The Coop

http://www.blizzard.com/us/diablo2/demo.html There's a link to the single player demo of Diablo 2. If you're curious, give it a whirl DS. It'll only give you a little taste of the what the full D2 game has to offer, but it'll let you see how things are done.

Well... it's about fucking time. We all knew a third game was needed after the ending in Lord of Destruction, but it sure did take a while for it to even be announced. This makes me a happy little camper. Now to wait the additional three years it'll likely be before it gets released Both. You use your mouse cursor to move your character, and pick which enemy to hack on (and pretty much everything else). There are no turn-based fights, as it's all real-time, and there are copious amounts of enemies to defeat. Basically imagine Baldur's gate: Dark Alliance for gameplay (only many more enemies on-screen), but you're using a mouse instead of a controller to do everything. It's point and click, meets hack 'n slash, meets action-RPG.

I know these aren't likely to be accepted, but here are most of the various things from the Atari classic, Gauntlet... In order, there's... Warrior, Valkyrie, Elf, Wizard, Ghost, Grunt, Sorcerer, Demon, Lobber, Death Thief, Generator 1, Generator 2, Food 1, Food 2, Treasure, Potion, Amulet, Key, Exit LT: Let's go with Warrior, Wizard, Sorcerer, Death, Generator 1, and Food 2. The rest look good within the group, but not feeling them on their own.

And the burning questions on the minds of fanboys everywhere... Will Fran, Tifa and Lulu be in it, and will they have jiggle physics?

I have no doubt that there will be yet another PS3... another hard drive upgrade, taking things out, added/removed connectivity options, or the most likely reason, redesign. I would almost be willing to put money on it. We've already seen four PS3s, and a lot of systems usually go through some kind of a redesign at least once in its life span (Sony's done it each time thus far). After all, far more systems have gone through a redesign to make it cheaper, smaller, etc., than those that didn't. So we all know there's at the very least one more PS3 version likely coming. And with the four versions of the 360 that've been done, I'd have to say all this could be applied to it as well. I honestly can't remember a time when the systems came in so many versions, so fast. And we're not talking about trying to fix hardware issues like the many SKUs for the PS1 and PS2, the anti-piracy touches for the DC, or the "keep unsigned third party games off" Genesis v1 adjustments. These are just simply new hardware versions where they're adding and changing the specs that should have been finalized before even one system came off the assembly line. All that aside, I said "they haven't even decided on final specs yet" for two reasons, Pezman. One, it was a sarcastic remark on what's been done thus far (which I thought was pretty obvious), and two, it's a comment based on what history has shown us is very likely coming system-wise. But above all, it was simply an opinion, not an absolute Edit: Cleaned up a spot or two.

Just look at the different versions of the PS3 that have come out since its launch (see Penfold's link). In a year-and-a-half, they've had four different hard drive sizes, added functions, removed functions... it's like they're still trying to figure out what works, what doesn't, and what's needed. Hell, they've got two versions that they aren't even making any longer already. Of course, Microsoft is equally as guilty of this, considering how many versions of the 360 there have been to date, so it's not like Sony is alone in their imbecilic antics. Both companies keep changing parts of the system specs by removing or adding something that was/wasn't there in the previous iteration. Some are small, others, not so small. Perhaps someday they'll both settle on a final configuration, but I doubt that'll come anytime soon.

They haven't even decided on final specs yet as it is, so rest assured, there are many more editions coming.

What MP3 kbps rates have you tried? 128? Variable?

You can track down StarLancer very easily these days, as it's cheap as hell to buy. There's also Wing Commander and Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi for some old DOS fun, and Wing Commander: Prophecy for the older Windows OSs. I've not yet played all the way through Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, and I don't own Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, I can't comment on them yet. Oh, and see if you can find Darklight Conflict, Sinistar Unleashed, BANG! Gunship Elite, and Incoming. They're not the best games out there, but they're not too bad.

For those who have HBO2, there's the possibility that on Wednesday night and Thursday night, they're going to show most of Carlin's specials. I say "possibility", because though I've read it on two websites, the schedule hasn't been changed on HBO's website. If it's true, it's supposed to run from 8PM to 2AM each night. So those of you who didn't get to see many of his specials, this may be a great chance to do so if you have that channel.

It's the new Dewey Decimal Age system. He's 2.1 decades old. It gets a bit cumbersome to tell someone a kid's .0019, or that you're 1.8175, but...

I've played Thunder Force IV so many times, it's scary. Why? The graphics, the music, the challenge, the design... it's all just so spot on from beginning to end. When you're done playing, you don't feel like anything was left out, or short changed. To me, it's a game that really does feel complete... there's nothing that could have been tweaked to make it better. Other games I've played the holy hell out of are ones like Ultimate Doom (I still think it's better than Doom II), Thunder Force III (not quite as good as TFIV, but a fine quality shmup), Vampire Savior (one of Capcom's finest 2D fighting efforts in my opinion), and Mario Bros. (the Atari XE version, which is surprisingly faithful to, and just as fun as, the arcade original). I could go on for a bit, but that'd be a bit too 'favorites'-like.

Well this is a sad day for the comedic world... a Mongolian Cluster Fuck™ of a day. His stuff was hit or miss with me at times in his last couple specials, but I laughed a lot at his other specials over the years. He was controversial, witty, sarcastic, dirty, insightful at times, and he put it all on show in regular 60 minute bits every couple of years. He's been a staple in the comedy world for decades... someone you just expected to always be there ready to comment in their own way about everything. And now, he's abruptly gone. Rest in peace George, and thanks for the many laughs you've given me.

This is true, and that's about the only creative aspect of the game that's decent (IMO of course). The rest of the game is just... bad.

I always felt the chicken and the chihuahua were more defining. Shame that the Saturn game got canned. I would have loved to have seen what would have come from that with the extra colors and memory. But I guess we'll never know what 'The Final Chapter' held for us, since Sega dropped the ax on it in favor of porting Virtua Fighter.

I remember it, unfortunately. Iffy graphics, horrid animation (even for its time), lame moves and characters, bad music and controls, and gore that wasn't all that gory (cartoony gore). In fact, it also got a port to the Genesis, where they actually made a bad arcade game, worse

I've been pimping EC:CFtDS for years. While the Genesis version is a letdown overall, the Sega CD sequel was better on every front. Better graphics, much better music, rather detailed and copious levels of gore, better controls and gameplay, and lots of extra characters. It's not the best BEZT FIGHTAR EVAR, but it's fun, and trying the find the dozens of different death spots was fun. Oh yeah, and the deaths? Woooooo boy... they're just brutal, sometimes very much so. They make MK II's stuff look tame And just for old time's sake...

Both Rebel Assault games are fully supported with DOSBox .72. Just be sure to set up their sound manually with their setup programs, as letting them auto-detect causes issues.

The potential lack of interest might be because a lot of the established remixers are busy with this or that, and the new folks are a bit sheepish to inquire knowing what's likely expected in terms of quality for this. That's just a guess mind you.

Khan Dancing? Edit: I meant to post this here, but forgot about it. I got a PM from Strider Kyoden a week ago about this person on MySpace. Now, it took me a bit to notice it, but on Game Over's "Cataclysmic Clash", notice it says the name of the MySpace poster, and not Game Over, under the song title. Another musical thief perhaps? http://www.myspace.com/megamanmusical Maybe he was. However, I've also been told that on his site, he now makes the comment that he didn't make the tunes himself. I can't find that comment, but then again, I'm not all that familiar with MySpace's functionings. However, the labels are still there, so I'm sure people are still thinking he did them as they swing by.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidociousness?

You know, sometimes in a game, you run into a boss that's a pain in the ass for one simple reason... the bastard won't stand still. In the game Blood, there's a large stone gargoyle that you have to face at the end of the first episode (assuming you're playing them in order). Now, it's not just that he takes a lot of hits (though he does), it's mostly because he moves quite quickly out in the open, and the arena you're fighting in consists of a circular set of corridors... which happens to be where you need him to be to get a real chance at hurting him. Out in the open, you can't hit him unless he's chasing you. In the corridors, you can't hit him unless he's chasing you, and he only does so for a short time. While he's chasing you, he'll use one of two attacks. Up close, he slashes you for a nice chunk of damage. From afar, he fires two bluish orbs that do a decent amount of damage. So basically for most of the fight, you're running backwards, trying to lure him into the corridors so that you can hopefully get a few shots off with whatever weapons you have... all while trying like hell to not let him catch up to you. Oh, did I mention that the floor's not even? Yeah, when you go up, it causes you're aim to point down a bit, and vice versa. This makes getting a shot off tougher. Anyway, I've only ever beaten him when he got stuck on the edge of a wall. Then I'd unleash everything I had and hope it was enough. If it weren't for that, I'd probably still be running in big circles, wondering what the other three episodes look like. Oh, and a happy sixth year to this thread

I believe part of the problem comes from the lyrics themselves. They're not bad or anything, but the Japanese style of writing doesn't always come across well when it's translated into English. It's the same when translating English into Japanese... something just seems to get lost. The end result can be hard for some Americans to get into lyrically. It's doubly so when the group's songs get translated, and they turn out to be dripping with lovey-dovey romantic commentary. Some folks just don't want to mosh to how a girl looking into a boy's eyes causes her to melt into a pool of hearts that fill the air with the sweet scent of love as she floats on a passion that's like thousand giddy school yard girls... ya know? Edit: Of course, that's another thing some folks can't get past... the stereotype that Japanese songs are all mushy and love drenched. That simple idea can keep people from even trying the music, whether it's translated or not. Then if they do try listening to a song, and they hear one thing that sounds even remotely mushy to them, it's over. Generalizations take over, the music's ditched.

I thought this thread was going to be about the music from the Chuck Norris movies.