Messages

3701

TalkBack / Re: Ace Combat Creator Working on Sky Crawlers for Wii

« on: March 24, 2008, 12:45:47 AM »

The problem with assault was that it wasn't a flight sim, nor was it a space sim. It couldn't decide which one it was. If they when for full space mode with no true horizon, it would have opened up the 3D space in a lot of the levels. It would have meant that the arwing would have two different feels, but would have been a superior game for it.

Tossing gravity inside the space station would have been fun as too.

I wonder how sim the physics are going to be. Without the missiles to fudge the characteristics of the aircraft which in Ace Combat, really floaty, I hope they go for a more sim like feel.

3702

General Gaming / Re: I think I've lost it... (my video game drive.)

« on: March 24, 2008, 12:30:25 AM »

You don't need one unit per city early and mid game in civ. Unless your empire is small or you set Barbarians to insane. Initially have a couple of fast units to hold back the hoards but don't actually build an army until you run into some one else. Also unless your trapped, early game war is very counter productive. You are better off with peace for a while until more mobile forms of warfare comes along.

IN A.C. you really do need one unit per city, if just to fight off the mind worms, or if your the appropriate faction, capture them. Once you out tech everyone, you can pretty much conquer at will limited by logistics and support penalties. Eventually you have to stop due to pressure on your  economy.

Oh, I love putting those God believing heathens to the fire. It is impressive just how many units they can throw at you. Even with the tech advantage, they can give put up quite a fight.

Be sure to have some allies and if you go to war, be sure you have some sort of objective to it, whether it is a limited war or total. One of the worse things you can do is over extent yourself regardless of tech. In late game, the A.I. will pull a 6 day war by nuking their own territory. By that time, they only want to kill as many people they can before they go down.

3703

General Gaming / Re: I think I've lost it... (my video game drive.)

« on: March 23, 2008, 04:46:34 AM »

I always rushed for those government types since it allows me to out tech my neighbors. Of course it was inconvenient to have them around for times of war. Although it doesn't make my forces invincible. Bloody bowmen VS Jet aircraft. How dare you scratch the paint work.

In Alpha Centauri you still could do the tech thing almost regardless of faction. There are some factions that aren't err, open to such things. But it is a blast to send just one maxed out needlejet with string guns which clears out entire cities, fleets, armies.

Unlike nuclear weapons in Civ games, I truly feared the planet busters. When the A.I.s have them and are cornered, they have no problem setting them off in their own territory. If you know they have them, you have to form smash teams to waste them on the ground. Lets just say, things don't work out nice like a Tom Clancy novel.

Just go play A.C. It's not main line CIV, but it a heck of a lot better.

3704

General Chat / Re: So my Girl wants to watch Star Wars for the first time!

« on: March 23, 2008, 12:17:50 AM »

I believe that Lucas was effectively insane by the time the prequels came round. Driven mad by his own Ego. The fact that he financed those films himself gave him absolute total control. There wasn't anybody left to say No.

There is no doubt he was talented, as evidenced by his previous work but there has to be some one to say "STOP! That's stupid". Look at the PS3. Ken kicked up a storm of stupid quotes and ideas. The father of the Playstation.

The problem I had with the battle of Endor on the ground was that the turn around was so sudden. Chewbacca steals the AT-ST and suddenly everything is over for the stormtroopers. The troopers go from shooting up bears at an amusement park to OMG the soft toys are after me!!

Look at the space battle. The rebels are on the verge of blowing up the death star and they are still losing people. they only needed a couple more on screen Ewok deaths.

3705

General Gaming / Re: I think I've lost it... (my video game drive.)

« on: March 22, 2008, 11:51:56 PM »

I have found that war is a must for 4X games. Even if you don't start one yourself, some one else will. Hope for the best, prepare for the worse.

You can set yourself up for a defensive war, but depending on your government type, that might not be an option. With govs like democracy, war wariness hits hard and very quickly, so you have American style Shock and awe to end the war quickly and decisively. Basically blitz at least half most, if not all your opponent's cities in ten turns. It requires you to expect a war with your neighbor so position your guys along it. Concentrate most of them in one or two cites depending how large your army is. Then wait for war. Aircraft is a must for intercepting guys making a run for your cities, but those are few. once you knock them back into the defensive, that frees up aircraft to soften retreating units. The bulk of your army should be doing a smash and grab of the cities. If your fast enough, you can out run the defenders and take cities almost undefended. Having aircraft carriers off shore is great for opening up another front to draw off troops. Off course this is all modern age if tanks and mechanized infantry. Forget about artillery, not worth the time or damage to units or cities.

During all this time make sure that your entire nation is mobilized and cranking out units. Some are lost replacement, but most are for garrisoning since that places your taking aren't very happy about it all.

Unfortunately Civ games and especially civ 3 are not very conductive of world domination. It is mathematically impossible to achieve as your nation very easily falls into civil war past 150 cities. The empire size penalty is just too great to compensate for. I have seen A.I.s approach 200, but they are so weak internally, they fall over to a light breeze. Also having overseas holdings isn't worth anything as they are so inefficient, they drain resources as a whole. You pretty much have to burn down most of the world to gain the world domination victory.

3706

General Gaming / Re: What's MS' next move with the XBox 360?

« on: March 21, 2008, 07:16:07 PM »

While I do remember the PS1 and PS2 had issues, they were never this wide spread. Also people didn't have to deal with Indian call centers back then. For the PS1, it was bad lasers. PS2 it is still bad lasers.

The 360 has bad lasers, cheap drives which will put rings in your disks if you looked at it wrong. Then there is RROD. While the rise of the internet has made failures more apparent, considering even mainstream press picked up on it says something. There is also no doubt from the retail channels it is a massive issue. Sony never had to write down a billion dollars to fix their hardware issues.

Beyond that MS was never a trusted name and MS had done a lot to try to distance MS and XBOX. These issues just confirm those feelings. Most people use Windows because they have to. A lot of the resentment cause by Windows bleeds over on to other products they make.

They have been their own worse enemy as it was with Sony. While Sony had Ken screaming you needed a second job to get a PS3, MS was more subtle with Horse Armor and Crackdown "Expansions".

3707

NWR Feedback / Re: Official new forums feature request/complaint thread

« on: March 21, 2008, 08:49:52 AM »

You can use the glow button. Replace red with black.

Although I would like to have a dedicated button for it.

3708

General Chat / Re: So my Girl wants to watch Star Wars for the first time!

« on: March 21, 2008, 05:35:53 AM »

I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the Ewoks. It was just that they weren't used effectively. If Lucas was more willing to slaughter more of them to invoke how one sided the conflict was, it would have made a far more effective turnaround. It was so black and white. One moment the Ewoks are being killed, the next the stromtroopers are being hammered. There was no struggle. It just happens.

The space battle on the other hand was excellent, as was the light saber duel on the death star. There was no jedi light-saber kung fu. It was a contest of wills, not strength. No need to be flashy. That was saved for space.

3709

General Gaming / Re: What's MS' next move with the XBox 360?

« on: March 21, 2008, 05:18:01 AM »

I am sure as a company, they can hold on indefinitely. But I don't think they have infinite patience. By the end of this generation it will be ten years since the XBOX. Billions in the hole. Single digit number of quarters of profit that only happened when the stars align with things like Halo which blows it's load on day one. This is after nickel and diming everything.

Their idea of profit is to increase prices. Crank up that revenue. Who cares about how ghastly inefficient the back room is. Who cares if you have to rebuild the same machine over and over again.

There is no next move for the 360. There is the status quo. Through their own marketing and policies they have cornered themselves for this generation. The user base is set. It flooded with shooters because that is almost the only thing they buy.

People say Nintendo gamers only buy Nintendo games. That might be a problem if the majority of Nintendo games were of one genera. But it isn't. They make games of all types. The Nintendo brand is something the average person can trust to provide a good game to almost everybody. MS is head shot land. By cultivating more open gamers, Nintendo help themselves and third parties.

MS just have to wait out this generation until they can reset for the next. Fire every single executive they have. Start hiring people who can actually use their brains and not their e-wangs. Every single one of them right now are technologist hacks. Tim Allens of the computer world. MOAR POWER HOHOHOHO.

3710

General Gaming / Re: What's MS' next move with the XBox 360?

« on: March 21, 2008, 12:27:33 AM »

The offer for Yahoo as far as I am certain was a little over 40 Billion USD. Keep in mind, most of that isn't cash. It gets paid out by draining MS stock value. MS's market cap is massive, but it isn't cash and you can't spend it as such.

As deguello has stated, they can't continue losing money in the H & E division. It drains the companies overall profit. It bunts the share price and shareholders directly lose money from less dividends. I am actually surprised this adventure has been allowed to continue for this long.

MS must make a profit and do it consistently. Their current business model works, if they control the market. But videogames are a luxury. As is they could make profit short term, but they will trash the market in the process.

Overpowered, expensive hardware. Exploding production costs. Terrible quality control. Massive advertising costs. Blockbuster mentality. Expensive games. Patches.

3711

General Chat / Re: So my Girl wants to watch Star Wars for the first time!

« on: March 20, 2008, 11:12:00 PM »

Definitely 456 123. Classic editions if you can manage over the special ones. Although this order will end the series with the bad movies, it will allow the originals full impact to be felt. The new movies simply aren't good enough to watch first as they trash the originals.

Ignore the other stuff for the time being. Go watch those if this experiment goes well. We damand reports.

P.S. Dude PM over ROTJ?!? Well you may have a point if you were to invoke the Ewoks. Still, ROTJ is a better movie overall.

3712

NWR Feedback / Re: Official new forums feature request/complaint thread

« on: March 20, 2008, 06:26:15 AM »

I have a DSL connection so, no, I don't have a slow connection. The page is fully loaded. The forums isn't flash r us.

The computer is a little sluggish, but can run modern software. I did just updated to camino 1.5.5 2 weeks, so that might be it, but I doubt it since this is the only place it happens and I go to another forum running the same software with no issues.

But yeah, It has only been happening for the last couple of days.

3713

NWR Feedback / Re: Official new forums feature request/complaint thread

« on: March 19, 2008, 04:29:32 AM »

There is a bug with the jump to selector thing. When you first select it, it only shows the current forum you are on now. Then you let it go, after a second or so you can click on it again for the full listing.

It is pretty minor, but I guess you guys would want to know about it.

3714

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Please don't sit on the toilet for long

« on: March 18, 2008, 02:06:30 AM »

Damn it! There is no escape from this on the internet!

I guess it makes "Made In America" mean something again.

BURN!!!!!

3715

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Star Wars Mafia Day 9. Naboo.

« on: March 15, 2008, 05:15:06 AM »

What happened to Wandering?  Did he go and commit forum suicide in shame? Because that is just not on.

As for Khushrenada, I say did did pretty well considering how many cattle trucks this train wreak has gone through. I will NOT be voting for him first day.

3716

TalkBack / Re: Manhunt 2 Receives Classification in the UK

« on: March 14, 2008, 11:20:47 PM »

It is worth it, at least for Rockstar. Now that the line has been pushed back, they can release games of equal levels of violence without pain.

3717

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Target Terror

« on: March 09, 2008, 10:16:08 PM »

WHAT? The great Kairon has limits as to how much he is willing to pay for a bad game? Not recommended at all.

3718

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo World Report Turns 9 Years Old

« on: March 09, 2008, 10:09:02 PM »

It is not often you get to follow a website for so long to see it become an institution. Then it goes further and becomes a home away from home on the net. I can find no better compliment than that.

3719

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Star Wars Mafia: Day 4. Endor

« on: March 07, 2008, 07:22:24 PM »

Although I am dead, I feel this is the appropriate place to shed light on what I know from my end.

The last PM I sent was on the 4th, before the reset to Lando. I didn't really bother defending myself because I thought it was a photoshop and that my death would lead to death of a Mafia member in such a wanton and blatant move. Also the fact by the time I logged in that day it was pretty late and there was little I could do. Neither shifty or me were aware that dupes were possible at that point in time since previously it wasn't an issue.

It wasn't until shifty had contacted me via MSN was the dupe uncovered. Even then I was gunning for his death until he explained that he received actual messages. It quickly occurred to me he got hit with an Ethan Hunt and it was beautiful. The only mistake he made was that he made it a one shot deal and didn't go all out on a false flag information campaign.

Feel free to edit me it this isn't the place for this.

3720

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Star Wars Mafia: Day 3. The Death Star.

« on: March 06, 2008, 04:43:56 PM »

"I'm not going to die in childbirth, Anakin. I promise you. "

If I have to die to prove that blasted Hutt wrong then so be it. Martyrdom is not beyond me. I also will not vote for anyone else for I have no information on anyone else. Enjoy your death Hutt. It will come for you the very next day.

3721

General Chat / Re: What do you do for a living?

« on: March 05, 2008, 09:28:58 PM »

I hope you achieve your pilot goal, but isn't there a lot of work to get there? With hours and the rest?

Sort of back on topic. I am a flight test away from Private License which allows me to fly under visual conditions anywhere in the country. For me, achieving my goals is not the issue. It is a matter of when. I have singularly invested more resources into this than any other endeavor I have ever embarked on and thats after excluding the loan I have with the government. Money, time, opportunities, girls.

It requires great personal commitment and a constant push for perfection. If I got a dollar for every time I have kicked myself for doing something stupid or wrong, I would have a Wii by now and a nice chuck of the catalogue. When doing this, focusing on the hours is a poor way to learn and fly. Hours merely mean final costs and unless you were never meant to fly in the first place, you can do everything you need in a reasonable amount of time.

It my not look like it, but it is a very personal thing to do. You don't go to class (Well you do in the beginning), you go out and fly with someone you trust implicitly, more than anyone else you thought you could trust. The same comes back to you. People have died from the lack of trust. The hours don't matter. Being as close to perfect is. Everything is a test. All the time.

As hard work as it is, it beats the living **** out of going to University for 3 years and finding out you have to do even more years. I will be done with this well before the next generation of console are out. I will be sure to visit some of you guys when that happens.

If any of you guys like more information regarding this, I think I can continue using this thread to reply in. Most of the Information would be New Zealand specific, but translate pretty much straight cross to most countries.

3722

General Chat / Re: What do you do for a living?

« on: March 05, 2008, 01:07:43 AM »

That does look a bit much Svevan. But if enjoy it and excel at it I got nothing against it. With that under your belt you can become an intellectual bad ass like Clark Kent with none of the Superman.

I did try out University myself, but dropped out after a semester. I joined up really only because it was the "it" thing to do once you left school. I had no goals or direction other than "Go to Uni". Having done that bit of Uni, I too saw a lot of your quote Robin Wood around and in me, I didn't even have a career to aim for let alone a lust for knowledge. The environment and the shear pointlessness of what I was doing quickly caught up with me.

It was only years later that I found something that didn't test my patience just for the sake of testing it. Something that moved as fast as I did and has a most agreeable payoff at the end. Something I really enjoyed with a passion that matched my energy for gaming.

Also I didn't want to be a nerd anymore 

3723

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii Freeloader

« on: March 04, 2008, 03:03:26 AM »

I guess i will just continue my practice of buying an American Nintendo console to get the best of both worlds. It isn't only the retarded regions that turn me off from buying locally or at all, but the lack of price parity and useless release delays.

Nintendo, the DS shows you don't need regions.

3724

General Chat / Re: Anime

« on: March 04, 2008, 02:51:20 AM »

How bad Is Gundam SEED destiny? Is it as bad as the disconnect between the awesome Mezzo Forte and MEZZO DSA? I really enjoyed Gundam SEED.

As for other Gundam series NOT to watch. Gundam Wing and V - Gundam. Wing was some kind of weird crossover between weaslting and DBZ in Mecha format. V Gundam was just plain bad. Awful plot and charaters in a universe that makes no sense. It also features one of the most phallic super weapons ever in a Gundam series.

Slayers is a must watch if you like a good laugh and got a geek bone in your body.

3725

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Star Wars Mafia: Day 1. Tatooine

« on: March 04, 2008, 02:39:56 AM »

Vote NICKMITCH

"You're a funny little boy. How do you know so much?"