canofhumdingers

Yeah the shot right before that is his A-wing spinning out of control along the SSD hull with laser fire all over the place and an x-wing right behind him that gets blown to smithereens. I think it’s pretty well implied his A-wing has been shot down and (at most) he’s just doing his best to make it count for something. I think an argument could also easily be made that he was totally out of control at that point and it was just blind luck (or the force…) that he happens to crash directly into the bridge. But whether he has any steering control or not, if you watch the scene I think it’s pretty obvious he’s crashing because he’s been shot down, not because he made a conscious choice to be a kamikaze.

Continuing further into the single player campaign, I don’t want to spoil too much, but if you didn’t care for the handling of Luke’s character in TLJ, you might want to give this game a shot…

Really enjoying the story. It has some very neat ideas. And there was once sequence that brought back some fond memories of Dark Forces: Jedi Knight. It wasn’t any kind of direct homage, but it involved bugs and just reminded me of that level(s?) where Kyle Katarn gets pestered by these things:

This looks like it’s going to be so much fun. We just took our kids to Disney World for their first time. We only did two parks: Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It was such a blast. We did the Star Wars ride twice, the Indiana Jones stunt spectacular (the kids LOVED that show!) and we signed up for a special Star Wars “Galactic Dessert Party”. The party included some pretty creative Star Wars themed desserts as well as kid friendly and adult beverages from the GFFA, plus you got to meet Chewbacca, BB-8, and Kylo Ren. It was also patrolled by First Order Stormtroopers who then escorted you to special reserved seats for the Star Wars themed fireworks show.

It pales in comparison to what’s coming with the whole new land, but it was so much fun! And the Stormtroopers would talk to you! I don’t know how they did it exactly, because we realized they were using pre-recorded lines (that sound just like the movies) but they must’ve had tons of lines to choose from because they always had an appropriate response no matter what you said to them. My wife almost got us “arrested” when she asked one “aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” His reply: “You think you’re so clever, don’t you”. And they told my kids (wearing Stormtrooper t shirts), “your loyalty is appreciated, citizen”. It was a blast.

As for the long lines, they aren’t a problem if you have a wife who is an absolute ninja master at the fast passes. I don’t know how she did it, but she learned all the tricks and we rode everything we wanted (sometimes more than once!) and never stood in line more than about 30 mins. And the vast majority of the time we were in line less than 10 mins per ride. Even in the newly opened, crazy popular and crowded toy story land. She gets major props for whatever magic she was working!

I don’t know when we’ll be back but we are DEFINITELY going back sometime for the new Star Wars land.

Wow, $9 is a killer deal. I paid $30 for the pc version (I debated between it and the PS4 disc that can be had easily for $20). But with as much as I travel for work, having it on my laptop that I can bring with me was worth an extra $10. Plus I don’t have to pay the $50 yearly PSN fee to play online.

So far I’ve played the first few minutes of the single player campaign, and yeah, I’m addicted too! It just looks SOOO GOOD! Even better than the first Battlefront (which itself was astonishingly gorgeous) and the story so far is pretty cool. Looking forward to trying out other gameplay modes and characters soon.

Well, I made the plunge and bought Battlefront 2 for the pc. Figured it’ll be a good way to break in my new laptop. It’s downloading as we speak. Will let you know what I think after I’ve had some time to try it out.

Awesome, thanks guys that’s exactly what I needed!

JEDIT:

In the first link RogueLeader provided they actually include the full quotation from Lucas:

“The Force is really a way of seeing; it’s a way of being with life. It really has nothing to do with weapons. The Force gives you the power to have extra-sensory perception and to be able to see things and hear things, read minds and levitate things. It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different. The Force is a perception of the reality that exists around us. You have to come to learn it. It’s not something you just get. It takes many, many years…Anyone who studied and worked hard could learn it. But you would have to do it on your own.”

Man I have such a love-hate relationship with George. I love so much of the art and entertainment he’s spurred into creation but I HATE his subversive historical revisionism!

I haven’t read it (yet), but I know there’s a passage in Rinzler’s Making of Star Wars book that claims Lucas had “midichlorians” in his notes as far back as 1977. I also know that people on this board have repeatedly stated that this is inaccurate and is historical revisionism forced upon the author by Lucas. I feel like I remember a citation proving this claim but I can’t find it. Does anyone have evidence that shows the book’s statement about midichlorians dating back to the original trilogy are patently false? Thanks in advance.

Cool, thanks for the info! Sounds like it’s worth the $20 or $30 it’s selling for these days. Cool to see they abandoned the season pass concept.

I am curious, for anyone who knows, am I still correct in believing that all the season pass type dlc (ships, characters, maps) for the first EA Battlefront is only playable in multiplayer? They’ve got some cool stuff (death star, bespin, scariff) that I’d love to play and would be willing to pay for. But since I don’t bother with online multiplayer I really need to know if I’d actually get to play the content before I paid for it…

Can anyone give me some good info on the current state of EA’s Battlefront II? I’ve got the first one, and for all it’s flaws, I’ve enjoyed it well enough despite not getting any of the DLC or playing any multiplayer.

I’m curious how the sequel differs from the first one in a few specific regards. I never bothered with the DLC because (as far as I was able to glean) I couldn’t play any of the new heroes or vehicles (and maybe even maps) offline. Can you use any of the dlc when playing offline “bot matches” in version 2? I’d be willing to buy a season pass if I could enjoy the content without HAVING to use it in multiplayer.

How’s the unlocking process for desired characters/ships? I remember there was a bunch of controversy initially but that they made changes/improvements?

How is multiplayer for us very casual gamers? I generally hate online multiplayer because I die before I take two steps. Over and over.

Well, that’ll be my next option I suppose. Disc 3 (just the film itself with no fluff this time) is in process as we speak. Fingers crossed!

JEDIT:
Hooray! Dunno what was causing problems with the intro videos, and while it would’ve been cool to have those, I’m just glad I don’t have a third coaster. Looks like I’ll just keep it simple in the future when muxing iso files.

Argh. I’m trying to burn the original 1080p noDNR 4K77 to disc and I’ve made two coasters already. It’s my first time using dual layer BD-r but I don’t think that’s the issue. I muxed a Blu-ray iso with all the little intro clips and rating cards and whatnot but I think something went wrong or wasn’t compatible. Anyway, I’m currently muxing a new iso with just the film itself. Fingers crossed this works. At $3 a pop I don’t really want any more failures…

Well, the UPS man failed to deliver my new laptop Friday like he was supposed to so now I have to wait until Monday. 😕

In the meantime I decided to start getting some things ready to save time once I do have the new machine in-hand.

So I tried to go ahead and mux BD files of the 1080p versions of 4K77 and 4K83 from the mkvs and I ran into a snag. Tsmuxer is giving me an error code saying “tsmuxer not found!”. But this is only after I’ve opened tsmuxer, set up the directories and file names and then go to add the files I want to mux. It lets me go through the whole process but then when I actually click the button to add the mkv that I want to be mixed, the erro pops up. I don’t understand how tsmuxer can’t be found when it lets me open the interface and go through most of the process prior to actually adding the file to be muxed. I’ve muxed plenty of BD iso files before without issue. Any idea what’s happening? I did try reinstalling tsmuxer to no avail.

That middle one is a cropped detail from this:

Alright, I’ve narrowed my search down to 3 models and plan on buying one soon (hopefully within a week or so). I’ve read and watched all the reviews I can find on each. They have near identical performance so it’s really down to overall design and features.

1. Razer Blade 15
   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/razer-blade-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-max-q-2tb-hdd-256gb-ssd-black-cnc-aluminum/6305264.p?skuId=6305264

My gut tells me I like this one best. It’s such a sleek and appealing design. It’s also apparently the sturdiest and most well-built, which is important because I travel a LOT and it will go wherever I go. It has a great mousepad and a highly ranked keyboard quality. It has the most storage by a large margin and I WILL use it with all the film restoration projects I plan on finally catching up on (yay!). The screen is high quality but some people have reported some light leak issues. However it does not have a number pad on the keyboard (not sure if that’s a feature I care about or not, honestly), some people complain it gets too hot, and it has the fewest ports with no SD card reader. It’s also the most expensive.

2. Msi GS63 Stealth
   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hard-drive-256gb-solid-state-drive-aluminum-black/6211744.p?skuId=6211744

This one has a full keypad with number pad. It is consistently highly reviewed and a bit more reasonably priced. It also has the most ports including a full SD card reader. The screen apparently has no light leak issues. The build quality seems rather cheap in some ways and it is quite flexy and thin which concerns me a bit. It also has a consistently poorly reviewed mouse pad. Ultimately this one is more “bang for the buck” with the most features, but it possibly comes at the expense of durability.

3. ASUS - ROG GU501GM
   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-gu501gm-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hybrid-drive-128gb-ssd-brushed-black/6207900.p?skuId=6207900

This one has been the hardest to find information about. Apparently it is exclusive to Best Buy. The handful of videos I found indicate it has a pretty solid build quality. It has a full keypad with number pad. It also (to the best of my research b/c it’s not specified on the actual Best Buy page) has a 120hz screen as opposed to the 60hz screens on the two laptops above. It is the least expensive but also has the least internal storage capacity. It has one more USB port than the Razer but no SD card reader. Excluding the storage, it seems like it might be a solid balance of the pros of the two above laptops but ultimately it’s just been hard to find much info about this one.

Sooo… which one should I get? Anything but the Razer will certainly result in me carrying around a portable external drive to augment storage space. Not sure if I actually need an SD card reader or a number pad. Slightly concerned about the light leak possibility as I’m a bit obsessive about image quality.[/quote]

SWOTFAN25 said:

its all about GroupThink. People feel more empowered when they can band together and point their finger at a common “enemy”.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who sees the irony in this statement given the context of the conversation?

Personally I reached a point a while back (probably around the time fan preservations of the OOT began surpassing official release quality) where I don’t really care about the “fandom”. I enjoy the Star Wars I like, dismiss the Star Wars’s I don’t, and ignore all the hate and vitriol online.

Excellent question. I think the only reasonable answer is that he was pretty beat up and probably wasn’t thinking clearly. Just basic fight or flight instinct at that point.

Plus, how do we (or Luke) know that was the only wampa who lived there?

Ok, I take back what I said about the magic eye images. I thought you had to cross your eyes to align the fields, but then I went and googled how they actually work. Crossing your eyes can work but so can just holding the picture at the right distance and focusing your vision “through” the picture (like you’re looking at something further away behind it.

But either way,it takes some kind of skill and muscle control of your vision (which isn’t necessarily related to the quality of your vision…) to make it work. As opposed to movies where you wear the glasses and they do the work for you.

SilverWook said:

I know 3D doesn’t work for everyone. Those posters where you’re supposed to see a hidden image when you stare at it for a long while never worked for me either.
Hopefully, the rumors of a glasses free display tech come to pass.

Those posters are a different thing, though. You have to intentionally misalign your eyes so that each one sees the proper field to create the stereoscopic image. It’s a skill not everyone finds easy to learn (I could never get them to work as a kid, but as an adult years later I find them rather easy to do). But for 3-D movies, the only necessary “skill” is putting on a pair of glasses…

I saw Gravity on a huge screen on its initial release and it’s one of the few films in recent history I would say was worth seeing in 3-D. Being on a giant screen and in 3-D really created a massively immersive experience. It wasn’t about things coming at you (though they did on occasion) but it more realistically represented the vast distances you were viewing as you gazed out into space. The amount of depth was mind blowing and really made you feel like you were there. I can see how seeing this, even in 3-D, on a smaller screen would not create that same immersive experience. I own the film and have watched it in 2-D on my tv, and it’s still a good film imo. But that theatrical experience was something wild that I just can’t see being replicated at home.

I also saw Rogue One in IMAX 3-D on a full size imax screen. That was also a really cool, memorable experience. However, I had seen the film twice in 2-D beforehand and I would definitely say that’s my preferred way of seeing it. But the imax 3-D was a really cool one time thing that I’m glad I got to enjoy.

Overall I’m not a huge fan of 3-D movies but I do enjoy them as occasional “special experiences” or when the film (such as Gravity) has a compelling reason to actually be in 3-D. I’ve seen Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3-D on 35mm, which was awesome but not the way I’d want to watch the film on a regular basis.

ChainsawAsh, if 3-D movies hurt your eyes or give you headaches I can certainly see why you wouldn’t be a fan of them. It does make me wonder if you have any issues or conditions with your vision causing these troubles? As I mentioned, I don’t watch 3-D movies often at all, but they’ve never caused me any kind of discomfort.

screams in the void said:

Valheru_84 said:

Great, pando Lando is making it’s way into pop culture…

^ so …by your definition , anyone who identifies that way is an "it " ?

Oh come on, don’t twist things into something they aren’t. He wasn’t calling Lando an “it”. He was calling the idea or concept of Pando Lando “it”. Which, btw, would be correct in the English language. Since ideas or concepts are non-gender specific, the appropriate pronoun is “it”.

As a kid, at first, I had no idea it wasn’t the same person.

Huh, so it was Lawson’s voice in ESB and ROTJ. But he was dubbed in ANH. Interesting.

Wait, you mean that’s not Dennis Lawson’s voice we hear?

SilverWook said:

Like that’s never happened before. 😛

Ah!! Fake Wedge!

You know, since I was a kid, in my brain the first guy is always what I think Wedge actually looks like. Even though Dennis Lawson spent way more screen time as the character, his face is always obscured and distorted by the helmet, chinstrap, and yellow visor. So when I think of Wedge, fake Wedge is my automatic go-to image of him, if that makes any sense.

NeverarGreat said:

I don’t have an issue with arcing lasers, but that’s probably because it happens in a movie where shield strength is clearly and visibly localized. I imagine that arcing the plasma to hit a part of the ship even slightly forward from the absolute back of the ship would require the target to shield a larger area and in so doing drain the shields more quickly.

Hey, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll go with it. The visual still “feels” wrong to my brain (since to lob something in that manner normally requires gravity…), but that justification helps out. If I’m not bothered by the details of how other tech (lightsabers, hyperdrives, shields) in Star Wars works, why should it matter how exactly they can make energy bolts curve through space? I just hadn’t thought about it being a “curve ball” as opposed to a “hail-Mary long shot”. Nice.

Yeah, no, like I said, I really enjoyed his video analyzing the concepts of “Star Wars physics” space battles. And it actually all makes sense (which kinda blows my mind!) in-universe.

But the visual of laser bolts arcing through outer space just LOOKS wrong, even in “Star Wars physics”. Most Star Wars special effects to this point try to make things look and feel “right” or “realistic (enough…)” to us as the audience, regardless of what real physics says would happen.

And for me, seeing energy bolts arc through space like a cannon ball from a pirate ship just looks and feels wrong, deep down in my core.