Semjaza

What does it originally being by Genesis have to do with his choice of putting it on his site and thinking it's a good song? [url]http://www.myspace.com/inplastic[/url] Mine just has White and Nerdy on it, which I thought was funny at the time. Previous to that I had some random song about a starfish. I cannot recall who performed it.

I think there might be an archive of the pics archive I hosted for Queen Asuka/Tori. I forget if I removed it entirely or not, although I probably did.

[quote name='NorykoAngelcry']Soooo.. it's like, you hear people complaining, but just aren't listening to them?[/quote] That's not my point. I think a lot of the complaints are pretty much drowned out by the positives. My last phrase was pretty much directed towards the overall quality of the game. Every game people would give a 10/10 or whatever has detractions, but I feel some of the ones launched against this game are incredibly nitpicky and/or strange. I don't see how they're valid reasons to dismiss many of the things it does exceptionally well compared to other titles out there. Story complaints can be leveraged, but look at the genre we're talking about here. Its purpose is to provide a motive to kill things. I cannot even imagine someone coming into a title like this expecting anything storywise... so thus, I cannot even really see how it would count as much of a disappointment. For me, at least, the characters at least have some personality. I just think that complaints about the story can be leveraged against any game of this type (and any video game in general, honestly, as I don't see how many RPGs even have great stories) and given its genre and purpose I don't really think it has much of an effect on its overall presentation. As for the graphics, I really don't understand where you're coming from on that. I can see people not enjoying the art style, but from a pure graphics standpoint on a technical level there's just not anything else that is matching it. Certainly not at that framerate with that many things on screen at once with full 5.1 audio. It's just not happening. Beyond that, I can understand the control issues and the thought that enemies take too many hits (although I've not really thought that since I figured out the best routes and places to hit the guys). I've not had problems with the sensitivity myself, but obviously that's a personal thing. The game is really about cover and popping and shooting, so I've not been in terribly many situations where I needed to suddenly look somewhere else out of absolutely nowhere.

Complaining about the story in Gears is like complaining about the story in Doom. It's not even really present, but who even cares? There's enough to portray the characters in a world that's basically doomed and that's the end of it. I've played it quite a bit at this stage and it's remarkable to me that anyone can even have an overall negative opinion of the game. It has its flaws, like anything else... but graphics and gameplay complaints (from an action title perspective) just seem almost entirely invalid to me.

I hardly needed an entry. :sleep: My reasons for stopping mod "work" had nothing to do with nostalgic thoughts... although after I became a mod there was definitely less game related traffic than before... this was largely because the Otaku game sites were gone. It was, partially, the fact that it felt more like a job. I don't spend as much time here anymore, that's for certain... and there's certainly things I don't like now, but let me tell you, there's always things I don't like. I'm a pessimistic person when it comes to internet related things and I think most people realize it. What really did me in was that one time I had to manually delete about 30 posts full of mutilation, dead people and masochistic porn images thanks to some guy. I didn't have the full power to delete all of his posts automatically. The skin for the boards also put me in a position where I had to see this image (it was one image, but with like 20 images pasted into it) every single time. I think it was kind of the last straw in many senses. I didn't have as much time or interest in the position, but I also just felt like such a position was really just a futile gesture. With anything you do, the idea that nothing you do will actually have an [i]end[/i] can eventually just get to you. Maybe some people enjoy that aspect of things, but I do not. I have the same problem with my own projects. I don't like when things don't finish. With forums you can never reach a point where nothing more has to be done, largely because you don't know who the hell will register for it. I obviously "mod" Group Sounds, but beyond asking people not to be total jerks the work isn't comparable to what has to be put into a forum like OtakuBoards in any sense. I can not go to GS for three weeks and not worry about it. You cannot even do that with a day on here. I do have some input on OtakuBot. First of all, the base version of him is not an original creation in any sense. I have some old Famicom Disk games. In the instruction manual for every game is a precautionary section explaining what not to do to the disks. The character shown there was a Famicom Disk System disk. That's what OtakuBot is. James liked the guy, I redrew it in Illustrator for him and colored it in. There were various changes along the way, but the core was from Nintendo. I can see people not knowing what the heck it is, but it's not a scale. I have some full size images of the thing if they need to be posted for posterity... and if James even wants it out. Part of his remaining appeal is kind of the mystery. :cool:

I would like a new MP3 player. The hard drive in mine recently died. I'd prefer a Flash based one at this point, but the only larger sizes are the Sansa and the Nano... and I don't really want either of those. So I'm hard to shop for.

See, I think it runs OK, despite random website display issues... but I think it looks horrendous. The tab system just looks bizarre. It's not difficult to use, but I really wish they'd offer some sort of skin support. Maybe it'll look better in Vista (with Aero, anyway), but on XP it's pretty bleh.

A friend and I went to Best Buy last night and there were several tents out in front. The guys there randomly went inside every so often to check out the display PS3... Which was really weird since they were only playing games already available on the 360... Live was on in particular. I could see the point if it was Resistance being demoed or something. My friend didn't even realize it was a PS3 title at all, assuming it was just a 360 station. It was weird to see all these cold, wet guys standing around this system that they probably already had been waiting for for an entire day already. Meanwhile, there were plenty of 360s and the clerk there told us they expected "plenty" of Wii consoles. So I don't know. To each their own, I guess. Personally, I don't see the pain in just waiting.

Honestly, regardless of sides taken, very few people here know much of anything politically related to begin with. Do we really need a separate section dedicated to dozens of posts presenting only two real ideas? I don't think so, but what else can I say. Sometimes I don't understand how some of those threads last as long here as they do... but a lot of it is chalked up to few people actually reading other people's posts thoroughly.

I really hope Resistance and Ridge Racer 7 are worth that wait. I cannot possibly see how they are... or really any video game is. I've never understood this stuff. I saw another one for a Best Buy where 150 people were camped out (although I imagine some were friends just to keep company), but the store was only getting 100 units in... which I personally think sounds exaggerated considering the numbers overall seem to keep getting lower. Just the other day I was reading that Sony apparently will now only really be pushing their first units towards major store chains.

[QUOTE=vegeta rocker]You also can't forget the fact that it's probably fake. It may be real but most reality television isn't. Just people making it up as they go along, since reality tv was born from the great writers strike networks had to fill in the gaps of actual screenwritten shows. So there is a strong possibility that it is fake, but who knows? Some could be real.[/QUOTE] You're talking about Dateline, not Road Rules. The possibility is zero.

[quote name='Sara][color=#b0000b][size=1]I'm not too sure about the [i]Human Again[/i] sequence that was added. Little iffy about that, yes.[/size'][/color][/quote] I agree. At least it's an optional thing to watch it at all, but I'm glad it was removed. It just feels superfluous... It doesn't really make me connect with the side characters more, largely because it stuffs in a bunch you have no real experience with... and at some point you have to wonder how many servants this guy has if there's three hundred mops flying around. All I can really say is that I buy most any Disney movie the day it comes out (particularly the more traditional ones like this) and I sure as heck didn't buy it for that song lol. I'm glad I wasn't looking forward to that addition more. And yeah, Iron Giant is amazing. I think the last actual movie I watched was Monster House. I have no idea how in the world it got away with a PG rating, but what can you do? I really enjoyed it, personally. It's one of the better animated films I've seen in a while. Quite underrated.

In Photoshop, most of what you have shown here wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish with time spent learning the program... but as far as Flash goes, I'm not really sure what you're wanting to do since nothing attached (obviously) animates. For example, do you want the radiating lines to cycle colors? It's kind of hard to offer any real help without more of an idea of what your goal would be by using Flash for this stuff.

[quote name='Panda']Got 2B Glued is excellent for using to put hair in spikes or other styles that you want to stay put. Cosplayers swear by the stuff. I can tell you from first hand experience with the "glue" that it WILL keep your hair in spikes. Very stiff, dangerous spikes that could possibly act as a weapon. I kid you not, Got 2B Glued is some hardcore hair product![/quote] As far as readily available stuff at CVS or Walgreens or whatever goes, this is probably your best bet. It's not that expensive either. If all else fails and you cannot buy anything, some people use Elmer's Glue. It washes out pretty easily, apparently, but I'd never put that crap in my hair. I have to imagine if you have darker hair it would look awful, too.

[QUOTE=2006DigitalBoy][COLOR=DarkOrange]When it comes to premiums, online play, and all the things you have to buy extra, gaming has gotten way too damn expensive. Last generation I bought a PS2 for 150 bucks, a whole lot of 20 dollar RPGs and was content. I hate to think that gaming will be ruined for me by freaking prices.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] You're kind of comparing PS2 prices near the middle and end of its life-cycle to 360 prices near the beginning of its life cycle, though. I got a PS2 shortly after launch and, trust me, it wasn't much cheaper to get to play most of what I wanted to lol. Hell, for quite a while there really weren't even any decent RPGs to speak of. I guess the same is true of every generation, really.

The thing is that EA isn't the only company doing microtransactions. People can ***** about them specifically all they want, but it doesn't invalidate the basic idea of it. Bethesda put out the horse pack and people bitched. They subsequently increased the value of some of the other releases while making the prices more reasonable. Some aren't of major use to anyone but major fans of the game, but I don't really see a problem with paying a few bucks for a dungeon with new weapons that takes a couple of hours to complete. There's nothing inherently wrong with microtransactions. They can help extend the life of a game. In Oblivion's case, these add-ons were obviously designed after the game went gold. They weren't removed in order to be sold later. The same is true of the car packs (the latest of which came with some new game modes) or some of the bigger map packs for games like PDZ or GRAW. If you don't buy it, you still have the main complete game. You don't have to buy it to keep up with anyone else or get more achievements or anything else. It's optional. If the online marketplace didn't exist, most game add-ons wouldn't be coming out at all. At some point development has to stop and resources put elsewhere. There's a way to balance these things. Unfortunately, there's obviously a few companies that seek to take advantage of it from the start. EA is the big one, but like I said, there's been little going on to show them to be the norm rather than the exception. I would say that for the most part the microtransactions on Live itself have been rather fair. Sony's and Nintendo's systems are still kind of up in the air, so it's hard to freak out yet. Like I was saying before, this is a testing ground right now. Previous to Live this wasn't even really an option. It's the same with every thing else. It's new, so companies want to take advantage of it as much as they can before it's obvious what the general public is actually willing to pay for. If EA continues to get as much negative press as they are right now for some of their online practices, I suspect something might be done about it. Whether from their end or Microsoft's. Unfortunately, considering this is a capitalistic society and the dashboard descriptions for NFS: Carbon (for example) clearly state that these packs give you "instant access" to stuff already in the game... if people pay for that even after reading about it, I don't know what to say. EA is being unethical about it, in my opinion, but again, all we can do is not buy it and hope MS notices the complaints. It sure seems like majornelson.com alone gets enough of them. I don't know that full game and arcade downloads should technically count as "microtransactions" to begin with. Usually the term is used in relation to buying small parts for existing games.

Bethesda sells all of that Oblivion stuff for the PC too, so it's not exactly free in their case either. In any case, what's going to happen is what gamers allow to happen. If anything, this generation is going to serve as the testing ground. Whether that test lasts several months or the entire generation is really up to argument... but my point is that if people continue to react as poorly as they have to the situations surrounding EA's last couple of titles, Lumines Live! and other games in the future (such as Gran Turismo HD Classic), these things are going to die down. This is one of those cases where you can only really speak with your money, though. If people buy what are essentially cheat codes for EA games so they can get things earlier, I don't know if I should be more annoyed with EA or the people willing to spend $10 to do it.

That first quote is hilarious to me. My friend is just like that. He won't buy the Wii version at all. Keep in mind this guy has been saving for the Wii and likely will pick one up on launch day. His opinion on the thing is kind of weird to me since he isn't buying any games with it, since he thinks he'll want to play Tennis for a million years. That's another story. His main argument is simply that it was made for GameCube. It's its last game and for some reason he feels this, for lack of a better word, "guilt" that's making him want to use the system. And despite the fact that he will have a Wii, he's going to play it on the GCN itself. I've asked him about it a few times and I just don't get it at all. He's going to have the Wii. It's coming out weeks earlier. It obviously is improved in random ways (widescreen for one, considering he has a widescreen HDTV). Yet he doesn't care. He just has been looking forward to it on GCN and the fact that it is appearing elsewhere is kind of some sort of annoyance. He too brings up the whole "left handed!" thing, but why does that matter to anyone? Prior to the N64 titles, Link switched hands due to a sprite flip. I don't see how this is written in stone... particularly when most of these Links are supposed to be totally different people. I did mention I would probably get the GCN version too. To this he gives a kind of "Aha! See, you too!!" kind of response. Except, you know, that the huge difference is that I probably won't be getting a Wii any time soon. And if I did, I'd be getting Zelda on it. It's just such a weird mindset. It's still a Nintendo system. Nothing else is coming to GCN of note after that. Why push off the inevitable? I don't understand it. Also, here's more good impressions: [url]http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/11/zelda_the_reaso.html#more[/url]

Personally, I don't care what people generally do on their own time. I do kind of think it's ridiculous that government funding is going towards things like this at far higher rates than any other family planning over the last few years. It's all pretty moral and religiously skewed.

Don't tell me I got this game before the rest of you. :animestun The game hit stores today. Circuit City is selling it on their site for only $37.99. Saves you $12. I imagine the store has the same price. Personally, I picked mine up at Best Buy. Looking forward to playing it. I almost forgot about this title (what with Gears of War and Guitar Hero II hitting next week), but RPGFan's review rekindled my interest enough that I just went out and bought it. [url]http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/finalfantasy12/index.html[/url]

I really cannot believe the 360 version is on its own server. I mean, logically, that system would have the least amount of players. You'd think they'd want to mix it up as much as possible. Weird.

I haven't been much of anywhere where the "crappy" food has been replaced. There's generally a selection and more often than not I honestly have to say a vast majority of a menu anywhere leans pretty heavily towards unhealthy.

Most of my favorite music is from old Nintendo games. There were a lot of memorable themes then that have since been updated wonderfully. Obviously this doesn't involve a single composer, thanks to that... but between Metroid, Super Mario, Zelda and Kid Icarus I am quite happy. Generally, I do say my favorite composer is Koichi Sugiyama, however. He's largely known for doing all of the music in the Dragon Quest games. I wish he'd come up with more new songs for each game, but what's there is damn good.

I think of real bad, grease dripping pizza. I also think of how it's kind of crappy that the burroughs of New York all add up to the city's population count. They're comparable to suburbs practically, which no other major city counts when doing census taking. No wonder it's considered the biggest.

[quote name='Kenshin DX][COLOR=SlateGray']I just picked up PSU for the 360 and am on chapter 6 at the moment. While it is a solid game Im a bit dissapointed with it. The battle system no longer requries timing and it gets very repitive just like PSO did..[/COLOR][/quote] I noticed that in the PSU Beta on 360 and was wondering if I was just crazy. I had the original PSO on Dreamcast and it seemed to really care about your timing for combos. In this one, I could just mash the attack button and it didn't seem to matter. It was a slight disappointment. I was under the impression that PC, PS2 and 360 users all could play together. Is that wrong?