The Giant Beastcast: Episode 113

While I'm generally not a person who enjoys watching the world burn...that Mordor email made me wish that BoTW loses to both Horizon and PUBG in this year's GoTY talks. The lower it ranks, the better.

Maybe that also makes me a bad person, but I'm willing to risk it.

@charlie_victor_bravo: I remember that GOTY discussion. It was a year with many AAA games that didn't really leave lasting good impressions, and even the more well-liked ones weren't liked by a strong majority of the crew, and Mordor was a generally enjoyed game with a neat new mechanic that most of them enjoyed which is why it won.

@7x_: I don't read comics and I enjoy most of the MCU films. Even if a lot of them are safe, they are still fun movies. Being average doesn't make them bad, just average. I'm mostly interested in them because of how they all connect together, it's a feet of cinema that hasn't been seen before. While it had it's slow points, I didn't find Wonder Woman boring simply because of how rare female-superhero movies are and how it was successful at doing it. Also, I don't get how Dan found nothing about Guardians memorable, especially considering how crazy the idea of those characters were. Basically, while the individual MCU films may be safe, as franchise there has been nothing like it. The greatest praise that I can give them is that they made superhero movies without being embarrassed by the source material, which you couldn't say about the majority of superhero movies prior to 2008. Even the much praised X-men movies were too afraid to have the original comic costumes.

Regarding Abby's comments on Wonder woman. I haven't seen the movie so correct me if I'm wrong. But didn't she spend her entire life secluded on an island detached from the rest of the world? So wouldn't it make sense for anyone to be naive?

@bigbluecheese: Yes, you are correct, the movie was an origin story and she literally went from the island to the rest of the world. I agree with you and cringed pretty bad when Abby said that.

I bought/played Shadow of Mordor in the recent Steam sale because $4 and enjoyed it immensely. I can understand why one wouldn't like it, though. Personally I love Assassin's Creed and am ok with "Batman combat," and also like LotR but barely remember details of that canon, so it all lined up for me. I agree with what some said here about skill levels. Early on I actually thought the game was kind of hard, and died in a few tricky situations. But as you progress, it gets easier and easier. The nemesis system was practically not a factor by the time the endgame rolled around for me. So for people more skilled than I who could avoid those early deaths, the game could be nothing special with mediocre LotR fanservice. I get it. Hope they avoid such subjective emails in the future.

I had a feeling the postcards might still be ridiculous. I still don't understand people's need for a shoutout, but at least the crew is getting something out of it this way (the postcards they can post up).

@bigbluecheese: You are correct. Also, the movie being set during WW1 instead of WW2 with Nazis actually has a reason. Nazis were pretty unambiguously the villains, where as in WW1 the Germans were more morally grey. Wonder Woman's arc in the film is her going from being naive about the world and thinking there are evil people you can just take out and make everything good again, to realizing that humans are complex, morally grey beings.

I audibly gasped when Abby called winder woman boring. Wonder woman is the best super hero movie ever made its not even close. I think guardians of the galaxy and Deadpool were absolutely terrible and I've fallen asleep during the last few marvel movies I've tried to watch. Wonder woman was fun from scene to scene and I can't think of a single action movie I enjoyed this much since robocop enthralled me as a kid. I can't wait for wonder woman 2 and I don't think the justice League will be good the flash scenes in the trailer are terrible and cyborg makes me mad since he is a dumb character.

Although when it comes to a golden age of gaming aren't ages long periods of time sometimes characterized by thousands of years? Maybe the golden age of gaming will be 197x to be 20xx or whatever. Maybe it will extend for centuries until computers go sentient and wipe us out.

@steveurkel: Wonder Woman had a dull third act like 95% of Marvel movies, shoehorned in romance and sex scene, and set WW up to be powerful etc then just had her acting all confused and weak and googly eyed at captain kirk for most of the rest of the movie. It only halfway committed to its supposed original intent. That said bar the Nolan films and animated stuff I probably enjoyed it more than any other DC movie.

Quick correction regarding the end of Predator 2 - Danny Glover receives a revolver from the 1800's from the other Predators, I believe, not a ceremonial spear. It was supposed to indicate that Predators had been hunting humans on Earth for a long time.

Just now listening to this over a week later, so I doubt anyone is going to read this, but I found a decent affordable(ish) alternative to a Geek Chic table. It was an interesting Kickstarter for a gaming table. I didn't get in on the Kickstarter, but I pre-ordered one. The idea was to bring down the price by mass production and requiring some assembly. More info here. I haven't received mine yet, so I can't say for sure it's worth it, but it looks good on paper.

Cake is better than ice cream. And it's not even close.