in any game I have ever played. Shenmue just jerked with my emotions like a game of 'keepings off' with the smallest kid not able to even reach the ball as it whizzes over his head just out of his grasp. The gameplay did not disappoint me whatsoever. And the proof of that was that I went out and bought Shenmue 2 as soon as I could afford it. Also, from the poor sales that the Shenmue has been having (well, not really poor, but not enough to regain the amount of money spent producing it), it looks like the 14 or so chapters that Yu Suzuki wanted for the Shenmue story may all be shoved into the next 1 or 2 games, which is a sad thing to hear indeed. I have always loved the Shenmue series (and always will), but out of all the games I owned on Dreamcast, it was the only one that disappointed me in any aspect. I just want to make that clear. :)

MegaDrive - Ooh, out of the 50 or so games I own, I would have to say that Shaq Fu was the worst. By far. I still have nightmares of that game. Oh, well, it only cost me $5, so I can't complain too much... Dreamcast - This is a hard one, because all my games that I had played/bought on the almighty DC were all pretty good. The only one that I could consider bad on any faucet...is Shenmue. Now, Shenmue was an awesome game, no doubt. The ending, on the other hand, was crap. When I play a game for three days straight, only stopping for food, drink, sleep, and toilet breaks, I expect a decent ending. I expect to have accomplished something. [Spoiler] Ryo gets on a boat at the end. That's it. [/Spoiler] Everything on the way was (basically) worthless. [Spoiler] I bashed up some creepy guy who seemed to be in the game just for the hell of it, I spent ages lugging around damn crates, I even rescued a girl (can't remember her name) quite a few times, and didn't get anywhere near even smelling Lan Di.[/Spoiler] Shenmue 2 made up for this with an awesome ending, but it will never remove the crapiness of Shenmue 1's ending. GameBoy Advance - Sonic Adventure. What a huge disappointment. I guess I may have been expecting too much, being a diehard Sonic fan and all. Sonic Adventure 2 was a huge improvement, and its looking like SA3 is going to be awesome, but SA1 was still disappointing. XBox - Sonic Heroes. Need I say more? PC - Uh, a really bad 2 player Pong game that I made in 5 minutes. Does that count?

It doesn't actually offend me in the slightest, but I do know people who thought that CKY took it too far. I actually enjoy CKY quite a bit. I just wanted to know whether other people thought about it and the more 'adult' stunts.

We all know that Jackass is fairly entertaining to most people. There's no denying that. But if anyone has seen CKY (basically a more adult version by the the majority of the Jackass crew) there are some quite disturbing stunts performed that most people would consider unnecessary. I was just wondering about everyone's view on this.

I've played it a little at the arcade we've got, but I've been spending my money on Initial D Arcade Stage 1 & 2 for the most part (plus it was pretty embarrassing how bad I was). But after playing a freeware fanmade version called 'Delight Delight Reduplication' on PC, my interest has been respawned and I might have a go on friday! [quote name='Mage15]Yeah, my firends and I are super...[I]SUPER[/I'] ddr freaks. We download songs ont mp3 cd's so we can listen to like 200 songs, we got japanese DDR Extreme and ddr max2 for better songs, and we even made our own home pads (metal). Like i said...we're freaks and love it :D[/quote] Wow! How did you make your own pads? How much did it end up costing you? [quote name='OtakuSennen']Well, at least with Karaoke Revolution for the PlayStation 2, people can use their PS2 Online Accounts to download new songs. Given, they are rather poor American songs for the most part, but the same method is used in Xbox's DDR Ultra Mix, if I have my stories straight.[/quote] DDR's on XBox? Sounds pretty good to me! Has it been released outside of Japan? I have no idea because I live in Australia and I haven't seen it around yet.

Yeah, I've seen it. One of my favorite movies, but Bam does hog the screentime unneedingly (is that a word?), as Rikku said.

Uh...does the music in Initial D count? I'm not really sure if it's counted as JPop.

[quote name='Syk3][color=#30415d']As for Sonic avatars, we have a good batch of Sonix X up already.[/color][/quote] Yeah, I know. But I have quite a few great images from the Archie Comics that would look good. If you don't want me to, I won't. But I believe they would be a good addition.

From the looks of things, with the health being displayed outside of battles, this might be the end of random battles. Also, with seeing enemies on screen before you battle them, this may mean that if you can manage to stay away from them, you could avoid battles, Pokemon-style. Hmm...

Just a warning Neptunecat13, Sonic Heroes is bad. Really bad. The only reason I bought it was because I needed it for my Sonic collection. There is ridiculous slowdown (well, at least on the XBox and PS2 version), and the gameplay is horrible. One of the best features of Sonic Adventure 1&2 was the Sonic/Shadow levels, the other characters' levels were kinda poor. The problem with Sonic Heroes is that they've thrown in the other two 'unfun' characters, ruining the sense of speed the Sonic-style levels had in previous games. You'll get to a spot where it looks like you can just let loose and speed off with Sonic, and then you'll get to a point where you have to switch to either Knuckles or Tails to slowly deal with some crappy enemies. It ruins anything that this game could have had going for it. Obviously, it's ultimately down to you, Neptunecat13, but you won't enjoy Sonic Heroes much whatsoever. Also, if you enjoyed the demo (which I never got to play) you may enjoy the full version, but remember, the game gets frustratingly hard. And not hard that you go "Damn! I guess I'll try something different this time", I mean "Damn! That's my 20th life that I've lost because the game mechanics screwed me over. I think I might go play something that's actually fun...".

Wow, this topic is getting deep. I applaud you all, as normally these sorts of topics (in any form, whether it be verbal or posted somewhere) tend to end up in a bad way, with people having a go at each other and trying to force their view down everyone else's throats. I also agree with Desbreko's viewpoint for the most point. I believe myself to be a 'hardcore' gamer, not just for the ridiculous amount of time that I spend playing video games, but also for the research I do into a game before I go out and buy it. I am a subscriber to Hyper Magazine (an Aussie gaming mag) because of their comprehensive reviews and previews, as well as their very detailed looks into the various faucets of the gaming industry as a whole. I normally always make an informed choice when it comes to video games, and this is because I do my research. Yes, I did say 'normally'. I'll recently bought a game that was pretty bad (and I actually knew this when I bought it) - I'm a huge Sonic fan, so I went out and bought Sonic Heroes recently, mainly just to make my collection complete. Because of my previous knowledge found through my research and also common knowledge, I knew that it was going to be bad. But, regardless, I went and bought it, and as I predicted it was bad. But I was (partially) happy with my purchase as I mainly just wanted it for my collection. Now, this raises two issues. Some people would claim that my choice was not warranted, therefore removing the 'hardcore' title that I have. But if I was happy with my choice, considering the fact that I did my research and found it worthy of a purchase, if only to include in my Sonic game collection, should I still be considered 'hardcore'? The second issue is this: I spend my hard earned money on a game that I knew was bad, basically just for the reason of having it in my collection. As I bought the game not for the gameplay, but just for the reason of having it, should I be considered a normal gamer because I bought the game for a different reason for what most hardcore gamers would consider a decent reason? Your thoughts please...

Alright! Another Sonic fan! Nope, I haven't played it yet, but I'm really excited about it. I'm gonna wait until its released (I live in Australia, so it could be at any time) and enjoy its greatness! I was hoping for Shadow to be in this one, but most people seem to assume that he would just be a clone of Sonic gameplay-wise. But he was completely different to Sonic in Sonic Battle, so it could be done. Anyway, should be good! Is it just me, or does that robot look alot like Emerl from Sonic Battle? It could be a predecessor to Eggman's 'Phi' line of robots. Hmm... BTW, do you know the release date for SA3? I have no idea whatsoever, and I'll need to save for it.

Just a question. Can we make requests? I'll make sure to make up some Sonic based avatars! :D

That's great! I'm very happy for you and your friend :) . Can I make a suggestion? (you don't have to accept it). You may not need to resort to counselling, but at least spend some time talking to someone about it. I had a very **** year when I was in Year 7, and I really would have liked someone to talk to about what I was going through. Actually, I like to have someone to talk to a lot of the time. It just allows you to sort things out, even if you don't think you need to. As others have said before, I believe that your friend is in a very vulnerable state at the moment, and needs your support. Don't force it upon your friend, but just be there as a shoulder to lean on. It'll make a huge difference. Although, since year 7 I've been ridiculously overprotective of my friends, so my views may be different to most people, but do I know that the support of a friend can mean the world to someone.

From what has been reported from a number of sources, Capcom is not exactly happy with their deal with Nintendo regarding Resident Evil, as their games have not been selling as well as they expected them to. I has been reported that after Resident Evil 0, Capcom will go back to producing Resident Evil for PS2 (or maybe PS3) and there is a chance that they may produce for XBox as well. Yes, Capcom has been getting a nearly ridiculous amount of support from Nintendo, they just aren't happy with the moolah they're making from the Resident Evil liscense on GameCube. Pretty sad, actually, but that's business.

[quote name='Shadow Wolf][b][font=Comic Sans MS][color=blue]I'm sorry, but that Anime is just dumb! I love the theme song, but the voice acting is horrible and it's retarded! I am a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, but when they came out with that, I just ugh! Lost my heart into it. Sonic Adventure and DX weren't so great either! I couldn't stand watching all the glitches and stuff, so I switched the characters' voices to Japanese. I liked the American series Sonic Underground. That was tight. I liked Manic!:laugh: The way he was always jacking stuff![/color][/font'][/b][/quote] I think that Sonic Underground was horrible. Adding two extra characters that did nothing for the Sonic liscense was one of the stupidest moves they could make, and the music/singing each episode was cringe-worthy. Those two helper guys of Eggman/Robotnik's were boring and had no carisma (at least Scratch and Grounder were interesting in TAoStH (The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)) and the voices were painful to hear. I was a complete mockery of the Sonic liscense as a whole. That's just my opinion though. I haven't had a chance to see Sonic X yet (as its not being shown in Australia yet), but I'll see if I can get ahold of some episodes so I can see how bad it is.

I played the demo 3 times when the XBox Hummer was touring around Australia and I'd have to say it is one of the best tennis games I have ever played. This one even tops Sega's Virtua Tennis in my opinion. I'll be looking into buying it after I've bought everything else on my 'to buy' list, so I probably won't get it until 2005! But yeah, really fun game. And best of all, you need no knowledge of the game of Tennis whatsoever, which means I have more people who will be willing to play against me! (It may help, as my knowledge of different tactics and stuff gave me a slight upper hand in the 3 matches I had, but it's not necessary)