Semjaza

[QUOTE=Wet Cement][COLOR=DarkOrange] The amazingly funny and tragically late Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka, the Waco Kid, et cetera) starred in that little bit of cinema history. Fantastic movie, definitely a favourite, but not really top five for me.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Gene Wilder isn't dead yet.

I don't really understand why the existing normal skin is being completely overwritten with this. I prefer the old one to both Geisha and where this one is headed... I would think that it could have just been cloned and then had the images switched out to give people three choices instead. Oh well, though.

I checked out the server lists and, unfortunately, they're completely different for the US compared to the rest of the world. Lame. That was the one nice thing about FFXI.

I've had alligator and it's absolutely excellent. People will tell you that stereotypical "it tastes like chicken" line, but it's more or less true. I would say it's sweeter and generally juicier, though. Unfortunately, I've only been able to find it in Florida. In recent years, even I make it down there, it's been harder and harder to find. If places do have it, the pieces are incredibly small. And since it's usually fried up like little nuggets, you get a lot more batter than alligator. I believe around Daytona Beach (or at least somewhere between there and Orlando) there's a restaurant called Park's Seafood. I used to get it there and the pieces were huge. I loved it there. I have no clue if it's still around.

I'm not really familiar with the European situation, but I was always under the impression that servers were shared in WoW and didn't matter where you lived? I have no real way to check that thought and I have honestly NO idea in this case. Combat wise it's kind of typical. I think it's like most of these games in that certain variables are calculated and if they're good they're counted as a hit and if not, they're not. I think it would be pretty difficult to do any other way, although I've heard the combat in Dungeons and Dragons Online is that complex. Might be interesting to try that out. Enemies don't seem to chase you down as long as they did in FFXI and WoW when you run away, though (and certainly nowhere near as bad as in GW), which I kind of appreciated. It's hard to say which of these is worth getting sometimes. You and I played FFXI together and both eventually seemed to find it supremely boring. It seems like we have semi-similar tastes, so I think it's worth go if you have the money laying around. I don't know that I'd necessarily tell anyone to RUSH OUT AND BUY THIS TODAY about any MMORPG though, because they require a lot of time and tastes are so different. It's definitely one of the better ones I've played, however.

Not sure if I should bump this or make a new thread or what. I decided to pick this up last week since Best Buy had it on sale for $35 and I had a $5 Rewards Zone coupon. Basically, $20 off the normal price for a couple of month old game that's been selling very well. Can't do much better than that, particularly since it comes with a free month. TLotRO is a MMORPG in the traditional sense. It's not like Guild Wars with hub areas and then an instanced overworld. Every one can go where ever they want together or separately, just as in something like World of Warcraft. As expected, it shares a lot of similarities with other MMORPGs, particularly in terms of the user interface. This is true of even WoW or GW (which I will mention most, since those are the most played online RPGs around these parts). I mean, they all have their quirks (WoW's being arguably the most deep), but if you've figured one out you can figure out the others. In any case, I've had it for about a week now and I've really enjoyed it so far. I found it to be more involving from the start than WoW is, particularly in terms of narrative. TLotRO creates what's basically an instanced tutorial area that's heavily story based and I think it sucks you in to a far larger degree because of it. Of course, it helps that I (and a lot of people) have at least a passing familiarity with the general universe. The license has been capitalized upon very well... Hell, you can even smoke. There's all sorts of pipe and pipe-weed and smoke tricks. Graphically (to get this out of the way) it goes for a more realistic style. More comparable to GW than WoW. It's also a hell of a lot more intensive because of it. I could barely run it on my old computer at the lowest resolution (P4 1.8 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, Radeon 9600). It does run maxed out on my new build though (Core Duo 2.4 GHz, 2GB of RAM, Geforce 7600). Just be aware that just because you can run GW or WoW well doesn't mean you can run this well. With all of the advanced graphics options enabled, however, it does look pretty damn good. Gameplay wise, most of the things are as expected. Combat is similar to something like GW or WoW, although there are moves that have pre-requisites. As a Minstrel, I sometimes have to play a Tier 1 song before I can play a Tier 2 song. I'm sure the same is true of the other classes. Battles are still challenging however, particularly if you stumble upon an "epic" monster (super strong for its level, drops the best items). Many of the quests are actually interesting if you bother to read the stuff that goes along with it. Sure, it has its share of stupid quests, but I appreciated that it was fairly well mixed up. Fetch quests, kill quests, timed quests, group quests. I think it's all well handled as far as MMORPGs go. There's also the fact that when you're doing a quest that requires item drops from monsters, you actually get them regularly. WoW has gotten a lot of complains for quest item drops being annoyingly rare, especially in cases that don't make sense. Not getting wolf blood when killing a wolf, for example. This hasn't happened to me in this game at all and it's a nice thing. There are also other aspects of it that are somewhat unique and help pull you in a little more. For example, there's the "Deed" system. Basically, deeds will be assigned to you based upon your actions and you'll get certain bonuses out of finishing them. These deeds can give stat increases or just allow you to have access to a new title (titles are attached to your name -- so, for example, for killing 30 goblins in Erid Luin I am able to use the title Defender of Erid Luin). It's more addicting than it sounds and has a "just one more quality", similiar to achievements on the Xbox 360. It's fed even more by the fact that there's some that you can only get in a very limited window and can never get again if you screw it up (such as reaching certain levels without dying). Then there's the monster side of the game. Not only can you play as your character, but you can also using a Fell Summoning Pool and play as a monster you can actually raise stats for and have battle against other players in certain areas of the game. I've not done this yet, but the book has an awful lot of info on it. Seems pretty cool. That doesn't mean it doesn't have its problems. While the crafting system is interesting, it is just not explained well enough. My scholar profession requires all sorts of ingredients that I had no idea how to obtain. You can't buy them (although they might be in the Auction House if someone puts them up) and you're not really told where to get them. It turns out that you have to equip the Scholar's Glass (every profession comes with tools you must equip to find or use things related to the profession) and look for pots and such that contain these items in dungeons and ruins throughout the game. Without the scholar's glass you wouldn't be able to see them. Perhaps the game does explain this somewhere, but it wasn't very obvious to me. Most other professions actually have nodes appear (icons on the map that show you where related things are), but not Scholars for some reason. This can easily be fixed by making a couple of quests related to making your first craft items. Something I really hope they do. It's easy to get lost here because, unlike WoW, a lot of the necessary ingredients to make anything aren't available right then and there. In addition, I feel at times quests can be overly vague. While I do not expect to be told EXACTLY where to go (as GW does for you), I do expect some hand-holding in the earlier quests. This is especially true of, again, anything related to crafting or having to actually talk to other people playing the game to gain something. Say for example a NPC is looking for a mushroom pie, but you cannot buy one and your profession doesn't involve cooking. Maybe it's at the auction house, but otherwise you have to find someone that knows cooking and ask them to toss one together for you. It's not like this is a big deal, but I don't think many players are going to automatically assume that's what they should do. Anyway, those are fixable things. This month they're adding a sizable free content update to the game, which is nice. Obviously you have to pay for the game, but your $15 a month nets you unlimited characters on any server you please. Personally, I play as Ainadel on Gladden. If anyone bothers to pick this up, let me know. I'd also be happy to answer any questions about it.

What you're talking about, however, is a very specific aspect of a rather broad topic. Very few are solely equating hentai with simply posting images people find on Japanese fanart sites. Just because a couple of people are deciding to go off on that tangent doesn't mean it's the crux of the argument. I would say it isn't at all.

I'm not big on the original. It's by no means bad, I just think it's extremely overrated. It was pretty and had some neat ideas, but I don't know. The battle system, in particular, just did not work for me at all. You basically just pressed one of the face buttons and a specific point and characters attacked. I felt completely uninvolved. I owned it on the original PlayStation. Supposedly the PSP port has a lot of problems. From what I've seen of the sequel, though, they seem to be quite different. As for the sequel, I was thinking about picking itup, but just haven't gotten around to it. I'll have to check it out when I finish some of the other RPGs that just seem to be piling up. Sometimes I wish these things actually were shorter... lol. I'd be interested in seeing what your impressions of it are later on.

Well, I suppose you can see if someone can look at the plug-in and figure out how to recreate it here.

Well, most importantly, she's going to be on a plane. I don't think anyone will appreciate her talking to her DS for several hours.

I'm not sure which version you guys are running, but 3.6 and 3.5 are the only really supported ones anymore. It's called NoSpam!. For 3.6.x: [url]http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828[/url] For 3.5.x: [url]http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133937[/url] I supposed there's some chance the 3.5.x version might work in older vB installs.

Final Fantasy III is good, but it's also fairly oldschool. I'm not sure what that might mean to you, but I know a lot of my friends just were not into it at all. If you're into the older FFs with dungeons and slower battles and what-not, it's fun. Game's I'd suggest: Pheonix Wright - Seconding this. There's two of them, either will do. The older is better translated, however. Trauma Center: Under the Knife - You act as a doctor doing surgeries. Cut people open, remove this or that. It's actually very fun and the story is not completely realistic, which I actually appreciated. It gets rather hard later on, but I never really wanted to stop playing it. Tetris DS - I play this more than anything, personally. It's a great version of Tetris, the new modes are excellent (particularly Push) and it's just very fun. I probably play this on every train ride I take it seems. Pokemon DS - Good games, lots of new additions. This is probably the best of the time wasters just because there's so much crap to do in it. The walking around and getting sucked into battles aspect can get tiresome, but I'd still recommend it. I barely played Pokemon either, but I like this one at lot. Played it more than the others. Etrian Odyssey - If you're into REALLY old school, dungeon hack RPGs I'd highly suggest this. You wander around dungeons that you have to actually map out yourself on the touch screen. It recalls old pen and paper RPGs that required graph paper for maps. Contact is OK. It gets frustrating because somewhat early on the bosses are just way stronger than you... requires more level grinding than would be expected. It can also be extremely vague at times and you might not know what to do. It's a fun game, but at the same time it's hard to recommend blindly. Plus, you can get it for like $8 on eBay lol.

If you don't think these users watch oodles of hentai, perhaps you just don't know them well enough. No one has actually asked me at all about it before. I doubt anyone else in here has been asked either. Stop the assuming.

I use a mod on one of my forums that changes the sign-up page. Instead of requiring people to type what's in an image, it requires them to answer simple questions. Like "What's 2+2?". Bots can't figure this out, obviously. Since then (and this was months ago), it went from a daily problem to never happening again. All of the other mods are just things that could be adjusted by a programmer to get around. If they can figure out how to get past images, they can figure out how to get past a time delay. I don't believe it requires a newer version of vB, but I could be wrong.

I might be crazy, but usually if you have to write 25 paragraphs about why something is not necessary it kind of proves that the argument isn't as simple as you're claiming. Hence, it gives the impression that maybe your argument isn't quite as "right" as you claim. If there was a major, clear reason why OB shouldn't have any of these things, it should be stated clearly and succinctly. Simply defending what OB already does is not a difficult thing to do. It doesn't require 10,000 words and quotes. The actual jargon used by those on the opposite side of the spectrum is irrelevant to this because you already have the upper hand by default. What you're arguing for already exists. Arguing for something to change is another story. These people don't have the benefit of being able to fall back on "well, them's the rules". They have to figure out angles to convince people who have already settled on something. I can understand their reasoning at least. Telling people to go elsewhere for something that clearly is related is completely counterproductive. Other sites deal with anime, some arguably better, so should Otakuboards ignore anime entirely since people can go there instead? If we continue with that course of action, we'd wind up with like two dozen sites on the Internet. I, for one, don't feel that the gradual removal of anime has to do with less interest in it in general (certainly the success of other anime sites and anime sales in general back this up), but rather less interest in general from those in charge of the forums here. The site is continuously pushing the interests and goals of a select few as those of every one here. That's the only thing that isn't [I]fair[/I]. I feel that the general user base has very little say in the way this place is headed, which is increasingly bizarre as time goes on. We're then given increasingly bizarre reasons as to why this is happening. That the site is of no relation to theOtaku (in fact, it seems as though some people get uppity when the two are put in the same sentence), that something as intrinsic to this site's foundation as anime no longer "matters". [I]Most importantly[/I], arguing that this place is "family" friendly when I can find numerous threads about sexually explicit (which apparently is on a fine line before it crosses into "unacceptable" for whatever reason) or hyper-violent anime within a minute seems rather fruitless. Let's not even discuss the Arena, where violence and swearing have become almost the de facto standard. So, I guess if you see no contradictions between saying it's "OK" for me to imagine and continuously write about a character that abuses women, tortures animals, has a weird blood obsession and explicitly and violently kills large groups of people, while simultaneously telling me that it's not "OK" for me to talk about fictional tentacle sex then we're on a totally different plane of existence.

Well, I've played all of these, so I can help out some. Odin Sphere - Gorgeous, but almost more of a brawler than an RPG. Some interesting concepts. Ultimately, I think it runs the risk of being really repetitive for a lot of people. It's similar in nature to something like Valkyrie Profile, but arguably even less complex in some ways (although I hated the battle system in the original VP, so I give this one the edge). I'm not entirely sure this game is what a lot of people are expecting, so be sure to read up on it a bunch first. It's not really like the other games you've listed here. .hack G/U - I've only played the first one, but I imagine the sequel is mostly the same. I think the concept is enjoyable (I especially like the website components), but ultimately it becomes tedious quickly. The level designs are dull, you're mostly just going to places doing the same quests over and over for different loot. The story itself is vaguely interesting, but it's hurt dramatically be Haseo being a whiny bastard. Maybe some people will relate to him, but I found myself constantly annoyed that he'd say things to people that I personally never would. It was hard to find him very likable. Dawn of Mana - Different from every previous Mana game, yet again. Every chapter your level resets, which wouldn't be a horribly big deal if you didn't just wind up learning the same movesets over and over and over again. If you find it on the cheap, I'd consider it, but at full price I'd say avoid it. Horrible camera, by the way. Rogue Galaxy - This is probably my favorite of the four. The battle system is enjoyable, despite flaws. It's gorgeous, loads fast and generally works well. Uses a system similar to FFXII's license board, although only for new moves (you use items to learn things). The story is typical, but some of the characters are fun. I personally enjoy games where there's a sense of wonder and excitement, where you get the impression that the characters actually ENJOY what they're doing despite their trials and tribulations (kind of like Skies of Arcadia). I'd recommend Odin Sphere or Rogue Galaxy. Depends if you want more of an RPG with action-y elements or more of a Final Fight game with RPG elements.

It's been a while since I popped it in, but as far as I remember (and if I'm not getting demon names confused) [spoiler]you can only buy Mitamas at the store... I think it's called Rag's Goods or something like that? More and more are available at his shop over the course of the game. They're mostly good for increasing demon strength through fusion.[/spoiler]

BKStyles covered all of it, but I had something to add... I'm glad to see people are playing this still :). To clarify for you, in that case, the actual name of the demon is "Pixie". It's class, for lack of a better word, is Fairy. Essentially, the Pixie is a [I]type [/I]of Fairy by the game's rules.

Question for you guys. Where exactly is this global trading place? I figured out how to trade with my friends pretty quickly, but I have no idea how I can trade with people around the globe. Do I have to go to a specific city or something? Also, I have no idea how the Union Room works. Can I just meet people already on my friends list in there?

[QUOTE=BKstyles][font=tahoma]At this point, your variety of demons won't be too extensive so take what you can get. Later on, the real fun part will be which demons you choose to recruit. Gotta admit though i grew pretty attached to my [spoiler]first fairy, i kept her long enough until her transformation.[/spoiler] [/font][/QUOTE] [spoiler]Also worth noting is that you definitely should hold on to your first Pixie (or one of her direct descendants) because at the very end of the game she allows you into an area you can't otherwise get to.[/spoiler] For the record, I think Meguro is infinitely more versatile, which goes a long way. :D

Stopped by here randomly today and saw this thread. I doubt I'd post otherwise, but seeing someone post a Megaten thread here other than, well, me, was enough to get me interested. Persona 3 was scheduled for June. Atlus is now saying "Summer 07" and Gamestop/EB are saying July. I think July is a safe bet. Atlus recently sent out a newsletter saying they have a special edition planned, but wouldn't say what was in it yet. According to Gamestop/EB, you'll get a soundtrack and an artbook... so that's probably what Atlus is referring to. I'd link to my Persona 3 section on my Megaten site (I guess this is advertising, but there's not really an alterative site for it), but it's not currently up. I've not finished redoing it all yet... but I had probably more info about the game there than any other English source. Should be soon, for those who want to know more about the game. My main point of interest is whether or not the US version will include Fes. Fes is an expansion pack of sorts for Persona 3 and adds on quite a lot of stuff. Atlus USA hasn't said anything about it. In the past, I'd assume we'd not see it in the US, but recently Atlus USA and Atlus of Japan seem to be cooperating more and more... we're actually seeing examples of games from Atlus of Japan being announced for US release before they even hit Japanese stores. That NEVER happened even a couple years back. So we'll see. I have an interview vaguely scheduled with them about the game, so if anyone has something they'd like to have asked let me know.

[QUOTE=Albert Flasher]Everything but the firefights? There was nothing [i]but[/u] firefights. That was the point of the game. It had a spooky theme to it but it was really just an excuse to kill baddies in increasingly amusing ways for 40 hours. The firefights were intense and a whole lot of fun. I don't see how anyone can have a problem with that. Maybe you can explain more?[/QUOTE] Personally, I think supposedly great games should be more than one great mechanic. It falters in literally every way beyond that. This game is being praised to the point of it being something on the level of, say, Half-Life 2. Is it really that great of a game or does it seem that great because no other new FPS of value came out in 2006? I mean, if that's all that matters about it, I might as well be stuck in a room with a couple of barricades and shoot to my hearts content. There's just nothing else to it. 1.) The level designs are ridiculously boring. We go from a desolate office, to a desolate apartment complex, etc. The graphics might be clear, but I don't know what it matters when nearly every place you go to looks like a box. 2.) The levels are ridiculously linear. The only chance of getting remotely lost in this game is if you get turned around because every thing around you looks the same. There's some attempt to spice this up, but it doesn't work very well. Let's say you find a locked door you cannot open. Well, just look two feet away and there (amazingly!) is a vent you can use or a ladder you can climb. The funny thing is that most of these lead almost directly to the room you were trying to get into in the first place. 3.) 85% of the story is told through answering machines you find scattered around. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really feel like standing there waiting for the people on them to stop talking. 4.) The rest of it is told through incredibly lame interactive cutscenes, most of which involve a hallway. After you see this once or twice, it's clear what's going on storywise and absolutely nothing else in the game is remotely interesting in that aspect. 5.) 40 hours? I beat the game on the normal difficulty in about 5 to 6, tops. Hard couldn't possibly extend the game another 35 hours. I could stick the multiplayer in here and beef that up considerably, but I never really brought that up to begin with. 6.) The game is not scary or spooky. It uses up most of its ideas in the first 30 minutes, after which it repeats similar concepts until you finish it. It's story and characters are basically a mishmash of cliche Ring elements and ideas from genetic engineering B movies. 7.) There's hardly any enemy types. Sure, the firefights are fun, but when I'm fighting a handful of different beings that actually shoot back over the course of the game, it's hard to be that excited about it. I did like those guys that latch on the walls and everything, but what more can I say. 8.) [spoiler]When you finally chase down that guy you've been following, hoping for some sort of final battle with [i]something[/i], every thing is completed with a single shot. After the rest of the title, I found this to be a huge letdown. I suppose you can say the final battle is really with Alma, but that's not exactly exciting either.[/spoiler] You do spend a good deal of time shooting things, but people also praise other aspects of the game. Even just the simple idea of considering this game spooky/scary gets a laugh from me. I'm not saying anyone else can not like it, but I obviously would never consider it myself. I don't understand the level of praise it gets, but some of the stuff I consider great doesn't exactly get high reviews either. It goes both ways. The funny thing about all of this is that I'd consider Condemned, a game that was largely ignored, more visceral and scary than this. They both have vaguely supernatural elements, decent fights, etc.

I forget the name of the place we were at, but it was a semi-upscale Korean joint in Chicago. Andersonville area, if you're from around here. I was there for my girlfriend's work party and it was actually a lot of fun. They had these things called Sojutinis. Soju is a Korean drink, similar to vodka. It's sweeter and smoother, though. Apparently it's dirt cheap there. I've not bothered to look up pricing in the US, but apparently one of the better kids has a blue frog on the label. I forget the name. Anyway, they had all sorts of flavors and almost all of them were great. I don't usually get drunk, but I had about four or five of these things over the course of maybe 2 or 3 hours. They have like 30 to 45% alcohol by volume, so it's not very weak. I tried orange, watermelon, ginger and cucumber. The ginger was definitely the best. So my point is, try Soju if you get a chance and like vodka type drinks.

[quote name='Albert Flasher][COLOR=Sienna]How [b]F.E.A.R[/b] doesn't at least get a nomination for [b]Best PC Game[/b'] is beyond me. Just unbelievable game. Great story-line, well executed in all respects, incredible graphics, it's actually hard as hell even on the moderate settings, and it's spooky! The sound-track is simple but perfecft, chilling and appropriate. It's fast-paced and very stylish, like a great action movie. The slow-mo ability is a bit abuseable but it still makes for a very fun experiance. [/COLOR][/quote] I think the game is pretty average at best and I have no idea how it got such high scores. I could really get into this, but I think every thing, except the firefights, is just subpar. The AI for these enemies and the use of cover was done better than any other FPS that I've played, but I don't know that that's enough to make up for all of the other ridiculously overrated qualities about the title. So, I wouldn't mention it at least... although it seems many people here aren't naming PC titles at all lol

In a lot of cases, I think these "stolen" things could more easily be described as tributes. I know there's a lot of examples of kind of "man, come up with something yourself" ideas, but at times I feel like people take it to extreme. You read how that yellow track suit was stolen from Bruce Lee, but I mean, seriously, it's been used in probably a dozen or two things since then (cartoons even) because Bruce Lee was awesome. Its inclusion in the movie, I think, is more of a treat for martial arts fan than blatant idea stealing. That's just a single example, but there's quite a few others.