Semjaza

"Stockholm Syndrome" is throwing me off because that's the name of a Muse song. Actually, I believe it's their most recent single. The songs are nothing alike though lol. My friend got this and is raving about it. He claims that they're "hard" again, which is not what I've heard from other people. I'll probably give it a play some time, but I've never really liked the band. The vocals drive me insane lol.

The AI is fine in general... but especially in 150cc, I find the weapons unfair. Sometimes this doesn't even happen when I'm in first... but to have 3 red shells perfectly timed so they hit me one after another, and then when I finally can go again I get hit by lighting? That doesn't seem right to me lol

The Special Cup rocks really. I wish the rest of the cups had more tracks as twisty as these are. I actually do better on these than I do on the Mushroom and Flower cups for some reason. I'm not a fan of the wide tracks. I've only played like 3+ hours total, I'd say... but I've finished 50cc, 100cc and 3 of the cups on 150cc. I am having fun though. Game isn't too challenging, but 150cc can get really, really annoying. The AI for racing seems fine enough, but it always seems like I'm doing fine and then suddenly hit by 3 red shell in a row and a lightning bolt. Lame.

Here's a couple new videos for you guys: [url]http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/qc6a/sna_re/snatch.wmv[/url] [url]http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/qc6a/dark/dark.wmv[/url]

Well, the other comic book thread is more or less dead. It's several pages back at this point, but I'm very happy about how successful it was. It was one of the top several threads in this section in terms of replies and views. Yay! I'm hoping to bring it back. I'm also hoping people have something to say a little more often. I'd hate to have to register at yet another board for good comic book discussion. In any case, here is the list for comics shipped to stores this week: [url]http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/shipping_111903.txt[/url] I didn't get to go today, but I plan on it tomorrow. New Runaways and Human Target issues... two of my favorite comics. Plus Outsiders, which has been fun. Runaways has been talked about before, but I'm not sure if anyone else here gets Human Target. It's a really excellent comic. The basic idea follows a man who assumes other people's identities... to the point that he actually thinks he [i]is[/i] them. It can be confusing, but always ties together well at the end of the issue. It's still pretty early on, so check it out.

I'm starting to wish it were completely dead, thanks to all the threads that pop up on it here lol

Kyo no Ryu - l33t is a style of typing, mostly used by people who believe themselves to be "knowledgable" in the use of the internet and various online games. I put that in quotes because most of the time they don't. They're the type of people who think they're hackers because they downloaded an application crack off of Kazaa. It's a lame attempt to look cool (or elite, if you will), which fails miserably in my opinion. It's well past its prime, thank god. In any case, say goodbye to this thread.

This would be near impossible to enforce on any level anyway. What would you just the age of someone by? The age they posted that could very easily be false? The quality of their posts? James's comment already proved that means nothing in terms of age, really. All you can do is the same thing the mods in there have been doing well anyway. Going through the RPGs and getting rid of the ones that just shouldn't be there. Even if there was some hack that only enabled the no-censor feature for only certain age groups, people could easily get around it by changing their birthdate. A lot of people don't even put their birth year in there. This no-censor thing is a novelty right now. Everyone and their brother is going to feel some need to create an RPG (some seemingly created for the single reason of letting people swear and be overly violent, which I agree is lame). Once that novelty wears off, the place will calm down and even out. So really, that's all that can be said. Totally removing it has just as many drawbacks in my opinion. Anyone "mature" enough to handle all of it most likely won't fill their RPG with sentences where every other word is cursing anyway. If the younger members cannot handle it, their RPG won't work out and will thus be closed by the mods that work in there. In any case, for me personally... Yes, I am a mod. Yes, I'm supposed to keep this place sorted out and whatever else. But I'm not a babysitter. What these kids do is not my problem, as long as it falls within the rules.

Usually by the time the credits roll around, I just want to get out of there. I don't eat or leave during the entire movie, so I'm usually pretty antsy near the end. Plus I have to drive and I don't want to be getting out of the place with 50 other cars. I only stay if I know there is a scene afterwards.

I don't know if it still is, but a week or so back the GTA Double Pack was only $28. Amazing deal, I think. I'm sure it's back up to $40 now though lol. These are all the current Greatest Hits: 1. Twisted Metal: Black 2. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec 3. ATV Offroad Fury 4. Dark Cloud 5. Midnight Club Street Racing 6. Smuggler?s Run 7. Onimusha: Warlords 8. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X 9. Red Faction 10. Star Wars: Starfighter 11. Tekken Tag Tournament 12. Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater 3 13. NBA Street 14. SSX 15. Devil May Cry 16. Crazy Taxi 17. Dave Mirra FreeStyle BMX 2 18. Spy Hunter 19. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy 20. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex 21. The Simpsons: Road Rage 22. NFL 2K2 23. NBA 2K2 24. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies 25. WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! 26. Virtua Fighter 4 27. Silent Hill 2 28. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 29. 007: Agent Under Fire 30. Max Payne 31. Baldur?s Gate: Dark Alliance 32. SSX: Tricky 33. State of Emergency 34. Maximo: Ghosts To Glory 35. Hot Shots Golf 3 36. Pac-Man World 2 37. Test Drive 38. Stuntman 39. Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights 40. Grand Theft Auto III 41. Spider-Man 42. Namco Museum 43. Freekstyle 44. Final Fantasy X 45. Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution 46. Ratchet & Clank 47. Sly Cooper 48. SOCOM(without headset) Most anything in there is worth the time, really. My personal favorite PS2 games are Amplitude and Frequency. They're both music games. Dark Cloud 2 is also great, but I think a bit overambitious at times.

I suppose if you want to think about it that way, then you can. However, you're not required to actually do any of that stuff. You're not required to play on Thanksgiving to get some rare item. You're not required to talk to all your neighbors or pick the weeds or whatever else. If you don't do these things, you simply don't get what you would if you did. That's not really a "penalty", in my opinion. You can still play and enjoy it without actually doing a lot of things. Of course, if you actually want to be able to do more things of course you'll have to accomplish various goals. In any case, if you like this type of game I'd suggest Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life which is coming out for GameCube in January. Can't wait for that.

[strike]There's going to be a conference about the game in Japan... would be about 12 AM Pacific time here. 1up.com and other sources say they'll probably be sending in their updates on the conference around 6 or 7 AM Pacific. So I'm expecting some movies and such. Yay.[/strike] In any case [url]www.ff12.com[/url] was updated. Check it out for a bunch of new pics. From [url]www.1up.com[/url] ([url]http://www.1up.com/article2/1,4364,1388091,00.asp[/url]): [QUOTE]UPDATE 6:19 AM PST: Our Japanese correspondent, Andrew Vestal, has reported in with all the details from the conference. Take a seat, cause there's lots to pore over: You've seen Final Fantasy XII before, and you haven't. If you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and wondered which "Final Fantasy" it was that the kids in that game were such big fans of, it was FFXII: that world was based on the world Matsuno was already working on for the main series' twelfth installment. So if you want to know a little about the world and its inhabitants, FFTA is a good place to start, though the two games are completely independent. But beyond that, everything here is new to FF. When 1UP asked if FFXII would have the same dark style that his previous games (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics) were known for, director Matsuno said that "What is mainstream is in the eye of the beholder, and in the preconceptions the player brings to the game. For example, the movie Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture and was quite popular ... some people see the darkness in the message and setting of the movie, while others just enjoy it for gladiator fights and action. FFXII is the same way. Players who just want to play and enjoy it will enjoy it, whereas players who are familiar with my past games, who are looking for that darkness, will find hints of the tone throughout." The "darkness" he speaks of is already evident in a lot of the game's setup. The warlike empire of Arcadia has already seized the country of Dalmasca, resulting in displaced princess Ashe and easygoing citizen Vaan to form a nascent rebellion against Arcadia. Their main adversary in this are the Judges of Arcadia -- though these are not the Judges you know from FFTA. Matsuno explains, "In FFTA, the Judges served the purpose of a sort of impartial police court. In FFXII, hey are depicted as a group of knights who use terror and fear for their aims." Some CG cutscenes shown support this, displaying the Judges terrorizing one of their own Bangaa henchmen. More CG cutscenes showed off other aspects of the game: large battle scene, comparable to Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, except with the addition of airships. (The main airship in the game is a whopping 340 meters long, by the way, a little over half the length of the Enterprise from Star Trek.) An unnamed character appeared in the CG; the apparent leader of a vast army, she has short-cropped grey hair and is very thin, wearing white armor and a cape. Other characters introduced besides Ashe and Vaan were an unnamed party member who looks something like Hardin from Vagrant Story, as well as Fran, a Viera archer shown in many of the battle scenes. Speaking of the battle scenes, though no specific details were offered at the conference, we can make a few guesses: the Active Time Battle system would appear to be returning. Enemies can now apparently guard players' attacks, so a timing-based battle system similar to Vagrant Story's may be in effect. There also seems to be combo-based manuvers possible between party members, judging by icons that light up simultaneously next to character names. That's all we know about the gameplay so far, but Matsuno did have one more thing to say: Final Fantasy XII is not a movie, he stressed. It's an interactive game, and hence "the wishes and preconceptions of the player will affect what they find out of the story." There won't be any branching-path system in place; rather, the scenario has been designed such that the players have a wide breadth of possibilities within the scenario, giving them the opportunity to choose their focus within the wider scope of the story. If true, this would be a large (and welcome) step away from the very linear scenario design of past Final Fantasies. Whatever the game flow ends up being, Matsuno mentioned that a key themes in the story would be "diversity," as represented by the different races -- of which moogles will again be a part. The moogles seen in the game are actually the 10th design, Matsuno joked, noting that the first attempt at FFXII-style moogles was "scary." Even if that design had stayed, though, the moogles would be the only ugly thing about Final Fantasy XII's visuals. Akihiko Yoshida (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics) is handling the character design and map direction, while Hideo Minaba (Final Fantasy IX) is the overall art director. Yoshida commented that the focus of his design was the real-time characters first and the CG ones second, which is evident in the final product. The team (known as Production Development Division 4) is using a new engine rather than stick with FFX's; it uses half the number of polygons with an increased focus on textures and lighting. Which is not to say they didn't beef up the polygon count where it mattered: to help in the new, improved animation system, Ashe's face has 1479 polygons and Vaan's has 1487. The third important staffer in terms of visuals is Isamu Kamikokuryou, who handles background art. The overall look of the game is of a real world: very detailed brickwork with visible decay and vegetation growing over it, to create the impression of a place that lives and breathes. Matsuno commented that the theme of the visuals is a Mediterranean style, drawing from the clash of European and Arabian cultures. Unlike FFX or X-2, players will be better able to appreciate the world with the inclusion of a first-person look-around mode. In keeping with the general "new" approach to the franchise, longtime series composer Nobuo Uematsu will only be involved in creating the key theme song this time. The rest of the music will be composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who worked with Matsuno on (say it with us) Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics. Curiously, the sound team mentioned that ever since Final Fantasy VIII's "Eyes on Me" song, the vocal theme of the game has been emphasized, but with FFXII they want to try something "more than just the song." Just what that might be, though, is a mystery. Various Square Enix staffers were on hand to give their comments on FFXII, many of them having longtime connections to the series. Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square, talked about being a fan of Final Fantasy even before becoming the company bigwig; he related the trouble he got into once after overwriting his wife's game save. Yoshinori Kitase, producer of FFVII, VIII, X, and X-2, talked about the need for competition within Square Enix and how that benefits the Final Fantasy series. Surprisingly, even Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series originator, showed up for the first public appearance in a couple of years. Speaking of Matsuno, he told the audience "I love him ... welll, that may sound odd to say, but I love his products, and I love the way he works, and these two things together mean that I love him." Currently, Final Fantasy XII is due to be release in Japan in summer 2004. The staff cautioned to "please let us finish the game, we don't want to disappoint you," but given that the game is reportedly already 70% finished, Matsuno was pretty confident that there would be "about six more months until release." After all this, we're pretty excited. [/QUOTE] As I've said for months and months now, I'm really looking forward to this game. Matsuno is awesome. [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49349,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49350,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49351,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49352,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49357,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49359,00.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/4/0,3363,sz=1&i=49360,00.jpg[/IMG] First movie here: [url]http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/news.cgi?id=2003112003[/url] Do not direct link it. I don't think it's even worth the download, but there it is anyway. [b]Much better movie here (3 min long): [url]http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/movies/ff12-2.wmv[/url][/b]

This thread has gotten way off-topic, people are jumping at other people's points with little justification and this has really debased itself into nothing more than an argument. I'm closing it.

Uh, no I don't... but I know a better place for you to spend some time at: [url]http://www.otakuboards.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=69[/url] Please read the rules.

All good points. Although, I have to say... why don't you just skim through the instruction manual? There are pics of everything you need to do to get it to work lol

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Charles [/i] [B]Cookied biznitch and the rest.[/B][/QUOTE] It's a Christmas movie aimed at families. I don't know what you expected, but them acting as if he was simply insane instead of actually legit wouldn't have fit the theme whatsoever. [spoiler]Plus what is Santa supposed to do? Shoot anyone that sees him? How about never giving presents to the people who actually helped him get out of there (which would be everyone in the scene practically)? lol I think the point is that believing isn't seeing, when you believe you just do. You shouldn't [i]have[/i] to see Santa Claus, but I can't see why there should be big repercussions if you do.[/spoiler] In any case, I think you might enjoy [i]Olive: The Other Raindeer[/i]. Trust me, it's not as childish as it looks.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by OlgaTheDwarf [/i] [B]Well, the last movie I watched was [i]Elf[/i] with Will Ferrel. Now, I'm sure that there are quite a few people who thought this movie was the stupidest thing to come out this year, (A certain friend of mine being one of them). But, I didn't walk into the theater with expectations of it winning oscars (which seems to be the problem with most movie-reviewers), plus I have a true appreciation for the style of comedy it was, a style I like to refer to as "stupid-humor". So, when all was said and done, I was thoroughly impressed. It was one of the best comedy's I had seen for a while, and I see that it has enough potential to maybe one day, be up in my favourite Christmas comedies (sharing that honor with [i]Jingle All the Way[/i] and [i]Ernest Saves Christmas[/i]). As a final review I would give it an 8.1 (the .1 one makes me look professional, doesn't it.) There were a few things in it that weren't to great, but maybe if I watch it again I won't mind those thing too much and it will raise my rating. [/B][/QUOTE] I agree with your points on this. It's not the last film I saw, but I don't feel like talking about Kill Bill right now (although I loved it). It was just a really fun, everyone-orientated movie. It was honestly funny, few of the jokes failed... And I really loved the little stop motion animated characters they put in. I'd honestly see it again.

Zelda is fun, but Eternal Darkness might be worth picking up as well. It's a bit more gritty, and best of all, a lot of places have it really cheap now. I saw it the other day for $7 at Target.

I got this from Magic Box: (NOTE: I wouldn't take this as total fact yet, but Magic Box has been fairly reliable lately. I guess they're trying to get their reputation back) In an interview with the Final Fantasy XII developer Yasumi Matsuno, a few new tidbits are revealed about the game: The game will be in 2 DVDs Very little love elements in the game The game style resembles Vagrant Story Huge world map Many people will be surprised: "Is this Final Fantasy?" Tight controls Sounds good to me, I can say that. Matsuno is awesome and was obviously brought aboard to add different gameplay elements to the series. I'd assume it will be a nice combination of traditional FF stuff and Matsuno's things in VS that actually worked well. Looking foward to it, especially thanks to the lack of a major love story. Finally.

You know what I love most about this thread? The title. The fact that you actually put a 's after "James", despite it ending in an s. So many people seem unaware that the ' only thing is for plurals. I salute you. As for the designers thing... my teachers have always made it very clear that there was a seperation between the two. Obviously, they can mix... but for the most part Graphic Designers themselves aren't really considered artists. As for the banners, I've seen this thread from way back and all I have to say is nice job. I think they are all successful, and manage to not get heavy despite some of the imagery.

I thought Thirteenth Step was a disappointment after Mer de Noms honestly. I was looking forward to for a few reasons... obviously because APC was coming off an amazing debut, but also because Twiggy of Marilyn Manson was replacing the ever annoying and self-centered Paz on bass. The first time I p layed through it, I was a bit let down. I figured it would grow on me, as most of my favorites do. And it did, but not as much as I hoped.. The best description I have for the CD is "dull". That's really all it was for me. It never really went far enough with anything it tried to do. That doesn't mean it's not a great LP, as it is... but it was one of my bigger disappointments for the year. Especially coming off Mer de Noms... and Maynard coming off Lateralus (despite the fact that Howerdell writes the music for APC, something people seem to not be aware of in general for some reason).

I've heard nothing great about the gameplay... but there seems to be a lot of depth to the game. Challenges to complete and lots to unlock and so on. IGN's reasoning seemed rather stupid to me. The idea that you can just hold A and wind up at the finish line. I can do that with most any racer... although I doubt I'd win lol. It's almost guaranteed to be a Players' Choice title eventually, so it might be worth getting in the future.

Irrational "hatred" cannot be explained anyway.

These threads are always annoying. You always get some film buff that is like "How can you name that movie that's from the past decade!!!" or some nonsense. I just list films that really appealed to me... I'm not about to list Casablanca personally. Maybe if this was a list called Important Movies for the History of Film lol. [b]1.) Pee-wee's Big Adventure[/b] Tim Burton's first full movie director's role as well as Danny Elfman's first film score... plus Pee-wee, who rocks. I love many things about this film. The look, the music, the over the top acting and situations, Pee-wee's facial expressions... Mostly the whole idea of him really being a kid in an adult's body. I could watch this every day. It's a shame so many haven't seen it. [b]2.) Nightmare Before Christmas[/b] Another Tim Burton, Danny Elfman movie. This is another movie I could probably watch everyday. I love the characters, I love the animation, I love the music... I love everything about it. Animated movies (stop motion, cel or otherwise) don't get much better than this, in my opinion. [b]3.) Edward Scissorhands[/b] Yet another film with those two... heh. This sealed Johnny Depp as an acting god, in my opinion. He could convey more with simple body language than some actors can in their entire careers. [b]4.) Alice in Wonderland[/b] My favorite Disney film. I can never get over how odd it is, even when keeping the book in mind. They did a great job in every respect. I never got why so many people tell me this film is boring. [b]5.) Evil Dead[/b] To me, this is what all horror movies should be like. A nice amount of humor mixed with a nice amount of gore. Evil Dead II gets a mention simply because it's a 'remake' of this... and probably a lot better. But this was first, so I'll name this. [b]6.) Sleeping Beauty[/b] My second favorite Disney film (I don't count stuff like Nightmare Before Christmas). It's obviously a very traditional story, but it just flows so well. It's funny how some of the most important characters are really flat in personality, but it doesn't matter. The whole art style is excellent too... looks like old paintings from the era in which this would have taken place. [b]7.) Donnie Darko[/b] Really, really great movie. I've never met two people who even agreed on what it really was about. I usually don't like movies that don't explain basic aspects of their story, but this somehow transcended that. One of the best movies I've seen in quite some time. [b]8.) Seven[/b] Fincher totally made up for Alien 3 (even if that wasn't really his fault) with this movie. Gets bonus points for opening with a NIN song, but the whole thing is great. Great performances overall. [b]9.) Grave of the Fireflies[/b] The only anime I've personally seen that I feel actually belongs in a Top 10 list. Really, really amazing stuff. Helps that it's totally gorgeous too. [b]10.) The Phantom Tollbooth[/b] My favorite book and therefore one of my favorite animated films. I really wish this would hit DVD already. I'd also give a mention to Alien and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm... still the best Batman movie ever, in my opinion.

If I die eating and drinking things I like to eat and drink, so be it. Otherwise I couldn't eat candies with red dye in them because apparently that causes cancer too. Lame.