bishopcruz

you guys gotta read more than just USM. Osborn wasnt really supposed to be Spidey's Joker: half of what was interesting about him was him weaving in & out of Parker's life, as and not. as Pete, Osborn loved and admired him (more than he did his own son), as spidey, he scapegoated him for any failures he had. it was the fun kind of tension the book had for years, and a twisted take on this formula is where i came in as a kid, with Eddie Brock visiting Aunt May just to show Pete how close he could hit to home. There's that classic panel of Pete in the doorway, Aunt may talking up her new friend, and Brock at the table, with just his arm and head symbiote'd out for the moment, smiling & waving. great shit.

 

but yeah, Osborn is about control, not so much chaos. Control of his corporation, his son, and his enemies. his current standing in the Marvel U is all about this.

i know baytor went on a weird tangent with movie-bats, but this is why Freeze is left off of my list. pointing at the animated doesnt work for these purposes, and i cant name a noteworthy Freeze tale i read outside of Gotham Central.

had to.

Yeah yeah.

I dunno, I've seen GG referred to as Spidey's Joker for a long time now, and considering that when I was actually reading spiderman in the late 80s- early 90s Osborn was dead as a doornail, so I never read the ones of which you speak. In the movie, animated series, and later comics I had read (arguably random samplings) they tried to play up his insanity more, and he came off often as a poor man's Joker. I'm game to read more stories that touch on the themes you mentioned, but the last memory of him, well formative one anyway was the end of the Clone Saga, and the less said about it, the better. Later stuff has been good, loved him in Pulse and some other stuff.

As for Freeze, well his design (by Mike Mignola) and story were so damned good in the animated series, he was brought back into the comics in that form. The Dini written book that reintroduced him was great, and I remember some pretty good stuff with him here and there, though actual issues elude me at the moment.

You always discount the animated series when it comes to the comics, but that is a bit of a mistake. Unlike the Marvel toons of the time, which I also loved, BTAS did more than just retell comic arcs, it redefined characters in ways that stuck, and these changes followed through to the comics. Montoya basically got her start in the animated series, as did Harley. Poison Ivy hadn't been seen in a while before TAS, either. These stories aren't in the comic, but they are a huge influence on the Batman mythos, and there is no real set canon for DC in either case.

Also to be clear, I don't dislike the Spidey villains, it's just that I find the tragic, or broken villain an incredibly effective and gripping character type, and Batman has no shortage of them.

It's also difference in tone, Spidey has generally been a brighter, more lighthearted book, even when it goes dark, wherin Batman is barely if ever bright.

As for Spidey villains, the best to me are HarryGG and Venom, never could take a shine at all to DocOck, and most of the rest (Electro, Mysterio, Vulture, Rhino, Scorpion) never made me care much about them.

And Bish, your example that Batman's villains are all cautionary straw-men does nothing to wow me.

This coming from the man who said with a straight face that "[Green Goblin]'s done more things to ruin Spider-Man's life alone than the Joker has done to ruin Gotham City"? Somehow I'm not surprised. Also you shat on Two-Face, let me tell you how much your opinions have ceased to matter.

PS2 depends on the game, and is pretty CPU limited, I think you need at least a 3gHZ+ dual core, and even then it isn't guaranteed at high rez. As for Wii, no fucking clue.

Baytor, please get help, there are several clinics that can assist you in overcoming your obvious crack addiction.

What it comes down to is this. It isn't menace, it isn't power, it's about the character. What makes these villains who they are? Nick hit it right in the first post in that what makes the Batman villains so damned compelling is the psychosis that drives them.

Joker is the ultimate expression of chaos. Life, at least in his view shat on him at one point, and realizing this, he wants everyone to be like him. In his mind, the only rational response to the world is to go insane. There is no order, and destroying the false constructs that keep us from just shooting somebody on the side of the road, that is his goal in life. It's a damn compelling villain.

Green Goblin is good, but he always felt like a bit of a poor man's Joker. Osborne may have fame, money, and power, but he has a secret identity (or did for a long time), he uses those for personal, selfish gain. He is out, before anything else, for himself. At the height of his insanity, he never seemed to have the sheer manic malice that Joker does. He also has a survival instinct. Just not that frightening.

As for the others, I'm amazed that no one has mentioned Mr. Freeze. Arnie aside, the reboot the animated series gave his character was amazing. He moved away from being a 3rd rate joke, to one of the most tragic figures in the Batman mythos. The way they tied in his inability to ever feel warmth, and tied it into his inability to emotionally do the same was brilliant. He is cut off from the world both physically, and emotionally. He really isn't used enough.

The others are great as well. Ivy is a mirror of well meaning ideology taken too far. Ra's is an example of a failed Philosopher King. Scarecrow is about manipulation through fear. Man-Bat, well meaning science gone wrong. Two-Face, the dangers of black and white morality.

All of these characters work on a metaphorical level, as well as a visceral one. But more than that, the great stories with them let you understand WHY they o what they do, you connect with the villains, as evil as they are, and realize they do what they do, because their mind can't let them do anything else. They are scarred, broken on a level I rarely see when looking at other villains. It is never JUST about money and power, those are just means to a greater end.

I just don't get the same feel from the spidey villains. They all have some great moments, but I just never really felt connected to THEM.

And that is why, as fun as some of the Spidey villains are, they just don't hold up to the Rogue's Gallery of Batman. But it just isn't even close to a fair comparison, no other superhero can compete.

Gotta get the rest of this, got the 1st half cheap as fuck at tates, will get others as I can. Omnibus is just too damn expensive. However, let's get back on on how goddamned awesome this series was. It really is my favorite thing to come out of the Max line, and probably the best new character that came out of Marvel in the last decade or so.

I am so hot for Jessiva Jones.

If you want me to do it at hondo's con, np, it doesn't take too long, you'll just owe me a beer or something. Just so you know a VERY small number of 2000s can't be modded AFAIK.

I love Palladium. I readily admit that the game system is broken, but the ideas that were contained in those books were downright awesome. Also, Rifts was the first real RPG I actually played. It is an exercise that serves in demonstrate why game ballance is important, however.

Palladium was my first system too, and man did it ever suck. Now I loved it at the time, but man oh man, those rules were atrocious. TMNT and Other Strangemess got me started on RPGing, and wow that system was broken as hell, but it got worse. I loved Robotech too, but the additions to rules, equipment, and retooling that I had to do to make the game remotely playable was pretty hellish. Don't get me started on SDC, HP, and MDC.

What really gets me is that they haven't changed or updated the rules in like 20 years. Robotech is the same damn game it always was, unwieldy and hellish. RIFTS had awesome art though, though it bit off of Shadowrun and 40k in equal measure.

I'll judge the gameplay of 4e after I have played with it a bit I suppose, one thing I do hate is the new alignment system, the Gods suck, and the lore seems kinda crappy in base. I know that I'll have to retool the system no matter what campaign setting I run, but yeesh, they killed all the cool stuff about the planes, the devils and demons, and a buncha other stuff. Also Bahamut and Tiamat in core DnD? Guh, gives me bad memories of Dragonlance.

Ok, I finally arrive, took me a while to post because I think I might have had complete mental aphasia in regards to this thread when I read that spycer actually preferred D&D 2nd ed. Holy christ on a crutch that hurts my head. Look I respect the roots of the genre, but that's like saying that the Palladium ruleset is great and awesome, something that opinions be damned, is wrong on every conceivable level.

As far as getting a game going, putzing around with a few ideas, and honestly not all that into a Superhero game, dunno never had much fun with those, as they tend to break, and break fast. As far as DnD, besides Wizards breaking my heart in STILL not bringing back Planescape (hope still remains for 2011) it is still my favorite setting, and is damn rife with cool ass ideas. Still, I'd like to try to figure out a time, and who is in, what their preferences are, and all of that jazz, to see what I would pick, and such. Will be poring over the 4th ed stuff, and seeing where it goes.

I know one complaint about 4th ed was that while characters feel powerful at lower levels, you don't get much more powerful at higher levels, and can never really do all that much damage to creatures and the like even at lvl 30. I know this gets rid of the 1 hit kill problems that can happen in 3 and 3.5, but for those who have done 4e, what is your response?

Saw that thing, looks pretty cool, but my PSP more or less serves that purpose.

This also doesn't preclude MS from dropping the price on the Arcade this year if need be either. Sony will be getting a decent sized boost on the Slim however, and God knows they need it.

I might send it to skeet and see if he explodes and then get him to pass it on.

 

I really didn't like it, and i played it for the guts of 4 hours last night, and not once did i think, this is good value for money.

And one day... the only answer to this game might be to throw yourself into the sea...

ARE YOU FOR REALZ OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!! <3

 

Sadness :(

Wow, unleashing this on people who have not been exposed to the meme is mean.

Good show.

I personally can't wait for Panzer Dragoon Legend, the long awaited sequel to Saga. Shining to the New Frontier should be great too.

God, this is going to potentially make me do an angry.

???

Game sounds cool, though CG trailers never make me all that excited.

Glad you liked it. Grim Fandango is just so damned unique and great that it is a shame that it didn't to better than it did. One of the best adventure games of all time IMO, and it really felt like a journey once all was said and done. Damn impressive. I'm kinda surprised it never got at least a PS1 port though, I think it could have done well.

Finally played the bitch though. good on you. And yeah, year 2 was the best.

Quick list of games I own but did not finsih:

Phantasy Star Online

Lost Odyssey

Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter

Lost Planet

The Simpsons

Last Remnant

Operation Darkness

Project Sylpheed

Forza 2

Guitar Hero 3

Tomb Raider: Legend

Blue Dragon

Sneak King

N3

PGR3

PGR4

Condemned 2

PS2

FFX2

ICO

Katamari

Xenosaga II

Amplitude

Shadow of the Collosus

Black

Yakuza

THUG

Persona 4

Suikoden 5

Okami

Wii

Zelda

Metroid Prime 3

SSB Brawl

GCN

Skies of Arcadia

Metroid Prime

More to come...

PS3

Valkyria

Resistance 2

Infamous

Also, to be fair quite a few of the PS2/3/GCN ones are owned by gusmithx, but they are in the collection anyhow.

eh, you know - he's just kinda in the early stages of an internet "japanese dont know what to do with black characters, so make them old and rough and comedic", he's-the-new-barret thing. its mostly GAF, not a huge cry of racism so much as looking like a bland character, but hey, i hope it turns out that he's more dynamic than his look so far.

 

i gotta get with my friend will and see if its my turn to try out his japanese FF VIII demo; should be fun looking at pretty pictures and mashing buttons and hoping for the best.

But isn't giant afro-man an actual regression from mister T? It's going from the early 80-s to the mid 70's. If this trend continues there might be hope though, maybe basing some FF characters on Jazz legends or something. Of course, we'll likely just get blackface.

STILL wish this was more like 12 in look and design, at least design, but we will see.

Lead's going down, ah well, been playing a bunch more PC games, and not many have achievements. Then again, if I'd played Avatar, College Hoops, and TMNT I'd have 3,000 more points, so I don't really feel that bad.

Dawn of War II is hella fun BTW, like a real time tactics, and no, don't think its coming to 360. Also it's like the only exclusive PC game with achievements I think, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Not to mention, I won't be getting shit for achievements this year with Dragon Age, while you 360 kids will, fine trade off for the modability IMO, bit still.

Hell, I beat the first 2 in emulation and I still haven't finished Nocturne either. Still, awesome series, and just so you know there was a fan Patch for Persona 2: Innocent Sin a few months back. Pretty sweet too.

About 100 years old in internet time, but still kinda fun.

In honor of the release of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Tales of Monkey Island I give you one of the greatest themes of all time, it's catchy, all too catchy.

and one of my personal favorites from the game:

and not enough Phantasy Star in this thread, we'll go with Phantasy Star 2, such a unique sounding OST, which is pretty rare for a JRPG, the sound programming was amazing giving it a futuristic alien tone. Really nothing like it on Genesis:

Rise and Fall:

Mystery:

Silent Zone:

and remixes:

Dungeon Melody from Phantasy Star 1:

Rise and Triumph (PS2):

PS2 is prolly one of the best RPGs of that generation, especially considering that the damn thing came out in nineteen-eighty-fucking-nine, the storyline was so amazing, especially when you consider a) how dark it was, and b) how little it used cut scenes, or even major story scenes. The whole idea of what was basically a utopia turning into shit, and it's inhabitants being for the most part unable to even imagine what was happening was IMO, revolutionary for the time. It's just a shame that a LOT of that got lost in translation, because, we did get a pretty shitty one. There was a patch ages back that was a retranslation, it came out to little fanfare, but was great. That, and hey, the original character names.

Gameplay amazed me because you had a constantly customizable party in which you could bring different people along for different missions. Yeah, it was easy to do the default group of Eusis, Rudger, Amia, and Anne, but I was blown away when I realized how much easier fighting mechs was when you had Kain in your party, ditto with Huey and tough biomonsters. Nothing prepared me for the fact that Shir didn't actually suck however. Or at least that much. Yeah she was a pain to take onto Dezo where she might steal anything and you'd have to hike back to Paseo to get her back, BUT the fact that leveled she went before just about any monster made her damn useful as a spare healer if she was decked out with good items.

Not something I'd recommend on a first playthrough, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Best music in the series too.

Also, I'm sorry but it takes balls to end the game by

I agree with just about everything said about 4 as well, though the name changes in that one bothered me much, much more. I have no idea why they changed 'Lyla' to 'Alys' or 'Rudy' to 'Chaz' those changes were pointless at best, and deceiving at worst (I know a lot of people thought that Alys was supposed to be somehow related to Alis in the first game because of that.) I can understand a few of the others Thray to Rune, Forren486 to Wren, for example are at least a result of character limitations, but SO DAMN MANY others were changed for no reason, it kinda blows. Then again this is nothing new for the series either, it changed Lutz to Noah in the first game, and thus completely ruined one of the most badass scenes of PS2. Don't even get me started on three.

What really does impress me everytime I think back to this series is just how consistently ahead of its time it was. The original Phantasy Star came out 2 days after Final Fantasy, and 2 months before Dragon Quest 3, games that it pretty much shits all over in terms of story and graphics. Phantasy Star 2 came out before Dragon Quest 4 and FFIII, and while comparing graphics wouldn't be fair, gameplay and story were in another league. PS3, the red headed stepchild of the franchise did multi generational storytelling a full two years before Dragon Quest 5, and finally, there were a myriad of CD-ROM games that couldn't tell their stories cinematically as well as PSIV did, hell, the only one that supassed it that gen was Lunar 2.

Honestly anyone who likes JRPGs should really play these games, and not just because they were ahead of their time, but because they were some of the best, if most overlooked, RPGs of their time.

And hell, Eusis is still one of my favorite RPG mains.

I know that just about everyone here loves Marvel more than DC, and let's be honest, they have had good reason to in recent years, where the good stuff that DC has put out has been either in the secondary titles or Green Lantern. Morrison's run on Batman has gotten mixed reviews, and while RIP did work out in the end, it was still a bit hard to get into.

I have been a fan of Batman since my 10 year old self first saw the Burton film in 1989, that love was cemented by the animated series, which is still the best animated series ever produced by a western studio. As far as the comics were concerned, Batman has often been hit or miss, but has still produced some of the best stories of all time, I mean it's easy to point at classics like DKR and Year One, and hell even Long Halloween was over a decade ago. In recent years the books have been without much direction, and while Detective Comics, written by Dini has been almost nonstop win, most of the other side books haven't.

Well, now Bruce is dead(ish), and Dick Grayson is the one in the cowl, against his better judgement. Bruce's annoying Mordred-y son Damian is the new Robin, and Tim Drake is on his own. And, oddly enough, this was the jolt that the series needed, at least for a while to really get things running again.

Basically after the mediocre Battle for the Cowl (which can more or less be skipped,) DC brought most of its best writers in to handle all the books in the bat-line, and started a bunch of new books. I'm as shocked as anyone that they are mostly amazing, with the worst one of the group being merely 'good'. Haven't been this psyched for the bat books in years.

The new line up is:

Batman and Robin: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely - Odd. At least that was my impression of the first issue, having read the second, I'm now on board. I think it's when I realized that Morrison is going more for the feel of All-Star Superman than his previous run on Batman. The character moments have been great, the villain is pretty damn creepy, and it's making for a good introductory arc.

Batman: Judd Winick is on this one, and wow, the first issue of the new run 687 was one of the more emotional ones I've seen in a while. This one, honestly deals with Dick taking the cowl much, much better than Battle for the Cowl ever did, and it has some of the most powerful scenes I've seen in a batman book for quite some time. Winick also gets Dick Grayson very well, and it shows.

Detective Comics: Greg Rucka works with JH Williams III - I was psyched about this one because Rucka is one of my favorite writers at DC, especially when he's working on Batman stuff. What's interesting here is that they gave the 2nd main traditional Bat-book to cover Batwoman. She was introduced like 3 years back and has damn little to do ever since, outside of being an on-again, off-again love interest for the Question (who is the focus of the backup story). Winnick's art is beautiful, and as an introduction to the character it is pretty flawless. The overall story works too, and the dialog and pacing are pure win. It was ballsy on DCs part to put Batwoman on one of their marquee titles, but it looks to have paid off.

Streets of Gotham: Paul Dini, my current favorite Batman writer helms this one with Dustin Ngyuen on art. Art is great, as it often is with Ngyuen, and Dini is as strong as he always is. The focus in this story is a bit more like the Detective Comics of years past where it not only has the dynamic duo, but the GCPD, and the man on the street. Firefly is a goddamn bastard in this one, and I have high hopes for the rest of this opening arc.

Red Robin: This one follows Tim Drake, on his quest to prove that Bruce isn't actually dead. It seems that having lost so much over the last couple of years of his life has pretty much put him into young Bruce Wayne mode. Bitter, obsessed, and trying to make sense of what he should do next. This works primarily because, well Tim, more than anyone else is Bruce Jr. They've spent years showing us the similarities between Tim and Bruce, and it's definitely showing here. I know that some are pissed that Tim isn't Robin anymore, but I think that the character can have some really interesting stories with this one.

Gotham City Sirens: Dini again, this time with Guillem March. This was probably the weakest of the books, though that could well be from introductory issue syndrome. Getting Catwoman, Ivy, and Harley together on a team takes a little bit of work, and while Dini knows these characters well (hell, he CREATED Harley Quinn, and is responsible for the modern Poison Ivy), it seems that a whole lot of exposition is jammed into this issue. The cliffhanger has me wondering thinking that this book might be darker than I thought it would be though. Still, I'm going to give it one or two issues before passing judgment. Dini has yet to do me wrong in the bat-verse.

So yeah, if you've been away from Batman for a while, now is the time to get back in. These books are better than they have been in years, and they're a great starting point for new readers also. Great, great stuff. I'm not the only one saying it either, the iFanboy crew and Newsarama, among others have been raving about these books, and with good reason.

 

Macross Frontier Opening

 

I will BURN you for putting Seikan no Hikou up there. Vapid as all hell, can't deny that it's catchy, but oy.

Anyhow this thread needs more:

Yoko Kanno, because you can never have enough

Kiseki no Umi, the Opening of Chronicles of the Heroic KNicght, possibly my favorite OP of all time, shame the series didn't look NEAR this good.

Rise - GitS: SAC 2nd GiG - Whether it's a better song than inner universe is debatable, but the animation is so much better than the CG crap from season 1.

Moving on now to more classic shit:

Oh, Gatchaman, Gatchaman!!!!!!!!!!

Cutey Honey:

Kimagure Orange Road OP1: Night of Summer Side

Kimagure Orange Road OP3: Actress in the Mirror

The last one impresses me because of the cool use of images that flow into and out of each other, the direction is pretty impressive.

Dude is my hero. Sad thing is I had most of those. God I loved my power base converter.

I do not say this ironically:

Gun 2 would be AWESOME, so long as they get rid of the crappy boss mechanics. That last boss pissed me off SO MUCH!!

Anyone remember Outlaws the Lucasarts western shooter?