I-n-j-i-n

Shadow >>>>> Furry Sonic >>>>>> Sonic with Sword.

I think Nick had a bunch of great shows when it first started. It's just that the last 7 years or so had a dearth of any good ones unless you can count in Spongebob for being the irreverent comedy cartoon they always seems to have. I think the success of Avatar could almost force them to make others with a definite story. Avatar's ending was good but almost felt too Naruto-ish with a lot of its fighting elements. Hopefully the next project won't feel too much like another anime.

But they are not in the main cast. They're designed by guest designers. Female designs tends to dominate the manga scene nowadays so it only makes sense. Maybe they should have mandated a few male characters too.

Read English? Or not realize that renting games isn't what it was like 20 years ago?

That is a major digression right there, because I still think Tekken is the one game that made the 3D fighting games interesting. Toshinden was standard fare, Virtua Fighter still has zero personality (though it still is the best fighting game series technically), and DOA was only getting started and didn't have the variety of Tekken. No.... Just no. Just about every Soul Calibur player worth his/her salt knows how to block and parry and 8-way-run all the time. That's why so many tournaments are drawn out blocking affairs and Namco is looking at ways to destroying excessive turtling blockers. You mean Xianghua, who was top tier for almost all the Soul games. Personally, I love that they're adding more and more characters. I just don't buy the argument that they're thinning out the uniqueness when they're doing a good enough job. I think a lot of hardcore gamers have a point in that Namco never really listens to the hardcore fighting game community like Virtua Fighter developers do. But that's the only major knock IMO. For most of the games, they had near identical movelists and they still fight similarly in the new ones. I think you chose a really ironic example for clone characters since I think they're the closest related.

I would say it's a nominal game. I played the demo and it had its fun parts. Not worth $60. Might be worth $25.

Wow. Do you live in the 90's? Or maybe the 80's? People physically rent videogames now? That notion is just retarded. It's called Gamefly. I still have a subscription for a few Wii games that I simply refuse to buy since a lot of them are 'play then let dust gather' types. If you don't rent games or don't do it anymore, that is just fine and dandy. But I never knew decades old rental cliches were funny anymore, or relevant. Oh, and I'll never understand the whole "I used to watch TVs" thing. Okay, so it's like a growth spurt. Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry, it looks fucking terrible. Why are so many aiming reticles in Wii games look so atrocious? Good thing I never bought it for the 360. It's around $25 in most stores now.

Yeah, but it wasn't beating the 360 sales by all that much until MGS4, which then nearly doubled 360's numbers. But 360 is still marching on with at least around 200,000 per month. I simply think the aura of invincibility for the Playstation brand is gone as far as it being a de-facto hardcore gamers' machine. I mean, the 360 had a huge uptick when Halo 3 and Gears of War. Also, the biggest news is that 360 gamers own more 360 games than Wii gamers does with Wii games or PS3 does with PS3 games. The ratio is lopsided in 360's favor and that software conversion is what's attracting developers, as it rightfully should.

I have to agree with how Dent's lines were very hammy and downright cliche. I know that making the dialogue complicated isn't going to solve everything, but not everything he said had to be consisted of cliche one liners. As for Maggie Gyllenhaal, she almost singlehandedly ruined almost all scenes that had her in it. I've never seen a worse actress in a superhero movie, ever. And as for the Joker, I think it's safe to say that the movie is very, very far from being realistic the way he just skates through without even having loyal henchmen but just taking a bunch of thugs from other gangs. I'd imagine that won't work out at all in real life or even in comic books..

I thought it was the complete opposite. It was as if Square was finally listening the fans' complaints about the flaws of turn based systems and put a totally new system for a more casual, easier to understand gameplay. The change was nice, but I think the innate flaws of it was whitewashed simply because it was new. FFXIII, to me, should be compared directly with Star Ocean the way it should. I don't think expectations should waver so much for it.

I'd say the Joker was about as serviceable as Nicholson's one. Which means Ledger did a great job. The only thing was that they just used that 'CREEPY STRINGS' effect whenever Joker was on. A bit one track, but oh well. Add maybe Hellboy and Ironman (though I disliked it) or even Indiana Jones (though I REALLY HATED it) and it's been a really good summer. I absolutely hate shallow CG cartoons with a passion, but Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda were just amazing. I still say Kung Fu Panda is pound-for-pound the most entertaining movie of the summer personally. As for the screening of Batman itself, I nearly got arrested for yelling down a bunch of brats to shut the hell up. I might seriously never go to movies in the daytime, ever.

Basically the only things that is of any fault in the movie is that it can get a bit draggy, almost gets too political, no Danny Elfman, there's no insane "Batmania" of the original '89 Batman movie and IMO, Bale is a nominal Batman choice compared to even other Batmans (Clooney obviously not in that mix). And Bale's Batman was basically overshadowed by all the other great characters IMO. I just am not so starstruck with Bale as some others it seems. Other than that, it actually lives up to the hype. I liked Hellboy 2 a lot too and these two movies actually deliver compared to the other superhero movies earlier in the year. I wonder if the Imax version actually lives up to the hype in that end.

I'm pretty sure that the world economy is starting to feel the effects. I just think there's a lot more cross promotion and money-centric website choices that are happening nowadays. Everything seems more expensive. Foreign or otherwise.

The problem for me was that the ATB was essential. Without it, you're looking at a lot of meaningless grinding for just added difficulty? That's silly. And the limit breaks were probably the most disappointingly weak and stupid out of any FF games, ever. I think FFXII had a lot of great ideas, but it never got to its full potential. Especially near the end of the game, where every bosses and every items basically meant nothing. Just a few high level spells and you win, period. X-2 was borderline-great for me. If people are saying 'the game is girly, Yuna has lost her mind' as a legitimate complaint about the game engine and how the story of Titus is finished, then I think they're out of their minds. They made the game as a spinoff and it felt like one. Good job on Square's part. I have no qualms about it. I agree the job changing system was probably one of the best in the main FF series. I'd only go as far as the design. The whole mature design aspect of it and the new look of Ivalice (which is more FFT territory). Then again, not much was really made of it by the end with the story and characters. I might actually think they have rushed it. The development for FFXII was in trouble for months on ends and I think the final product showed. The endgame was just flat for me. And I honestly can't remember one good line of dialog from the game. Because none of it really mattered. I don't think you can adequately compare it to MGS4 or RE4 which both had near-perfect gameplay. FFXII's gameplay is just heavily debatable at best IMO. I know it's well made. It's just not ubiquitously so. I have to give a big MEH on that one. Technically, you're completely right. But creatively, they had nothing to work with. And someone needs to shoot Vaan. He's definitely more annoying than Tidus for me. At least FFX crew had something to work with as far as dialog went. In FFXII? Characters just standing around and mumbling stuff in the background doesn't count as dialog for me.

The economy is bad. I thought people would have gotten the hint by now.

Okay, so where's the people who keep calling me whiny? Hot theaters? That's a new one. I go to a reasonably cheap theater and it's usually not that bad. And I almost think it's like a law to never have theaters to actually get warm. Kids calling things 'gay' or people snickering at every stupid joke? That's EVERYWHERE. Of the hundred or so movies I've seen in theaters, maybe about 10 of them had a very respectful crowd (as in almost no noise, no stupid babies, no idiot teenagers, no whiny elderly). Typical.

Dissidia. But I think it's a bit silly to point out that they're milking FF series. Of course they are. The same way Mario is milked to the bone. But I don't think that has too much relevance to the main games they're releasing. While I do think FFXII was very flawed, I can at least tell they put in a lot of effort in it. Actually, a lot of their current projects are a bit flawed (which JRPG isn't?) like with FFTA's judging systems or the remakes' easier difficulties. But I don't think you can say that they put no effort in them.

The Gambit system was alright, but it was like with Kingdom Hearts 2. The game could run itself if you set the system up right. But probably less hands on than even KH2. As for the story, I would say it really was non existent. I could probably recall better stories from FF4 all the way up to FF10. I thought FF12 really got too much credit when I was only 10% through the story. The most unnerving fact that Vann and his friends never really TALKED through much of it. That was a bad sign. I actually thought FFX-2 was a good enough sequel to FFX, but FFX never really had the most compelling stories anyway. As for the fighting game, are you talking about Ehrgeiz? That was like forever ago. I hope FF13 does have some effort put into it. Mainly the way they're promising real time battles, Star Ocean style.

Playing the demo and watching the trailer, the voice acting in the new Tales of Vesperia game is just horrendous. Especially that final line of the trailer, the guy loses all hope of life it seems. Or is a mannequin.

I still wonder why Nintendo should give a damn about the 3rd party. Because they were always Nintendo centric in their strategy and their whole "We are developing Mario/Zelda" was their 'big news', because they never develop those games. /sarcasm

Except there were at least some goals in Sims to trick up the house in more creative ways, and Harvest Moon always had an overriding story to get married and have family. I hope they do something like that with AC:CC. At least with more creative upgrade options.

I'm disappointed they didn't go with at least Megaman 5's system with the buster rifles. Or Megaman 4's. Or Megaman 3's.

Worrisome if you're a hardcore gamer only. I think that's why so many gamers are saying 'nothing' really came out of Nintendo's E3 this year. I guess the casual gamers would be alright with it. Some addons are nice, but that's it. Not quite the march of games Microsoft has shown, or the software system overhauls both MS and Sony is promising.

Add Prince of Persia, Saints Row 2, Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, and just about every relevant 3rd party games out there. I want Nintendo and Microsoft to merge already. Nintendo stuff and casual stuff + the 3rd parties and hardcore stuff. I think it's pretty obvious that the two sides are really missing the other piece of the puzzle. Oh and btw, Wii Music does sound pretty good as long as it can properly utilize the 1:1 controls. That would've been impossible with the older, clunkier scheme.