Daeval

Actually, of the two systems, it's the XBox that has the bigger casual-gamer appeal. That was MS's target audience since day 1 with the "play together" campaign and those crappy stock photos of college age jocks and clean-cut frat-preps all over their ads. Considering their approach, this MTV spot will probably hit their target pretty well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> yes but before the ps1 there was almost no such thing as a "casual gamer" so you can only really blame sony for the trend. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Meh, I dunno how true that is. I think there were casual gamers prior to the PS1, but the size of the gaming population as a whole increased so dramatically in that era that the number of casual gamers was suddenly significant. No one's really going to have facts on this matter though, so I guess your theory is as good as mine.

Actually, of the two systems, it's the XBox that has the bigger casual-gamer appeal. That was MS's target audience since day 1 with the "play together" campaign and those crappy stock photos of college age jocks and clean-cut frat-preps all over their ads. Considering their approach, this MTV spot will probably hit their target pretty well. And K', what makes you think the Cell won't perform reasonably? I'm not saying the hype isn't ridiculous, I'm just curious if there has been any real data released.

Not quite, but damn close.

Last thing I heard, there were going to be at least 3 different XBOX 2s. One of them will be a barebones console - no HD, etc. The others will be increasingly like PCs, with the final (announced) one coming out 6 months to a year after the release of the system. I would guess the basic console-like system will be less suited to emulation and piracy than its predecessor, since it has been announced that it will have no hard drive. The other systems may be easy to turn into emulation boxes, but who knows what their price tags will be? The XBox modding community might have to start looking at ITX boards to stay cheap.

Anyone know if AOne or Anbu are still subbing? I've found up to 126 by them, and I'm pretty sure the announcement came around 120, but I don't know if 126 is as far as they're taking it or if they just haven't caught up to the speedsubbers. Update: OK, just found 127 & 128.. I think they're sticking with it..

Exactly. 20 years ago, I don't think anyone imagined NES emulation would ever run as well as it does now either. Such is the cycle of technology.

Awesome. Does it look that crisp once it's dvd-ized? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That screenshot is the size of the DVD Menu it self. The red paramater around the innerards represents the outter area that possibly will not be shown on a television set (Depends on the tele and DVD player I assume since it was shown on my HDTV). If anything, you should use my screenshot as an example of how you want to know your limits on your menus (all menus use the same paremater) using the boarder as your limit. And since it's on a TV, you can't tell the difference since Televisions were ment not to show small pixilate stuff. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sweet, I'll have to check it out. I was just worried because I was getting strange discolorations and things when using DVD Lab and testing in Power DVD.

Awesome. Does it look that crisp once it's dvd-ized?

Damn, I wasn't thinking about it from that angle either. I'd say he deserves the time, but not at that cost.

I'm looking for a decent program to make my own DVD menus with. I have collections of things in.avi or.mpg format and want to arrange them into dvd-player-watchable dvds with aesthetically pleasing menus. So far, I've been using DVD-Lab Pro (there's a time-based trial on their site), and it's pretty cool except for a few things: I haven't actually tried to use one of my menus in a dvd-player yet, but using PowerDVD to mess with them, they frequently come out rather low-quality. I use crisp, clean source images, but they look really poor in PowerDVD and I can't figure out how to make them retain their quality. At one point, with DVD-Lab Pro, a rather complicated set of menus I had made just ate crap on me. Their functionality just stopped working altogether once the thing was imaged to a playable format, and I had to scrap the project and start over. I'm hoping this was a very rare bug, but I dunno. Does anyone know of a better program to use for making your own menus, or how to fix these things in DVD-Lab?

I agree that his term is quite harsh when compared to that of violent criminals. However, I think the problem isn't with his sentence, but with that of violent criminals. As for the "he's making money off of idiots" point of view.. That's only so true. I worked as an administrator at an ISP for several years, and I can say that he's hurting a lot of other people in the process. It's easy enough for you or me to just empty our spam inbox once in a while, but for my ISP, and for the unwilling servers between him and my ISP, he's putting a big load on their machines, and often their staff, that nobody but him wants anything to do with. He's also putting perfectly innocent "idiots" at risk. What if your grandparents had a computer, and didn't know any better than to open one of his emails? They could end up with all sorts of viruses, spyware, etc. They could end up with trojans that harvest personal information that could be used for identity theft. Not every "idiot" is deserving of that kind of punishment. Other companies are forced by spammers like him to invest in often expensive commercial spam-blocking software. Especially in situations where individual spam-blockers are inefficient, such as tech-support email addresses that are handled by a work-logging program and are pulled by a number of staff. Spammers cause a lot more damage than it might seem when you hit "empty" on your spam folder.

I vote for stockades. For him AND his lawyer.

Ah yes, Kung Fu Hustle looks good as well.

Before the Robots (Album) by Better Than Ezra

When all I'd seen was the poster, I had really high hopes for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now that I've seen the trailer, I'm not quite as enthused. True to the book or not, Wilder's insane Wonka is more appealing to me than what looks like Depp's homoerotic Wonka. I'll still check it out though, burton's surprised me more than once. I definately want to see Batman Begins, Hitchhiker's, and Ep III. Like everyone else, I haven't been real happy with the SW prequels, but I'm still willing to watch it once. However, if he doesn't take back the whole "the force is biological" thing with this movie, I will never grace another Lucas product with so much as a dirty look again. Ok, maybe the old stuff, but nothing new!

You're going to put a nes controller on THAT belt for a buckle? I dig the belt, and the idea for a buckle, but I can't imagine them looking good together. Anyway, the thing on the back of the controller looks like something you could find in a fabric store or, somewhat ironically, a military surplus store. And make sure you clean your NES controller better than that guy did. 10 year-old 10-year old's finger grease is not a cool thing to have on your accessories.

Hmm ok. I got the feeling he was probably a much bigger character in the comics, and that it might have been an artifact of that.

Interesting. Oh well, thanks anyhow.

I know there was a topic about this earlier, but I didn't want to zombify it. I just saw the movie, and liked it. This is saying something since I don't usually like tarantino-esque "shock flicks," but the noir style just sort of clicked with Sin City. I had a couple of questions though, that perhaps someone who's read the comics can answer:

Will GT4 let you transfer 100K creds and the licenses if you don't actually have them on your GT3 save? If not, you're better off just playing GT4. The licenses are easier to earn in part 4 (I thought so anyway), and getting 100K in GT3 is harder than it is in GT4. Here's an easy trick: First, you'll want about 15K and your A License.. If you're starting a new game, try buying a Honda Beat or a Suzuki Cappucino for the Lightweight K-Car Cup. Winning that will net you 6K and a Ginetta G4. The G4 is a decent car, and you might win some other races with it, or you can sell it for 10K. The 6K from the races and the 10K for the G4 will be enough to earn you upward of 200K almost immediately. Take the B and A license exams. Bronzes are fine. You can sell the car you get from the B liscence for a little more cash if you need it. If you're having trouble, try pressing R3 at the countdown before the exam to display the racing lines. Now, get yourself a halfway decent used car with the money you've saved up. I used a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI RS TOMMI MAKINEN Edition '00, which I think was about 16K. I made no modifications to it whatsoever and won both of the necessary races with about a 10 second lead over 2nd place. A plain ol' Lancer VI should do fine, but I'm not sure. I would recommend 4WD, but anything that can corner should do. Now, go to the Special Conditions Races arena and race cup #2, Capri Rally (Easy). You'll run Costa di Amalfi forward and in reverse, against a mediocre 4WD car. Winning both will net you 10K and a Toyota RSC Rally Raid Car '02. The car is awesome, and you can use it to win a number of other races. Alternately, you can sell it for over 250K! The icing on the cake? You can win it more than once! Go back to the Capri Rally. Try to start one of the races and you'll be asked if you want to reset the records. Hit yes, win the two races again, and you'll get another 10K and another 250K+ rally car. The rally car you win the first time around can be used to win the races the second time, making them even quicker and easier.

Rival Schools was awesome, but I never got a chance to play Project Justice in earnest. It was one of about 10 games I wanted a Dreamcast for. That doesn't sound like much, but it's still more than twice the xbox. Gran Turismo 4 again for me. I found the secret to easy money and I'm resisting the urge to milk it like mad. I'm about 9% complete now. Damn this game is big. Where before it felt much harder, now that I know how to get around in it, It feels more balanced than GT3.

Aim has pop ups? I've been using it forever, and while they did run one ad with popups (a browser window would appear if you mouse-overed the ad bar), it was only around for a while and hasn't shown up in the rotation for a long time. Anyway, I use AIM because it's what everyone I know uses. There's no point in switching to a multi-network program if I'm only on one, and it doesn't 'cause problems. Granted, I hate AOL and would love to dock them the few cents a day they get from running ad banners on me, but it's not worth it to me to fix up another messenger.

Oh, but it does deliver. And in under 30 minutes.

The only reason its the managers that get to go is that they are the ones that can get the time off, or that the company might be willing to front the hotel/travel bills for. Anyone who works at a video game retailer is eligible to go to E3 for free. You can register using industry ID that is available to you. Whether or not you can get the time off is another story, especially when your manager and other employees all want it off too.. All of the stores I've worked at, or that friends have worked at, have gone to E3 in "shifts." Actually, that's how it worked for the grunts at Sony Online Entertainment too. Some employees go one day, then a different group goes the next, etc. Your location doesn't matter in terms of eligibility, but obviously it's up to you to get there. As for registering after you're no longer employed... You'll have to get your registration through while you're working, or as soon as you quit, but I've known several people who have quit right after they registered and got in fine.

As long as your in industry(You can even be a cardboard box and still get in) with some proper connections, you can get in. Journalists, PR rep for a company, someone on the dev team, someone on the publisher team, someone famous (HA, NONE OF US HERE). It's easier if your a journalist to enter. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You make it sound difficult. You want the fast track? Get a job at your local video game retailer. A job at Gamestop or EB or any of those is all it takes. You have to sign up ahead of time and provide industry ID, like a paystub, and that's it. And yeah, I was planning on taking a digital camera. Some booths are really anal about them (I got yelled at for taking pics of Spy Hunter and I think it was FF10 the first year I went), but I'll try to get pics of any requests that people have. The first year, I bought my ticket off of someone who worked at Mad Catz. After that, I went through Sony Online, a job at Game Crazy, and this year it'll be through a friend at High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy US).