721

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 28, 2013, 12:28:17 AM »

Just wanted to do a quick note on this because lore lore lore. Also, while I tend to agree with a lot of the criticisms proffered by the typical NMA user, I do think they are extremely whiny about it. I think instead of basically saying "Bethesda ruined everything" (which I assure you I have only ever done in jest) we fans of Fallout should be encouraging them to do better, to see where they went wrong and help them get on the right track, and if they don't listen at least we tried.

I've heard that a lot of people hate it for bringing aliens into the Fallout universe, and also because there's some implication that the aliens might have been responsible for the nuclear war.  For example, here's a couple of discussions on the subject:

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=987366

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/1erk0w/

Fair warning, they're full of smug hipsters circlejerking.

I'm willing to forgive lore problems if I'm having fun, and while MZ is absolute bullshit in terms of lore, it is fun. I think it was the point in the development schedule at which Bethesda just decided to do something that was goofy and entertaining, and in abandoning all pretence of seriousness they actually ended up coming their closest to the original games, even though they were introducing something totally alien (no pun intended) to the series thus far. If they decide to push it in F4 I may be less receptive to it, especially if it's significant to the main story and serves to further the more objectionable implications some people mention in the linked discussions, but I think as a 1-2 hour DLC adventure it was good fun and had the best comedic writing in the whole game—not much of an achievement considering the rest of the game was about as funny as Andrew Dice Clay and even less charming, but it's something.

722

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: December 27, 2013, 07:32:56 PM »

I was told that Mothership Zeta kinda sucks. I like anchorage because free stuff.

Mothership Zeta is by far the most fun I had in F3.

723

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 26, 2013, 12:48:23 AM »

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
Cronenberg is well known for his special effects creations like the living typewriters from Naked Lunch and Seth Brundle's gradual transformation into The Fly, but here the effects you don't see are at the centre of the drama as Jeremy Irons acts opposite himself in dual lead roles. A lot of people paint Cronenberg as an expressly cerebral filmmaker who gives little attention to emotion in general, and yet his remake of The Fly and this film are shining counterexamples to that assessment, not to mention The Brood, a heartfelt nightmare inspired by his divorce and resulting custody battle. I love Cronenberg's work in general, as you may have guessed, but this one is my favourite overall.

The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
A lot of people have made a meal about how this film is "different" from much of Lynch's other work, comparing it more to his Disney-funded The Straight Story than something like Blue Velvet, yet it contains many of his typical themes; the rot lurking beneath the polished surface of polite society, the confusion and misery of the downtrodden and misunderstood, deep emotional trauma, protagonists not in control of their own lives even at the best of times. Throw in the characteristic "body horror" and black and white industrial photography of Eraserhead and as far as I'm concerned it's very much a Lynch joint, and one of his best.

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
Back with the other Dave, and this time he's joined by a psychic Christopher Walken in this adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Is it faithful? I don't know! I haven't read anything of his besides The Stand and The Dark Tower. It plays much more as a supernatural thriller than a horror film, and is full of that smell-it-a-mile-away Kingian cheese that I love when it's handled well, which it is here. Walken steals the show with his classically bizarre line delivery, but credit should also go to Martin Sheen, who gives a wonderfully big performance as a corrupt politician, and Herbert Lom in his understated role as Dr Weizak.

724

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 25, 2013, 08:36:20 AM »

I'm guessing you got that idea from the article on Van Buren on that Fallout wiki, The Vault.  It's normally a pretty reliable source, but it's dead wrong on that point.  No, the real culprits behind Fallout's temporary demise were the folks at Titus Software, the same geniuses who gave us Superman for the N64.

In any case, though, I didn't say anything about improvements over hypothetical games that we might have gotten instead.  By that logic, I could argue that Bethesda's F3 was infinitely better than the Call of Fallout game that EA would have been likely to make.  The fact is that the last game in the franchise was that shitty BoS one.  So there.

Fine, fine... but my dad could beat up your dad

Anyway, I'll see you here again whenever I get around to untangling the lore surrounding LR.

725

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 24, 2013, 10:03:48 AM »

So, given the current state of the franchise, F3 was actually an improvement?

Brotherhood of Steel was just a spin-off, not part of the main series. The original Fallout 3, more commonly known by its codename Van Buren, was ~50% complete in 2003, then Bethesda bought the rights to the franchise and it was canned.

In other words: no.

Bro, no.  Van Buren was cancelled because Black Isle was shut down by Interplay, and that happened because the company was almost bankrupt.  Bethesda licensed the rights to make F3 in 2004, and they bought the franchise in 2007.

Well then, perhaps my sources were wrong, in any case that still doesn't make the F3 we got an improvement over the F3 we were originally going to get.

726

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 23, 2013, 08:56:16 PM »

So, given the current state of the franchise, F3 was actually an improvement?

Brotherhood of Steel was just a spin-off, not part of the main series. The original Fallout 3, more commonly known by its codename Van Buren, was ~50% complete in 2003, then Bethesda bought the rights to the franchise and it was canned.

In other words: no.

727

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 23, 2013, 03:51:46 PM »

But I thought you were a big fan of the franchise!  Shouldn't you have gotten it as soon as it came out?

If you'd played the previous attempt to convert Fallout into an action game, you wouldn't have been too eager to get it either.

728

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 23, 2013, 12:42:16 PM »

Crudblud still hasn't replied.  Hmm...what bait to use next.

Hey, Crudblud, it's funny how you apparently don't like this game, and yet you spent all that time and (presumably) money playing the DLC.  You are literally Blanko.

I received the GOTY edition of F3 as a gift. As for LR, you present some good points, and I have been thinking about my response.

729

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 20, 2013, 07:15:54 PM »

Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Following on from my success with Mulholland Dr., I decided to rewatch another particularly enigmatic Lynch feature in the hope that it too would make much more sense. This time around I was able to let the analytical part of my mind relax and just roll with it, and the narrative seemed to flow a lot better even if I didn't necessarily understand what was going on much of the time. As with Mulholland, the power of the atmosphere is constant, but as dark as that film gets, this one is almost pitch black all the way through to me. I thought it was a masterpiece the first time I saw it, but now I am sure of it.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman)
I wonder why I didn't see this a long time ago, but I'm glad I waited, as I don't think I would have been sensitive or patient enough to really get into this as a teenager. I would have missed the warmth and humour of the characters, the more subtle elements of their interactions and relationships, and the wonderfully balanced ending, which is both sad and joyful, but without falling prey to the bogus sentimentality it so easily could have. Like so many films I love, it walks a tonal tightrope with, perhaps not exactly surety, but determination.

730

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Duck Dynasty Controversy

« on: December 20, 2013, 06:28:14 AM »

Can I just ask why anyone would take a show called "Duck Dynasty" seriously?

731

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: December 20, 2013, 04:46:13 AM »

Mostly I'm surprised beardo liked a story in which religious people are portrayed positively.

732

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 19, 2013, 08:04:38 PM »

Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
A really good recent Woody Allen film starring Owen Wilson... who'd-a thunk it? The typical Allen formula is given a strange new twist that offers up some of his smartest writing in a good while, well performed by a solid cast taking on some very big characters.

733

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 18, 2013, 05:04:14 AM »

Are you a Lynch fan in general, Crapblood?

I count several of his films among my favourites, including Wild at Heart which is my absolute favourite film. So yeah, I guess I am.

734

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 17, 2013, 10:30:49 AM »

Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
I first saw this some years ago and was totally perplexed by it. Seeing it now with fresh eyes I feel like it makes a lot more sense and actually contains, as Lynch insists, a linear narrative. With this clearer perspective on the narrative I was able to sit back and enjoy Lynch's mastery of atmosphere, suspense, abstraction, character development and overall direction which have come together to form one of his finest works, and a definite masterpiece of modern American cinema.

735

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: December 17, 2013, 04:22:12 AM »

omg i am so defeated

I'm glad we could come to an amiable agreement on the matter.

736

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: December 16, 2013, 01:02:27 PM »

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
Cameras mounted upon a fishing trawler are submerged in gull-blanketed waters, splattered with fish guts, buried under piles of catch, and other fun things in this intense, wordless, non-narrative filmic essay on the harshness of life at sea.

The Third Man (Carol Reed)
Like when I watched 12 Angry Men, I'm left writing a review of a film about which no more can really be said. A well beloved classic of film noir and deservedly so.

Frozen (Chris Buck)
Surprisingly good Disney musical, offering enough twists to their usual formula to make the usual tight visuals, gags and songwriting more than just a case of going through the motions.

Westworld (Michael Crichton)
Proto-Terminator in which mustachio'd vacationer does battle with bald android gunslinger. Great fun from Crichton, who apparently has a thing for deadly theme parks.

Caligula (Tinto Brass)
Disowned by writer Gore Vidal and lead actor Malcolm McDowell, among others, Caligula is an ever escalating orgy of madness that transcends its obvious and manifold flaws to become a grand and absurd comedy. Features a notable performance from the late Peter O'Toole as the wretched Tiberius.

737

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: December 16, 2013, 07:35:54 AM »

And now I've beaten Lonesome Road.  To once more quote Sir Drainsalot:

Lonesome road reminded me a lot of DM - started off well then slowly died. At least the combat wasn't quite to head-bashingly frustrating. But the latter half has all the hallmarks of a ran-out-of-time-and-money job. A sandbox game reduced to a single linear path? Check. Entire plot threads dangled and then forgotten about? Check. Disappointing final boss showdown? Oh yes, without the effort to even animate the guys face, so we'll just stick a mask on there. It says something that the best character in there was an eyebot.

And here's something from Chris:

I didn't like Lonesome Road, I thought it prescribed too much of your character's back-story. By the time my courier got there he wouldn't have done half the things Ullyses accused him of. I also didn't like the really linear path and the lack of humour.

There was some cool new equipment in this one, like that rocket launcher.  The combat was fairly challenging.  And I really liked the harsh, bleak environment, which seemed like the ideal setting to finally close out the game's story.  That's about all the good things I can say for this one.  I actually feel a little bad for criticizing Honest Hearts after playing this.  I mean, for fuck's sake, this add-on doesn't just feel rushed, it feels unfinished!  Where are the sidequests?  Where are the other characters?  Where are the opportunities for exploration?  Where's the roleplaying?  Where's the opening introduction so we know what the fuck is going on?  Where's the setup for why the Courier is even bothering to do all this shit in the first place?  I'm doing it because I want to play through the DLC, of course, but surely there has to be some kind of in-universe motivation for the character, right?

Speaking of characters and their motivations, Ulysses sucked.  I think Obsidian really wanted to portray him as a super-deep and complex character whose quest to destroy the player is totally understandable, but it didn't work.  At best, he came across as a deranged nut.  And his feud with the Courier had no personal resonance with me at all, because of the simple fact that I had nothing to do with what happened to the Divide.  It was in the past!  Now, if they could have played around with the timeline a bit and tied the destruction of the Divide to something that happened during the main story, something that the Courier did while being controlled by the player, then maybe it could have worked.  But to simply make up an event that predates the main story and expect the player to feel any kind of guilt or responsibility for it?  No.  That's just stupid.

NV, more than any other game in the series so far, is about the past, nostalgia, resisting change; its namesake a relic of the Old World kept in working order by Mr House, a man who can't let go; the central event the battle at Hoover Dam, people across the Mojave fearing the inevitable change that will come no matter who is victorious. In keeping with this theme, all the DLC is in some way about people like Mr House: Thinktank, Elijah, Dog, Dean Domino, Joshua Graham and so on, they all want to cling to what is lost forever. Ulysses is the most extreme example, his tenuous grip on the Old World is his raison d'être, he is adorned with its symbols and resides in a place that likely resembles the world in 2077 (the closest he can physically come to the pre-war world), taking refuge from the chaos of the Divide inside a nuclear missile silo, the physical cause of the Old World's destruction. The final conflict of Lonesome Road is symbolic of the final death of the Old World, Ulysses being something like a steadfast cell, if you will, resisting the death and rot that has consumed the rest of the body. There are countless other examples of this throughout the game: a man who thinks himself a god (recalling Caligula) trying to unite the tribes in a simulacrum of Ancient Rome; the BoS resisting necessary change in the face of sure death; Enclave remnants trying but ultimately failing to leave behind their militaristic past; a ghoul who remains forever attached to a lost love and a former life; former soldiers of The Master's army seeking his likeness and dominion in Tabitha, Marcus and even Father Elijah in Dog's case—there are many more besides.

In LR we learn that a package The Courier delivered to the Divide a long time ago was in fact a bomb of some sort, sent by whom and for what reason we do not know. Ulysses doesn't know either, so who else has he, in his nostalgic madness, to blame but the one who made the delivery? When he sees that The Courier would be next in line after him for the Platinum Chip delivery, he quits the job so that they will take it, knowing that he is effectively signing their death warrant. When this plan fails, his obsession and desire for revenge grows even stronger, and he decides to do the job himself, calling The Courier out to one of the most inhospitable places in the west, knowing that, if they don't die on their way there, he will do everything in his power to destroy them with his own hands. Ultimately he cannot do this and, one way or another, lets go of the past. This fits with the idea that The Courier is the agent of change and bringer of closure to the inhabitants of the Mojave, with LR as the ultimate act of closure and Hoover Dam as the ultimate act of change.

738

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299

« on: December 15, 2013, 03:09:35 AM »

I shall resume my super-serious discussion with Crudblud later, btw.

Ooh, ooh, is it my turn? H-here I go: Ahem.

Since they keep putting in the Enclave, but the amount of people gets smaller and smaller, I do hope we get one last Enclave soldier, with one leg and 3 fingers. In Fallout 5, there can be an ear found somewhere named Enclave.

I missed this before, somehow. Upon reading it just now I almost sprayed coffee all over my monitor.

739

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Music as energy.

« on: December 14, 2013, 06:01:40 AM »

Plato had similar ideas about music's relationship with society:

The overseers must be watchful against its insensible corruption. They must throughout be watchful against innovations in music and gymnastics counter to the established order, and to the best of their power guard against them, fearing when anyone says that that song is most regarded among men “which hovers newest on the singer’s lips”, lest it be supposed that the poet means not new songs but a new way of song and is commending this. But we must not praise that sort of thing nor conceive it to be the poet’s meaning. For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of as a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of music are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions.

I don't believe we live in a time when music could have such profound effects on society; in less "civilised" lands it is possible to conceive of music produced by people for their village or tribe, or indeed by a village or tribe as a whole for themselves, and this music forms an important part of regular life there, but in the First World we essentially have two kinds of music: the mainstream and the specialised. The former of these is a commodity, any impact it has on anyone is more often than not due to images or ideas that are associated with it in marketing and the environment in which it is presented (e.g.: a club, in which the music functions as sonic wallpaper) rather than the music itself which is essentially stagnant, recycling itself near constantly; the latter avoids commodification by being "about itself", it is not designed with a purpose outside itself and is almost entirely divorced from the extramusical things which the former relies on to appeal to consumers. Milton Babbitt's article The Composer as Specialist (originally published against his wishes under the title Who Cares If You Listen?) is an interesting and controversial text on the subject of this "specialised music" and its purpose, or lack thereof.

tl;dr: Music is irrelevant to society because it is inherently meaningless, it can be augmented with things outside itself: words, images, functions, fashions, ideologies, activities etc. but can never escape its fundamentally abstract nature.

740

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: FES Video

« on: December 13, 2013, 05:13:20 PM »

I agree with it being an animation with no actual person in the video. Those are simply much more interesting to most of the internet, I think, whereas showing an actual person with a chalkboard is probably going to look comparatively amateur and kinda shoddy. Think slightly grainy, poor acoustics (almost definitely) that makes it seem filmed by some student for a school project...which is really just more a case of I doubt Rooster has professional recording equipment.

Whereas with a smaller animation and simply a voice-over, all we really need is an animator and a good microphone (which Crudblud might have, I don't know?).

Another important thing, I think, that a lot of people overlook, is that we should make sure to check the voice-over first. Moreso if Thork does it—no offense, it's just that Crudblud seems more like he'd be more inclined towards professional-sounding readings. I'd done acting and voice-over stuff in school for years, so I get overly critical about this stuff and get really upset with amateur readings where it's clearly from a script.

I completely forgot this thread existed. My microphone is not exactly high end, but it is clean enough with the right settings. As for the voice-over coming across scripted, it's not just the reading but the text itself that heavily influences this, if it's clunky and unnatural even the best orator (which I am certainly not) is going to have a bad time with it, so I would also like to volunteer my services as a script doctor. I don't want to get in on anyone else's part in this project, but I can do words good and I have a feeling we might end up with some "data node" type sentences which will need to be parsed into more fluid language to come out at all "naturally."