deanb

So this is a weird one cos it's a Craig Ferguson clip and he's Scottish. But yeah, he called a "harmonica" a "mouth organ". I used to have a nice harmonica when I was younger and you're at that stage you want to learn an instrument and I'm that awkward kid that didn't want to learn recorder like everyone else. I dropped it down the side of my dads reclining chair. So we opened up the chair into the reclining position to get to it and...don't stick your fingers inside reclining chairs kids cos they're made of softer things than metal. Also I've maybe asked before but: How'd you guys type out £ symbol. Is it on your keyboard at all. What about €, is that there too? Shift + 3 = £ Shift + 4 = $ Shift + Alt + 4 = €

http://swanh.net/ This is pretty great, albeit super long, graphic of A New Hope.

I believe they like to be called the "Machine Spirit". You can please the Machine Spirit by offering rites and driver updates as well as looking into what devices are set as default, it's possible your video player is using the correct sound output and your Windows isn't. I know VLC can play different output than Windows assuming that's what you use.

Decided to watch Preacher n see how it works out. I knew from the cast list they'd not be following the story of the story that closely. It's alright so far, and I think for myself a lot of interest in it is going to be seeing how they'll have the changes play out. So far Cassidy is pretty great though. But the pay off of sorts with him is when Jesse digs into his 100 year past and finds that when you're a drunken irish vampire with vague immortality you get quite fucked up in trying to find purpose in life while staying out the sun and I'm unsure if the show will delve into this. In the comic it's sort of dragged out and hinted at but comes to a head much later on. I think the comic did a much better job of the vampire reveal too. I'm curious how it'll play out, cos it's not until much later when Jesse ends up as a sheriff for a while that he settles down, and mostly it's a sort of road trip across US and other far flung places. I feel it might stagnate a little if they're all hanging out in the one place.

Some decent look environments, and seem rather large compared to what they've had in past games.

Now this is a proper teaser trailer. Cast alone should make it pretty decent and damn that music is great.

The Hobbit: Tolkien Edit So part of reducing the time of our Lord of the Rings marathon we watched the "Tolkien Edit" of The Hobbit. This fan edit (we've joked it's probably Peter Jackson) crops the trilogy into a single 4hr long movie (bit longer with credits included). It does this by removing most of Legolas (he's in for like 2 seconds), the elf lass (probably all of 14 frames), the entirety of Radagast and Dol Guldur (Gandalf fucks off for most the film all largely unexplained just like he does in the books), a bunch of the orc chasing sequences, and much of lake town as well(mainly concerning the Master), and cropping down stuff like the Barrel riders and bits of Smaug in the mountain (though it does mean he magically leaves the mountain coated in gold where before he wasn't) and a whole host of other things (like, 50% of the films really). It flows rather well together, I've watched a fan cut of a film years back and it was soo bad, like hard cuts n weird music and such but this (apart from Smaug suddenly in gold, and another bit with Beorn) flows so smoothly and there's only a couple quibbles we had but it's largely to do with the source material he had to work with. It was a much better film. Delayed our LotR watching to the point we've had to put off Return of the King, but was good to watch. It shows that yes it's a bit much for a single film, but it's nowhere near enough in there to make a trilogy without a nearly half your film being filler.

In Winter Soldier

So I've been binging through back issues of "Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project" podcast lately and given Adams background a lot of discussion is about film; the process of making through to the watching and some interesting things have cropped up a few times. So Adam quite likes suggesting watching films in French (with or without subtitles, that's your choice), mainly cos a lot of films are kinda crap dialogue but the visuals are great. His most recent example being the new Total Recall (this from a 2013 podcast). Will Smith (not that will smith) likes to suggest putting films you know sort of inside out, on in the background while playing boardgames but with the twist of having the commentary running. So you don't mind not watching the film due to taking your turn and you know what's going on but you learn about it without having to sit down specifically for the commentary (incidentally two RDJ films are meant to have great commentary: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tropic Thunder. Also they mentioned Arnie does commentary for one of his films and it's more him narrating what's going on.) Also Adam n I have a similar taste in films, and I think due to the VFX background a habit of rating films favourably because they look good. Including Brazil (which he likes n has seen once a day for 6 months straight cos of working as a projectionist) which I like to recommend to folks mainly cos it looks so good but also cos it's Gilliam and he's great. I'd say "Twelve Monkeys" is likely the more accessible of his films though. Even more so to recommend cos Americans got a different cut to the rest cos it needed a "happy ending" according to the studios. (You were robbed, it's one of the greatest endings ever). (this is why he's called the "High Sparrow" btw: I want to watch Zero Theorem but it films like it slipped into the cracks of time. Like the trailers came out then nothing. I don't even remember it turning up at cinemas. I guess while I'm here RED got added to NEtflix recently and is a good watch.

I posted this on Twitter, should totally share here. I know little of the technical dowitzits going on but apparently the "Help" functionality in PS4 provides a bit of a gateway to hacking the system which means this happens: Ideally it could be trimmed, but I guess if you do that folks will be all "but you cut straight from booting Linux into Steam then into Bastion. FAAKKEE!". By accounts it runs like shit at the moment, but it's a work in progress and Linux isn't ideal for gaming at best of times. But given the heft inside a PS4 it should be a pretty capable system for running smaller indie titles n such.

Nah, I know that one. The voice from 0:37 onwards. I've checked on IMDB, which I guess I should have in the first place but I was like "as if they'll list "Trailer Voice: This Person"". She is the High Command of the Federation, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo. Who we'll more likely know voice wise as: Admiral Shala'Raam Vas Tonbay (She's also one of the main scientists in the third X-Men film: )

There was a bit in watching the Beyond trailer and I'm like "Is Karl Urban in the MCU? He'd be great in the MCU". Anywho turns out he's gonna be in Thor Ragnarok, alongside Jeff Goldblum (who'll be playing "Grandmaster", one of the counterparts of Del Toro's "Collector"). http://marvel.com/news/movies/26203/marvel_studios_confirms_stellar_new_cast_members_of_the_highly_anticipated_thor_ragnarok I wonder if it bums out the cast of the Thor films that they don't really get to interact with the folks from the Earth-bound films as much. I think it's a great cast n all, but part of me is this horrible feeling a chunk of this is going to be setting up the Infinity War films more than any other film preceding it. Like a big issue with Age of Ultron was the weird Infinity Well sequence, and that was all setting up for Thor Ragnarok. Having another Elder of the Universe in even further cements that we're gonna have a infinity gem show up. I guess as they steam roll towards the culmination of the Avengers films you've got horrible balance of trying to have films be pretty standalone while still advancing the overarching plot and essentially advertising the future films. GotG was probably their best effort at this so far.

Second trailer for Beyond, much much better than the preceding. Also who the hell is that voice over early on cos I recognise it but can't quite place it. Also fucking hell that warp bubble shot is a beaut. Also the new Star Trek TV show has been announced for next year. People have picked up on the phrasing of "New Crews" as a "hmm, wonder if that's a crew per-episode kind of thing or more than one show coming out". https://youtu.be/xXpPweAooeE

http://store.steampowered.com/app/438680/ One Troll Army - Free. Can't really go wrong.

These are pretty great and creative (where the actors allow) con photos. http://imgur.com/a/PExAO Shame some of them are a bit like "just smile, take photo n go" types but you hear a lot of actors aren't overly keen on the cons. Though the ones that are are the ones you pretty much expect to go all in, Anthony Daniels surprised though given I hear he's kinda uptight on most Star Wars stuff but I guess this broke the monotony. Also my first thought on the "Most people don't know who Major Derlin is" is "Probably not but I doubt that'll stop him having a 1,000 word Wookiepedia article on him. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bren_Derlin/Legends Canon less so, Legends oh gods yes.

Reviews aren't sounding very positive, but this is neat thing to come out of it

Yeah, this is the final DLC. I'll be diving back in now it's all "complete". Really is a well made game. And hey, they fixed the issue with the candles on treasure chests

Looking good.

Oh yeah, it'd be insane to have all the rocks on that cliff be individual units with their own physics and such (the rocks that do fall are also notably bigger than the rocks already on the cliff). It's a pretty dang neat effect though given most games have rather flat inactive cliff faces.

http://i.imgur.com/cP2xQME.gifv Saw this yesterday, looks all kinds of amazing.

"He doesn't row!" I should maybe replay that at some point, though Dishonered is higher up my list for a replay. I'm now playing Just Cause 3 again, fun brainless game (though I think I might be turning my brain off a bit too much cos I did a mission last night I don't understand the latter third of). Only major issue is the controls are kind of all over the place depending on what you're doing at any particular time so you don't always get the desired result. The untethering is the most finnicky which can be an issue if you're wanting to say pull an AA gun to a new spot, then pull it to a newer spot but can't release the original tether as the "B to untether" rarely, if ever, works. It does work if you'r in a car (where it's down on the d-pad). Also the tethering can be like the first 90% of travel up a hill or tower will be over in seconds, but the final 10% is a bunch of tethering, re-tethering and then mis-timed Jumps which means you launch a parachute instead (because of aforementioned changing of controls depending on what you're doing at that exact moment in time). Other than that it's fun to blow shit up and zip around the islands and turn the AA missiles against the enemy

*Microsoft announce or do anything Xbone related*

I've beaten Space Marine. Had a bad headache other day so wanted something that wouldn't take overly long to play and require too much thinking or reading. I had played a chunk of the campaign ages back when OnLive came out, and now finally beaten it on PC. It's a great game, maybe drags out a little near the end but otherwise it captures "space marine" quite well with heavy clunking, no cover shooting (you are the cover) n chunky weapons. Relic are pretty good at this whole 40K nonsense. If I put my mind to it I can probably beat FFIX before today is done too, I just kinda don't want to cos I have a horrible issue with RPGs where I get near the end and then drift off from it cos I don't want it to be over.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nvidia.vrviewer Nvidia have a cardboard viewer for viewing their Ansel stuff when it eventually rolls out. Currently has a few sample images from Witness and Witcher.