Analogue triggers are my biggest issue and I'd like the successor console to support them, even if the joy cons don't feature them. As to the other things on the list above some of them are genuinely leaving me scratching my head. Is the cart cover an issue? I've never had a problem with it and I don't exactly have small hands. I also don't understand why people want themes or menu music. I don't spend long enough on the home screen for me to care what it looks like so a minimalist design and intuitive UI is all I need. Also, as said a couple of days ago, there's no way to stop rubbish cheaply made games clogging it up. Who would you trust as the gatekeeper to determine what counts as an acceptable game? Unless it crashes to frequently to be playable or is in some other way broken then what possible metric can you use?
It's not a bad track, just not great. Her flow and voice reminds me of Missy Elliot which is no bad thing but whoever produced it should have done more than just put the lyrics over the top of the original theme. Goes way beyond fair use or paying for the use of a sample so it's leaving the track open to a copyright takedown.
I can't be the only person looking at these and wishing they'd do something similar for the first three Splinter Cell games. For me those were the pinnacle of stealth games, although I haven't replayed them for about 15 years.
Agreed. It's a fine line to tread but I'd like to think that if Nintendo were getting repeated complaints about a title they'd take a look for themselves and confirm whether or not it a broken mess. It doesn't help that the eshop leads you to believe refunds are impossible when you can actually complain directly to get a refund for a title if it is is in some way unplayable.
Yeah, it's not an easy thing to address. I think if a game has bugs that either mean you can't finish it, or frequent and reproducible crashes which wipe out progress then you should definitely be able to get a refund. I mean you can, if you want to go through the palaver of contacting Nintendo support and complaining to them, but it should be an easier process. That way Nintendo could remove games that are demonstrably broken. Minor bugs are a different matter though. I've got some big name releases that suffer from annoying bugs but to an extent that's just a given with software. It's hard to test every single possible combinations of events and inputs and the more complex a game is the more likely it is to introduce bugs that aren't caught by the devs. I don't think there's a right answer really, but personally I'd rather have to put up with wading through some trash in order to open up the eshop to more games. You just have to be a bit more careful about what you buy and do some research before making a purchase. But that's always been the case, even going back to my first foray of buying games on the ZX Spectrum.
And, just to throw in a real outlier, Wrestling Empire had some massive bugs in it but they made me laugh so much during the demo that I immediately bought the thing at full price. I've got hours of fun out of it, bugs and jank and all. More fun than ever I got out of Witcher 3, for example.
Sorry if it came across that way, not my intention at all. The comment about mental health issues was intended to show that the comment was tongue-in-cheek. I understand exactly what you're saying and don't dispute it. My point was that those groups are very firmly outliers and not representative of anyone who has their hat on straight.
And there were a group that tried to ban D&D in the 80's, and then another group tried to ban Harry Potter. But let's exclude people with obvious mental health issues.
@DegenerateStar @OldManHermit
In the UK it's referred to as drink driving. Because you don't need to be smashed to be dangerous.
That's the part I don't get. They can obtain a PEGI rating without any involvement from PEGI. You'd think that from their point of view it's something they want to stamp out for exactly this sort of situation. Most people won't be aware of the ins and outs so it will just erode trust in their rating system entirely.
Likewise for Nintendo allowing that to happen instead of, as you suggest, making such games use an 'un-rated by PEGI' label.
But that's not really workable in practice. Who gets to decide what's a 'valid' game and what isn't?
I've got a game which is essentially a port of an unfinished mobile game, it's almost permanently on sale and most of the assets are from a generic set bought by the dev. But I love it because it's basically a beefed-up version of Super Melee mode from Star Control II. By most people's definition it's trash but I've sunk hours into it.
On the flipside, I'd personally be more likely to kick something like L.A. Noire off the store because it's massively overpriced and, due to the fact that you basically can't fail, I don't even consider it to be an actual game.
Also, I'd hate to lose backwards compatibility (assuming it's coming) just to clean out the eShop of somebody else's definition of acceptable games.
Thanks for the additional context. I'd assumed that for a game submitted to a major distribution platform someone at PEGI would at least check the game's description and screenshots to ensure that they aren't wildly at odds with the content the publisher has claimed on the submission form.
While it's a stupid idea for a game I don't think there can be much moral uproar when nobody bats an eyelid at stuff like GTA.
I'm more surprised at the rating. Surely when the inclusion of alcohol would make the minimum be a teen rating?
I personally have more of a problem with a game I saw recently called Favella Zombie Shooter. There's something repugnant about trawling through one of worlds nastiest slums gunning down poor people. I'd much rather be going through the glass and steel skyscrapers the rich dwell in with a shotgun but that's just me.
I totally agree. And it was very sweet of him. He was about 13 at the time, just learning his craft by putting some stuff together in LMMS. He also did me a chiptune version of What Is Love by Hadaway.
What I forgot to add in earlier is that stuff like learning the language of cinema and how to write good, natural, dialogue can easily be learnt from a book or even from just watching other people's stuff and paying close attention to what works and what doesn't.
I'm not trying to act like some gatekeeper with that comment, it's just that there are ways to do those things well and then there are, other ways. But anybody is capable of learning them quite easily, with a bit of diligence and research and what have you.
(OK, I'm starting to realise that you, me and the comment limit on this site are not a workable relationship)
I do still think there's a higher bar in terms of film-making than there is music-making, and that's simply because it takes a lot more moving parts to make a film. I think Primer is a great example of what you can do with some vision and passion and some willing friends, as is something as old-school as Man Bites Dog, but at the end of the day, and despite all the open source tech you can get for free, someone who properly understands lighting is hard to come by (and hugely underrated)
What a film really needs is someone who understands the language of cinema, and how to write dialogue, and how to edit a film properly to convey what you want to convey while cutting the bits that just aren't relevant (and as a sometime writer of 'things', I understand how hard it can be to cut something you're pleased with even if it just doesn't fit).
And what you also need is to find some 'actors' who are comfortable on camera and I think that's one of the hardest things. I may be able to imagine how a scene I've written should be played in my head but damn is unexpectedly hard to be natural when that lens is focused on you.
My go to example for this is the video to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Every time I watch that vid all I can do is imagine the director screaming at the band "Is there any chance you guys can walk down the street like normal effing people?! I mean, is it that hard? You walk all day every day. Just walk from here - to there - like a normal person".
I think I may have lost the thread a little, but I do totally agree that we are on the verge of seeing a whole new wave of directors and cinematic styles coming in. And some of it will be stuff that I detest, and no doubt I'll at some point watch some low budget nothing and it will really speak to me. And that's pretty much the way it has always been. The same, but different.
Hello chap. I just realised that you made a very, very prescient comment earlier to which I didn't respond. Largely because I nodded in total agreement and internalised what you said but I felt it was worth coming back to acknowledge it properly.
You mentioned how much easier and cheaper it is for amateurs to get into the film game what with the advent of digital cameras and how that will, yet again, change the industry.
I totally agree, and think it's actually been a long time coming. I remember hearing the cinematographer (is that even the right term) for Gladiator, which was released about a hundred years ago now, mentioned that he bought all the kit he used for the film from Tottenham Court Road, and later that 28 Days Later was specifically filmed using digital footage because the 'frame shortening' effect (again, not sure if that's the correct term) made all the action sequences seem that much more kinetic and brutal. But it's still taken a long time for that to percolate down to the level of where it's almost at 'any idiot with an idea and a phone' can make a film.
To extent that has been true since the advent of handheld (or at least shoulder-carryable) VHS recorders, but only if you want your film to look like an extended episode of Eastenders.
Now though, we really are at the cusp of the democratisation of film-making, a point which music reached a fair few years ago, and which has all its own benefits and drawbacks. It's great that anyone with an idea and some friends to help out can make a film, and lots of them will be crap, but plenty of films with massive budgets and experienced crews will turn out to be barely watchable bilge for a variety of reasons that you're far more familiar with than I am.
But broadly, it's a Good Thing. I do hope we don't end up with too many Birth of a Nation style nonsense being made but that's the thing with genies and bottles and we have to accept the results.
Although, my Eternal Enemies list is getting kind of crowded. Do you mind if I just add you in pencil for now, on a sort of trial basis?
And that remix was pretty sweet. My son made me a remake of the original Spectrum theme for my birthday a couple of years ago. I stuck the MP3 on my phone and I love it when it pops up when I put all songs on random shuffle.
I think it's doable, but it would be unlike most other shooters. Off the top of my head, here's how I'd set it up:
At the start, as you say, you're almost invincible. Slow-moving but pretty much bulletproof (apart from the occasional enemy armed with a Cobra Assault Cannon, EMP weapon or similar).
As you progress through the game (and bearing in mind that it's called Rogue City so I'm assuming Old Detroit has largely fallen to the gangs) there are certain plot moments where you take large amounts of damage and become more vulnerable. Armour takes a hit and you have limited or no opportunities to repair it, loss of thermal vision. If you lose the visor/front helm you can get ganked by a sniper in one hit. Maybe your targetting system doesn't lock on properly so it either targets things that aren't enemies or just decreases accuracy unless you (optionally) turn it off.
That way the game becomes harder as you go through, requiring more skill to progress, but still gives you the feeling of being Robocop and ties into the theme of the first film.
I've heard of Tusk but wasn't at all sure about it. I think partly because it was made from the start as a joke film based on a joke plot I sort of wrote it off, and I think yours is the first mention I've heard of it since it was announced. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm looking for something to watch.
My plan for tomorrow evening is to see if I can convince the missus to sit and watch Salute of the Jugger with me, because she's never seen it and I love it to bits. Then again, that's always bit of a minefield with her.
I got her to watch the aforementioned Vamp and about 20 minutes in she turned to me and said "You know this is rubbish, don't you?" Likewise, after getting her to watch the first 20 minutes of Johnny Mnemonic she asked "Is all the acting supposed to be this wooden?" So I may stop giving her the opportunity to apply her withering critical skills to films I love.
In which case I'll turn my attention to Bone Tomahawk, a horror/western with Kurt Russell (absolute legend, who else could be Plissken, Burton and Macready?)
I only noticed it because I've recently watched two other films by the same director. Dragged Across Concrete is a supremely well-done neo-noir affair that feels so much like a James Ellroy story I had to check he wasn't involved (he wasn't). And Brawl on Cell Block 99 is one of the most brutal and well done grindhouse films I've seen in a long time. Vince Vaughn plays the lead and it's not a role I'd ever have expected him to attempt, let alone carry off so well.
Both films also feature Udo Kier, another favourite character actor of mine. His voice alone makes him supremely watchable, let alone how many good films he's popped up in.
I've not watched that before but it was brilliant and does totally tie in with what we've been discussing.
I too love Kevin Smith and have so much time for his films and his general sense of humour and geeky love of geeky stuff. Love Clerks, still quote Mallrats to this day, etc.
I watched Jay & Silent Bob Reboot last year and I had tears in my eyes at some points. Not just because it's so funny and brings back some of the best characters from his earlier films but also because it feels like his vindication after spending a few years in the wilderness. And it also ties into the themes of him returning to those iconic characters with a few more years under his belt and scars on his hide and he uses it not just as a chance to rail against the inanities of the film industry but also to send himself up massively and who he sort of turned into at his 'worst' moments.
And in addition to all of that, it referenced How High (which I love) and then Reggie and Meth turned up in an absolutely perfect scene. That part definitely got me.
Along with the stuff about Jay actually almost growing up a little bit. Probably about as much as I've grown up, to be fair.
We really are very, very similar. I'm also very good at not watching things to avoid disappointment. For example, I've only ever watched the first Matrix film. Absolutely loved it, loved the cinematography and world-building, loved the way it fits gnostic theories and Plato's Cave into a really cool superhero origin story. I heard the sequel wasn't a patch on it and decided I wouldn't bother. Game of Thrones is interesting too. I've never watched it because I read the first book when it came out and really didn't enjoy it. I later heard some not at all nice things about Martin which totally put me off any of his work so I've never had any interest in watching the show. Likewise Star Trek. I heard enough bad things about the films to know I had zero interest in sitting through them so I've never bothered. I do totally understand that JJ wasn't in total control of it and I think he was handed a hack script to work from in the first place. I loved Monsters though. Totally not what I was expecting but such an entralling film. Godzilla looked terrible from the first trailer though so again, I skipped it.
I'm the first to admit that my tastes are weird and insanely idiosyncratic so I know I'm not the target audience for most things. That's probably why I spend so much time reading rather than watching. It's much easier to do what you want when the budget is your imagination and the cost of getting it out there in front of the audience is miniscule compared to being handed millions to produce a film and knowing it has to make a decent return or it'll probably be your last job. Hence authors have a lot more leeway than directors, and the project involves fewer creative types so can be more focused on what the creator wants to say. I understand there are still editors and agents and publicists involved, but if I want to write a description of a room I don't have to worry about the lighting director and director of photography sticking their oars in and arguing they'd like to set it up the way Boorman would or that someone thinks the audio should be mixed in from an exterior location because it works for Soderbergh so well.
I also think there are some big shifts in the film industry that mean the things I enjoyed when I was younger are unlikely to ever be made in the same way. You had the out-there stuff in the 60's that then fed it into the indie directors of the 90's who then got co-opted into the big studios when they realised people were raving about tiny films by tiny directors and who wouldn't want to be given a huge budget and access to incredible actors for their next project.
At the end of the day it's an industry and that means the industrialisation of creativity towards turning a profit. It's awesome if you can do stuff you're truly passionate about and have the luxury to do that but everyone has to put food on the table and the chance to do that while working at creating something/anything is an awesome opportunity. And even though I may complain about the bean counters and executives, you can't expect them to splurge millions on a film only 4 people will ever actually enjoy. While I may feel the industrialisation has gone way too far, they're not running a cinematic charity for tortured artists.
I see what you're saying about Awakens being a film by committee, and maybe I'm being a little harsh on it, but it pretty much did exactly what I didn't want to see and I suppose I assumed that JJ had much more creative license because of who he is (and how it seemed to confirm a lot of my worst suspicions about his style of film-making).
Interesting that you should mention Heroes as well, as that was one of the things that put the final nail in the coffin of my TV watching. I'm not sure how much of it was due to the strike, but I loved the first series and then it just seemed to lose its way. They forgot which powers Peter Petrelli had so he did stupid things (or it was just for plot reasons which is just as bad) and the whole thing seemed to get stuck in retreading what came before instead of moving forwards (which may indeed be due to the strike). I stopped watching after the episode where he escaped prison with a bunch of villains then watched one of them fry a guy to steal his car and just seemed to sort of shrug it off. Totally out of character for the way they'd built him and I just didn't go back. More than that though, it was a bigger thing about US TV and how you can largely just watch the recap at the start of each episode and not miss much at all. It felt like storylines are too often padded out to fill the episode quota which dilutes the strength of the story and leads to hours of meaningless chaff. I understand that a lot of that is due to the demands of the networks and money-men but at the end of the day it's not what I'm interested in spending time on. Shame about Heroes though, especially as it had Djimon Houson in it and I'll watch him in pretty much anything.
Then again, I realise I'm a massive outlier when it comes to film and TV, and quite hard to please in a lot of ways, while at the same time being insanely forgiving in others. Which possibly explains why I give Ritchie so much time. His stuff is like comfort food for me, pulpy and silly but ultimately entertaining and it appeals to my sensibilities as English bloke who's bored of seeing US culture reguritated endlessly.
I mean, I'm the guy who give you about an hour long monologue on why Vamp is such an amazing film, delving into theories that were probably never in the director's head. It's campy and crappy and yet at the same time I absoutely love every bloody second of it. And not just because many of those seconds feature Grace Jones.
I totally see what you're saying about Awakens needing to introduce a new generation to the series, but my take on that is that before I took my son to see it, I sat down with him and we watched the original trilogy together, and I kind of assumed most other people would have done the same. I also have great memories of my dad taking me along to watch all 3 in a back-to-back showing when I was probably around 6 or 7. He had no idea how long it was going to be, and this was before the days of mobile phones so mum went absolutely ballistic when we got back. She thought we'd been kidnapped or something.
And it's very easy for me to be opinionated/obnoxious about this stuff because I'm very much an outsider with an educated interest (I did a degree in writing). In my defence, I'm equally passionate about stuff I love so I think it sort of balances out. Or possibly not. JJ may be a lovely bloke and have done a lot of cool things, but I'm not a big fan of most of his stuff. I liked Cloverfield (mostly because it was a fun monster movie and the meta-media stuff around it was really interesting and well done). I had no time for Lost, thought it was boring from the start and when they revealed that they just made stuff up and left it to work out what it all meant later it was like a textbook example of how not to set up a mystery. If you don't know where it's going when you start then why should I want to follow it along? There's no cohesion or internal logic to follow, it's just chucking weird stuff at a wall and then cobbling together a way to explain it after the fact.
As to Tarantino, I love some of his stuff, other bits I think are where he disappeared up his own arse a bit. He's incredibly talented, and very good at taking stuff he loves and putting his own spin on it. I also really like that most of his films are set in his own universe. I didn't enjoy the Grindhouse films particularly, because I felt it was a bit too self-indulgent and both he and Rodriguez were selling themselves short (I love Rodriguez too, I've a very well-thumbed copy of Rebel Without A Crew around here somewhere and if I ever do make a low-budget film it will very much act as my bible on how to work around your limitations). I didn't enjoy Inglorious Basterds at all. It felt too much like a bunch of charicatures and too little like it's own thing. Also, I'm not at all a fan of Eli Roth, either as a director or actor. With Ritchie, I love Lock Stock and Snatch, even though they felt very much like he was doing an English Tarantino. I quite like Revolver despite its flaws because I can see what it was aiming for. The Sherlock films were surprisingly good as well, and even though Wrath of Man felt fairly deriviative it was a decent enough flick. I didn't go a bundle on Rockanrolla because it felt like 2 or 3 ideas wedged together (although the Archie Slap is an absolute truism). I thought The Gentlemen was a return to form and I quite liked the Austin Fortune film because for me it felt like him doing his own version of a Matt Helm caper and I'm always up for a bit of campy 60's-inspired spy action. I think with Ritchie, I love a lot of what he does, but I'm weirdly a little bit surprised that I like them as much as I do. I think I keep waiting to be disappointed and yet he keeps pulling it out of the bag, even when he sort of doesn't.
I hit the length limit on that one so here's the rest of it:
Your mentioning of the TV stuff realised I was unintentionally dishonest earlier though. I did actually sit down with the missus and watch the first series of The Mandalorian and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Yes it uses a few too many elements from the original trilogy but I suppose they had to stick a Yoda and a Skywalker in to make it seem like it wasn't completely separate from the rest of the Star Wars universe.
I liked the setting, I liked the direction, I loved some of the characters and it's the first time in years that I've watched something that actually felt like Star Wars. I also loved the way it was largely a spaghetti western take on Star Wards and the fact that it managed to make the Mandalorians themselves actually fit into the rest of the universe with a proper explanation for who they were that gelled with the original trilogy while not doing the same reductive crap that Awakens did. I haven't watched the Boba Fett series yet but I do plan on getting round to it. It's just that apart from the odd thing here and there I haven't watched TV for over 20 years now and it's not something I feel a great urge to do very often.
I do stand by my complaints about Awakens though. It was Abrams at his CTRL+C>>CTRL+V worst. He's made a career out of knocking off Lucas and Spielberg and I know it's a very personal thing as to whether you consider something a loving homage or a pedestrian rip-off but I know which side of the fence I'm on when it comes to his films. It's a shame because I think he's actually quite a talented director, and I don't have a problem with wearing your inspiration on you sleeve. But my personal opinion is that you need to take the things you love and that inspire you and put them together in a new way with your own creative spin on it. Not just jumble the same elements about a bit and wait for the audience to applaud.
I'm trying (and struggling slightly) to think of a good rcent example what I mean. Musically it's easy for me to hold up Janelle Monae and sceam "This! This is what I'm talking about!" until I run out of oxygen. She's equal parts Bowie and Prince and Queen but it's clear those are inspirations, not blueprints and she adds her own incredibly magic to that. Filmwise, I suppose Mandy is a sort of good example. It's inspired by pulp 'mens adventure' novels and grindhouse trucker films mixed with those sort of weird old sci-fi/horror films like From Beyond and The Keep and it just works so well because it also has it's own feel and themes and remains logically consistent throughout.
But it's all very subjective and personal and I could see why others would look at Mandy and think it totally derivative. I suppose for me it's whether or not I can see that the creator has their own vision that comes through, or whether it just feels like they're doing it because somebody else did and it was popular. Not that I claim to know one way or the other, it's very much a 'feeling' thing, but I like to think I can tell when someone is being 'authentic', whatever that may mean.
That's an interesting read, and I did worry previously that I'd upset you with my previous comments. I also get the idea of indie directors 'stepping up' and being given a big project to work on, and it's not something I'm against in principal, I just see it failing so often because the director isn't a good fit for the project, or the project itself isn't that good but once they've signed on they either see it to the end or bow out and (I'd assume) pretty much burn all their bridges in the filthy town that is Hollywood. I don't recall the last time someone pulled an Alan Smithee although I know some people still do walk away from projects but the power imbalance between indie director and massive studio is so ridiculously one-sided that it's not an option for most people.
As to Lucas, I don't hate him at all, I don't even hate the prequel trilogy particularly, but I don't think they're very good films and I think that the more you delve into the Star Wars universe, the more you expose the flaws in its conception that David Brin exposed in his essay about it. What I loved about Star Wars as a child, without even consciously realising it at the time, and what set it apart from so many other similar films at the time (and this is speaking as a huge fan of Corman's work and Battle Beyond The Stars in particular) is that Star Wars felt like a massive universe into which we were seeing a tiny slice. The more films they make, and the more the dwell on the same characters, planets and situations, the smaller that universe seems. It starts to become a morality play (with a fairly warped set of morals) around a single family and that's something I never felt it was about with the first trilogy simply because it 'felt' like there was a much larger universe outside of the Skywalkers playing their 'divine right of kings' game.
As I mentioned previously, my issue with Awakens was that it just felt like picking some iconic scenes from the first trilogy and cramming them into a new film with a lot of nudges towards the fanbase to get them to accept the new characters. They essentially took the ending of Jedi, moved it forwards 10 years and then reset it all back to the way it was at the start of A New Hope, so they could retread the same ground. Oh, and the Rebellion have had a rebrand, changed their colour scheme from red to blue, and then called themselves the Resistance. By definition 'Resistance' is less forceful than 'Rebellion'.
Interesting mention of Nostromo vibes. I was just looking at the keyboard version and thinking how much I wish modern tech looked more like the future we were promised in the 80's. The GRiD Compass from the Sulaco is one of the coolest pieces of kit I've ever seen and I'm determined at some point to get hold of one. Even just the casing that I can stick a Raspberry Pi into and torture my family by yelling "Hudson, run a bypass" whenever I fire it up. That and connecting it to a Nerf minigun on a tripod I can set up as a sentry gun in the hallway when I want some peace and quiet.
I think my issue is that the more she tried to introduce larger concepts the more ham-fisted her execution became. And I think I previously ranted to you about my thoughts on Jar-Jar Abrams* and his contribution to the Star Wars universe.
*I'm conviced JJ stands for Jar-Jar, they're the only two who have done about equal levels of harm to the franchise. Except for maybe Lucas himself, but it's his baby so I suppose he's free to mutilate it as much as he wants.
Alan Moore is a difficult one, partly because he's a particularly difficult character himself, and partly because his work contains so many themes and layers that it's almost as though they're delibrately designed to only work in his chosen medium. Which I can respect. I agree with your sumaries of both V For Vendetta and Watchmen as films. Similar to Constantine. I think it's a great urban fantasy film, and I think Keanu Reeves is geat. But he's not John Constantine and it's not a Constantine film.
Fair play to Rowling for taking that stance, as I can understand how easy it must be to just take the money and accept that your art it going to be crassly exploited. I'm reminded of Lucas's comments about selling Star Wars to Disney being like selling his kids into slavery, but he wasn't exactly short of a bob or two so I'm not really sure why he did that. I haven't been at all impressed with the results. Except for maybe that Star Wars LARP hotel they've made, which massively appeals to my inner child. Personally I can't stand Harry Potter though. In my opinion it's a series of OK books that tread an exceptionally familiar path of that whole 'secretly you are the special one' which I think is pretty damaging and I'm much more into tales about the everyman hero, or massively flawed characters of the type Ellroy is so enamoured with. Added to that, and something that I truly despise, Potter bought about the recent surge of grown adults reading kids books and gushing about them as though they're somehow amazing. It makes me despair when I look at the massive amount of incredible novels out there (I've got about a thousand books here that I've built up over the years, mostly by scouring charity shops for interesting bits and pieces of old sci-fi, noir, etc) and see that instead of reading something that can explain a facet of the human condition or explore the world around us, people are diving into simplistic plots and paper-thin characters that are literally intended for an audience of minors and are just regurgitating the same pap we tell kids because we don't want to expose them to the reality of this world just yet.
I realise I probably come off quite snobbish about it, which is not my intention, but I think that kids books and 'young adult' fiction have their places, but those places are for kids.
At this point I'm just an old man yelling at clouds though. So be it.
It's all very subjective though. 'My con is not your con' and all that. Personally I don't look for to a Mario game to be particularly challenging, but others here obviously want more challenge than this seems to present. Likewise, for some people 'no online' may be a con for any given game but it's completely irrelevant to me. And as to 'laughably easy' as a con, if I'm shopping for something for my 5-year old son to play, then it's not a con but almost a prerequisite. I take the list of pros and cons with a pinch of salt in the same way as I do the overall score. Everyone should add their own weighting to them based on what they like/want/need.
Yeah, the language of film is very different to prose and some things are 'easier' to achieve in each of them. It's about picking the medium that best suits what you have in mind. Although that's not possible when some studio exec is determined to turn a hugely popular novel into a money-spinning blockbuster.
And yes, I understand what you mean about buying rights to films just to effectively block their production for one reason or another. Similarly, you can get a director or producer who is determined to put their own spin on the subject matter. For example, I love Conan The Barbarian. Absolute classic, great actors and story, and yet it's tediously obvious the John Milnius applied his own politics to the piece. Hence Tulsa Doom reperesents the spectre of socialism with his 'mindless drones' of followers and his army of flower children standing in for the hippies that Milnius so detested. It doesn't stop it being a great film, but it's laughably clear that he was very much grinding a personal axe with the story.
EDIT: Then again, there are times when the translation to film works brilliantly. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is an interesting book, but a bit of a mess (symptom of a disordered mind and all that), and while Bladerunner substantially changes the story, the result is absolutely fantastic. Likewise, the original novel of Fight Club is about how the history of 'great men' has lead to modern men feeling like they can't live up to those that came before and so the agenda is to destroy all history by blowing up museums etc. The film shifted the focus to the way capitalism traps us in a hamster wheel of tedium and the agenda is to wipe out store cards, credit accounts and debt to free people from the burden on that. Far better than something like I Am Legend which completely misses the point of the entire book, which is that the vampires end up ruling the earth and, due to the protagonist's actions in killing them in their sleep and then killing himself before they can arrange a public execution, humans become the bogeymen of the nascent vampire civilisation.
Mentioning broken games has just brought back a flood of memories.
I got Knightmare on the Spectrum because I loved the TV series but I couldn't make it out of the first room. You were supposed to find a key to unlock the door but I never managed it. Still not sure if the game was actually broken or if it was just me being a colossal numpty.
Later I had a game on my first PC called Waxworks. All based on classic horror stuff. One section saw you in Victorian London and suspected of being behind the Ripper murders. You were supposed to break into a tailor's house for some reason or other but every time I tried I got caught by the fuzz and killed by an angry mob. In the end I phoned the publisher's tips hotline for the answer. Tried to apply it in game repeatedly but it didn't work. Phoned the tip line back distraught about my lack of progress and spoke to a lovely woman who said "Look love, I don't play these games, they just give me a script to read from. Give me your address and I'll send you the whole thing". And she actually did, the entire secret document on how to complete every single puzzle in the game. Still never managed to get into the sodding tailor's house though.
You being a C64 owner and me having had a Speccy would have made us natural enemies in the playground. 😆
It was a cracking game though. A surprising amount of stuff packed into it like the choice of cars you could buy at the start. I also loved the digitised "He slimed me" voice clip when a ghost got one of your guys.
I only played the 2009 version fairly recently when it released on Switch and I had a great time with it. It really did make me feel like a new recruit to the team and you could tell it was made with a lot of love for the series.
I remember the old Ocean movie tie-ins too. Some were great, others not so much. The theme to the RoboCop game is still one of my all time favourite pieces of game music. It's just fantastic.
The recent-ish Ghostbusters game was pretty sweet, but is indeed structured more like a modern 3rd-person shooter. I really enjoyed it though, absolutely nailed the Ghostbusters atmosphere.
I also played the original to death on the ZX Spectrum. The setup for that was that you were running a Ghostbusters franchise and had to earn money by taking down random ghosts to keep your business afloat, all the while the PK energy in the city was rising. At the end you had to get the Keymaster and Gatekeeper, take out Mr Staypuft and then face-off against Zhul. I absolutely loved playing it and I'd definitely be interested if something similar were released today.
This one looks more like Dead by Daylight et al. Online multiplayer, asymetrical teams and based on set maps. Not my sort of thing at all unfortunately.
Interesting that it's been optioned a couple of times and not actually made. Not that surprising though, as I think Ellroy's work is largely unfilmable without heavily bastardising what he originally wrote.*
For instance, I love LA Confidential as a film, but the novel has so many more layers, and they completely cut the sub-plot about his Walt-Disney-With-The-Serial-Numbers-Filed-Off being involved with all sorts of nastiness including a brutal serial killer.
I do love his work, even though it's not very pretty. Hope you enjoy American Tabloid. I love so much about that trilogy but I'll leave you to discover it for yourself. Pete Bondurant is an absolute dude though.
It would be amusing if Woody Harrelson was involved at some point, considering his dad's background and rumoured entanglement with the events at Dealy Plaza.
As to your second paragraph; James Ellroy and American Tabloid is probably the most explicit and well-written treatise I've ever read on that subject and more than confirms the way the real world works. To throw a few quotes out (from various sources): "Money only cares about money", "The biggest secret of the world's secret police is that they all talk to each other", and (one of my personal favourites) "If work was so good the rich would have kept more of it for themselves". But yes, the crossover between money/politic/underworld is plain for us to see that have witnessed a certain amount of stuff and are eyes-wide-open to the way the world works.
I've never known anyone famous or powerful or rich but it only takes a moderately intelligent person to sit down, intake and analyse the facts and from that discern the way the wind blows.
EDIT: (because stuff has happened this weekend and, for reasons, I'm most of a bottle of rum down, so I forgot to address your first paragraph): As to your first paragraph: I'm a total misanthrope and I sometimes find it hard enough to hold true to the people I've chosen to love. The fact that someone will do that without question towards someone they have no outward obligation to do so towards will always draw utmost respect from me. Personally, I'm a total misanthrope and I truly treasure those few humans I decide to love. My kids get it unconditionally. I'd like to think if I found myself in a situation such as yours/my bestest friend's I'd act the same. But you never know, and I fear I'd fall short. Hence my total respect for those who don't.
Maximum respect to you for that, sir. My dad brought up my sister (technically half-sister) as his own and she fully 100% considers him to be her father. In fact, she tracked down her 'real dad' at some point and made a point of telling the prick that she didn't need him because she had a Real Dad.
Likewise, my bestest friend in the whole wide world stuck with a girl after the 2nd time they'd hooked up simply because he saw her two kids were heading towards a crap life and couldn't watch that happen. They absolutely adore him (both in their 20's now), as do I, and both would take issue with anyone who suggest he isn't their dad. People like you and he are few and far between and should be cherished. :heart-emoji-I-can't-work-out-how-to-do-on-my-laptop-right-now:
Also, your mention of not knowing any gangs that require specific haircuts made me laugh out loud. I've known more than a few 'unsavoury' types. Some are by my bestest friends. In my experience, people involved in the underworld couldn't care less if, for instance, a bloke turns up wearing a frock. If he can batter the first three guys that step to him (or be otherwise useful) and he's reasonably loyal/trustworthy then he's in. Because for proper criminals it's a full-time thing and, unless you're an idiot, utility far outweighs ideology. That privately amuses me. Because capitalism is a coin with two faces, and the obverse can't function without the reverse. Maybe I've read too much James Ellroy and Erich Schlosser. But I strongly doubt it.
Yes, sadly my son's school are very much like that. And that moment barely scratches the top 5 of random racist/micro-aggression stuff he's had to deal with (remind me to tell you about the time a teacher pulled him aside, asked about his heritage and then tried to suggest that it's his cultural background that caused him to stand up to a bully in no uncertain terms. I laughed because if he's inherited any form of aggression/disdain for unjust authority/simple 'that ain't right so I won't watch it happen' it's very, very firmly come from me).
He was bullied quite badly for a couple of years and, while we didn't call the press or activate lawyers, I turned up at the school gates a few times to ask a couple of lads why they were picking on him before the school started to realise it was the white people in his family/'chosen family'* who were more of a threat. And not because I did anything threatening but I look a particular way, I have a bit of a 'war-face' on me even when I'm perfectly happy, and I tend to surprise people by mixing a certain robust linguistic eloquence (not trying to ring my own bell here, even though I probably sound it) with what what missus would describe as a borderline-autistic inability to back down when I'm in the right.
Long story short, it ended up with us on a Zoom meeting with the school heads and the city education board. The missus and I layed out our grievances, the school erected a fairly pitiful defence and the headman basically came across as JK Simmons with a "Really, is that it? I'm bored now, fix this nonsense." He did very, very well at putting the head teacher firmly in his place while not even seeming to pull rank on him but at the same time everyone in the room clearly see what happened.
*Chosen family/Found family. I read a lot. And I mean a lot. That comes partly from Andrew Vachs (who is a cast-iron dude) and partly from my own experiences with various people, both good and bad. Friends are the family you choose. I draw no distinction between my family and the friends I consider family. Neither do they and that's why I consider them family.
Comments 262
Re: Talking Point: Along With Joy-Con Drift, What Does Nintendo Have To 'Fix' With 'Switch 2'?
Analogue triggers are my biggest issue and I'd like the successor console to support them, even if the joy cons don't feature them.
As to the other things on the list above some of them are genuinely leaving me scratching my head.
Is the cart cover an issue? I've never had a problem with it and I don't exactly have small hands.
I also don't understand why people want themes or menu music. I don't spend long enough on the home screen for me to care what it looks like so a minimalist design and intuitive UI is all I need.
Also, as said a couple of days ago, there's no way to stop rubbish cheaply made games clogging it up. Who would you trust as the gatekeeper to determine what counts as an acceptable game? Unless it crashes to frequently to be playable or is in some other way broken then what possible metric can you use?
Re: Random: Place Your Bets On How Long This Super Mario-Sampling Rap Track Stays Live
It's not a bad track, just not great. Her flow and voice reminds me of Missy Elliot which is no bad thing but whoever produced it should have done more than just put the lyrics over the top of the original theme. Goes way beyond fair use or paying for the use of a sample so it's leaving the track open to a copyright takedown.
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1
@LikelySatan
I can't be the only person looking at these and wishing they'd do something similar for the first three Splinter Cell games. For me those were the pinnacle of stealth games, although I haven't replayed them for about 15 years.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@Pod
Agreed. It's a fine line to tread but I'd like to think that if Nintendo were getting repeated complaints about a title they'd take a look for themselves and confirm whether or not it a broken mess. It doesn't help that the eshop leads you to believe refunds are impossible when you can actually complain directly to get a refund for a title if it is is in some way unplayable.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@Pod
Yeah, it's not an easy thing to address. I think if a game has bugs that either mean you can't finish it, or frequent and reproducible crashes which wipe out progress then you should definitely be able to get a refund. I mean you can, if you want to go through the palaver of contacting Nintendo support and complaining to them, but it should be an easier process. That way Nintendo could remove games that are demonstrably broken.
Minor bugs are a different matter though. I've got some big name releases that suffer from annoying bugs but to an extent that's just a given with software. It's hard to test every single possible combinations of events and inputs and the more complex a game is the more likely it is to introduce bugs that aren't caught by the devs.
I don't think there's a right answer really, but personally I'd rather have to put up with wading through some trash in order to open up the eshop to more games. You just have to be a bit more careful about what you buy and do some research before making a purchase. But that's always been the case, even going back to my first foray of buying games on the ZX Spectrum.
And, just to throw in a real outlier, Wrestling Empire had some massive bugs in it but they made me laugh so much during the demo that I immediately bought the thing at full price. I've got hours of fun out of it, bugs and jank and all. More fun than ever I got out of Witcher 3, for example.
Re: Poll: What's Your Switch Controller Of Choice For Super Mario Bros. Wonder?
I don't know its name, I just know the sound it makes when it kills.
Actually, I've just remembered the name. It's a Gullikit King Kong 2 Pro. Sweet piece of gear.
Re: Xbox Developer Open To A Switch Release Of Pentiment
@HeadPirate
I see what you're saying, but I was also playing around with the definition of retro. Maybe I shouldn't have stacked them up like that though.
@ShinNioh
It's cool. No harm, no foul.
Re: Xbox Developer Open To A Switch Release Of Pentiment
@Sequel
Nice to see somebody got it.
Re: Xbox Developer Open To A Switch Release Of Pentiment
I like retro games but the graphics in this look really dated.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@MrCookieCrisps
Sorry if it came across that way, not my intention at all. The comment about mental health issues was intended to show that the comment was tongue-in-cheek. I understand exactly what you're saying and don't dispute it. My point was that those groups are very firmly outliers and not representative of anyone who has their hat on straight.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@MrCookieCrisps
And there were a group that tried to ban D&D in the 80's, and then another group tried to ban Harry Potter. But let's exclude people with obvious mental health issues.
@DegenerateStar @OldManHermit
In the UK it's referred to as drink driving. Because you don't need to be smashed to be dangerous.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@RG-Riven
That's the part I don't get. They can obtain a PEGI rating without any involvement from PEGI. You'd think that from their point of view it's something they want to stamp out for exactly this sort of situation. Most people won't be aware of the ins and outs so it will just erode trust in their rating system entirely.
Likewise for Nintendo allowing that to happen instead of, as you suggest, making such games use an 'un-rated by PEGI' label.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@Pod @lacaras4
But that's not really workable in practice. Who gets to decide what's a 'valid' game and what isn't?
I've got a game which is essentially a port of an unfinished mobile game, it's almost permanently on sale and most of the assets are from a generic set bought by the dev. But I love it because it's basically a beefed-up version of Super Melee mode from Star Control II. By most people's definition it's trash but I've sunk hours into it.
On the flipside, I'd personally be more likely to kick something like L.A. Noire off the store because it's massively overpriced and, due to the fact that you basically can't fail, I don't even consider it to be an actual game.
Also, I'd hate to lose backwards compatibility (assuming it's coming) just to clean out the eShop of somebody else's definition of acceptable games.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@RG-Riven
Thanks for the additional context. I'd assumed that for a game submitted to a major distribution platform someone at PEGI would at least check the game's description and screenshots to ensure that they aren't wildly at odds with the content the publisher has claimed on the submission form.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@LikelySatan
Sweet move, dude.
It's important to check it out first, just to ensure it's age appropriate and, uh, other totally legitimate reasons which I forget right now.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
@LikelySatan
I've taken the week off for half term, been playing it this morning with my boys and it's brilliant. Hope you have a great time when you get to it.
Re: Random: This Drink Driving Game Is A Nasty Blemish On The Switch eShop
While it's a stupid idea for a game I don't think there can be much moral uproar when nobody bats an eyelid at stuff like GTA.
I'm more surprised at the rating. Surely when the inclusion of alcohol would make the minimum be a teen rating?
I personally have more of a problem with a game I saw recently called Favella Zombie Shooter. There's something repugnant about trawling through one of worlds nastiest slums gunning down poor people. I'd much rather be going through the glass and steel skyscrapers the rich dwell in with a shotgun but that's just me.
Re: Feature: Super Nintendo Bros. - The Best (And Worst) Nintendo Siblings
I had to vote for the flower faeries from BotW. Nice to see some proper big girls in a game. And they're so naughty. 😍
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
@Kekshook
I totally agree. And it was very sweet of him. He was about 13 at the time, just learning his craft by putting some stuff together in LMMS. He also did me a chiptune version of What Is Love by Hadaway.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Oh, and one more thing (in true Columbo style)
What I forgot to add in earlier is that stuff like learning the language of cinema and how to write good, natural, dialogue can easily be learnt from a book or even from just watching other people's stuff and paying close attention to what works and what doesn't.
I'm not trying to act like some gatekeeper with that comment, it's just that there are ways to do those things well and then there are, other ways. But anybody is capable of learning them quite easily, with a bit of diligence and research and what have you.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
(OK, I'm starting to realise that you, me and the comment limit on this site are not a workable relationship)
I do still think there's a higher bar in terms of film-making than there is music-making, and that's simply because it takes a lot more moving parts to make a film. I think Primer is a great example of what you can do with some vision and passion and some willing friends, as is something as old-school as Man Bites Dog, but at the end of the day, and despite all the open source tech you can get for free, someone who properly understands lighting is hard to come by (and hugely underrated)
What a film really needs is someone who understands the language of cinema, and how to write dialogue, and how to edit a film properly to convey what you want to convey while cutting the bits that just aren't relevant (and as a sometime writer of 'things', I understand how hard it can be to cut something you're pleased with even if it just doesn't fit).
And what you also need is to find some 'actors' who are comfortable on camera and I think that's one of the hardest things. I may be able to imagine how a scene I've written should be played in my head but damn is unexpectedly hard to be natural when that lens is focused on you.
My go to example for this is the video to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Every time I watch that vid all I can do is imagine the director screaming at the band "Is there any chance you guys can walk down the street like normal effing people?! I mean, is it that hard? You walk all day every day. Just walk from here - to there - like a normal person".
I think I may have lost the thread a little, but I do totally agree that we are on the verge of seeing a whole new wave of directors and cinematic styles coming in. And some of it will be stuff that I detest, and no doubt I'll at some point watch some low budget nothing and it will really speak to me. And that's pretty much the way it has always been. The same, but different.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Hello chap. I just realised that you made a very, very prescient comment earlier to which I didn't respond. Largely because I nodded in total agreement and internalised what you said but I felt it was worth coming back to acknowledge it properly.
You mentioned how much easier and cheaper it is for amateurs to get into the film game what with the advent of digital cameras and how that will, yet again, change the industry.
I totally agree, and think it's actually been a long time coming. I remember hearing the cinematographer (is that even the right term) for Gladiator, which was released about a hundred years ago now, mentioned that he bought all the kit he used for the film from Tottenham Court Road, and later that 28 Days Later was specifically filmed using digital footage because the 'frame shortening' effect (again, not sure if that's the correct term) made all the action sequences seem that much more kinetic and brutal. But it's still taken a long time for that to percolate down to the level of where it's almost at 'any idiot with an idea and a phone' can make a film.
To extent that has been true since the advent of handheld (or at least shoulder-carryable) VHS recorders, but only if you want your film to look like an extended episode of Eastenders.
Now though, we really are at the cusp of the democratisation of film-making, a point which music reached a fair few years ago, and which has all its own benefits and drawbacks. It's great that anyone with an idea and some friends to help out can make a film, and lots of them will be crap, but plenty of films with massive budgets and experienced crews will turn out to be barely watchable bilge for a variety of reasons that you're far more familiar with than I am.
But broadly, it's a Good Thing. I do hope we don't end up with too many Birth of a Nation style nonsense being made but that's the thing with genies and bottles and we have to accept the results.
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
@Kekshook
Well I am now, Commodore boy.
Although, my Eternal Enemies list is getting kind of crowded. Do you mind if I just add you in pencil for now, on a sort of trial basis?
And that remix was pretty sweet. My son made me a remake of the original Spectrum theme for my birthday a couple of years ago. I stuck the MP3 on my phone and I love it when it pops up when I put all songs on random shuffle.
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
@Zanzox
I think it's doable, but it would be unlike most other shooters. Off the top of my head, here's how I'd set it up:
At the start, as you say, you're almost invincible. Slow-moving but pretty much bulletproof (apart from the occasional enemy armed with a Cobra Assault Cannon, EMP weapon or similar).
As you progress through the game (and bearing in mind that it's called Rogue City so I'm assuming Old Detroit has largely fallen to the gangs) there are certain plot moments where you take large amounts of damage and become more vulnerable. Armour takes a hit and you have limited or no opportunities to repair it, loss of thermal vision. If you lose the visor/front helm you can get ganked by a sniper in one hit. Maybe your targetting system doesn't lock on properly so it either targets things that aren't enemies or just decreases accuracy unless you (optionally) turn it off.
That way the game becomes harder as you go through, requiring more skill to progress, but still gives you the feeling of being Robocop and ties into the theme of the first film.
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
@Kekshook
The original ZX Spectrum Robocop theme is probably my all time favourite piece of game music.
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
@AndroidiOS
"I think you better do what he says, Mr Kenny."
Re: It Looks Like Robocop: Rogue City Has Been Quietly Cancelled On Switch
Cancelled quietly, or there would be. Trouble.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I've heard of Tusk but wasn't at all sure about it. I think partly because it was made from the start as a joke film based on a joke plot I sort of wrote it off, and I think yours is the first mention I've heard of it since it was announced. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm looking for something to watch.
My plan for tomorrow evening is to see if I can convince the missus to sit and watch Salute of the Jugger with me, because she's never seen it and I love it to bits. Then again, that's always bit of a minefield with her.
I got her to watch the aforementioned Vamp and about 20 minutes in she turned to me and said "You know this is rubbish, don't you?" Likewise, after getting her to watch the first 20 minutes of Johnny Mnemonic she asked "Is all the acting supposed to be this wooden?" So I may stop giving her the opportunity to apply her withering critical skills to films I love.
In which case I'll turn my attention to Bone Tomahawk, a horror/western with Kurt Russell (absolute legend, who else could be Plissken, Burton and Macready?)
I only noticed it because I've recently watched two other films by the same director. Dragged Across Concrete is a supremely well-done neo-noir affair that feels so much like a James Ellroy story I had to check he wasn't involved (he wasn't). And Brawl on Cell Block 99 is one of the most brutal and well done grindhouse films I've seen in a long time. Vince Vaughn plays the lead and it's not a role I'd ever have expected him to attempt, let alone carry off so well.
Both films also feature Udo Kier, another favourite character actor of mine. His voice alone makes him supremely watchable, let alone how many good films he's popped up in.
Re: Review: Agatha Christie - Murder On The Orient Express - A Clever New Spin On An Old Mystery
@Polvasti
Different strokes for different folks.
As soon as I saw it I thought "Look at the handlebars on that!"
I mean, is this supposed to be a Poirot game or a Phwoaarot game?!
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I've not watched that before but it was brilliant and does totally tie in with what we've been discussing.
I too love Kevin Smith and have so much time for his films and his general sense of humour and geeky love of geeky stuff. Love Clerks, still quote Mallrats to this day, etc.
I watched Jay & Silent Bob Reboot last year and I had tears in my eyes at some points. Not just because it's so funny and brings back some of the best characters from his earlier films but also because it feels like his vindication after spending a few years in the wilderness. And it also ties into the themes of him returning to those iconic characters with a few more years under his belt and scars on his hide and he uses it not just as a chance to rail against the inanities of the film industry but also to send himself up massively and who he sort of turned into at his 'worst' moments.
And in addition to all of that, it referenced How High (which I love) and then Reggie and Meth turned up in an absolutely perfect scene. That part definitely got me.
Along with the stuff about Jay actually almost growing up a little bit. Probably about as much as I've grown up, to be fair.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@Samuelvictor
We really are very, very similar. I'm also very good at not watching things to avoid disappointment. For example, I've only ever watched the first Matrix film. Absolutely loved it, loved the cinematography and world-building, loved the way it fits gnostic theories and Plato's Cave into a really cool superhero origin story. I heard the sequel wasn't a patch on it and decided I wouldn't bother.
Game of Thrones is interesting too. I've never watched it because I read the first book when it came out and really didn't enjoy it. I later heard some not at all nice things about Martin which totally put me off any of his work so I've never had any interest in watching the show.
Likewise Star Trek. I heard enough bad things about the films to know I had zero interest in sitting through them so I've never bothered. I do totally understand that JJ wasn't in total control of it and I think he was handed a hack script to work from in the first place.
I loved Monsters though. Totally not what I was expecting but such an entralling film. Godzilla looked terrible from the first trailer though so again, I skipped it.
I'm the first to admit that my tastes are weird and insanely idiosyncratic so I know I'm not the target audience for most things. That's probably why I spend so much time reading rather than watching. It's much easier to do what you want when the budget is your imagination and the cost of getting it out there in front of the audience is miniscule compared to being handed millions to produce a film and knowing it has to make a decent return or it'll probably be your last job. Hence authors have a lot more leeway than directors, and the project involves fewer creative types so can be more focused on what the creator wants to say. I understand there are still editors and agents and publicists involved, but if I want to write a description of a room I don't have to worry about the lighting director and director of photography sticking their oars in and arguing they'd like to set it up the way Boorman would or that someone thinks the audio should be mixed in from an exterior location because it works for Soderbergh so well.
I also think there are some big shifts in the film industry that mean the things I enjoyed when I was younger are unlikely to ever be made in the same way. You had the out-there stuff in the 60's that then fed it into the indie directors of the 90's who then got co-opted into the big studios when they realised people were raving about tiny films by tiny directors and who wouldn't want to be given a huge budget and access to incredible actors for their next project.
At the end of the day it's an industry and that means the industrialisation of creativity towards turning a profit. It's awesome if you can do stuff you're truly passionate about and have the luxury to do that but everyone has to put food on the table and the chance to do that while working at creating something/anything is an awesome opportunity. And even though I may complain about the bean counters and executives, you can't expect them to splurge millions on a film only 4 people will ever actually enjoy. While I may feel the industrialisation has gone way too far, they're not running a cinematic charity for tortured artists.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I see what you're saying about Awakens being a film by committee, and maybe I'm being a little harsh on it, but it pretty much did exactly what I didn't want to see and I suppose I assumed that JJ had much more creative license because of who he is (and how it seemed to confirm a lot of my worst suspicions about his style of film-making).
Interesting that you should mention Heroes as well, as that was one of the things that put the final nail in the coffin of my TV watching. I'm not sure how much of it was due to the strike, but I loved the first series and then it just seemed to lose its way. They forgot which powers Peter Petrelli had so he did stupid things (or it was just for plot reasons which is just as bad) and the whole thing seemed to get stuck in retreading what came before instead of moving forwards (which may indeed be due to the strike). I stopped watching after the episode where he escaped prison with a bunch of villains then watched one of them fry a guy to steal his car and just seemed to sort of shrug it off. Totally out of character for the way they'd built him and I just didn't go back.
More than that though, it was a bigger thing about US TV and how you can largely just watch the recap at the start of each episode and not miss much at all. It felt like storylines are too often padded out to fill the episode quota which dilutes the strength of the story and leads to hours of meaningless chaff. I understand that a lot of that is due to the demands of the networks and money-men but at the end of the day it's not what I'm interested in spending time on.
Shame about Heroes though, especially as it had Djimon Houson in it and I'll watch him in pretty much anything.
Then again, I realise I'm a massive outlier when it comes to film and TV, and quite hard to please in a lot of ways, while at the same time being insanely forgiving in others. Which possibly explains why I give Ritchie so much time. His stuff is like comfort food for me, pulpy and silly but ultimately entertaining and it appeals to my sensibilities as English bloke who's bored of seeing US culture reguritated endlessly.
I mean, I'm the guy who give you about an hour long monologue on why Vamp is such an amazing film, delving into theories that were probably never in the director's head. It's campy and crappy and yet at the same time I absoutely love every bloody second of it. And not just because many of those seconds feature Grace Jones.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I totally see what you're saying about Awakens needing to introduce a new generation to the series, but my take on that is that before I took my son to see it, I sat down with him and we watched the original trilogy together, and I kind of assumed most other people would have done the same. I also have great memories of my dad taking me along to watch all 3 in a back-to-back showing when I was probably around 6 or 7. He had no idea how long it was going to be, and this was before the days of mobile phones so mum went absolutely ballistic when we got back. She thought we'd been kidnapped or something.
And it's very easy for me to be opinionated/obnoxious about this stuff because I'm very much an outsider with an educated interest (I did a degree in writing). In my defence, I'm equally passionate about stuff I love so I think it sort of balances out. Or possibly not. JJ may be a lovely bloke and have done a lot of cool things, but I'm not a big fan of most of his stuff. I liked Cloverfield (mostly because it was a fun monster movie and the meta-media stuff around it was really interesting and well done). I had no time for Lost, thought it was boring from the start and when they revealed that they just made stuff up and left it to work out what it all meant later it was like a textbook example of how not to set up a mystery. If you don't know where it's going when you start then why should I want to follow it along? There's no cohesion or internal logic to follow, it's just chucking weird stuff at a wall and then cobbling together a way to explain it after the fact.
As to Tarantino, I love some of his stuff, other bits I think are where he disappeared up his own arse a bit. He's incredibly talented, and very good at taking stuff he loves and putting his own spin on it. I also really like that most of his films are set in his own universe. I didn't enjoy the Grindhouse films particularly, because I felt it was a bit too self-indulgent and both he and Rodriguez were selling themselves short (I love Rodriguez too, I've a very well-thumbed copy of Rebel Without A Crew around here somewhere and if I ever do make a low-budget film it will very much act as my bible on how to work around your limitations).
I didn't enjoy Inglorious Basterds at all. It felt too much like a bunch of charicatures and too little like it's own thing. Also, I'm not at all a fan of Eli Roth, either as a director or actor.
With Ritchie, I love Lock Stock and Snatch, even though they felt very much like he was doing an English Tarantino. I quite like Revolver despite its flaws because I can see what it was aiming for.
The Sherlock films were surprisingly good as well, and even though Wrath of Man felt fairly deriviative it was a decent enough flick. I didn't go a bundle on Rockanrolla because it felt like 2 or 3 ideas wedged together (although the Archie Slap is an absolute truism). I thought The Gentlemen was a return to form and I quite liked the Austin Fortune film because for me it felt like him doing his own version of a Matt Helm caper and I'm always up for a bit of campy 60's-inspired spy action.
I think with Ritchie, I love a lot of what he does, but I'm weirdly a little bit surprised that I like them as much as I do. I think I keep waiting to be disappointed and yet he keeps pulling it out of the bag, even when he sort of doesn't.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I hit the length limit on that one so here's the rest of it:
Your mentioning of the TV stuff realised I was unintentionally dishonest earlier though. I did actually sit down with the missus and watch the first series of The Mandalorian and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Yes it uses a few too many elements from the original trilogy but I suppose they had to stick a Yoda and a Skywalker in to make it seem like it wasn't completely separate from the rest of the Star Wars universe.
I liked the setting, I liked the direction, I loved some of the characters and it's the first time in years that I've watched something that actually felt like Star Wars. I also loved the way it was largely a spaghetti western take on Star Wards and the fact that it managed to make the Mandalorians themselves actually fit into the rest of the universe with a proper explanation for who they were that gelled with the original trilogy while not doing the same reductive crap that Awakens did.
I haven't watched the Boba Fett series yet but I do plan on getting round to it. It's just that apart from the odd thing here and there I haven't watched TV for over 20 years now and it's not something I feel a great urge to do very often.
I do stand by my complaints about Awakens though. It was Abrams at his CTRL+C>>CTRL+V worst. He's made a career out of knocking off Lucas and Spielberg and I know it's a very personal thing as to whether you consider something a loving homage or a pedestrian rip-off but I know which side of the fence I'm on when it comes to his films.
It's a shame because I think he's actually quite a talented director, and I don't have a problem with wearing your inspiration on you sleeve. But my personal opinion is that you need to take the things you love and that inspire you and put them together in a new way with your own creative spin on it. Not just jumble the same elements about a bit and wait for the audience to applaud.
I'm trying (and struggling slightly) to think of a good rcent example what I mean. Musically it's easy for me to hold up Janelle Monae and sceam "This! This is what I'm talking about!" until I run out of oxygen. She's equal parts Bowie and Prince and Queen but it's clear those are inspirations, not blueprints and she adds her own incredibly magic to that.
Filmwise, I suppose Mandy is a sort of good example. It's inspired by pulp 'mens adventure' novels and grindhouse trucker films mixed with those sort of weird old sci-fi/horror films like From Beyond and The Keep and it just works so well because it also has it's own feel and themes and remains logically consistent throughout.
But it's all very subjective and personal and I could see why others would look at Mandy and think it totally derivative. I suppose for me it's whether or not I can see that the creator has their own vision that comes through, or whether it just feels like they're doing it because somebody else did and it was popular. Not that I claim to know one way or the other, it's very much a 'feeling' thing, but I like to think I can tell when someone is being 'authentic', whatever that may mean.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
That's an interesting read, and I did worry previously that I'd upset you with my previous comments. I also get the idea of indie directors 'stepping up' and being given a big project to work on, and it's not something I'm against in principal, I just see it failing so often because the director isn't a good fit for the project, or the project itself isn't that good but once they've signed on they either see it to the end or bow out and (I'd assume) pretty much burn all their bridges in the filthy town that is Hollywood. I don't recall the last time someone pulled an Alan Smithee although I know some people still do walk away from projects but the power imbalance between indie director and massive studio is so ridiculously one-sided that it's not an option for most people.
As to Lucas, I don't hate him at all, I don't even hate the prequel trilogy particularly, but I don't think they're very good films and I think that the more you delve into the Star Wars universe, the more you expose the flaws in its conception that David Brin exposed in his essay about it. What I loved about Star Wars as a child, without even consciously realising it at the time, and what set it apart from so many other similar films at the time (and this is speaking as a huge fan of Corman's work and Battle Beyond The Stars in particular) is that Star Wars felt like a massive universe into which we were seeing a tiny slice.
The more films they make, and the more the dwell on the same characters, planets and situations, the smaller that universe seems. It starts to become a morality play (with a fairly warped set of morals) around a single family and that's something I never felt it was about with the first trilogy simply because it 'felt' like there was a much larger universe outside of the Skywalkers playing their 'divine right of kings' game.
As I mentioned previously, my issue with Awakens was that it just felt like picking some iconic scenes from the first trilogy and cramming them into a new film with a lot of nudges towards the fanbase to get them to accept the new characters. They essentially took the ending of Jedi, moved it forwards 10 years and then reset it all back to the way it was at the start of A New Hope, so they could retread the same ground. Oh, and the Rebellion have had a rebrand, changed their colour scheme from red to blue, and then called themselves the Resistance. By definition 'Resistance' is less forceful than 'Rebellion'.
Re: Ayaneo's New Handheld Looks Like A 2023 Nintendo DS Successor
Interesting mention of Nostromo vibes. I was just looking at the keyboard version and thinking how much I wish modern tech looked more like the future we were promised in the 80's. The GRiD Compass from the Sulaco is one of the coolest pieces of kit I've ever seen and I'm determined at some point to get hold of one. Even just the casing that I can stick a Raspberry Pi into and torture my family by yelling "Hudson, run a bypass" whenever I fire it up.
That and connecting it to a Nerf minigun on a tripod I can set up as a sentry gun in the hallway when I want some peace and quiet.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
I think my issue is that the more she tried to introduce larger concepts the more ham-fisted her execution became. And I think I previously ranted to you about my thoughts on Jar-Jar Abrams* and his contribution to the Star Wars universe.
*I'm conviced JJ stands for Jar-Jar, they're the only two who have done about equal levels of harm to the franchise. Except for maybe Lucas himself, but it's his baby so I suppose he's free to mutilate it as much as he wants.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Alan Moore is a difficult one, partly because he's a particularly difficult character himself, and partly because his work contains so many themes and layers that it's almost as though they're delibrately designed to only work in his chosen medium. Which I can respect. I agree with your sumaries of both V For Vendetta and Watchmen as films. Similar to Constantine. I think it's a great urban fantasy film, and I think Keanu Reeves is geat. But he's not John Constantine and it's not a Constantine film.
Fair play to Rowling for taking that stance, as I can understand how easy it must be to just take the money and accept that your art it going to be crassly exploited. I'm reminded of Lucas's comments about selling Star Wars to Disney being like selling his kids into slavery, but he wasn't exactly short of a bob or two so I'm not really sure why he did that. I haven't been at all impressed with the results. Except for maybe that Star Wars LARP hotel they've made, which massively appeals to my inner child.
Personally I can't stand Harry Potter though. In my opinion it's a series of OK books that tread an exceptionally familiar path of that whole 'secretly you are the special one' which I think is pretty damaging and I'm much more into tales about the everyman hero, or massively flawed characters of the type Ellroy is so enamoured with.
Added to that, and something that I truly despise, Potter bought about the recent surge of grown adults reading kids books and gushing about them as though they're somehow amazing. It makes me despair when I look at the massive amount of incredible novels out there (I've got about a thousand books here that I've built up over the years, mostly by scouring charity shops for interesting bits and pieces of old sci-fi, noir, etc) and see that instead of reading something that can explain a facet of the human condition or explore the world around us, people are diving into simplistic plots and paper-thin characters that are literally intended for an audience of minors and are just regurgitating the same pap we tell kids because we don't want to expose them to the reality of this world just yet.
I realise I probably come off quite snobbish about it, which is not my intention, but I think that kids books and 'young adult' fiction have their places, but those places are for kids.
At this point I'm just an old man yelling at clouds though. So be it.
Re: Review: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - The Best 2D Mario Since The Super NES
@BTB20
It's all very subjective though. 'My con is not your con' and all that. Personally I don't look for to a Mario game to be particularly challenging, but others here obviously want more challenge than this seems to present.
Likewise, for some people 'no online' may be a con for any given game but it's completely irrelevant to me.
And as to 'laughably easy' as a con, if I'm shopping for something for my 5-year old son to play, then it's not a con but almost a prerequisite.
I take the list of pros and cons with a pinch of salt in the same way as I do the overall score. Everyone should add their own weighting to them based on what they like/want/need.
Re: Review: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - The Best 2D Mario Since The Super NES
Removed
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Yeah, the language of film is very different to prose and some things are 'easier' to achieve in each of them. It's about picking the medium that best suits what you have in mind. Although that's not possible when some studio exec is determined to turn a hugely popular novel into a money-spinning blockbuster.
And yes, I understand what you mean about buying rights to films just to effectively block their production for one reason or another. Similarly, you can get a director or producer who is determined to put their own spin on the subject matter. For example, I love Conan The Barbarian. Absolute classic, great actors and story, and yet it's tediously obvious the John Milnius applied his own politics to the piece. Hence Tulsa Doom reperesents the spectre of socialism with his 'mindless drones' of followers and his army of flower children standing in for the hippies that Milnius so detested. It doesn't stop it being a great film, but it's laughably clear that he was very much grinding a personal axe with the story.
EDIT: Then again, there are times when the translation to film works brilliantly. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is an interesting book, but a bit of a mess (symptom of a disordered mind and all that), and while Bladerunner substantially changes the story, the result is absolutely fantastic. Likewise, the original novel of Fight Club is about how the history of 'great men' has lead to modern men feeling like they can't live up to those that came before and so the agenda is to destroy all history by blowing up museums etc. The film shifted the focus to the way capitalism traps us in a hamster wheel of tedium and the agenda is to wipe out store cards, credit accounts and debt to free people from the burden on that. Far better than something like I Am Legend which completely misses the point of the entire book, which is that the vampires end up ruling the earth and, due to the protagonist's actions in killing them in their sleep and then killing himself before they can arrange a public execution, humans become the bogeymen of the nascent vampire civilisation.
Re: Random: Players Share Bananas Gameplay Of New King Kong Game, And It's Not Looking Good
I refuse to believe that the bit where the crabs dance around then pose together isn't a reference to The 3 Amigos.
Re: Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Ecto Edition Blasts Onto Switch eShop This Week
@Ristar24
Mentioning broken games has just brought back a flood of memories.
I got Knightmare on the Spectrum because I loved the TV series but I couldn't make it out of the first room. You were supposed to find a key to unlock the door but I never managed it. Still not sure if the game was actually broken or if it was just me being a colossal numpty.
Later I had a game on my first PC called Waxworks. All based on classic horror stuff. One section saw you in Victorian London and suspected of being behind the Ripper murders. You were supposed to break into a tailor's house for some reason or other but every time I tried I got caught by the fuzz and killed by an angry mob. In the end I phoned the publisher's tips hotline for the answer. Tried to apply it in game repeatedly but it didn't work. Phoned the tip line back distraught about my lack of progress and spoke to a lovely woman who said "Look love, I don't play these games, they just give me a script to read from. Give me your address and I'll send you the whole thing". And she actually did, the entire secret document on how to complete every single puzzle in the game. Still never managed to get into the sodding tailor's house though.
Re: Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Ecto Edition Blasts Onto Switch eShop This Week
@Ristar24
You being a C64 owner and me having had a Speccy would have made us natural enemies in the playground. 😆
It was a cracking game though. A surprising amount of stuff packed into it like the choice of cars you could buy at the start. I also loved the digitised "He slimed me" voice clip when a ghost got one of your guys.
I only played the 2009 version fairly recently when it released on Switch and I had a great time with it. It really did make me feel like a new recruit to the team and you could tell it was made with a lot of love for the series.
I remember the old Ocean movie tie-ins too. Some were great, others not so much. The theme to the RoboCop game is still one of my all time favourite pieces of game music. It's just fantastic.
Re: Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Ecto Edition Blasts Onto Switch eShop This Week
@Jhena @Kirbo100
The recent-ish Ghostbusters game was pretty sweet, but is indeed structured more like a modern 3rd-person shooter. I really enjoyed it though, absolutely nailed the Ghostbusters atmosphere.
I also played the original to death on the ZX Spectrum. The setup for that was that you were running a Ghostbusters franchise and had to earn money by taking down random ghosts to keep your business afloat, all the while the PK energy in the city was rising. At the end you had to get the Keymaster and Gatekeeper, take out Mr Staypuft and then face-off against Zhul. I absolutely loved playing it and I'd definitely be interested if something similar were released today.
This one looks more like Dead by Daylight et al. Online multiplayer, asymetrical teams and based on set maps. Not my sort of thing at all unfortunately.
Re: Minecraft Live Returns With New Mob Vote, Armadillo Wins
First time in my life I'm disappointed to hear that I don't have crabs.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Interesting that it's been optioned a couple of times and not actually made. Not that surprising though, as I think Ellroy's work is largely unfilmable without heavily bastardising what he originally wrote.*
For instance, I love LA Confidential as a film, but the novel has so many more layers, and they completely cut the sub-plot about his Walt-Disney-With-The-Serial-Numbers-Filed-Off being involved with all sorts of nastiness including a brutal serial killer.
I do love his work, even though it's not very pretty. Hope you enjoy American Tabloid. I love so much about that trilogy but I'll leave you to discover it for yourself. Pete Bondurant is an absolute dude though.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Very much so, sir.
As to your second paragraph; James Ellroy and American Tabloid is probably the most explicit and well-written treatise I've ever read on that subject and more than confirms the way the real world works. To throw a few quotes out (from various sources): "Money only cares about money", "The biggest secret of the world's secret police is that they all talk to each other", and (one of my personal favourites) "If work was so good the rich would have kept more of it for themselves". But yes, the crossover between money/politic/underworld is plain for us to see that have witnessed a certain amount of stuff and are eyes-wide-open to the way the world works.
I've never known anyone famous or powerful or rich but it only takes a moderately intelligent person to sit down, intake and analyse the facts and from that discern the way the wind blows.
EDIT: (because stuff has happened this weekend and, for reasons, I'm most of a bottle of rum down, so I forgot to address your first paragraph): As to your first paragraph: I'm a total misanthrope and I sometimes find it hard enough to hold true to the people I've chosen to love. The fact that someone will do that without question towards someone they have no outward obligation to do so towards will always draw utmost respect from me. Personally, I'm a total misanthrope and I truly treasure those few humans I decide to love. My kids get it unconditionally. I'd like to think if I found myself in a situation such as yours/my bestest friend's I'd act the same. But you never know, and I fear I'd fall short. Hence my total respect for those who don't.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Maximum respect to you for that, sir. My dad brought up my sister (technically half-sister) as his own and she fully 100% considers him to be her father. In fact, she tracked down her 'real dad' at some point and made a point of telling the prick that she didn't need him because she had a Real Dad.
Likewise, my bestest friend in the whole wide world stuck with a girl after the 2nd time they'd hooked up simply because he saw her two kids were heading towards a crap life and couldn't watch that happen. They absolutely adore him (both in their 20's now), as do I, and both would take issue with anyone who suggest he isn't their dad.
People like you and he are few and far between and should be cherished. :heart-emoji-I-can't-work-out-how-to-do-on-my-laptop-right-now:
Also, your mention of not knowing any gangs that require specific haircuts made me laugh out loud. I've known more than a few 'unsavoury' types. Some are by my bestest friends. In my experience, people involved in the underworld couldn't care less if, for instance, a bloke turns up wearing a frock. If he can batter the first three guys that step to him (or be otherwise useful) and he's reasonably loyal/trustworthy then he's in. Because for proper criminals it's a full-time thing and, unless you're an idiot, utility far outweighs ideology.
That privately amuses me. Because capitalism is a coin with two faces, and the obverse can't function without the reverse. Maybe I've read too much James Ellroy and Erich Schlosser. But I strongly doubt it.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@samuelvictor
Yes, sadly my son's school are very much like that. And that moment barely scratches the top 5 of random racist/micro-aggression stuff he's had to deal with (remind me to tell you about the time a teacher pulled him aside, asked about his heritage and then tried to suggest that it's his cultural background that caused him to stand up to a bully in no uncertain terms. I laughed because if he's inherited any form of aggression/disdain for unjust authority/simple 'that ain't right so I won't watch it happen' it's very, very firmly come from me).
He was bullied quite badly for a couple of years and, while we didn't call the press or activate lawyers, I turned up at the school gates a few times to ask a couple of lads why they were picking on him before the school started to realise it was the white people in his family/'chosen family'* who were more of a threat. And not because I did anything threatening but I look a particular way, I have a bit of a 'war-face' on me even when I'm perfectly happy, and I tend to surprise people by mixing a certain robust linguistic eloquence (not trying to ring my own bell here, even though I probably sound it) with what what missus would describe as a borderline-autistic inability to back down when I'm in the right.
Long story short, it ended up with us on a Zoom meeting with the school heads and the city education board. The missus and I layed out our grievances, the school erected a fairly pitiful defence and the headman basically came across as JK Simmons with a "Really, is that it? I'm bored now, fix this nonsense." He did very, very well at putting the head teacher firmly in his place while not even seeming to pull rank on him but at the same time everyone in the room clearly see what happened.
*Chosen family/Found family. I read a lot. And I mean a lot. That comes partly from Andrew Vachs (who is a cast-iron dude) and partly from my own experiences with various people, both good and bad. Friends are the family you choose. I draw no distinction between my family and the friends I consider family. Neither do they and that's why I consider them family.