circadianwolf

"Your punishment must be more severe!" Pretty much every line from Jurassic Park. "Clever girl." "I really hate that man." "What about the lyseine contingency?" "A UNIX system! I know this!" etc. In addition: "Always... into the east." And yes, pretty much every line from Grim Fandango. "I've just locked an open door. Strange, yet symbolically compelling."

You're spending gold to do it, which now has an exchange rate with real currency, and you're getting items that you can also sell for real currency. So you are (or could be) effectively gambling with real money.

Yeah, it's interesting how it's almost completely disappeared. I assume IO (or Eidos, maybe) wants it that way. It was primarily a remake of Codename 47, but still.

Sure, that stuff happens all the time, but it's stil... crass, at best.

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to just do a funding drive (preferably with Jimbo Wales' staring eyes at the top of every PA page until it gets funded) except that Kickstarter is the thing right now. The rewards are simply baffling (and horrible). I feel like it's supposed to be a joke, but if so, the joke is mocking PA's supporters, so I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish.

Also, flexible funding campaigns are... not good.

Heart of Darkness is probably one of the best novels to do that sort of thing with, since the primary feature of it is that kaleidoscopic delerium of imagery (obviously Apocalypse Now is designed toward the same sensation, not to mention that video game inspired by it). Though there is some interesting stuff with Marlowe's narration going on that probably requires a closer reading. I finally got around to finishing Glenn Greenwald's With Liberty and Justice for Some, on the corruption of the American justice system. It's a good collection of data, though frequently frustrating in his analysis. Now working my way through Distrust That Particular Flavor, the recent collection of William Gibson's non-fiction. I also just got a physical copy of Joey Comeau's Lockpick Pornography, which is a fantastic little novel that I look forward to re-reading.

I basically agree, I think 20s music would have worked fine, especially since they're not updating much else (which is a good point vs. Rome + Juliet or even A Knight's Tale as someone mentioned upthread). I wasn't really aware this movie was being made and I don't have any particular investment in a good Gatsby adaptation, so my reaction to the trailer was mostly WTF in an enjoyable way.

On Chris Remo's Deadwood... Ian McShane: Goddamn! Jesus Christ! Hell's bells!

My first thought when the trailer started was Oh god, who is that horrible narrator? He sounds so awkward! Then I realized it was Toby Maguire playing Nick Carraway, and that it's perfect, because Nick is supposed to be the 20s version of the awkward oblivious nerd that makes you cringe. It is wonderfully colorful, and Carey Mulligan is one of my favorite rising actresses. It remains hard to believe she was playing Sally Sparrow just a few years ago. Not sure about Leo as Gatsby.

More a function of the voice acting than the writing itself, but Far Cry 1 has some hilariously awful dialogue in its cutscenes that I remember quite fondly.

xii games is basically one guy (Vince Twelve) plus assorted AGS regulars (Shane Stevens, Nikolas Sideris) doing other things. Vince also made the much shorter but very interesting games Anna and (especially) What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed. He's a cool dude (or at least he was back when I still visited the community years ago). It's nice to see Dave Gilbert basically turning Wadjet Eye into a stable for commercial AGS games, pooling resources & lending expertise for marketing, getting on Steam, etc.

Yeah, there's major spoilers for the end of the first Walking Dead episode, but it's contained to the section where they're discussing the game, so you can just skip that part. (I'd go look up the timestamps for you but I'm at work with no sound.)

I didn't say they hacked them, I said they tapped them--as in, using the government-mandated backdoors that exist or are in legislation to exist in every land line, cell phone, security camera system, and ISP (among other things). You really think they were using cameras people had just hooked up to a wireless network for anyone to use? Who does that? Who has their cell phone camera (as specifically mentioned in the film) connected to a network for anyone to use? Really? I know Whedon's politics; I don't think they're particularly relevant.

hahahahahaha, touché. "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause."

Saw the Avengers in IMAX 3D. Didn't realize it was 3D until after I bought the tickets, but it was the only IMAX option anyway. It was, as previously mentioned, very entertaining and well-written. Go Whedon. I do have one problem with the film, which is silly because this always happens in these kind of films but it seems particularly glaring here: Of course, all of this is rather pointless because the most pernicious thing about these films with regards to US culture is not the normalization of ridiculous military overreach but the normalization of the idea that there will ever be some super-powerful world-(by which I mean US-)destroying threat to justify it. In these films, the absurd measures are always justified because the threat is REAL and all the people saying "Hey maybe this isn't such a big deal, or maybe we can negotiate, or maybe there's a way that doesn't involve tons of guns and destruction" are always WRONG (and usually stupid politicians who just need to shut up and listen to the SOLDIERS). Which is pernicious because that's precisely how the people in the US government behind its imperialism justify themselves. They really, truly believe that the enemy is at the gates and could and would blow up Manhattan if the US government isn't a warmongering police state; and Americans, constantly bombarded with images like this, are mostly willing to accept it. I mean, obviously it's more complicated, and this goes back to Horkheimer and Adorno and before that, but it's still sad that I can't just enjoy a film without being fed an uncritical endorsement of the police state. Mostly, just once, I'd like to see a super-hero or action film where the threat is totally overblown and just an excuse for the government to expand its power. (The Siege comes close.) (Maybe what I'm really saying is, please Whedon hurry up and make more Dr. Horrible.)

Ayleids are mostly pre-first empire (they were the rulers Alessia's slave rebellion defeated to form the first empire), so if they're around, it's probably only in the secret enclaves that were mentioned as rumors in Oblivion but never seen. Arena through Oblivion is all just one emperor's reign (Patrick Stewart), and post-Oblivion is a period of pretty immense war (the rise of the Nazi Elf Wizards). We also don't see a lot of infrastructure that would demonstrate technological advancement--mills, etc. Cities are just weird empty blocks of houses and shops.

I know the timeline; hadn't heard that there was a date for the game, since it's just been announced and all. Hmm, according to the Imperial Library 1000 years before Skyrim would put the setting ~2E 500, several hundred years before Tiber Septim uses a giant robot god to conquer the continent. There's... really nothing interesting going on in that period, other than that there's no empire. I suppose it's a pretty blank slate. The Tribunal exists, but if it's just Cyrodiil they won't feature. I wonder if Cyrodiil will be an actual jungle this time? Since they ret-conned that in Oblivion by saying Tiber Septim magicked it into an aggressively conventional Tolkien-esque fantasy landscape. I know way too much about TES mythology.

I (don't) look forward to Morrowind being a smoking crater and Cyrodiil being a puppet state of Nazi Elf Wizards.

Oh shit, how did I forget that in compiling my list. I will evangelize the shit out that show. So unexpectedly smart and interesting (after the awful pilot, at least), though the middle of the second season drags. It was real science fiction--actually much more science fiction (as in interested in extrapolating the repercussions of technological advancement) than the films were. And the finale!

Re: Dollhouse: Plus Dollhouse is such a great literalization of so many things that are incredibly important but almost never discussed in mainstream culture--the fluidity of identity construction and how modern identity construction is bound up with the logic of patriarchy and capitalism (in particular wage labor)--that I can never look at it too negatively. I rewatched it earlier this year and I think it works much better when you know where everything is going (and when you can skip the terrible early episodes that are irrelevant to the main ideas )--I enjoyed it the first time through, especially season two, but rewatching it now, whether with the context of the full show in my head or due to the way the world or I have changed in just the few years since it originally aired, it felt much more relevant and powerful.

Outside of the previously mentioned Firefly, Dollhouse (though I think Dollhouse got through most of its important ideas), Amazing Screw-On Head... Kings--while the ostensible main character & his love interest were very mediocre, the show itself was fascinating, and got really good at the end. Pretty much the perfect role for Ian McShane, but Sebastian Stan as the self-loathing gay prince really captivated me. Caprica--even more uneven and schizophrenic than its parent series, but also more interesting IMO. I have no idea why they thought this show would ever succeed--"Let's take our show with space porn + intellectual sci-fi, remove the space porn, and make several of our main characters terrorists. It's sure to be a hit!" What an amazing trainwreck. Terriers-- :( Pushing Daisies & Veronica Mars--Like Dollhouse, these got more than 1 season and wrapped up pretty well, but still, the world would be a better place with more of them.

I assumed it had something to do with

Fringe just got renewed for a final 13-episode season. This season has been pretty fascinating. 3 episodes left.

Yeah, I was going to say, Chris was hired as Community Manager for Irrational (though I believe he eventually did some more game-develop-y stuff too), so it's weird to see those comments now. I assume his experience at Gamasutra and particularly Shacknews (as EIC) probably overlaps quite a bit, too.