The Coop

Ah, so it's not just me. Good to know. But yeah, a Tan entry would be pretty out of place in my opinion. The currently in limbo fan game (that's part sprites edits, part original stuff) came along well after the characters were made, and was not the reason behind her creation. Plus, and I mean no disrespect in this, it's a bit presumptuous to line her up next to the likes of Mario, Mai Shiranui, the Metal Slug tank, the R-Type ship, and other iconic/well known video game characters and vehicles.

At the risk of having a lynch mod come marching after me, I guess I'll be the lone voice on the (**GASP!**) pro side of the Halo conversation in here. Did the game and it's first sequel deserve perfect 10s? In my own opinion, no. However, were the games bad? Again, in my own opinion, no. For H1 and H2, I felt the music was very good, the battles were fun and could get intense, the story was more fleshed out than a lot of FPS games, and the graphics looked good overall. It didn't hurt that some touches of humor were also thrown in via the Covenant commentary while you fought them, and they even did a decent job of getting FPS controls on the XBox pads. Oh, and there was some decent AI for the enemies (yay for not mindlessly charging you). I thought H1 and H2 did well in these areas. However, there were some significant issues. In the first game, the most glaring issue was that the level designs were very uninspired. It was like walking through the same section of base over and over again, and it really hurt what other aspects of the game were trying to do. There were other lesser issues, like how your fellow soldiers were about worthless thanks to how easily they died off (especially if they were in a Warthog, and it got rolled), but it was the level design that hurt the game the most. Even so, despite it's painfully repetitive level design, and the fact that it didn't really do anything terribly new, I thought the game was a solid 7.5 (EGM scale). The second game lacked technical polish in spots. You could see higher quality textures suddenly pop in over lower ones during cinemas. And while I thought the ending was a good one in terms of how it was presented, leaving "the fight" right as it was about to get nasty was a poor choice in how to end things. Not Half-Life 2-level bad, but surely they could have given it more of a "finished... for now" feel, instead of cutting right in the midst of it. This one's about an 8.5 from me (again, EGM scale). So yeah, the Halo series has generic aspects, some technical issues, and questionable level design choices in it's first two games (the only ones I've played thus far), but I found that other areas helped make up for those shortcomings. Not enough to warrant "OMG BESTAST FPS IN TEH WURLD!", but enough to say that the first two games were good, competent overall entries in the field. They didn't excel in every area, but they're enjoyable. Oh, and I didn't touch on the multiplayer stuff, as I've never had an XBox Live account to be able to play multiplayer.

I would hope they'd look better. If they didn't, someone did something horribly wrong But I really think you should check out the six games that came before the seventh 360 one... especially 2, 5 and 0 (my personal favorites). You'll miss out on some great stuff if you leave them behind because of the system they're on.

Ace Combats 1-3 are on the PS1. 4, 5 and Zero are on the PS2. Only 6 is on the 360 (thus far).

No MMOs here. Never liked the idea of spending $50 to purchase a game, and then fork out monthly fees to be able to play it "legally".

Is there something wrong with the first six games being on the PS1 and PS2?

What rock have you two been hiding under? The "Halo hate" as it were is alive and well across the Web. Some of it's the "LOOK AT ME I M COOL BY HATING POPULAR THINGZ!"-type (yes, people still do this), some of it's the system fanboy-type, but there's plenty of it where it's simply people who just don't like the game for one reason or another. I had fun with it and 2, but I wouldn't have given it perfect scores. Maybe a 7... 7.5 (going by the EGM scale mind you). I personally find Half-Life 2 to a rather mediocre experience, despite the gallons of spooge the game gets people to shoot off in its honor. Meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed Doom 3, despite the many, MANY cries of hate aimed at the game's darkness and simpler FPS gameplay. Both games got high marks overall, but one just doesn't do much for me. It's the same way with you guys and Halo, vs. any FPS you do like. Others find Halo to be the second coming, you don't. And like me regarding HL2, you can rest assured that you're not as small a minority as you think you are regarding Halo. In fact, you may only be a slight minority these days. Edit: Made it less disjointed.

I'm not intending to sound like a jerk here, but that explanation means nothing to someone who's pissed that they have to pay more money to use what's already on the disc that they've already paid for. I believe abg's point is that if it's on the disc, they should get to use it seeing as they've technically paid for those items. And really, I tend to agree. Can you imagine having to pay to "unlock" the BFG 9000 in Doom, even though the data for it would already on the floppy disk? Sure, you can beat the game without it, but considering that it would already be there, why should you have to fork out even more dough to use it? When you get content that's done, implemented, and then locked out so the game maker can try to get more cash from their customers under the guise of DLC, it's just chintzy. If I buy the full version of a game, but I can only use a percentage of it, that raises a red flag in my mind. It tells me something might not be kosher. And having to pay again in order to use the rest of what I already paid for once, brings up a lit technicolor billboard that flashes in random patterns and colors "Fuck you and your game". Even if the reason you gave for it being done that way makes sense zircon, that doesn't diminish the "this is bullshit"-feeling some people get when things like this are done by game companies.

Sounds like the GBA has something loose/broken/fried inside it. Get your money back from the seller, and either go to someplace like GameStop or GameCrazy and buy one there (where you can test it firsthand), or just grab a new one.

I'm not a fan of the small "pay to use" DLC that adds little things to already released games. It's too easy to simply hold off on content that would have been included in a given console game in years past, so you can charge for that content shortly after the game's released. I don't find it to be any better on the PC side, as I fail to see a legitimate reason for the charging of content that used to be given freely in patches only a few years ago. An expansion pack is one thing, but charging for new team jerseys, or weapons, or a new plane and such strikes me as a ridiculously cheesy concept. And when you're paying $60+ for a game that has DLC to buy just days or a couple weeks after it's release, it just reeks of a nickle and diming scheme. And that my friends, is bullshit to me. Edit: Clarification.

Indeed it was.

Once more for the hell of it...

The only "save stuff you want" warning thread I remember, was back when a forum purge was coming (I think it was the first purge). It's a fuzzy memory, and I may be thinking of a non-admin/mod made thread that just warned people about an upcoming purge. Either way, I don't recall ever seeing a thread in UnMod or Gen Dis talking about how UnMod was going to be deleted. I know posters were joking about the forum being deleted (I remember someone joking about it just before it actually happened, and that poster saying he honestly wasn't privy to some insider info afterward), and I know mods talked about the forum being turned into a moderated forum. But I have no memories of an admin/mod-made thread in any forum saying "UnMod's going to be deleted. Save your shit." DS- It's been a good while since it all happened, but it's nice to hear that someone who works for the site felt the same way myself and others did about how things were handled back then.

That too. As I mentioned back in the long "What happened to UnMod?" thread, no warning before the deletion came across as disrespectful to some. Not getting a chance to save the threads of interest didn't sit well with others either. These things, on top of the retro bans that were going on, just set some people off. Is this condoning what was done in Gen Dis? No. I'm simply explaining some of the whys and hows of what happened.

I seem to remember djp saying that the forum was going to be turned into a moderated one, not simply deleted out of the blue. THAT is what set people off as I understand it.

Yeah, that pretty much rubbed salt in the wound, which only stirred up more shit. It wasn't exactly a time of well thought out actions on the part of some folks on both sides.

And spamming Gen Dis.

Okay, stop right there. Why would you buy that Dreamcast from your friend? It doesn't have everything you need to play games on it. Actually, let me correct that... IT DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING YOU NEED TO PLAY GAMES ON IT! No cord, no controllers, no A/V cables, no memory cards... in other words, it's a gray, useless box right now. And to top it off, you don't even know if it works. If you're going to buy a Dreamcast, go to eBay, and find one that has all the required equipment it needs. By the time you get done searching for and buying the missing components for the one you mentioned, you'll have spent the same amount you would have on eBay... possibly more. Once that's accomplished, then start looking for games. Speaking of which... AirForce Delta (Flying) Alien Front Online (3D Action) Bangai-O (Shmup) Border Down (Shmup) * Capcom vs SNK (Fighting) Daytona USA (Racing) Dead or Alive 2 (Fighting) Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm (3D Hack 'N Slash) Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves (Fighting) Giga Wing (Shmup) Giga Wing 2 (Shmup) Grandia II (RPG) Gunbird 2 (Shmup) Last Blade 2 (Fighting) Last Hope (Shmup) * Mars Matrix (Shmup) Marvel vs Capcom (Fighting) Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Fighting) MDK 2 (3D Action) Metropolis Street Racer (Racing) Red Dog (3D Action) Resident Evil 2 (Survival Horror) Resident Evil 3 (Survival Horror) Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Survival Horror) Skies of Arcadia (RPG) Soul Calibur (Fighting) Street Fighter III: Double Impact (Fighting Compilation) Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Fighting) Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Fighting) Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage (3D Hack 'N Slash) Test Drive Le Mans (Racing) Test Drive: V-Rally (Racing) Under Defeat (Shmup) * Wild Metal (3D Action) Zero Gunner II (Shmup) * *= Japanese import Anyway, those are my thoughts (and recommendations) on it.

And of course, the worst offender is...

I wonder if they mean "customer education process", in the same way Ike Turner meant "educating Tina".

And with my birthday now over and done with, I just wanted to say thanks again for the nice comments from everyone who posted in here. Much love OCR. **thumps heart** Peace out yo... or however the hell that goes.