dubq
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So then the 1990 version used the actual origin of the Punisher whereas the 2004 version used another version?
Neither used the actual origin.
Frank Castle, in the comics, is a bitter ex-Vietnam vet whose family is killed because they witnessed a mob rub-out during a "wrong place at the wrong time" scenario while picnicing in Central Park.
That sounds like what they used for the 1990 version.
Either way, the 2004 version was much better.
I think in the 1990 version they turned him into an ex-cop instead of an ex-vet.
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Fuck them both. The prices for the iPod, and now this, are ridiculous. I'll stick with the CD / MP3 players..
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Furthermore, no court proceedings anywhere, ever have been broadcast live regardless of who was involved, why do you only have a problem now all of a sudden??
*cough*OJ*cough*
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So then the 1990 version used the actual origin of the Punisher whereas the 2004 version used another version?
Neither used the actual origin.
Frank Castle, in the comics, is a bitter ex-Vietnam vet whose family is killed because they witnessed a mob rub-out during a "wrong place at the wrong time" scenario while picnicing in Central Park.
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Could be Robert Englund's version of "The Phantom of the Opera" - I know there's a scene like that in it. I think it's '89 or so..
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Freddy got a 8 disc box set release, so there's no reason why this couldn't be 8 or 9 discs. They've treated the movies like shit, but at least there's some good extras.
Freddy is New Line, though... they seem to have a lot more respect for the Horror biz than Paramount ever did..
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Since the gameplay is pretty much the same as last year, I'm more or less interested in the bigger roster. It's cool to actually recognize a lot of the characters from those little plastic figures back in the eighties.
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Fans of No Mercy and last years Ultimate MUSCLE game should read this...
From Gamespot
A little more than one year ago, Bandai teamed up for the first time with longtime wrestling game gurus, the Aki Corporation, to bring out a game based upon the popular Ultimate Muscle Saturday morning anime wrestling series. Titled Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation and released exclusively on the GameCube, the offering was something of a surprise in that it managed to blend together Aki's style of wrestling gameplay with the wild and frenetic themes of the cartoon shockingly well, thus making for a wholly unique wrestling experience. Now, the effective follow-up to Legends vs. New Generation is here in the form of Galactic Wrestling: Featuring Ultimate Muscle for the PlayStation 2. Galactic Wrestling isn't so much a sequel to its GameCube predecessor, but, rather, it almost feels as though Bandai simply wanted to start anew for the franchise's debut on the PS2, stripping out the GameCube game's storyline and signature graphical style in favor of a more multiplayer-focused experience. On its own merits, Galactic Wrestling is a solid grappler. But anyone hoping for a real step forward from the first Ultimate Muscle game is going to be a bit disappointed.If you missed out on Legends vs. New Generation for the GameCube and have never played an Aki wrestling game in your life, the basic gameplay mechanics featured in Galactic Wrestling may take a bit of getting used to. Your wrestler has basic strike and grapple attacks, as well as the ability to jump around and perform dodge moves to get away in a pinch. When striking an opponent, you have the option of either performing a weak strike by tapping the button or performing a stronger one by holding it down. Grapple moves are performed using the grapple button and holding a specific direction on either the left analog stick or the D pad to specify a certain maneuver. You can perform submissions by grappling an opponent while he's laid out on the mat, and you can execute varying levels of special, signature moves for each wrestler by building up a meter near your wrestler's health meter. Throw in a highly brisk pacing and a sometimes arduous reliance on timing your attacks, and that's essentially Galactic Wrestling's gameplay in a nutshell. It's a fun system, but if you happen to have played last year's Ultimate Muscle game, this might all seem just a bit too familiar to you.
That's because almost nothing at all has changed gameplay-wise from last year's Ultimate Muscle game. Aside from the addition of a few more moves per character and a more merciful overall difficulty level, playing Galactic Wrestling is extremely familiar territory for those who played Ultimate Muscle on the GameCube. Of course, that doesn't make the game any less fun, and if it makes any difference, Aki has never been known for making huge leaps and bounds between gameplay designs from year to year in its games. However, even by comparison, Galactic Wrestling almost feels just a bit too steadfastly rooted in its predecessor's gameplay design--especially when you consider that there isn't quite as much to do in this game as there was in the previous game.
While Ultimate Muscle on the GameCube was a more story mode-focused game, Galactic Wrestling doesn't have a story mode at all. The only story bits you'll find in the game come from matches between specific wrestlers who have had major rivalries on the TV show. During the game's introduction, they'll spout off a few lines to one another, giving you a smidgen of background as to why they don't especially like one another, and that's pretty much it. While this likely doesn't mean much to a casual player just looking for a unique wrestling game, fans of the show will likely be disheartened by how little service the game pays the show's colorful storylines.
The game's included modes are a basic versus mode, a tournament mode, a team battle mode, and a survival mode. The team battle mode is essentially just a five-on-five series of single matches, where the last team with remaining wrestlers is the winner. Survival mode has two distinct versions--single and two-versus-two. Single is pretty self-explanatory in that you just pick a wrestler and go through as many continuous opponents as possible. The two-versus-two mode is more novel in that you can only choose two specific characters--the team of Neptuneman and Big Budo--and your goal is to take down the many masked wrestlers of the game and commandeer their masks in the process. This is certainly an interesting mode, especially since the rest of the game is so blatantly straightforward. Aside from this mode, there's really not much lasting single-player value to be had in Galactic Wrestling once you've unlocked all of the hidden characters and the bevy of M.U.S.C.L.E. action figures featured in the game's toy collection mode (which, incidentally, doesn't really take all that long). However, this is not to say that all is lost, because, from a multiplayer standpoint, the game is fun enough and features just enough variety to keep you and your friends playing after you've unlocked everything.
The biggest addition to Galactic Wrestling over last year's title is an effectively doubled wrestler roster. More than 40 characters are included in the game, ranging from such familiar faces as Kid Muscle, Terry Kenyon, King Muscle, Robin Mask, and Sunshine, to faces new to this year's game, such as Lord Muscle, Grandpa, Manitoban, Specialman, and Beetlebomb. Every character is just as bizarre and kooky-looking as ever. However, there is one key difference between Galactic Wrestling's character style and its predecessor's. Last year's game featured a fully cel-shaded look that actually managed to stand out amid an onslaught of cel-shaded titles released around the same time frame. Galactic Wrestling is devoid of cel-shading altogether and instead sports a more generic polygonal look for its wrestlers. The wrestlers certainly don't look bad because of this, and the outlandish designs of the characters themselves still provide the game with an almost singular visual aesthetic. But, on the whole, the game just seems rather dumbed down, visually, when compared to last year's GameCube title.
Technically speaking, Galactic Wrestling's visuals aren't a leap forward or backward; they're more just kind of a nonstep. Nearly all of the game's move animations are recycled from previous Aki games, and while they're all still just fine, there aren't quite as many new moves as one might have hoped. The game's bizarre array of special moves is still really impressive though, even if quite a few of these moves are pure holdovers from the GameCube title. The game is not devoid of the typical wrestling game issues, such as the always-glaring clipping issues. Though the clipping isn't worse than anything wrestling game fans have seen before, due to the dramatic scaling differences between some of the characters, this issue can get quite bad during certain move animations. Galactic Wrestling also suffers from some rather dreadful loading times between matches and upon startup of the game. You'll also notice a bit of a loading hitch when the game tries to load up special-move cutscenes. While these issues don't kill the game or anything, they're certainly annoying. On the positive side of things, the in-game action manages to move at an expedient pace without a hint of slowdown or frame-rate hitching, and the animation holds solid no matter what--without any glitches to speak of.
Audio is perhaps Galactic Wrestling's least remarkable category, though it's basically on the same level as other aspects of the game. While Legends vs. New Generation featured quite a hefty amount of dialogue from the voice actors of the Ultimate Muscle cartoon, Galactic Wrestling, while still containing some, lacks in this area. Aside from the aforementioned interludes before a match, where rival characters jaw at one another, you never really hear from any of the wrestlers, save for their occasional gruntings during a match and their callings out of special move names as they perform them. The in-game commentary by Mac Metaphor and Doc Nakano has been almost completely lifted from last year's game, and the few snippets of new commentary don't really do anything to offset the repetitiousness of their dialogue. During the game, the sound effects and complementary soundtrack are just fine for what they need to be, and the random bits of menu music are also pretty good. Ultimately, while there may be nothing particularly striking about the game's audio, it's perfectly serviceable.
Galactic Wrestling: Featuring Ultimate Muscle definitely has its good qualities--more wrestlers, more multiplayer modes, and more unlockables certainly would seem to provide the makings of a good wrestling sequel. However, the game's less-than-distinctive visual style and lack of a captivating single-player experience are definitely noticeable hindrances that summarily quantify Galactic Wrestling as a less impressive effort than last year's Ultimate Muscle title. If you're a big fan of the show who doesn't own a GameCube, or you're just a PS2 owner looking for a unique wrestler on its own merits, then Galactic Wrestling is certainly a good title. But any Ultimate Muscle fans who did experience last year's game should taper their expectations a bit by perhaps giving Galactic Wrestling a rent before committing to a full purchase.
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I'd like to try this out. But considering I couldn't even find last year's title anywhere for rent, it's looking doubtful.
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I guess that's where I differ from most, then. I want great gameplay most of all. I find that spending 3+ hours on creating a wrestler just isn't worth the time. I only ended up making about 2 CAWs in HCTP because the interface was TOO in depth.
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I definitely need to rent this, then.
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Continued from ps2.IGN.com
The Good.Ivan's Tale
Name: LeTron Jehovah
Occupation: Noble samurai baby saver / teacher of deaf slave-girls.
Sex: A man of bushido has no functioning genitalia.
Hometown: Serene mountain village (with stream).
With grim determination to do boundless good, I gracefully stepped off my boat and set one of my disciplined, heavenly feet onto the once peaceful lands of Amahara. It was my noble intention to soon run the local riffraff out of town and single-handedly thwart the nefarious ways of some kind of demonic ninja or super-tentacle-pig, or whatever. Instead, I found myself starving and unexpectedly befriending a small, inept, mute girl with an affinity for providing strangers with rice cakes. Fueled by hunger, I tossed aside pride and let the little one nourish me with her rice (in cake form).
Hero that I am, I then felt obligated to defend her honor and life when a group of fat thugs bumped into her, claiming she broke one of their fat-tacular legs. A true samurai jumps at any chance to ruthlessly cut down fat villainy, so I used gimpy deaf girl as an excuse to paint my sword an extra deep shade of red. After dispatching her assailants, I found myself with a new unwelcome leech clinging to my cool, broody mystique. Next thing I know I've gone from heroic samurai to senseless keeper of farting hospital patients and the savior of many ill-fated babies, carelessly left in a variety of this "town's" local hotspots.
I swear to goodness, never have I been to a village where so many children get kidnapped so frequently. What happened to the good days when parents leashed their children to posts and lashed them if they spoke or moved? Now all I do is find babies, daughters, sons, and even the occasional "escaped worker." Come on! I'm a samurai warrior of light who has traveled far to reach this town. I have a mysterious past! It's a line I've used often in my many wanderings across Japan and I've never been so disrespected that I was ordered by an employer -- who should be pointing me to some evil dragons -- to go fetch a dude who skipped out on his lunch break for a couple hundred dollars. So yeah, I eventually find this guy in Numata-Cho milling about by one of them bag-headed monks who insists on getting a free beating. So I tell the dude, "Yo, I understand your plight, but please get back to work. There's a bounty on you." And he's all whining about it so I'm like, "Them's the breaks." Then he just ran off. Can you believe that? Running from a samurai warrior who strives to defend the honor of the just and all those other weak bitches of the world. What nerve!
The next day I go back to Amakaze-Cho where my employer and mute slave girl friend live. I get to talking to my little gimpy sidekick and find out the girl can't read. Right, it isn't exactly dragon slaying, but why not teach the girl how to write and maybe give her enough sense to leave this landfill of a town. Turns out she's owned by some kind of supreme prostitute, and if I want to teach her how to read and write I have to pay the lead whore 1000 dollars and a stick of incense... Right... Since I already promised the child I'd tutor her, I figured I'd go back to my new employer to earn some extra cash -- enough to pay the super hooker and buy some incense, anyway. My boss was apparently a little disappointed with my performance regarding fetching the truant. Now he wants me to battle in some kind of "deathmatch" at the local shrine, no doubt in homage to some backward pagan god these seaside peasants worship. But who am I to judge? I've pretty much had it with this town. I whip out the trusty sword of burning death and cut the insolent guy down with a flurry of strikes. Long past death, I keep him propelled in the air wriggling back and forth and screaming like an angered cat. Turns out the guards aren't too big on this, so I get to chopping them up too.
One hour and 30 bodies later, I figure I have enough money to purchase the incense and pay the hooker so that I can teach that mentally deficient girl the difference between an apple and a cow. Unfortunately, nowhere in this town is there any incense available. I've totally had it with this place. I'm a samurai hero, not some PTA attending, substitute teaching, baby fetching, deathmatch participating peon. If mute girl wants to read, she's just going to have to get hooked on phonics like everyone else because I'm getting the hell out of here and finding me a ninja-dragon to kill.
The Evil.Chris Roper's Tale
Name: Mi So Hournee
Occupation: Scraggly wino / murderer / stealer of rice cakes.
Sex: Heartless android.
Hometown: Compton.
I have traveled for many, many moons. After walking across sand, snow and Buddha knows what else, my journey was near an end. My canteen was nearly empty of my fallen foes' blood and I was out of flesh, so rations were low. I feared the end was in sight…
But lo, for some little girl saved my life. She found me fallen, weary and nearly dead, and was kind enough to feed me a rice ball. Or should I say stupid enough, because the thing tasted so bad that I nearly took off her head for feeding me such manure. Had she stood more than a few inches closer to the end of my blade, she would have found a fitting end. But she was not to be my first victim in these lands. I must now catch my bearings…
Aug. 21st, Morning -
I was confronted this morning by three fat men wearing masks in the middle of the street. They were babbling something about this or that, and I wanted to hear nothing of it. The only way to shut their mouths was to remove them from their faces.
Before I was finished taking the life from my first victim, a woman stopped me. I was always a sucker for the female form, especially those who know how to handle a sword. She grasped it well… I had plans to replace her sword with something of my own, but she got away before I could show it to her. I will meet her again, this I vow. Kyojiro, you will be mine.
Aug. 21st, Afternoon -
I made my way to the Aoto Gang's headquarters, the supposed place where I would find this mysterious woman. A few guards stood before my prize. They stand no longer.
Inside the headquarters, a large group of men met me. I wanted to take their heads, but they talked so much I couldn't concentrate on my killing. Instead, they offered me a job. I listen to no man, but the job was of the kidnapping variety. Weighing the two opportunities, I decided to embark on the kidnapping now and take their lives later. My canteen was reasonably full, anyway.
I am to find a woman named Kasumi, daughter of the Aoto Gang's previous boss. I always had a thing for the boss' daughter.
On the way out of the headquarters, I crossed a few more guards. My sword was hungry. Only I remain.
I made my way to Shikano to find Kasumi. A few Aoto thugs were trying to get in on my job and I wasn't about to share my prize. They were quickly dispatched.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't have to force Kasumi into anything. Though she was reluctant, she decided to make her way to the Aoto Gang's headquarters to deal with this situation herself. In disappointment, I only find pleasure in death. A few of Shikano's citizens cheered me up on my way out.
Aug. 21st, Evening -
I must rest. I shall enter the sleep known as Rest of the Intoxicated Mantis, wherein I shall pass out for 24 hours, no less.
Aug. 22nd, Evening -
This evening, I decided I must journey to the nearby Amahara Shrine. If there are people vowing their allegiance or praying to any being around here, it must be me. These blasphemers paid the price and their kin shall know my name and pass it down as legend with the hatred of 1,000 gods. Be it in disgust, fear or other, all will know my name.
After painting the shrine with the blood of non-believers, I made my way to Kakinuma-cho. My reputation has begun to precede me in these lands as many guards drew their swords upon my entrance. My work is beginning to show, and I am pleased. Those guards no longer hold swords, but will soon only hold up gravestones.
Further into town, I came across a magistrate. I wondered if he had ever tasted his own blood. This would be his first and last taste. I do hope he liked it. I know I did.
Aug. 22nd, Late Night -
I've come to realize that I need a sundial.
After having the pleasure of sending the last magistrate to his grave, I realized that killing him was much more satisfying than killing women, beggars and common citizens. While that's good fun, it's just not a challenge anymore. In order to provide myself with something that would help me grow as a warrior and cause as much chaos across the land as possible, I made my way to the magistrate's office.
Upon entering the gates, my first victim approached. He asked me, "Is there anything you would risk your life to protect?" Being as I still had to give that thing to Kyojiro before I die, I simply answered, "Yes." Then I took his head.
I soon came across a man who asked me if I wanted a job. I immediately thought of Kyojiro and answered yes, but then realized he wasn't talking about that. I then took his head and place it next on top of the magistrate's. I decided to build a snowman out of human heads, so I needed another victim. It wasn't long before I found one, and then another, and then another. It was a large snowman.
After I was finished, I realized that the magistrate's office was quite a complicated place. The bodies made it easy for me to find my way out, but I shall often wonder how anyone else might manage to find their way out.
Aug. 23rd, Early Morning -
Wandering for blood led me to Numata-cho. I encountered a girl who told me that her father was dying. She said that a rice ball would help him greatly.
As I had attained no rice balls in my journey, aside from the wretched meal that I was first served in this land, I could not offer her one. Being the kind soul that I am, I decided that rather than forcing her to have to watch her father perish, it would be more humane of me to kill her and end her misery. Also, I figure it will make a nice surprise for her father when he meets her upon entering Hell.
Aug. 23rd, Morning -
I shall again attempt the Rest of the Intoxicated Mantis. It has served me well in the past.
Aug. 24th, Morning -
There was a man standing outside of my sleeping quarters. Although it was not wet and I could smell nothing, it was still possible that he urinated on my welcome mat. I ended his life for such treacherous an act.
A monk with a basket on his head was standing nearby. After hearing the screams of my supposed-urinating victim, he said, "I was once a samurai. I killed many and reveled in their fresh blood." I let him live.
Since I have not claimed Kyojiro for my own yet and made her grasp my sword, I made my way to Amakaze-cho in search of a whorehouse. After seeing the women on the street and assuming what the local working ladies looked like, I decided I needed a few drinks first. Unfortunately for me, none of the local pub owners would let me in to have a drink. Unfortunately for them, they're all dead now.
It shall rain blood in Amakaze-cho for many moons, and upon its next dry spell, I shall return.
Aug. 27th, Evening -
There is much work to be done, but after killing many, many people in the city of Amakaze-cho for many, many days, I must rest. After awakening from my deep sleep, I shall hunt Kyojiro until she is mine. Intoxicated Mantis, I await your spell once again…
I've already placed my pre-order for this game. $10 down, plus the $10 coupon I have for EB, this game is going to cost me next-to-nothing when I pick it up. Sweet!
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From ps2.IGN.com
Capcom and Acquire's Way of the Samurai 2 is a combination of role-playing, sword slashing, and exploration. Set during the last days of the samurai, the game allows characters to pick and choose from a small variety of appearances to customize their own disciplined adventurer with a mysterious past, whom they'll then use to do things like stab and slash people.The game itself is billed as a sort of Bushido Blade meets Knights of the Old Republic, only with a go anywhere twist. Like KOTOR, choice is made by performing actions and directing conversations. For instance, continually disrespecting a member of a specific faction will ultimately lead to disapproval, disgrace, and even combat, while continually working for a certain type will bolster your reputation within that circle and disassociate your character from other factions. Of course, the easiest way of going about influencing people and making friends is to just kill folks with classic third-person sword slashing and rudimentary combination strings.
As a traveler in the town of Amahara, gamers will have to choose between one of three factions, or choose their own side. But first, and at the heart of the game is this basic choice: good or evil. Will you kill the local magistrate or side with them and combat the hapless peasants of the town and their Yakuza overlords? Or, should you just wander aimlessly about slaughtering children and the rest? These are the finer points of Way of the Samurai, the points we decided to explore.
In the following article you'll find the tales of two distinctly different samurai. One, the noble but extremely bored Ivan decided to follow a virtuous path that ultimately ended rather badly. The other samurai -- foul and dark -- was led by Chris Roper into a seedy underworld of prostitution, child endangerment, and the random chopping of local peasants. Click on either the left image for the good or the right image for the evil story. Both are fairly amusing and even interesting.
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I have a feeling the 'big secret' is gonna be Create-a-Move, it may be because I desperately want it to be, but I have a feeling none the less.....
Feh. I didn't have time to invest in creating an animation, I certainly don't have time to invest in creating a move. Waste of time, IMHO.
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What boss characters are in this game? Just Doc Oc from the movie? Or are there more comic character appearances like Venom, etc?
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Thank god they didn't include that horrible Jason Goes To Hell movie... OR Jason X... Christ those were horrible.
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What really worries me isn't so much the outcome of this election, but if the majority of Toronto is still so forgiving of the Liberals, I'm an extremely worried that Dalton McGuinty will get re-elected. Bob Rae destroyed the province 15 years ago, and now McGuinty is doing the exact same things. Give him two terms and we will be bankrupt. It affects me more directly than anything the feds can do.
I have to echo your sentiments 110% there. McGuinty is a wretched swine.
I really don't get this province's obsession with the Libs. Seriously. I realize that they think Mike Harris = The Devil and therefore means that all Conservatives are as well, but this is just ridiculous. -
Have I ever mentioned how much I fucking hate Toronto?
The Liberals have ruined the country in the past 11 years and are a bunch of criminals that were caught red-handed, but Ontario and especially Toronto gave them another governement. This is a dark day for Canada.
C'mon dude, it's not that fair to generalize us all here in TO. A lot of us voted anything BUT red.
The Liberal's as a minority government will be largely ineffectual and 10 bucks [Canadian] says that there'll be another election in two years or less.
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Where in the hell did you guys get War Games from? They only put things in that WWE has done in recent memory, and WWE will probably NEVER do a War Games match. That as an option just makes zero sense to me.
Well, they said that there'd be something we never thought we'd see in a WWE game. Perhaps War Games, but I'd go with Online play since he didn't want to comment on it.
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I voted Liberal, mostly because this riding is a 2 horse race between them and the Conservatives so there's no point in voting for either the NDP or Greens (the only other 2 parties with candidates running here).
I voted Green. Hell, even if they won't win, it's still money in their pocket for their next campaign. In this election, a party that gets 2% of the national vote or 5% in one of their ridings gets $1.75 for every vote.
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I've made up my mind. I hate all the people running in my area, and I pretty much hate all the parties. I'm voting Conservative. They're the best of the worst, so to say.
Ted Menzies = +1 vote
If you hate all of the parties, then just spoil your ballot. Vote for Batman or something..
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can we keep this as somewhat of a movies topic and not a current events topic?
if you think that moore, beyond the film at hand being discussed, is a fat, overrated, lying sack of shit, please SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT IT ALREADY. WE GET IT. we got it here, and we got it here, and we got it here, and we got it here. it always turns into the exact same argument, it never gets anywhere, and it's mind-numbingly stupid. for the love of god, let us not have five threads of the same damn topic, especially where it doesn't belong.
Gee, I feel the same way about the people who think he's just peachy.
-=Mike
Speaking of asinine...
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Robert Kirkman is the fucking man!
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Can I say how much that I love 8-bit gaming? I've been having a feverish nostalgia trip ever since purchasing this fine compilation of Mega Man games.
MMII was the first in the series I ever played, or even bought, so it's my favourite of the series. The only other games I've played outside of this compilation are I & III, so it's kind of cool to finally get to check out the rest of the series.
I've finished I, II & III and I'm going to start IV tonight.
I also certainly hope that the Mega Man X series gets the compilation treatment down the road!
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NANA, NANA, NANA, NANA---BATMAN!! I've waited so long for this!! *rejoice*