Daeval

I'm curious, if Capcom vs. SNK 2 were to come out today, if this reviewer would have thrashed it too? That's not to say I know better than him about CFE, but most of his complaints apply to CvS2 as well. It's a bunch of old fighters thrown together, is basically all he's saying, and that's reason enough to give it a 6.5? Is it because it's missing survival mode and color edit? Or because some of the sprites don't match each other? Those are reasons to give it a 6.5? Even though the gameplay and controls are as solid as we expect from Capcom? Coming from a guy who couldn't figure out why Rose was in the game (she's practically half the alpha story!), I can sort of understand I guess. Obviously, he's not a 2D fighter fan. I'll wait until a respectable source reviews the game or, better yet, get it and make my own judgements.

The best Coyboy Bebop eps are probobly Heavy Metal Queen, that cowboy one, and that one with the Chessmaster in it. I dunno, all the ones that don't actually contribute to the story are good. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Bah, the overall story is what makes Bebop as good as it is. The stand-alone episodes are good, and are a decent way to get introduced to the series. Try "Asteroid Blues" for the more serious side of the series, and "Stray Dog Strut" or "Mushroom Samba" for the more wacky side (even though Stray Dog does contribute to the series, it works on its own). I guess that means you could just watch the first two and get the hang of things, but you'd be missing the all-important overall story. Some of the best episodes relate to the characters and their histories (the origin of Jet's arm, for example), and Spike's background episodes give a sense of humanity to what would otherwise be an all-too-typical cool-guy. For the best overall experience, watch the entire series from start to finish and don't spoil the ending (any of the last 4 or 5 episodes, actually) for yourself.

Try triplebuffering = YES and frameskip = 0 I had a similar problem and that fixed it. If it doesn't, give more system info.

Is it out on DVD-Rom aside from the exploitati- I mean collectors edition? Oh yeah, and does said edition contain access to Day of Defeat Source when it's released?

Does JinPachi sound more like a fuzzy anime creature than a toothy-maw-stomached demon psychopath to anyone else?

I thought about this a while ago, and I'm curious if they could add the gmail ad banners to your incoming pop3 mail? If they stuck with the minimalist flavor that runs through the web-mail version, I wouldn't be opposed to this at all. I'd much rather that than pop3 become a pay service in the future. Ah, from this page: http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer...10350&topic=194 Interesting.. time to setup thunderbird...

I wasn't sure who lee pai long was so I looked him up. I got his pic on the NGBC site and thought he looked cool. Then I saw this: http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/neogeo/a/aof2lee.htm

You forgot to mention how satisfying it is when you roll up a person for the first time. And the soundtrack is more of a jazz-on-crack sound than what most people (at least where I'm at) would call jpop. Nice review though.

Who's to say you'll be able to activate it if you get the steam version? Just out of curiosity?

I agree with Gryph, I like the ones with the outlines, but I think it's because you're using shaders for now so the model has little definition without the lines. Once you get some textures worked out it should look sweet even without the lines. Oh, and I'm sure you've noticed it but just in case, you've got some clipping going on in his left underarm. As for photoshop, it's a mess until you just dig in and start experimenting. I would recommending searching online for some basic tutorials. Then, once you're confident with the interface (even if not all the tools), start checking out more specific, advanced tutorials. Even if you're not going to use the specific technique taught in the tutorial, going through the steps will give you ideas about how you can use the more obscure tools to achieve your own effects.

A lab is not exactly the ideal environment to try new software, unless you're the admin of said lab and know exactly what kind of setup they're running.

These programs are no larger than a few megs. You now have your sattelite connection, try them or look at least look at their features lists on their homepages.

The only major thing that bothers me about naruto is how they spell everything out for you after the fact. Some things have to be explained to make sense, particularly when new ninja abilities are used to interesting effect mid-battle, for example. But even then they tend to lay it out letter by letter in drawn out ramblings. And there are other things that would probably be stronger storytelling-wise with very little, if any, explanation - such as the written portion of the chuunin exam. These things are basically obvious if you get the jist of the series, and would give you something to think about if two or three characters didn't lay it out for you slowly and in simple terms. Granted, this is coming from someone who's only seen episodes 1 - 25 so far. If it gets crappy and DBZ-like later I'm unaware.

I like ABC, just because it's easy to use.

Yeah, what gryph said. They work for me. Try uninstalling shockwave from the control panel. And in what way do they "not work?" Does it still say you're missing the plugin or what?

With a pair of dreamcast maracas, of course. Most hype is generated before a game is even realeased and results in zealous, usually blind, fanatasicm once a title ships. This is what turns people away from hyped titles - you never know when someone is speaking truth about them or just talking hype, and more often than not it's the latter. Once a game ships, if it's an outright bad game, the hype will die down. However, if a halfway decent title is hyped it can maintain its fanatic popularity, "Spike" or otherwise, far above what it would have without the hype and extra attention. It doesn't mean it's bad, it's just sitting prettier than it would without the marketing machine behind it. This is what happened to Halo. If a game maintains its hype, it's likely a decent game that appeals to someone. The vehicles were really the only thing that hadn't already been in a console FPS, and a few PC FPS'es had those (Tribes?). Red Faction (and Tribes? And Doom?) had the sci-fi guys in armor down already for consoles. The story is the same old "a miscellaneous horde attacks our faceless hero" used in almost every FPS, but persued further by fans and people in positions to make money off of it. Proof that books aren't a sign of gripping storyline: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067...1672698-2101625 Hehe.. Like I've always said, it's enjoyable, just not the evolutionary step rabid fans claim it to be.

Not seeing nglayout.initialpaint.delay.. ?

I've been pretty lazy about it in the past, so I went scouring for stuff to make the most of FireFox 1.0 and just thought I'd share. There are a lot of people who don't yet know the virtues of the greatest browser on the net, so part of this is an attempt to show them the light, as it were. If anyone has anything to add, that would be cool. Particularly, I've heard a lot about mouse gestures and some kind of tabbed browsing extension, but didn't look into those too much. Enjoy! New Users & New Features: The Search Bar & Integrated "I'm Feeling Lucky" Search: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/search.html Tabbed Browsing: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/tabbed-browsing.html Live Bookmarks & RSS Feeds: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/live-bookmarks.html Tips and Tricks: Smart Keywords: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/smart-keywords.html If there isn't a Search Bar for the site you want, you can make a smart keyword for it instead. Opening Links in new Tabs: You can hold CTRL and click, or press your middle mouse button or mouse wheel button to open a link in a new tab. Firefox won't automatically switch to this tab unless you check this checkbox: Tools -> Options... -> Advanced -> Tabbed Browsing -> Select new tabs opened from links. Set Your Home Page: Go to Tools -> Options... Click on General and your homepage is the first option. If you have multiple tabs open and click "Use Current Pages," FireFox will open all those same tabs whenever you start it up. Language Support for other Languages and Character sets: FireFox makes this really easy. Go to Tools -> Options... Click on General and then Languages... Just choose the language you want from the "Select a language to add..." drop down list and click "Add". Hit OK and you're done. The Master Password: If you'd like FireFox to save your passwords, but don't want other miscreants who use your computer to have access to them, set a Master Password from the Tools -> Options... -> Privacy -> Saved Passwords -> Set Master Password... panel. This way, you will still have to enter one password per session, but FireFox will then use any of the ones you have saved. Enable / Disable Java: Go to Tools -> Options... -> Web Features to enable or disable Java or JavaScript. You can click on Advanced... to disable specific features of JavaScript, such as the ability to resize or move windows. More Tips & Tricks from Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips Plugins: Macromedia Flash & Shockwave Players http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/welcome/ Click on the green plugin icons and Firefox will handle the rest. Java http://www.java.com/en/download/ Firefox should handle everything here. QuickTime Alternative http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/finalbuilds.htm#quicktimealt This lets you view imbedded Quicktime files in FireFox without the bloated Quicktime player. Click on the link for a description, click on the first link you see there and scroll down to the QuickTime Alternative links to download. Extensions: IE View: http://ieview.mozdev.org/#content For the rare instance when you come accross an IE only page (such as one using Active X), this will make life that much easier. GMail Notifier: http://nexgenmedia.net/extensions/ This adds an unobtrusive icon that will alert you if you have new mail at your GMail account.

You said we could rant! Besides, does the internet really need another Halo 2 thread without some comparison and contrast?

You are setting yourself up for some devastating examples. KOF, Metal Slug, Jet Set Radio, Samba de Amigo, and so on and so forth. Good games don't need to garner hype. It helps their sales, sure, but they are still, none the less, good games. Red Faction II is a damn fine FPS. Damn fine. It would be hard to pick between that and Halo. But, with Halo 2, it is a different story. Everything that made Red Faction better seems that have been implemented and improved in Halo 2. So, Red Faction has no ace in the hole to compete with Halo 2. Anon. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My point was, that if no one knows that a game is good, then it will never be regarded as such. If you don't advertise your games and no one ever plays them, then what's the point of it being good? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are confusing "good" with "popular." There are very, very few commercial games that have NO recognition whatsoever. Good, but unpopular/unhyped games become sleeper hits (a la Beyond Good & Evil) or develop "underground" followings (such as KOF). In these ways, they are recognized as good games, just not by the media outlets that make a game popular. If you were to say "I've never heard of this game, so it can't be good." you would essentially be saying "I like only what I am spoonfed by the media." More importantly, you would be missing out on a LOT of good games. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> <SNIP> But good games become popular, almost without fail. I think you may be confusing popularity with Spike popularity. When I say popularity, I refer to popularity among the gaming scene. Not among middle aged men who prefer watching pseudo Rugby to a good game of Space Invaders. <SNIP> Now Red Faction sounds familiar, so I probobly saw it just as I entered the scene. Samba de Amigo...sounds foreign. Maybe I missed it cause it was never released in Japan/America/Europe. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Right, we were talking about Hype, and Hype usually means "Spike Popularity." Good games do usually become popular within the gaming scene, but I'd say even that is affected by hype and "Spike Popularity" somewhat. The hyped games tend to become more popular more quickly. I guess it depends on who you are willing to include in the "scene" though, as there are many types of gamers. That gets too complicated to bother with here. And yeah, Red Faction had at least as much advertisement as Beyond Good & Evil, and probably a little more (BG&E was largely ignored by its publisher in favor of marketing XIII at the time). You probably just missed it, but it's good fun. Samba de Amigo was one of those underground titles as I recall.. A maracas sim for the dreamcast, was it? A very niche title on the littler-known system of its time, definately not set to be a huge mainstream hit, but wholeheartedly advocated by those who have played it.

or an old school final 2.9x release. open-source route would be better though in my opinion. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Give me 5 anyday. 3 was disastrous, few people would disagree. But in classic-skin mode, I don't honestly see any difference significant. between 2 and 5. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Classic mode is the best, I can't stand Winamp 3 and it's new flashy crap. But if you think about it, what more could have been done to Winamp? Hell, I thought the earlier Winamp 2.x hit the nail right in the head. Winamp! It really whips the llama's ass! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Amen, winamp 2.x was the pinnacle.

Why are you mocking freeman? I liked freeman... He's Remy's much cooler twin brother.

You are setting yourself up for some devastating examples. KOF, Metal Slug, Jet Set Radio, Samba de Amigo, and so on and so forth. Good games don't need to garner hype. It helps their sales, sure, but they are still, none the less, good games. Red Faction II is a damn fine FPS. Damn fine. It would be hard to pick between that and Halo. But, with Halo 2, it is a different story. Everything that made Red Faction better seems that have been implemented and improved in Halo 2. So, Red Faction has no ace in the hole to compete with Halo 2. Anon. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My point was, that if no one knows that a game is good, then it will never be regarded as such. If you don't advertise your games and no one ever plays them, then what's the point of it being good? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are confusing "good" with "popular." There are very, very few commercial games that have NO recognition whatsoever. Good, but unpopular/unhyped games become sleeper hits (a la Beyond Good & Evil) or develop "underground" followings (such as KOF). In these ways, they are recognized as good games, just not by the media outlets that make a game popular. If you were to say "I've never heard of this game, so it can't be good." you would essentially be saying "I like only what I am spoonfed by the media." More importantly, you would be missing out on a LOT of good games.

Winamp was getting bloaty in its later forms, maybe it was time for it to go. The question now is, what's next? Someone with enough programming experience will be angry at its demise. We can only hope. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> WOW, did he really say that? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I found it originally in an article on MSN or CNN or one of the big'uns back then. After a google search, you can still find it here: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._15/ai_50072222 At least he knew his user base.

Ok, football's retarted.. Potato Chips is literal (they're chips of potato).. And French Fries.. Well... Most people just call them Fries these days, and it would be hard to argue that they aren't at least fried.. Ok, I give up, my country's lingo is dumb..