I would be more impressed if this weren't almost entirely due to the production numbers of each system.
Let's wait a few months until systems actually sit on the shelf before being purchased, instead of both systems selling out with each shipment. Then we'll see who's winning.
One suggestion I heard from someone a while back was Jack (the farmer) from Harvest Moon.
Hear me out, here. He has all the markings: Variety of weapons (scythe, hammer, hoe... watering can?), cartoony flavor (he looks great in Save the Homeland), and completely original. Come on, he could even pull out chickens / dog for attack or defense. It'd be great.
C'mon, Nintendo / HAL. Include Jack in SSBB and I'll buy a Wii for sure!
Blaster Master was probably the best of the books. It went a bit deeper and actually had a pretty interesting plot that built on the game quite a bit. It fleshed out the game a lot more (and better than the awful sequel for the game).
The only one I can think of that I didn't read was Wizards & Warriors. Before Shadowgate was okay for standard fantasy fare, Castlevania 2 had some decent narrative but one of the worst premises possible for a VG novelisation (gamer gets sucked into video game world), Infiltrator, Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear are pretty good novelizations but almost entirely action-based. As far as narrative, I'd say they're of somewhat lesser quality than Salvatore but the same idea - pretty much just action for the heck of it, main character(s) going around kicking terrorist / evil mastermind butt.
Most of the books were written by F.X. Nine, but I don't think all of them are - Metal Gear and Ninja Gaiden are the only ones I remember for sure. They're written mostly with children in mind, but I'd say they're a decent enough read for any age (I may be biased, because I still re-read them from time to time - they're good if you want a quick read and you can't get to sleep).
As an aside to the video game comment (and as yet another Japanese student) I would recommend starting off with NES or Genesis games.
Those games (for the most part) have very few kanji and a lot more hiragana and katakana, so it would be good practice to learn those character sets. If you can also find a dictionary program (I like JQuickTrans you can build up some vocabulary, particularly if the games are text-heavy. I started off with an NES adventure game by the name of Jesus, which was somewhat text-heavy (I had gone off of a couple years of classes, and I ended up writing an English script for it) - it had no kanji whatsoever and thus was extremely friendly. but even an action game would probably be okay as long as it has some text.
If you're going to try using video games to learn it, I recommend NOT starting off on an SNES (or later) game. There are far too many kanji in some games to easily start reading using them. That said, they can be good for building up knowledge of kanji if you're willing to go through and look them up.
In addition, video games should not be your only exposure to the language. As others have said, listening is important as well as speaking. If you're not afraid of a gung-ho approach, going there is a good way to build up that language - but then, as another poster mentioned, Japanese will not expect you to know the language at all, so you need to be outgoing about it.
Most of all, though, pick things you enjoy doing. If you start learning off okay, but start to lose interest, you'll start to lose any fluency you built up. Stick with it, and have fun! I know I have.
Actually, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written about the period of time usually referred to as the "Three Kingdoms" period, the end of the Han (~3rd century AD). The "Warring States" period was about 700 years earlier than that.
Koei's games got me interested not only in the Three Kingdoms period, but also in other similar conflicts in China & Japan, leading to a general interest in Chinese & Japanese history.
I heard that their next plan for a Dynasty Warriors-ish game is one set in the Hundred Years' War - it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
There are a lot of stages in history that can be made into the background of a great story, and I have a feeling that Koei's going to find even more. They did some nice experimenting a while back with Genghis Khan, Uncharted Waters, etc. and I'd like to see more of that done.
By the way, did you get "Pluvius" from Gemfire? Good game, I'd like to see it re-done.
If you're really curious, you can watch the Saturday morning show - the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" at tv.yahooligans.yahoo.com... you may have to browse a bit but it's there.
It was pretty bad. I've re-watched an episode or two and the jokes are all ridicuously corny. The best fact about the show is that (I've heard) the actor who played 'Luigi' was so completely unknown before the show that he was called Luigi on and off the set by the cast.
Their English pamphlet states that it's a simulator of the environment on the Earth, and that it's used to predict the effects of some events on the global environment.
I, like most of the/.ers in his country, didn't know what the new law meant. I decided to look it up out of curiousity...
Apparently, the law makes sure that workers keep their health insurance after they change jobs. It also is an attempt to standardize insurance transactions and privacy of health data.
Unfortunately I have yet to see one, but if you're interested in paying money, ROTK8 came out recently for the PS2. I don't know what the last one to come out for PC outside of Japan was (I think 6?) but you can find several of them at HOTU if you're looking for a shady, not-quite-legal method of getting the game(s) (unless of course you own the original).
As for 8, I can attest to its addictiveness. It gets a bit bland after awhile, but it's a game where it's hard to stop playing.
Actually, it's interesting to note that dwarves DID battle Sauron, though not in the same region. My version of ROTK (which is pretty old, but should still be similar to newer ones) has in its appendices a brief account of Brand and the Dwarves' battle with Sauron's allies in the North.
So in fact if he included dwarves rather than elves in the movie he would be following the book more closely.
Actually, having read Romance of the Three Kingdoms (which Dynasty Warriors is based on) I would like to point out that Liu Bei's life wasn't that fun. In fact, he spent most of his time lamenting the fact that he did this, or didn't do that, because otherwise he might've saved the Han.
If you want to read ROTK, which is roughly 2000 pages and is an awful lot like reading The Iliad and perhaps a bit like reading the Silmarillion, it can be found for free at www.threekingdoms.com.
I would also like to point out that the female characters are largely fictional. Sun ShangXiang is the only female character who is mentioned more than once or twice in the book. Of course, it's great that Koei actually chose to work with some female characters...
the artists get a measly 12 cents for each download.
From all the articles there have been about the artists under the RIAA, 12% is a hell of a lot better than the cut they get normally.
Sure, it's measly, but it's probably a step up. Here's to hoping it'll increase.
This thing looks remarkably like the classic GBA. So what's this do to make it appealing to older people who don't want the *gasp* horrible embarassment of pulling out a portable gaming device in public?
What're you going to do? Pull it out, getting scornful looks (according to Raiskinen) and then explain that no, it's not a GBA, it's a Nokia N-Gage (TM) which appeals to older audiences?
Then, thinking realistically, they're either going to be confused or they're still going to look at you the exact same way they did.
Of course, Nokia executives probably think their reaction will be to say "Whoaaa, cool, dude! Let's go skateboarding!", but then Raiskinen might think of the typical gamer as a skateboarding, trash-talking, rough-n-tough kind of guy. Something tells me that that's not close at all.
That's a really long time. I mean, really long. The universe is considered to be 15 to 20 billion years by most who decide to actually guess. That means that, if the universe is 20 billion years old... and 1 g of Bi-209 was produced at the beginning of the universe, it would take another 1.999999998*10^19 years before half of the Bi-209 was left. I wonder if our universe will even reach that age, if the big bang 'cycle' theory holds to be true.
After we had had some fun with some sodium and potassium in small quantities (less than 1g) my Chem teacher decided there wasn't any left and dumped the small amount left (Stored in hexane!) into the sink. The sink had a small amount of water in it. Small explosion occurred, and the hexane floating on the water caught fire. Thus, the sink appeared to be on fire. Completely unintentionally.
This during his evaluation...
Naturally, that was the most fun chem lab we ever did.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of slashdot comments, all requesting slashdot comments of beowulf clusters.
Can we even call them oceans?
on
Life on Pluto?
·
· Score: 1
"Ocean" usually involves liquid water...
Since Pluto is something like -180 C at its hottest, wouldn't that mean that all the water is frozen and hence the "oceans" are more along the lines of liquid forms of what we usually consider to be gases?
All I know is, I'm not swimming in liquid argon anytime soon. Much less sunbathing on top of the ice. At least, I hope not.
The only difference is, this time the company has a larger following... From what I've heard, X-Com Apoc (and UFO, probably put together) sold a LOT less than 6 million copies. If Blizzard gets, say, a 5% "return rate" for Starcraft: Ghost, that's 300,000 copies sold. That's quite a bit...
I've barely heard of X-Com: Enforcer... which, I'd imagine, is evidence it wasn't very good.
In any case, Blizzard knows how to make action games. Rock 'n Roll Racing was one of my favorites. Too bad I never bought it.
Slashdot Mirror
I would be more impressed if this weren't almost entirely due to the production numbers of each system.
Let's wait a few months until systems actually sit on the shelf before being purchased, instead of both systems selling out with each shipment. Then we'll see who's winning.
I haven't watched it in a while, but I believe he also tells her "This guy's a real nerd (otaku), isn't he?".
One suggestion I heard from someone a while back was Jack (the farmer) from Harvest Moon.
Hear me out, here. He has all the markings: Variety of weapons (scythe, hammer, hoe... watering can?), cartoony flavor (he looks great in Save the Homeland), and completely original. Come on, he could even pull out chickens / dog for attack or defense. It'd be great.
C'mon, Nintendo / HAL. Include Jack in SSBB and I'll buy a Wii for sure!
Blaster Master was probably the best of the books. It went a bit deeper and actually had a pretty interesting plot that built on the game quite a bit. It fleshed out the game a lot more (and better than the awful sequel for the game).
The only one I can think of that I didn't read was Wizards & Warriors. Before Shadowgate was okay for standard fantasy fare, Castlevania 2 had some decent narrative but one of the worst premises possible for a VG novelisation (gamer gets sucked into video game world), Infiltrator, Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear are pretty good novelizations but almost entirely action-based. As far as narrative, I'd say they're of somewhat lesser quality than Salvatore but the same idea - pretty much just action for the heck of it, main character(s) going around kicking terrorist / evil mastermind butt.
Most of the books were written by F.X. Nine, but I don't think all of them are - Metal Gear and Ninja Gaiden are the only ones I remember for sure. They're written mostly with children in mind, but I'd say they're a decent enough read for any age (I may be biased, because I still re-read them from time to time - they're good if you want a quick read and you can't get to sleep).
As an aside to the video game comment (and as yet another Japanese student) I would recommend starting off with NES or Genesis games.
Those games (for the most part) have very few kanji and a lot more hiragana and katakana, so it would be good practice to learn those character sets. If you can also find a dictionary program (I like JQuickTrans you can build up some vocabulary, particularly if the games are text-heavy. I started off with an NES adventure game by the name of Jesus, which was somewhat text-heavy (I had gone off of a couple years of classes, and I ended up writing an English script for it) - it had no kanji whatsoever and thus was extremely friendly. but even an action game would probably be okay as long as it has some text.
If you're going to try using video games to learn it, I recommend NOT starting off on an SNES (or later) game. There are far too many kanji in some games to easily start reading using them. That said, they can be good for building up knowledge of kanji if you're willing to go through and look them up.
In addition, video games should not be your only exposure to the language. As others have said, listening is important as well as speaking. If you're not afraid of a gung-ho approach, going there is a good way to build up that language - but then, as another poster mentioned, Japanese will not expect you to know the language at all, so you need to be outgoing about it.
Most of all, though, pick things you enjoy doing. If you start learning off okay, but start to lose interest, you'll start to lose any fluency you built up. Stick with it, and have fun! I know I have.
Actually, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written about the period of time usually referred to as the "Three Kingdoms" period, the end of the Han (~3rd century AD). The "Warring States" period was about 700 years earlier than that.
-TK nerd
Koei's games got me interested not only in the Three Kingdoms period, but also in other similar conflicts in China & Japan, leading to a general interest in Chinese & Japanese history.
I heard that their next plan for a Dynasty Warriors-ish game is one set in the Hundred Years' War - it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
There are a lot of stages in history that can be made into the background of a great story, and I have a feeling that Koei's going to find even more. They did some nice experimenting a while back with Genghis Khan, Uncharted Waters, etc. and I'd like to see more of that done.
By the way, did you get "Pluvius" from Gemfire? Good game, I'd like to see it re-done.
If you're really curious, you can watch the Saturday morning show - the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" at tv.yahooligans.yahoo.com ... you may have to browse a bit but it's there.
It was pretty bad. I've re-watched an episode or two and the jokes are all ridicuously corny. The best fact about the show is that (I've heard) the actor who played 'Luigi' was so completely unknown before the show that he was called Luigi on and off the set by the cast.
Their English pamphlet states that it's a simulator of the environment on the Earth, and that it's used to predict the effects of some events on the global environment.
I, like most of the /.ers in his country, didn't know what the new law meant. I decided to look it up out of curiousity...
Apparently, the law makes sure that workers keep their health insurance after they change jobs. It also is an attempt to standardize insurance transactions and privacy of health data.
Source: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/
Unfortunately I have yet to see one, but if you're interested in paying money, ROTK8 came out recently for the PS2. I don't know what the last one to come out for PC outside of Japan was (I think 6?) but you can find several of them at HOTU if you're looking for a shady, not-quite-legal method of getting the game(s) (unless of course you own the original). As for 8, I can attest to its addictiveness. It gets a bit bland after awhile, but it's a game where it's hard to stop playing.
Actually, it's interesting to note that dwarves DID battle Sauron, though not in the same region. My version of ROTK (which is pretty old, but should still be similar to newer ones) has in its appendices a brief account of Brand and the Dwarves' battle with Sauron's allies in the North.
So in fact if he included dwarves rather than elves in the movie he would be following the book more closely.
Actually, having read Romance of the Three Kingdoms (which Dynasty Warriors is based on) I would like to point out that Liu Bei's life wasn't that fun. In fact, he spent most of his time lamenting the fact that he did this, or didn't do that, because otherwise he might've saved the Han. If you want to read ROTK, which is roughly 2000 pages and is an awful lot like reading The Iliad and perhaps a bit like reading the Silmarillion, it can be found for free at www.threekingdoms.com.
I would also like to point out that the female characters are largely fictional. Sun ShangXiang is the only female character who is mentioned more than once or twice in the book. Of course, it's great that Koei actually chose to work with some female characters...
the artists get a measly 12 cents for each download. From all the articles there have been about the artists under the RIAA, 12% is a hell of a lot better than the cut they get normally. Sure, it's measly, but it's probably a step up. Here's to hoping it'll increase.
This thing looks remarkably like the classic GBA. So what's this do to make it appealing to older people who don't want the *gasp* horrible embarassment of pulling out a portable gaming device in public? What're you going to do? Pull it out, getting scornful looks (according to Raiskinen) and then explain that no, it's not a GBA, it's a Nokia N-Gage (TM) which appeals to older audiences? Then, thinking realistically, they're either going to be confused or they're still going to look at you the exact same way they did. Of course, Nokia executives probably think their reaction will be to say "Whoaaa, cool, dude! Let's go skateboarding!", but then Raiskinen might think of the typical gamer as a skateboarding, trash-talking, rough-n-tough kind of guy. Something tells me that that's not close at all.
Can we buy them for other people? I can think of several who deserve the 'honor' of being the first person to di- err, I mean, land on Mars.
That's a really long time. I mean, really long. The universe is considered to be 15 to 20 billion years by most who decide to actually guess. That means that, if the universe is 20 billion years old... and 1 g of Bi-209 was produced at the beginning of the universe, it would take another 1.999999998*10^19 years before half of the Bi-209 was left. I wonder if our universe will even reach that age, if the big bang 'cycle' theory holds to be true.
Nah, just the "equivalent" of three-hundred and twenty one separate studios... you know how it works.
Obviously, they only just recovered from the Oct. 15 slashdotting.
After we had had some fun with some sodium and potassium in small quantities (less than 1g) my Chem teacher decided there wasn't any left and dumped the small amount left (Stored in hexane!) into the sink. The sink had a small amount of water in it. Small explosion occurred, and the hexane floating on the water caught fire. Thus, the sink appeared to be on fire. Completely unintentionally. This during his evaluation... Naturally, that was the most fun chem lab we ever did.
"My modem is slower than mud"...
Imagine a beowulf cluster of slashdot comments, all requesting slashdot comments of beowulf clusters.
"Ocean" usually involves liquid water... Since Pluto is something like -180 C at its hottest, wouldn't that mean that all the water is frozen and hence the "oceans" are more along the lines of liquid forms of what we usually consider to be gases? All I know is, I'm not swimming in liquid argon anytime soon. Much less sunbathing on top of the ice. At least, I hope not.
The only difference is, this time the company has a larger following... From what I've heard, X-Com Apoc (and UFO, probably put together) sold a LOT less than 6 million copies. If Blizzard gets, say, a 5% "return rate" for Starcraft: Ghost, that's 300,000 copies sold. That's quite a bit... I've barely heard of X-Com: Enforcer... which, I'd imagine, is evidence it wasn't very good. In any case, Blizzard knows how to make action games. Rock 'n Roll Racing was one of my favorites. Too bad I never bought it.
|\/|y |)0g 8 17.