Desbreko

[b]Update: 08/05/07[/b] [list] [*][b]Categories Added:[/b] Lucky Star, Pieces of a Spiral [*][b]Avatars Added:[/b] Bleach (2), Death Note (14), Final Fantasy (3), Lucky Star (24), Pieces of a Spiral (11), Television Series (44) [/list] [color=#4B0082]I finally got around to doing another update. I kept putting it off because I was always thinking I was going to make some more avatars myself as well but that only ended up happening today. (And there are still a couple more series I'd like to do some for.) So the Lucky Star ones are from me, the rest are submissions. Adding avatars is so much faster and easier now that I have FTP access and the avatars folder is all cleaned up and organized, though. It makes the Des happy. :catgirl: Oh yeah, and I wanted to mention that gif is the preferred format for avatars, especially anime ones. They're smaller in file size than jpg most of the time and they usually look just as good. I only use jpg when I can't get one to look good as a gif—usually when the avatar has some form of color gradient in it that needs more than 256 colors to not look grainy.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]New Members (i.e. people with less than 50 posts), with the exception of accounts that have had less than 50 posts since before version 7 began, aren't displayed on the Members List. Having funky characters in your user name doesn't matter.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I think we should try to avoid redundancy in forum names. "Otaku Entertainment" would be doubly redundant due to it being on OtakuBoards and in the Entertainment category. It kind of defeats the purpose of the forum name. That said, I'm not sure there is a decent single name that could encompass everything. I'd be more inclined to simply note in the forum description that it can also be used to discuss performing arts and such.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I still play occasionally, though not nearly as much as I used to. I've kind of gotten bored with the game since I don't have much left that I care to do until Eye of the North is released. My main character is still Arik Desbreko and you can see my full list on my [url=http://www.wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Desbreko][u]GW Wiki user page[/u][/url]. Give me a holler on AIM if you see me online and want to do something in game. I have leet skillz so just ask if you need help with a mission or something. :cool: I'm on the American servers but we can meet in international districts if needed.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I would actually recommend playing OoT first anyway, though you probably will be able to find the Collector's Edition disc cheaper; TP is still $50 new. OoT is a great game but going from TP to OoT might make it feel a bit underwhelming. It's a much smaller game, both in terms of map size and length. And, like I've mentioned, the combat and general play control feels dated compared to TP.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It's worth noting that Tombstone put the thread in the thread directory as the GameCube hardware thread, so it's not just for recommendations. I don't see anything wrong with comparing two games that appear on the system. But whatever. We had it out over AIM and I'm bored with the discussion once more. The last GCN game I bought was Tales of Symphonia, also close to about two years ago I think. It was already a player's choice title at that point so I got it cheap. . . . Still haven't actually beaten it. I'm getting pretty bad at leaving RPGs unfinished. :animedepr I still playing SSBM more than anything. It's in my Wii right now, in fact, and I fire it up every now and then.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Wow. Just wow. Episode 16 raised the bar yet again. It even beat the SFII reference. I was laughing so much my eyes were watering. The whole episode is simply made of pure, unadulterated win. Spoilers for all past this point. It would be a crime to have this stuff spoiled, as half the hilarity comes from the spontineity of things, but I can't help expounding on its awesomeness.[/color] [spoiler]The Mikuru theme as Konata's new ringtone started the episode off perfectly. Then the conversations in the first half turned out to be some of the better ones so far. Plus Miyuki finally shows up again, and she's adorable in the flashbacks. (Yes, I do have a thing for light pink hair.) Konata's, "No motivation! Wanna play! Rely on others in a pinch!" was great, too. I think everyone can identify with that.[/spoiler] :p [spoiler]The second half is where the episode really just slaps you upside the head with its awesome, though. First Tsukasa being mistaken for Akari from To Heart and then?OMFG Konata dressed as Haruhi and alternately between the two characters' voices on the fly. I was laughing through the entire cosplay cafe part, especially with Hare Hare Yukai topping it off.[/spoiler] [spoiler]The scene outside the nurse's office and the look on Minami's face after Konata patted her on the butt was priceless. . . . And that's all I have to say about that. lol[/spoiler]

[center][img]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9665/futonjpad8.jpg[/img] [img]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6485/futonuspu2.jpg[/img][/center] [color=#4B0082]All your language are belong to us.[/color]

[quote name='The Blue Jihad']See, the problem with TP was that they were trying to use a more subtle style of animation, but handled it so clumsily that the characters looked and smiled like they were fresh out of a lobotomy. If given the choice between simple yet vibrant facial expressions (OoT) and lobotomy patients (TP) there's just no contest.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Again, have you actually played OoT recently? Characters have, at most, three facial expressions that are just as dumb looking as TP's: blank stare, stupid grin, and sad/shocked. That close-up of Zelda smiling at you when you first go meet her and agree to help looked so bad it made me grimace.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Remember, though. TP has a boss fight where there's [I]a monkey slapping his ***[/I]. The best boss fight in TP was when you got to use the Spinner. Everything else was absolute dogshit, both in terms of design and difficulty. Oh, and at least even the sillier bosses in OoT still managed to seem just a bit threatening. I'll give you the Spinner boss, whatever his name was. That was a fun boss fight. Other than that, though? OoT's Volvagia Whack-a-mole blows it all away, and you know it.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Come on, you know you loved the ***-slapping baboon. I thought Argorok (the dragon) was the best TP boss fight. Stallord's pinball-like first round with the Spinner was fun but the second part was a bit annoying. Volvagia is definitely my top pick from OoT and Barinade is also pretty good, but the rest don't seem any better to me than TP's bosses. Bongo Bongo made me go, "WTF is that? I thought it was supposed to be some horrible shadow monster," before I laughed and completely owned it.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']It's not an improvement, though. All that happened was they added in 10x the amount of land space and barely any extra content. The land space:content ratio got skewed even further in TP. There's more to do in the desert? Yeah, but think about how much larger they made the desert. Adding in a few tidbits means nothing when there's even more dead space than previous games.[/quote][color=#4B0082]You must not be looking very hard if you're not finding much more stuff than in OoT. There's a lot more things out in the overworld in TP, from pieces of heart, to poes, to bugs, to rupees. Granted, you're practically swimming in rupees the entire game, but I still enjoy finding all the little secrets.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Yeah, but nothing in the series short of the Triforce gathering in TWW has grinded the game to a frigging halt like in TP.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Dude, there's no comparison between the Triforce hunting and the wolf sections. The wolf sections are short and there's only three of them spread out across the first third of the game, rather than taking hours and all being packed together at the end.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Slightly? Dude, there's a fricking bridge missing that forces you to go the long way around for easily a chunk of the first third of the game. And regarding your bit about Navi. That was one character and we wanted to maim her horribly for "HEY LISTEN!" In TP, that "HEY LISTEN!" basically became the entire game. On leaving the forest in OoT, a couple of pieces of heart and a bottle kick the shat out of...well, being unable to do anything in TP.[/quote][color=#4B0082]You mean the Bridge of Eldin? All it takes is beating the next dungeon and then going to the desert to fix it. Hardly a large chunk of the game. And after that you can also fix the bridge missing on the west side of Hyrule Castle Town.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']You don't see how it's a big deal when a 1998 game features some open-ended design? Switching up the dungeon order is a novelty? Try it sometime. Do Water Temple before Forest Temple. Go into the Forest Temple with the Zora Tunic, Iron Boots, and the Longshot. It's frigging awesome. Oh, and novelty...that's coming from a guy who's recorded himself beating which bosses without taking a hit? Yeaaa...I think you don't really have any room to talk here. lol[/quote][color=#4B0082]I'm pretty sure it's impossible to complete the Water Temple before getting the bow. There are eye switches that you have to shoot in order to get a couple of the keys. You can go in and get the Longshot, sure, but it's a waste of time if you're just going to have to hike back through it later. And yes, completing dungeons out of order is a novelty. It's something I might do if I decide to play the game again but it hardly sways my decision to play back through in the first place. Same with making the recordings. I'm playing OoT again primarily because I just wanted to; the recordings are a fun thing to do on the side.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']No, its combat is mush because of that. More enemies and more moves mean nothing if the combat itself is sloppy as hell. Ignoring the fact that Link's movement is all relative and never absolute when in combat, which makes a side-hop a pain in the ***, most of the special moves themselves needed a lot more development time. Even something like the shield bash was implemented so clumsily and poorly that I question its very inclusion.[/quote][color=#4B0082]You really need to go back and play OoT again. lol The sword swing and sidestep controls are all just as relative in OoT as they are in TP. Go try fighting Dark Link and see how many times you try to do a horizontal slash but end up stabbing instead, or try to sidestep but jump attack instead. Trust me, it'll be a lot. Each special move in TP has its place and situations where it's useful. If you find them to be sloppy I'd say it's for lack of effort in figuring out how to use them properly. It's more difficult than in TWW where it does things for you automatically, and it took me a while to get good with some of them, but they can work just as well.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']What? You...in OoT you're annoyed that you use your items to explore...and...there's more exploration than...combat? Or did you want to use the items a bit more in combat?[/quote][color=#4B0082]I mean I find it sad that combat, which was half of what Zelda was about before OoT came along, got shunned to the point of there being only a few token enemies scattered around. Your sword should always be your most used item in a Zelda game because there should be plenty of things to kill. And thankfully that's been mostly fixed in TWW and TP because there are a lot more enemies.[/color] [quote name='Goodbye, Face'][font=arial][size=1]Guys, guys. Come on! You've already had your long-*** Zelda argument.[/font][/size][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]I'm bored and don't have anything else to do on OB. And besides, that was all about the Wii version's sword control; this is a general comparison of TP and OoT.[/color]

[quote name='The Blue Jihad']In TP, we had one solid character. Midna. She stole the game. Then again, that's not very hard to do when there was absolutely nothing being done with the rest of the cast. Link had two facial expressions with nothing in-between. Zelda, nothing remarkable. The nameless, faceless tertiary citizens of Hyrule might as well had not even been in the game.[/quote][color=#4B0082]You actually like the generic, "You're a hero, please save us/thanks for saving us!" dialogue that every last character in OoT spews out? It sounded epic and exciting back when I was eleven, sure, but now it sounds like the script is taken straight out of a children's picture book, with the exception of Sheik's lines. I thought TP's cast had a lot more personality; from the cowardly little kid to the busty bartender and her cat, most of their lines felt a lot less forced.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']None of the villains (bosses included) had any personality, either. Or when a boss did show some sort of flair, he was [spoiler]a monkey slapping his ***[/spoiler]. That's not funny. It's not amusing. It's just lame. And really, the Ganon/Zant backstory was just as terrible. I mean, who the hell cares about some Stargate extra being used as a puppet? I sure don't. Especially when Ganon is (and always has been) the ultimate bad-*** in the Zelda series. Even the persistent enemies in TP suffered from lack of creative refinement. They looked like frigging Tron rejects, for crying out loud...but had none of the sinister aura we saw in that movie.[/quote][color=#4B0082]OoT's bosses are okay but most don't seem like anything special to me. Volvagia is pretty cool I suppose, but Argorok was just as fun to fight. And Bongo Bongo is just downright silly. The story with Zant was basically the same thing we saw back in A Link to the Past with Agahnim, just fleshed out a little more. Anyone with any decent knowledge of the Zelda series will be able to see the whole puppet thing coming from the time they beat the Water Temple and I don't think we were supposed to care much about Zant in the first place. I personally laughed my *** off when he turned out to be such a little wanker. And at least TP's story didn't just rehash LttP's like OoT did. The fact that there are persistent enemies at all in TP is an improvement.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']And boy were the landscapes in TP flat and boring. There was a lot of ground there (much more than in OoT) but most of it was just straight-up dead space. I mean, take TP's Hyrule Field, for example. Yeah, that's a big chunk of land, but it was almost completely empty, save for those random rocks and trees. Granted, even OoT's Hyrule Field had its share of random rocks and trees, but at least OoT's limitations were hardware-related. In TP it's due to sloppy and lazy design. What's the attraction in a huge field with nothing in it? And that field issue persists throughout the game. The forests end up being segmented chunks of floor with maybe a stump or two in each room. The desert was painfully empty...even for a desert.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Compared to some other games the landscape in TP might be kind of barren, but compared to OoT it's still an improvement. There are more little caves and secrets that aren't just that generic room with a few bushes, a fish, some bee hives, and a chest that you see [i]everywhere[/i] in OoT. The desert, for example, isn't as empty as you might think; there's a fair amount of stuff scattered around it, including the Cave of Ordeals, if you look. Certainly more than OoT's desert had to offer.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Normally that wouldn't be [I]too[/I] bad, but the game has ****ing terrible pacing. Whether it's the fetch-quest bits with the wolf that just grind the game to a halt, having to circumnavigate the [I]long way[/I] around because a bridge got knocked out, or the completely forced dungeon order, it's all mind-numbingly restrictive.[/quote][color=#4B0082]I liked the wolf sections. They made you think about how to reach places and do things in wolf form, working around your limitations and making use of your new abilities. Classic Zelda-style environmental puzzles with a new twist. Sure, they were fetch quests at their core but if you want to get anal over that, that's all Zelda games are to begin with. You collect Triforce pieces/crystals/instruments/medallions/whatever so you can beat the final baddie and that's that. The overworld in TP is slightly more restricted than in OoT, I'll give you that. But really, it's not like you aren't led around by the hand in OoT either. (Hey! Listen!) It's still pointless to go to areas before you're supposed to because, even if you can get there, you can't do anything. So sure, you can run around to Kakariko Village, Gerudo Valley, Lake Hylia, and Zora's River right after leaving the forest, but all you can do is collect a couple pieces of heart and a bottle a little early. And being able to do the Fire/Water Temples and Shadow/Spirit Temples in either order (Forest Temple has to come first to get the bow) doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. They're still the same dungeons no matter what order you do them in. Completing them out of order is a novelty, nothing more.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Dungeon-wise, the Water Temple in TP was way too watered-down (no pun intended) to hold a candle to OoT's. Generally, all of the dungeons felt watered-down. And not to harp on this point, but TP had some of the most embarrassing boss fights I've ever played *cough*Forest Temple*cough*[/quote][color=#4B0082]TP's Water Temple doesn't even try to follow the same design as OoT's Water Temple. It's more akin to the Spirit Temple, with its two distinct halves. We're in agreement about TP's boss fights being stupidly easy. But they were big and fun to kill?something I can't say for a few of OoT's bosses. Even on my first time through I was disappointed by King Dodongo, Morpha, Bongo Bongo, and Ganon.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Sure, the combat in OoT is ancient by today's standards. But in all honesty, everything else kicks the shat out of TP. And sure, OoT's combat is much simpler. Sure, TP added in a lot of little moves and such. But TP is worse for it, because the combat just ended up turning to mush.[/quote][color=#4B0082]The combat in OoT is horribly simple and boring. The added moves in TP bring some much needed variety to the table, along with more types of baddies; its combat is so much deeper because of that. Simply mashing the B button (or jiggling the remote depending on what version you're playing) doesn't get you nearly as far as it does in OoT. Also, I find it really sad that I use secondary items simply in traversing terrain and dungeons and not even for combat more than I do my sword in OoT. That's the biggest thing I'm thankful for that TP fixed.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']If you're suggesting a Zelda title...why wouldn't you recommend OoT?[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely recommend OoT. But, at the same time, I have to note that I find TP to be superior.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The thing that makes TWW sit even with OoT for me is that TWW's combat is much, much more fun. I can spend twenty minutes just massacring the baddies in the Shark Island cave over and over and not get bored whereas OoT has a severe lack of enemies throughout the entire game and what enemies there are are usually dinky little things you can kill in one or two hits. Difficulty, while there is a marked difference between the two, doesn't hold a lot of sway with me. OoT is already easy enough that I beat it without ever dying on my first time through?and I was only eleven years old at the time?so neither poses a decent challenge. OoT really shines when it comes to its dungeons. Nine full dungeons plus a few mini-dungeons like the Ice Cavern give OoT a definite edge over TWW. And that was my main disappointment with TWW; the huge ocean to sail around and explore was pretty cool, but it couldn't make up for only having five full and one mini dungeon. And I still don't see how you can hold OoT in such high regard while also bashing TP, Alex. TP improves on or at least breaks even with OoT in every single way. I'm playing through OoT again right now and it feels dated in so many ways. Only the dungeon design has really held up well, and that's what keeps me playing it. (Well, that along with my mission of recording some sweet boss ownage.) The simplicity of the combat and the clunkiness of the targeting especially seem so much worse after having played TP. Have you actually played OoT again since playing TP, or are you looking back through rose-colored glasses?[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I beat the Water Temple yesterday and realized something: I actually like it. The Fire and Shadow Temples are still my favorites but I think the Water Temple comes in third. It has a very nonlinear layout compared to the rest, controlling your progress with locked doors at only a few points and making you thoroughly explore to figure out how to reach the keys. It gets a lot of hate for being confusing because of that, but I've come to appreciate it because it still makes me think about what I need to do even on my third time through it. I can't just stroll through on autopilot like I can the other dungeons. I also found a way to completely abuse Dark Link's AI and kill it without ever being in danger of getting hit, using nothing but the Master Sword and Hookshot. I have a video of it up on YouTube if anyone wants to see how.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Besides the new features that members see on the surface, there's also more features for [strike]pwning noobs[/strike] moderating that make the staff's job easier. I'm just as happy to have those as the more convenient posting interface and everything else.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]My mother has expressed a bit of disapproval over anime. She's not ignorant to the point of thinking it's all porn, and since I'm 19 she generally doesn't pry into the matter, but I can tell it's one of those, "I don't know what it's like so it must not be good," reactions. So far I've quelled any complaints by bringing up the fact that nothing in the anime I watch is any worse than what she watches in movies. It's hard to argue that animated violence and maybe a bit of nudity is worse than the same done in live action.[/color]

[quote name='Juuthena'][size=1]How much do one of these sell for these days? I'm wondering how much I should regret giving mine away for free. [/size][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Zomg, it's Juu. The oldies just keep trickling back in. :wigout: GameStop.com has refurbished GameCubes for only $40. The things really are dirt cheap by now, as are a lot of its best games, so it's definitely worth picking one up some time.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Okay, I made all the necessary changes in the admin CP and put up an announcement.[/color]

[quote name='Korey'][B] Sonic Adventure 2:Battle[/B] Maybe the last great Sonic game of our generation. The multiplayer is okay and the single player adventure is good, espcially if you've already played the Dreamcast version. Good experience.[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Ew, 3D Sonic. I tried to play this game when I borrowed it from a friend but stopped half way through because I found it horribly boring apart from the Sonic and Shadow levels. And even those had camera issues along with the control being way too twitchy when you're moving fast. If you want Sonic I'd recommend [b]Sonic Mega Collection[/b] over either of the Sonic Adventure remakes. The 2D Genesis games in the collection games are much better. But this is also available on the PS2 I believe.[/color] [quote name='The Blue Jihad']Ignore TP. Ignore WW (for now).[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Shun the heretic.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The Fire Temple? I actually just beat that yesterday so it's still fresh in my mind. Where are you stuck in it? The best general advice I can give you, though, is to just look [i]everywhere[/i] for captured Gorons. Be thorough and look for little nooks and crannies that could house one of their cells. You have to rescue each one in order to progress since you get a small key out of each cell. And if you have trouble with the boss, take a look at the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eumgH9Srq3U][u]video[/u][/url] I made showing how to beat it. /shameless plug :animesmil[/color]

[color=#4B0082][b]Super Smash Bros. Melee[/b] obviously. Even people who generally don't like fighters that much (myself included) enjoy Smash Bros. [b]Zelda: Twilight Princess[/b], and also [b]The Wind Waker[/b], if you want more Zelda. I find TWW to be about as good as OoT, and TP surpasses it. And if you can manage to find a copy of the [b]Collector's Edition[/b] disc it has The Legend of Zelda (the original), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask on it. I would also recommend [b]Four Swords Adventures[/b] if you enjoy the 2D Zeldas; even in single player mode it's an excellent game. [b]Skies of Arcadia Legends[/b] and [b]Tales of Symphonia[/b] are a couple good RPGs, I highly recommend both. Especially ToS if you enjoy more action-oriented RPGs. I hear [b]Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[/b] is also good but haven't played it myself. [b]Metroid Prime[/b] is awesome, I'd definitely check it out. It feels more like an action/adventure game than an FPS and reminded me more of Super Metroid than anything else. I think GameStop has it used on their website for about $5; you can't beat that. But Metroid Prime 2: Echoes annoyed me with its dark world life draining so I never finished it. [b]F-Zero GX[/b] is a great racing game and seems to be really underrated. The story mode is stupidly difficult and barely worth completing on normal, let alone hard and very hard, but the grand prix mode is a lot of fun and has much better difficulty progression. The game has a lot of reply value with 30 different machines to use and a custom editor, too. [b]Mario Kart: Double Dash!![/b] is pretty good, but I'd recommend Mario Kart DS over it if you have a DS. All too often in DD you'll get screwed out of first place by a spiny shell on the last lap and there's nothing you can do about it. [b]Animal Crossing[/b] had me addicted to it for four months straight, but like Nerdsy said it's kind of a niche game and hard to say whether you'd like it or not. At first I thought I'd get bored with it after an hour but then I was hooked once I started playing.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Downloading ROMs is illegal regardless of whether the site charges you for them, unless it's through an official service like the Wii's Virtual Console. And you'd be getting ripped off if you paid for a ROM elsewhere, as it would be the same as buying bootleg DVDs or something like that. Though if you think there aren't ROMs of Super Mario RPG out there for download, you must not be looking very hard. lol Using a no CD key would only be illegal if you didn't own the game, I believe. All you're doing is modifying your own game without distributing it. Installing it on multiple computers in the house and using no cd keys to play them simultaneously might be a violation of the EULA but no one's going to come after you for it because, again, you're not distributing it.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I've tested this in both Firefox and IE6, and for me it always loads the HTML (which includes post text) first, then it loads images embedded in the posts and the site's layout graphics at about the same time, then it loads banners embedded in signatures, and finally avatars. There's some overlap and things don't go perfectly in order, but that's the general order things load in for me. Speaking of IE, to help reduce the amount that pages jump around when loading images, go to Tools > Internet Options, select the Advanced tab, and scroll down to the Multimedia options. Make sure the "Show image download placeholders" box is checked, as this will allocate space on the page for images before they download and keep the page from constantly lengthening as new images are loaded. And in Firefox, if you want to access pages while offline, you can. Go to File > Save Page As, select "Web Page, complete" from the save type drop-down menu, and then save the page wherever you want on your hard drive. Then you can go open that page and view it any time you want. That's all IE does when it lets you view pages while offline, it's just more automated. Firefox is capable of pretty much everything IE is, short of ActiveX stuff (which is a good thing, as that's how you get a lot of viruses and spyware through IE), you just have to know how to do things in Firefox. But I digress; this isn't a thread about how to use your browsers. . . . I'm fine with a 550x120 limit for banners (I first suggested it after all :p), but I need to discuss something regarding the board software limiting image size and whatnot, James. I'll PM you with the details.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Second season, hoooo! (I think I might be watching too much Hard Gay....) The first episode starts things off nicely. Louise is being a little more honest with herself and a little nicer to Saito?a little?but she invariably keeps getting pissed at him anyway. It's very much a love-hate relationship now, which is as amusing as ever to watch. Episode 2 wasn't anything special. Drama, flashbacks, and more drama, though we do get to see more of the princess. It looked to be setting up the story for the series. And Louise [spoiler]casts another Void spell. It almost seems weird to see her use magic properly now.[/spoiler] I thought the new opening and ending were really a step up over the first season, by the way. The first season OP was decent but I really liked both from the second season.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]There's a decent chance we'll be raising the maximum avatar and/or signature image sizes when OB Evolution launches. We won't be doubling the sizes or anything, but a modest increase wouldn't be out of line. The page jumping around as images load is something nearly everyone has to deal with. Few connections are fast enough to load everything instantly. I've just gotten used to holding the scroll bar in place with the cursor if I'm reading something while images are still loading. And if you don't care about the images but you still want to see the rest of people's signatures, you can always use the stop button in your browser after the text has been loaded.[/color]

[color=#4B0082][b]1.[/b] I think Cha-La Head Cha-La is my favorite. Konata singing that just fits way too well and I can't help but laugh every time I listen to it. It kind of makes me want to [strike]sing[/strike] scream along with the chorus, but the rest of the people in the house would probably think I was crazy if I did. lol [b]2.[/b] The Street Fighter II scene in the first episode still takes the cake. Nothing else in the series has made me laugh that much yet. After the rest of the episode being kind of slow, that came out of nowhere and doubled me over with laughter for long enough that I had to pause the video while I recovered. [b]3.[/b] Konata of course. There've been far too many moments where she reminds me of myself. The bit where she and Kagami are playing the PS2 together, Konata starts looking through the stack for an easy party game, and Kagami asks why she knows what games she has?that was just like me with one of my friends. I'd always know his games better than he did. :p [b]4.[/b] I haven't actually seen many of the parodies so I can't really pick out a favorite.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Aren't a lot of comedies like this pointless? The story and plot are just there to introduce situations for the characters. I could see things coming from a mile away but I didn't mind because the show is all about the character interaction anyway. Anyway, I finished watching season 1 a bit ago and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It reminds me of Love Hina, except for the setting and Saito not being helpless and cowardly like Keitarou. It's good for a laugh, easy to watch multiple episodes in a row, and is only 13 episodes long so I can see myself watching it again some time down the road. I'm also looking forward to season 2. Just waiting on the high-definition h.264 releases for episodes 1 and 2. And I love Louise's long, flowing, pink hair. Forget the fanservice, that hair is just too pretty. :animenose[/color]