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Check Out the Trailer for the Monster Hunter Movie

This looks like an awesome movie and it's coming out at the end of the year! I saw other smaller trailers for it, but this one added to that. It seems to explain why a modern group of military soldiers are fighting monsters we see in the Monster Hunter games. It didn't make sense, before this trailer, why modern weapons were being used, but now it makes sense. You do get to see some people using weapons that we're used to seeing in Monster Hunter games. One of the main characters, for instance, is using dual blades. She's one of these modern soldiers, but it seems she switches from modern weapons to Monster Hunter weapons. There are other characters we will see... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/15/2020 at 03:19am

"Only in theaters in December."

Ok.

That aside, the movie looks like a lot of campy monster killing fun. Milla looks like she's giving it everything, which is cool to see. I know she elevated the Resident Evil films so it's cool to see her make a run at Monster Hunter.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/15/2020 at 04:32am

I felt like I was watching a transformers trailer.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/15/2020 at 05:16am

@Jon I thought she did great in the Resident Evil movies and that's how I know her best. That first RE movie was a favorite of mine, and a lot of that had to do with the awesome soundtrack. Now I've seen that they're making a RE reboot. Honestly, I don't care, zombies really aren't my "thing." I don't really like them, they're everywhere in too much of everything IMHO. Yet I own many of the RE games on the GameCube.

LOL @Will_Ball is that bad or good? I liked the Transformers movies I saw, but I missed at least one of them, particularly Bumblebee. I like the dinosaur ones I didn't really know about as a kid. I didn't follow Transformers too much. I think I was more into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and X-Men.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/15/2020 at 05:29am

Oh! I had a neat theory, what if the people were transported to the Monster Hunter world by Kirin, since he's the elder dragon associated w/ thunder and thunder is how they're transported to the world. maybe he brings them to that world to fight another elder dragon or just to be general monster hunters, perhaps the monsters are taking over and need culling. I think it should really piss off some characters and make them break stuff, cuz damn I hated fighting Kirin at first! I broke a controller or two fighting it. Yeah, I love MH:W but it is a game that has really pissed me off. LOL I haven't played in a while though, although this trailer really makes me want to play it more. I haven't finished the Iceborne content. After watching this trailer, I felt pretty excited and am looking forward to seeing the movie. Ron Perlman is playing the Admiral, BTW.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/15/2020 at 05:35am

@GregoPeck, depends if you like the Transformers movies. 😄

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/15/2020 at 09:40am

@Will_Ball well I think I saw two or three and I think I liked them. I think have the first on Blu-Ray, if so it was probably one of the first Blu-Ray discs I bought. I haven't seen it in forever though. I don't know if I've watched any of them in the last decade or five years.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/15/2020 at 04:19pm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NVPLqbWXdDA

Travis Admin wrote on 10/15/2020 at 06:12pm

I highly doubt that December theater release. We'll see. If Tenet flopped I can't imagine they'd do well with a theater release when it's likely to be worse.

But yeah I kinda wish studios weren't afraid of fantasy settings. Like hmm, how can we get people to watch this? BIG ASS MACHINE GUNS YEAAHH

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 11/23/2020 at 05:47am

Release date: 12/30/20 (via Google search)

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/25/2020 at 03:23am

It seems I missed it. The Internet told me yesterday that the movie was actually released ahead of time on 12/18/20. The Blu-Ray is expected to be released in March, so I'm going to have to wait. I found at least one source that contained some things worth noting. I saw that it was released much earlier in China. Apparently the reviews aren't great, kind of mixed. I (briefly) read criticism of underdeveloped characters. Also, China found some dialogue that they found offensive and halted it's circulation. Although I also read that the CG was good. I still intend to watch it when I can.

I don't know if it's still going on, but Monster Hunter: World had an event going on w/ the movie, in which you play two quests as the main female character in the movie. She uses dual blades by default and I never tried that weapon type, so I was surprised that I was actually able to complete the event quests.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/30/2020 at 04:36am

Once you get it, I’d love to read your review!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/30/2020 at 05:58am

Cool! Well, maybe I'll have to write something about it. Thanks for the encouragement!

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/30/2020 at 07:16pm

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/04/2021 at 02:30am

2/16! https://www.gamespot.com/articles/monster-hunter-movie-releases-on-home-video-february-16/1100-6487046/

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/17/2021 at 06:04am

So, I just watched Monster Hunter and thought I’d share my thoughts (most especially since Jon expressed interest in the movie). I haven’t recently read reviews, but I remember bits of what I read previously. Apparently, the movie wasn’t received well and China, specifically, took issue with it. One thing I read that I remember was that there a line in which China deemed to be offensive. From the quote of it I read, I could definitely see it that way. Fortunately, however, I didn’t ever hear the line spoken, so I can only assume that it was (gratefully) removed.

Reviews don’t really matter to me. I find myself appreciating and enjoying movies much more than the majority of others. That noted, I didn’t think it was a bad movie, but I was disappointed with the ending. In my opinion, the movie ended too abruptly. I was not expecting the end when it happened. I even said something aloud expressing my surprise and disappointment. It ended on a bit of a cliff hanger, which seems to pretty much suggest that there’s going to be a follow up. Although, I’m afraid that might not happen seeing as how it wasn’t received well from what I recall seeing months ago.

Still, I enjoyed it and I think the fact that I was disappointed in its abrupt ending perhaps shows that I was enjoying it. There were things I enjoyed and things I didn’t. I really loved seeing and hearing familiar monsters like Diablos and Rathalos, monsters I’m familiar with from my game play of Monster Hunter: World. Diablos was slightly confusing, because it looked like both the regular Diablos and Black Diablos. The latter is the female and the two do not get along (who knows how they mate). However, there were two smaller creatures that I didn’t recognize, which makes me wonder if they were from other Monster Hunter games. There was a third monster that I didn’t recognize.

I decided to watch the trailer again after the movie to test an idea I had, which was wrong. I’m disappointed to say that the entire movie is pretty much within that trailer. I think if you watch the movie, you’ll perhaps see some things coming as I did, but probably more so after watching the trailer.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/17/2021 at 06:05am

There are some other minor bits that I enjoyed, because they came straight out of the game series. Yes, there is a Palico. In case you’re not aware, a Palico is a human sized cat. The only one you see is the chef that you see in the games, but is a bit more skinny and scruffier. I did like how it pretty much performed the same actions you see the chef Palico perform in Monster Hunter: World. I also liked the inclusion of the Slinger, which is a weapon which attaches to your arm and allows you to shoot a projectile with an attachment. This allows you to shoot at something and pull yourself closer to it. This is a handy tool in the games as it often helps you get around. You can also shoot projectiles with it. Even though the weapons that appeared in the movie were limited, I still enjoyed that there was a bit of a variety in use. The Dual Blades looked awesome and bigger than I expected.

It looks like the movie is available on a few different streaming platforms at the moment, so you can catch it before it’s release on Blu-Ray. If you like the game series, then you might want to check this out. I’m not really sure how people who haven’t played any of the games would think about it.

Alas, for those of you who own a Nintendo Switch, you should probably check out the free demo available for Monster Hunter Rise, which will be released on 3/26/21. I believe the Switch is actually getting two Monster Hunter games soon (sorry, not MH: World).

Monster Hunter Rise demo and release info: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2020/try-out-monster-hunter-rise-with-a-free-limited-time-demo/

P.S. Wow, I keep hitting that character limit for posts and comments!

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/18/2021 at 05:07pm

Too bad this movie didn’t make much in theaters. A lot of stuff like this won’t get sequels (most likely) because they didn’t perform well due to the pandemic. Not that this would have blown up the film world or anything, but it’s sad it didn’t get much of a chance.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/18/2021 at 06:08pm

Yeah, I think my main issue with it was that I wanted more. I wanted to see more monsters, and more of the wide variety of weapon types. The movie did make me think more about the armor monsters have. If bullets seem to do nothing, then how do blades work so well? It doesn't quite make sense. Heck, the beginning of the movie battled me, too, as we see a ship sailing through a desert. I'm sure in MH:W, you start the game out in an air ship.

What is your interest in Monster Hunter? Have you played any of the games yet? MH:W was my first and I found it enjoyable, although also quite frustrating while I tried to take on tough monsters alone. Vinny now has a PS4 and the game, but sadly it's not a cross-platform game.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/17/2021 at 11:04am

There's a new Monster Hunter animated series coming to Netflix. I like it mostly because of the Monsters I saw that I'm familiar with. For instance, the Elder Dragon they're talking about is a beautiful blue lion and of course I love her! Check out the trailer: https://youtu.be/PqFjjs_qNn4

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Watch Metal Jesus Unbox Command & Conqueor From Limited Run

The Command & Conqueror Limited Run packages are shipping soon and if you were wondering what was included in each box Metal Jesus has you covered.

Have You Played The 7th Saga?

The 7th Saga is a Super Nintendo RPG I never quite got around to playing but heard good things about. The world is that it's a fairly hard RPG but many of the Super Nintendo era RPG's are quite challenging and require a fair amount of grind compared to modern games. I recently watched Hungry Goriya's review of The 7th Saga and wanted to share it for folks that were wondering more about the game and also ask if anyone has played it and if so what they thought of it?

"The 7th Saga for SNES is a turn-based roleplaying game with a reputation for being an extremely difficult adventure. Sure, it's a tough one, but I don't feel it strayed too far from many other RPGs of the... Read All

Dean of Doom Reviews Doom II

Dean of Doom is a new YouTube channel I watch regularly and I wanted to share his latest video reviewing Doom II. While I enjoy Doom II a lot I'm mixed on a few of the maps I've played and so far I prefer the original Doom to Doom II. The inclusion of the new enemies and weapons such as the doubled barred shotgun are essential additions to Doom, that said I think the original maps were more iconic even if Doom II was more influential to the mapping scene.

As always Dean of Doom gives Doom II a fair shake and there if you haven't played through all of Doom II the Dean gives it a good overview.

Check Out the Guts Of The Playstation 5 With This Inside Look!

Sony released this official PS5 teardown video and a lot of folks in gaming are excited about it. It's not quite my cup of tea and being honest, this generation of Playstation hasn't excited me as much as others but this video does serve as a good example of what you will get in terms of hardware with the Playstation 5. I did notice that they didn't say how fast the Ethernet in the PS5 was but even if it's gigabit that is still really fast.

One thing I was wondering is that for folks getting the PS5 early or later, do you have it standing it up or put it on it's side?

XBox Series X Backwards Compatability Tested by Digital Foundry!

Digital Foundry takes a peek at the backwards compatibility of the XBox Series X and the results are quite good. XBox is the clear backwards compatibility winner and these numbers seem to further solidify that. My hope is that after PS5 launches Sony attends more to compatibility but that remains to be seen.

"Rich goes hands-on with Xbox Series X and puts its backwards compatibility capabilities to the most extreme tests possible. How much more graphics power does the compatibility mode deliver? Can it deliver 60fps on some of the most challenging Xbox One X games we've looked at over the years? The answers may surprise you."

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is Great!

Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Command & Conquer (C&C) is one of the very first real-time strategy games. It was released in 1995, although Dune II actually came out a few years before it. C&C, however, made vast improvements and additions to the genre and was perhaps most famous for its full motion videos (FMVs). The acting, music, and gameplay were all great and lead to a very successful series that lasted over a decade. This success led to the game actually being retitled as “Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn.” After the success of C&C and it’s expansions, a new game was released called Red Alert (RA). RA takes place in a different timeline in which Einstein creates a time... Read All Command & Conquer (C&C) is one of the very first real-time strategy games. It was released in 1995, although Dune II actually came out a few years before it. C&C, however, made vast improvements and additions to the genre and was perhaps most famous for its full motion videos (FMVs). The acting, music, and gameplay were all great and lead to a very successful series that lasted over a decade. This success led to the game actually being retitled as “Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn.” After the success of C&C and it’s expansions, a new game was released called Red Alert (RA). RA takes place in a different timeline in which Einstein creates a time machine and removes Hitler from history. This put the Allies against the Stalin led USSR. Like C&C, RA was followed up with some expansions and sequels. I still own the soundtrack to RA that I got many years ago. I’ve really loved pretty much all C&C/RA music.

Most recently, some of original developers of the games decided to create the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. They actually found old tapes of the FMVs and were able to remaster them, making them look much better. You can check out Jon’s post (link below) to see a video about how this collection was made, it’s worth watching if you’re a C&C fan.

One of my first reactions to the collection was that I was surprised that it’s priced at only $20. Maybe, I was expecting it to be a little more expensive. However, Limited Run Games did have other, more expensive, copies you could get that came with a lot more extra material, such as the music on a USB drive. I still think $20 is a great price tag for this collection.

The first bug I actually ran into may have been changed by now, but it was difficult to disable subtitles. For some reason, you had to click around the button instead of on the button. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this, though. I ran into another bug that was actually just a typo in the description of a photo from the bonus material.

The games didn’t just get a graphical overhaul, but the music and other elements were overhauled as well. One of the interesting graphical features is that you can press the Space Bar to switch between the classic and remastered graphics. This gives you a nice view of how the game has been remastered. The collection includes bonus material that is unlocked after completing a mission. Most of it is just videos showing green screen takes of the actors, which I didn’t find to be very valuable. However, you can also unlock bonus music tracks, which I found to be much more valuable.

Speaking of the music, I ran into what I thought was a bug. You can go into the game’s Jukebox, which you can find in the audio options on the main menu or in the menu during a game and create a playlist. It has some good options such as including or excluding original or remastered tracks, bonus tracks, C&C tracks, or RA tracks. One part of this confused me and that is the shuffle feature. I assumed this meant that the game would play a random music track if this was enabled, however this wasn’t entirely correct. What happens is that after adding tracks to the playlist, the game then shuffles them around and then seemingly saves that playlist. It then plays the exact same songs in the exact same order in pretty much every mission. This seemed to persist for almost every mission, although I think it actually changed some times. You can easily switch tracks w/ the “-” and “+” keys, though.

Just like in the original, sometimes there are often multiple areas you can select for the next mission after completing one. In the original games, this meant that you’d probably miss out on one, but this collection has a Mission Select menu option. Once you finish a mission, you can click on the “Main Menu” button. The game will then tell you, pretty much, that your progress is saved and you can select missions from the main menu. This way, you can play every mission. It’s very handy and helps expand campaign gameplay. You can also unlock the secret missions for both games. I couldn't remember how to do this, so I just used Google to find out how.

I was working on Steam achievements, but ran into another issue, which may just be something I was doing incorrectly. One of the achievements requires you to play 10 multiplayer matches, but includes “comp stomp,” which I presume to mean you versus the AI, pretty much like the Skirmish option. However, I couldn’t get this to start and am waiting to hear back about what I may have done wrong with this.

After finishing the C&C part of the collection, I started playing the RA part. RA included a new snow environment, which I liked very much. It also included new units including spies and naval units. One thing I liked was that if you lose a naval unit, the game will specifically tell you, “naval unit lost.” After switching from the first game to RA, I immediately began to notice how it was an improvement over the original game. For instance, in the original game, it was difficult for a tank to shoot at an infantry unit and it was just easier to run them over. However, tanks seem to have gained anti-infantry accuracy in RA. They also seem to have gotten a speed boost. You may also hear the male voice of EVA and think “oh, that sounds like Jarvis from Iron Man,” but I can tell you that they are not the same actor. They most definitely sound alike (to me and some others) though.

If you liked C&C and RA, I would definitely suggest picking this up. I enjoyed being able to play these games again, especially after being remastered. I (along with others apparently) would really like to see more of the C&C/RA games get the remastered treatment. I have these games on a DVD collection known as "Command & Conquer: The First Decade," but the earlier games aren't completely compatible with today's modern PCs as they were designed for 32-bit CPUs. However, with a bit of research and some extra steps, you can get these games to work and stay stable. I've been able to get Tiberian Sun working and am playing it again.

If you have thoughts you want to share about this, please feel free to do so in the comments!

Check out this post by Jon: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4466/the-remarkable-story-behind-command-conquer-s-remastering

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/06/2020 at 11:18pm

My CE of this should be showing up in a few weeks!

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/07/2020 at 10:26pm

I agree that the digital price of the C&C collection is an incredible value. Red Alert is the stand out game to me in this collection and I am VERY eager for Red Alert 2. I think the best part of these collections is making the games much easier to play given that running these old titles involves a lot of hacking.

I want to play this, I'm not sure when that's going to happen though? Prob around the time I complete the recent WarCraft III remake 🤣

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/08/2020 at 12:57am

I may have forgotten about WarCraft III. I don't have it, yet. It'd be cool if they remastered the first two. These games (WarCraft and C&C) came out about the same time.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/08/2020 at 03:51am

Give me Dune 2 or go home!

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/08/2020 at 03:55am

You can get the first two Warcrafts on GOG. They seem to have put enough effort in to make them run on modern Windows, which is really nice.

https://www.gog.com/game/warcraft_bundle

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/08/2020 at 03:56am

> Give me Dune 2 or go home!

I didn't know that wasn't available digitally anywhere. Shame.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/08/2020 at 05:57am

Oh wow I didn't know about the WarCrafts on GOG. As for Dune 2, man I enjoyed that game! I tried to play Dune 2000 recently and ended up doing a "rage quit." I actually finally did the same thing to Tiberian Sun, because I felt like if I have to watch a video to see how to do every mission, then I'm not really enjoying the game. I only watched videos for a few missions in the Remastered Collection. I admit my strategy was simple and usually effective, though repetitive. I still had fun though! Now I don't know how I played these games w/out YouTube. Shoot, I barely had Internet service in the Dune2/C&C/Warcraft days, though I had friends playing them, too.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/15/2020 at 09:45am

After a small break, I returned to Tiberian Sun. It was odd that the mission I stopped on never came back up, since I restarted. I just finished the Firestorm Nod campaign, so I'm done w/ the all the campaigns. It's good that it's playable, once you figure out how to get it to work properly, which isn't too difficult. It could use a "fresh coat of paint" or remaster like C&C and RA, but after about 20 years it's still not bad, or that's what I think anyway.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/16/2020 at 08:26am

I've now moved on to Red Alert 2 and found out that my version that came w/ C&C: The First Decade works just fine w/out any tinkering. My native and max resolution for my monitor is 1920X1200 and that's what I'm used to. However, I've decided to keep the game at the minimal resolution of 640X480 (16 bit only available). This is because the game play itself looks a bit better when increasing the resolution, but I don't want to be zoomed out too much where my units look too tiny. Also, if I use 800X600, the main menu looks fine and normal full screen, but movies or cutscenes get a black border around them, which I don't like. Increasing the resolution beyond this point puts a border around the menu and increases the one around the movies. You can get "hi-res" to work and it's not hard, but nothing I found made the movies stretch. There are settings for that, but they don't work. I tried the Origin version and while it appears to be the same version number, it doesn't behave the same way. If you change the resolution on that one then colors get inverted and the menu gets put into a smaller box in the upper left hand corner. There are compatibility fixes for this game and you can enable some compatibility options by selecting them in the properties of the .exe files, especially "run in compatibility mode for Windows 7" or XP or 95, run it in 16 bit color, since it doesn't go above that, and "run as administrator." To me, it was just a quick simple search on the web of how to run RA2 on Windows 10 and instructions weren't very complicated. Still, I don't think it looks too bad and I think I've forgotten over the last two decades just how fun this game is.

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Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs Update Coming Summer 2021

Since the last two posts have been about Minecraft, I figured why stop there? Check out the embedded video by xisumavoid to see what's in the next Minecraft update called the Caves & Cliffs Update. If you want to stay up to date with Minecraft news, his channel is definitely one of the best Minecraft channels to watch. This update enhances cave generation and adds a couple new biomes and blocks to them, including copper. There are also two new mobs you'll find in them, one is hostile, while the other is friendly. The former is blind and can only detect your movement. There are new blocks that will detect movement, even allowing for "wireless" Redstone. The latter... Read All

Minecraft Joins Super Smash Bros.

In case you missed yesterday's big news that possibly crashed Twitter, Minecraft is joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the next DLC. The trailer looks really cool. I don't own a Switch, but I've played all the other versions of Smash Bros. and have enjoyed the game since the first on the N64. I think it's kind of crazy how many characters have been and are being added to Smash Bros, though not necessarily a bad thing. I think having Minecraft in Smash Bros. kind of speaks to just how big and popular Minecraft is. This DLC has been in the works (including "talks") for about 5 years.

... Read All

"I've Got A Bone" - Dan Bull

Now that it's October, Halloween season can begin!

This song has a fun "This Is Halloween" type vibe to it and I just thought I'd share!