Semjaza

Since Lacuna Coil was mentioned, I figured I'd chime in. I've recommended them in threads here in the past and I'll do the same now. You can actually find a nice limited edition version of their new CD in Target's "Breakout Artists" section. Worth trying out. Not all the vocals are female with that group. Just a warning.

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']One thing for sure that MP has over Halo, though, is bosses. I'd love to see some cool Halo bosses (an super Hunter or something, or a teleporting gigantic Zealot-type-Elite with dual plasma swords). Something really cool and hardcore. My favorite part of MP was fighting the elite pirates and omega pirate because they were actually cool and tough. Eh, all of MP's bosses are pretty neat, actually. Metroid Prime reminded me of Mizar from Jet Force Gemini, if anyone remembers that sweet game.[/quote] I have to agree with this. I thought a lot of the alien designs in Halo were very good (other than the freaking voices from those little guys). There's so much they could do in terms of massive, freakish bosses, but little was ever done about it. I would like more general alien variety as well. These are probably addressed in Halo 2 in some way. I wouldn't know at this point heh. Anyway, in terms of the co-op, I have to say that was really the only way I personally enjoyed Halo. The multiplayer is rather subpar for a FPS game of its type. The single player was just not exciting for me, especially given the repitition of many of the area designs. However, while these things are still somewhat of an issue in co-op, they're completely drowned out because of how much more enjoyable the game is with another player. Especially because of how much you have to rely on the other player in terms of respawn points. That mode alone is what makes Halo a good game, in my opinion.

I can't really think of any fears, per se. I'm not scared of bugs or random animals or anything. I'd say the thing I really dislike doing the most would be climbing tall ladders. I often have to climb around 15 to 20 feet on this aluminum ladder we have to clean out the gutters. I'm not afraid of heights, as I have no problem walking around on the roof... but climbing up and down a shaky ladder has always freaked the hell out of me more than anything else I've ever had to do. I suppose it's only natural, though. Who wants to fall and break their legs? heh

I've only seen the Director's Cut of this film, which is only on the DVD. I've read the original ending, however, and I have to say that this new one is far better. If you've not seen both versions, rent the DVD and check it out. Overall good movie, but there's a MASSIVE amount of plot holes, like in any time traveling movie.

Fable is all I care about. Despite the fact that I find the character models atrocious, the game still does look good graphically. Obviously what's more important is the gameplay, though. If everything goes according to what I've read, the game will be amazing (even after all the stuff they wound up cutting out). I think it will possibly prove how weak KotOR's dark side/light side system really was. Jade Empire could be interesting, but at this point it's really nothing more than ideas and movies for the average game player. I can't be that interesed at this point.

He's right. I just wanted to chime in and confirm that these groups are just built into vB3 by default. They're on the boards I made as well and despite the fact that I don't use them, the box still appears in people's profiles. To be honest, from all I've been able to read about them, they seem to be pretty useless. With the options a general member is given, they're really little more than "official" clubs. An Admin can give specific options to various usergroups, but that's about it.

I'm bored. This will be reflected in how damn long this is likely to be. I guess the main thing I am into is music. I try to be open-minded about it, but I very obviously listen to various types of rock the most... whether that is metal, punk or whatever else. Music is my blood and I really don't think I'd survive long without it. Well, I could survive, but I'd likely go insane. I also play music, but like most things I do, I don't feel I'm all that great at it. The main instrument I play is the tenor saxophone (although I've done alto, soprano and baritone at times), although "play" is a bit misleading since I rarely pull it out of the closet anymore. I also like to pretend I know how to play keyboard and guitar, but I basically suck beyond the really basic basics. I play a lot of video games. Less recently, but still a good amount. I find myself not playing them for weeks at a time until a really good game comes about, though. I've been into them since I got my NES for Christmas one year in the '80s. I had an Atari 2600 before that, but the NES definitely is what sold me on video games. I'd say my favorite genre would be RPGs, although I generally am not too fond of a lot of the more popular stuff (FF included, lately, although FFXII looks bad ***). Dragon Quest is my favorite series (helps that it was my first) and my favorite publisher is probably Atlus. I love cartoons. They're probably 95% of the television I watch. Other than the "mature" stuff like The Simpsons, Clerks, Family Guy and Futurama, I watch a lot of younger aimed stuff. This also carries over into animated films, particularly the golden years of Disney and their Masterpiece Collection. I'd say my favorite is Alice in Wonderland. I read lots of comic books. I was never really into them until maybe a year ago, now. I won't pretend to know tons about the industry and everyone involved, but I've been reading up on things I haven't known already or figured out over the past year. Prior to that, I had read random manga for several years. Now, however, I really couldn't care less about manga. I'm all about Western comics (same goes for my disinterest in anime now). My favorites include The Walking Dead, Runaways and Human Target, among others. I make web sites for enjoyment. I'm really not that good, as far as I'm concerned. I can code adequately, but I'm definitely average at it. I think my main skill is that I'm able to work both the technical side and the art side myself. From what I've seen people are generally either good at one or the other. You either wind up with an almost unusable artsy site or a ridiculous looking techy site. I'd like to think I'm somewhere in the middle. I love animals. I've had a lot of pets. Other than the dogs,turtles, fish, frogs and rabbits my family has owned, I've personally had a pet oscar (fish), chamelons, two ferrets, guinea pigs and rats. Rats were, by far, the best pets I've ever had. Sadly, they really don't live long compared to similiar animals. I still miss those guys. Currently, I have one of the ferrets. Her name is Kit. Lastly, I'm quite into Sarah... who I talk to more than anyone else I can think of lol. That about covers it, I suppose.

I must be the only person that didn't care [spoiler]Aeris[/spoiler] died. As far as I'm concerned, there was very little reason to give a crap about her. She was a bit more developed than other characters in the game, but it happens so early on (comparatively), that I never really got all that attached to her. I suppose that kind of makes one of my choices seem somewhat ironic or hypocritical. One that stuck with me pretty strongly was the [spoiler]death of Cyan's family in FF6. Between the poisoning of the town by Kefka and Cyan dealing with their spirits on the train, I felt it was very poignant. Cyan perhaps isn't very developed outside of this, but it was really dealt with a very heartfelt manner and it came off really well.[/spoiler] I don't feel that the characters in FF7 were as "human" as those in FF6 for whatever reason. Just my personal opinion. Another one is Buzz Buzz in Earthbound. I don't feel this is much of a spoiler since it's really in the first ten minutes of the game, but whatever. [spoiler]Basically, he's a warrior from the future that comes to warn your character and persuade him to save the world. For some strange reason, he takes the shape of a fly. He comes out of a meteor that crash landed on the hillside above your house and follows you back home. Of course, you're attacked by a random Starman. At this point you realize how insanely strong the guy is. It makes his death all the more disheartening and tragic, I think. Imagine how easy things would be if he survived. Especially since he's killed by your friend's mom who slaps him down because she thinks he's a dung beetle. You get a speech from him on his death bed that really lasts forever. You think he's almost done and he goes... "I'm almost gone... Oh wait, I forgot..." and then he juist keeps going lol.[/spoiler] That game is so damn random.

The things James is referring to also brings up something I mentioned earlier. It's not so much the story that I feel people have a problem with, it's the method in which it's told. This is really proven to me by the comparisons of FF style text boxes to MP's scanning. In a generation where games are getting more and more movie-like, any step away from this is frowned down upon by a large segment of the people. However, does having to take time away from the action to read these things really detract from the story? No. You may not like the manner in which it is approached, but that isn't a fault of the story. It's the fault of a mechanic that you personally don't like. I liked the scanning, although I think it could have been a bit faster (from what I've seen it's much faster and visually appealing in MP2, which is great news). I also have to really agree with a point Beans made about how people approach MP. If you're going into this game expecting it to play like a kill-everything-in-sight style FPS simply because it's first person and you have a gun, you're just not going to enjoy this game. That isn't Metroid Prime because that isn't [i]Metroid[/i], period. Considering the adversity that Retro had going into this project and all the press against them, what they managed to accomplish with this, their first game as a unit, is nothing short of amazing. Metroid was, and still is, my favorite Nintendo-made franchise. The fact that they were able to do the series justice despite the massive change in approach this game took is really commendable.

[QUOTE=dark_serena][SIZE=1][COLOR=Purple] Anywho, I see the battle-system kinda like Star Ocean: 2nd Story. I like it when the fights get all hellish and hectic. ^_^ But then again, I only like it when I know what's going on. (O___O) [/color][/size][/QUOTE] I suppose that's one of the better comparisons, although I'd say this is even more hectic because of the movement system. I have really loved the game thus far; story, characters and design. The battle system really takes the cake though. The main difference between the two systems is basically that Star Ocean's utilizes full 3D movement while ToS forces you to stay in straight lines light a tournament fighter. Because of this, you often have three of four characters next to an enemy, all attacking at once (and at a full 60 FPS, mind you). If you're all throwing out combos and special moves and such at once, it's really just a blur of attacks. The straight paths the game forces you on really enhance the system more than detract from it. It allows you to press different directions on the control stick to pull off various moves with the B button. So up and B can have a move assigned to it, down and B, left/right and B, B standing still and up and down on the C-stick. Basically six different moves. Plus you have A just for attacks (and what you press on the stick also affects this). X guards. Beyond just chopping things to pieces, you have to worry about enemy weaknesses, linking combos, blocking attacks, breaking enemy block moves, etc. At times so much is going on that it seems almost impossible to keep up, but you will get good enough that you'll be chaining together huge combos and not getting hit. My max combo thus far was 37 hits, I believe. Combos only count if they're direct hits. Hitting a blocked character will not raise the number and often kills the combo. A few hours into the game you learn about Unison Attacks. Basically, you're given a meter. The more attacks you manage to land successfully, the more is filled up. When it's completely filled you can press Z. You're then given a few seconds to input a combo with the A, B, Y and X buttons. Each button corresponds to a characters move that you set in the U. Attack menu. Pressing different directions can change the setting as well. What this does is have all your characters use a special move at once on a single character. Usually it does a decent amount of damage, but nothing insane. However, if you link specific moves in specific orders, you can form even more special combos. These inflict great amounts of damage on average. It's important to note that special moves use up TP. TP is kind of like MP or SP in other games. The stronger the move, the more it uses. The good thing about this game is that you regain 1 TP for every successful, non-blocked blow you land on an enemy. So you can regain it slowly and are obviously rewarded for fighting well and chaining combos. You learn more special moves as you go along. Moves you're in the process of learning appear in your Tech menu in blue. If you keep doing the move above them, you eventually will unlock the new skill and be able to use it normally. Like doing a bunch of Sword Rains will let you unlock Sword Rain Strike eventually. The cool thing about all of this is that the game rates you after each battle. You're told how long it took, your max combo and are given bonus XP depending on how well you did. You're also given a GRADE, which is usually a small positive or negative number. GRADE points can be turned in for rare stuff throughout the game. Hopefully that all made sense. While it is comparable to Star Ocean, I would say it's pretty much a league in its own otherwise. It's a wonderful change of pace from traditional battle systems. I wrote more about it on Group Sounds (the link is in my signature), but I won't bother posting it all here since it'd be redundant lol.

[quote name='wrist cutter']I have no idea why women keep expecting to find a logical reason for it.[/quote] Seriously. I have no decent reason that I could put into words. I like squeezing things and they're squeezable. That's the best reason I have heh. I'm sure the main reason is somehow instinctive and based on child bearing or some such thing, but what does it matter. I like them, girls have them, everyone wins.

I was bored so I made these. Not what you wanted exactly, but I figured I'd put it up here anyway. If you use it, cool. If not, cool. I figured what the hell heh.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still working on this and I'll have final decisions and the RPG actually posted by Tuesday, probably earlier. I'll be deleting this post when I am finished so I can post the results... that way this'll get bumped back up again. I just figured I owed people some sort of news on this.

It's been doing down here. I think the highest I've seen it these past few months in Chicago was around $2.49 a gallon for premium.

[QUOTE=Manic] [b]Spider-Man [#][/b]Okay, why are all of these rumors going around about John Jameson becoming Venom? Seriously. The third movie hasn't even been written yet. I think fans are just a little [i]too[/i] anxious to see Venom in the third movie, realize Eddie hasn't shown up at all in the second movie, and are looking for the closest person to make into Venom. "Hey, Jameson was involved with the black suit in the cartoon, and he's likely to hate Peter in the next movie, and Eddie Brock is nowhere in sight... let's all assume he'll be Venom." I find this logic flawed for the simple fact that it's stupid. But I mean that in a good way.[/size][/QUOTE] I beleive Raimi has said that Venom won't be in three at all, even way back. After the third one, I don't think Raimi will even be onboard though. I wouldn't be surprised to see Brock in the films following that. Logically, the next bad guy is the most obvious one heh.

I never post in here, but your "not angsty" comment took my attention heh. I like these. They're very surreal in many senses, but they're not hard to figure out either. I think a large problem with a lot of written work is that if someone has an odd piece, they tend to go too far with it. Things you wouldn't understand unless they were explained to you, words made up, etc. This doesn't have these problems and from what I've seen, that's a very hard thing to accomplish.

[quote name='digitalshadow']4. I remember a while back someone made a thread that was spammy I believe and a mod (I forget who) closed it, leaving a pic in it that had a guy pointing at a sign that said "Worst Topic Ever." I laughed really hard that day. Funny thing is that I was just thinking about that pic a few days ago and what do you know? This past week, Charles closed that "Create a controversial statement" thread with that same pic, lol.[/quote] [url]http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=20400&highlight=likes+link[/url] This one? If so, that was also in my Precious Moments post. I was too mean to that kid (it was actually worse, I edited it and toned it down). I took a lot of frustrations out on him, but I think it's safe to say that he'd never be a positive aspect of this site anyway. Who knows though.

Everything I can think of is free online for PS2 outside of FFXI. ATV Offroad 2, Amplitude, Twisted Metal Black's expansion, Frequency, Socom, Socom 2, Champions of Norrath, etc. Basically everything that's online at all. If I can find a full list, I'll post that in here.

[quote name='PiroMunkie][size=1']I do not really know what else say about them, except that they rock.[/size][/quote] That about sums it up. When people give this band a chance, I think they are eventually won over by them. I got Heaven's Cloud into them too heh. I was actually going to name them, but something makes me hesitant. I think, overall, they have some really well written, offbeat songs. It's hard to be like "I love this lyricist" when other people tend to pick people who practically are writing poetic verses. Apocalypse Hoboken just doesn't. While they have a lot of "throw away" songs with no real point, they also have many, many songs that are deeper than they'd first let on. They got me through a lot of stuff. I find their music very easy to relate to. Other than that, Queens of the Stone Age is a good pick. Hell, so are related bands like Kyuss and The Eagles of Death Metal. Songs for the Deaf, in particular, was absolutely brilliant. I think their older material is just as impressive in that regard, but it's also a lot more experimental in many senses. Songs for the Deaf just brought it all together. Other than that, there's three obvious choices for me: David Bowie, The Doors and Marilyn Manson. Bowie is probably the best lyricist in rock music, as far as I'm concerned. Every song tells a story in some sense. While you can say that of many songs, I don't find that any other writer is even in the same league. From the start of the 70s to the late 80s, no one even touched Bowie in this regard. No other musician has had such a long stretch of just perfect material. Between stuff like Five Years, 'Heroes', Young Americans, Diamond Dogs, Ziggy Stardust, Sound and Vision and just dozens of others, there's just no comparison. The Doors are close behind. Obviously, The Doors, lyrically, were really just Jim Morrison. He's called "The American Poet" for a reason. Between his spoken word work and his actual vocals in songs, he's really on another plane altogether. I can't say that I relate to a lot of the things he sings about directly, but I think that they can appeal to everyone regardless. Lastly, Marilyn Manson. I'm sure a lot of people scoff at this choice. The problem with Marilyn Manson is really that the image has become more of a focal point than the music. That's not to say the music is bad, but people just aren't willing to pay attention to it when they think of Manson's image. I guess people forget that the music is seperate and there are four other people in the group. Even so, I can understand why the content wouldn't appeal to everyone. However, it's all so intelligent and well written, very rarely relying on predictable rhyme schemes like nearly every other band of their type. Manson's writing is like bizarre, morose, dark poetry and I absolutely love it. Bad Religion also comes to mind. They have some eh songs, but a vast majority of them are amazingly good. I love the music, but I would say most people know Bad Religion for their anti-government, anti-religion based lyrics. The thing that I love most about them is that, unlike other political bands, they have a timeless quality. They are obviously referring to specific events (if you know the context), but it's written in such a way that it can really be applied to any time. Many bands have the issue of referring to such specific moments that their songs become dated at some point. Bad Religion has the foresight to realize this and they overcome it. There's lots of other writers out there, but that's all that are in my head right now.

Dazzler would be just fine... except for the fact that the people involved with X-Men 3 apparently are eyeing Jessica Simpson for the role. No freaking thanks.

[quote name='Shinmaru']Personally, I'm not a big fan of Kingdom Hearts, but I guess it does deserve some kudos for incorporating the Disney characters in a slightly unique way lol.[/quote] That's possibly the only good thing I can say about the game, if that's even a positive quality. Talk about ruining some of my favorite films. Anyway, I have to agree, that for the most part, the deepest stories I've come across have been on the PC. RPGs in particular. More care seems to go into those sorts of things on the PC... I've found that many console RPGs with a decent story are often very disjointed and hard to follow for various reasons. It's hard to really say what games I've felt have had the best overall story. There have been ones I've enjoyed, but very few that I would consider very impressive. I've always been most impressed by Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series though, and it's various spin-offs. The ideas presented in those games are beyond any other console game I can think of. They tread ground that many other RPGs apparently don't even want to get into, and they do a great job of it at that. Religious themes in RPGs are still rather frowned down upon it seems, but SMT has been going to insane lengths with that very idea for years and years now. The only good example I can give that's related to that series in the US would be both of the Persona games that came out here on the Playstation. While the original Persona is rather dated in most respects, the storyline is excellent. Persona 2 improves upon that even more. It's rare for a RPG on a console to take itself seriously with just cause. Many take themselves far more seriously than they should, but that's not the case here. I've always been into Earthbound as well. It's not the most amazing story. Stop the planet from being destroyed by an evil alien, basically. However, despite basic plotlines, I think it's the manner in which a story is told that can be most important. Earthbound fits this. It's so bizarre and entertaining that I was totally entranced by it.

I don't think a lot of people realize this, but Ozzy is a lot more understandable now. He's more together and coherant. It's pretty obvious in his more recent appearances on talk shows and stuff. Apparently some doctor had him completely doped up on medication to the point that he could barely function. Everyone blamed it on former drug use, which apparently wasn't the main cause of it. Sure, he's not completely together, but certainly more than the mumbling junkie most people have grown used to. Otherwise, I am not that into Ozzy's new stuff... but his older material, solo and with Black Sabbath is awesome. I don't know how anyone cannot like War Pigs.

You look like Moses in sprite form heh. At first I thought this was about the game and I was going to come in here and be mean, but it wasn't so I am happy. That seems like a really long sentence. Your banner/avatar set ******* rocks, by the way.

I really didn't play MP to 100%, but it is worth noting that you get a more complete ending if you do. If you have a problem with the difficulty, you should try replaying it in Hard. Of course, if you don't want to replay it anyway, then it doesn't matter much lol. Halo isn't difficult unless you play it on Legendary, in my opinion. If you can consider that game challenging based on its highest difficulty level, then you should do the same for Prime, as far as I'm concerned. I am not personally interested in Halo. I've played dozens of FPS games that feel just like this, vehicles, story, enemies. It really brought nothing new to the table unless you really are just stuck with console games... I never considered consoles strong on the FPS front. I am, however, tired of the idea that somehow having NPCs in any form in a game enhances the story. They rarely say anything of importance in Halo. They do heighten the atmosphere, but that is about it other than a few key, scripted events. This isn't something that is generally feasible in the Metroid universe as it is. Samus goes about things alone. Giving her random soliders to talk to on an non-human foreign planet would not fit the game at all. However, I don't feel this matters to the storyline. Yes, many of the things Samus scans give you frivilous information. However, it's no more frivilous than the random banter of most of the stuff that occurs in Halo. I mean, no one needs to know about a containment vessel for some substance rupturing, but the fact that it's even included at all gives this game a sense of detail that I don't think many other games have. The Chozo have different terms for things than Samus and even the Space Pirates have. It makes the world seem more tangible, I think. Plus, that alone entirely ignores the advancements in the story and development of Samus's history that is given in Prime. Between the Chozo Lore and Space Pirates, there's so much discussed. So much said about Samus's suit, upbringing, Phazon, enemies and so forth. If people don't consider these plot developments, I don't know what to tell them. I think the main problem for people was that they had to search this information out for themselves. MP is only as deep as you want to allow it to be... whereas Halo just stuffs everything in your face. It gives the impression that it's deeper because of this, but I don't personally think it is.

Half the people here, myself included (lol), have such little idea of what they're talking about in terms of politics that I cannot even see a justification for such a forum anyway.