Plano Skywalker

>>>I disagree. I think songs like One, Fade To Black, Eye Of The Beholder, Disposable Heroes(personally, my favourite Metallica song) and For Whom The Bell Tolls display a lot more maturity than songs like Fuel, Better Than You, Ain't My Bitch and The Struggle Within (which I have dubbed 'It Cuts Itself').<<< I think Fade To Black is one of the best songs ever captured on plastic...PERIOD. The others you mentioned are also very good. I like the false ending in Master of Puppets....good stuff. I like Bleeding Me and Until It Sleeps (from Load). I like Metallica's cover of Turn the Page and Whiskey in the Jar. >>>Besides that, the guitar in post Black Album is too much rhythm. Kirk is horribly underused. Especially on St. Anger, where there are no solos whatsoever.<<< I read that the Slayeresque rythym guitar in St Anger was something of a return to their roots. Problem is, their roots also included solo lead guitar than can rival anything Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, or any of the rest of them are doing. How or why they ever decided to do that is beyond me. Hopefully, they will get it next time.

the way to use Revan is in the role of a grand strategist, not a swashbuckler (that's the PC).

Tool is a solid band, no question. They approach albums the way bands like Led Zepplin and Blue Oyster Cult do--an album is a complete thought, a musical novela. not just a couple of would-be hits and a bunch of filler.

dont' get me wrong, I actually like some AC/DC tracks just as I like some KISS tracks or Motley Crue tracks...but I know a good band from a gimmick band. of theirs, my favorites would have to be: TNT Hell's Bells (love that opening riff) She Shook She (love the intro)

of what you have there: 1) Led Zeppelin 2) Black Sabbath @ creep: I agree, the Beatles were a "boy band" and a gimmick band, although very good at what they did. but I am going to have to disagree about AC/DC....cheap gimmick band...a cool riff does not a song make.

Metallica wasn't the first band to tie it all together. There was Black Sabbath/Ozzie (a bit too dingy, but still very good stuff). There was Blue Oyster Cult (admittedly, a lighter sound). There was Led Zeppelin (lighter? yes, but way out there for its time). But Metallica just did it a little better than their predecessors, IMO.

the bottom line is that Revan must have a fate. while it would be tempting to just leave him dangling out there, it would also be really lame (KOTOR becomes Charlie's Angels and Revan is "Charlie") and terrible for the franchise, not to mention for the continuity writers. no, he cannot be playable and he cannot be left unresolved. that leaves two options: 1) his fate is revealed via dialogue (i.e. he died on such and such a planet). 2) he is a major, scripted character. I, personally, think option 1 is the safest bet but the least satisfying. Option 2 holds the most promise if they implement it right. And that would mean Revan is one of the heros who, along with the PC, saves the day. It would also mean letting the player determine Revan's previous alignment, gender, love interest, graphical sprite, etc if the player wants....you don't want to ambush the newbie with this stuff either.

Lynyrd Skynyrd managed to produce a few good hits but, underneath it all, (and going back to their roots), it was basically just druggie music.

is that where their fan base is? I thought people in the South listen to Alan Jackson, George Straight, Garth Brooks and so on. or is that just a lame attempt at an ad hom attack?

you are right, I was wrong on the chronology. sorry about that.

oh, I get it, Metallica is peddling identity to inbred white retards. gosh, I should have known.

will someone please explain to me how a band that hardly ever gets any air time is a sellout? they sell albums but get next to no air time. why? quality. they are a touring band that sell records based on word of mouth. it is easy to overrate excellence. and if Metallica is overrated, so be it.

I was referring to chronological order here. The idea that they "sold out" Black Album forward...that's bunk.

you really think "Seek and Destroy" is better than "Enter Sandman" or "Master of Puppets" or "One"? I don't think so. Metallica rules. Others imitate.

many feel as you do. however, I am also a blues fan and I thought the blues and country elements in Load were really well done. but Metallica faces the same problem as the other giants...they've already explored their "element". the only thing left is to explore someone else's territory. (hair bands are associated with a certain time...they had to loose the hair).

It is hard to do anything *original* these days. Everything has been done. We are seeing fusion between the genres, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but that also makes it harder to be *original*. on the lighter side of the spectrum, I think the following bands are actually underrated for their contribution in ushering in a new sound: Sting/Police REM U2 but even the mighty U2 slipped into tepid, highly commercial bubble gum music after a while...it happens. anyway, I worship at the shrine of the mighty Metallica. Of bands with a heavier sound, there has not been a greater band before or since. For all that heaviness, you can still understand the words, discern a message, and not get hit with an F BOMB every 5 seconds. Truely, a great band. Only Godsmack even comes close.

this changes nothing except that it is of historical/archeological interest....kind of like the Dead Sea Scrolls were a few years ago. apparently, this apocryphal book was known about to the early church fathers (who dismissed it like they dismissed other Gnostic texts) but, unlike other apocryphal books, there were no copies of this around in recent times...until now.

there are many "gospels" that did not make it into what Christians call "canon". The Gospel of St. Thomas is an example. Any book from that time that suggests the physical is inherently evil is Gnosticism, one of the earliest heresies. when it comes to textual criticism, there is "low criticism" and "high criticism". Adding or subtracting a book from canon would be high criticism. but speaking of criticism in general, there are a number of passages in the New Testament that textual critics say do not belong there, partly because the dialect changes from 1st or 2nd century to 4th or 5th century all of a sudden. one such passage is the story of the woman caught in adultery and "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". chances are, that is not really canon.

I like tabletop Warhammer....interesting thing about it: it is a MUCH better experience when both armies are very well painted. And I'm not really in it for the modeling aspect of it but it is just a much different experience. as fantasy settings go, it is a pretty brutal, dingy setting.

I agree that having "competing worldviews" would be desirable and, if there is an "official" religion, some backstory on how it got to be official would help. otherwise, I agree, we have something of a disconnect.

well, I think having Christianity as the predominate religion does help create the "high immersion/low fantasy" feel that is the franchise's stock-in-trade. they also have Buddist/Oriental elements and, of course, the Chinese language is the "other" language people speak. I just think it has to do with the setting. You can call someone a "good samaritan", for instance, and the audience knows what you are talking about. I self-identify as Christian and I generally like fictitious belief systems in fictitious settings but, somehow, I think this is one thing that makes Firefly/Serenity work.

I really think that giving the PC a surname, rather than a first name, "darth name", or "placeholder name" is the ticket to much more flexibility. if you have three games in which you place "Padawan Stargazer" then each player can decide for himself whether that Padawan Stargazer is the same character as in the previous game or a different person, such as a son or cousin, etc. but this would still allow for a lot of in-game backstory (about how your family is from such-and-such planet, are all Force Sensitive, etc).

the Evil Empire story arch has enough closure (in the movie Serenity) to stand on its own or to be explored further....A New Hope is a perfect example. heck, there could be a 2nd War of Independence...there is actually a lot they could still do with the present story. all I'm saying is that Mal and company will never be portrayed again as simple smugglers trying to stick it to the Man....they are now freedom fighters or something similar. Mal and company can never return to the small screen. I am hoping for another show based on this setting but it will be a different cast and different story.

I think this could be a multititle franchise a la Final Fantasy if they keep the stories and the characters really interesting and don't flirt too much with trying to make this something it is not (i.e. Jedi Knight). However, if there is a K4 they need to sit down and decide whether it is a stand-alone story or the first part of a trilogy before they do anything with it. Probably the best bet would be Mass Effect style....go ahead and map out the whole trilogy and pace the games accordingly. They can't just keep "leaving room"...that is soap opera and death for this kind of game.

right, they are the central characters in this story arch which will never be explored in a weekly show format again. if it is explored, it will be explored in movies. however, I think the (not so fantastical) setting (love the whole terraforming thing) would lend itself to a new show that is not on a firefly-class ship, is not based on smugglers, and has a completely new cast. the "evil empire" story arch we are in now has to be resolved with the 3 characters you mentioned....no question about it.