[Ragnarok]

I played X-Wing Alliance and I didn't find it as good as TIE Fighter. The story wasn't as good imo (nothing beats getting on the order of the emperor), and all the missions with the family transport were boring to me.
Anyway, Alliance has some years already, hasn't it?
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"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[Diruo]

I agree that the Tie Fighter story is brilliant. And I suppose if you consider how old Tie Fighter is I suppose that it is a greater achievement than Alliance. But Alliance is better overall I think. The story IS good, once you get into it. And it's looong. The first missions are sort of tedious, yeah. But it is a SIM after all. And who says running a transport company is all fun, eh? Anyway, the family missions in the beginning serves as much as a tutorial as an introduction to the story.

I really like the idea of playing as a member of a family, neutral in the conflict but eventually having to choose sides. Without revealing too much: you come under imperial investigation and is forced to flee to the rebels where you become a rookie pilot, and then increase in ranks. That's when the game starts to kick-off.

The best thing about it is the mission simulator though.. where you can create a battle between any units you like. Including super star destroyers.. battle stations.. anything. And you can play them in multiplayer too!

Anyway, as you can tell, I really like this game


Edit:
It is some years old now, yeah. But it really is the only playable SW space sim on a new computer. And you can increase the detail levels loads and the resolution to 1600x1200 (I think). There is also fan-made detailed texture mods for it, I've noticed.

[Impaler]

The Shins - Oh Inverted World

Alright, I'm really starting to betray my indie leanings with this one. Nevertheless, this album comes highly recommended. If you don't come out of the other end of these 33 minutes a better person, then you should probably just go ahead and break all of your cd's. An easy top five entry into my list of "Perfect Albums" Edit: Oh, and they're from Albuquerque! Really, this is a personal bonus, but the fact that a band like this can come from my hickburg mid-metropolis gives me hope for the rest of us languishing creative types.
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QED, sort of.

[Diruo]

Just thought of something...

Cirque du Soleil!!

It's circus! Only it's better than circus. In fact, it's better than anything I have seen, heard, tasted. smelled since.. forever. Better than sex even!

They air part of their shows on telly sometimes, here in sweden. But they're also available on DVD and I know some were on torrent not long ago.

I've only seen Quidam and Dralion, and they are awesome. Listed them here.. might be more of them.. I don't know.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219593/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276866/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312571/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368647/

[insane007]

synj - Alien hominid was so damn good well I only played hte webgame, but if I had ps2 or gamecube I would buy it, I have xbox though . please release it on xbox for North america :O

[Ragnarok]

Diruo, I have to agree with you.
I've seen Quidam, Saltimbanco and Dralion and they are all awesome. I saw Dralion a month ago and our seats were a meter away from the scenario.
They are just awesome, it's not circus, it's art
(The videos are good, but they are nowhere as good as watching the show, with live music)

About Dralion, they premiered a new spectacle in Barcelona, with elastic beds, that was just awesome. It's a pitty it isn't in the DVD
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"Ever forward, my darling wind." -Master Yuppa
Seigetsu

[blck_productions]

Games
Half Life series for games
...Waiting for GTA San Andreas

Musiq
Amon Tobin
Aphex Twin
Autechre
Funkstorung
dj Teebee
Kruder & Dorfmeister
Lowfish
Anthony Rother
Dj Shadow
Woven Hand
16 Horsepower

Films
Spirited away +other studio GimLI-stuff
Leon
Reqiuem for a dream
Ghost in the Shell
Fargo
Oh brother where art thou
The big Lebowski
Black cat white cat
Underground
No U-turn


and lots more I forgot
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Dreams R free

[Capt. Fred]

Books
The Wind-Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
Art of Starwars III

Films
Belleville Rendezvous
Incredibles

Albums
Gary Burton & Makoto Ozon� - Virtuosi
Pat Metheney - Trio 99
Chick Corea - Expressions
Medeski, Martin & Wood - The Dropper

[lysander]

Freespace 2

Best. Game. Ever.

Released a few years ago on the pc, quite hard to get hold of a copy thesedays, they released the source code on it a while back since it didn't do too well.

Anyway, graphics are still top notch, one of the best story/plots ever in my opinion. Giant realtime space battles rule.

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOT! - memorable gaming experiance

Don't beleive me? these guys seem convinced:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005N99E/qid=1117119371/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/202-9527726-8371050

Seriously, I'd rant for a rather large length of time on this particular topic.
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Earth under attack by paper mache aliens; world leaders plead - 'Save us! Doctor Who!'

[pb]

Director Shane Meadows does some great British films...

[ozan]

i love kurosawa movies. did you like "the seven samurai"? try these:

the hidden fortress
sanjuro
ran
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ozan

[Impaler]

Haha, I'm collecting Kurosawa DVD's on the Criterion Collection. So.. freaking.. awesome..

More Japanese movies:

Youth of the Beast and Tokyo Drifter by Seijun Suzuki. Old school yakuza movies. Great action and great characters, done 30 years before Tarantino ripped them off.
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QED, sort of.

[ozan]

cool. i will check those out. i need to learn more about other japanese film makers besides kurosawa. do you have any books on him? i have enjoyed reading this one. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520220374/qid=1117731537/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-3357524-9232827

newschool: what do you think of takeshi "beat" kitono? i saw this http://imdb.com/title/tt0363226/ the other day. WOW. wow. loved it. he brings so many things together. violence, weird humor, breakdancing...
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ozan

[Impaler]

I'll quote myself on Zatoichi (from the previous page):

[ozan]

sorry.

and thanks.
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ozan

[Impaler]

Hush, written by Jeph Loeb, pencils by Jim Lee.

Possibly the greatest Batman comic ever done. Jim Lee (a personal hero) draws every character better than they've ever been drawn, and Jeph Loeb spins a dense, intriguing story involving just about every conceivable Batman villain. It's available in a two-volume trade paperback (OR hardback !! ! ! ), so go pick it up before the new Batman movie comes out and GIT PUMPED UP.
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QED, sort of.

[Bandados]

Thanks for reccommending The Wind-Bird Chronicle capt fred, it's a reet good book

More reccommendations:

la musique

Aphex Twin - Selected ambient works vol 2 - )good for terradactyls)
Squarepusher - hard normal daddy

Autechre - Amber
Aphex - Surfing on sine waves
Dj shaaadow - endtroducing, private press, brainfreeze

Dj Z Trip - Uneasy listening

[Impaler]

Steamboy- It's out on DVD now. This is the second movie by Katushiro Otomo, director of Akira and writer of several other great anime. Plot and dialogue are both a little bland, but the animation is by all means amazing. Machines are brought to life with what must have been painstaking precision. Explosions and steam and water fill the screens. Buy (or rent) this just for the raw spectacle.
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QED, sort of.

[Lunatique]

[watmough]

Bandados,i love entroducing.
i didnt see Grave of the Firelfies anywhere in here.
did any of you guys see Russian Ark,either?...its is pretty damn impressive.

[Impaler]

I know what you mean, Lunatique. I think the lack of character development was probably a result of overdevelopment in the rest of the movie. I don't know if ANYONE could possibly sustain a strong plot thread over 10 years of animation and production.

Watmough: Great suggestions! Grave of the Fireflies is the most tragically human movie I've ever seen. If you can get through it without choking up even a little, then you're probably a robot.

Russian Ark (shot in one 90-minute tracking shot, no cuts or editing) is one-half technical bravura and one-half fascinating look at the cultural history of one of the greatest nations on Earth.
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QED, sort of.

[watmough]

Impaler,haha,Grave of the Fireflies...i cried for a half an hour straight at the end of that movie.....never seen anything like it.

[Impaler]

Music: Sleater-Kinny, The Woods

Loud, furious punk with fascinating melodiousness. One of the freshest albums you'll hear this year.

Hey Capt. Fred, I can't believe I missed that you mentioned Haruki Murakami. Have you read Kafka on the Shore yet? I've just finished it for the second time and I must say, the man is a genius. He spins a tale so rich and dense in symbology, it's hard not to be swept along. In fact, I hereby recommend it to everyone. Read or die!
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QED, sort of.

[Impaler]

Melt Banana- (Cell-scape, Charlie or Scratch or Scritch)

Noise rock straight out of Tokyo. Pure chaos (unencumbered chaos, even) describes them best, ranking as perhaps the most intense band ever. Their sound is absolutely unique. It isn't quite metal or punk; the guitarist rarely resorts to straight riffing. Instead, he works with scratching and feedback to create a dense collage of surprisingly effective lines. The vocalist is a 5'1" package of tokyogirl FURY, and their bassist chooses to groove, instead of thrash. Their songs are incredibly dense; Melt Banana can fit more ideas into 1:53 than most bands can fit into an entire album. What truly sets Melt Banana apart, though, is their musicianship. Their songs are structured like the inside of watch; intricate, interlocking, precisely arranged. Melodies bubble up to the surface and disappear within seconds.

None of this is apparent on even the first few listens through. Be thee fairly warned: Melt Banana is a band for the patient. If you stay with them, though, the rewards can be nearly unyielding.
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QED, sort of.

[Naeem]

watmough> i love that movie. and i'm with you on the crying part. i was watching it with my friend, and i had to fight the tears back . i haven't seen anything lke it so far either. GREAT movie
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http://www.annisnaeem.blogspot.com/

[Affected]

I second the Takeshi Miike recommendation... Not necessarely Ichi the killer, which is probably the most infamous of his films... Gozu, Visitor Q, Happiness of the Katakuris are much better in my opinion. Visitor Q perhaps gets a bit lost in it's weirdness, but at least there's a sense that there's a point there. Kind of. Gozu is brilliant, Happiness of the Katakuris seems to be a real "fuck-you" directed at happy ending-films...

[Capt. Fred]

Impaler,

Yeah I read kafka on the shore which is very good.
but the wind up bird for me was a once step up: very very good.
Hardboiled something or other and the end of the world, also a classic

That guy is just � too good.
I only put Wind up bird down a few times (toilet, eating and The End), and each time found I needed a good adjustment period to reacquaint my body with reality, to remember my identity and my life. A bit like regaining hearing or sight from a deep sleep.