zombie84

So sick of the Lego games. Great games, but when are they going to stop?

Personally, nothing else on Wii-U beats Nintendo Land with friends. Get four wii controllers and have some of the best multiplayer current gen gaming has to offer. I would definitely skip Zombie-U as well, even though it was very anticipated when it launched it's really just mediocre aside from some controller gimmicks. Sonic All-Star Racing is a surprisingly fun cart racer, it looks and plays very very slick if you are into that genre.

Not sure if the 3D works, but I appreciate the attempt. Would much prefer someone remade Out of this World aka Another World. Would work well with modern graphics or cell-shading and it's the same sort of style.

Personally, I suspect he has posted here before. It seems like how could he have not have.

The Warriors

Believe it or not, I've only seen parts of this up until now. Although I didn't know it, this was the Directors Cut from a few years back, which adds a few really awesome comic book transitions and Sparta references that go a huge way to establishing the tone and that I wish was included in the original. A really fun movie that is the exact sort of comic book fantasy a 13-year-old boy would have of gang life in the late 1970s. I love stuff like this. Some pacing issues near the end, but the editing in this is superb, and it feels like a music video in some places (yet half a decade before MTV) and it has that larger-than-life comic-book style like you found in movies like TMNT: The Movie. Cheesy, not perfect, but pretty well made for what is essentially an exploitation film for early teenagers, despite it's R-rating. Took me a while to realize the guy who does the famous "warriors, come out and play-ay" is also Sully from Commando. It's strange in a way that this has such a huge cult following when there are quite a few films from the 80s that are just as cheesy and fun, but I guess it pre-dates that whole 1980s low-budget fantasy craze by a few years.

If you are experienced and own some of the gear already, you will know the techniques to make a professional-looking movie for as little as $30,000 or so, but realistically one would expect to spend six figures at the very least. Half a million dollars could get you a professional crew for a few weeks if you could do some of the post production and pre production yourself.

A feature film is an enormous undertaking, for some people it is the most stressful, expensive and important thing they will have to be responsible for on a professional level. You aren't going to get a sense of it from asking questions on message boards. And you probably won't make much if any profit from it, if you don't end up losing most of the investment. Most indie films are total financial loses, even from established filmmakers many films don't get distribution outside the festival circuit, therefore they don't make back the budget.

Have people seen this?

http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/

My head almost exploded. I hope it's as good as it sounds.

I think the only sports movie I have ever liked was The Sandlot. And that's mainly because it was less about baseball and more about kids bonding over misadventures. Sports movies have never worked for me once I became an adult.

(Shaolin Soccer doesn't count.)

DuracellEnergizer said:

I wonder if any of the other early drafts will get comic adaptations. I for one would love to see someone try to wring a coherent storyline out of the Journal of the Whills outline.

It was never completed. It goes on for a page and a half but then trails off because Lucas lost interest.

It would be more interesting to make a comic of the proper treatment though. Or Leigh Brackett's first draft of Empire. There is some amazing stuff in that one that just begs to be brought to life.

The Hidden Fortress is a remake of a previous Kurosawa film called They Who Tread the Tiger's Tail, which was based off a Kabuki play, which was based off a Noh play, which was based off of medieval legends which were based off a real person.

True story.

I am assuming you are referring to the "look" of a film outside of things like fashion. This boils down to two factors: production design, and more importantly cinematography.

With production design, it's mainly just style and taste of the time. However, you have to account for materials, mainly plastics, that have only existed recently. When it comes to makeup--whether it's just regular makeup or prosthetic effects and stuff--the chemicals used have changed over the years, so films from different eras use different materials. Mold making, even the types of wood used to make sets have changed, so that it's easier to work with and easier to do complex designs.

Cinematography is a bit more obvious, and again comes down to style, but also technology. Things as simple and taken for granted as kino-flo flourescent lighting were only really introduced in the 1990s, and completely changed the "look" of a lot of films. You had the elimination of arc lights, the elimination of sound blimps making cameras lighter and more moveable, steadicam which really only came around at the end of the 1970s and wasn't commonly used until close to the end of the 1980s. Also film stock: the chemical composition of film stock is constantly changing--even today--so films from certain years are shot on the same two or three types of stock, which effects sharpness, grain level, contrast and colour. You also have matters of taste, so some years filters are in style and some years they are not. Some years handheld camerawork is more acceptable, and some years it is not. It comes and goes. It also depends on studio versus location, which are lit slightly differently and affect shot choice. Also, things you don't think about like cranes, dollys and wireless technology effect what types of shots cinematographers can do--for example, remote focus pulling is relatively recent, so it's only in the last 20 years that you could do really crazy shots because the operator and focus puller didn't have to be strapped beside the camera.

As to whether these can be replicated--you can, but it's a bit difficult. Technically it should be perfectly possible, but I think people who try to do so don't fully understand why films from a certain time look a certain way, so they only get it "mostly right."

Looks pretty awesome, not sure why the controller has a microswitch analog stick when none of the supported consoles ever had one. You can use the original controllers of course, it just seems like a very random choice for what looks to be an otherwise well designed system.

The Sega CD and 32X are unfairly reviled. A lot of people that make fun of them either weren't around at the time or have forgotten how advanced they were relative to when they came out. FMV games don't hold up today, sure, but they were a really big deal at the time and really did feel like an interactive movie. I rented the Sega CD for my Genesis many times and the games always impressed me, even the boring ones like Jurassic Park. The gameplay itself was never anything special, it was the presentation value. But then some games just kicked total ass like Final Fight CD, Sonic CD, Lunar, Snatcher, Silpheed, Microcosm, Mortal Kombat 2, and Rebel Assault.

I vaguely remember that. I think I played it at a movie theater once or twice.

I've finally spent a long time with the NEO GEO X. So for those on the fence about it here are my thoughts:

It's a good system that gets undeserved criticism but isn't perfect. I think because of the Neo Geo legacy people expected this to be top-quality...well, for $200, it's not. If it was $800, as it was originally rumoured, then fine. But for $200, have people lost their minds? Let's be realistic here. When the Neo Geo came out in 1990 it was a BRAND NEW system, and it cost about $300, in 1990 currency. Each game was about $200--each game--and the good ones have become rare so now the actual cartridge of Metal Slug is about $800. Yes, this is emulation. Yes, the build quality is not quite as good as the original. But let's crunch some numbers. This thing has 20 classic games pre-installed. If you were to buy the original carts of all 20 it would be about $10,000 or so. You might as well flush that money down the toilet. No game system is worth that, the Neo Geo was great, but not that great, it was marginally better than the SNES and came with a great arcade stick. This one is $200, comes with the same arace stick--admittedly, not built to the same quality--plus $10,000 worth of great games, AND IT CONVERTS INTO A HIGH QUALITY HANDHELD SYSTEM. In my opinion people need to get some serious perspective. If this was an $800 system, I would have some major problems--but it looks nice, plays nice and works well enough, and with dirt-cheap games gives you great bang for your buck. Some people have said the HDMI output is softer than the original--maybe, but I could tell little difference between this and my MAME Neo Geo games, except these have been enhanced for 16x9.

My advice: get it if you like SNK/.Neo-Geo games, but it won't handle quite as well as the original. However, for $200, this is by far the most valuable thing SNK has ever released.

CONS

-Arcade stick is cheap. It's light, and the buttons and stick aren't as responsive or high quality as the original. My biggest gripe. It does the job though but I really wished they made this a bit better.

-No original games so far. Come on SNK, give us 2 or 3, these are cheap, 2D 24-bit games.

-No wi-fi or PC connectivity. To be honest I don't care but some people do.

-Docking station connectors feel a bit cheap and imprecise. Not a big deal, but you do have to wiggle them a bit when connecting.

PROS

-Looks and plays the same as the original, IMO--or very close to it

-16x9 format, but technically can be changed to original 4x3

-Arcade stick is USB and can be used on MAME or whatever--offsetting the lesser build quality

-Handheld unit itself is very well made and is very comfy--in fact, it's one of the slickest looking handheld I have seen. It plays very well.

-Converts into a console with HDMI out and composite out--amazing

-20 of the best SNK games tied to the system at all time, with more that you can load on SD cards.

Overall, if you like classic games this is a very good but imperfect system. The handheld itself is fantastic, is built well and handles well. It converts into a console and has more than one output option. It comes with 20 awesome games, including a couple I had never played that I fell in love with. My only major gripe is that I wish the arcade stick was heavier and built more solidly, but it does the job, and being a USB controller this almost makes up for it. I would rank this a solid 8/10. $200 is a very good price for all you get, and some critics are frankly a little ignorant. However, if you pay more than $230 or $240 you better be a die-hard SNK fan. New game cards are being released next month though, like Metal Slug 2!

Tomb Raider (2013) for PC

Damn, this game is as gorgeous as it is fun. Far Cry meets Uncharted if I had to describe it. Expertly designed and executed, and great controls. Got through 90% of it, ending still a hour away but I'm giving this a really, really high recommendation. Shame the console versions won't look as slick as the PC version because this is one of the best looking games I have ever seen. A great reboot that is tons of fun, even if a little on the short side.

bumping this for those interested

twister111 said:

 

zombie84 said:

The oddest part is that many of them are deluxe box sets that come with a japanese fan,

Makes some weird sort of sense....

zombie84 said:

a kitchen clock,

zombie84 said:

a towel with a picture of an anime chick serving food in panties

zombie84 said:

and a plastic figure.

 

Apparently many of them featured "H material" that was sanitized for the Dreamcast versions...I'm assuming H stands for Hentai. I don't know if they will really be playable though since they are dialogue heavy and in Japanese, but I'm pretty curious now.

TV's Frink said:

zombie84 said:

I just bought a boxed limited edition Hello Kitty Dreamcast.

What.

At least now I have a Japanese version of the system that I can play all these dating simulators on.

What.

The oddest part is that many of them are deluxe box sets that come with a japanese fan, a kitchen clock, a towel with a picture of an anime chick serving food in panties and a plastic figure. I have no idea what it all means. I am going to blatantly take advantage of my japanese friend to make sense of all this.

I just bought a boxed limited edition Hello Kitty Dreamcast. Apparently they only made 1500 of them. At least now I have a Japanese version of the system that I can play all these dating simulators on. It's not as cool as Bioshock though.

DuracellEnergizer said:

*sigh* I'm not going to bother posting a list of horror films I've rated 7+. I'll simply make this single point: just because I don't give every horror film I watch - or the overall cruddy Friday the 13th films in particular - the highest score doesn't mean I don't like the genre; it just means I find the movies in question bad, average*, or just above average.









*There's nothing wrong with average. I like many average movies, I rewatch many average movies, and there are many average movies I would love to own on DVD.

Sure, that's fair, but if you only like the ones that are really well crafted like The Exorcist or The Thing or whathaveyou, why bother with schlocky b-movies like Wishmaster and F13part4? It just seems odd that you keep watching these bad horror movies that you don't enjoy. I mean, I like movies like F13 part 4, but if I wasn't into that sort of movie I would never bother with it.

you really need to stop watching horror movies. Either you like them or you don't. You don't.

Trooperman said:

How about: Why the prequels sucked. 

Some sort of expository scene 1/3 of the way through Episode 7, explaining that the original Episode 1-3 was a video game virtual reality meant to fool Luke of the real truth.  Kind of Matrix-like. 

Then Luke must again face the unknown.

LoL.

Didn't the previous Retron's suffer from soft picture output? That's a problem I've noticed a lot of emulators/clones have. I have the Neo Geo X which is HDMI output, but the picture is actually less sharp than the original Neo Geo.

In Toronto there was a couple who got married in line for ROTJ. I still have the newspaper article.

And they say people went nuts for Episode I!

Harmy said:

Well, this LPP print seems to show that the BD colors of Raiders are very much accurate:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190808893255

Sure looks like it. This is why I always caution when crying "revisionist" on BD colouring issues. Half the time it's revisionist, half the time it's accurate.

I just started playing Age of Conan:Unchained, about 5 hours in.

Anyone else play this? Overall, it's a good MMO, but I expected a bit better from the reviews, especially as a lifelong Robert E. Howard fan. It's a good game--and what can you ask for something that is offered completely for free? So far, I am having fun and want to keep playing, but sadly I don't think it will hold my interest for more than a couple weeks. I would rate something like DC Universe Online as much better, for it's larger world, better presentation and superior controls. This has been a good waste of time though, so I'm curious if anyone else played it and what they thought? Again, it's free to play, although at a massive 20 GB it will take you a long time to download it off Steam.