The Force Awakens...
I really enjoyed watching Star Wars The Force Awakens in theaters. I still enjoy watching it now and think it's a very solid addition to the Star Wars universe. With that, as I was watching it, I noticed a few things that stood out to me that I may have chosen to do differently. Some of those things are covered in Red Letter Media's Plinkett review of Star Wars The Force Awakens. The main one for me is how similar it is to a New Hope. It's nice that it "feels like Star Wars" but maybe i'd have made it less similar? I love talking about this stuff and Plinkett's Force Awakens Review opens the discussion again, which is something I can't get enough of.
The Force Awakens...
The Force Awakens...
Mick Gordon the composer of the new Doom Soundtrack has dropped the whole score in it's entirely on YouTube and you can stream the whole thing above. At over two hours this intense hash metal soundtrack is worth checking out if you were a fan of the game or crazy metal scores.
From the first mention of the NES Classic I was in. 30 amazing NES games in HD that hook up to your modern TV? Hell yes. Nintendo is known for producing good quality stuff but we didn't know how it would look in person or what the user interface would be... until now. Nintendo has launched a new commercial with a song that sounds like Don't You Want Me by The Human League which basically means it's pitch perfect for the NES classic. The TV spot shows off how easy it is to create save points by pressing the reset button. The NES classic interface is a 8-bit themed homage to that era and it looks very easy to use. When you move through each game there is a 1P or 2P icon...
After Amazon bought Twitch I was wondering what that had in store for Twitch as when a company is bought out it usually has a big effect on the child company. Today Amazon is launching Twitch Prime which is an extension of the Amazon Prime yearly service. Basically if you have Amazon Prime you get Twitch Prime included as part of the package, which is a nice bonus for Amazon Prime members. Twitch Prime gives you an exclusive ad free experience and every so often you get free games and exclusive in game items. For the launch of Twitch Prime you can get the free Hearthstone hero Tyrande Whisperwind free until November 5th. If you have Amazon Prime but don't care about...
For quite some time Hearthstone players have noted that some cards are a bit overpowered. Chief among the cards most cited as massively overpowered are Yogg Saron, Tuskar Totemic and Call of the Wild. Blizzard seems to have agreed because today they dropped information about some upcoming balancing changes to the cards I cited. I never felt that Yogg or Call of the Wild were overpowered but I don't really mind the changes made to both cards. In the case of Call of the Wild Blizzard increased the mana cost to 9 still making it a very powerful late game card but it now competes with other Hunter cards like King Krush. One change I really liked is the nerf to Abusive...
YouTuber Pannenkeok2012 has made one of the more interesting videos i've seen in quite some time that covers everything there is to know about character's blinking in Mario 64. Apparently not all character's in Mario 64 blink but the ones that do are somewhat diverse. For instance Goomba's have two eye states with eyes open and closed yet Mario has 3 eye states of eyes open, eyes partially closed and eyes fully closed.
You can also check out more Pannenkeok2012 videos that focus on other interesting things related to Mario 64 like in game pause buffering and what happens when you talk to Yoshi with negative lives.
You can also check out more Pannenkeok2012 videos that focus on other interesting things related to Mario 64 like in game pause buffering and what happens when you talk to Yoshi with negative lives.
There's a new update fresh off the farm! (Sorry not sorry for the pun.)
Earlier today ConcernedApe revealed that update 1.1 has entered beta to help clear out a few bugs before the full release. The change log looks pretty expansive with the big ticket items would be the new farm layouts themed after one of the in-game skills, two new marriage candidates, and a host of new buildings and warp items. The full change log as well as instructions on how to play the beta can be found here: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/1-1-beta-thread.124827/
Earlier today ConcernedApe revealed that update 1.1 has entered beta to help clear out a few bugs before the full release. The change log looks pretty expansive with the big ticket items would be the new farm layouts themed after one of the in-game skills, two new marriage candidates, and a host of new buildings and warp items. The full change log as well as instructions on how to play the beta can be found here: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/1-1-beta-thread.124827/
Douglas Welcome and I are friends from way back in the 90ās(if you can image that far back). Our friendship shared a mutual affinity for music and various geekery so when I saw a recent post of his about his project the RetroProjecto I reached out to him to talk about it. The RetroProject is a retrofitted 16mm Craig film editor with a Raspberry Pi added in it to run retro games.
jdodson: What interested you to getting into hacking the Raspberry Pi?
Douglas Welcome: Honestly it was the price! I have always been tinkering with electronics and was doing a little coding, but when I first started hearing wind of this $35 computer I couldnāt help but get one and start...
jdodson: What interested you to getting into hacking the Raspberry Pi?
Douglas Welcome: Honestly it was the price! I have always been tinkering with electronics and was doing a little coding, but when I first started hearing wind of this $35 computer I couldnāt help but get one and start...
I think it's really interesting to see games I love in very early forms. Linked above is the first 10 minutes of BioShock Infinite shown in 2010. The game starts very differently and features a different voice cast for Booker. Columbia looks very similar to how the game shipped but the placement of buildings and nearly every story beat is different. That said, I think the final shipped game introduction is better as well as the gameplay. Some felt that the shipped version of BioShock Infinite wasn't what was demo'd and were disappointed with it but from this early footage I am very glad they made the changes they did.
What do you think, is this something you'd rather...
What do you think, is this something you'd rather...
The Super Mario Brothers minus world warp glitch was the first game secret I was ever taught. I say taught because game secrets were passed down from person to person back then as the Internet and even Nintendo Power wasn't a thing. When I heard about it I was really impressed that such a thing was even possible in a video game and my young mind was completely blown when a friend showed it to me. Later on I learned another Mario glitch where you could shoot fireballs while small that I loved even more than the minus world glitch. The video linked above talks about the minus world glitch and gives an in depth explanation as to how it works.
If you want to know how to...
If you want to know how to...
My Review of Jon's Review of Plinkett's Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review:
It's good. I agree with the points Jon makes and he states them well.
Actually I said that before even watching the video. :D I'm going to write this comment while watching.
I'm 45 minutes in and so far it's just a critique of Star Wars fans and the media around it. I kinda feel like the pacing would have been better if this was split in two-- a teardown of the lead-up to TFA, and then the review of TFA itself.
But I do like what he's saying about the politics of the prequel trilogy. As a more adult adult, I appreciate that part of the prequels more. I think it's likely that some of the political scenes were cut or trimmed down for length so it doesn't flow as well as it could, but Sidious masterfully building the Empire is great.
His criticism of the Republic/Resistance dichotomy is fair but it's also addressed. The Resistance is a semi-official military because the Republic has mostly disarmed. There were scenes cut that explain that, but again, I guess the politics was trimmed. It's also covered pretty extensively in other media, but those shouldn't be required for understanding.
I disagree with what he's saying about the OT not having much comedy outside of C3PO. The comedy is ramped up in TFA but it never felt out of place to me.
Oh man, that shot of Lucas saying "I was sort of ahead of my time with Red Tails. An all black film?" That felt so cringeworthy.
The lack of a "get the girl" plot didn't even register for me. I don't know. I don't see that as necessary at all. He really wanted Finn and Rey to kiss, but I never felt it was necessary. In fact it may have felt more derivative it if had happened.
Toward the end I felt some of these criticisms felt off the mark. Unfortunately I can't tell how many of them are the person's criticisms and how many are the character's, especially when he's talking about diversity.
I'd love it, though, if this was a guy talking about this stuff, not a guy talking about this stuff through a character with skits about being killed by filmmakers and banging pizza with a phone. It may be that in a near-two-hour video, the character and the humor just wear thin. But I've never really watched a Plinkett because of it until this one. There's great info and great critique, but I don't prefer the presentation.
That's contradictory, because I love boogie and his Francis character. LOVE him. So maybe the humor just isn't for me. But I do now see that the humor of Plinkett is worth sitting through for the content.
Can't watch the video from work, and I've never watched any, but one of my only criticisms about the force awakens, is Finn's humor. He's been brainwashed since a kid, yet suddenly he acts all normal? He should be awkward at best.
That's a very fair point, yeah. They touch on that in a short story that takes place before TFA, caring for others is kinda driven out of them. BUT at the same time, he's always resisted the brainwashing. Still, initial signs of the mental torment that gradually fade a bit as the movie goes on would have been great.
JaBo: Good point. That said, that wouldn't work for the style of The Force Awakens. Finn is often comedic relief, which I enjoy but yeah when you put it that way, he wouldn't really be like that.
Travis: This review has the least amount of Plinkett's character than most. The Revenge of the Sith review had the most that I remember. Anyways, I think part of the fun is the character but the humor can get super dark and VERY sick.
> Toward the end I felt some of these criticisms felt off the mark. Unfortunately I can't tell how many of them are the person's criticisms and how many are the character's, especially when he's talking about diversity.
The diversity stuff was stupid. Essentially he said something like "diversity is fine and the characters are fine but Disney added diversity for market appeal so fuck them." So it's not bad, the movie isn't bad and the characters aren't bad but because a big corporation did it it's wrong or cynical? Or they realize that we live in a diverse world and did something for everyone. This is the weakest part of the argument he makes I think.
Also he admits it's a good film so his arguments aren't from the perspective of "this movie is bad" more like "let's discuss aspects of this movie that could be bad." It's like the Plinkett review of Avatar or Titanic, he admits they aren't bad movies up front and just really talks about how James Cameron makes big tentpole movies that pander to audiences. In the end I think the best kind of Plinkett review is of a bad bad movie like The Phantom Menace or Star Trek Insurrection not a good bad movie like Troll 2 or a good movie like The Force Awakens or Avatar.
This review was almost Episode 1 for me. I was really looking forward to it, and even had a friend over to watch it with me. And was pretty disappointed.
The first hour was an uninspired rehashing of "Prequels vs Originals." Mike/Plinkett brings up the Ring Theory, says it's dumb, then discusses it for-ev-er.
Finally at Point 5, the Force Awakens Review begins. I agree with everyone that it seems difficult to make a good Plinkett review of a movie that is pretty good. RLM was practically required to make this review, but it felt like they had to nitpick to fill time.
I did love the pizza-phone sex. Plinkett reviews need the absurdity. It was uncomfortable to watch, but that's what Plinkett does best :)
Because the first half hour filled with not much new, the review felt really long. I was ready for it to be over with 10-15 mins still to go.
I can't say much that wasn't said already about the actual points. The diversity point felt forced and the lack of "sex" was interesting, but I didn't miss it when I watched the movie.
Overall, I was disappointed in this review and won't be watching it again.
That's too bad Adam. My first viewing had similar moments but a second time was better. I think the hype I felt for it was a bit misplaced. I don't think the phantom menace reviews can be topped. Or Babies Day Out. Or Cop Dog.
Yeah, so, it was entertaining. The beginning majority just felt like it was rehashing a lot of the things from the prequel reviews, and things that they've said a lot on Red Letter Media. Then, it felt like it just sort of dragged on after he'd already made the point. It had entertaining moments though.
Interestingly, I thought the Ring theory made some good points, but didn't redeem the prequels, in that it's a good idea, but wasn't executed in a way which made the prequels enjoyable to watch. An entertaining movie doesn't need for one to find an intellectual premise after having watched it to justify its entertainment value. You know a movie is entertaining, because you're being entertained as you're watching it.
The review of TFA part of the review of TFA, like other people have said, made some good points, but it didn't have the feeling of totally tearing it apart, like with the prequel reviews, simply because, with its flaws, it's still an enjoyable movie. It is sort of a gutless clone of A New Hope, but I felt that was sort of needed in order to reestablish Star Wars to people who felt jaded by the prequels.
Like Travis, I wasn't bothered by Ray and Finn not kissing. The race thing didn't even enter my mind. I thought it was a deliberate attempt to show that just because the main character's female, she doesn't need to fall all over the male hero. Likewise, the male hero doesn't have to be horny over her just because she's female.
I enjoyed Finn's humor. I did find it odd that the defected storm trooper seemed to be so at ease. But I enjoyed it.
I did not, however, enjoy the diarrhea scene at the end of the review. Sometimes Red Letter Media does things like that, and sometimes they don't. I prefer it when they don't. I prefer implied humor over, "let's show a long drawn out gross-out scene". I usually just tune out and imagine the pretty flowers or something.