The HotSpot - Episode 369

Maybe instead of Mass Alex Andromeda, you guys can playthrough Dragon Age and call it Alex Age.

I still haven't seen the Mortal Kombat movie in full, so for now my favorite video game movie is Detective Pikachu (whereas my favorite movie about video games remains Wreck-it Ralph, followed closely by its sequel). Agreed with Jeff's point about movie adaptations where their elements are so heavily borrowed from movies already, adapting these heavily cinematic games into movies leads to these elements being heavily recycled. Exactly how I felt when I recently watched the most recent Tomb Raider movie (inspired by the recent Tomb Raider games).

Brad's hair alone is worth my yearly subscription

The hairstyle in that header image is just...not working for me. Though I suppose if I hadn't been going bald since I was 16 (and very noticeable before I graduated high school) I might have more respect for being able to pull such a look off? Maybe its something only people who've had hair that -could- look like that for more then 40% of their life-span? I'd buy "Gotta have hair to understand hair" argument.

On the topic of Nolan movies, to me its the same issue I have with the Synder DC movie style. Its a style that absolutely works at the right place/time. The Dark Knight series was great (or at least good to amazing). But man, that style just doesn't work for me in the modern day, especially in 2020 where "Grim dark" and "the world is shit and all the people in it are monsters who but try, and fail to be human, as they are destine to do over and over."

Like, I know the Marvel formula is played out, and you can absolutely do super-heros or whatever in a different style and make it good. Hell, you can do grim-dark and a lot of people will like it. (Granted the "We make -real- movies" elitism/gatekeeping from the people involved in the Joker movie can go suck an egg). But man, Superman isn't superman if he's not an icon of 'what we wish we all could be'. He's relatable not because you make him flawed and human and vulnerable and helpless, He's relatable because while he might be any of those things for a time, he overcomes them and triumphs. Some chararacters are stories are meant to present not "A part of the real world we might otherwise choose to ignore or dislike" but instead "The kind of world and people within it we all wish we could be, could see become real."

I got off track here in terms of "Man I don't know why people are so excited for the Synder Cut. Like, hooray grim-dark "Superman is gonna cut himself, watch himself bleed and explain why its the only way he can feel anything anymore." That, to me, is the same reason Nolan movies feel one-note sometimes. Because his style fits certain themes, narratives and characters..but not all of them. And sometimes, certain narratives, styles and characters fit the present moment..and sometimes they don't.

BRAD'S HAIR

DON'T CARE

Experiencing most of the Mass Effect series though the lens of Mass Alex, and enjoying it, I've been hoping that they'd also play Andromeda some day. Sounds like they're ready to write it off though, shame.

I have to know where Alex got his Hayabusa mask from, and what other custom wrestler masks there may be....

These HotSpot podcasts are so much fun. When do we get the Rich Gallup call-in? I heard he’s a goddamn professional.

gb bandana/headband merch please

This is some good content, guys!

i sincerely hope that brad never cuts his hair

Playing Mass Effect Andromeda for the first time right now, and sans (most) bugs my take is that it's fine? Better than fine in some places: I like most of the companions, the one loyalty mission I've played so far I actually liked quite a lot, the performances are generally good, etc. Combat is actually really engaging.

On the downside I'd say that the colonialist storyline isn't well examined so far, the open world cruft is pretty dull, I wish I could turn some UI elements off, and there are some badly explained/under explained mechanics. Also the stank of DA Inquisition (which I also liked fine!) lays heavy on the game in some places.

If you're in the mood for a big sci-fi rpg there aren't a lot of options, and to be frank I love Mass Effect but the story was never much better than a playable B+ episode of Next Generation anyway, so this is scratching an itch that watching Mass Alex caused.

Brad is the only person in he world that has gotten younger during quarantine.

The first Resident Evil movie is a decent claustrophobic horror movie, but the other 5 movies got up their own asses in the best way. You know how at a certain point the Fast & Furious movies started taking their lore super seriously? The Resident Evil movies became like that but in a so bad it's good way.

IMO, ME: Andromeda isn't as good as the original trilogy, but I still enjoyed it. It is still a Mass Effect game. And there were a lot of plans to flesh out the story even more, but the backlash of the game caused of all those things to get cancelled. If there is one thing they did right before releasing the game, was updated the gameplay. The shooting and ability casting in the game is a lot more fluid than all the other MEs before it.

I should probably stop listening to the audio version of this. A lot of talk based on what people are wearing, what their hair is like, people holding up something in front of the camera with a lot of “Look what I found” “Oh wow, look at that” stories. It’s not really an issue with the Bombcast or Beastcast, but with this show so much stuff is lost in translation without the video.

URGENT CORRECTION:

A stone is 14 pounds, not 15.

It certainly seems that he's a bit obsessed with time. In addition to the above, what I gleaned from the Tenet preview is that it was something to do with the ability to reverse time in a localised way, and even Dunkirk plays with time in that it stretches and compresses each parallel timeline (One Week, One Day, and One Hour) to keep the dramatic arcs concurrent. You could even argue that Insomnia concerns human perception of time - if it's always daytime, perhaps you start to lose the ability to divide time into discrete portions. The calendar ticks over, but it's still the same day.

@awkwardl0ser: perfect.

Chat emote suggestion

@toxicantidote: Alexis Alexander Navarro is his full name. And no this isn't doxxing, he's said it on the podcast multiple times.

There are a bunch of mods for Andromida that fix character faces and animations somewhat. It might be worth trying it now, especialy since Vinny hasnt played it much.

Yup, I'm fully aware of that. I remember them talking about their full names on an early episode of the Beastcast.

@jbick89 said:

Chat emote suggestion

Seconded. I had ZERO idea how they were keeping a straight face during those few minutes.

Shouts outs to late 80s Jason Newsted \m/

@ridleydeckard: BradLex Gerstavella

Brad's hair looks good, and it's clear from that one shot that he's still maintaining a buzz on the sides and back. Otherwise it would look terrible.

"A chicken in every pot, a rover on every planet." Love this show

@jeff You really need to get off that pre-release ring on Windows. Wireless VR with Oculus Quest is amazing. I've never had a crash. I played through all of Half Life Alyx the week it came out and it has completely killed any desire to use my wired headset.

Games people talking about movies--similar to how they mentioned having movie people be "celebrity guests" on game content--generally should be taken with a grain of salt. Not that folks aren't entitled to having opinions on things, but even the most movie-interested of the staff have admitted they don't watch much. I wouldn't take folks who watch a couple movies a year as the cultural consensus on a director's standing.

That said, as a person who does watch a lot of fucking movies, I'd say Nolan isn't exactly infallible. I think his movies are best at being spectacles. Very big and visually interesting, and thematically kind of hit and miss. So I get why he wants his thing to premiere in theaters. It'd be like if Call of Duty had to come out on iPhone. Of course that'd be a worse experience, and it'd probably be better to delay it until it was able to be enjoyed the best possible way.

@hatking: I agree with pretty much everything you said. His movies aren't infallible of course, but I do think he is a very good director that makes unique and interesting movies. I wince each time Abby proudly proclaims that she thinks his movies aren't very good when Annihilation, one of her favorite movies, is a deeply flawed film for many reasons. It just smacks of "hating on the popular" thing. I mean I can understand the reasoning - lord knows the internet has made it very difficult to enjoy The Dark Knight long term because of the memes, the avalanche of "Are you serious" t-shirts and over the top praise (that movie similarly has a lot of issues despite being a really good film). Sometimes you hear something and it's hard to just not comment on it.

@humanity: I never have a problem with people liking movies, especially weird unpopular ones. God knows I have some hot takes about what's actually good. I think it's super interesting to hear what things about a movie speaks to people, and the less popular that opinion is, the better you have to be about explaining those ideas. What does bother me is outright dismissal of movies, or any form of art. It feels so weird when they just start listing off movies and respond to each one with "sucks ass." But also it's a games website, and they do a generally great job of diving into the nuances of games, so I try to remind myself that they're not really here to discuss movies and let it go.

@hatking: Yup well said.