Daeval

Kill Bill (IMO) = Tarantino's tribute to asian action movies, which would have been 2x better if left to the hands of the actual asian action movie people. It was ok, but being Tarantino, was decidedly lacking in the subtlety that makes those overseas films so great. And while American critics and fans go crazy over the fight scenes, they were filmed in a decidedly American style. IE one or two chops, then cut to next clip, one or two chops, repeat ad naseum. It's worth seeing once, just as an oddity (The anime part was cool, etc). Whether you feel compelled to see it again will probably depend on whether or not you liked Pulp Fiction, as Kill Bill fits nicely into the "Tarantino Films" category.

I've been curious about this, so I checked it out. Using the sprite for Maxima (I needed someone whose pose/costume didn't change too dramatically), it looks like the sprites are basically the same (except for Max's chops) in '99 through 2002, but he does get just a few pixels wider in 2003. Nifty.

I used to work in a video game store and heard about this once in a while. I even had a friend who used to get this, but he quickly got over it. I was able to re-invoke it in him recently with a Ut2K4 mod I was playing with that caused the player's view to pitch and roll more often than normal. Speaking of which.. You said you had problems with Deus Ex, Jedi Outcast and Halo (Single Player). I'm probably just crazy, but I seem to recall those games having a little more of a slower and more deliberate sort of "weaving" rythm to the view rotations. UT2K4 and Duke tend to match "head" movements to mouse movement with less lag. Again, I'm probably just nuts here, but try turning your mouse sensitivity up real high? Or if you feel like experimenting, try turning it down in UT2K4 and turn on "weapon bobbing" or whatever it's called and see what happens. I don't experience it myself, but I've always been really curious about this phenomenon, so if anyone has any links or anything, post 'em.

I involuntarily breed spiders in my room, apparently, even though I smash them all the time. They just get in here by the thousands and bite the hell out of me in my sleep. My GF and I have decided I must be some kind of spider delicacy. Thankfully, I don't have an irrational fear of spiders. I do have, however, a slight fear of heights (I don't like balconies higher than about the fourth floor). And also some weird combination of "Bathophobia," fear of depths, and "Ichthyophobia," fear of fishes. Fish are cool, and water is cool, but put me in a body of water that's kind of deep, especially if I can't see through it, and I freak out. It's not that I think the water is going to suck me down or anything, so I always figured it must be some irrational fear of "things" in the water that I can't see or effectively face, hence the ichthy part. Extremely large aquarium tanks make me uncomfortable too, especially if populated with groupers, large, basically harmless fish that have always looked to me like the fish version of the undead.

Uniracers.. w00t. Edit: Ok, OK, I'll make my post worthwhile... Bust-A-Move Joe & Mac (aka Caveman Ninja) Rampart Rock N' Roll Racing Super Buster Bros (Was this 2P? It should have been) Super Smash TV / Total Carnage Other TMNT Beat 'em ups And then there's all the fighting games. But since you know the usual, here are some weird ones: Ballz 3D Doomsday Warrior - This one is very old school, but for some reason I got a kick out of it, even after I'd played SFII. There is a very weird rythm to the combat. Primal Rage Shaq-Fu - Another one with a weird rythm, which by today's standards isn't so hot, but was ok at the time. TMNT Tournament Fighters Weapon Lord - This was supposed to have some crazy deep system to it, which I sort of remember figuring out when I rented it so long ago. Upon a recent revisit, however, I find it consists of the computer tearing me a new -------.

Yeah! These two rocked! Don't forget Defender, Choplifter, and Tapper. I also liked G.I. Joe on the C64. It was kind of a fighting game, with a bigger roster than street fighter 2 and interactive backgrounds. Hehehe. It was more like a "duel" though 'cause you ran around shooting each other, and I think there were vehicle levels but I'm not sure anymore.

The typical klondike, as pictured in the opening post, being a brick of vanilla ice cream dipped in an ultra-thin layer of rather bland and tasteless chocolate, I could let go. Now the bar in GryphonKlaw's picture there.. THAT, with its twin layers of cakey goodness, I would kill a man for.

Play the old FF games. This is his older color scheme. Yamazaki is also in his classic FF style too. In which FF game(s) does he default to black and yellow? So far as I know, he's in blue jeans/overalls in FF1-3, the blue and red union jack shirt in Special, and the blue and white jacket in the Real Bout games. EDIT: I've been told the black/yellow is an alternate color in the oddity Wild Ambition. Though that's no excuse for replacing his trademark duds.

Y'know, I've got to agree a little bit here. After liking 2K2 so much, I was kinda dissapointed with 2K3. The new character designs are rather lame, imo, the only decent one being Choi's "replacement," Malin. Shen would be ok if his moveset wasn't so boring, but Ash and Duo Lon just do nothing for me. Ash is too.. umm.. ambiguous? And Duo is just too typically "dark and creepy" for me to accept him in the KOF pantheon. If he could draw blood, he'd belong in a Mortal Kombat game, but he looks silly here. The music is some of the worst in the series, and the sound effects seem lacking in depth (I think this is what phantom was reffering to earlier about paper bags and cotton bats). The tighter controls don't bother me so much, but they certainly don't make anything better. To top it all off, they went and screwed with my favorite character for no good reason. They messed up Billy's sprite (which was at its prime in 2K2), screwed with some of his moves (the HCF P to QCF P no-combo thing bothers me most, but at least his f,d,df K is a little faster now) and replaced his classic default color with some kind of Evil Ronald McDonald scheme... All in all, it isn't BAD, but it's a poor follow up to 2K2, in my opinion, in which I didn't catch any of these flaws. Granted, they didn't have to come up with any new characters, but it just felt more solid all around. Oh well, I play 2K3 anyway.

If you count them as "computers," then what got me into them was my dad's Commodore 64. As soon as I was old enough to remember ",8,1" I was using it more than I probably should have. I got games mostly from his friends (on 5 1/4", of course) who'd bring them over for me (and him). After that, he sort of fell out of the whole computer thing and I got a NES, and it was a dark time indeed. Ok, maybe not. My NES rocked! As soon as I was old enough to be trusted with it, I resurrected my dad's C64, and it wasn't too long after that that my grandpa got a 486 (which was some hot $--- at the time) and I was introduced to DOS. For some reason, my friend (who had no computer) knew a couple of commands and I took it from there. My first PC games were probably Lemmings, Sim City, and Wolf 3D. Not long after, Doom and X-Wing locked me in for good.

Right, it's Cow in Spanish AND.... Since a V in Spanish is pronounced more or less the same as a B in Japanese, you get two for one here: Baka - Stupid Person. This is a sort of running gag between my japanese and mexican friends.

Ahahaha, that's great! Supposedly, cellphones about the size of credit cards are pretty common over there. They probably think the XBox looks about ten years old.

L.S.D you said it yourself - that's the primary reason why Micro$oft is struggling. It's much easier for Sony to feed a well-established addiction than for Microsoft to turn people into junkies from scratch. Remeber, consistent software sales (not hardware) from repeat buyers makes these companies profitable. Err....darkmage, I didn't say that Yeah, that was me. I agree about software being the money maker, but system sales do A LOT to promote software sales. That's why companies are willing to take hits on hardware almost from the get go. Even if Joe Usual doesn't drop his entire paycheck on games every week (although you'd be surprised how much these "casual gamers" spend), if the four games he buys this quarter are for your system, that's four games you have up on the competition. Not to mention accessory tie-ins like extra controllers or Live! or whatnot that Joe needs to enjoy his latest game. Once the system is in their hands, it adds up pretty quick. Speaking strictly of the American market, M$ is closing the gap created by Sony's 1-Year head start quicker than I think most people expected. Maybe they aren't all hardcore gamers, but when the next round of systems comes out, chances are those "raised" on Xbox will be biased in their decision. XBox fanboys are absolutely rabid.

Just out of curiosity?

They do, but It's more than just "promotion" per se. It's the image that M$ has that makes the Xbox seem like more than just a "video game system" to non-gamers in their target market. Sony just doesn't have this working to their advantage right now. From my experience, XBox sells under the "home theatre" category almost as much as it does to the "video game system" people. The PS2 just isn't viewed the same way. It's mostly features (PS2 users have to buy and install Network Adapters and Hard Drives. The A/V qualities are not nearly as played-up, etc) but it's also the way they advertise. M$ definately has the "get the guys together for a beer and a game" hook down in their marketing. Sony still caters primarily to "gamers." Sony does have a potential advantage in that people are used to having Sony written all over the various Audio/Video devices that populate their living room, rather than just on the loading screen of the computer that crashes all the time. However, they have yet to really use the "Your DVD player's big brother" angle to hit the mainstream. Nevermind that "PSX" thing as it's primarily a DVR-type box, which is kind of a niche market in itself (for now).

Hey, some indian chicks are hot.

I agree with Chaotica here. It keeps the "constantly bumped" stuff out of the way (even if it's at the top) and most (though not all) of the other stuff is relevant. There are some that could be revamped, combined, or else removed though. It would bother me more if the stickied stuff wasn't so set apart from the other threads. It's not like on some forums where they're just at the top of the list with a little thumbtack next to them. Stickies here are basically a seperate section in each forum.

Good point, I was obviously tunnel-visioned on the American market here. I'm curious (but too lazy to google ) as to what share of Japan's market is held by Nintendo vs. Sony. Also, what the heck is the European market like and much pull does it have? I don't have any first-hand experience in Japan, but as a market they seem a little more comfortable with the things M$ is currently "making easier" on the American public, which negates Bill's advantage somewhat. At least stateside, M$ doesn't project the sort of "family" (in terms of community dependence, rather than "rated G") atmosphere I (sort of blindly) relate to acceptance and success in Japan. They've definately got the SUV attitude here and I'm curious how well that works overseas, or if they're trying to maintain it there.

Having worked for a video game retailer, my idea on all this has changed a bit... I used to believe it was great games that made a popular system, but that's unfortunately not the case... There are hardcore gamers, like many of us, probably, who know what emulation is and are familiar with PC games and already comfortable with network play, etc. Then there is everyone else. Believe it or not, the latter is the larger market. Microsoft has done the best job of tapping into this larger share, and it was apparent from their customer base. The system has better graphics than the PS2 (on most 3D titles) which gives it that "first-glance" edge, they've done a reasonable job of taking the percieved "mystery" out of online play for the average person, and the Hard Drive softens the deal for people who wouldn't already expect to need a ($25) memory card. From a gamer's standpoint, maybe the control-pads are as large as my VCR, maybe the exclusive titles aren't so great, and maybe us PC gamers are insulted to have to pay so much for the online play we expect for free. But guess what? Joe Usual just wants to play Madden on his Hi-Def. He doesn't relish the feel of a Dual-Shock like a worn-in pair of sneakers. He doesn't look forward to reading the "awesome 93-hour story" in the next RPG epic. And he's just happy if he doesn't have to talk to "those geeks" in tech support more than once before he can start talking trash on his new Live! headset. So who will come out on top in the next age of the "console wars?" Who knows, really. I'd personally like to see Sony come out on top, but if they ignore the market that M$ has such a hold on, we may see some scary stuff. If they can capture the "everyman" like M$ has, while retaining the hardcore fanbase, they should continue to do just fine. As for Nintendo... Well, they're doing a little better after the Christmas season (when they rocked so hard they forced a pricedrop from the others), but I think they need to re-think things a little as well. Their good titles are great, but they have a much smaller list overall and a lot of it is just as mediocre as the competitions'. Their huge brand-name is a blessing and a curse as they try to break into the mass-market. Everyone loves Nintendo, but it's easy for some to say they don't want "kids stuff" laying around their living room. P.S. Wow this got long.. sorry!

Who can beat you and Agozer? According to Gryph's law there, those two are SO cool that the file will actually just materialize on their hard drives one day. That's how he's able to get it to the other, slightly less cool people.

Yeah, the enforcer was far better, and I'd say they switched to the machinegun to focus more on longer-ranged battles (think Onslaught), except that they switched it a year or so back.

You have no idea how many people I've tried to relate this too who've looked at me like I was crazy. Finally someone else who remembers the Halo that never was! I can't even find those old vids anywhere, I wouldn't be entirely suprised if M$ had them "surpressed." What's more, all these XBox fans are wetting themselves over Halo 2, but all of the "exciting new features" they're advertising are shown off in those early, pre-xbox vids. Basically, M$ robbed PC gamers of what was to be an interesting new game and crapped out another mediocre FPS for console fans who weren't used to ignoring them on the shelves. And now for the On-Topic: Bias aside, my vote goes for UT2004. It has basically everything Halo has, but more of it. More weapons, maps, vehicles, etc. They tend to be a little more varied in their execution as well. It also has a lot of potential for variety with Mutators and user made mods (check out "Swarm," for example). Also, if you don't mind a historical setting and you haven't tried them yet, you might check out one of the games in the Battlefield series (1942 or Vietnam). The single player isn't so hot, but the multiplayer is excellent and it's a similar kind of FPS w/vehicles combat.

Best NES-style music ever.

Title-screen shots. Although I do have in-game shot sets for both version as well.

I played a little of KOF:MI at this year's E3. It was neat, but it definately wasn't "the new KOF" or anything. It reminded me of most earlier attempts at 3D fighters, kinda stiff and choppy feeling. It definately didn't have the same pacing as it's 2D counterparts. The graphics were definately sweet though, and the roster (what of it was available) was well-chosen. As for the SSVS fatalities... I don't know about arcade-goers in Japan, but I grew up seeing things like Time Killers and ridiculous amounts of Mortal Kombat and other fatality-laden games. Maybe I've just grown jaded, but there were only about three of these that really struck any kind of nerve. Suija's was cool and, after a brief pause, pretty gruesome. Kusare-whatever's (the big demon thing) was rather disturbing, but he is as a character so it was expected. And Basara's was rather creepy as well (and it didn't help that he does it to the little innocent looking chick in the vid). Dark Haomaru's (whatever his name is) was pretty nasty too, but it was nothing Kano hasn't done countless times before. That said, I once pulled Talon's "tazmanian-devil" style fatality in Primal Rage, on one of the apes even (they're the worst, their jaw falls off in a bloody drip and everything), in front of a little kid without realizing it. I felt pretty bad when his mom covered his eyes and walked him away from the neat dinosaur game. Oh yeah, and Enja's fatality was pretty awesome, and Hanzo's made me think of the doctor character in Tenchu 3.