georgec

WRONG!

The Evil Dead

The Wages of Fear

Seven Samurai

No wonder it took so long for the Rebels to destroy the Death Star - they were drunk!

^ I agree with all of that.

Older games are just more fun to me. I want to say it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Many older games dared to be more difficult. They'd just throw you into the fray and you had to figure things out yourself.

I recently replayed a bit of Blood, the 1997 shooter, and it's quite difficult. Even the reviews at the time said it was one of the tougher shooters to ever be made. Games don't have to be impossible to be fun, but there's something about the challenge and frustration that makes it enjoyable.

One thing I notice about recent games is that they sometimes provide the illusion of interactivity with your environment. For example, the level guides you to a certain point where you have to climb a wall or hang from and move along a pipe on the wall. The screen tells you to push a certain button to perform the action. You think, "Oh, look at that! You can climb walls in this game!" No. You can only climb that wall or certain other ones that are predetermined to progress.

I find that illusion of immersion to be incredibly misleading. What I love about older games is that part of the fun was figuring out what you could and couldn't do. While the game overall might have less interactivity than a modern one, it just feels more natural and genuine in its presentation. But that's probably the nostalgia speaking.

Everything was better in the early to mid 90s.

:(

Adding Episode IV: A New Hope to the opening scroll for Star Wars.

That's the only one.

I rented Super ROTJ one weekend when I was maybe 11 or 12 and beat it in a day or two. Damn, I used to be good at video games.

doubleofive said:

WRONG THREAD!

That's Frink's job.

LOL at when she gets hit in the right eye.

^ Oh man I remember those. I never owned one of the books but loved going to bookstores to peruse them.

Steve Sansweet also had a huge encyclopedia that, before the PT, was the holy grail of SW information.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Encyclopedia-Stephen-Sansweet/dp/0345402278

I worked at a large entertainment store with movies, books, games, etc., and during breaks I would sneak into the back of the store with the SW encyclopedia and "study".

Glad you enjoyed it. I felt TDKR was the best of the three. Tied everything together, delivered an emotional story, and provided plenty of spectacle to behold. A great, great movie.

I love Plinkett's voice!

One of my favorite things is how he tells Rick McCallum to shut up (just watch the first ~3 min).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QThD0r3hZg&feature=relmfu

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/if-mario-was-made-in-2010

asterisk8 said:

I don't have any retro systems, unless you consider a Gamecube "retro", but I love old games. I'm currently playing NES Castlevania on my DS Lite. They just don't make games like this anymore. I'm sorry, but Call of Duty is a cakewalk compared to something like Castlevania.

parsec =/= unit of time

That is all you need to know.

V/H/S

One of the best horror movies I've seen in awhile. I've enjoyed Rec 1/2, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity (sequels are okay but don't do anything fresh), and non-horror found footage films like Chronicle and Troll Hunter. Found footage films have their fair share of detractors but this one does it quite well, even incorporating more technology into some of the stories. Genuinely creepy, shocking, and varied in each of the 6 tales it tells (each done by a different director). They range from slow burns to intense thrillers. Wouldn't want to say much more for spoilers, but there were some really clever scares in this film. A fantastic horror anthology.

8/10

Will we ever get a proper HD release of the UOT?

I want a reboot by someone named M Night Shyamalan.

The Hunger Games

I haven't read the books but understand they have a huge following. I only watched Battle Royale a couple of weeks ago but have known about the film and novel for some time. Whenever someone mentioned The Hunger Games it sounded like an Americanized, dumbed down version of BR. My intuition was correct. While the film wasn't awful, it just wasn't very good. No real sense of dread or danger. Thin, uninteresting characters. Weak script. I'm surprised it received so many positive critical reviews. The direction was uninspired. The few action scenes were poorly done, probably with some intention to obscure violence to cater to the PG-13 crowd. But still, this entire movie lacked style and originality, especially considering the type of world and story they were trying to tell. Just another half-hearted Hollywood adaptation to cash in on the popularity of the books.

6/10