Stuart

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Posts posted by Stuart

  1. Posted

    PRAISE THE SUN

     

    http://steamcommunity.com/games/211420/announcements/detail/206368522048405952

     

    The GFWL-Steamworks switch has finally happened! You will have to do a bit of fiddling to get saves transferred, but it's not much!

     

    Also, it looks like the update is having issues with the current versions of DSCfix (the multiplayer connection fix) and DSMfix (mouse input fix), which isn't all that surprising.

     

     

    Not anymore! Be sure to get the latest Steamworks update.

     

    http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=652

  3. Posted

    Heyo! It's almost 2015, and we already got a thread on GOTYs (No Movies of the Year thread tho, hmmm...), so I thought, "Hey, music is cool. There was cool music this year. How about we talk about our fav musics?"

     

    Anyway, you can make your list or whatever however you like, but here's some suggested categories if you're thinking on that:

     

    - Best Albums/Mixtapes of the 2014

    - Best Songs/Singles of 2014

    - Best Music Video of 2014

    - Song You've Played Most This Year (Doesn't Have to Be From 2014)

     

    That's all I got for now. Feel free to put links to the songs or w/e, unless it's already been posted. Be sure to give some sort of explanation to each of your picks! Make it one sentence, a whole essay, w/e. 

     

    With that said, here's the best music I've heard from 2014!

     

    Best Albums/Mixtapes (In No Order):

     

    Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2: El-P and Killer Mike at the top of their game. Booming beats by El-P, tighter flow from both El and Mike, as well as much cleverer and hard hitting delivery and lyrics. From songs about murdering and stealing, to songs about fucking, to songs about police brutality and the cost of poverty in America, this album has it all in intense, blood-pumping power. Way better than RTJ1. Here's a sample:

     

     

    Clipping - CLPPNG: Insane industrial glitch beats accompanied by Daveed Diggs' introspective lyrics powered by completely awe-inspiring flow. This is the pinnacle of experimental rap imo.

     

     

    Mick Jenkins - The Water: Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins releases his third mixtape, and it's absolute fucking fire. Smooth, watery (see what I did there) beats and amazing flow and lyrics by Jenkins. Along with people like Chance the Rapper, NoName Gypsy, and Saabo, Jenkins is another in a long line of amazing Chicago rappers. 

     

     

    Flying Lotus - You're Dead!: FlyLo is back with his most personal, introspective, and cohesive album. Everything you expect from FlyLo is here: Jazzy, experimental, electronic beats of the most amazing kind. 

     

     

    Best Song of 2014: Never Catch Me by Flying Lotus. I cannot stop listening to it.

     

    So anyway, that's all I could think of at the moment! Feel free to continue editing your list if you've listened to new stuff, or just make a new post!

  13. Posted

    I don't like Ryckert, he's representative of what is holding back video game criticism and journalism behind. I thank him for at least introducing that Mario Party thing. I always root for him to lose. Also, his dad is a fucking gross sexist and transphobic asshole. But whatever, lol he doesn't like video games, old man dad, haha? :U

  14. Posted

    Been wanting to voice my thoughts on Far Cry 4 for a while, and all the talk about on the pod has motivated me to do it. A main concern I have with the game is how despite featuring a PoC (Person of Color) character and featuring issues surrounding PoC, it's still codified in the very gross narrative framing and politics Far Cry 3 presented explicitly, which in FC4 it's presented more insidiously due to the setting change. Also, note that I said "featuring issues", which is also a humongous problem AAA games have and FC4 specially has, but I'll get into that a bit later.

     

    On the subject of Pagan Min, his demeanor, mannerisms, and even way of dress bring to mind the same sort of blatantly flamboyant, pseudo-queer codifying presented in Disney villains. It uses these queer stereotypes to add to the multitude of reasons why to hate this guy. "He looks tacky" could easily be to someone more ignorant the equivalent of "He looks like such a ponce." Here's the post on this kind of insidious codifying present within Disney villains that explains it concisely. 

     

    http://fandomsandfeminism.tumblr.com/post/73592250014/could-you-talk-more-about-the-male-disney-villains

     

    Another big problem is that every mission is codified within Western colonial feedback. Biggest example: The fact that you don't "take over" or "fight against" an outpost of PoC villains. No, you LIBERATE the outpost. You don't just kill an animal and take it's meat, you get a nice + 1 UI notice whenever you do it. The game is all about giving you feedback as a sort of pat in the back for the gross shit you do. This kind of framing is present all around in Far Cry 3, and in Far Cry 4, it's featured in a more covered up manner, and it bugs me people are giving it a pass because of how it wells it covers that up. 

     

    And now that I'm on feedback, that's another big problem I have with the game. How despite how intricate and interesting its systems are, its designed to always pat the player in the back, and that's such an Ubisoft open world design garbage thing, that it's become so tired and boring to me. I cannot relish this random experience I just had when I get a fucking UI or cinematic, telling how fucking awesome this thing I just did. It's a game that is open to how manufactured and calculate it is, and robs players of the experience of, as Sean would say, to suspending their disbelief. 

     

    Finally, on this "featuring issues" thing, or rather "featuring X social issue/theme" thing so popular in AAA. To put it bluntly, it is nearly always obnoxiously ham-fisted, vapid social commentary and exploration of themes in something that in the end, isn't concerned with commenting, but serving you on things. An exemplar commercial, capitalist-as-fuck video game. It uses theme and issues not as things to explore, but as "content" to be consumed along with it's lavish systems. And you don't even have to play it to see this. All of this is presented in the forefront of all of that game's marketing. They take pride in saying and doing absolutely nothing, intent to feeding us the same bullshit. See: Bioshock Infinite as a perfect example of a game that does that and ends up shooting itself on the foot. Also, Far Cry 3.

     

    But yeah, that's all I had to say on Far Cry 4. That felt cathartic. :P

     

    SHORT VERSION, COURTESY OF @BooDooPerson: http://boodoo.biz/Fuck%20Far%20Cry%204

     

    EDIT: I MEAN FAR CRY 4 AT THE START. Also, some more elaboration on some stuff.

  16. Posted

    That's a big call. Worse than Titan A.E., Chronicles of Riddick, Dune, John Carter, and the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy? Or have you not seen those?

     

    Whoah there, which Riddick are we talking about here? Also, as messy and convoluted Dune was, it had vision, despite its flaws, it is still Lynch at the top of his game. Interstellar felt restrained with its trite emotional bullshit and pseudo-philosophy. John Carter and the Star Wars prequels are bad, I'd put Interstellar up there with both of them. I haven't seen Titan A.E.

     

    Also, while I'm here, I'll link this scene from Jodorowsky's Dune.

     

  17. Posted

    Interstellar is the most frustrating movie experience I've had in a while. You can tell that there is a good movie in there somewhere, it's just buried under cliched dialogue and a failed attempt at recreating parts of 2001. It's the fastest moving three hour movie I've ever seen, which means that the movie never felt long, but I also never felt that it gave its audience enough time to understand or appreciate what was happening on screen. The idea that love is this powerful force that can transcend time and space is something that I am willing to accept in a certain kind of movie, but Interstellar wanted to be three kinds of movies all at once, and ended up weakening its central point. The overuse (and misuse) of the Dylan Thomas poem was also unhelpful.

     

    Matt Damon's character had no business being in this movie. His subplot was the nadir of the film and he also has the worst reference to the Dylan Thomas poem in the whole movie. The father/daughter relationship stuff was mostly fine, but I couldn't stop thinking about the son. Poor Casey Affleck. Guess your dad doesn't love you enough to cross the fifth dimension or even ask where you are when he is resurrected on the Saturn station.

     

    My thoughts exactly. I had a convo on Twitter with a friend where we discussed how Nolan's directing and writing style doesn't fit well with big, high concept films like Interstellar. He is, like most people have pointed out, the anti-Spielberg, a man focused too much on giving as much narrative details (aka, exposition, blegh) than showing us that amazing beautifully rendered vista that his CGI team worked on for months. 

     

    I put it this way: Take note on how long all those sweeping, majestic shots of space are. Under a smarter big film director (like Spielberg, who was attached to this film beforehand and it SHOWS), those shots would be longer, portrayed in all their grandeur and majesty. Using, ya know, visuals to tell a story in a medium all about visuals, but Nolan doesn't care about that, when he films, shots are there to serve his stupid overbearing plot. He should seriously return to making smaller, focused films like Memento and The Prestige where he can wax philosophical and use his directing style to far better use than in a film that begs for more grand visuals than grand monologues. 

     

    The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar are getting the critical jabbing they deserve, let's hope its a wake up call for Nolan. Because right now, Interstellar is probably the worst space opera I've ever seen.

  18. Posted

    Question: I'm thinking of picking this up for 360. Are there any non-financial reasons I should wait and get it on PC some time in the future when I actually have a PC?

     

    OR: am I missing out on anything by playing this on console?

     

    It plays a lot better on PC, specially the whole leaning mechanic which is a classic PC stealth game mechanic that doesn't translate that well on consoles controllers, imo.

  21. Posted

    i wanted to type this somewhere other than twitter idk if its because there is an gross inherent part of me that wants people to feel bad for me or some shit or i just cant stop thinking about this shit right now. sorry if this shit is too much of a downer so i'll just keep this quick. trigger warning for suicide and depression

     

    last Wednesday i tried to take my life, and fortunately, my mom convinced me out of it and i didn't feel safe with myself that day, and i decided to go to the hospital to take mental health treatment where i stayed for 5 or so days i think (time has gotten somewhat foggy). i co-habitated with other patients who had schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, all trying to find some. my main goal was sleep, as i hadn't had a good sleep in the past 6 years, specially in the past 2 weeks (literally slept 6 hours two weeks ago and hadn't slept for 24 hours the day i almost committed suicide). thankfully, i got sleep, long needed sleep and help and rehabilitation, as well as prescriptions for pills that helped me go through those days in the hospital.

     

    one of the biggest worries i had was school, as per usual, and now that this has happened...idk if i can continue in school. i'm already doing terribly academically as last year, and i'm here from reinstated probation, meaning i failed both semesters last year and got expelled but i told the dean of students that i had depression and got reinstated, but ya, doing poorly. not sure if i should work this out still, despite the fact i'll probably most certainly fail, or leave school for the semester to gain back my mental health. I want to do the latter but need more info on how that'll work in my situation as being reinstated and still in probation. would like to hear any suggestions from ya'll older wiser folks

     

    but yeah, that's what's happened i guess. thanks to the people who i know from here and twitter who offered good wishes and support today. <3

     

    and if you're in the same spot as me, please, you are seriously not alone. i know any motherfucker out there says that same cliched shit all the time, but goddamn, it is true. you are not alone and you can pull through, trust me.