penguindust

My interest in JRPGs have been ignited recently due to some anime I enjoyed and Valkyria Chronicles.  Shamefully, I've never played The World Ends with You, although it's been on my Gamefly queue for months now.  It keeps getting bumped down by other games, most recently, Star Ocean IV. 

Anyway, if you feel the need to jump back onto the JRPGs on DS bus, I highly recommend Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride.   I haven't had this much fun on a handheld in ages.  It was made years ago, but has been nicely refreshed for the DS and since it never made it to the States originally, what's played for the 1st time is as good as new to me.  

I'm not convinced that modern settings are the way of the future for JRPGs.  I'd like to steer out of the fantasy genre as much as anyone, but with titles like White Knight Chronicles, Dragon Quest 9, Suikoden Tierkreis or My World, My Way it seems that's unlikely to change for a while.  Still, FFXIII seems to be situated more in a scifi like world, and I'm not sure where the Blue Dragon or Kingdom Hearts franchises really fall. 

I've had more giddy moments of play with Crackdown than with the GTA or Saint's Row series, and I like both of those, as well.  I'd love a sequel to the original, but RTW didn't expect it to be so successful, so they went on to other projects (APB).  In December, rumors from Videogaming247 reported that there were ongoing discussions between Microsoft and Ruffian Games.  http://www.vg247.com/2008/12/19/exclusive-realtime-worlds-confirms-ongoing-crackdown-2-discussions-with-microsoft/ Ruffian is comprised of the former Crackdown development team.

I have a 30 gig Ipod Video, which is basically the previous generation version of the Ipod Classic and I love it.  Its battery lasts a good long time, the face is scratch resistant, and it fits comfortably into my shirt pocket.  Sure, it's suggested you use Itunes to organize your music, but if you are completely against it, then there are other programs that work with the player.
http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/08/10-alternatives-to-itunes-for-managing-your-ipod/ 
http://ipod.about.com/od/introductiontoitunes/tp/itunes_alterns.htm
http://ipodmanagers.blogspot.com/
As for the earbuds...well, anyone who has any familiarity with Ipod since generation 1 knows that the earbuds suck.  They have always sucked and will likely always be tossed out at the 1st convenient opportunity.  I don't know why this is, but it is what it is.

I think it's great that you are enjoying your new Cowon S9.  I looked it up on Endgaget and they seemed pleased with it, as well.  But, since all I want is a simple mp3 player (originally I had a Rio and hated it so much I returned it), what I have works fine for me and will work until I need a new one a few years down the line. 

Unlike Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, which looks bad no matter how you approach it, this could be enjoyable if you just take it for what it is.  A few months ago I saw The Forbidden Kingdom (Jackie Chan, Jet Li) and liked it.  Originally, upon seeing just the trailer, I thought I would hate it.  "Why'd they have to screw up my Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie with some white boy?" I said at the time.  But, when I actually saw the film, and by then expecting it to suck, I was pleasently surprised.  Oh, it's not great and both stars have done much better work, but for what it was, it was ok enough for me to want to see it again someday.   I had a similar experience with DOA: Dead or Alive [the Movie].  Not great cinema, but it can be fun if you don't go in with any pretenses of what it should be or what to expect.

I'll see this Dragonball movie when it comes out on DVD and rent it from Netflix...now if someone would just get to working on the Sailor Moon movie I was promised a decade ago, I'd be happy. :) 

Attack of the Show and X-Play are the only things worth watching on the entire network these days.  I'm actually a fan of AOTS and enjoy its silly sense of humor mixed with geekdom.  But, what they are experiencing now is nothing new.  Both shows have gone through periods where the number of episodes they produced weekly was lowered.  There was a long period of time where AOTS was on 4 days a week with a "best of" show on Fridays, and X-Play was only airing 2 new shows per week.  I'm sure the network will expand their episode numbers during E3 and then again in the fall as we approach the holiday season.

If they dump AOTS and X-Play, they will turn into SpikeTV which I never watch.  Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode of any show on that network.

I'm going in another direction than what is assumed to be meant by "leader" and place my vote for someone other than those listed. 

I'm going to say Henry Ford is the most influential leader of the past century.  While automobiles existed prior to the formation of the Ford Motor Company, they were affordable only by the rich and took a long time to build.  However Henry Ford utilized the assembly line to mass produce his cars and then priced them so that they were affordable to the average family.  With a car in many families' driveways, the nation as a whole became mobile.  Government projects were introduced to build highways and interstate trade exploded.  Before the affordable automobile, a person could live their whole lives inside of a 30 mile radius, but with mobility, families spread out in pursuit of new opportunities.  The old family structures, which had been unchanged for centuries, changed as each member could live great distances from each other coming together only for holidays or family events.  In time, this effect would expand beyond America to the world. 

Henry Ford's second great innovation, the assembly line, also greatly changed the world.  Being able to mass produce any product reduces its initial cost and extends its post-production lifespan.  Interchangeable parts meant that if an item needed repair, you didn't need to find a specialist to create a new part by hand.  All forms of machinery could be kept working and driving the industrial economy forward.  Although, Ford focused on cars, the process was applied to all sorts of manufactured items.  Refrigerators, radios, airplanes, etc...were made available to the average consumer (airplanes through airlines being able to offer affordable travel) and the standard of living for people increased.  Life got better than it had been for previous generations of people.   The assembly line also changed where people lived.  Mass manufacturing attracted people from the farms to the cities, and the nation became increasingly urbanized.  Again, this effect crossed across the globe and is still occurring now in the 3rd World.

I don't claim that Henry Ford invented either the car or assembly line, however it was his application of them that was imitated by all other forms of business and thus effected all forms of human everyday life.

I think that Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within was a pretty good movie...it just had absolutely nothingto do with Final Fantasy.

Other than that, Mortal Kombat 1, Tomb Raider 1, and the rest are all animes.   Although, I will add that DOA: The Movie is not all that bad, as long as you don't expect it to be anything worthwhile, if that makes any sense.

Meowayne said:

"The machinist is a great adaption of Silent Hill 2. Much more Silent Hill than the Silent Hill movie.

They're still popular in some parts of the world...and I hear they sell hamburgers there, too.

This is the 1st place I've spent any real time at since the G4tv forums way back before the merger with TechTV, back when the whole networks lineup was about gaming. 

What's Street Fighter?