Nocall

I’m about 12 hours into FF7 remake and struggling to stay interested. Seems like the game is 75% slowly running from place to place uninterrupted, 20% cutscenes, and 5% combat. I like the combat, though. They made Barret super annoying. Tifa’s ridiculous fan-service figure makes me roll my eyes during every scene she’s in. I can’t believe folks were complaining her new outfit was too conservative, smh. Aerith, Cloud, Jessie and Biggs seem to work, though.

I dunno, I feel like I’m close to the end and should just power through.

On the other hand, I might just poke around with Path of Exile (a game I like, but don’t remotely understand all the systems) until Elden Ring releases.

I put tons of hours into Mount and Blade. They did a quick look and didn’t seem to hate it, but were not super into it either.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Jeff really loves the Syndicate FPS and I went into it with high hopes due to this, but stopped after 5ish hours. No idea what he sees in that game.

@sometingbanuble: My answer was Nier as well, for the exact same reason (although I did stick with it for the first two endings, but never found the gameplay fun nor the story engaging), so you’re not alone here.

@jaytoh:

Blade *is* so fucking cool. Blade 2, also cool. del Toros monster designs + Ron Perlman + Normal Reedus? Hell yeah

@humanity: yeah there was a lot of impromptu discussion about the suits when we were watching this - which ones were newer/better, which ones were military, industrial, or made for civilians. Also spent a lot of time discussing things like why the gems are the way they are, or what type of ammunition their “throwers” use (still not sure about this one).

Good movie to watch with a couple people and bounce ideas off each other about what is going on.

“Prospect” with Pedro Pascal. Low budget sci-fi with lots of environmental storytelling, like Fury Road (or Dark Souls). Very practical and well considered universe, like The Expanse, but focuses on folks that are living the tough life with old, broken technology and just trying to make enough money to survive. Pedro Pascals manner of speaks reminds me a lot of Mal from Firefly, which I guess is built off a western trope (not really my scene, couldn’t tell you). But it does feel kinda western-y, I suppose — or at least what I imagine westerns were like.

Gets a little slow in spots. Lots of traveling and talking, no crazy CGI (low budget is obvious, but the practical effects range from passable to downright impressive)

Overall, I liked it. The kind of movie that sticks with you for awhile.

If you have young kids, you may have heard some pink fong “songs”. They’re the folks that made baby shark. Their “songs” are some of the most low effort bullshit music that I have ever heard. There is not rhyming or internal rhythm, it’s basically stream of thought idiocy. Here, I’ll make one up about… airplanes.

I am an airplane, look at me! I fly high in the clouds (so high!). I fly very fast and carry passengers, it’s so much fun flying in an airplane.

My point is…yeah, a song might not need to rhyme, but there should be some element of artistry and forethought that goes into lyrics.

@mclubberlang: unpopular and unproductive opinion for sure, but he doesn’t have a great “radio voice” and his humor isn’t really my jam, so I have found myself skipping through heavy Alex content more than once (the episode where he returned from Japan sticks out). I think he does well as a part of an ensemble, though, and have been liking NL so far.

Just finished ending B of nier automata and am about half an hour into playthrough C. I’m probably going to give it another hour or so, and if it doesn’t start being more engaging I’ll probably just watch a YouTube recap and move on.