, at
9:30 AM
Woo, a LOST reference! I love that show.
By , at
9:30 AM
um, what's 'lost'? i've heard about it, but i've never seen it. i probably wont get back to this, by the way, so consider my question a conversation starter, if the need arises.
By , at
1:39 PM
Lost is when you can not find your way. It generally happens when exploring new areas unfaliar to oneself. Though it is also a show on one of the major TV networks. (I know not which) The show consists of a group of overly interesting people who fave all gotten on a plane in australia and crash landed on an island. (thus the "LOST" part; This may also bring down the use of airtravel in australia. Conspiracy perhaps? probly not) Anyways they now are trying to find out where they are and find means of getting rescued. Along the way dealing with the problems that brought them to australia and thus onto the plane in the first place. I have heard the whole island may be a purgatory type thing where these people have to all identify and deal with said problems in order to get off the island. A mythical and somewhat omnipotent island? We shal see in episodes to come. In my opinion the show is well made and quite entertaining. (I am in no way affiliated with the show this is my personal opinion) I hope this cleared things up as well as sparked some intrest in the series.
By , at
10:55 PM
So, basically, it's Gilligan's Island with a lot of soul-searching, psycho-babble thrown in? Or a survivor clone actually admitting its fallacy? I'll tune in when they start eating one another, thank-you. I've never seen it, and I'll choose not to because it's clearly been done before. Do yourself a favor and just read 'Lord of the Flies' instead.
By , at
6:24 AM
Naw. Lord of the Flies I've read. I'd rather watch Lost. It's good writing, even if it's not the most original work out there. The characters are interesting, the weirdness that's going on on the island is just rife with "WTF?" moments (A polar bear in the jungle?) and they pack a fair amount of work into each episode. It's in no way Gilligan's island aside from being about people stuck on an island, and it's not Survivor. As for them eating each other, they did wind up torturing one of their own a couple weeks ago. How's that?
By , at
7:18 AM
Hmm... I now find myself slightly intrigued. I am a firm believer that if torture became an acceptable part of the criminal justice system, you'd see those crime rates plummet pretty damn quick. Plus I'm a sick, twisted little cruller...but no, until they start roasting one another over the fire, I still won't watch this illegitimate bastard son of 'Survivor' and 'The Twilight Zone'.
By , at
8:40 AM
fun how everybody's anonymous. It's like one person talking to himself/herself.
Survivor sucks, and calling a scripted show 'reality television' is bullshit. Wrestling isn't real, is it? Lost...not so much. At least it's moderately entertaining and gives me another reason to have more than basic cable other than just to get a discount on my internet connection.
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me or television producers.
- Infamous 370
By , at
8:24 AM
Is the the show with the Hobbit in it? I'll watch it if he sings that To the West or whatever song it was... Oscar for my best original song my ass...
-Gabe
By , at
7:37 PM
wow, i DID start something. And i AM a little intrigued...
...Wait, i caught a glimpse of a bug splattering against a car windsheild, and i find that more interesting.
*eats survivor winners*
By , at
10:10 AM
There's an idea for an immunity challenge, or the next episode of fear factor...
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me.
- Infamous 370
By , at
10:18 AM
There's also a reference to a video game in there as well. How about that? It's also nice that MGS3:SE is a tactical espionage-type game without Tom Clancy's name all over it. Yah for diversity and competition in the video game industry!
Seriously, there's not much going on in politics other than the recent game of musical chairs in the whitehouse. So, rather than stay bored out of our heads, how about trying some serious discussion on video games and other related topics? Now, let's try to keep the 'duh! huh! huh! (insert platform/game/third party developer name here) sucks!'-type comments to a minimum and try to be mostly serious, okay?
I know that video games don't really matter much on a global scale, but they are supposed to be a part of the comic aren't they? Plus the holidays are coming up and I'm sure that anyone who plays them on a semi-regular basis will be getting at least one or two as gifts.
Suggested topics of discussion?
- What games are you afraid of getting instead of the ones you want?
- Any outrage over the 'stereotypes' in GTA:SA?
- What games do you intend to give as gifts?
- New games this year that should have never happened?
- Should you have to present an I.D to rent a 'Teen' or 'Mature' rated game?
Again, I know that video games are not that important. I'm just trying to stimulate a discussion on something that is supposed to be a part of the comic but is rarely discussed on these message boards. Let's ahve some fun, because it's been dead around here for the last few days...
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me, and certainly not guys with names like 'Tenpenny'.
- Infamous 370
By , at
11:27 AM
So hrmn. Owen's art is usually quite schwanky, but today's first panel hurts.
By 
Kinneas - Your Friendly Reality Check, at
2:36 PM
There's a comic here now?
By , at
7:35 PM
Why is it that whenever Bush says the word 'terror', gas prices go up?
By , at
4:13 PM
I love Soul Calibur 2 for the Xbox. I hear it's not as good on the PS2 (which is an inferior system... better games though). Anyway, I've been trying to steal a copy of Fable (anyone played that? is it any good?) and X-Men Lengends. Also, KOTOR 2 is coming out (or is out, i don't know), I wonder if that will be good.
-Gabe
By , at
7:38 PM
Soul Calibur is cool, and having three different characters on three different consoles is not only a great idea, but shows they give a half damn about the customer. Same with GTA:SA, there's so much packed into it, not just the infamous (unintended pun) gameplay and criminal themes, but all of the hidden references from all aspects of pop-culture.
There's more to great games or systems than just graphical prowess. The PS2 is just harder to squeeze the great graphics out of, though not impossible. It also forces any serious game developers to focus more on story and gameplay when developing for the PS2, which is the way it should be approached anyway, with graphics being a distant third. Oh, and incidentally, BOX and CUBE? Who ripped who off there?
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me.
- Infamous 370
By , at
7:38 AM
I love the X-BOX, it saves you the trouble of having to buy a coffee table...
By , at
5:11 AM
Well, Nintendo, but Nintendo is famous for stuff like that vaporwaring... vaporware put Sega out of buisness, that and Microsoft pulling their support from the Dreamcast... yeah, probably more that. The Dreamcast 2 would be out by now if Sega hadn't stopped making consoles... and it would kick some serious ass, but noone would but it, because Nintendo and Sony would say that the PS3 and the Nintendo super-cube are coming out in mere seconds ofter the Dreamcast 2... Whores.
By , at
5:57 AM
No, the original Playstation put Sega out of the console making business and forced them to become a third party developper. I also find it funny that you call Nintendo and Sony whores when Sega sold its soul to Microsoft... The sour deal with Microsoft would not have made a difference anyway. M$ got out of what they could see was an investement with very little promise of return, a longshot. In fact, the 32-bit PS was what killed the 128-bit DC before the PS2, Gamecube and X-BOX ever hit the shelves. Simply put, as with the Sonic series, Sega thought speed would guarantee them success, but we know now that haste makes waste doesn't it? They didn't take their time developing the DC and pushed it out long before anyone else had their 4th generation console ready.
I bought a PS2 because I got a Playstation, a CD player, a DVD player, and a whole new console all in one box, and because I'm not a stupid graphics whore. On that note, I'll support Sega as they exsist now by buying their unrivaled sports games and the Sonic Mega Collection. Mmm...nostalgia...
By , at
8:55 AM
You got it all wrong, dude. The Dreamcast is almost at par with the Gamecube. The Playstation is a giant pile of shit in comparison and the Dreamcast had the largest sales launch in gaming history.
What killed it was the same thing that killed the Saturn, vaporware. Nintendo vaporwared a Nintendo-CD that made people loose interest in the Saturn (I these grounds you may be right that the PS destroyed the Saturn, but not the Dreamcast.)
The Dreamcast is a solid system and the PS2 is a shitty dvd player that would barely be able to run the original Soul Calibur. As for Sega selling its soul to Microsoft, Microsoft was part of the Dreamcast, yes, but so were a lot of other companies. Rendition made the 3d-acellerator and I think Rockwell made the modem. Anyway, what I'm saying is that the Dreamcast would have done better if Sony and Nintendo hadn't lied about when they were going to release the PS2 and further more released it before they had enough stock to meet demand (the was the whole purpose of the premature Christmas launch, not to sell units they didn't have, but to keep people from buying the Dreamcast.)
In any event, the PS2 is a pile of garbage from a technical standpoint and it's hard to deny that. All areas of it are inferior and it's too bad developers aren't making better games for the X-box and Game Cube. I mean, you're obviously getting a better piece of electronics when Microsoft looses about 100$ on every X-box sold.
But, yeah, vaporware at least contributed to the fall of Sega as a console maker.
By , at
4:15 AM
A pile of garbage? Then how sad is it that it's top of the heap?
By , at
7:21 AM
What is vaporware? Can you eat it?
Seriously, stop bashing other game systems. I've got my own reasons for liking each one and my own problems with each one and their parent companies, but I don't bash at inanimate objects or people who buy them.
The Dreamcast failed due to marketing, pure and simple. Sega decided to go for broke with the DC, but the competition marketed their products better. So Sega had to call it quits as a console maker and eat their losses. Also, I believe that many developers fall into the trap of making prettier, not better, games for the cube and the box because it's laughably easy to squeeze high resolution graphics out of both machines. I've looked at the specs for the DC, and there was no reason that it could not have competed with the others, but even a great product will fail if not marketed properly.
I like the concept behind the PS2, not exclusively a gaming system, but a sort of home entertainment system. Four machines in one if you think about it, very cost-effective and economical, the competition should take note. I hope to see this strategy improved upon and implimented by all console makers when the fifth generation systems finally arrive. Backwards compatibility would be cool for all of them, too.
As for the ill-fated Saturn, I'm currently tring to secure a Japanese one so that my girlfriend can play imported dating sims where all of the characters look like women regardless of gender. I guess what you buy also depends on what you're looking for...
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me, or non-gender specific game characters.
- Infamous 370
By , at
8:20 AM
What is vaporware? Can you smoke it?
By , at
8:21 AM
Anyone watch the Video Game Awards on Spike last night? Notice how San Andreas won even though it probably had the least impressive graphics out of all five 'game of the year' nominees? Take note developers - content, gameplay and storyline makes a great game, not pretty graphics.
By , at
5:45 AM
Yeah, dude, if you have to resort to buying a PS2 to play a game you like, then yeah, it's ok to own. Yes, it is sad that it's on the top of the heap, because it's inferior as a piece of hardware. The DVD player on it is strait up crass. It won't work for certain dvds and it's also not meant to be used that way either.
Better marketing, if you mean knowingly lying about release dates and availibility, then yes, I agree.
I don't have a problem with Sony (sony ericsson phones are nice), but the ps2 is the worse system for sale right now from a quality and technical standpoint. The Xbox is starting to get some better games now too.
By , at
7:38 AM
Can you mod a PS2 into a regionless DVD player right after purchasing it? I moded my X-box for 50,000 won (about 45 dollars) and it plays all regions of dvds (a regionless dvd player normally costs more than 200...), all regions for games, i can copy games to the hardrive, i can copy movies the hardrive, it plays mp3s,avis,jpegs, mpegs, and svcds. There's no other product that you can buy that does all of that in one package (other than a computer) and it only cost 200$ and waiting five minutes at a computer shop. It's worth buying an Xbox just for that, because a modded Xbox really is the only thing you need for home entertainment other than a TV and good speakers (It'd be cool if you could mod it to do TiVo, but that might be asking too much, has anyone heard if you can do that?). It I wanted to drop another 100,000 won I could put a 120 gig hard-drive in it. What does the PS2 offer? A hard-drive... finally, piss-poor DvD playback (seriously, you could buy a better one for 30$ and you'd have a remote too). All the PS2's got going for it is their exclusive developers and the Japanesse snob factor.
By , at
7:49 AM
Quick on the Dreamcast. Sony didn't market better, they lied. They lied about their stock and they lied about release dates.
The only reason to own a PS2 is if you really have to play some of the games that are only offered on the PS2 and Japanesse snobery.
The Xbox does so much more. Buying it strait up, you get and mp3 player, and a much better DVD player (yeah, you have to buy a remote)and the game player and you don't have to buy a game to get the hardrive (and the hard-drive is better in an Xbox). If you spend around 50 bucks someone will put a mod-chip in an X-box that let's you play games from any region, watch movies from any region and read, mpegs, jpegs, avis, and svcds. You can also copy games and movies to the hardrive. For another 100 dollars or so, you can put a 120 gig hard-drive in. An X-box with a mod-chip is the best piece of consumer electronics availible now. It does pretty much everything.
By , at
7:56 PM
whoops, sorry, to repost that. my browser must have not refreshed it right.
By , at
7:58 PM
Meh, I'm not going to quibble over the morals or practices of a big corporation like Sony. Just like any other company, their going to do their absolute best to sell their products. Just as long as they deliever the quality titles more or less on time, I'm willing to ignore a little incompetence and deception.
PS2's hardware may be somewhat inferior to the competition, but its software lineup is by far the largest and most varied and comprises about half of the best games released every year. Sure, it has its problems, but the best hardware in the world means nothing if you can't crank out as many great games as the competition.
That's just my view on it anyway, different opinions are welcome.
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me, and just not next month's new Gameboy.
- Infamous 370
By , at
10:25 AM
I get great games for the PS2, you get great games for the X-BOX. I get more games for the PS2, you get prettier games for the X-BOX. I pay around $100 for new games, you pay around 100$ for a hard drive and another 5$ to rent the game and store it on the hard drive. As long as both companies are competing for our dollar, we'll each get a great quality product. Who cares about anything else?
As for snobbery, isn't buying all of this expensive software and calling it better and resorting to insults sometimes typical of snobby people?
By , at
11:18 AM
My shelving unit can hold way more games than any hard drive, and I don't have to delete any of them when I want new ones!
By , at
6:32 PM
Live in your world, play on the internet.
By , at
6:32 PM
A mod-chip isn't expensive and it's not software. Yes, I can put games I copy to the hard-drive on my shelf too (I'm not sure why you'd need to add unit to that), but I can also copy games that I don't buy and I can still just put a game dvd in and play it like that. This shelving unit you speak of (are you talking about a shelf or a disc changer, either way, it probably cost more than a mod-chip.)
I'm not personally attacking PS2 owners, but the PS2 is more that slightly inferior to the Xbox's hardware and in terms of what you can do with it. (Example the Xbox's main processor clocks at 733mhz while PS2 clocks at 300. This means that more power can be used for things other than graphics (AI and network processing to name a few.) Why do you think Xbox Live works?
I suppose I just bring up Sony and Nintendo's vaporware tatics because a lot of people just hate Microsoft and think that Bill Gates in the anti-christ, but really no one gives a shit about fair play.
By , at
6:25 AM
I haven't bought the hard-drive either and I can still copy games if I care too, I can only hold about 3 or 4 with the hard-drive that comes with the X-box though. Games don't cost 5 dollars to rent either.
By , at
4:51 AM
The closest store that rents video games where I live is about an hour away. I shit you not. They cost four dollars to rent, and even then, you have to present TWO forms of I.D and they're not always gauranteed to have everything. Nothing is more frustrating for me to drive all that way only to find that the game I called to see that it was available has gone out while I was en route. If I had the money for all that extra X-BOX swag, and a DVD burner, I'd rather spend it putting a down payment on a house closer to a place where I could rent them.
Bill Gates is not the Anti-Christ. That would imply that he is somehow cool. My money says that he has an inferiority complex. I used to think that once he found a way to break into the videogame market that the competition would vanish in mere months. Yet even with all of the superior hardware that the X-BOX posessed, Sony still continued to roll on despite competition from Microsoft. Even Nintendo, currently secure in their quiet little corner of the market, seems unphased by the new arrival. Probably because X-BOX has vey few high-profile, exclusive titles geared towards six to twelve year-olds, and have yet to say anything about a possible portable system. If anyone remembers any differently, please tell me.
X-BOX has the most power and X-BOX LIVE, Playstation has a larger game library geared towards all age groups, and Nintendo practically has a monopoly on the most popular kids games and is the only true multi-player system.(Four controller ports, expensive, but effective).
Things that need to change? A better balance of games on the X-BOX would be nice, as would a smaller, leaner incarnation when the time comes. A long overdue evolution of the Final Fantasy series for the PS2 before the next generation could achieve coolness, as well as competitive hardware. Nintendo, just have the regular sized CD's next time around, would you? Maybe then you'll start to convert a few X-BOX and PS2 purists. In the meantime, as long as they're working with Squaresoft again, how about another Super Mario RPG?
Always assume nothing.
Always question everything.
Always believe in something,
just not me, or FF12.
- Infamous 370
By , at
7:07 AM
Right, I agree. The extra X-Box swag is reasonably priced though (50 bucks for like all of it).
Anyway, yeah, there aren't a lot of games for the youngins' on the X-box (fusion frezy is a lot of fun though.) I think X-box maybe made a mistake when they seemed to set their target market towards PC gamers. As a side note, the X-box is the best choice for former or current PC gamers who aren't 12.
But, if you're not 12, Microsoft's poor marketing doesn't mean it's not any less of a good choice for someone who doesn't want to play Captain Gloom Invades Sugarland, Oh No!
Anyway, copying games to the hard-drive is more than just for stealing games. It means you don't have to get off your ass to change games and it decreases load times.
By , at
4:54 AM
Hopefully Sony and Nintendo will take note when developing their new systems. It would be a mistake not to take advantage, just as Microsoft should learn from anything unique that its competition brings to the table. Whatever, though, as long as they're in competition, we'll get the great games and they'll have to keep working to make them better.
- Infamous 370
By , at
8:12 AM
Right, that's the best part. Sony and Microsoft are so huge that no one will buy them out... I could see Nintendo being bought out though..
So, we'll pretty much have a competative market for years to come.
By , at
2:20 AM
Of course those loyal exclusively to either one will be trading verbal blows online until the end of the internet...
- Infamous 370
By , at
7:41 PM
Na, I don't care I guess. If I liked console video games more, I'd probably buy a PS2, but I like basically one game (Soul Calibur) and all the other stuff you can do with an X-box.
Anyway, props to the comic mentioning "Action", it's on TV here in Korea and it's funny as fuck. Only 13 episodes though.
By , at
5:13 AM
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