Triad Orion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear I don't want to sound pretentious, but actually Snake didn't start out on Nintendo systems. His first appearance was actually on a separate console all together and Metal Gear on the NES was a rehashing of it. Though the NES game is what made him mainstream, he didn't start on a Nintendo system. Not to speculate, but logically, Sonic could make the same leap. Just wanted to put that out there.

No, they are a bit different, legalese speaking. The first one is straightforward, in regards to keeping the main material recognizable when present. The second one refers to that the presence of source material must be prevelent enough for the song to be recognizable. The second point is addressing that having the chorus of the source material in the song for only five seconds of the whole song isn't acceptable, even if it's taken note for note. In simpler terms, part two is referring to the importance of the source material in the remix itself, not the amount of liberties of which is taken with it.

I take issue with your summary of the plot as well. First of all, the Terrans in the original StarCraft were *never* meant to be seen as "almighty" and "heroic." They were a bunch of backwater people from the dregs of common society fighting for their very survival. You were meant to despise Terran leadership and a lot of what they did. The only characters meant to be sympathetic were Raynor and Kerrigan. Duke, Mengsk, the Sons of Korhal and the Confederate leadership were all meant to be viewed as groups that were filled with corrupt individuals who are entirely self interested. Sounds pretty close to realistic and cynical rather than heroic. As for the changing alliances for the heroes, that can happen in wartime situations. Sometimes former friends become enemies in a hurry, especially if you consider the circumstances of which Kerrigan and Arthas both fell from grace in their respective games. The methods of how they fell were different as well. Arthas fell to his own madness and lust for revenge; Kerrigan was unwittingly forced into her change because she was captured by the Zerg and infested. Arthas practically begged for his own fall, while Kerrigan did not. And I wouldn't call the Protoss the all-knowing third party to the matter that were hesitant to get involved. They were very clearly involved from the beginning. Does Char Sara and Mara Sara ring bells? The planets they destroyed at the beginning of StarCraft? They changed their tactics only because Tassadar believed the Terrans had a right to live as well, not because they arrived to the party too late. They are very much unlike the Night Elves, who couldn't get involved until the end because of simply where they were in the world. What you're really going after is the way that Blizzard throws the gameplay at you... and you're not considering in Brood War or Frozen Throne, either. While Blizzard has trends in how they do things, how they *execute* them is entirely different.

Screw the Alliance. From a literary perspective, the Horde would be so much more interesting to tell a story from. The WarCraft lore puts the Horde in a complex, ever-changing situation and struggle; something that's ultimately very humanizing. If there's one thing viewers can relate with, it's watching characters deal with a struggle on a massive scale. And going by the WarCraft lore, the humans really aren't all that interesting unless you figure in all the stuff about the Stonemasons and Edwin VanCleef, and the occasional story about Uther's Paladins of the Silver Hand. The rest of it's rather dull, in my opinion. And the rest of the Alliance don't really have compelling stories to tell either, as far as I'm concerned, save for the Dwarves regarding the tales of their creation and perhaps the Draenei (which I doubt the latter will be in the movie at all). I'm going to reserve further judgment until the movie gets more details, but I was sincerely hoping that Blizzard would either make the movie Horde centric or at least have both sides share the spotlight for a roughly equal amount of time.

Man, I'm really off the ball lately on keeping up. Good to see you're a-okay, Zircon. Way too many people have been ending up in the hospital lately. I'm glad that everything turned out okay. Hope you're back to 100% soon.

I'm in late too. Sorry about that! Happy belated birthday, Zircon! Sounds like you had a great time out and about yesterday. Congrats on the 20th! I hope things continue to go well for you in the future.

...Seconded.

That really makes no sense. Considering the Ghost program was picked up by the Terran Confederacy and continued by Mengsk when he overthrew it. Ghost units are trained specifically to be unerringly loyal and are often cybernetically implanted to make *sure* of that. As well, they're equipped with Psionic Dampeners to make fully sure they don't turn on their superiors. I doubt the Ghosts will split away. Considering they *ARE* Terrans and that the Zerg actively hunt them, I think even the most separationist minded Ghosts wouldn't want to go it alone against Kerrigan's swarms; and Kerrigan knows all the tricks of a Ghost. Besides all of that? Where would they even go? The Zerg are after them, the Terrans would be hunting down the deserters, and the Protoss wouldn't want anything to do with them unless Raynor was supporting the idea, and even then I doubt it'd get very far. Really, I do not see them splitting away from the Terrans at all. Lorewise it makes no sense and they wouldn't work as a separate race because they'd be far too esoteric. Also, considering they're a Terran trademark unit as much as the Marines and Siege Tanks, seeing them separate is... unlikely, at best.

I'd say it's a good possibility. I mean, Blizzard pulled out two new races from the air for WarCraft III with the Undead Scourge and the Night Elves and made it work lorewise... for StarCraft II, they have the Xel'naga all set up to make a comeback, and moreover, they set up for the possibility for the Hybrids to be a race too. I wouldn't count out that one, or perhaps both of these races will be playable in SCII. And what a better surprise to hold out for the fans? ...though to be fair, I'm still probably going to end up playing as the Terrans anyway. *Laughs*

If you'll pardon my cynicism for a moment, 'Cause you know, obviously every game that has a Fireball spell has ripped off each other. Besides, though Blizzard North is a different division than Blizzard proper, the fact of the matter is they're part of the same greater company, and some of the creative minds from both teams actually do collaberate. You're blowing the second comparison a bit out of hand. Now, the thing is, Blizzard has... "borrowed" a lot of ideas from other sources, but how have those other sources "borrowed" from other science fiction? I'm not justifying pirating intellectual property, just pointing out that execution makes a big difference between ideas. Really, despite some of the similarities that Blizzard's technology may have to other contemporary science fiction, their execution and lore are usually very well developed and utilized. You can claim that they're "hacks," but if nothing else, they're damn good hacks.

...So glad I changed to X. I suck at battles to the death.

My vote's on Fire Emblem. Great series with great music.

I missed it, sadly. And I feel a little bad about it. I've been a fan since the beginning. Glad to hear it was pretty good, though. Admittedly, the last season wasn't as funny, I think. It shows some development of the characters which is nice, but the growing divide between Edd and Eddy and the lack of comraderie between them seemed to detract from the dynamic somewhat. Though, I must say I appreciated the growing surreal kind of humor that the show had as it aged. I will miss that.

To be fair, Zircon... other than ratings, one of the chief questions that networks have been demanded to answer is *why* he went on this rampage. I imagine a fraction of the reason why they keep showing it all is an attempt to get people to understand just what kind of man this guy was. Clearly psychotic. It could be possible that they're also trying to show the scale of which he was mad and how far he had gone to plan this. I think you can look at this as a demonization of his character almost as much as it is a glorification. Now I definitely see where you're coming from. And I think to some extent you're correct. However, I don't simply think it's as clear cut as that. I'm sure if the material had no real value into the mind of this guy, it probably wouldn't have been shown. I think the ultimate question is... how much of showing this material is too much?

I saw that earlier. Now, I admit I'm not too well read about various web-blogs, but I must ask how credible is PS3 Center? Have they usually been reliable in the past? I surfed a few other major gaming websites and caught no sign of this news breaking anywhere else. It just set off a couple of alarms to me. Anyone know how trustworthy this site is in regards to its gaming news so I can make a more informed judgment on the event?

Blizzard makes no games, only expansion packs! XD

It's obvious. They didn't find the blue key to open the door where the plasma rifle is hidden.

My apologies. I made an error in judgment when I said what I did. I've just run into far too many people who are quick to blanket Palestinians as stupid or bad, and it drives me quite insane. I'm going to say no more on the issue than that considering the sensitivity of the subject matter, and that it's irrelevant to the thread. Anyway, getting to the topic at hand, I think I-n-j-i-n does bring up an interesting point about literature never being blamed. It's just not as fashionable to burn books anymore as it used to be. Really, news doesn't get sold when they say "years of various classical literature made him do it" when it's easier to blame a "big" issue like video games. It just doesn't sell, and that's why it's usually not considered an issue. It only becomes one when the media thinks society would get a kick out of it. For example: What if this guy was a Marxist and read the Communist Manifesto sometime? They'd jump at the chance to point out that he's a crazed socialist (never mind that communism and socialism are two different beasts entirely) and would blame that as part of the problem and use it to attack far-left political ideology. That stuff would sell, and bonus, it revives a hot-button issue from the Cold War era for politicians to press. Stupidly far-fetched example aside, literature gets ignored in American ideology because many people just don't think it's important. So it's easier to blame things that are actually viewed as relevant... Of course, the truth isn't something that always sells. A shame, really.

Growing up in Palestine has nothing to do with doing something stupid. I know plenty of Americans who'd do something that stupid too.

You never know. It could happen. XD

The menu screen? Damn, considering how good Baba Yetu and the Warlords' menu music were, that's quite a feat. Congrats again! ^^

Holy crap. As if Civ IV wasn't already bad ass enough as it is! I loved it and Warlords. Oh man, now I *have* to get this next expansion pack. It is *required.* XD Congratulations, Pixie! Can hardly wait to hear it. ^^

Personally, I found it eaisest to go Warrior with my first character. As Shonen pointed out, you have no mana to worry about, only rage. It's pretty good at learning the early mechanics of the system and it's a class that has good survivability in many PvE situations as long as you don't get overwhelmed. The tricky part about being a Warrior is while it's fairly easy to understand basic mechanics, tanking and being useful in instance dungeons is much more difficult and requires some instruction. You also have to be willing to accept that your DPS isn't going to be as high as many other classes unless you go into Fury. Basically, I would suggest using a warrior to learn basic things about the game first, then going back and re-rolling into a different class when you're semi-experienced, and then you can go back to your Warrior later once you are confident in your abilities to tank and effectively hold aggro.

...Goddammit. First the PSP's getting an improved port of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, now this?! My S-RPG senses are screaming at me to go buy a PSP for these... arrgh. *Shakes fist* Looks pretty bad ass. Any word on the American release date?

Nanaca Crash is one of the most evil flash games in the history of ever. So damn addicting and silly. I think my record was like 5000 or so. Fun game. Though it did leave me with a desire to smash bikes into people I knew for quite some time.