Thursday Next

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-49071456

I dunno, sounds a lot like Ankh Morpork. If you want to reduce crime, rather than have the police work more, you just need the cartels to work less.

I recognise the name as being someone who I almost instinctively take the opposite stance to, but I have no idea who he is or why. lol. As you say, I find it hard to believe that it is not a shitpost. I sorta want to hear their opinions on films like Running Man and Total Recall as well. It's weird that these people are usually the ones who "learn" films, like, they can recite the names of every actor, quote the film line for line, know the obscure background lore, but somehow miss the step where they see it as a reflection of our world. It must be fucking wild to consume media so superficially.

Is it out already?!?

Vagrant Story - (yes the one that was released in 2000) I've tried so many times to get through this game, but every time I get stuck at the same point. I get to the Earth Dragon and just cannot get past it. It's the one "hard" game I've played that never clicked with me. Most of that ilk, SoulsBourne, Returnal, etc. I eventually get. But Vagrant Story I have accepted I will never beat.

Is it a sequel to/the same universe as "Edge of Tomorrow" or "Live, Die, Repeat" or whatever it was called in your region of choice? Or is it just a somewhat similar name/concept.

lol! It hasn't demanded a sacrifice of liquified dinosaur so I think I am good. It's taking some getting used to driving it. It's a quantum leap in technology for me (especially since I have always "driven stick": keyless entry/start; no gears; regenerative braking; completely different torque profile. The other day was in a car park and literally had to think through the steps to actually drive the car.

JFC how can you watch Alien(s) and not get the not exactly subtle "corporations are worse than a parasitical monster that will eat you from the inside out or the outside in, depending on which is more convenient at that time" message? https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1410808405413879813

Bought myself a new whip, joined the all-electric revolution...

I know what you mean. Would have liked them to do more SCP type stuff. The Hiss were a bit samey after a while.

Exactly, you can even see it logging your arrival on a new planet when you pass through the dimensions, indicating that you are loading that particular level and not some sort of special cut-down version specially made for the time trial.

The pocket dimension stuff is, technically, astounding. The complete lack of loading times when switching between the two levels is mind-blowing.

Fair.

100% this. The problem with MCU being so much a part of the zeitgeist is that it is canon for most people. Even if the GOTG Game characters were closer to the comics and therefore more "authentic", I wouldn't even know.

Not to mention that art like that would never get made if you did go in with a "plan" for it. Going to a Hollywood studio and saying "I want to make a film that says Americans are brainless creatures that seek only to consume everything and that American corporates behind consumer temples like malls (and movie theatres) are part of the problem." probably isn't going to make much headway. Ethan's comment reminded me that one of the reasons I stopped watching South Park was that while it claimed that everything was a valid target for criticism, what it seemed to be most against was caring enough to change the status quo. You can absolutely make apolitical games (Tetris, sports games, etc), but I think what you have to sacrifice to do so is a story. As soon as you have narrative, you have to have motivations, which means you need to have some sort of characters with desires, and at that point you are doomed to insert politics. Is your protagonist on the side of the law catching wrong doers, or a rebel fighting against an oppressive regime? If so, congrats, you have introduced authoritarian/libertarian politics into your game.

Like the ones who say "Why does "The Last of Us 2" a zombie game, need to crowbar in a load of "politics"? Why can't it just be completely non-political like Romero's Dawn of the Dead?" and then go back to mindlessly consuming media at face value, taking nothing from it.

Nah, those "boycott the SJW game" tossers always cave. There is 0 point in appeasing them.

I know you know, but... Corporations are absolutely not rational, that's definitely one of those "greatest trick the devil ever pulled" things. If publishers were rational, they would stop doing the "Our game set in [the Cold War/post climate apocalypse/corporate dystopia] is completely apolitical." mental gymnastics.

It's going to take a big film to make me stump up the £20 to watch it on Disney+ premiere thingy rather than just wait for it to go on standard "But I already paid you DIsney+". But I think it is definitely worth it for families. The cost of taking yourself, partner and two kids to the cinema to watch the latest Marvel film would dwarf $30, plus you'll miss half of it because you are taking kids to the loo, or otherwise being distracted by parenting your children, or being distracted by other people not parenting their kids.

Episode 1 of Loki was brilliant.

Hopefully we'll see a sort of "natural selection" where studios that don't crunch continue to thrive and those that do are punished at the tills. Sadly, I don't think most consumers know/care about crunch and so it will only happen as a result of actual humans burning out and shipping broken products (as happened with CP2077), which is not ideal.

Who plays games for enjoyment?!?

Because I want to unlock all the things.