Semjaza

Steal This Album was a collection of demos and b-sides from their entire career that they mastered because so many people were downloading the crappy versions off of the internet. They called it "Steal This Album" because they thought it was ironic that people would have to pay for something like that. I think it's unfair to compare that to studio albums of theirs. None of these tracks were meant to be together on one disc. It's like someone thinking a band stinks because they don't like their remix album or a Greatest Hits collection.

[quote name='Gelgoog Pilot']Now I don't want this to blow up into a heated arguement but I feel I need to get this off my chest...Technically...they way you put it the bible, Korhan, and Tora, can be stated as the same as the necronomicon. Aside from the fact that we know who thought up the necronomicon. All are different interpritations of the supposed book called the Old testement. I having fallen out of the ranks of christianity tend to think these religious books are also...well fabricated. I can only guess as to why someone would do it...respect form others or power over others...humans are pretty power hungry.[/quote] All I can say is [I]"What in the world are you talking about?"[/I] What I said was in relation to the [B]Necronomicon[/B]. I mentioned Dinotopia because the writer claims at the beginning for it to be factual when it's just fiction. Same as Tarzan. The Necronomicon was [I]never [/I]mentioned before Lovecraft worked it into his [I]fictional [/I]stories. Books that exist now that claim to be the book he is referring to are simply tributes to Lovecraft's original fiction. The writers know that and anyone that reads them should know that. There is no Necronomicon to translate, that's the point. There is no [i]original[/i] text. That automatically rules out most religious translations in the first place which are real, historical translations based on real, existing texts. It doesn't matter what I believe in or what anyone believes in or how true they feel those religious texts are; the idea for the Necronomicon is pulled out of nothing but the brain of a horror fiction writer. I get your point here and on a basic level I agree, but I think that using something like this is rather extreme and a bad comparison. Comparing it to the "truth" of religious texts makes little sense.

[quote name='x kakashi x']I'm looking forward to the Hypnotize as well, I noticed there was lots of NIN fans here, someone has to explain to me whats good about them, I've listened to them and its basically slow and technoish :animesigh[/quote] It depends a lot on what you've listened to. Every CD is substantially different. NIN has always been more about accessible industrial music than anything else. Some rock and metal influences. There's a good mix between slow and fast, overally.

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1']or perhaps even a proper 3D version of Pokémon, the Stadium games just don't live up to their portable cousins. [/SIZE][/quote] Nintendo is working on a Pokemon game I forget the name of, but everything I've read points to it being the type of game you're looking for. Hopefully it turns out.

[quote name='James][color=#B0251E']What ever happened to Mother 3? Wasn't that cancelled? I remember reading about it in magazines a long time ago and it looked wonderful. Very stylized. So, I suppose I'd love to see Mother 3 be released - perhaps for a next generation platform, maybe even DS or something.[/color][/quote] In Japan Nintendo aired a Mother 1+2 commercial that said Mother 3 was in the works at the end of it. From all I was able to gather, it was coming to the GBA. Of course, absolutely nothing has been said since then. That was well over a year ago. The original Mother 3 (Mother 64) was canned a long time ago as most people know. I guess there's always a possiblity of that appearing on the DS in some form considering how far along the game was. Who knows. I assume it's not cancelled, probably on the backburner if anything.

[quote name='Shinmaru]I would [i]love[/i'] to see Earthbound re-released on the GBA or DS. I never got to play it on the SNES, and I don't really care for messing around with emulators too much, so I've never played the game. I would snatch up the game in a heartbeat if it were ever remade.[/quote] The GBA in Japan got "Mother 1+2" quite awhile ago (Mother was translated but never released on the NES and Mother 2 became Earthbound). Everyone expected it to be announced for the US, but a long time has passed and nothing has been said. I guess there's always this E3.

[QUOTE=The Drizzle][COLOR=DarkGreen]Loser-??? I dont really know if there will be a new album coming out this year by these guys. I really dont know much about them except that its John 5s band(he was the old guitarist for Marylin Manson, and he is AMAZING) A friend told me that they have a new album coming out so Im very much looking forward to getting it.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Last I heard nothing has even really gone forward with that. The band is together, but they didn't really even have defined demos. Maybe things have changed, but regardless, I'm excited about it as well. The guy is a phenominal guitarist and I think it will be nice for him to be in a band where more of his playing will be utilized (as good as he was with Manson, their music doesn't really leave room for his bluegrass music, for example lol). John5's album Vertigo, is pretty good, I think. I guess people can listen to that in the meantime heh. As for System of a Down, they only have two real albums, so there's still a lot of room to work in. In my opinion, Toxicity was good for different reasons than their self-titled. Steal This Album doesn't even count as far as I'm concerned, since it's really just a b-sides/demos collection. I notice a lot of people count that as if it was a real studio LP. It's obviously not going to be as cohesive as a normal album. Still, I can understand why people prefer their first album to Toxicity. My interest in the new NIN album is pretty much dead. I've honestly not heard all of it (no one really has), but I'm not big on what's out so far. It's good, but it's not as good as I was expecting and I'm finding that Trent's writing seems even more simple than usual. I'll wait for the final version to reserve judgement, but the hype for me has pretty much just gone away entirely.

There's plenty of good colleges in Illinois in terms of academics. DePaul comes to mind, Northwestern, etc.

Jaws could be interesting. I think the Ecco games are cool, but ultimately I found them rather boring. I'd think being a shark would be more exciting than being a dolphin, though. Anything is better than the original NES game though. What the hell lol. Movie games are still pretty much universally terrible. The exceptions are usually just mediocre. I don't own a single movie based game for current consoles and I really don't plan to in the future. I tend to not even give them a chance anymore lol.

I already got the one I was most excited for, Guero by Beck. I wrote a thing about this on my website, I might as well post it here... save myself the work since I'd just be saying the same things. I'll change some of it since it's out of date now... Stuff was released such as Queens of the Stone Age's Lullabies to Paralyze, The Bravery's self-titled and Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. Millencolin - Kingwood: April 12th.I loved their last album, Home From Home. It was a great mix of all sorts of rock styles, resulting in something fun and successful. The leak of Kingwood seems like a nice mix of that album and Pennybridge Pioneers, which is largely considered their best work. Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth: May 3rd. About four/five songs have leaked out from this album over the last several weeks, each of varying recording quality. It's been over six years since the last "real" LP (I'm not going to count And All That Could Have Been or Still), so the anticipation is kind of high. Sadly, from what I've heard, my excitement has been knocked down quite a bit. We'll see. The bootlegs of recent live shows are a bit more exciting, so it might turn out nicely. System of a Down - Hypnotize: May 17th.Two albums are hitting the stores from these guys this year. They had no plans to do a double album, but I guess they felt they had so many great tracks that they're going to do two releases within the year. The second one, Mezermize, is hitting sometime around September, last I heard. Toxicity was amazingly good and I'm only expecting good things. 30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie: ???. Apparently the CD is finished (or close to being finished). I have no idea when the release date is, however, and the site does not mention it either. 30 Seconds to Mars' self-titled debut was excellent and really killed off the whole "actors can't make good music" stigma that covers any release of its type. Good job, Jared Leto. Team Sleep - (Untitled): Who knows when in 2005. A side project for Chino, frontman of The Deftones. I have no clue what this one is going to sound like, but The Deftones have just gotten better and better over the years (well, mostly). I also have no clue if it's even still set for this release date. Last I saw it didn't even have a title yet. We'll see about that. There's already been some great stuff released in 2005 already other than the ones I mentioned before. Beck's Hell Yes EP, EP from Fiery Furnaces, Some Cities by The Doves, Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, Black Mountain's self-titled, Six Organs of Admittance's School of the Flower, Antony and The Johnsons' I Am a Bird Now, LCD Soundsystem's self-titled, Iron and Wine's Woman King EP, Superwolf from Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, etc. I've also heard good things about an album from a group called Shining, but I've not got to listen to that yet, sadly.

When I write something and say "a lot of people" I don't think strictly within the forum anyway. I'm thinking here and the rest of the world. A lot of people do think the book is real in some way. Anyway, in terms of research, there's the obvious ties to Lovecraft's own work that have been heavily paid attention to. Cthulu has been detailed so much over the years since and including the time of Lovecraft himself that there's practically as many stories about it as there are for real myths. Keeing up with that isn't easy and it was already well done enough that it was halfway believable as it was. Plus, anyone that wants to write decent things about the occult, myths or whatever else needs to research things. Just because things aren't factual doesn't mean they aren't based on other things from the past that originally were taken as such by some person or group of people. As for the magic not working, I don't know. I don't think that's the single most reason why people aren't like "whoa the necronomicon!" (disregarding the fact that it is fiction to begin with). There's lots of books that some people still claim have magical properties, but when's the last time any of us honestly saw them work? I refuse to believe some internet-made wiccan is conjuring up elementals lol. The point is that there are plenty of historical books that were taken as fact at one time or another that actually do attempt to talk about some of these things, so I don't think that alone would convince anyone it isn't true. This one just happens to be a completely fabricated story lol. Either way, as I said, there are several of these books. I have no idea which ones the people here have read, so I can't really comment much because I don't know what is in every last one of them. Some are worse than others and some make less sense.

I live in Chicago. One of the last things I care about is college basketball, honestly... but that's my own problem. Surprisingly, no one around here really seems to be making as big of a deal out of this as I figured there would be. At least not yet, anyway. Then again, people here never seem to care about anything until we win lol.

[quote name='Lunai][font=trebuchet ms][color=darkorchid]Oh, I'm not saying that there isn't a book called The Necronomicon, that was published at some point in the 20th century, I'm just informing everyone of the origins.[/font'][/color][/quote] This is an important point to quote because, as mentioned, a lot of people seem to think this book is a real, historic piece of work. It simply isn't it. It's hilarious that people think it actually was uncovered after centuries or god knows what else. There's more than one version of it, each pretending to be a different "translation" of the actual book in some sense. They're all fiction, every last one of them, regardless of how well researched they can be. Believing these to be true is like believing the events in Dinotopia actually happened. They're presented as factual, yet they're anything but. Anyway, I've not read the different versions. Some of them are more of a journal type things, some aren't. They're all based on Lovecraft's ideas in some way. Some are pretty decent.

I don't know if a PS2 is worth it just for those few games, but for everything including those it certainly is. There's some great RPGs on there, cartoony and otherwise. I loved Disgaea. It's better than La Pucelle (it's predecessor) and from what I hear, Phantom Brave (which was developed afterwards). A fun story with some fun characters. Very deep, even for a strategy game. There is just so much to do in every last respect. You have to be really into leveling up and long battles though, because that's mostly what this game is all about. Shining Tears supposedly sucks. Sir Auron had a thread asking about it the other day. Dark Cloud 2 is an excellent game, although it's more of an action RPG. You kind of just run around randomized dungeons fulfilling quests and such, but it's done very well. There's a ridiculous amount of sidequests in the game too. I'd also suggest Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga (which comes out next week). They're quite a bit more serious and dark than the other titles mentioned here, but they do have an awesome art style that's a nice mix of cartoon and realism. I know there's more, but they're not coming to mind for some reason.

[quote name='ThatOneOddDude']I don't like BatenKaitos because it is stupid. Your cards widdle down into nothing, you get money for new cards by taking pictures of enemies, and the whole thing is weird to play. Not to mention the horrible story and crappy warped voices.[/quote] Man, I didn't think it was possible to disagree with one opinion on a game as much as I disagree with this one lol. At least we both agree that the voices were absolutely godawful. I don't know what you mean by cards widdling down into nothing. If you mean the deck emptying out, I can see how that would annoy some one... but it takes one turn to reshuffle and it's done with. The bosses do this too, so it's really not something that only hurts your side. You get money by selling any cards, not just photo cards. I think the picture system was an awesome idea. Depending on the enemy and how you set up the picture (it actually cares how bright the screen is just prior to using the card), you'll get wildly different amounts for it. The idea of waiting for the cards to develop like real pictures is quite interesting too. There's just so many interesting ideas in this. The idea of opposites canceling eachother out (100 points of damage by water is canceled out by 150 points of fire damage... resulting in 50 points total, for example) is very well executed and I'm surprised more games haven't done it. I enjoy that you have to just waste cards sometimes when you're hoping to get a good one next. It adds a sense of desperation to the battles. As for the story, the main set-up is cliche... but no more than some of the RPGs people are absolutely loving the battle systems of in here. It more than makes up for it with a really unique style and some absolutely excellent characters. However, I don't know how much of that someone would see if they absolutely hate the game mechanics. Anyway, I disagree. I can see why someone wouldn't like it, honestly... but I feel a need to stick up for this game lol. It's one of the better RPGs of recent memory.

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1]I have to admit that the ending to [B]Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker[/B] was a bit of a disappointment to, [spoiler]I was hoping to at least be able to fight Ganon on a decent level and then I find out that I have to redirect arrows at him to beat him, it felt like a let down.[/spoiler'] I mean you spend half the game slicing and dicing through stuff and then you get to the end and you might as well put your sword away for all the good it does you. [/SIZE][/quote] I really have to disagree. That was one of the better boss fights of recent memory. I think the fact that it doesn't have you do what is traditionally expected in Zelda battles is part of what makes is so great. There's so much stuff leading directly up to that that the whole "final boss" is really more than just that fight, in my opinion... but even just that battle alone was great.

Actually looks pretty cool. I love the original series. I can't stand the Professor design, though. He looks like he's fifteen.

I download quite a lot of stuff that I shouldn't be downloading. I admit to it and I can't really justify it. I know a lot of people, particularly with music, think of themselves as some sort of "Robin Hood" type figure that's sticking it to "the man" (aka the RIAA). I don't know how that justifies or explains anything. Infact, it makes next to no sense in the scheme of things. However, I have to say that because of MP3s I get to listen to and try so many things I otherwise would have no idea about. I buy so many more CDs now because I am able to check out a variety of bands and albums thanks to the internet. There is only so much you can find out about thanks to Clear Channel's dominance of the radio in this country. Even places like iTunes don't have a lot of what I want to check out. I guess it's a double edged sword though, because I know a lot of people are content with their internet downloads and that's the end of it. Personally, I like having something tangible. I'm not content with a downloaded file, I like to own the physical product. I have hundreds of albums right now (I'd guess somewhere around 800... CDs, vinyls, cassettes) and I would guess that at least half of them were purchased because I got to hear the album ahead of time. Some things I have on my computer I never wind up buying, but I wind up deleting it because it wasn't for me. If the RIAA was smart, they'd take advantage of the internet instead of labeling it some sort of thief-ridden abyss. Scare tactics aren't really the answer... but then again I doubt they'll ever be happy. Sales are up and they're still going nuts about things. I have some software I shouldn't have as well, but who can afford some of these programs as a student? Full version software is ridiculously expensive. I don't know how anyone can teach themselves how to use a program in a 30 day trial. Certainly not well enough to make any sort of career based decisions. My philosophy on this is simply that as soon as I make any money off of these programs, I'll buy them. I've yet to. They really should all just offer free Personal Learning Editions like Alias has with Maya. In any case, it's more "unethical" than immoral, as far as I'm concerned. Neither is really any better than the other, though.

[quote name='Sir Auron']thanks all of you for the reccomendations. Because im going to buy a few ps2 rpgs that will never released for the US version, such as Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Symphonia and perhaps Radiata Stories.[/quote] Well, we don't really know that yet. Namco has said they likely won't bother with the PS2 version of Symphonia, but that's understandable. Every preview of it in the past has not been very impressive: worse graphics and some added stuff that really is of little consequence. I don't see why anyone would bother importing it, especially when you need good Japanese knowledge to read any of it in the first place. Nothing has been said about those other two one way or another. I'd wait till E3 passes and see what's been announced. Rebirth has a good chance since Symphonia did rather well here on a system that's generally considered a lost cause for third parties. Logic would dictate it would do even better on PS2. As for Radiata Stories, I expect an annoucement for it. It did very well in Japan and it's not something that's beyond US RPG audiences. Sometimes RPGs aren't announced for US release until months after their Japanese counterparts have already been in stores. I'd not jump to conclusions just yet.

Grandia was awesome despite the terrible localization. Grandia II was a good game, although not as good. I find people judge the titles a lot based on the terrible voices and presentation of the US version, which is pretty unfair... Especially when the Playstation version sucks compared to the Saturn one. I don't understand why people aren't that excited by this. As a Grandia fan, it's a great announcement. You really need to start posting more actual information in these threads too... We're never told anything, we're just given media in a language we can't understand lol. From IGN: [quote]We'll have a full report on the game once we have the magazine in our hands, but here are a few tantalizing details that we've heard through various reliable sources. Grandia III takes the series into the skies for an adventure featuring, as its hero, a 16-year-old adventurer called Yuuki. Yuuki will be joined by at least two other characters, Alfeena and her brother, Emerius. These three will travel across the seas, continents and through the skies, making use of ships and planes. The game's battle system is said to be an evolution over the semi real-time battles of the previous games. Characters and enemies are placed on a time bar that dictates when they'll be moving, although the interface has apparently been changed so the time bar is now circular. New features include counter attacks, cancel attacks, and even aerial combos. In somewhat of a twist, it turns out that Square Enix will be publishing the title. While this isn't too surprising considering that Enix published Grandia Xtreme, an offshoot title that focused on battles, it is a bit strange seeing the Square and GameArts names on the same game, since the two companies were considered RPG development rivals during the Saturn/PlayStation days. In addition to the report in Famitsu, Square Enix has revealed that it will make available the first video footage of Grandia IIi at its website from between 4/28 and 5/8. That's a few weeks off yet, so we'll post a[/quote]

[quote name='Pumpkin][FONT=Tahoma][SIZE=1] I can't remember most of the pranks that were pulled on me but now that I have a new boyfriend I think this time I will be the one to finally dish out the dirt if you know what I mean. Muhahaha. Poor him. [/FONT'][/SIZE][/quote] That'll teach them damn pagans. :D I don't even know why anyone celebrates this anymore, personally lol.

The biggest reason I'm excited about this is because Frank Miller is actually co-directing. Most of the time comic book rights are bought and then some random person writes and directs it. You often wind up with something that's not true to the material and many of the changes seem odd or out of place. I think his involvement is a very good sign for the film and I'm glad to hear people are actually enjoying it. Supposedly Quentin directed [spoiler]the car scene with the head in the film[/spoiler]. I'm sure those who saw it will know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, it was kind of ruined for me already thanks to another site. And pretty much any recent comic book film outside of Elektra is better than The Hulk as far as I'm concerned.

You guys might want to use some spoiler tags. I know nothing of a big deal was said here, but it still might ruin some things for some people. Might as well just be on the safe side. For me, I'd say a good one was Super Mario Sunshine. I really enjoyed the game despite its problems, but the final boss was just ridiculous. [spoiler]An entire game of Shadow/Water Mario and you find out it's nothing but Bowser and Baby Bowser the whole time? That's annoying in and of itself, but the final boss fight is ridiculously easy and seems completely out of place.[/spoiler] The worst one I can think of offhand is Starfox Adventures. The game isn't the greatest, but it was enjoyable to an extent. [spoiler]Yet, when you get to a certain point the game just screeches to a halt and has you fighting the only creature you've known to be your main enemy for the entire duration of the game: General Scales. Yet, when you get to him, he randomly just collapses. You don't fight him whatsoever. Even a short battle would have been nice. Then out of nowhere comes Andross?? This is possibly the most tacked on boss fight I have ever seen. If anything, this really screams out that this game was obviously not meant to be a Starfox title and should have stayed that way.[/spoiler] Lame.

I don't listen to a lot of groups that fit into this genre... at least not compared to other things I listen to. I don't know if these are my Top 5 or if they're even in the right order. Let's just say they're five I like currently. Metal is so incredibly broad that I'll probably be including some groups that are not quite as heavy as some of the ones listed so far. I doubt anyone would care, they only seem to get mad in "punk" threads :rolleyes: 1.) Mastodon: Leviathon is enough to put this band extremely high on anyone's list. Combine this with Remission and Lifesblood and you have an amazing group that's already managed some very different styles. Leviathon was one of the best albums of 2004, easily. 2.) Pelican - A local band that actually has managed to get decently popular in terms of metal. I only own a couple of their releases, but they're excellent. I'd recommend checking out Australasia at least. 3.) Marilyn Manson - I consider these guys metal with industrial influences. Sure, they're not the same type as something like Mastodon, but they still fit. One of my top three bands of all time. Insanely underrated in almost everyway: talent, writing, the depth of the image. All around great package. 4.) System of a Down - I feel these guys are unfairly packed in with nu-metal. Nu-metal, for the most part, has this very derrogatory connotation to it when many people use it. System of a Down has managed to become popular doing what they want to do, not what was the trend at the time. I find that despite this popularity, the amount of talent they display (especially on guitars) is extremely underrated. 5.) Converge - Probably the best hardcore band I've personally ever gotten to listen to.

There's a lot of places, but they're all of varying quality. I tend to import from eBay because you usually get the best prices. Try these places: [url]http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx[/url] [url]www.otaku.com[/url] [url]www.lik-sang.com[/url] Unfortunately, most places charge a lot for shipping. It's not cheap to send even a CD or DVD out from Japan to another country. A lot of these places charge more than retail for the items as well, regardless of how old they are. So again, I recommend eBay. I've gotten some nice imports for decent prices for all sorts of systems.