Semjaza

You do realize that 99% of things people are downloading are copyrighted and not given away for sharing at mp3.com or something simliar. I've never seen anyone say "Go download the new NWN patch on Kazaa!" or "Get the update for Redhat Linux vX.XX!" It's always "Go get this illegal cracked copy of Photoshop!" or "Get so and so's new song." The bill is covering all the stuff that music companies want. They are going after those who download stuff they shouldn't, not stuff they should (and then patches and non-copyrighted songs would not count). I'm sure most people here go and download Linux lol. Most freeware is easily available on sites and their FTPs as it is. Think what you want, but programs like Kazaa, IRC, WinMX, etc are ALL about piracy. Despite what they say to get the law off their back.

I've yet to see the DVDs cheaper than 30 bucks each... If you really want it, there is a box set that will save you some cash. Lain is probably the only thing I've seen that I simply cannot explain. There is this basic plot device at the start involving the "Wired" which is basically their version of the internet. Lain get's involved with the Wired, as well as group that basically rules it known as the Knights. It then gets into all these bizarre things involving the Wired and real life coexisting and mixing up. There is a lot of spirituality/god type things thrown in as well. I'm not going to bother being any more clear about it lol. It would take me hours to put this anime into words. It's really complex, and what you think you finally understand is thrown out the window in the next episode. I'm not sure that I fully understand it, and there are so many ways a lot of the stuff can be taken. However, I totally recommend it... It was one of the first anime series that I bothered to get every DVD of (it helps that there are only 4 :D). It's something that you have to watch dubbed and subbed to really understand I think. Sometimes you need to hear actual voices you can understand explaining it to you. One or the other is kind of too much at once, at least the first time through.

It could be even worse really... That bill would make it alright for companies to send any virus they wanted to your PC. Going so far as to stop the computer from even booting in the first place. It would be completely legal at that.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Aries [/i] [B][color=darkblue] It's really good. One thing's been wondering me, though. Are you actually designing these characters from scratch? It just wondered me, because even though you don't show it in this forum much, you're a great designer. As for the wallpaper, simple, yet it would go good as a wallpaper. I like your banner and avatar more, though [/color] [/B][/QUOTE] I'm not sure what you mean by "characters," but I created the "Shine Get!" text and the sun on Illustrator by following the screens. James colored them in, and personally I like how the text came out. Looks better than in the game thanks to some beveling :). James has been doing the main layout stuff himself, which as of right now is very simliar to the blue and yellow images he posted. If you mean the Mario itself, well that's from Nintendo :). There was talk about drawing things for the character pages, but I'd say as of right now that's on the backburner. I only bothered to do one a while back. It's just a half-hearted line drawing though. I attatched it to this post.

I meant queued, not cued lol. Basically, you are in line to get it... but your turn never comes up, or takes ages. I've had times on Winmx where my number in line went farther back for no good reason. Sure, there are things telling you how long it should take, and how many people are queued... but they rarely seem to update, and most of the time are just plain wrong.

:: Dodges the argument :: It's still a Rasputina song, regardless of who mixed it :). I think most of their CDs are worth getting... Last I checked there were only like 3, so it won't set you back much (assuming you are going buy and not download :D.

The absolute best things to use are IRC or FTPs (assuming you can find some). They get good speeds and generally have entire CD downloads. I used to use WinMX, but it's ridiculous how much is queued and NEVER downloads. Unless you are looking for really common stuff that dozens of people have, you're going to have download problems. At least I do. I generally use Kazaa Lite or I-Mesh. They use more RAM than they should, but at least the downloads start most of the time. Bearshare, Limewire, Blubster, Morpheus and most of the others are trash in my opinion.

I like Halo, and I don't. I don't think it's the be all, end all of FPS games... but it is probably the best one to ever come to a console. The main problem to me... it's SO repetitive. There is one area near the start of the game where you crawl through an air duct. Fine enough. But then you do it again...and again... and again. And all the rooms connected by the ducts look EXACTLY the same. Then in the alien areas... All the tunnels look exactly the same, sans some color changes. Not to mention the aliens... You fight the same 3 aliens for hours before you see something new. I don't find color changes all that different personally. One area comes to mind in particular though. You are outside and come to a large gray tower, where you must fight tons of aliens. You think you are done and more just keep coming. When you finally finish, you go farther into the area, only to come to another tower. Which look exactly the same, and has the same things happening. I know these things aren't all incredibly frequent in the game, but what is there was just repeated ad nauseum. They certainly got to me enough that I lost most of my interest in the game. I managed to get through it though, and it does pick up again. There are a lot of good points though. The presentation in the game is amazing. The menus, the interfaces, the sound, most of the graphics... they are excellent. The actual game is fun as well, other than my one problem with it. The best part is co-op though. To me, that is what makes this one of the best FPS games there are. It also has a level of polish that I've yet to see in most FPS games. Most good FPS games on PC recently have been adding RPG elements... I'm glad Halo didn't really. Sure it has some parts where you need to think, but it also did what it should have done: let you kill lots and lots of aliens. I'm getting tired of FPS games where I have to micromanage my equipment and sneak by everything. Sometimes you just want a great firefight, and Halo has some of the best ones I've been involved in so far. The good outweighs the bad :).

I don't think it was so much that new things were added to the franchises... Like in Luigi's Mansion, I had no problem with the basic idea of the vacuum. I don't know that anyone else did really either. The actual problem was that there wasn't much to do with it. You suck things up, and that is really it. Sure you get water, fire and ice... but really they didn't add much. The game was also repetitive in design. I'm sure if they applied themselves a lot more could be gotten out of it. I loved Luigi's Mansion. I played it to death...until I beat it at least. It only took me a total of 3 and half hours my first time through, which I think is a big problem. SMS doesn't seem to have this problem. There are so many aspects to the water pump, and you have true 3D freedome to do whatever you want... which is totally unlike Luigi's Mansion. SMS is still a Mario game, it just had more added to it. Luigi wouldn't have been much of anything without the vacuum. I think that's the big difference.

Well, my main point was that Mikami and other people involved in the series use that as if it's the main source of fear in these games. You have no way of killing them, so you better run. To me this doesn't make it anymore scary than letting me kill everything in sight like ED did. All it did was increase the challenge, and personally I think there are better ways to do that.

I don't know what RE you've been playing, but from most of my memories the knife was nearly useless. It takes several hits with it just to knock a zombie down in most of them. The same with the board. It's not like you can kill everyone with it, you mainly use it on the lower class monsters. I liked the idea of the 2x4, mainly because it shows that he was unprepared for this situation. He didn't have a knife, he didn't have a gun. He was just some ordinary guy looking for his wife. He grabbed what was there at the time to protect himself. It's not like it's the only weapon in the game heh, and I think it added more urgency to the situations. I'm not sure why he keeps it the entire game though lol. In RE you either start with a gun, or you get one within the first few minutes from another person. I don't think making bullets hard to find heightens the fear or tension of anyone while playing this game (like the creators seem to think). It just makes it more annoying to me :).

I always thought it was ROTFL, but guess it doesn't matter. I think the best thing to learn typing from is "Typing of the Dead." You can get it cheap on PC for like 10 bucks. Definately worth it, and actually fun.

Something about this movie just looks really stupid to me. Maybe it's the whole concept behind it. Looks like a good mindless action movie though. Am I the only one that thinks Vin Diesel looks like a caveman? Oh, it comes out on my b-day haha. I guess that's a plus.

Last I heard N.E.R.D was playing on the Warped Tour at certain spots. I missed the show yesterday, so I don't know if they came to Chicago or not. I severely doubt they would ever play at Ozzfest.

That is how Onimusha came about heh. It was originally going to N64, although I don't think it had a name at the time. It was then moved to DC (or possibly PSX, one of the two), and then finally to PS2. I think Silent Hill is scarier for a few reasons... The fact that you cannot see very far is a big part of it, as you never know what's coming. The graininess of SH2 also made it look almost home movie in quality, which I think was a great effect. Also, you cannot even tell what the monsters are... but they look digusting and give off some horrible sounding screams when hit. RE isn't scary to me really, other than the parts where things jump out at you. Nothing about it is even that creepy anymore. RE Remake did a lot fo fix the ambiance (with all the cool lighting tricks), which I feel added a lot. But it doesn't help the fact that most of the enemies just aren't creepy at all, and that goes for the whole series. There are only so many zombies and dogs you can kill before it gets tiring. The introduction of Lisa Trevor really benefitted the remake...mainly because you didn't know what she was at first, and what they did tell you about her was really disturbing (at least to me haha). I hope RE Zero has more of this, becuse zombies aren't doing much for me anymore. At least he giant scorpion in RE Zero looks good. I'm not really liking the second character though... too generic.

I doubt Doom 3 will even be out before next October, so we'll see. Otherwise, the only thing interesting me is Shining Lore on PC, which is going Beta soon. Hopefully it will turn out good enough to pay for haha. As for Xbox... I dunno. I haven't bought a new game for the system since JSRF (which was a really, really long time ago). Dead to Rights doesn't interest me at all, just because it reminds me so much of Max Payne (which I hated). Most of the Xbox games I want to play are like forever away... like Project Ego, BC, and so on. I guess Splinter Cell might be my next game to get.

You can't attack an animations style just because it's not how you like. Sleeping Beauty was meant to be done in a medievil style, which is why everything looks so flat and stiff. That's how people drew in those days, and the head designer wanted to express that. You are also referring to a film that is ancient by most recent anime standards. Depending on the film, Disney works in different ways. Sleeping Beauty is one example, Fantasia is another... which in itself has several styles. Disney films have a lot of thought behind that stuff, whether or not you want to think so or not. I don't know how anyone can watch the scene in the Hunchback of Notre Dame where Quasimodo stands in front of the window and the light beams shoot out from behind him, and not be impressed. It depends on the film, they vary wildly. The same is true with anime. Japan and America simply have gone in different directions for different reasons. There are plenty of Western cartoons and comics that are [i]nothing[/i] like Superman. Ronin comes to mind, Black Orchid, Death, Grendel Tales... they aren't all about mutated superheroes. Hell, Japan has things just like Superman as well. Of course there will be big differences when you compare two things that are completely different in every way. No one goes and compares Superman to Legolas, which to me is quite similiar to what was said earlier. I'm not sure of what "details" you are referring to when you all speak of anime, but I would guess you would mean the complexities of it. In terms of animation, they both have their own cliches and styles. You can't expect them both to share them. Anime is, for the most part, barely any more realistic than most of what is made here. I'm not sure what you guys mean though, so maybe you can explain that. If it's about it's mindset and generally maturity then... I watch lots of anime, but I also watch lots of animated films and shows from here. Anime is generally aimed at adults, which is the main audience there. That does not work here, we are a different culture. No one is going to pay to make an animated film geared to adults around here at all. Even Spawn, which was doing amazingly well as a comic, was forced to be live action despite McFarlane wanting it to be animated. This is simply because the audience for mature animated films doesn't really exist here. It might be enough to sell a bunch of DVDs and tapes, but not enough to bother making something from scratch. A recent example of that would be Heavy Metal 2000. The movie simply sucks, and the animation is crap. This is basically the result of no one caring to go see something like this (despite it's subject matter or crappiness, most people won't see it just because it's animated). In America, cartoons = kids, and that's just how it is. From what I've read here, most people are dismissing Western animation just because it's nothing like Anime. Well of course not. It's [i]not[/i] anime, and I don't think it should try to be. You have to appreciate both for what they are. If you still prefer one to the other, than that's cool with me. I just find it ironic that most people hate western animation for the same reasons they supposedly love anime. I bet if this was a western animation forum, the posts would be the same with anime and animation switched around.

Akira is just as complex and hard to understand subbed. It doesn't matter much either way. I'd say Lain, mainly because there are several ways to take a lot of the things that happened in it. I think I understand it, but I could [i]never[/i] explain it to anyone heh.

100 coins equalling a life is probably the most basic one. Some of these cliches are for the best I think. I'd hate RE if I had to backtrack to the right chest. Earthbound was one of the few console RPGs that only allowed you to carry so many items, which was also a pain. And the last thing I want it for the best weapon in the game, that took me hours to save up for to break. Oh well :).

Home keys are basically keeping your left hand's fingers on A, S, D and F and the right hand's fingers on J, K, L and ;. Your thumbs are supposed to rest on the space bar. If you want to press other keys you move a finger away from the home keys, press it and then go back. Personally, I just type and it comes out well. I don't really use the home keys... I just leave my hands somewhat near them and use my index finger to press the space bar. I type fast enough haha.

I have some Sonic sprites from Sonic 3, but I can't help you with Shadow. Not sure if you want an actual sprite of what, but considering Shadow was made of polygons you won't find one unless it's custom. [img]http://www.gsarchives.com/genesis/sprites/sonicandknuckles/sonicpoint.gif[/img] [img]http://www.gsarchives.com/genesis/nanim_sprites/sonicandknuckles/sonicpose.gif[/img] [img]http://www.gsarchives.com/genesis/nanim_sprites/sonicandknuckles/sonic3.gif[/img] [url]www.gsarchives.com[/url]

I never heard anyone call Fear Factory or APC gothic before... Fear Factory is just way too crazy, and I stick them into Industrial along with bands like Skinny Puppy. Lady Asphyxia, yeah Rasputina did that song. They have a few CDs out, but they haven't put anything other than an online single out in quite a while. A lot of people know Translyvanian Concubine from some movies, in which case it was probably the Manson remix. As for Tea Party, they are one of my favorite bands. I still can't figure out why they simply are unknown in the US. Especially considering how close Canada is. I planned on going to that show in Michigan, but it never happened :(. Despite the image Tea Party seems to go for, I never really considered them goth... even though a lot of their songs could fit in it. They remind me more of David Bowie and The Doors than anything, especially when they play a lot of the blues style songs they've done. I still think Transmission is their best CD personally, but I've yet to get Interzone Mantras because I don't feel like importing it. I'm still annoyed that Tangents cost me nearly 30 dollars :).

I really don't know what to say about System (I don't like how SOAD looks... makes me think of soap). There is this originality to their sound... specifically the lyrics. If you think about it, there aren't really that many words to each song, and what is there is generally repeated a lot... But for some reason it works well, sounds good and somehow conveys a lot of things at once. I'm not even sure how that happens, but it does. Toxicity was the best CD of that year for me. I bought it twice, just to get that stupid DVD... Which was SO disappointing. They had 3 live tracks, and while it was cool to see the band... they totally polished up the recording so that it practically sounds like it was done in a studio. You can't even hear the crowd until the end. Forest isn't even remotely weird compared to the other songs on the CD... like Bounce, X and Jet Pilot. Their S/T is even more bizarre. They are one of my favorite bands though :). The only thing that is annoying is that the only way to get all their tracks is to buy imports... which is getting more and more common with every band. I hate paying 10 to 15 bucks for a single.

The helicopter part was horrible, but considering that the rest of the movie makes up for it... I never thought it was that big of a deal. That, and back when the anime was made, that was actually considered decent :laugh:. Don't know why the bothered, they could have animated that considering the crazy gunfights they did in the rest of the film. There are two Golgo games... one that is seemingly based on the first anime, and another one. I believe it was called "The Mafat Conspiracy." I never got into that one as much for some reason. One of the reasons I love the first so much is that I got it sealed at a K-Mart for $5 less than 2 years ago :). Has anyone seen the sequel, Queen Bee?

Personally, I liked Turok 2 despite it's problems... at least at first. It was a really good looking game, and it ran rather well. The first area was definately my favorite. However, once I got to the 4th area (the one with those cyclops) the game just got ridiculous. The map is of little help, considering that the tunnels in the level overlap eachother. There were a lot of collecting parts to the game that just frustrated the hell out of me too. And on top of all this, there was maybe 2 save points to a level if you were lucky. I never played Turok 3 either, but it sounded like it was an improvment. Turok: Evolution really interests me only because it sounds like it's trying to recreate the original Turok, which was really damn good at the time it came out. Acclaim is so hit and miss, and from what I've seen and read it sounds like they might make up for the last 2. We'll see. I'm only going to get a version of it if people seem to give it decent reviews. The strange thing is that at E3, I heard more negativity about Die Hard than I did Turok. I am not sure of why. Seems most people aren't impressed with Die Hard's graphics, and while they do look very PC-ish to me, they still look decent. The controls were apparently not very good in the demo either. They have time to fix it though, and there are still a lot of things about it that interest me... mainly the hostage taking. Oh, and I forgot Harvest Moon: Wonderful Life amd Robotech :).