Ben X

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Posts posted by Ben X

  1. Posted

    SUMMER GAMES DONE QUICK 2019

     

    June 23rd - 30th

     

    Courtesy of @SecretAsianMan, a brief description: Games Done Quick is a series of charity video game marathons with events in the winter and summer. Speedrunners from all over come together in one place and stream a nonstop barrage of high-level gameplay. This summer's event benefits Doctors without Borders. Tune in to see some games getting completely taken apart. The runs will eventually be archived if you can't see it live.

     

    Schedule

     

    Twitch

     

    YouTube

  2. Posted

    On 5/30/2019 at 12:50 PM, Ben X said:

    If you asked me after I saw the Hobbs & Shaw trailer "does that movie look fun"? I'd say yes. If you asked me "does that trailer make you want to watch that movie?" I'd say no, because I feel like it showed every single cool moment from the film - I doubt there's much left there to surprise me.


    The multiple trailer versions thing is definitely an issue too. I try to avoid subsequent trailers if one version has sold me on a movie already. In the case of Detective Pikachu, the one I saw on the internet was perfect - gave me a tiny amount of story set-up, some humour and atmosphere. Unfortunately, I then went to the cinema and saw a second trailer for it which gave me loads more story, more locations, creatures etc. It even gave me a different version of the mime scene, so I likely had that entire scene composited in my head by that point. It made me feel less enthusiastic about seeing it at the cinema, and more likely to wait for it to arrive on a streaming service.

     

    On 5/31/2019 at 9:37 AM, twmac said:

    I have watched the Hobbs & Shaw trailer, and if there is one thing that Fast & Furious trailers have taught me is that it is impossible to put every dumb/brilliant thing that those films have into one trailer.

     

    Well, I just got a different Hobbs & Shaw theatrical trailer made up of completely different scenes, so I guess the lesson here is to avoid either all internet trailers or all theatrical trailers!

  3. Posted

    17 hours ago, Ric Thomas said:

    Further to our discussions on Sonic, someone has a lot of time on their hands...

     

    The model definitely looks better immediately, and the compositing is impressive. Shame they didn't properly animate the face, though - it feels very rigid.

     

    I just listened to the second episode - all great stuff!

     

    Regarding spoilers in general, just a quick note as someone who is rather spoiler-averse - it's a common argument that if a whole film can be ruined by a spoiler then the film can't be that good.  But this is, I think, a strawman. The Averse don't think a spoiler will ruin the entire film, just the moment it refers to. That still sucks - I want that moment to be conveyed to me by the film, not someone on Facebook. Even films with bigger twists that flip your understanding of the entire thing - Planet Of The Apes, Fight Club, Sixth Sense - aren't wholly ruined if that twist is spoiled, but they're designed to be watched without that knowledge. It's inconsiderate to take that experience away from people. I knew the POTA twist and loved the film anyway, but I also loved watching those other two movies not knowing the twist (or even that there was one). I'd rather have the filmmakers decide what I should know going in, not people on social media or in my office (or indeed the people in charge of which trailer edit to put out!).

     

    Regarding trailers specifically, I find the 'you showed the entire movie!' issue more prevalent than the 'you spoiled this twist or plot development!' one. It's interesting to hear that it comes from focus groups - I can't help but think that they may not be formatted in a helpful way. If you asked me after I saw the Hobbs & Shaw trailer "does that movie look fun"? I'd say yes. If you asked me "does that trailer make you want to watch that movie?" I'd say no, because I feel like it showed every single cool moment from the film - I doubt there's much left there to surprise me. I often close my eyes partway through a trailer because it's sold me on the movie 30-60 seconds in and I don't want to see any more stuff. It's probably impractical, but if the focus groups could get that granular perhaps it would lead to different decisions.


    The multiple trailer versions thing is definitely an issue too. I try to avoid subsequent trailers if one version has sold me on a movie already. In the case of Detective Pikachu, the one I saw on the internet was perfect - gave me a tiny amount of story set-up, some humour and atmosphere. Unfortunately, I then went to the cinema and saw a second trailer for it which gave me loads more story, more locations, creatures etc. It even gave me a different version of the mime scene, so I likely had that entire scene composited in my head by that point. It made me feel less enthusiastic about seeing it at the cinema, and more likely to wait for it to arrive on a streaming service.

  6. Posted

    This is a great idea for a 'cast, I look forward to working my way through these! Hopefully I can steal some talking points for when I'm whinging online about the latest show-everything trailer, too.

     

    That Ultraviolet trailer is great, in a kind of music video way - I'm not sure I could handle a whole movie at that visual intensity..! The things I thought brought it down a bit were the introduction of Voiceover Guy partway through and that thudding conversation with the British guy.

  7. Posted

    4 hours ago, Gormongous said:

     

    If it makes you feel better, Martin's said that the endgame that he gave to Benioff and Weiss was just one possible outcome, so any resemblance to the books that'll hopefully come out someday will probably be only passing.

     

    Ah, that does, thank you! I knew that there would be some rather big differences, but I kind of assumed he'd given them his definite set-in-stone endpoint. Would be great if it were completely different (though not just for the sake of it).

     

    And in his latest blog he gives the New Zealand tourism board permission to imprison him in a small cabin until he's finished AWOW if he doesn't have it published in time for his Summer 2020 visit there, so I choose to believe he will definitely have it done by then! Then, what, another 5 years for ADOS?

  10. Posted

    Oh damn, sorry, I meant to mention that we had previously decided it made sense to keep that thread to Netflix only, but obviously my attention wandered!

     

    Makes sense to keep it in here, I reckon, rather than start a bunch of tiny non-Netflix Marvel tv show threads...

  12. Posted

    I know we weren't going to discuss Gotham in here, but as the series finished a month ago and there's no point in starting a new thread:

     

    The series has always been half ace half awful, but this final season was mostly awful. They picked some boring Big Bads and went with the most boring versions of pretty much all their regular characters. A real shame, as at their height they were doing some great stuff with Riddler, Penguin, 'Joker' and even young Bruce Wayne, plus occasional villains like Prof Pyg and Hugo Strange were done well.

     

    How's the Arrowverse/Berlantiverse these days, @SecretAsianMan (and anyone else watching it)?

  18. Posted

    Spoiler

    I liked that moment, but I was disappointed it didn't really go anywhere - I would have loved a proper sequence of them all using their powers together. But then we weren't getting much of that Avengers 1 style stuff from the boys either, so a bit much to hope for, I guess.

     

     

  19. Posted

    On 2/1/2015 at 10:18 AM, Ben X said:

    Sigh, I guess I'll resign myself to finding the story out from the show rather than the books, which is a shame.

     

    I've slowed down on my re-read now, I'm about halfway through the third book. What I'd really like once I've read all the books is a site or set of Kindle notes or something that basically does a commentary through the whole thing, pointing out all the foreshadowing and hidden details, because I'm sure I'm missing so much.

     


    Does anyone (probably @Thyroid) have any recommendations for something like this?

     

    After weeks at work of desperately trying to avoid spoilers, I've given in and caught up on the show (I stopped at season 5 previously). It's a shame, but there's no way I'll go another ten years, or however long it takes GRRM to get WoW and DoS out, without accidentally learning every plot beat and moment anyway. Once it ends, I'm going to do a re-read, including the Hedge Knight stories, and then my first read of the released WoW excerpts and Fire And Blood. 

  23. Posted

    Announcing the latest Dan And Ben game: Lair Of The Clockwork God, out now on Windows, Linux, Mac (Steam & GOG), Switch, XBox One, and PS4/5!

     

    “A brilliant, joyous, clever and generous experience.”
    4.5/5 – ThumbSticks

    “This is a gag delivery device with a seriously good hit rate”
    83% – PC Gamer

    “Great mash-up of indie platforming and classic adventuring.”
    8/10 – TheSixthAxis

     

    On Steam
    On GOG
    On Steam bundled with the first two Dan & Ben games at an overall discount
    Nintendo Switch
    XBox One

     

    Comes with FREE visual novel prequel, Devil's Kiss!

     

    Please wishlist/buy/review/promote!

     

     

  25. Posted

    A simplified version of my IM3 opinion is that all the stuff with Tony out of the suit is great, the stuff with him in it not so much.

    Re. the twist, I think I would have enjoyed it more if Killian hadn't clearly been set up as a villain already - rather than enjoying the film's bravado of suddenly removing the main villain, I was immediately thinking about where they were clearly going to go from there.

     

    Just saw Captain Marvel, and didn't enjoy it much. Some charming elements, but has the same old MCU issues - overstuffed, weighed down by the series arc, and terribly directed fight/action scenes.