AndrewTS

However, Yoshi's Island had completely different play mechanics, different objective, and had those brutally hard final courses. I'm skeptical that it's really that good, but at least it seems the game is going to live up to its potential. But it's going to be too easy, which is disappointing. Ah well.

It isn't. The site is just called Defunct Games.

1 and 5 could pretty much be thrown together as "left hand not having a freakin' clue what the right was doing." The 32x was conceived in Japan, as the "Jupiter," a 32-bit standalone that would offer a slight boost over the SNES and Genesis. It gained support back when the cartridge/cd debate was a serious consideration, but Sega-Japan decided..."naw, let's go with cds." However, some of the Sega engineers who worked on the Jupe took it over to Sega-America, and the idea was reworked as an enhancement for the Genesis rather than a standalone. That's why they both use the 2 RISCs, and by the time SOA was going forward with the 32X, SOJ was already well into the development of the Saturn.

Well, despite the fact that the DS could not pull it off graphically, when I first used your analog stick to control the brush, I thought the same thing. However, you don't need super-precision, mainly you gotta know when and where to use it. In the demo, though, there's no guesswork. They tell you when to use it, just to familarize you with the play mechanics. While I don't make it a habit to reference Game Informer, I have to admit they have a good hands-on import preview here: http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200....1811.59002.htm

As long as Sony is willing to throw money at the PS brand, they're going to be around and will likely stay #1. At the moment, it seems their biggest mistake is Bluray.

Great. Although from here on out, I'd make sure you disable the automatic updates (Start > Run > msconfig, under processes, uncheck it, OK it) in case MS develops ways to get around known work-arounds.

Well, port issues will be bounced back to you. One of the most irritating things about customers is that they have no comprehension of "scope of support," and trainers never have given me an easy way to tell customers that "general usage" isn't covered. If the program doesn't work, fine. However, if you want to know how to do something specific, buy Mac OSX/Windows XP/(name of app) etc. for Dummies.

Some info here about it: may want to skim over, since I'm not sure what update you got: http://www.aviransplace.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=871& You could try getting a pirate version of Windows 2000.

Silly clay, doomsaying and bashing is cooler than constructive criticism. They were systems with their own semi-exclusive libraries. I think as "gimmick" more along the line of the 3D glasses, but we're getting into semantics, here. You can call XBox Live a gimmick, after all. Sega's problem was that they couldn't let the Genesis simply go away, but they weren't ready to just throw a seperate console out there because the Genesis was their biggest success ever. However, the add-ons basically limited potential buyers to the existing Genesis user base, which was vast. However, the cost of a Genesis + the cost of the upgrades--it would scare away buyers if the crappy game libraries didn't. Plus, it isn't like the Genesis itself had such a solid architecture that a mere add-on could do wonders. Grainy video on a system that can only display 64 colors on screen? Come on, now. The "32 bit" 32x was like...um...a faster SNES with like a souped up FX chip built in, at least based on the actual games. Nintendo Eschewing online play for the ill-concieved GBA-to-GC connectively gimmick was a poor idea by Nintendo, although they're beginning to make up for it on DS.

Ah, got it working. I was confused because I could swear I played .avi files before on QT. It works fine in WMP. File-type tug of war with the various media players is really annoying. I thought it would be ridiculously over the top and blatant...but ignore the lyrics and the part at the end (which seems more like a spot-on, hilarious parody of the crappy ending in the real movie), and it's still pretty damn cool, even with the pale weirdos popping around here and there. Shame about the little glitching at 00:54, but if I didn't know better I could have easily assumed it was a music video for the soundtrack or something.

Well, recording tool (Customer Relationship Mgt). I was referring to PeopleSoft for the 2nd one. Here's some good links to direct customers to, depending on their version of OSX: http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/mail/ http://www.apple.com/support/panther/mail/ "Tiger" is any OS X 10.4 version, so 10.4.1 to 10.4.6 (current). "Panther" is any OS X 10.3 version, so 10.3.1 to 10.3.9. Customers can check it by going to the blue Apple (upper left corner of the screen) and clicking on About this Mac.

I hadn't used a mac for a decade before I trained for it, and never OSX. And from hearing from customers what their ISP/developer of the software said, most of them rarely or never did non-Windows tech. What's the problem with Mail.app, though? Type of mail account (IMAP, POP, etc), Ingoing mail server, outgoing mail server, see if they can send the mail to themselves...well, that's all I really need to be concerned about (that and if it launches). Of course, if there's a specific issue you're getting a lot of, I'd be glad to see if I can pass you along some info. I'm sure you've had at least a few calls where you had to explain that the Airport "not talking to your computer" has nothing to do with the internet connection. I always get the customer to power-cycle everything and reboot, though, because if that is'nt it, I'm expected to log SN for the Airport, Firmware, Software, ISP, Modem type, etc. What CRM tool do you use to log? We use P(o)S8.

Carn: meh, try doing tech for Macs....with a user that has 1. dial up, 2. through AOL 3. over Airport (Apple's wireless POS base station), 4. with an Airport Express being used as a WDS. AOL users are prone to the PBKAC error a lot. Replace user and try again.

A green one doesn't exist, and on top of that most import sites charge a lot extra. Unless you're thinking of some way to order direct, and cut out the middleman, perhaps using Paypal to pay? Still, it's white or wait, so I guess I'll go with white.

Nintendo announced today that the DS Lite ships June 11th in the Americas, and will be for a MSRP of $129.99. Sorry, Anya, no pink, just white initially. They need to allow special ordering if you want different colors, with the option of personalization. I'd love an emerald green DS Lite with my name on it. In Japan they have white, navy, and ice blue. Not sure about any others. EDIT: These are obviously fake, but if only... http://ryle.the.forest.free.fr/ds_lite/ds_lite_pink.jpg http://ryle.the.forest.free.fr/ds_lite/ds_lite_green.jpg

I hear that Cloud no-sells like stab and gunshot wounds to the chest, and there's so much annoying crap with the cell phone it's like a bad commercial.

I downloaded it, but it isn't working for me. It seems my QT needs some sort of plug in, but the page it redirects me has like a dozen of them. Would you happen to know what I need? Yuna's posts tend to always be memorable and/or funny to me, so I have no complaints. I often will agree with her points except for, ironically, stuff related to video games.

EA announced its getting Madden, too. Interview, even: http://revolution.ign.com/articles/703/703727p1.html

"Glorified point and click" games would be better than much of the trash Digital Pictures and Sega produced. Adventure games, a fine immersive detective game...those have redeeming value. However...SEWER SHARK?! Having that as a pack in was like twisting the knife. "Congratulations on your purchase of the Sega CD. Here's one of the worst ****ing games of all time. Enjoy!" Zipping through a nasty, FMV pipe shooting nasty FMV rats while nasty FMV actors choke through bad dialogue...next level, indeed.

Incredibly true. Insomniac is like..."thanks for the engine, Naughty Dog. Now let's show you how it's done." Jak 1 is generico 3D platformer with baubles to collect. Jak 2 and 3 is just about everything but platforming. Assloads of racing and driving crap, and the platforming usually has lots of repetitive collecting. Yeah, in R&C you need bolts...but that's pretty much from blowing away enemies.

Sega had several failed *consoles*, that's the problem. In the grand scheme of things, the Activator is no worse than the U-Force or Power Glove. However, the 32X, Sega CD, and the poor handling of Saturn eroded Sega's rep to the point where a good console was doomed fairly quickly (Dreamcast).

Damn--none of the links work there for me, Yuna.

The dude who played Dracula should never be allowed to appear on the big screen ever again. His performance screamed Drama Club Student and destroyed the film. And the guy playing Frankenstein apparently thought he was performing a scene out of the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. ETA: Just found out he WAS a broadway actor who won a Tony. Wow, I would have NEVER guessed. Casting is what killed Van Helsing. If you remove the actors who played the vampires and the guy who played Frankenstein, it really would be an entertaining movie. Bullshit. You'd still be left with shitty CGI, shitty writing, a plot that makes no damn sense (filled with holes and huge logic leaps), and ridiculous action sequences. Oh, and that ending. Uggggh. Full-on gay sex in Van Helsing would only be an improvement.

I played a recent Jampack demo disc (which was kind of weird since it had playables for Ratchet Deadlocked and Shadow of the Colossus, but also for Shadow Hearts From the New World, Beatmania, Tomb Raider Legend, Steambot Chronicles, Okami...?!). Anyway, Okami looks extremely promising. The game feels very much like a Spyro title with super-tight controls, a unique visual style, and a gimmick (painting items to overcome obstacles and solve puzzles) that I had some problems with, but intrigued me regardless. Steambot Chronicles is very cool. It feels a lot like the Misadventures of Tron Bonne, although with deeper combat and without its inherent whimsy. Although the intro really threw me off guard, as there's voice acting, and our main character is played by Spike Spencer. Having Shinji's voice for your main character isn't a good start...but gameplay was definitely interesting. I still don't like those dials for Shadow Hearts... I also picked up Brain Age. I'm very much digging it, even if it doesn't involve killing anything.

Death and Return was just an ultra-formulatic beat 'em up. However, you'd get a boss that looked like Doomsday, you could fly for a little bit...and you'd have an attack that looked like heat vision. With heroes like Spidey and Hulk, you have to "make do" with their "lesser" abilities like the webbing and huge jumps to navigate cities. With Supes, it's going to be harder to make a good, fun game. With Supes, you...fly. And good flying controls are hard, especially with a 3D camera. You're not going to be just flying around attacking baddies, no. You're going to be having to react fast to catch falling items, and there's a lot that can go wrong with a camera that isn't top notch.