deanb

This is pretty good, unfortunately can't embed http://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-magazine/exclusive-video-meet-blackbird-rig-transforms-any-car It's a VFX car. I've known for a while that in most action films of the past 5+ years the cars usually aren't there at all, gone are the days of even sticking a carbon fibre shell of a ferrari over a ford focus body. But this one is pretty cool. Likely damn expensive but you'd only need a couple of them and you'd get some good realism out of it too (which'd increase as your VFX increases). wait I lie on embeds, decided to look up to find out what the alternative would be from a VFX viewpoint than a car mag take on it (this is different to what the Top Gear site has). Seems The Mill has it more in mind for advertising than film use.

Turns out that if they do breakdowns for their own movies they put quite a lot of effort into it I'm quite amazed at the amount of layers built into the wrecked Star Destroyer.

Pay What You Want for Game Maker Pro and a bunch of games including source code. Pay more for more games and source code. Pretty good deal https://www.humblebundle.com/gamemaker-bundle I've dabbled in Game Maker and it's pretty decent even if not much of a coder. My only beef was the tutorial I was following my game didn't work and I couldn't work out why, there was no debug issues it just stopped working. I should get back into it though cos it was pretty quick to go from having nothing to something. It's been used in a lot of the indie titles you might have enjoyed in the past (Hotline Miami a big one, Gunpoint another).

I used to have a err..dragon plant? One of the spiky small trees. They're pretty rugged, and was like £2 for the plant n £1 for the pot it went in. It didn't do too well but I think mainly cos the room I'm in can get pretty dry n warm at times cos of the computer (and the sun shines on the opposite side of the building, which is fine by me, but less so for plants). Have been eyeing up something to replace it since I still have the pot. There's also something that was here when I moved in, it was pretty fucked up with a bunch of dead leaves and tips n such. Trimmed that back and its done pretty well.. think. It could be dead but I guess it's not got anymore brown n crispy since. Avoid succulents btw. Sure they look nice when you buy them, and cute n small and what not. Except they grow like crazy.My gran had some in her greenhouse and they'd sprung from a pot and branched out to cover much of the pebble drainage shelf thing. But on the other hand they're like individual plants along the branch so you can cut it off, re-pot n hey presto a gift for a friend. edit: I had a "Dracaena Marginata" and they're currently on sale for £1 at Ikea (I got mine from a local florist but wouldn't surprise me if they bought a chunk from Ikea on the cheap ). The plant I currently have is Dracaena Massangeana, which I imagine is from Ikea given most of the furniture in this room (and most rentals in Newcastle) is from Ikea. Ikea is pretty solid for plants, just avoid exotic things (e.g fly traps, and bonsai) and be aware a lot of their stuff needs repotting, especially if it comes in a regular brown pot. From Ikeas perspective the less surface area/volume of pot, the less cost on transport.

Same way they'd get most other stuff in their guide I imagine. There's speculation it'll have slipped through given the game got sliced in two and it was possible you'd have found out in this. The official artbook also spoils another character too (though this one is strongly hinted at in the game) so it's not the only cock up. Folks are leaning on it potentially being just in error but it makes a lot of sense and folks already speculated on this person prior. The game itself blows it's load in the mid-credits sequence which a lot of folks are like "what the hell?!" about. the whole "S-E interfered with the develop a bit too much" is I think pretty glaring in a lot of aspects, thankfully mainly issues in regards to outside of the game n release n such than gameplay n such itself. Not missing too much with the Helle mission. In others news someone made a pretty large gallery of some screenshot "photos". Shame the game didn't launch with Ansel (Witcher 3 just got it the other day so totally taking that for a spin some point). http://imgur.com/gallery/orwxJ

(this is for everyone else who has finished, not Ethan yet).

So the Prima Guide (and their website) spoils the identity of Janus which is pretty funny.

Finished S1 of Mr Robot. I'm sort of unsure on it. I love the titles, I love that it's probably one of the first proper depictions of computers, and hacking including the social engineering aspect of it all too. My only beef is the massive "Unreliable narrator" and how heavily it gets used as it goes on. I'd picked up on it a few episodes in I liked the CEO (hadn't picked up he was the CEO at first when he was chatting with Wellick), in being quite nice and sagely at first then suddenly turns sour and "money above all else" kind of attitude. The blonde lasses turn seemed a bit sudden imo, but given there's clearly a "and a couple weeks pass" bit in it I guess it makes sense timeline wise but if you don't show the character arc it feels jaunty. Also could have done with a bit more delving into the other members of fsociety than just Darlene. There's only like 5 of them so shouldn't have been too hard, instead we get a lot of focus on Wellick for little pay-off. Gideon was cool (and also not clueless too, but maybe a bit too trusting of Elliot considering he puts his suspicions out in the open). Gonna wait for all of S2 to be out before jumping on to that, but reactions I've seen on Twitter imply it's a doozy.

After finishing Mankind Divided (gonna pop on for that story DLC and give a bit of Breach a spin) I popped back in to the newly patched Witcher 3, only took like 8 hours to download :/. Found it's reintroduced some bugs so figured I'd jump on to Fallout 4 since that's all DLCed up now too. Started a new character, was like "eh" having played much of the above. Figured I'd mod it, find out there's no workshop support, decided fuck it for now. So I'm currently playing Pillars of Eternity. I'd started a game a while back, which turns out I'd not a clue on controls anymore and carried on getting killed in the dungeon I'd left myself in. So since I'd only lose a few hours I restarted. Which has worked out much better as it turns out I'd missed out on a bunch of party members so that has made things much easier. Still feel the combat is a bit clunky, built a bit more like DnD than other RPGs. So your mage is mostly useless as he can only do a couple spells per rest (And most his spells are AoE, or like fan aiming, which is horrible cos there's friendly fire in this game and most of your guys are crowded around the enemy with swords, and also since he aims at the ground not the enemy, the enemy has usually moved before his spell has fired off). The convo system is good old fashioned "based off your stats" stuff, rather than the FO4 "yes, angry-yes, sarcastic yes, no-but-yes". Though there's a lot of times where you'll have quite a few options you can't chose cos it'd require having picked a very specific vocation in character creation. Oh yeah, based on getting messed up in my earlier save, I went from my usual mage(which I'd picked as the halfling race too, so yeah not very punch friendly) to a big ass Godlike warrior. He's doing better. Get to use Might a lot in my convos Also picked up Abysarrium on Android. It's a clicker game, but it's quite calming n relaxing type, you raise your own little coral reef and get fishes and things.

I'm kinda hoping they're gonna be rolling out another patch, this one has reintroduced a bunch of older controller bugs such as d-pad not working right and not being able to dismount your house unless you use keyboard ("B" otherwise works fine in all other areas).

Yeah a solid game, but you've kinda hit the nail on the haid in being not totally memorable. Pretty for sure n all, but Densel just isn't super memorable compared to Cole. The ending felt pretty weak imo which is what kinda marred a lot of it.

It sucks on the quality, I think it's cut from a stream. But some more gameplay, from the current version of the game so they're able to go to places some of press haven't been able to on their demos. Like the little touch that if you brake hard in the car everyone gets minor whiplash. Also later they have a minor fuck up with a spell and end up with clothes all ashy n burnt which is a nice touch, though already seen some of those effects with using fire and it leaving scorched grass. Also feed kinda funny too, very responsive audience and demo player. There is a wee glitch where Gladio suddenly pops in next to you, but I imagine that's the kind of stuff they're delaying the game for. I'm getting kinda hyped for this. Amazing to see the changes to it over the years from Versus XIII then to Duscae, Platinum demo and the streams of the gameplay. Kinda looking quite close to FFXII style too. Some more info of late is it's more open world for the start of the game, the final part of the game is more linear. Which I guess helps with story telling a bit. Also, which I guess I should have picked up from earlier video, is that it spans 10 years so you end up with older Noctis with a beard looking a bit like Regis.

So for my ending Kinda feel the spoiler they threw in to the mid-credits is something that might have been better served for later, could have still had the dialogue just retain identities a secret (such as DXHR opening had). Though there are hints given the subject matter of a couple emails between certain folks. Didn't really connect with any of the characters in this one tbh. While Sarif wasn't entirely brilliant you could get on with him, n Pritchard n Jensen had an almost friendly relationship at the end, and heck you even do a mission with Malik too. But here? Miller is maybe closest towards the end, but he's still no Sarif. Rest are all pretty much knobs to Jensen or just "Agent". Don't get to do much with Alex except the cutscene meet n greets, I think doing something together might have helped reinforced the bond there a little. The levels were great though, loads of twists n turns. Not really bummed by the lack of boss fights, they're not really a huge part of the game and a much maligned aspect of HR anyway. Much prefer the convo things as a sort of "boss battle" element and they'll usually be the ones scoring you achievements too anyway. Boss Battles are for things like Mario n DMC, but that's a chat for another thread. Story not the greatest, but I honestly reckon that's mainly cos of the "Illuminati" stuff, we know all of that from Deus Ex. It's sort of re-treading familiar ground and we know that Page ain't gonna be taken down cos he's around in the future. I think really they should have picked some minor Illuminati member, heck make one, for this as a sort of shadow-antagonist rather than Page & co. Or at least have him accidentally set up their plans rather than crashing their party cos we know they're not taken out by Deus Ex time period. (the next one sounds like it might be setting that up in some way). Anywho we're all on-board with Jensen being the Denton "twins" big biologically exact brother right? Given the whole "immune to pathogen that kills pretty much everyone else" the "doesn't reject augmentations" stuff, and the "I like wearing shades everywhere I go and wearing black trench coats" stuff. Wouldn't surprise me if post-panchea they took a few biological samples from him.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided I don't feel it ends "abruptly", it flows as an arc within the game pretty fine, but yeah clearly a set-up for a sequel given no doubt Jensen is gonna be visiting that Rahlia place at some point. Now I've New Game+ unlocked I think I'm gonna go pop on Witcher 3 n wrap that up.

Blazing Saddles It's sort of been on the watch list for an age, and given recent events moved up considerably. It just wasn't hugely funny. I imagine at the time maybe it was. I guess I just don't really watch Westerns either to maybe get some of the references.

Popped up on my Discovery list for this week.

Firstly they've announced their first run of DLC, with Frank Pritchard (woo) https://twitter.com/DeusEx/status/771694470857428996 Secondly: Thoughts on the "Adam died in Panchea" theory floating around based on the whole "his augs are different and not the ones Sarif gave him" quest line stuff. Personally I think folks are misreading that questline, but I guess it was a bit vague n lazily wrapped up.

Kinda bummed I feel this is gonna drop off the map. Based on past Ubisoft games they usually get their games properly nailed from the 2nd one (hence the HD re-release AC coming out is of the ACII series). I've got a few too many games upcoming so I feel that it'll be something I'll grab in a sale early 2017. So thoughts so far: I like the fact you can pick out specific landmarks to visit. Bit more realistic than randomly bashing markers down. Also his drone is whisper quiet Driveable scissor lifts seems a bit OP The social media aspect seems like it'll be a bit of an annoying gating system.

Word is the platforming kinda sucks, but it was a jam game made in like 72hrs.

http://i.imgur.com/JSCibmJ.gifv On theo ther end of this is some poor pichu that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So I watched Kingsglaive. You go in knowing much of the major plot points since this is a prequel to FFXV (the "post-credits scene" is the start of FFXV with their car breaking down). It's not gonna be a classic, never went in expecting that but it's damn pretty and gives a chunk of insight into FFXV. E.g who the guys on the cover are: They're essentially the "gods" of Lucis, the city-state Noctis is from. They given the monarch power, like actual "I can summon giant statues to fight for me" type power, in return for a sacrifice. The trade is conducted through a royal ring, which is being transported to Noctis at some point in the game. Also in the film we see not just one, as some cities might have problems dealing with, but about five Diamond Weapons used in the attack against Insomnia (stupid name for a city, ut it's ruled by "King Regis" which is equally silly name). So they're a thing that Niflhiem has access to, I guess in line with their "magitek" capabilities. I imagine we'll see Magitek Armour at some point too. There is a sort of metal-gear type looking machine they use which might be their magitek armour? Pretty certain we've seen a future boss too, though he ends the film in not too great shape so who knows. Also Ardyn is gonna be great.

Guardians trailer out. I imagine it'll be pants but probably the kind of thing to be picked up by Netflix given internet hype.

No Ethan, only Sith deal in absolutes!

Thursday I feel you're not taking this seriously enough.

Then you've got the new guy in Rogue One who follows the teachings of the Jedi but can't be a Jedi as he isn't a force user. (anyway historical it was the Jed'aii who actually followed both the light and dark in balance*, and the Sith were an actual species, but that's all "Legends" now so who knows). *this is the bit the Jedi fucked up on. By purging the Dark it meant they could no longer truly recognise it.