Semjaza

Well that sucks... You are lucky you don't live in Chicago. We've had our cars broken into several times. My car had CDs stolen out of it; someone cut one of my tires (I don't think this was on purpose though, due to the way it was done); my mom's van was all torn up inside because someone tried taking out the TV that was built into it; my dad has had busted windows... These are just random things too, no one in the area is out to get us or anything lol. I doubt the people doing these things even live close to our neighborhood. My bike was also stolen when I was younger... sad day :(. Sadly, it seems like all of the oountry has problems like these. Chicago seems to be getting better, and we haven't had any problems around my house in quite a while.

Oh god, definately. I used to watch it a lot until several months ago. The show used to have great skits, and quite a few talented cast members. Then like 2 weeks ago I went to watch it again (I stopped because of my old job), and it was one of the worst things I ever saw. I used to be one of the few people that preferred the show over SNL, as crazy as that sounds. Now it's tripe. I'd blame key members leaving and just poor writing to the show's downfall. The same thing happened to In Living Color.

What I never understood is how someone rapping about all his cars, millions of dollars, pounds of gold jewelry and his hoes appeals to any average person. I mean, how the hell can you relate to a song like that? The music videos that incorporate that drive me insane too... Rap videos where the guy is like hunched over shaking his fist into the camera and rapping, while 100 other people are like dancing, grinding and acting "badass" in the background. But that's me lol. Other than those rap songs, I don't really have a final damning opinion on rap. I will listen to some of it if it's good (generally the songs don't appeal to me though),and I do like some bands that incorporate rap/hip hop into their sound (G-Love and Special Sauce, Butter 08, Cibo Matto, etc --- Definately NOT a fan of Linkin Park, Crazy Town and that other stuff though). What I do hate is when some jerk drives down the street pounding the stuff in his car to the point you can hear his car windows rattle.

Soemthing about Hades felt off to me. I know it was the same voice actor (James Woods I think), but it was like he wasn't trying as hard as he did in the film at all. I liked Aerith's voice, and I felt that Yuffie's fit her character well... I really haven't seen many other characters, but a lot of the villians were done really well (they are mostly the original actors, I know Hook is the 2nd voice actor they used for him... but still the official). I still can't get past what happened to Wonderland lol. And Jack is a sweet guy... I mean, he is just trying to share the joy he found in Christmas Town with all the inhabitants of Halloween Town. You should really see the movie. And one last thing... Why don't you actually get to meet the Mad Hatter and March Hare in Wonderland? A stupid painting on the wall didn't cut it for me. P.S. -- I wouldn't expect a PC version of this game anytime soon, if ever. The PC versions of FF7 and FF8 were really afterthoughts and plagued with problems. I doubt we'll see anything outside of FFXI for a while on PC.

Judging from some of the stuff I've seen online by various people that draw manga, I can tell I'd have no chance in hell with that contest lol. I'm not even gonna bother with that one :). I wouldn't say any one sectino is hard... For me making everything proportionate is the hardest thing.

I've seen 9 tailed foxes in mythological stories, but I'm not really familiar with Kitsune. I really like the picture... I personally like the WIP character a lot, I hope you do something with it. I was just wondering what the significance of the vines and leaves on the animal are though.

Are you talking about those deluxe FFX figures they sell at some game/video stores? I just saw an Auron the other day... It also looks like they are having problems getting rid of the FFX monster toys lol. I love the Cactuar lol.

I finally just started this game over... lol. It's nowhere near as frustrating on Normal. The backtracking is no longer something I can compare to Hell, simply because I am no longer getting my face beat in every few minutes. I'm done with the first 3 areas, and it took me about 1/3 of the time it took me in Expert to even finish 1 and 4/5's of the levels lol. Big difference, the game is now a lot more fun thankfully. Is there any real purpose to collecting the Dalmations? I believe I've gotten all I could so far. Glad to know there is still so much stuff in this game I have yet to see (I didn't even know there were summons). I must say that so far I am really disappointed in the level designs. Alice in Wonderland is my favorite animated movie ever, and they just totally failed to capture what made the movie so great. I don't know if you go back to Wonderland later for more story or not, but what I saw the first time through was really disappointing. The voices were also just so wrong... I know all the actors for Alice are probably long gone, but they could at least get people that sounded close. The White Rabbit and Queen of Hearts are just way off. I think putting the King of Hearts in the game could have added a little humor to the area as well, something it was sorely lacking. I just hope that Nightmare Before Christmas uses all the originals. I was really happy when they first showed Oogie Boogie :excited:

I peronally haven't gotten their newest CD, which I believe is the one that has Cathartic on it. I've downloaded a few songs though... pretty good CD. Getting new Tea Party stuff is tough over here lol. Checkout the songs Army Ants, Touch, Transmission. Psychcopomp, The River, The Bazaar or Interzone... Sounds like those might be more your style, but I could be wrong :). Mindless Self Indulgence is pretty cool. I don't know how I'd describe them to someone. They are kind of like Korn mixed with a sped up Thrill Kill Kult (if anyone here even knows who they are lol) and other random groups. It's kind of bizarre at times, but that's part of what makes it good. I like Royally F--cked, Unsociable, Apple Country (a lot for some strange reason) and some other ones with names I probably shouldn't type here lol. I am sure most people don't know them because well, really... few of their songs are radio friendly lol. The Cure have been around for like decades... All their stuff is pretty good. I'd recommend checking out whatever is on their Greatest Hits CD along with their LP before that, Bloodflowers (none of Bloodflowers is included on the Greatest Hits).

Down with Blue Pepsi, up with Code Red. Punk encompasses a lot of things honestly. There are a lot of variations to it, and I find that half the punk bands I like are considered "weird" by my other friends that are into punk. Some people just like hardcore; I know a kid only into political stuff like Propaghandi; another into just poppy punk. There really is a lot of it. Personally my favorite punk band is Apocalypse Hoboken. They are from Chicago, and were considered a breakout band in the Chicago scene... Doesn't seem like they really got anywhere. Their last CD was on Kung Fu, and was more experimental than straight out punk, but still damn good. I've yet to meet more than [i]one[/i] other person that even likes them lol.

They are? I have a few lying around... Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan I believe. Can't believe those boring things were worth anything. We actually used to just see how high we could throw them, rather than actually use them for wrestling.

The crappiest toys I ever bought were the first batch of Resident Evil toys. The things looked nice (just under McFarlane quality), but were made so cheaply. My brothers would just move their arm around and the arm would fall off.

I always thought Greenday was pretty good. They aren't my favorite band, but I respect them for getting where they are now and not changing their sound much... unlike many other punk bands that "make it". I preferred them back around Dookie... Their new stuff isn't interesting me as much.

This is odd. I've had 3 seperate girl friends of mine tell me about this movie in the past week. I just saw it at the store the other day too... Maybe someone is trying to tell me I should watch it already lol. At first I thought this movie was about Son of Sam when someone first asked if I saw it (yeah, I know Son of Sam wasn't named Sam, but whatever... it was late :whoops: ). Shows how much I knew about it. Supposed to see it next weekend when I visit my friend and Eastern Illinois.

That's what video is for ;). I think most of us have seen this in motion, if you havem't I am willing to send you some videos (hopefully you have broadband lol). I'm not sure what is locked off at IGN or Gamespot anymore. I will say the animation is excellent, and from what I've seen it's a big part of what makes the game look so good. Link does a lot of cool new moves when he fights, and enemies are fluid as well. There is also an insane amount of facial expressions Link has which really seem to add to it. So anyway, I don't think animation is something to worry about in this game :).

I'm working on getting the soundtrack off of some Newsgroups... I just recently downloaded that live SSBM concert from Japan. Some guy bootlegged it and put it on a newsgroup lol. I'll let you know once I get it, otherwise you can always IM me. I just completed Wonderland, and while it was far easier than Deep Jungle... it's still hell lol. No matter how many levels I gain there is always something that can kill me in 3 hits. I just suddenly remembered who Monstro was lol... What you were saying makes more sense now :).

I must sound like I suck at games, but whatever :). Expert is tough. I finally just got so annoyed with Deep Jungle that I went over to Wonderland instead... Sounds like that's the way everyone else went lol.

One of my best friends is gay, and he is one of the most manipulative people I've ever met in terms of his boyfriend relationships. He's cool as a friend, but if I was gay I'd never go out with him, I'll say that much lol. People are people, not something you can stick in categories. There are plenty of cheating gay people, and plenty of cheating straight people... some people are like that no matter what.

Everyone I talk to says the latest Gundam game on PS2 is the best on the system. It's called Mobile Suit Gundam Federation Vs. Zeon. I personally haven't played it... The last Gundam game I played was DC. I think it would be really cool if they made a Gundam game similiar to Carnage Heart on the PSX. The game was more about customizing the mechs for battle and such, could be an interesting twist.

It's a totally different game from what I played. It has the same style, but the story is different. The battle system was also extremely dumbed down... Enemies seem to have no AI, and don't attack your weakest characters like expected. It's also simply not as hard or complex as the original. Those are my opinions anyway lol. Still an excellent game, and very worth getting. It's just so hard to find around here... I finally saw it last month at Coconuts and grabbed it.

I could never get into this show. I wanted to think it was funny, but it just never was to me. On top of that, I am rather tired of this minimalist approach nearly all Cartoon Cartoons use. I must say I like Robot Jones a lot though :).

I just got a mailer from Newtype today... It seems as if it's pretty decent, but I dunno about the $90 subscription price lol. Anyone know if it's worth it?

Nothin' much going on in here, so I'd figure I'd write some impressions for Star Fox. I bought this along with Kingdom Hearts this past Tuesday. I wasn't expecting all that much from this game, but it is honestly pretty good. I am enjoying it far more than KH. Oddly enough, KH is more of a collect-a-thon than SFA is. Who would have thought, considering all the useless crap Rare usually packs into a game. Anyway... The game has a decent story. Fox lands on Dinosaur Planet to help save it. Basically, you are told that the planet contains a strong magical force that is constantly trying to push the planet apart. The inhabitants created these magical items that helped keep the planet together, but the Sharptooth CLan led by General Scales stole them. As a result parts of the planet are floating around in an orbit. You basically have to go to each of these areas and find the magical items to get the planet back together. Yeah, it's [i]really[/i] weird... even Fox admits it. Gameplay wise, the best comparison is Zelda. B and A are both basically context sensitive, although A generally lets you use something (talk, attack, etc.)and B lets you cancel. Y can have an item mapped to it for quick use. The C stick is used to cycle through your various item menus... It's a little weird at first, but in the end I think it was done rather well. You can't fight until you find a staff that is dropped in the opening by Krystal, another fox who actually lives on Dinosaur Planet. I'm not going to get much into her side of the story, but the staff is useful. You get various powerups for it (shooting, rocket boost, etc.). The actual fighting is kind of disappointing though. Basically, as long as you just keep mashing A you can't lose. Enemies block once in a while, but that's about it. Generally you just beat the **** out of them til they die. The game does different moves depending on what direction you press the stick with A, but for the most part this is useless. There is also a Roll move you can do by pressing X, but the enemies are so easy it doesn't matter. On top of this they just attack you one at a time. The others just circle you blindly until you kill one of them. I don't get this at all, and it's what really makes the game seem so damn easy. There are enemies that do require some actual tactics and thought to beat, but they are simply too rare. Edit --- They also totally negate the challenge, because every enemy you kill gives up an item. In the rare occurance you do get hit by an enemy, the thing drops a health item when it dies... basically making it even more easy. You spend a lot of time just doing Zelda type tasks. A lot of people complain the game is all about collecting useless crap (like mostother Rare games), but I just disagree. You NEED all these items, and each basically has a comparable item in Zelda. Makes no sense why collecting gems to fill your magic up or collecting bomb spores is such a horrible thing for this game, but is fine for Zelda. There are times when characters make you find specific items for them, but it's hardly a HUGE deal. I found Kingdom Hearts to be way more annoying in this aspect. The sound in the game is amazing... One of the few Nintendo published games I can think of on GC that doesn't use some form of midi for nearly all the sound. Everything is fully orchestrated, and really well timed. The music goes along with the cut scenes very well, making it seem even more like an actual movie. The voice acting overall is pretty good. There are some really strange voices though... The giant stone character (known just as WarpStone) sounds like Fat Bastard for some bizarre reason. Characters randomly have British accents, some don't. I know this was made in the UK, but there is like no uniformity to it at all, and to me that was rather distracting. At first the characters speak their own language, and Fox has to have Slippy translate for him. the language sounds really weird, but it is done pretty well... If you pay attention they use the same word for the same meaning each time, so this isn't just some random thing characters speak because it sounds good. It's treated like an actual language. I like Fox's voice best I'd say... It's the same one as in Starfox 64, although Rare gave him an attitude that I hadn't noticed before. Fox rolls his eyes at other characters constantly, he even mocked the queen dinosaur as she told him her story. I guess even he is tired of this same old crap in these games lol. The graphics, expectedly, are amazing. They looked good on my old RF switched TV in my room, but I hooked it up with component cables on my new TV downstairs and put it into progressive scan (basically HDTV mode). The picture was like 10 times better. The game makes use of tons and tons of different textures, some of which are really elaborate and simply beautiful. Characters also have a nice fur effect, which is even more visible on a better TV. It's possibly the best fur I've seen in a game, because unlike other titles that use it... it looks realistic and doesn't stand straight up. The grass also has a similiar effect, which makes it look a lot more realistic. Again, I could barely notice it on my old TV lol. Overall, I'd say this is up there with Rogue Leader as the best looking game on the system. There are some issues with slowdown, but they do not ever affect the gameplay and are honestly VERY slight. There usually seems to be the most problems with that in certain areas that are designated as loading spots (generally in some sort of tunnel). Anyway, I wrote way too much... And generally when I do no one here responds to it lol. Good game, and I feel it's definately worth getting if you want a Zelda-type adventure.

I was surprised bow how Spiderman suddenly caught on about right before the movie hit theaters. I don't see as many shirts as I did around that time, but certainly more than I've seen before. Until this movie came out, I'd never seen anyone with a Spiderman shirt other than me lol.

Wait... They give you a way to skip those flying stage??? THANK GOD. I don't know what the hell Square was thinking with those things. Apparently, the only use of them really seems to be that you can get items for synthesis... Something I can't even do yet. I stopped playing this game last night in favor of Star Fox Adventures (WAY better than I expected). I want to play KH tonight, but Clayton on Expert is pretty tough (especially that second part). Two hits and I'm dead... I think I made a bad decision with picking Expert lol.