Messages

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General Discussion / Re: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots

« on: August 09, 2008, 10:54:41 pm »

You cannot call a game well-written with one breath then admit it has plot holes with the next.  The two terms are mutually exclusive.

Fortunately the game part of MGS4 survived its hackneyed plot unscathed.  That part was a total blast. 

And if your last comment was supposed to imply that there are plot holes in CT and CC, I'm pretty sure 'Senior Compendium Members' put that argument to bed years ago.

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General Discussion / Re: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots

« on: August 09, 2008, 12:41:33 pm »

I'm not even going to acknowledge your post because half of your arguments are completely wrong.

Allow me.

Alright, let me go ahead and correct you on some parts.

Eva was distraught over the death of big boss who was actually solidus, so why should she have cared

She wasn't aware it was the body of Solidus.

At the end, Big Boss specifically tells you that Eva and Ocelot were the ones responsible for gutting Solidus’ body in order to heal Big Boss.  So she not only knew, but she was in league with Ocelot's true purpose the whole time, thereby negating the entire point of that chapter.  Which is a damn shame because I really liked that chapter.

Naomi is not anything like mgs1 naomi.

That's because everything she did in Shadow Moses was an act, her true intentions centered around avenging Gray Fox.

You have this backwards:  Her intentions in MGS1 was avenging Gary Fox.  She eventually saw the error of her ways.  Her motivation in MGS4 was to fix the mistakes her own actions, including her misguided attempt at revenge, brought about.  Somehow, this was accomplished by acting like Vamps slutty arm candy, having her way with Ottacon, and acting like a mother figure to Sunny for like five minutes before betraying her trust, all while managing to keep the attention of the 14 year olds in the audience with an ample and unnecessary display of cleavage.

The bosses were women who were really good at war because they had bad childhoods and the same phenomenon of them going crazy all happened the same way to all of them

Yeah, SOP and Nanomachines had absolutely nothing do with it. Along with the fact that they were child soldiers, thus giving them battlefield experience; that has absolutely nothing to do with it at all.

Nanomachines explain everything.  That was not a compliment.

big boss is still alive and perfectly healthy even though snake killed him with fire

He was reconstructed with parts of Liquid and Solidus.

In a fictional universe rife with human clones created 30 years before the human genome was cracked, I'm prepared to give this one was pass.

Raiden, who was supposed to live out his life happily, turned into an emo ninja

Considering he thought that his wife fell i love with Colonel Campbell after he left, I don't blame him. And besides, in the end you see him with his wife and son, smiling.

Well, technically she didn’t fall for Cambell.  In any event, Raiden didn’t know that, so I can see why he'd turn all emo as she struggles with that betrayal and the surfacing of his own repressed memories as a child solider.  This also gets a pass.

Psycho mantis came back

That's a disappointment?

When the fourth wall is broken in a way that results in humor while simultaneously adding to the drama of the fiction from which it was spawned (a'la Psycho Mantis in MGS1)it's clever.  When the fourth wall is broken to tell a ten year old joke while simultaneously breaking the entire fucking point behind the B&B's Corp's back story (a'la Psycho Mantis in MGS4), its a disappointment.

Johnny and Meryl . . .

Yeah... I believe that anytime, anywhere, two people can fall in love. Even on the Battlefield, Otacon.

Even Solid Snake dissagrees with you.

I'm actually fine with this.  Even if it was predictable.

One thing though: wasn’t the same Johnny from MGS1?  If so, isn’t he a Genome Solider?  If so, shouldn’t he have already had nanomachinies?  So, why was he immune to the manipulation of the SOP system again?  PLOT HOLE!

Men die when they aren't controlled by nanos because of their own emotions.

Consider this, you've killed hundreds of innocent men on the battlefield, see your closest partners die, see lives being ripped apart, even with your own hands, and your emotions are being suppressed the entire time. Then, out of the blue everything comes surging back at you. How do you think you'd take that?

And by the by, they didn't die, the majory of them just recieved a disorder similar to PTSD.

This was one of the few plot points that actually made sense.

Turns out big bosses whole group of supporters from a mission a long time ago turned out to be the original patriots.

And?

I'm fine with this.  I'm not fine with the current Patriots being fucking AI's.  AI's that were created in the late seventies at the latest, also known as the time before computers had the processing power or memory capacity needed to even begin to approach anything remotely resembling artificial intelligence. Ok, I'm willing to accept that the US was able to clone Big Boss some thirty years before the human genome was cracked. But when I look at the problems that arise when people just try upgrade their operating system or play a new video game on rig that's more than two years old, I find it patently impossible that a computer system created so long ago could even begin to manage all the affairs of the entire world, much less the SOP System.

Tact, I didn't mind snake being old. That was one of the plot points that i thought was interesting. I'm sorry your imagination won't stretch beyond your mindless fandom. I don't think the plot was very well written at all. It's not the classic Kojima mindfuck. It's something that he turned out even though he didn't really feel like it because fanboys like you kept begging. =/

So, what you're saying, is that you didn't like that it was a unique end to the series? It really just sounds like you're pissed that it didn't consist of what you wanted it to, therefore it must be badly written.

All it had to do was make sense.  In that, it failed.

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General Discussion / Re: BRAWL IS OUT!!! Post your Friend Codes inside! Need help? We got that.*Spoilers*

« on: April 09, 2008, 11:24:23 am »

I've come to realize that I may have had an exaggerated opinion of my own Brawl prowess.  Turns out that besting my wife and baby sister on regular basis means nothing once you start to brave the wilds of Nintendo WFC.

Competed in some "with anyone" matches last night and got spanked like a red-headed stepchild.  Someone on there was controlling Mario like he was freakin' Goku or something.  I call him ‘Teacher’ because he took my butt to school, man.  Took down my Zero Suit Samus and Sonic game like I was standing still.  Only barely managed to eke out a closer (but still losing) match as Peach.  If not for the Smash Ball I wouldn't even have that.  Anyone who think this game is nothing more than a button mashing party game does not know what they’re talking about.

Anyway, here's a suggestion:  If any/all of us have a 360 or PS3 and don’t mind burning up some extra electricity, we might be able use either system's chat room functionality to make up for the lack of voice chat on the Wii.  Because trash talking is half the fun, and taunts just don’t cut it.  This idea might also help with facilitating the inevitable Compendium Brawl Tournament.

As for times, I'm a really weird one.  Here goes:

Anytime between 0500-1300 UTC (or GMT if you prefer, its the same thing), on any given day.  Since my work week rotates on a 4 on, 2 off basis, I don’t have a static set of days off.  But try me at those times on any given day, you'll have a 2:7 chance of catching me.

Yeah, it blows.  My job is awesome, but the hours suck balls.

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General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy in Kingdom Hearts

« on: March 30, 2008, 02:09:44 pm »

Wikipeida says hi.

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General Discussion / Re: BRAWL IS OUT!!! Post your Friend Codes inside! Need help? We got that.*Spoilers*

« on: March 11, 2008, 01:09:34 pm »

Been playing the game almost non-stop since release.  When did Princess Peach is become such a pastel-colored badass?  I'll never make fun of women carrying parasols ever again.  I'd be too afraid that they'll kick my ass.  Seriously, Bowser must catch her napping every time he kidnaps her.

Do you doubt my words?  Meet me at 1676 3355 9559 and we can settle the matter.  With extreme prejudice.

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General Discussion / Re: Magus As An 8BT Character!?!

« on: August 18, 2007, 10:52:40 pm »

Yeah I knew about ol' Darko for a while now.  I would have mentioned it sooner, but I'm still in mourning over the end of acclaimed webcomic, Bob and Gerorge.  Seven years, man... where did it all go?  Come back, Bob and George!  I need my "ice cream is yummy" and "Mega Man is stupid" jokes!  *Weeps openly*

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General Discussion / Re: Best female character of all time?

« on: August 18, 2007, 10:40:55 pm »

KOS-MOS is a woman shapped robot. I'd hardly call that female in a meaningful sense.

This is both true and misleading.  While KOS-MOS is a gynoid, and therefore not female in the strictest sense, she is also the vessel for the spirit of the single most important woman in human history (as far as the Xenosaga Universe is concerned).  

This is a moot point, however, since Samus could take her anyway.

(Hmmm, now that Nintendo owns like 80% of Monolith Soft, maybe we will get to see KOS-MOS vs. Samus in a future Super Smash Bros game.  Its more likely than a Chrono character in any event.)

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General Discussion / Re: Best female character of all time?

« on: August 13, 2007, 09:01:27 am »

The correct answer is Samus Aran.  Always has been.  Always will be.

Though I am looking forward to Lightning’s debut.  It'll be nice to have a female FF protagonist kick ass again, Celes and Terra style.  I'm talkin' old school, fool!

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General Discussion / Re: It's that time for Final Fantasy again...

« on: August 09, 2007, 12:20:34 pm »

Where is my soap box… ah there we go.  One sec while I climb up on this…

Ok look people, I have a news flash for you.  FF XII’s Gambit system?  TOTALLY OPTIONAL.  If you don’t like it, you CAN TURN IT OFF.  Set the game to wait mode and poof!  You have you’re precious ‘control’ back!  All the menu scrolling, x-button mashing fun you’ve been doing for the last twenty years.  Just never, ever, complain again that Square never does anything different, because they did and you did nothing for the following year but whine about it.

Once you do turn off the Gambit system and fight a few battles, you’ll come to realize that your melee characters will still “fight” 8 times out of ten, your casters will still cast 7 times out of ten, your healers will still be tossing that last chance Cura spell when the boss unleash that one super attack they all seem to have and brings your party an inch away from death, your buffers will still spend the first two turns casting Haste and Protect and whatever else your typical FF strategy is.  In essence, nothing would have changed.  Gambits give you the same level of control manual entry does, just faster, and I fail to see what’s wrong with that.

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General Discussion / Re: It's that time for Final Fantasy again...

« on: August 05, 2007, 12:21:14 pm »

You can't really play X-2 without playing X first, as X-2 completely invalidates the best part (maybe even the whole point) of X.  Though I can recommend X-2 for its awesome take on the ATB.  Its the closest to twitch gameplay you're likely to find in a Final Fantasy.

Play IX if you prefer pre-VII FF's.  Its a nice throwback to those days, though the mini-games make me want to scream.

Play XII if you want to play the best Final Fantasy in the last decade.  Only Mark Hunting drags it down.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: The MSTing Of ChronoTrigger!

« on: June 11, 2007, 10:40:49 am »

...

What was that?! I was expecting something actually funny when I heard of a MST'd Chrono Trigger! That...that was just awful./

First you made the cardinal sin of not using Joel/Mike(either one or both) and the bots. You have to have Joel/Mike and the bots. It's not MST3K without Joel/Mike and the bots. Learn. Love. Live.

 

I would remind you again that I didn't write it.  And I have read numerous, hilarious MSTings in which Mike and the bots were not used.  Take a quick trip over to Card Captor Science Theater 3000 for a perfect example.  I dare you to read any MSTing from "Season One" of that site and not laugh.

Secondly, far too many of the jokes were crude. A few crude jokes is alright, but what you really want is a broad sense of humour. By that, I basically mean make all sorts of jokes for all sorts of people's humour, from intelligent, complex, to juxtopositional, to slapstick, to plain old crude, and what have you. Vary it up.

Agreed.  It does get better, but not by much.  I remember it being much funnier than this... guess my taste have matured somewhat in the interim.

That said, I do remember that this was written several years ago. My suggestion is that we redo the whole thing, make it a Chrono Compendium effort. If we can get Lord J in, at the very least, we ought to be good in business.
...

You know...I wonder...on very, VERY special occasions, not using Joel/Mike and the bots is okay, if we find the best substitute. So...hmm...why not Lord J, Zeality, and Ramsus? And then maybe someone else who regularly posts as Dr. Forrester and Frank...and maybe we'll have someone be Gypsy for host segments...yes, this sounds like fun.

I call Dr Forrester!

...ah, who am I kidding?  I suck at host segments; their the weakest link in my Xenosaga MSTing.  I bet the Compendium could come up with a truly epically (is that a word?) funny CT MSTing, but there doesn’t seem to be the interest. 

Ooo, I just thought of something even more funny: a Radical Dreamers MSTing.  That game even has the right "low-budget" feel to it...


Anyway, I should have Part 2 up by Wednesday.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Why do we love the Chrono series so much?

« on: June 10, 2007, 07:30:16 am »

I see a story that could use some improvement but is a good one nonetheless, with solid plot logic, and for a time travel story that is rare indeed, especially when it comes to video games.

Good point.

Anyway, do you know another good RPG game that touch a time travel subject?

Final Fantasy I. But it made no sense.

Depending on your definition of an RPG, Zelda: Ocarina of Time had time travel in it... but made even less sense than FF I.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: The MSTing Of ChronoTrigger!

« on: June 10, 2007, 07:25:48 am »

Zzzzz.....Zzzzzzz...

Huh?  What?  Why did you wake me?  MSTing of Chrono Trigger?  Didn’t I post that already?  

No?  

Oops.

Ahem:

As promised, here is the first three parts of the MSTing of Chrono Trigger.  In the name of simplicity, I've re-printed the original text in the same manner as my Xenosaga MSTing, with the game script written normally, and the riffs in bold.  

Before I link, a warning:  75% of the jokes used by the riffers are off color sex jokes, when they aren’t off color sexist jokes, mostly directed Marle.  Its not as funny as I remember it being... I must not have been getting any when I first read it.

But for good or ill, here it is:

Word Format:
The MSTing of Chrono Tigger: Part One!  

Html Format: The MSTing of Chrono Tigger: Part One

By the by, in case I didn’t make it clear before, I did not write this MSTing, nor do I claim any ownership of it.  It has been reposted without permission, mostly because my emails to the writer bounced back.

Enjoy!

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: The MSTing Of ChronoTrigger!

« on: April 26, 2007, 02:29:44 am »

MSTing of Chrono Trigger...Chisa head go boom!  In a good way.

I actually did some MSTing back in the day under a couple names, and even got up on the Vault once.  If you remember a half-assed MSTing called "The Alien Computer Virus" that featured Marle as one of four riffing Princesses, that was me.  Overall, I sucked then, and now I'm way out of practice and have very sporadic internet access.

I'm in.

That does sound vaguely familiar...  people don’t realize how much effort goes onto MSTing.  It damn hard to be consistently funny ever single time you put a word on the page.  I have no idea now the actual show managed to do it for ten years straight!

But getting back on topic, seems the response is positive thus far, so I'll get to work on cleaning it up and getting it ready for posting.  See this space for further details.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / The MSTing Of ChronoTrigger!

« on: April 19, 2007, 03:16:26 pm »

While organizing some long-forgotten crap on my HD, I came across a couple of flies I must have downloaded years ago then completely forgot about.  One of them was the complete MSTing of Chrono Trigger.  I remember it being damn funny and was curious if there would be any interest in my posting it here at the Compendium.  The files could use some cleaning up for the sake of clarity and compatibility (it's quite old, you understand), so I really don’t want to spend any time on it if no one is interested in reading it.  I've got my own MSTing to attend to, you understand.

The MSTing can be pretty ruthless, as you can well imagine, given the game’s translation.  It was clearly written by a fan of CT, though, and well before the release of CC, so there are a few assumptions on the part of the writer that are clearly wrong.  It’s like a roast, actually, and you only roast the ones you love.

So, any takers?