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Nocturne (2020)
the standing-wave
There's something to this film for those who've pushed themselves to their limits in their field, however the hallucinations and fortune-telling unnecessarily trivialized the story. The combined weight of expectations, self-doubt and jealousy could've carried the film on its own... along with sleep-deprivation and eccentricity.
Anxiety was well played and difficult to watch. Portrayal of teachers were spot-on; the impression goes from formidable to pathetic, misbehaving has-beens.
The ending was excellent: For everyone enjoying their summit of the standing-wave, there's countless ignored coulda-beens & has-beens draped about the scenery like bloody corpses.
Visually it was clean & simple, music greatly enhanced the visuals in places.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker (2018)
everyone wants a piece
Hated it at first: slow, awkward, basic construction-kit graphics... But kept reading about how great it was so gave it another chance, slogged through the prologue, then to the end of slightly better act 1, then act 2 was better still. By act 3 I was locked into a game of multi-dimensional-chess with a master game designer. These dimensions being combat, management of equipment & consumables, character-build, alignment, party management, kingdom management and most importantly: timing.
Its possible to let the sequence of events get away from you and destroy your kingdom, ending the game... complete & utter failure. Its still a mostly linear story but it can let you gradually fail, and try to recover from it. Not knowing where the threshold of failure lies adds a great deal of tension & urgency to the game, which many players don't enjoy, but I find to be a great mechanic that makes sense and adds temporal optimization to its many layers of strategy.
By the late game there's a real sense of accomplishment as your character evolves into a force of nature, you develop history with your party who change over time, your kingdom expands and develops, you stay on-top of the many desperate challenges from parties who all have a valid reason to end you.
The story is essentially one of redemption & emancipation, rather than the tiresome kill-the-monsters you usually get with similar games, but it also depends on your decisions. The story can also make the player doubt or regret specific decisions, or even their entire course of action.
Alignment in this game was mostly consistent, despite the system being inherently ambiguous. Alignment is also dependent on dialogue not actions; you can loot graves & corpses, steal anything you can get your hands on, kill passive animals, and still remain 'lawful-good'. This is a weakness in the game design that can hurt roleplay, but otherwise has little effect.
The lore of the world is well developed and interesting, especially the plethora of cults, rich history and the 1st world & its inhabitants. There isn't much exposition of the lore and 'offscreen' entities, so it mostly remains mysterious & novel to new players.
Acting by companions and NPCs range from outstanding to annoying, more towards the latter, but they all have very distinct personalities, motivations and inhibitions. Their stories and development are also distinct and well scripted, with one or two exceptions.
Main story isn't particularly well-told, which is a limitation of isometric games, but there were a few moments that stay with you long after playing. One thing that's lacking here, which exists in the source material and Wrath, is the ability to go way off the deep-end into WTF territory when pursuing a particular course of action, for example: in Wrath taking an interest in swarms can eventually lead to you becoming one and consuming everyone... that game lets you go-there which is great. Not-so with Kingmaker.
Difficulty is tough, like constant struggle throughout the game, very difficult to pull ahead of your opponents. Never managed to solo the game. Playing as a caster is especially punishing given the need to rest after fights, which can put you behind schedule. There's also a massive difficulty spike towards the end which can prematurely end the game for some builds. Challenges can have multiple workarounds however, with some being quite clever or humorous.
Game ran OK in Linux (thanks to GoG), but was pretty slow & janky compared to other titles with more demanding content.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (2023)
vegas holiday
One thing this developer does well-enough is linear quick-time-event stories, characters and environments. One thing they're (relatively) terrible at is gameplay mechanics.
One scenario in Phantom summed this up perfectly: the story of Babs and Paco, two Barghest (enemy) lackeys in a camp that had a story to tell the player. If the player (who is basically Dr. Manhattan at this point) slaughters the camp Babs and Paco will magically remain immortal & oblivious throughout the carnage until the player sits to hear their story - a disturbing tale of Paco subordinating himself to a stronger man so he can run with the pack... By the end of the story their buddies magically come back to life, are slaughtered again but this time Babs & Paco become hostile and quickly die as a result. Great story choombas, pity your designer's gonk if-then-else coding got you zeroed. But get this: they magically come back to life later on... in a manner of speaking.
Phantom is packed full of these "but magically" problems and can be immensely frustrating if you expect a living district with its own logic. It reminds you that you're alone in a world of hollow pre-scripted geometry, and that you're wasting your time there as well.
One of the reasons PnP-derived games tend to be so engaging is their thorough codex (lore, logic & mechanics) generally won't allow a DM (game designer) to BS the players, in other words: the story has to conform to the codex, not the other way around. Sadly this wasn't the case with Cyberpunk2077, nor remedied in Phantom.
New characters in Phantom were tropish, with a fetishized Asian woman, about-to-retire deadmeat, an evil-white-man villain (sans English accent), an elder well-dressed & spoken mastermind, a pinched ballbreaker matriarch (actually not that bad in this case), and Reed... letting us know why Elba couldn't have been Bond. Secondary characters in new gigs were far more interesting, but your experience with them is limited. There were some nice post-gig encounters with some of the characters, especially one of the NCPD geniuses. Overall the writing and acting in new gigs is in a league above those of the main story.
As for story, the main plot itself was a taped-together ball of goofs (said DM vs codex issue), with a tedious endgame and a needlessly dumb epilogue, like swear-at-the-tv dumb. Fortunately there's a better ending (to Phantom) which is shorter and more combat-heavy, including a great last-stand set-piece where the game really tries to kill you in a (mostly) stand-up fight. Afterwards you're back in the main to game pursue whichever ending.
Also I should mention: Phantom also contains potentially triggering simon-says sessions of player abuse similar to the main game - like the Nomad start when the game locks you in the garage with dogmeat, disables all your combat abilities, tells you to open a crate, you choose the dialog option to say no its unprofessional, game tells you to open the crate, then you say no, game tells you to open crate, you say no... and so-on until you decide to kill-9 in disgust and do something productive with your life instead. There's heaps of these icky little invitations to quit throughout Phantom, mostly when following the main plot.
Ran perfectly on Linux (all-amd) via Steam Proton.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
s01e01
This really does feel like a pilot episode to a series that was never made; its quite padded, introduces flawed characters to shape, slowly builds-up to reveal the scope of what's happening, then just ends.
I want to see how it plays out, weather the two families remain together or give-in to suspicion and survival instincts, as one family-member had demonstrated on the road earlier in the show. Do they survive and prosper? Do they end-up decorating a raider base? Do they become raiders? We'll never know. We do know they won't starve with all the deer at least.
While annoying for its abruptness, the ending is excellent and for me it qualifies this as a horror film.
The acting was good in the sense that it wasn't cringe or provoke use of the skip-button, besides the old people moving-to-music scene (nope no stop that), but it wasn't pleasant either, which is appropriate given the kind of people being portrayed, and the circumstances. It wasn't easy to empathize with any of them, so I imagine them evolving to become more convincing over a series.
Some goofs, especially animals and 'the noise', but nothing to make me mentally check-out, which is kinda rare for stories like this.
Vfx was great in the sense that you don't notice much of it. Some of the animals looked a bit off, but they were animals acting weird so it still worked. The direction & timing of the ship sequence was excellent, and the sky was nearly blue.
Music was forgettable, but this kind of show doesn't need it.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (2020)
lactose intolerance
A wonderfully red-blooded game beset with serious design & logic issues.
Setting is roughly analogous to medieval Mediterranean (perhaps too-much so), but without the disease, infant-mortality, and ideologies, including racism and misogyny - though you can buy/sell women for breeding purposes. Towns and some villages are amazingly detailed, well worth having a look around, but not much to do there.
Story is minimal, with no real reason why the different cartels of crime families are fighting, other than greed for more peasants to extort. There are some token differences of opinion in cartel descriptions in the encyclopedia, but in-game there's no difference beside appearance and initially available troop types. It all feels contrived and pointless.
The battles are magnificent, with great combat mechanics and heavy of reliance of skill & luck over stats. The 1k vs 1k battles are the craziest I've played anywhere to date, especially when you can get one-shotted by a javelin, couched-lance or a crossbow bolt to the face. Combat ai seems pretty good at 1st, where you think "yep that's what I'd do in their situation", but after a while you notice patterns that reveal it to be scripted, resulting in immersion-breaking exploits.
Sieges are much improved over the original game, with a great deal of carnage & chaos. You don't fully control your troops though, and some commands can quickly lead to disaster, for example: while defending after destroying their ram, issuing 'charge' will send troops rushing to open up the gate, then out into a horde of enemies, rather than up onto the walls where the enemies are trickling in via ladders: "K my bad, let me spell it out to you numnuts... oh, you're all dead".
Battle terrain is handmade, so expect plenty of repetition. Terrain lacks cavalry-neutralizing areas (where cav must dismount to proceed), like rocky hills, old-growth forest and marsh. Many villages are filled with obstacles, but its tricky to lure cav to fight there. This forces the player to go cavalry or suffer... greatly. It is Mount & Blade though, not Sword & Sandal.
Outside of battle, the rest of the game is a long brutal grind, initially to get your stats and cashflow up to a point where you can afford to partake in the global politics, then grinding the endless ebb & flow of expensive turf wars between rival crime families/cartels, seemingly without end (I'm told one doesn't 'finish' Bannerlord).
Mechanically there are heaps of goofs and arbitrary design decisions that will frustrate the player, worst of which was the artifical caps on otherwise sensible improve-with-use skills that results in characters peaking in their chosen field well into old-age instead of their 20's (if they work hard). There's magical caps on what your family can do, regardless of money; have 3Mil early game and want a 4th workshop? Go away looser. Have 10M and want to buy a town from a broke family or rebels? Nup you need to *grind* your way to trade level 300 (and like 40yo).
The smithing income also deserves a mention, as it earns more than enough to fund your family milita, while a combination of trade, bulk manufacturing, ransoming and extortion probably won't cover costs. To me this feels like a player-only exploit that's allowed, as its the only workaround to a flawed economic/resource model.
Npc companions, including spouses, have a basic backstory, but that's about the depth to them, they're a mostly mute troop you can equip and delegate certain limited tasks to. You can't ask a companion to transport troops/goods to a specific location. There is no contract-builder for conditional or repetitive tasks. You can't converse with companions about what affects their disposition towards you or other parties. As far as I could tell, they don't leave if you displease them. This is quite a step back from M&B v1 where companions had stuff to say, complained about other companions, and set clear boundaries.
Human breeding is part of the game, as it ensures long-term playthroughs, however its handled in a coy & superficial way, with no franchising, adultery, "wife stealing", work-wives/husbands... or even the actual deed, unless the board-game is some kind of euphemism. So one wonders. I even made a grotesque horseface character to be sure, since progeny inherit their parent's features. In any case, the idea of mating/breeding as a simulation parameter is intriguing, especially the potential drama if npc mating instincts don't quite align with npc expectations of others.
Violence is prominent but relatively sanitized: there is blood, but no gore, dismemberment, broken limbs, crushed heads/torsos or ragdoll-trampling. Characters on the battlefield are fully alive or fully dead, none of the awful in-between. Corpses don't pile-up and form obstacles, blood and other fluids don't pool in chokepoints. Horses never panic and throw their riders or bite/kick nearby troops. Horses can be killed & injured, you'll often see riderless horses fleeing in distress with arrows/javelins sticking out of them. 0-morale troops flee rather than surrender, you can slaughter fleeing enemies, and some of your troops will do it unless you call an end to the battle. You may execute captured enemy family members, it isn't explicitly shown and it turns everyone against you. It is however an effective way to hasten the demise of a cartel.
Character design is pretty weird, with most looking meaty & modern rather than the stunted, hard-lived appearance of feudal peoples. Player character design is OK, but very Caucasian. Many of the Mongoloid characters often look like Caucasians with rotated 'slant' eyes.
Lighting, color and environments were great, the sun, sunlight and skies all looked convincing, which is rare in so many productions these days. Walking around a desert settlement at golden-hour was amazing. Riding on starlit dunes was a memorable moment.
2D artwork was outstanding, as it was in M&B v1.
Music lacked the traditional instrumentation and cultural variety that could've added heaps more character. Battle music changes according to how things are going for your side.
Played on 'realistic' settings, except companion death. Game ran perfectly on Linux (all-amd) thanks to Steam Proton... just don't fight in forested areas while its raining.
Scavengers Reign (2023)
kinda looks edible
A homage to many other animations, but many *great* animations.
Story is a straightforward survival journey, with some mild horror. Not much mystery besides how they got there. Main conflict becomes obvious by about halfway through the series. Villains were an interesting combo: a weak, needy man and a voracious parasite...
What's interesting about this show was the attention to the local flora, fauna & ecology, which did a great job of selling the alien setting, and gives us plenty to think about long after watching it.
There were a few goofs, especially the robots and spaceship, which was disappointing given how animation lacks the budgetary constraints preventing depiction of realistic tech (and zero-g acting) - besides the cost of research anyways. Only other gripe was how the crew are very-much 21st-century urbanites, in the distant future where humans should be as foreign & distasteful to us as we are to those living the medieval agrarian dream.
Music worked well in the title sequence, rest of the show relies on ambient sounds to great effect.
3 Body Problem (2024)
pub carpet
A mildly entertaining story, very loosely based on the book.
Choice of limey old England was unfortunate as its a downer for many viewers, doesn't make much sense given UK's current irrelevance, and significantly deviates from the original story. I understand most of the intended audience has a low tolerance to reading subtitles, and having a Chinese cast speak English would have maligned our perpetually maligned auntie, but why go for UK? There's more interesting & relevant Anglophone countries to base it in... even SG would've made more sense.
Despite the setting & goofs, the story is still engaging up to around mid-season, by then the mystery is revealed and it becomes a bit of a slog. Acting was occasionally funny, but the characters 1D, tiresome after a while. Actors felt like actors pretending to be scientists without having lived in the role 1st. Relationships between characters also felt forced & unnatural, with only a couple of exceptions.
Goofs include the unfolding proton thing, which is essentially magic, and like most magic in stories it suffers from the writer's lack of imagination on how it would be used, and inconsistencies in its stated logic, for example how it reflects a skylit ground after blocking the sky... and if it could reflect/block light at that scale, why not use it to attenuate sunlight back home? Regardless, if these protons could alter vision and computer storage, they could swiftly end the careers of anyone much more effectively & secretly than spooking them with a countdown. Magic + lack of imagination never works, stick with hard sci-fi instead.
The show has many references to superstition, including modern ones brought to us via scholarly grift: "what if columns of my spreadsheet were alternate realities?" or: "I can digest your lunch while digesting mine if we entangle them"... I'm surprised they didn't chuck in the "we're all noodles" thing, though they did mention how colliders produced 'wrong' results, which are then blamed on a deity - a viciously funny in-joke, but I doubt it was intentional. Other goofs generally reveal the age of the show's creators, like sitting in a car using an SLR camera to surveil someone, or the constant smoking.
Vfx was poorly directed: milky lighting, white sky + sunlight, over-comped, weird camera & timing that screamed "now here's a vfx shot". The comical slicing scene was especially disappointing given how eerie it could have looked.
Don't remember the Music.
Fallout (2024)
they left loot behind
Firstly, and this applies to the games as well, 200 years is way too far-fetched. Industrialized civilizations could have risen twice-over. It gives me the impression the games, and thus this show, were originally designed for 20 years after the war. Enough time for a post-war generation to reach adulthood and entropy to catch-up to vault-dwellers, but then some seagull flew in and went "no, make it TWO HUNDRED YEARS!!", but by then it was too late to change all the artwork. So mentally knock a zero off that number and it'll go-down more easily.
Ayways, the show is a mild dark comedy set in a fantasy retro-future, but a little slow at times, a little sparse with the comedy.
Lucy worked well as a sheltered vault-dweller and she evolves over the series. Maximus is an interesting flawed character, not likable but clearly has some growing-up to do. Howard is Cad Bane. Dogmeat had way more personality than in the game, but they missed a golden opportunity with the booby-traps (searh: goddamn it dogmeat)... maybe next season.
The Brotherhood were well portrayed, though they kinda glossed over the purity thing, and having a lame old-man in-charge didn't quite fit with their might-is-right ideology. Vault dwellers were a bit too hammy, not enough internal farce & own-goals as suggested by the games. We don't see much of the Enclave or other factions.
There's only one robot, and there are no orcs (aka super-mutants), which is probably for the best given the current state of vfx. Mr Gutsy was sorely missed, as was some of the vicious anti-communist rhetoric from the games. Also missing was the all-important looting. Not looting a corpse naked is a bit of a Fallout faux pas, likewise not carrying-off the entire contents of a lair.
The story is pretty tiresome: yet another daddy-issues production (I often wonder why Americans pump-out so many of these). There's some mystery surrounding the vaults and a certain raider, but with the usual predictable we're the baddies outcome. The games had similar problems, but at least there you could completely ignore it to do your own thing, especially Fallout4 (2014). Here we're forced to ride along Lucy's linear monothreaded quest for her dad, which in itself didn't feel compelling as we don't know much about either of them, even by the end. The story of Maximus was more interesting as his mistakes & lies start to snowball into a Flashmanesque victory, but again we really don't know enough about the character to care that much. Bane was more fleshed out, but so at odds with his pre-war persona, will be interesting to see how/why he became so cruel. I suspect Lucy's dad represents an amalgam the player from the different games, given the trail of destruction in his wake.
Besides the excellent robot, Vfx here was pretty distracting, like early 00's BSG cylons distracting. Milky cataract compositing, white skies, softglows, poorly animated power-armor, unfinished gulpers and the deep dark abyss of Howard's gaping nose-hole. After witnessing all of this I go back to look at Transformers (2007 - seventeen years ago) and lament: "what happened to you vfx, you used to be beautiful".
Sets were mostly great, but ruined by the cg in many cases. Lighting was all over the place, from natural sunlit to overcast to stage lit, sometimes in the same sequence. There were no radstorms. Costumes & props were nowhere near as good as those in Fallout4, some of the BG & minor characters looked like cosplayers, and quite a few were well-fed & indoorsy.
Music was either great (historical recordings) or forgettable (the rest). The scene with the 'music critics' was hilarious.
Ahsoka (2023)
worbla fumes can dull the mind
If this was about post-war depression it could've worked.
Hera was super awkward, Ahsoka looked tired & over-it, Sabine seemed depressed, even mighty Chop was a bit down.
Many actors also had that particular indoorsy self-conscious look, and clean stylized costumes... like cosplay fans at a sci-fi convention.
Loved the basic retro style & color of some of the interior sets.
CG was detailed but sometimes suffered from that milky sunlit-but-overcast look that plagues vfx.
Music lacked distinct character specific themes we hear in other StarWars titles.
Mundane details to help immersion & world-building are mostly absent, which could have helped stretch the episodes in an interesting way (see: Andor). Here eps are stretched to the max via comically long pauses in dialogue & belabored spongy fights... the skip button got a lot of use.
As with most fantasy shows, there's heaps of exasperating, forehead-massaging goofs and illogic, like Ahsoka not destroying the map with her saber when she had the chance (twice).
The show also continues Ahsoka's disappointing arc: Back in the CloneWars series I'd hoped the Jedi would have killed her for going rogue after being set-up, which would have gone a long way to explain Anakin's sudden violent turning. Instead she lives, and Anakin turns for 'reasons', which could have been explored via subsequent confrontations both here and in Rebels, but wasn't... ugh whatever its StarWars, just watch it for the spectacle.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018)
I. Hate. Boats.
Continues the rich lore of its predecessor, with new factions (and layers of politics within), new scenery, new exploration mechanic, further refined combat mechanics, and most interestingly: customizable automation.
Automation alone is reason enough to try this game as it advances the art of game design (or at least picks-up where 90's golden-age ended), and you can design it to your advantage with certain classes.
The sailing mechanic was much criticized as boring, but I found it to be rewarding experience that was appropriate for the theme & setting. It was also a blast exploring the many different islands and their mysteries & adventures, like episodes of a tv series.
The setting is analogous with colonial pacific/caribbean Earth, with many of the themes being explored in a refreshingly honest way - for example it depicts islanders with their vicious caste system & strict religious proscriptions failing to adapt & exploit opportunities presented by less constrained outsiders.
The player has plenty of choice in how they deal with conflicts, with some long term consequences. Each faction has its pros and cons, and they usually have sub-factions and schisms that the player can influence.
Unfortunately there are no truly good factions, nor is there the option to join any natural factions. You can however become a faithful servant of master Nemnok :)
Main story was also disappointing, as the mystery was already revealed in the previous title. Here Aeothas inevitably does his thing, with plenty of elaboration/argument along the way.
Can't say much about companion dialogue as I chose the worst starting options (everyone died or left) then hired mercs.
Stats, class and background have effects throughout the game, often altering the outcome of challenges, for example in one scenario you can, with enough INT, amicably resolve an argument with a goldpact knight after noticing how he pours his drinks. With the right build its possible to do a (mostly) pacifist solo run.
Stealth and stealing mechanic is excellent, relying as much on timing as on stats.
Combat is challenging in a good way, with less dependence on the RNG. Kiting is too easily exploited however, even in small areas.
Class balance is quite good, as with its predecessor, and more classes can solo without too much exploitation.
Music is highly memorable, especially in the tavern. Different factions also have distinct themes.
Game ran OK on Linux (thanks to GoG), with slight lag in the main city (on a RTX3080).
The Witcher (2019)
rooftop roach
Could've worked as a horror series, which they get right here & there in both this series and the games. Take the swamp hut from the game, or the cliffside castle from s3: you know there's something awful in there, the witcher knows there's something awful in there... and sure enough there's something awful in there. Its like exploring the crawlspace under your house as a kid.
Exploring dread and wickedness, and the mental fortitude/delusion required to go through with it, could have easily filled out a few seasons with enough content to make us all fear the dark. Instead we get a relatively mild teen-chosen-one drama set in a tiresome fantasy backdrop, including a princess, a magic academy, feuding richpeople, and even a good old tolkienesque racewar.
Fight scenes were awkward, like there was a directorial conflict between fancy-dancy and realistic, and the outcomes seemed more luck than skill. Use of magic seemed heavily proscribed by budget, which was probably saved-up for one particular ep.
Vfx would have been OK in 2003: heaps of sunlit-but-overcast greenscreen shots & matte issues... though some of the simulation fx were great, especially the portals.
Stylistically, one thing that really bothered me more than anything else was the the grimy damp look, especially the witcher and bard: they desperately need a hose-down & vacation somewhere warm & sunny.
There was also too much magenta in the color grade, which makes (white) skin look colder & fleshier.
Subtle interactions between Roach and the cast were cute. We definitely need to see more of Roach, including a scene where the witcher is trying to get her down from the roof. Poor old Roach has seen things...
Secret Invasion (2023)
right on the mouthparts
If you don't expect Marvel spectacle, its surprisingly good, for a fantasy show.
Has an important and (ever) timely message about the perils of following a strongman.
Rhodey's speech on why he won't "help a brother out" was one of the most interesting things I've heard from a tv show in a while.
Falsworth was a great example on how to create a formidable matriarchal character without resorting to some combination of butch, crazy or ballbreaker... ok maybe a little crazy.
Fury himself kinda just blundered his way around, only taking decisive action at the very end. He was also willing to risk everyone dying by not calling in the Avengers for a reason that was profoundly narcissistic, if not sociopathic... I'd rather he just looked at the camera and said "we can't afford it".
Battles were pretty silly, varying from Andersonesque gunfights to interpretive dance. Final conflict was a disappointing, like it was directed by children playing with dolls... but it did settle the question of who is the most powerful Avenger in the pool.
There wasn't much time spent on the Skrull; what its like to be Skrull, how they naturally behave, their customs, biological needs, etc.. As a result they read as humans in rubber masks & gloves.
Sets & costumes were all realistic, though bland. Lighting was mostly overcast or night, which can be a downer for some viewers.
Loved the retro monochrome computer UIs in the reactor complex.
Shapechanging effect was great, except they also change clothes, which feels like a goof.
There's also a few serious goofs with the shapechange logic ("road full of dead Russians") that undermine the story.
As for the story, there was no convincing reason why the Skrulls had to move to Earth in the first place.
Don't remember the music, though this kind of show doesn't need it.
Final scene reminded me of GalaxyQuest for some odd reason.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Filler Ep
The antagonist from the previous film comes back to life and attacks the protagonist again, this time in different scenery. They both survive the fight so they can continue this boring slog in a sequel.
That's pretty much all there is to it.
Technically, it suffers the usual lack of imagination that plagues sci-fi. In this case we get humans, who are advanced enough to travel to another planet, out in the bush hunting local fauna with dumb handheld 20th century weaponry... for the lols I suppose.
There was no mystery to the story, besides who impregnated one of the dormant avatars. I suspect a sequel will have the offspring finding a way to assimilate humans via the hive-mind thing. Also while I'm making predictions I bet the munted little ozzie-ockrel will come back with a robotic arm.
The attempt at a Polynesian theme was way off; there's heaps of 1st-hand written diaries to draw-upon to get the culture & mannerisms right, but I suspect it wasn't endearing & inoffensive enough for the target audience, so we get the Disney version.
Besides getting stuck in the uncanny-valley with characters, the vfx was highly competent in its execution but suffered from manic direction which focused more on epicness than immersion. Epicness is fine in small measured doses, but becomes tedious when used all the time.
Music varied from unremarkable to that annoying survivor-style wailing.
Otherwise, like tour-de-france, its something nice to play while working in the depths of a heaterless antipodean winter.
Continuum (2012)
I can almost smell the Canada
I put this show on to keep the other side of the brain mollified while working, but was actively watching it after a few eps.
The premise is silly (time as a traversable continuum), the acting formulaic, the story predictable... but there was a raw 00's charm to this show, something I haven't seen since Farscape, SG:1 or BSG.
Acting was cheese, sets lighting & costumes painfully budget-constrained, music unremarkable. CG would've been great if it were made in 2000. It almost feels like a homage to 00's sci-fi.
Story runs the whole gamut of friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends, power corrupting, means subverting ends etc. Etc.. Nothing we haven't seen before.
Fight scenes were some of the most belabored I've seen anywhere, had to use the skip-button to hurry it up.
Only offputting things about the show were numerous scenes of women being choked, liberal use of the B word, and the lead actress talking like a sped-up yt video.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (2021)
noway its dawn already
Don't look at Pathfinder, don't read about Pathfinder, don't even think about Pathfinder...
3 months later: argh stupid meathead Sarzaksys and its stupid pimpwhip! I need more CMD, rupture-restraints... and greeter-dispel HAS to land, also need to do something about the horrid wilting. Lemme try a new build, last time this time.
If you're employed and have even a sliver of OCD about getting things right this game will ruin you. Its a massive complex game that takes ages to play-through, let alone master.
At a story level its a pretty juvenile 'fight the monsthers' deal, dressed in all kinds of trash popular mythologies, but we don't play these for the story. Its all about getting a handle on the mechanics & trying to ruthlessly game it... or at least make it less about the d20 RNG (praise be upon it) and more about your decisions. There's also timing, which adds another layer of depth to your strategy, not as much as the previous game though. Your decisions can have profound effects later in the game (further necessitating replays), not always in predictable or logical ways (more replays).
The alignment system was my biggest gripe as its so ambiguous that the writers are even confused by it. Lawful-Good often being an oxymoron for example; I drop the L. Chaotic was especially problematic, where it seems some writers thought it meant freedom while others took it to mean nonsense. Chaotic paths/factions are also quite hierarchical & orderly, despite the dialogue.
Besides the great fx, artwork is a let-down as they've gone for a stodge style that's been done to death. The Midnight Isles especially was a wasted opportunity to design something special... not Disney-Middle-East with spikes & lava special.
Music is forgettable generic fantasy, except some of the tavern songs.
Class imbalance is another issue, but I suspect some are weak (Druids, Bards) because having several of them in the party would make it too easy otherwise. Melee/ranged classes with good intrinsics (Monk+Mutation-Warrior) will blast through most of the game without too much difficulty, even solo.
Game ran OK on Linux via Proton (thanks to Steam), but its pretty slow & janky compared to other titles with more demanding content.
Now, before uninstalling it, I should probably double-check to see if you really can't solo a Druid...
Euphoria (2019)
its no Love Island
Hated this at first, awful people doing awful things, but gave it a chance and became totally captivated.
The show sets us up with the awfulness at the beginning, then dissects each character to tell us why they're awful; what made these people. By the end you almost feel sorry for the worst of them, almost.
The main character (Rue) smartly narrates those around her, while her own story seems to move towards a frustratingly inevitable conclusion. Rue's story also takes a few tragic turns, with one scene in particular (being helped into the bath) being both banal and truly horrifying at the same time. For some strange reason it reminded me of the black room from Under the Skin.
As with most tv shows, there's plenty of padding, but its so well-made I rarely skipped it.
Acting sets and costumes are convincing, except for the wealthier people who are portrayed as a kind of parody, or a poor-person's idea of rich people. Fezco & Ashtray on the other hand were great, I'd happily watch a show about those two.
Even though its surreal, the show leaves us with plenty to think about, especially those of us who grew-up without internet.
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
The children are cranky
Insightful look into another world. Excellent attention to details, from the drinks at the beginning, to the cover art in the credits. A great deal of care & effort went into this film... everything is deliberate.
First story was hilarious. If you've done time in the art-world there was plenty to unpack here.
Second story was a little tedious, rebellious youth and their manifesto, but that's almost certainly because I'm too young to get it.
Third about the foreigner was more somber, and the end was upbeat, somehow.
Overall, one of the funniest films I've seen in a while, will definitely re-watch it to catch more of the details.
Also: No dogs were shot or beaten, as far as I can tell...
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
openLOCKED
This game includes a lot of content depicting or implying abuse of captives. Unfortunately this also includes you the player, by locking you in a room, disabling your abilities and halting the game until you do as exactly as you're told: sit in this chair, take that item, wear these clothes, say these words, etc... and it can go on and on for quite some time. Quitting the game is the only agency you get.
In-between unskippable sessions of player-abuse, the game releases the you to grind an oldschool mmo-style themepark, where 'mobs' of hostile npcs patiently wait for the player show up and slaughter them, then sometimes respawn. Non hostile npcs are dead-inside set-dressing, or vendors who sit/stand there doing nothing.
Story deviates from its source to shove Keanu in the game (& his product), which then splits the game into yours and his. The story also badly suffered from the disconnect between what the player can do and what it assumes the player can do: the Player vs V. There are many scenes where you could easily overcome some minor difficulty only for the story to assume you can't... it bull***** the player.
Johnny silverhand (who seems to be an amalgam of Silverhand and Blackhand) was a miserable wet-rag of a character, who goes on frequent old-man rants like he's been on the whinge-media. His character is however saying something harsh about aging & entitlement on a meta level, though probably not intentionally. I suspect the developers actually want you to like him.
Given the problems with Keanu hijacking the game, the player doesn't progress & evolve, besides mechanically. V is no Brody.
Combat is entertaining, despite the suicidal npc behavior and issues caused by optimization at long-range.
There's some room for creativity in how to approach hostile situations, with hacking being the weakest as it entails a boring pattern-matching minigame, or 'deploying daemons' based on line-of-sight, which makes no sense.
Hacking in this game is no Exapunks, don't expect to be clever here.
There's room for creativity in resolving missions (gigs), with some having a satisfyingly clean & simple solution. Or you can just run in and do a bennyhill fight. The failure/semi-failure messages you get from certain fixers are amazing.
Otherwise, this game is a showcase of the Red-Engine, runs smoothly, no crashing, great lighting & shaders, worked perfectly on Linux via Proton (thanks to Steam).
Its also a showcase of the (apparently undervalued) artistic talent that went into handcrafting this game - except for the cringe in-game advertising. Certainly not a smart way to do it, but admirable nevertheless.
Outer Range (2022)
the singing bowhunter
Could've been handled with more subtlety: a slow creeping mystery of is-it-real-or-not disturbances, rather than galloping straight to the supernatural reveal right-away. Despite this the show was still captivating thanks to the eccentric characters and their different ways of dealing with the mystery.
Most of the CG stood-out as CG, which is not a good thing. Acting & lighting were excellent, especially the latter. Costumes & sets looked too expensive, cast looked too healthy for that part of the world. Also I doubt people there would really dress-up as cowboys in public.
Looking forward to another season.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
preem dlc
Faithful to hustle of the game, as well as audio and visuals, but lacks the mystery: no black-wall, no relic. It also lacks the variety of jobs and challenges found in the game. Instead this show focuses on mundane struggle to get away from poverty as quickly as possible, and the mental problems of using chrome to do it (humanity-cost, aka cyber-psychosis).
There isn't a lot of world-building outside of a few montages at the beginning, probably assuming you've played the game already.
Animation style is harsh, sometimes to the point of abstract, and quite rushed during action scenes, like shots were cut.
The IP & style is based on a retro 80's imagining of the future, so plenty of goofs, cultural-cringe and 'faster-horse' lack of imagination.
Yellowjackets (2021)
Hotel Caligula
Not a horror, not quite supernatural, not quite a coming-of-age. Adult-Misty alone makes the show worth watching though. The way she handled everything was amazing... from the naughty patient at the beginning to her guest at the end. The rest of the show is heavily padded; had to hit the skip button quite a lot, except during the wilderness scenes. There were enough survivors in the wilderness to fill out the series, but instead the show mostly focuses on the mid-life dramas of just 3 of the characters.
Sets, lighting and CG were unremarkable. Young cast mostly looked too indoorsy & well-fed to be starving in the wilderness.
Things start to get strange close to end, quickly setting it up for a 2nd season.
Dune (2021)
concept-art portfolio
Well crafted, but lacks the otherworldly strangeness of the story.
The lack in internal monologue is sorely missed here. Its an unfashionable device but it worked so well in the previous film. We loose a lot of important information about the politics, anthropology and ecology.
This has always been the critical challenge of making a Dune film, and this attempt largely avoids it to focus on architecture.
The technology and costumes are based on a current fashion in concept art that makes everything look too angular & bitsy for the sake of detail. It doesn't feel like something evolved for practical or cultural purposes.
There were also some technological goofs, like not using levitation technology where its needed.
Sets were great, but lacked the cultural variety of the previous film. Scenery generally has that milky CG look.
I found the music to be too loud and generic, like something from a fantasy tv series. Mediocre visuals can be elevated by great music, while great visuals are diminished by mediocre music.
Casting is pretty cringe for the most part. It would have been better served by using unknown actors that better suited the lore and their character's lifestyle.
The battle scenes were excellent, and the unshielded knife fight was short and brutal, as it should be.
Wolf Hall (2015)
potato-sack vs clown-suit
Very well made; packed full of tiny details to convince the audience.
Costumes, sets and lighting all look natural, music seems appropriate to that of the period. Hard to tell it was made 7 years ago.
Couldn't shake the fact that I was watching something awful though: A beautifully made show about arranged marriage, servitude, religious police and capricious murder for trivial reasons. There's no relief either, just endless, dismal submission and fear.
Maybe the second series will be more hopeful on some fronts, but history. A followup series about the other Cromwell would be a great antidote.
The Last Kingdom (2015)
Dressem-up, makem-fight
Uhtred went here and fought, Uhtred went there and fought, Uhtred fights in a castle, Uhtred fights in a field, Uhtred fights in the woods, etc. Etc..
Its definitely a juvenile fantasy show that's very loosely based on historical events, rather than a stodge historical drama.
The protagonist doesn't evolve much throughout the show, while his relationships ran through the tired old cycle of friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends... like the show ran for too long and writers had to manufacture drama.
The show is full of depictions of people being abused and killed while at the mercy of others. No good-guys emerge, which makes it a tiresome parade of crazies, meatheads & psychos. Interestingly the closest anyone came to being good was a Maybourne-esque villain who had a better arc than the main character.
Scenery was as much as you'd expect from the region, but with more nature & sunlight. The locations feel more like a frontier.
CG was under-worked (like plonked onto a grass field) and had that muddy 00's over-comped look about them. Cg fire looked like it was made with a game engine.
Many of the cast seemed a bit too indoorsy & weirdly-dressed for their characters. Otherwise the show goes for a grimy fantasy-game look (+ eyeliner!).
There's also plenty of goofs that break immersion; you may start to see the actors playing the characters rather than the characters themselves. By the last season I got the impression they were also over-it... or maybe it was just me as I kept hitting the skip button.
The shaky camera (in early shows) and the constant wailing 'survivor' music might give some people a headache.
Troppo (2022)
TJ goes on holiday
Interesting show, great setting, though feels a little too sanitary for FNQ.
Story was predictable, but some conflicts left unresolved by the end. Acting varied from too-real to Aussie-soap-extras. TJ's character was endearing as someone who just can't catch a break. Nicole's chacacter needed some work, maybe a little too soft & upbeat given her past.
There's also quite a few goofs, which makes the show feel more contrived than it should. This is a shame as the location & locals can bring a heap of character & drama without too much effort.