syntheticgerbil

Man that hair is like a dead pangolin.

That's exactly how I feel, the emotional hand that an adult might appreciate was played right off right off the bat and then you end up with a bunch of junk that is too stupid for children and everyone else. To me Up is sort of a perfect testament to the California circle jerk and everything that's wrong with U.S. animation now. It's all packaged in this neat formula that is created for the sole purpose of making something for all ages to enjoy. You can't have anything too scary as that would scare kids who are too young, you can't have anything too talky or grounded as that will bore every kid, and you can't have any kind of action outside of the obligatory chase sequence and light comedic violence and/or a dance sequence ending the movie (as Dreamworks does). I guess The Iron Giant and whatever Dreamworks was attempting in the 90s failed financially and also marked the final end of an era in the 80s where we had a lot of animated films with more dark or heavy sequences that were thrilling to me as a kid whether it was a bad movie or not. Also the beauty of The Iron Giant is it's written and directed as more of a grounded live action film (also has swearing not intentionally cut), and is not afraid of using fantastical elements when necessary, which is something animation can be great at instead of spending 80 minutes focusing on talking fish with their fish problems or something. But I also dislike pretty much every Pixar movie besides the first Toy Story and aspects of the Brad Bird stuff, so I guess that may say something.

If that's the case they should get rid of the animated category, that makes very little sense. Also Up was such garbage. I'll never get it.

Yeah the only mention of Portables Ops' story I have seen in other games is that a few of the cutscenes were used for parts in MGS4 during the church expository scenes, and it's mentioned a few times in the conversations in Peacewalker. I think I read Kojima considers it canon but he claims he didn't write the game so is not considering the Grey Fox retcon essential. It's just kind of a cool side story that further shows Big Boss' motivations plus his distrust of Foxhound/The government starts, explaining why he is just a band of mercenaries in Peacewalker. So I'd say it's a good watch on Youtube. Also Gene leaves him his folder of ideas for building an army. I don't quite understand the importance of the Ocelot double cross that appears at the end of Portables Ops and doesn't seem to have any major impact any which way on the overall story, so I'm just going to say that was a throwaway scene to have that last bit of intrigue as the games usually do. I don't know I think I ragged on Portable Ops on the forums here a lot somewhere, but I just feel frustrated even thinking about that game and it's missions. Peacewalker is based on the Portables engine but miraculously fixes all of the shortcomings and more, even if it meant simplifying, since one of Portable Ops biggest problems is it thought it was MGS3 just without the controls necessary. Maybe it's because before I started Peacewalker, a couple of years before what I had played were PO and the boring MGS4. But yeah if you want to play and are on PS3, my PSN name is syntheticgerbil of course.

I have been having major problems with my WiiU in terms of the gamepad and it really doesn't make any sense. I've read an update might have broken it and that Nintendo needs to patch it again, but I have no idea when that will be. So if I try to start the WiiU with my Gamepad, I will get a message about how the Gamepad cannot connect and to please move closer. Well that's idiotic because I'm like 4 feet away and I am turning the console on with the Gamepad so it knows. Also it routinely receives the news updates from the Quickstart menu. Anyway I can still get it to work if I power down the WiiU and then power it back up that way. Then everything is fine. But I've also noticed if I power up the WiiU directly first, I still get the same message on the gamepad first time around. This is always after booting it like once a day (for Rayman Legends). The second boot always works, but boy is this obnoxious. There's never any interrupts while playing. I tried resyncing it, no dice. I read I should disable the Quick Start menu, but I quite liked that menu. I guess I will try that next but it's really shitty I have to forfeit a feature. It does seem like a software issue if the gamepad is still obviously communicating with the system.

It is seriously grindy, that is a big problem, especially if you are trying to S-Rank everything like me. But the main storylines aren't too involved and you don't really need a large variety of weapons if you are playing stealthly. Just make sure you get the stun grenade from Mission 3 (It's in the fort, totally missed it), and use smoke grenades and your Mk. 22 as usual. Really you only have to worry about ranking up rocket launchers for all the robots, but I didn't seem to have a hard time getting a bunch of those on the main mission. When you get chaff late in the game, use it too. There is another ending after the main ending that I haven't done yet, I don't know how essential it is to the story, but it requires getting a certain amount of Metal Gear Zeke parts, which I have only had to replay one mission for for the basic build (the rest is for finishing Outer Ops with, which isn't important to the main story at all). There's also six random missions that happen by just playing Extra Ops a lot. I sort of know what happens just because of a spoiler I accidentally read a few years ago, but I don't know how it plays out or how it leads into Metal Gear Solid 5, besides that Chico, Paz, and Millar are all back at least. I wonder if Amanda returns? Also Oops I reedited my message to say a ton of shit after you replied. Crap.

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that animation should not be a separate category, since it's not a genre, however I can totally understand why it is because we only make one type of animated film in the United States. So it's judging which one has the best fake bloopers during the credits with the inevitable fart joke.

No, that's all still there! There's a codec in game for quick talks either having to do with the mission or goofy things like observing your clothes. The equivalent of the codec is MUCH better in Peacewalker because you no longer just hit the button a bunch of times hopefully exhausting all of the conversation because it's randomized, instead now you go to "Mission Briefing" when selecting a menu and you can go through tapes of conversation and it marks what you have listened to already. It's so good. In fact you have to talk to someone fully to unlock the Monster Hunter missions. However I'm fucking annoyed at Peacewalker at the moment because I'm trying to capture harder vehicles with my friends and get the S Rank but our weapons aren't good enough or the enemies are just insanely powerful. So even though you say it's not difficult, if you get further in the main game and keep completing Extra Ops, you'll see how difficult it really is. It's all sort of balanced by playing with a friend as well, bosses especially, so you might want to find a buddy. If you are on PS3 if you open a room to global, there's surprisingly still a lot of players for a game that was rereleased in 2011. Usually the people you will play with will be Japanese and know what they are doing. I can't believe you don't like the cutscenes, I prefer them to the ultra real style the series has gone. It's an extension of Portable Ops' cutscenes, which is also an extension of the motion comics made of the beautiful official comic. Story is great too and essential for the series. I would say Portable Ops is an essential precursor as well, but you could just not play that game and watch the cutscenes online since it's a terrible game. I don't think Peacewalker is missable, it's a much more involved gameplay experience than MGS4 will ever be, which I was running through (like just running through the dumb "levels") in less than 3 hours over and over to get the stupid trophies. You start to unlock a lot of new novel weapons, it's chock full of dumb stuff and easter eggs which the more serious direction the series has taken have excluded, and it's very streamlined to a nice arcade experience, much like the VR Missions but way more involved. Also interrupting the missions in between is not only a part of the game being a very pick up and play handheld (much unlike the terrible Portable Ops) but it gives you a chance to organize your base and check on the newest codec conversations. Plus you can dispatch to Outer Ops in between. Also Thrik, if you are on PS3 I'll play with you sometimes if I am available. I need to farm camaradarie and it takes FOREVER. I'm also not even close to done on extra ops and could use more AI parts and vehicles.

Comics are incredibly diverse these days, maybe that's true for Disney/DC but I don't think encompassing comics like that is really doing the medium justice.

What?! How?! I'm eagerly waiting for a release in one of the theatres around here. But yeah Oscars are always rigged for whatever Calarts trash has came out most recently, just only the Disney or Pixar Calarts trash. I think there was a thing released last year that showed that most of the judges don't even watch all of the films on the list anyway. They probably just see whatever crap that their kids drag them to and then vote on that.

This is the best story in this thread.

I think what bothers me about this whole thing is the Curiosity cube prize not being fulfilled seems... illegal? Maybe it's not in the UK, but I feel like that was played off as a sweepstakes and there's a 1% profit margin involved that the winner will now never see since it seems doubtful multiplayer will ever be finished. However, I can't seem to find anything in U.S. law that indicates that prizes are required to be fulfilled so I don't know. Although even in my hypothetical that it is illegal in the U.S. to go back on a contest winner (and presumably the U.K. has similar if not harsher laws), maybe Curiosity would never count as a sweepstakes or contest anyway because the prize was never announced ahead of time.

Gotta speed keed.

I loved Sidekicks because it was filmed in Houston and I wanted to be a ninja... in Houston. Apparently local mattress tycoon Mattress Mac put up 8 million to get it filmed there.

I suppose within the Little Rascals/Our Gang universe no one ever commented on it, did they? Bizarre.

I had seen We're Back for my 8th or 9th birthday and remember enjoying it, but watching it on VHS a year or so later I felt bored. Also remember when it took forever for movies to come to home video?! Also why did you expect people not to laugh at you for being Alfalfa?!

Haha, I like you you merged 3DO and CDi together. I don't feel like they couldn't though. 2 has a lot of good points about it though, I don't feel like it's necessarily a bad game or bad Zelda game, it's just very unforgiving and has some awkwardness from so much deviation. It could certainly use a Majora's Mask treatment.

Sorry to hear all of that Sarah. I hope the cancer just ends up being a small blip on a much longer lifetime.

You start.

I really did not like those movies and I somehow put up with a lot of Roger Corman and general low budget kids shit in the 90s (MUNCHIE?!). However, I loved Prehysteria 3. I don't know if it was the cute girl who was a better actress than the previous kids or the innocuous lowkey comedy nature of placing tiny dinosaurs on a minigolf course, but I rented Prehysteria 3 multiple times. Maybe it's just because I used to think Minigolf was a shitload of fun. It still is.

Haha, wow, I didn't realize there were two choices. I am pretty sure I only had Mario cereal and one time only. I had to beg my mom to buy it for me because I was not allowed to eat sugary cereal as a kid. Well unless it was like Honey Bunches of Oats or something.I generally hated animal movies except when that kid tells Beethoven to bite that kid's wiener. Classic. Milo and Otis was good but it is probably actually not good when I found out a decade ago that it is some kind of redubbed and reedited Japanese movie.

Are you saying you want to give the 3D installations another try or are you looking for recommendations for other 2D Zeldas like Minish Cap or the Oracle games? I'd say give Wind Waker HD a go if the former. Unless you don't have a WiiU and specifically only are looking for Ocarina or Majora on 3DS. In that case I'd say get a WiiU. Ocarina is somewhat primitive still and the 3DS one wasn't really tweaked in the way Majora was. Majora still manages to maybe be a bit too esoteric to jump back into the 3D Zelda games. Does anyone like Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks? I haven't played them yet. I have only heard they are mediocre for the most part.

Also on the topic of Oz, did anyone ever see Return to Oz in their childhood? My daycare had only so many VHS tapes so that movie got put on a lot despite the fucking Wheelers and screaming heads scaring the shit out of all of the children every time. I remember it being really fun to watch though, very imaginative. Also somehow this is a Disney movie? I kind of wonder if I should try to go see that again or if I will cringe and everything will look cheap.

Double post noooooooooo!

Wasn't there a Mario cereal? WHERE IS IT?! You say that but they both ended up being heavily marketed towards kids in terms of spin off cartoons and toys. Sort of like Aliens. Why maybe that's not the original intent, that's what it morphed into. I loved Back to the Future as a kid, but as an adult, it's just alright. Also speaking of stuff that morphed into things for kids, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is probably more amazing to me as an adult than as a child since now I'm more in awe of the visuals than ever. Part of it was probably because there were many years that I could not watch the Judge Doom climax without feeling extremely afraid and having to cover my eyes or leave the room. I also don't think I ever really understood the murder plot back then.