Daeval

Beats the heck out of "Quit playing with your wii and go to bed!"

The people who are going to be predisposed to hating it, the ones that will constantly make the "wii" jokes, are the same crowd Nintendo are trying to break away from. I think that's a brave, and not altogether disrespectable move. That may not entirely be a bad thing for them. I find that the term "nintendo," as refers to the original NES, is nostalgic enough that it's not considered "nerdy" to a wider cross-section of people that were growing up during the 80s. It's iconic of a more innocent childhood memory than, say "GameCube" or "Playstation," which connotate a more sinister, mature nerd-dom. It's those same generations that are now just starting to leave the target age group for mainstream games.

I like the idea, with the "ii" representing the controllers and people and stuff, but in practice it's pretty retarted. EDIT: Ok, having seen the little logo graphic on that last link from Gryph, I'm sort of willing to accept it more. It doesn't look as stupid in that print as it does in the forum's font, etc. AndI can understand it in terms of getting away from the "gamer" mentality, it's not entirely meant for "us." Saying it out loud still pains me though.

Yeah, somehow I can't see this turning out to be a very good (read: legal) thing.

Ok, now at least I know the file isn't completely borked, because it sounds like you saw what you were supposed to (believe it or not). Thanks. The search continues... For those of you who can see it, if you're interested: It's supposed to be viewed full-screen, with the volume cranked up (there are a lot of really quiet noises, especially around the middle). The audio is stolen from a few different tracks on the Tenchu: Stealth Assassins soundtrack. It's not in the game, so far as I know, but it's on the OST. UPDATE: I uninstalled haali media splitter (which had been installed as part of the Matroska pack) and uninstalled the Matroska pack and the video ran fine. I then reinstalled the Matroska pack without haali media splitter and it still runs fine. Dunno what that program was doing, but at least it's fixed.

Cool, thanks everybody, but no luck yet. :\ I tried 3ivx, but that didn't seem to do it. I still get "error downloading codec" and no video. This is so strange, as I've sent it to a bunch of people who could play it fine, and now it suddenly won't work. I'll try G-Spot.

Ok, this is kind of a stupid situation. This video was a class project a couple quarters ago. Since putting it together, I've reformatted and reinstalled Windows. Now it won't play in WMP (or anything else) on my system. I get "error downloading codec." Blue Ninja It was made with Flash and exported as an avi. I don't think I re-encoded it or anything after that. It ran in WMP and Winamp on the computers at school, which don't have any really funky video software installed. Can anyone view this, and if so, can you figure out what codec its using or why I might not be able to see it? Thanks! (For the curious, the project was a 1 minute, 1 "pixel" movie, using only a single color on the screen at any time)

D20 for modern stuff is weird - A gunshot wound to the face is like D12 damage or something when you have 150 hit points. For modern fights, I prefer a system where one really good punch can effectively take someone out of a fight. You could probably get really fancy and change a lot of stuff and make it work for modern, but be prepared for a lot of work. If you have the D20 Modern books, that might help. I haven't read through those though. Mutants and Masterminds (I hate to keep bringing this up) version of D20 uses what they call a "toughness check," where you have a really low number of hit points, but you make a check every time you get hit and take different levels of damage based on the result. "Bruised" results make future toughness checks harder, and the other results are actual damage. That would better simulate the pacing of a modern firearm or martial arts fight, I would think. And you could probably just port that mechanic over to standard D20 if you wanted. Also, for a modern setting with a martial-arts focus, the White-Wolf system (World of Darkness) would probably be great, you'd just have to strip out the vampire/mage/werewolf stuff. I don't know about the new version, but getting rid of that stuff was dead simple with the previous incarnation.

I've considered a few things, but I don't think I'd ever actually get one. a) I Ching hexagram 63 on the right forearm in red. The readings of this hexagram are complicated, but fitting to my personal philosophy. And it's a bitching, esoteric pop culture reference from my youth to boot. I don't think I'd ever get it becuase forearm tattoos lower your hireability by like 50% in many lines of work. Also, out-of-shape people look dorky with this tattoo, and I can't gaurauntee I'll always (or ever) be fit enough to pull it off. "Dead men tell no tales." in black ye olde english style script. Not sure where, always thought maybe around the back of my calf. No particular reason, this one's just for fun. That's also why I'd probably never get it. c) "Ahimsa" in sanskrit or kanji. Never done because white guys look like idiots with asian characters on them, and I don't want to have to tattoo "It's not my fault you can't tell I'm Japanese" underneath it. Also kind of ironic to permanently mark myself with a buddhist concept. d) My grandmother's family crest, in the dark blue you see on japanese ceramics, probably on the shoulder or shoulder blade somewhere. It's a stylized ginger flower kind of framed by a circular pattern, very neat looking. The only copy I know of that the family has was one made by my grandma's brother, who owned a ceramics shop and had it painted on a kind of tile. If I'm likely to get any tattoo, it would probably be this one. Ok, so that was way more than anyone cared to know. Carry on.

Because it sucks over the internet. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks L.S.D., but.. well.. he's right.

It's been my experience that, after about level 10, there are way too many numbers to keep track of. One interesting manuever or enemy-cast spell can effectively change 10 numbers on your character sheet, many of them interrelated, and give you a timer to keep track of before it all (or, *shudder*, some of it) gets reversed. It's not AS bad if you're just playing a fighter who hits things or a caster who casts simple damage or heal spells, but just about anything else (IE, anything interesting) gets wonky real quick, and that says nothing for what the DM throws at you. As far as power level, I just feel like it's off, but it has a lot to do with the DM as well. It's just hard to feel "heroic" when the vast majority of the abilities that make you a "hero" are entirely passive +1s or +2s to various numbers on your character sheet. By contrast, the Mutants and Masterminds system I mentioned, while based on D20, has replaced the class system with a fairly simple method of constructing just about any special ability you could come up with, and keeping that balanced. To me, that was more interesting than battling through a bunch of bad guys for a handful of hit points and a +2 to your reflex save or something.

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device

I'm interested to hear what you like about it. There are things I like about it, but overall I'm kind of dissapointed by the bookkeeping involved. The power level of the PCs is also a bit whack, I think. It's not right to do nitty-gritty very well, but too underpowered for real heroics unless everybody min-maxes their character. There's a superhero book (that could be used for just about anything with a little tweaking) called Mutants and Masterminds that uses a heavily modified D20 system that seems more interesting. I have yet to actually run it though. I really like White Wolf's Exalted system, and the discontinued Alternity system is interesting as well.

It walks like a hooker with the shakes.

You Don't Care Nuthin' - Rancid

This still doesn't explain why a DB release is on TV in Japan! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If these are what I think they are, they wouldn't be shown back-to-back like this on TV. So, at some point, these made the move from TV to some kind of recorded media. Whoever used the recorded versions to make this compilation is responsible for the DB sub thing. Not that tough.

I use FCEUltra. There was a time when I was switching between that and VirtuaNES, but I don't remember why. There was something they did differently.

Yes, they say "Switch", but like you, I can't figure out what pitagora means. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The only thing I can think of that it might have something to do with is "Pythagoras." I'd say that doesn't make much sense, let alone for a kids' show, but this is the Japanese we're talking about.

I think I saw some of these when my family was getting a japanese tv station for a while. If they're what I think they are, they were the back-from-commercial cuts from a kids show. Anyone know what the signs say? The best I can come up with is "Pitagora Suicchi." The second word might be "switch" but I have no idea on the first. They're both written in katakana. Edit: Ok, so I turned my sound on and they say it, but it doesn't make any more sense.

Wait, a major publisher actually listened to its consumers? There is some hope for this industry yet!

Short, concise version: "Feather 50 for 240 seconds" Means it will increase the maximum weight you can carry by 50 for 240 seconds. And the slightly advanced caveat: This part only applies when you cast the effect, not to potions, etc. The amount it adds to your carry limit, 50 in this case, is modified by your Spell Effectiveness % (it's on the bottom of your spell lists). So, if your Spell Effectiveness is 80%, then this spell would only add 40 to your carrying limit; since 80% of 50 is 40. That better?

I did a little research. The magnitude of a feather spell is how much extra weight you can carry, modified by your spell effectiveness %. So it makes more sense to just tack that on to your carrying limit, independent of your strength stat, rather than calculate new weights for all your items so that your total inventory is lighter by a specific amount. I guess you could argue that "feather" should make your items weight less and its compliment, "burden," should make your items weight more. But, since both affect only the things you carry, the result is exactly the same and is easier to to visualize the way they'v done it. Also, you can feather or burden a character who isn't carrying anything, so I would argue that the spells are actually affecting the person in some metaphysical way - if you want to get really nerdy about it.

Are you sure? Your max-load number increases when you cast it on yourself, but your current-load number stays the same. Just curious.

Word. or something.. Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion... duh.

I like the LOD texture/shader replacement mods myself. Now that my machine can actually handle the graphics. They were a pain in the arse to get when I first nabbed them, and I still have them, so if anyone wants them and is having trouble... And the BTmod UI modification is really nice too.