Semjaza

We already have two and four... With two, there's already myOtaku. Plus your profile here can link to any website you choose, and we have a section on here just for web design. There's already an avatar request section. I think you need to look around more lol.

Well, there really aren't many RPGs on the GC as it is. I can think of three (I don't include action adventure games like Zelda). Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. It'll be my first game purchase since... I think since Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. As for the story, it seems rather standard stuff like most Tales games. Save the world. At least the game seems to throw interesting spins on this via some twists and turns to the formula, so that's a good thing. The characters seem interesting and likable enough, so no complaints there. Seems more of a throwback to older RPGs than modern stuff like FFX-2 or whatever. I agree about the battle system. IT's the best part of Tales games. I especially like the fact that you can play four players in these battles. My brothers watch me play these games sometimes, so it'd be nice to give them a chance to play sometimes. There's plenty of shots at IGN and Gamespot, by the way. [url]http://media.cube.ign.com/media/481/481670/imgs_1.html[/url] I'm surprised that Nacmo stuck to their original release date so closely. The second week of July isn't too far from June 30th.

I don't know if I can say I prefer one over the other... just like I can't say I prefer cartoons over comics here in the US. They're such different mediums, despite the obvious ties between the two. I guess I'd go with manga, though. To be quite honest, I often cannot bring myself to sit and watch many anime films or series for extended periods of time. With manga, I can go at my own pace. Pay more attention to the things I want to pay attention to. Plus, there's the fact that the characters act and sound like how I imagine, rather than having to be forced to listen to some spotty voice acting.

Maybe it's just me, but from comments in this thread and in other threads, I think some of you would have hated this movie no matter what. You're going into them with extremely negative mindsets... it's impossible for you to enjoy it, even when things are done well. As for the comic book Spider-Man, yeah, he makes his own webfluid. It isn't part of his natural abilities like in these films. They kind of skipped over his whole nerdy, inventor ideas.

I'm going to have to close this. Licensed or not, links to places that offer questionable downloads to copyrighted materials are not something OtakuBoards wants to support.

I don't know if many of you realize this... but film for major theaters is EXPENSIVE. Far too expensive for most of the anime distributors in the US to justify creating in the first place, let alone trying to convince major theater chains that there is a big enough market for this stuff. There's a reason why only companies as big as Disney have bothered to put anime in a decent amount of theaters.

Yeah, I've never heard of specific multi-region players. There's a reason that the players have region coding in the first place... Larger companies would be in a lot of hot water if they made a Euro/US player or a US/Japan player. It's all really stupid, but that's how it is. There's lots of sites that sell region free players, though... in addition to the one wrist cutter linked to. I've seen them for even less money, but just be careful with the shipping. A lot of places tend to ship these from Asian countries for pretty big amounts of money.

I find some of these complaints strange, but not surprising. While I don't personally agree with them, I do understand where people are coming from. As far as I'm concerned, Wind Waker is one of the better games in the series in terms of story. Let's face it, Zelda has never been about an absolutely amazing story. Certainly it has gotten deeper as time has gone along, but I really don't know how anyone can play a Zelda game expecting tons of great plot devices and crazy turns. There just aren't many. In my opinion, other than Majora's Mask, Wind Waker has made more strides in the story department than any game before it. I felt the Kokiri were cool creations and their imporantance was interesting. The humanization of Ganondorf was a very, very welcome addition. Tetra was an awesome character any way you want to slice it and [spoiler]the fact that she was Zelda added a whole other side to her character that never even remotely existed in previous games.[/spoiler] I don't play Zelda games for the story per se, but for the main characters... and as far as I'm concerned, this game was probably the best in that aspect. Character design is subjective, but I don't have any problem with Link's design. I find it fitting. While people might not like his design, there were some others in the game that were certainly excellent as well. Between Ganondorf and the various enemies and bosses, I certainly didn't feel anything was out of place. Of course, people now expect every Zelda game to be related to OoT in some way, so what can you do. I felt it was a nice, welcome change. I can understand if others do not. So when we get to this new Zelda, I'm a bit mixed. I'm bothered that they ditched the cel shading so quickly (I honestly thought it would be a bit more realistic, but still with cel shaded graphics), but it is intriguing. Especially considering this is still the Wind Waker engine. It really proves how strong that engine was and how much it was capable of pushing. I think a lot of people think Wind Waker was a lot more simple than it really was. At the same time, I am very interested in seeing where they'll be going with this... although part of me wishes they were saving this style for the next system where it can really be so much more impressive. Still, more Zelda is never a bad thing.

[font=Tahoma][color=black]Well, this is my first attempt at a RPG. I've only participated in three here total, which I think has added up to like five posts in this forum in my lifetime. So, please bear with me. If you'd like to suggest something along with your sign-up, that's cool with me. I'm open to outside ideas, within reason.[/color][/font] [font=Tahoma][/font] [font=Tahoma]I'm popping this out later than I originally planned, but probably far earlier than expected. I've not told anyone that I am posting this today, so hopefully it will keep things pretty level. As long as your sign up rocks, I figure you have a very good chance of being in here. I won't be playing favorites.[/font] [font=Tahoma][/font] [center][font=Tahoma][color=black][u][b]Basic Plotline[/b][/u][/color][/font][/center] [center][b][u][font=Tahoma][/font][/u][/b] [/center] [center] [/center] [left][font=Tahoma]Dr. Zimmer originally became the owner of this property shortly after WWII. According to the locals, it's the single most expensive plot of land in the area. In addition to a large, rather decrepit mansion, there was also a self contained area with a small pond and forest. Several servents quarters, sheds, small buildings and wells littered the area. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Despite his wealth, Zimmer has been something of a recluse. The surrounding neighbors had only seen the doctor on rare occasions, generally at very odd hours. This only fed the stories of the locals, particularly the older men who had became delusional following the war. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Stories concerning Dr. Zimmer quickly began to circulate throughout the nearby town of Ottawa. None were all that believable. The most popular rumor told that he was part of The Secret Doctrine, a rather exclusive occultist group, which once included members such as Adolf Hitler himself. This was furthered by the rumors of his Nazi ties. In fact, many belived him to be a runaway member of the Nazi party, directly responsible for the rumored occultist studies and experiments, although there was no direct proof. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Many told of cries and screams coming from the estate. Disappearances were tied to the home by elders in the area, but the local police rarely investigated. Years passed and the interest faded. Zimmer's property has merely become something of a haunted house in modern times, although no one has bothered to explore the property since his arrival decades ago. He's assumed to be dead at this point in time, but no one knows for certain. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Recently, a strange man had appeared in town trying to sell a book. He claimed it was something he had found on the estate of Dr. Zimmer. Of course, no one believed him. He did manage to sell the book to the local library for a small price, however, due to the interest of the head librarian. Most everyone in the town is now familiar with this book on some level and it has brought the story of Dr. Zimmer and his atrocities back into the limelight. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]This is where you come in. A group of people from Ottawa have disappeared, only to awaken, unknowingly, within the estate of Dr. Zimmer. Some are acquainted, some are not. Basically, all they have to do is survive.[/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [font=Tahoma][/font] [font=Tahoma][/font] [center][font=Tahoma][b][u]The Idea[/u][/b][/font][/center] [left][font=Tahoma] [/font][/left] [center][b][u][font=Tahoma][/font][/u][/b] [b][u][font=Tahoma][img]http://www.slownerveaction.org/rpgs/torment/torment.jpg[/img][/font][/u][/b][/center] [left][font=Tahoma] [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]This is a horror RPG. As such, expect graphic violence, cursing and other R-rated activities. Gory details would be appreciated within posts, but are definitely not required. For examples of the types of things I'm going for, watch films like House of 1,000 Corpses, Suspiria, Evil Dead, Cure, Cabin Fever, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Hellraiser and so forth for a general theme. [/font][/left] [left] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma][u]I'm trying to avoid B-movie dorkiness, although a sense of humor would definitely be appreciated[/u]. [/font][/left] [left][u][font=Tahoma][/font][/u] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]There are a few things to keep in mind in this RPG... It more or less takes place in a "haunted house". People [b]will[/b] die, at random, at the hands of the creatures here. None of the posters have control of this. Only I do. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]However, don't let this discourage you from joining. Once you die, you will be given control of a creature or group of creatures within the game. You can do with them as you please, although again, who dies and when will be chosen at random by myself. This is mostly an incentive for people to keep posting even after their own character has been disemboweled and otherwise torn apart. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Everyone will awaken within different parts of the house. Some people may be together, some may not. You may meet up with others at any time, assuming it is possible and you are near eachother. Dr. Zimmer's estate is massive and is not easily traversed. [/font][/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma]Escaping the estate is another matter. This is not something that can be accomplished within a few posts. In fact, while I want everyone to have the idea of trying to escape within their posts, I don't want anyone actually getting out. What happens in terms of the escape is kind of a vital plotpoint and I'm mantaining control over that currently.[/font][/left] [/left] [left] [/left] [left][font=Tahoma][/font][/left] [center][color=black][/color] [font=Tahoma] [color=black][b][u]Sign-Up Requirements[/u][/b][/color][/center] [color=black][/color] [color=black][b]Name:[/b] Obvious. This takes place in the US in modern times. Please don't use names like Legolas. Full names aren't required. Keep in mind that most of these characters are good friends, so titles and such would likely not be used.[/color] [color=black][/color] [color=black][b]Age:[/b] This is pretty open, but obviously choosing to be a child might be problematic. If for some reason you feel you can pull off an overly young or overly old character, be my guest. It must be fitting, however. I'm not going to force everyone into the late teens/early twenties bracket.[/color] [b]Sex:[/b] Male/Female... [b]Appearance:[/b] Basic appearance of character. Eye, hair and skin color. Muscular build, or lack of it. Clothing, accessories, etc. Be specific, if possible. [b]Background:[/b] List off whatever you feel is important to your character and might feed his or her actions. Things they've overcome, fears, interests, etc. Also give any information you feel is needed concerning their personality. [b]Equipment:[/b] Choose two items your character will bring with. This doesn't mean you can choose a shotgun and grenades. Only things that characters might carry with them on a sleepover/trip or general situations will be accepted. Pocket knives, lighters, flashlights, bandages, etc. There will be plenty of opportunities for other equipment and weapons to be found within the RPG. [b]Miscellaneous:[/b] Anything else you feel needs to be said concerning your character. [b]General:[/b] Put suggestions, concerns or comments here. Skip this if you have nothing to add. [/font] Hopefully this is satisfactory for a sign-up thread. More information will be posted before the RPG actually starts. I have maps, creature information and other things in the works for people to make use of. All of this will be included on a website made for this RPG. There will also be individual pages for each person participating. Examples from the mentioned book: [url]http://www.sweethypocrisies.com/rpgs/torment/lancer.jpg[/url] [url]http://www.sweethypocrisies.com/rpgs/torment/shrieker.jpg[/url] [url]http://www.sweethypocrisies.comrpgs/torment/zombies.jpg[/url]

1. He's dead. No question. Strangely, I was talking to my grandfather about this years back and he told me that there's a large group of people who actually think there was some sort of government conspiracy of sorts behind his death. Strange. 2. If he did fake it, I'm sure he's in some desert eating cactus. 3. I have a few favorites. It's hard to narrow down. I think Crystal Ship and Five to One are probably the top two. Live versions of Five to One in particular. People Are Strange is the name of that song, by the way.

Ah, yes. I forgot about that heh. In any case, I don't really see the point of constantly doing that. It's like Justin said, what if someone makes that same username and everyone gets confused? It seems like it'd be more of a problem than a benefit. If that person's posts are still around... isn't their "clutter" still on the site anyway? The only thing this would really accomplish would be a lowering of the registered member count and opening up a few usernames (mostly of the GokuGold22354523 variety, I'd imagine) lol.

I must say that 30 days is a REALLY short period as well. There's countless people here who disappear for months at a time only to return in full force. Deleting their accounts would be pointless. It'd also disrupt many threads here as well... Their posts would disappear and many things simply would not be as they once were. It's all intertwined together. I really fail to see how threads by someone not here any longer really affect anyone. If the thread is active, it's active. If it's not, it's not.

Morbid, creepy love songs are the best type of love song as far as I'm concerned. Saturday Night by The Misfits; Dollskin, Tyler and Possum Kingdom by the Toadies; Happy Child by tweaker; Sweet Tooth by Manson; I Put a Spell On You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. They all fit this and are some of my favorite songs, personally. I wouldn't say they creep me out, but I find something about them really appealing. They seem like they require more work than the traditional love song.

I don't find that Grave of the Fireflies complaint to be very justified. It's impossible to focus on every last family in Japan at that time. Focusing on one adds more humanity to their plight, rather than just a everyone versus everyone else type of story. Plus it's based on a short story written by the man who experienced it. It wouldn't make sense to take that book and turn it into a general war documentary. I would have been greatly upset if they changed the ending from the book to please the general everyday masses. The film is important and special because it doesn't succumb to that.

[quote name='Alan][font=Arial][size=1][color=Indigo]For Christ sake, in Australia, there home country, they have been relegated to Classic Rock stations.[/color][/size'][/font][/quote] Why wouldn't they be? In every other country around the world they're considered "classic rock". US bands that haven't been in their heydey for well over a decade or so make it onto our classic rock stations, regardless of any new material (Van Halen for example). Just makes sense to me lol.

[quote name='Charles']Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is another good one. Throughout the game, you're given a multitude of opportunities to make antagonistic decisions. Eventually, your character's appearance will reflect your wicked tendencies. The differences between the light and dark sides aren't purely aesthetic either. If you've chosen to follow the dark path, the abilities that accompany it, such as force choke, won't cost as many experience points, whereas abilities such as "heal" will cost more. Furthermore, there are distinct endings you can receive, depending on which side you're aligned with..[/quote] If you want to include that style... pretty much every RPG on the PC for the last two decades has also allowed you to go your own route. Of course, there are consequences for evil actions heh.

There are some. I can't think of many offhand, to be honest, but they do exist. TIE Fighter is a good example. It's rather old and PC only, but you're on the side of the Empire fighting against the rebels. Very good game. The upcoming James Bond Goldeneye game puts you in the role of the badguys. There's a thread on it in here somewhere. Disgaea technically has you on the side of the bad guys. You're Laharl, Prince of the Underworld. It's a strategy RPG, though, so I don't know how into it most would be. Dungon Keeper is a PC series. It's a sim/strategy game that has you running your own strange dungeon. I've not gotten to play it, but I did hear good things. Tecmo's Deception series has you settings traps and killing off good characters that try to enter your castle. Pretty good game, particularly the third one.

[QUOTE=OmegaWeapon][COLOR=Green][SIZE=2][FONT=Comic Sans MS]The Nintendo DS sucks, sure it has good graphics, but almost every game it has on it uses one of those palm pilot pens for each game. You have to draw your way to beating the game. The pen thing isnt center of most video games but you do have to use it to like move around your characters and shoot and stuff. Most games were meant for like 4 year olds where you had to draw mario or draw pac man and eat the ghosts before they get you.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE] Well we can tell you're definitely not its target audience lol. Hands on for most of the DS games were positive and you're the only person I've heard make the "four year old" comparison. Pacpix looks pretty interesting as far as I'm concerned. It has a touch screen. That's the point. They should ignore the main feature when making games for it? That's what the GBA and it's successor are for. In any case, I can't really be that impressed by the PSP based on its E3 showing. Sony claims "no ports" after E3, but nearly everything shown was a direct port of some PS2 version of the same game. A lot of the PSP's had video fed in through them via computers. It wasn't being displayed via the actual system. No one got to play anything on it. All there really is to get excited about at this point are possibilities that may or may not happen. Plus this battery life confusion really bothers me.

Yeah, I'd have to echo Dagger's comments. With shows like DBZ, you can get them unedited for official home use last I saw. Meaning from the real companies and not some awful fansub distribution channel that adds more swearing to the anime than was even there in the first place. Just because something is edited for TV does not mean it's edited on tapes and DVDs. I don't have a preference. If the dub is god awful, then I use the sub. If I find the Japanese voices overly grating, I watch the dub. Honestly, I don't understand Japanese and I don't pretend to. For all I know, some Japanese voices that we like are considering absolutely terrible in Japan. In general, I like to watch things in their defaul language, Japanese, German, Italian or whatever it may be.

I figured that everyone on the planet knew it was fake by now. It's not real, end of story. It's just a low budget thriller and the main marketing push was that it was the real thing. The actors and actresses in the movie have since appeared on TV, so I think you can put two and two together lol.

[QUOTE=wrist cutter]I'm a little confused. What is the album [i]supposed[/i] to contain? The 14 tracks you posted at the beginning of the thread? It seems like adding on bonus songs for certain countries would screw up the intended flow of the album, if you know what I mean.[/QUOTE] I believe it's supposed to contain those 14 tracks. Then other countries get a couple extra tracks in addition to that. This actually happens [i]constantly[/i]. I can think of dozens and dozens of bands that have offered more tracks on imports than their US versions. Most of the time they're some sort of b-side style track that has no real consequence on the rest of the album, though.

To clarify, the Great Depression thing I mentioned was referring specifically to Private Sector jobs (not including Government Jobs). General employment issues aren't really comparable to the Great Depression, but what is. In any case, it's definitely not a good thing. In any case, it can be spun a whole bunch of ways depending on what you want to prove as shown in many examples lol

I'm voting for Kerry. It's really not even because of the war issues, but so many other things that have occured here that so many people seem completely oblivious to. It's as if people focus in on that and forget that this country has its own problems. Nearly every single one of Bush's moves helps the rich more than any middle class citizen in this country. Moreso than anyone I can think of. If his plans continue, it's only going to get worse. 1.) The removal of the Estate Tax. Basically, this is a tax someone has to pay when they inherit their parent's/guardian's/etc's estate after they pass away. It sounds like yet another way to bleed people dry, but for general citizens it never really amounted to much. Bush wanted to get rid of this. The reasoning was that this tax was screwing over the general populace. The specific example was that of a farmer passing away. Because of the state of farms in this country, the person who inheirited the estate would not be able to pay this tax. Therefore they'd be forced to sell the land to even cover the amount they owed. Sounds fair and I'm sure many people bought into it. Except for the fact that that has never, ever happened in the history of this country. Not one farmer has sold his farm thanks to that tax. There's no record of it whatsoever. So basically, you have a tax removed that mostly affects a very small percentage: the extremely wealthy. There goes tons of tax dollars that can be better used for nearly anything. 2.) The national debt. People knock Clinton, but he wasn't all that bad. Thanks to "Reaganomics", followed by the Bush Sr. years, this country was quite a bit in debt. Over Clinton's term he managed to compeltely reverse this. We got out of the debt and were 240 billion dollars in surplus. Bush Jr. comes in and it's spend, spend, spend. We're now $500 billion in debt. How the hell does that happen over ONE TERM? The guy also basically completely drained the Social Security money [i]that he promised straight out he would not touch[/i]. The spending is blamed on the war. Bush's other spending is something like three times that what has been applied to the war, and that includes any efforts involving 9-11 itself. It's a bunch of crap as far as I am concerned. 3.) Unemployment is at its highest rate since the great depression. A time when people were throwing themselves out of buildings over job losses. Again, this was on the rise under Clinton. Again, this is somehow blamed on the war. However, Bush is willing to give tons of money to NASA for space exploration. That's all well and good, but what's more important right now? --------------------------------------------------- There's a lot more I can list such as women's rights issues, stem cell research, civil rights issues, more taxation issues, but I'm not even going to bother. These are things Kerry plans on reversing, and unlike Bush (who has obvious bias considering his past with his energy company and his wealthy friends), I feel I can actually believe he'll do them. I couldn't vote for Bush with a clean conscience whatsoever. I really don't know how anyone could, but that's their perrogative. I think people should research Kerry a bit more because I get the feeling that many things against him are based on pro-Bush propaganda and advertisements. Bush had far more money in his chest than Kerry did and his campaign managed to bombard Kerry's with lots of negative publicity when they were down. Kerry has manage to raise $100 million dollars though. Two months ahead of schedule. 3/4's of this is from average middle-class Americans. A lot of people thought it couldn't be done, but I'm sure as hell glad it was. By comparison, Bush had $110 million saved up for this. Anyway, this is going to be my first and only post in here. I hate politics. Just vote.

[quote name='Rain']I like Jet, but it annoys me when people compare them to ACDC and such. When a band is raved about like that, they're never as good as you expect them to be. But they're good to listen to anyway[/quote] The only reason I would think anyone would compare them to AC/DC (other than their origin) is simply because Jet has a song on Get Born that sounds like a nearly direct musical rip-off of an AC/DC song.

[quote name='HOTpage2004']Why are we afraid to die? Some say they do and some say they dont. But they ones that dont, inside are they really afraid. Lets say that right now, someone is standing over you with a blade and is going to kill you, why do you feel afraid? Everything that is born has to die, it's nature. Even I am afraid to die, but why? Can anyone answer that?[/quote] This is an awful comparison. How is the idea of being brutally murdered by someone a good comparison to the prescence (or lack) of fear of death itself? You cannot draw anything of value concerning someone's thoughts on death fome some lame hypothetical situation like that. I'd be more concerned about the pain involved in actually being stabbed twenty times than I would be about actually leaving this plane of existance.