rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[DrBloodmoney]

I'm purposefully staying silent of the MGS parts of this thread  (I'm going with my trusty "I like that you like that!" ?) but...

 

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I kind of get a bit bummed out when I watch Amadeus, when I see how good Tom Hulce is in that film - I always think, why weren't you a much bigger star? He's a hell of a good actor - he's got a lot of depth to his voice as well, so he could of done a lot, it looks Theatre was more his thing though, so he probably has enjoyed a great career and everything, I'd just like to have seen him on screen more.

 

Now you're talking Milos Forman movies, and therefore back on solid ground for me ?

 

I totally know what you guys mean about Hulce - he is fascinating in that film (Amadeus is one of my top ten of all time, personally!)

9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Especially to hold his own against F. Murray Abraham's performance

that is no mean feat!

 

You have to remember though - that was always Formans gift - pulling performances out of people that you didn't realise they had in them, and often never had in them for anyone else.

 

 

Remember - if there were any justice in the world, Courtney Love would have not one, but two oscars, both courtesy of Forman films, and yet I could count on the fingers of one forehead how many other great acting gigs she ever got.

Everyone is elevated by Foreman - from Nicholson to Carrey to Harrelson to Giamatti - but the real gift he had was for finding people who had virtually no experience, and drawing out the best performances from them. Sometimes they go on to be huge elsewhere (Brad Douriff)... but sometimes they seem to just Holce their way downwards after...

 

Quote

I feel similarly about David Hyde Pierce, that dude is a tremendous actor, and he steals almost every single scene he's in in Frasier, well the ones that don't have John Mahoney in them anyway.

 

I don't know if you've ever seen a movie called The Perfect Host?

 It's... not a good movie... what it is is basically an okay movie, draped over one of the best David Hyde Pierce performances you could ever imagine!

He is so damned good in it, that whenever he is on screen, you forget the rest of the movie kinda sucks... but luckily, he's on screen for most of it, so for a DHP fan, it really has to be seen!

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[YaManSmevz]

7 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Now you're talking Milos Forman movies, and therefore back on solid ground for me 

 

I totally know what you guys mean about Hulce - he is fascinating in that film (Amadeus is one of my top ten of all time, personally!)

that is no mean feat!

 

Love me some Amadeus, that's super high up there for me as well! Hulce (loved your pun with his name btw, that would've earned a like all on its own) absolutely nailed the role of an eccentric genius, from the giddy moments to the dark decline.

 

12 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Remember - if there were any justice in the world, Courtney Love would have not one, but two oscars, both courtesy of Forman films, and yet I could count on the fingers of one forehead how many other great acting gigs she ever got.

Everyone is elevated by Foreman - from Nicholson to Carrey to Harrelson to Giamatti - but the real gift he had was for finding people who had virtually no experience, and drawing out the best performances from them. Sometimes they go on to be huge elsewhere (Brad Douriff)... but sometimes they seem to just Holce their way downwards after...

 

It's almost unfair how Forman has highly acclaimed signature films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, yet never quite became a household name. I remember as a young Nirvana fan devastated by Kurt Cobain's death, having a very silly and unrealistic grudge against Courtney Love, even I had no other choice than to cede that she was stupendous in Larry Flint.

 

17 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I don't know if you've ever seen a movie called The Perfect Host?

 It's... not a good movie... what it is is basically an okay movie, draped over one of the best David Hyde Pierce performances you could ever imagine!

He is so damned good in it, that whenever he is on screen, you forget the rest of the movie kinda sucks... but luckily, he's on screen for most of it, so for a DHP fan, it really has to be seen!

 

You're yet to steer me wrong, Doc - sold!

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, YaManSmevz said:

It's almost unfair how Forman has highly acclaimed signature films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, yet never quite became a household name.

 

That's true - there is really no one else who I think could hold the crown for the "Great Biopic Filmmaker" like Forman. 

 

I actually think it's a complete travesty that Raging Bull is on the AFI top 100, but Amadeus isn't - don't get me wrong, Raging Bull is a fine movie, but in terms of amazing Biopics, frankly, Amadeus, Larry Flint and Man on the Moon are all superior.

Raging Bull isn't in the top 10 biopics for me. (frankly, it's not even in the top 10 Scorsese films, but that's another story?)

 

1 minute ago, YaManSmevz said:

I remember as a young Nirvana fan devastated by Kurt Cobain's death, having a very silly and unrealistic grudge against Courtney Love, even I had no other choice than to cede that she was stupendous in Larry Flint.

 

I get it - I was a massive Nirvana fan too, though the difference probably was that I was a Hole fan before a Nirvana fan - courtesy of a pretty cool babysitter! - so I never really had the irrational anti-Courtney thing. (Actually, I would probably still put Live Through This on my list of all time favourite albums)...

I did the other wearyingly predictable thing - I channeled my grief into an irrational (and indefensible) anti-Foo Fighters thing ?

 

Of course, that lasted all of 6 months, until I heard Watershed, and had to accept that I was the true monster, and admit they were also awesome ?

 

[YaManSmevz]

2 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I actually think it's a complete travesty that Raging Bull is on the AFI top 100, but Amadeus isn't - don't get me wrong, Raging Bull is a fine movie, but in terms of amazing Biopics, frankly, Amadeus, Larry Flint and Man on the Moon are all superior.

Raging Bull isn't in the top 10 biopics for me. (frankly, it's not even in the top 10 Scorsese films, but that's another story)

 

Agreed - I loved Raging Bull, but Amadeus is better, not just as a biopic but as a film period. I'll take it a step further - peeps like to cry heresy at how Ordinary People beat Raging Bull for the Oscar, using words like robbery, but honestly I don't think there's THAT big of a gulf between the films as far as quality.

 

8 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I get it - I was a massive Nirvana fan too, though the difference probably was that I was a Hole fan before a Nirvana fan - courtesy of a pretty cool babysitter! - so I never really had the irrational anti-Courtney thing. (Actually, I would probably still put Live Through This on my list of all time favourite albums)...

I did the other wearyingly predictable thing - I channeled my grief into an irrational (and indefensible) anti-Foo Fighters thing 

 

Of course, that lasted all of 6 months, until I heard Watershed, and had to accept that I was the true monster, and admit they were also awesome 

 

Live Through This is excellent, and extremely enduring, it can go toe to toe with just about any of the grunge giants of the time. I envy you, I didn't listen to them til they got big. If it makes you feel better, I fell for that nonsense about Kurt writing songs for that album? I look back and think about how silly that was!

 

Those first two Foo Fighters albums were so freakin good, man. Dave Grohl could produce shit for the rest of his life, but that legendary status will still be pretty safe.

[Platinum_Vice]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

... (and thoroughly indefensible) anti-Foo Fighters thing.

 

Of course, that lasted all of 6 months, until I heard Watershed, and had to accept that I was the true monster, and admit they were also awesome 

 

 

So indefensible, DrBloodmoney should still be self-flagellating about this indiscretion!

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

Those first two Foo Fighters albums were so freakin good, man. Dave Grohl could produce shit for the rest of his life, but that legendary status will still be pretty safe.

 

They all range from great to insanely good, but I like all the albums after their Greatest Hits the most. 

 

??

[YaManSmevz]

36 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

They all range from great to insanely good, but I like all the albums after their Greatest Hits the most. 

 

 

Bruh WASTING LIGHT

[The_Kopite]

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

That's exactly right - less fun with America's 10 Most Wanted - that game is terrible, and there's a special part of video game hell reserved for just that game - oh and Agents of Mayhem that can go there too.

 

It's funny we're on the 4 for £10 thing - I was in my local CEX the other day, and behind the counter they had the original Drakengard game there for £55 - which they told me they actually were previously selling it for £75.....So, get this - I go find Drakengard on my shelf, and it still has the 4 for £10 sticker on it - so something that I got in one of those bundles is now worth silly money - who'd have thought eh? Not that I'd ever sell that. That's like one of my favourite interconnected series now.

I've never played either and I'm sure I likely never will lol

 

Wowzers that is impressive! Worked out nicely for you! Some games and definitely worth silly money nowadays. Makes collecting for certain franchises a whole lot harder.  Surprised CEX put something like that down in price a bit tbh.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

I doubt it's for those reasons - Kingdom Hearts story is about as convoluted as you can get (as much as I do love it,) so if they'd really wanted to carry on those crossovers they could have done -  they even have Zack cameo in one of them (it's even implied Sephiroth turns him into a Kebab too). I think they just decide to make it a crossover with potentially any Square IP - because there's a crossover with The World Ends With You in Dream Drop Distance. I haven't ever played TWEWY - but I hope Neku isn't as much of a fanny in that game as he is in his Kingdom Hearts, or I might have to nope out of ever trying that PS4 version.

Yes I have heard it is very convoluted. Zach being turned in a kebab by Sephiroth though? Errrrrr, I don't know how to react to that.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

Don't sweat it man, I appreciate the fact you have - I've taken like a fair bit of time to reply to all of these myself to be fair - I went on a nice little point-and-clicky adventure, and those are rabbit holes that can consume me for a while.

Yeah life can just get in the way for me in all regards to gaming and messaging on here.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

Hmmm...... Can't disagree with that about Disney - It's a shame..... As you say that's business - I do feel bad for Ron Gilbert though, Monkey Island was his creation - and he's offering to pay money for it, probably not the kind Disney would actually ask, but let him have it back - having just played Thimbelweed Park, which I'll be reviewing soon - he has not lost a step, so if they'd let up. He could deliver a fresh new and interesting Monkey Island game.

 

Isn't the quality of the some of the TV and Film versions of games starting to improve a bit too? I'd heard great things about Dragons Dogma, and the Castlevania series, and I think you yourself, said the new RE one was worth a go.

 

Apart from *cough* Uncharted *cough* I wasn't interested particularly in that film to begin with - but now the trailer is dropped - I'd rather go and watch a sex tape between Leonardo Dicaprio and the bear from The Revenant.

 

I guess I could post my treatment for that Monkey Island series in here at some point - it's realistically never going to get made, so I guess I could - unless Ron Gilbert gets the rights back and is like hey, I need a screenwriter to write an animated Monkey Island TV comedy series. That'd be the dream, or at least one of them.

 

I'll have to think about Dead Space 2 then - as it doesn't look like they'll be doing a remaster of it anytime soon.

That does sound like a real shame when someone who has created his unique IP and wants to do more things with it for the fans, can't because a massive company isn't willing to be nice essentially. 

 

Yes the new RE film does look pretty good from what I've seen so far. I have heard good things about Castlevania series, Witcher series, Dragons Dogma etc etc so yeah seems like companies are finally listening and respecting video game personnel and fans. Long may it continue.

 

Oh, I haven't watched the new Uncharted film trailer yet, but that does not sound good. I'm hoping I'll like it more than that haha

 

Yes I'll look forward to reading it.

 

You should give it a go if you have the time. Well worth a playthrough.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

Yeah I can understand you skipping Ethan Must Die for those reasons - I don't think it took me more than about three hours to get it though, possibly a little less - but it is so random, and pretty unforgiving too, and it doesn't add anything to the story - so I get why you'd leave it be.

 

Did you like Jacks 55th birthday Party? That one's such a weird gameplay loop, but I loved it.

 

and Bedroom in one of the Banned Footages was great - it's like a really well crafted little puzzle.

 

Yeah that card game is brutal - and the trophies tied to it are even more brutal. I wouldn't rush to do those again.

 

End of Zoe is super strange man - but I loved it. Joe was such a breath of fresh air as a character - he's like the "dumb as a rock" character that Chris actually is, but is never presented as - so it was nice to see him just face punching the moulds because "YOU DON'T TOUCH  MA FAAAAAAAMLLLEEEEH"

 

I'm glad you liked the boat - it certainly does explain everything a bit better - I liked it aesthetically, and from a plot perspective, just wasn't over keen on them taking it back to a bit more of an action oriented final stretch. That might just be my own little gripes though.

 

Very impressive that you were able to get through Ethan Must Die. Respect to you man. Obviously as you know my gaming time can be very limited and thus I don't have time to be likely banging my head against an imaginary brick wall, especially when it adds nothing to the story as you said. I'm not obsessed with getting 100% of trophies for games though, even from my favourite franchises. The platinums and enjoying them are my main goals.

 

Jack's 55th Birthday was odd. I think I could get into it, but I haven't played much of it so far. Will see if I have the time to try again further down the line.

 

Bedroom was very clever, pretty tense as well. That was a well done one.

 

I've got 2 of the 3 card game trophies. Not sure if I will go for the last one as I don't know if it will save after every matchup or not. If not, I've not got a chance lol

 

End of Zoe was exactly as you said - super strange lol Joe's fists of fury lol it was hilarious in an (I think) unintentional and ridiculous way. The story resolution was very nice. 

 

Yeah it clicked more for me from the boat onwards, not because I thought it was better gameplay wise than the rest of the game that came before, it was mainly the story ramping up and that got me into it a lot more.

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

Hammered into the ground like a tent peg I expect.

Quite the visual lol

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

I have played most of VI - probably like 85% however much there is before the final stretch - I just didn't ever finish it for a reason that I can't even think of - well fingers crossed for the pixel remasters coming to PlayStation then I've got a reason to go back - because TROPHIES

 

Gau and Vaan can be in a two man version of the Lars Von Trier film The Idiots... I'd watch it, maybe

Trophies can bring me back to pretty much any game, especially one as great as FFVI. Platinums make it ever sweeter.

 

The fact you said maybe means I've got you hooked on the potential haha

 

On 10/25/2021 at 3:32 AM, rjkclarke said:

I'm glad to hear that man! - I hope you really enjoy the rest of your time with it - I can't think of a single bit of that game that really outstayed its welcome.

 

I loved that game - in fact I'm planning to play the second one this week... So Hopefully I have a great time with that one myself. From what everyone has said - I probably will.

Just grinded up to level 98. I say grinded, it took me 2 hours I think to go from level 69 to 98. Not exactly a grind really lol Yeah it's fun and the 2nd game is on the wishlist, but got the first one for a bargain £1.99 and hoping the 2nd one will go down to a pretty close amount too lol

 

 

[Platinum_Vice]

57 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

Bruh WASTING LIGHT

 

Bro that's my favourite FF album!!

[Slava]

On 26.10.2021 at 2:38 AM, rjkclarke said:

I'm guilty myself of the crazy theory thing. So I had my own little crazy theory myself for a while regarding TPP - there was one child soldier in particular, that was very close to Eli - and I was sure that was going to turn out to be Vulcan Raven, they just seemed to be putting quite a substantial bit of prominence on him in a few areas, and it kept making me wonder if it was - even though in reality it made absolutely made no sense for him to be.

 

Haha, nice one. I know Vulcan Raven is an Alaskan native, but if Eli is discovered in Africa, then there's no reason Raven couldn't be.

 

On 26.10.2021 at 2:38 AM, rjkclarke said:

......Did you truly think MGSV was going to be the end? I never did, to be honest - in the same way I don't think Rise of Skywalker is the final film in The Skywalker Saga - I see it as " it's the end, until someone decides otherwise."

 

I did ?. Although, given the history of Kojima saying the next Metal Gear was his last since MGS2, and the fact that Portable Ops and Peace Walker were also supposed to be "The missing link connecting the saga" at the time of their releases, it wouldn't have been a surprise if he did MGS6, had he stayed at Konami. 

 

Edit: speaking of Star Wars, do you know the recent Hollywood trend where a sequel in a long-running movie franchize rewrites the timeline of bad sequels? Halloween (2018), Terminator: Dark Fate, etc. I've heard rumours that Disney people considered making the sequel trilogy non-canon after Rise of Skywalker. So there's more than one option ?.

 

As I see you guys mention MGS2, my fingers are itching to start discussing it as well ?. But I know the review will come at some point. When the time comes, I will lay out all my knowledge about that game ?.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Slava

[rjkclarke]

On 26/10/2021 at 10:46 PM, YaManSmevz said:

 

Oh, MGS2 is a spectacular game, I love it too. I just always felt that Kojima unintentionally (for lack of a better word) produced such a masterwork with MGS that he either felt immense pressure to top it or was so convinced of his genius that he felt that any wacky idea he had was utterly brilliant, which resulted in the series going off the rails so often. This is just my impression, of course - sadly, Kojima was unavailable for comment.

 

I love that you and your friends have so many gaming inside jokes.. feels like I've got only a handful! When I get back into FFIX relatively soon, if I message you Fission Mailed, it will be because I messed up at 998 jumps or something like that

 

 

Bruh I forgot all about Fat Man and his roller skates I'm probably misremembering this (in fact I'm sure of it), but the music for his boss fight almost felt like something out of the Ninja Turtle arcade game. As for The Pain, well.. that was that moment in 3 where it was like "whelp, looks like we're goin batshit again!"

 

Maybe there's a fat rollerskater who belches bees, but he doesn't mean to, it's just something he can't help. And the pandemic has been particularly hard on him, because on occasion he'll belch in his mask and the bees will come out and he'll be like "NOT THE BEES!! AAAHHHH!!!!"

 

 

That's great, I love all of this! The cabbage animil is fantastic, and I now know the correct answer should anybody ever ask me this question!

 

That's a trip.. I suddenly like him so much more now. Love the idea of a big soap star bein like "unruly video game character? Sure, why not?" Fuck, I'm excited to get to them in San Andreas!

 

 

I remember them being the parents in the film adaptation of Matilda and they were perhaps a little too perfect for their roles! They have a strange pleasantly ugly cuteness to them that's tremendously difficult to describe without being insulting!

 

YES! He does such a good job of being just off enough and only in certain moments so as to not oversell. I'll always have a soft spot for Doc Bro- ...I mean Judge Doo- ...I mean Christopher Lloyd!

 

Crap, I hope you don't end up thinking that now! I assumed you already did as well. Oh well. Comment backfired, fission mailed

 

Tom Hulce was excellent, I'd always wonder the same thing. Especially to hold his own against F. Murray Abraham's performance. Even now that he's pushing seventy, Hulce still has those kindly twinkling eyes, which kinda make him look like Santa Claus!

 

David Hyde Pierce is an excellent example too, a shame he didn't seem to have any interest in pursuing more work in that vein. You nailed it with John Mahoney, man.. Frasier was such a stellar ensemble cast looking back on it!

 

 

I definitely plan on watching a trailer or some gameplay videos in the very least. I saw you playin that on my PS4 updates and was like "heyy, another new one!"

 

 

I still can't quite figure out how to just pull little bits of quotes out of previous pages - so I'll have to improvise, this'll be a long little section here.

 

Regarding Kojima - I suspect it is the latter thing you mentioned and that he was so convinced of his genius, that he thought every whacky idea he had going forward was the right one - I mean he literally appeared as God in MGS4.... So that tells you everything you need to know of how highly he thinks of himself.

 

Dude - don't even put ideas like that in your own head about failing at 998 jumps - I failed at like very high into the 800's the one just before I actually managed it - and it really hurts,so I hope you avoid that one.

 

Haha! I've sneezed in a mask - but to borrow a John Mahoney line from Frasier " OH GEEEZ!" Belching bees into one - man what a terrifying thought.

 

Tom Hulce is one of the few reasons I have quite a soft spot for Disney's quite awful adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which is one of my favourite books). The Disney film itself isn't terrible or anything, but it's certainly not true to the book, but Tom Hulce's performance as Quasimodo is honestly phenomenal, and he's a hell of a singer, that softness and quiet sadness that he brings to that role are one of the absolute highest highs of that film, and it makes you empathise with Quasimodo in a way that makes you want to just give him a hug, and say "hey you go outside, who cares what you look like, screw those people who'll judge you for what you look like."  Well him and Tony Jay as Frolo,I guess too - because for as much as I criticise that as an adaptation - that Hellfire section is absolute cinematic magic. It's a great example of something Doc brought up, about great actors or scenes elevating not so stellar films. That scene though, is has notch cinematography, excellent animation, and thematically dark as night, which is rare for Disney.

 

DHP and John Mahoney really bring something special to that show - although I'm a little bit biased perhaps, as Frasier is my favourite comedy show of all time - I think might be one of the most tightly written and well crafted shows out there too. To maintain a high quality for eleven seasons is pretty special. It does dip a bit in Season eight, but it's still good. John Mahoney is really good in the film Cher won her lead actress Oscar for in Moonstruck.... He's not in it a whole lot, but the bits he is in are really memorable.

 

 

Right....... So now I'm a little gutted that I missed the entire Milos Forman discussion from earlier,although I loved reading it - but hey I guess I'll just throw my thoughts out into the empty room now that the party is over.

 

On 27/10/2021 at 7:59 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I'm purposefully staying silent of the MGS parts of this thread  (I'm going with my trusty "I like that you like that!" ?) but...

 

I assumed you would be - don't worry. I know MGS is hardly your favourite thing - the even more ironic thing, is that I actually do agree with you on a lot of your points regarding the series, as we've discussed a little bit before. I just got  indoctrinated into that series too young, so it's hard to pull myself away now ?.....

 

 

On 27/10/2021 at 7:59 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

You have to remember though - that was always Formans gift - pulling performances out of people that you didn't realise they had in them, and often never had in them for anyone else.

 

 

Remember - if there were any justice in the world, Courtney Love would have not one, but two oscars, both courtesy of Forman films, and yet I could count on the fingers of one forehead how many other great acting gigs she ever got.

Everyone is elevated by Foreman - from Nicholson to Carrey to Harrelson to Giamatti - but the real gift he had was for finding people who had virtually no experience, and drawing out the best performances from them. Sometimes they go on to be huge elsewhere (Brad Douriff)... but sometimes they seem to just Holce their way downwards after..

 

 

Forman has what I like to call the rare gift of   " De Sica Magic" or I guess just imbibe some of the spirit of "Italian neo-realism direction" because, yes I agree he has a wonderful gift to just pull performances out of seemingly nowhere that you'd never expect from fairly inexperienced actors. James Mangold is pretty good at doing that too.  I mean not quite on the level of De Sica, although you never know - De Sica did manage to just pull people out of a crowd that he thought looked interesting, and then somehow get an immaculate acting performance out of them, sometimes he didn't but more often than not he did.

 

I remember when I first watched Man on the Moon and thought - wow, I didn't realise Courtney Love was capable of acting like this, I didn't watch that film till I was about fifteen or sixteen, and  I only really knew her from Hole and well the Cobain connection obviously, so to see she'd dabbled in acting as effectively as she did was really interesting.

 

On 27/10/2021 at 7:59 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I don't know if you've ever seen a movie called The Perfect Host?

 It's... not a good movie... what it is is basically an okay movie, draped over one of the best David Hyde Pierce performances you could ever imagine!

He is so damned good in it, that whenever he is on screen, you forget the rest of the movie kinda sucks... but luckily, he's on screen for most of it, so for a DHP fan, it really has to be seen!

 

I haven't seen it - I did that stupid thing of looking at some of the review scores,and then nopeing on out of there.

 

I might have to check it out though - because I could totally get behind a just okay movie with a hell of a good David Hyde Pierce performance in it - so thanks for putting that one back on my radar!

 

On 27/10/2021 at 8:26 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

That's true - there is really no one else who I think could hold the crown for the "Great Biopic Filmmaker" like Forman. 

 

I actually think it's a complete travesty that Raging Bull is on the AFI top 100, but Amadeus isn't - don't get me wrong, Raging Bull is a fine movie, but in terms of amazing Biopics, frankly, Amadeus, Larry Flint and Man on the Moon are all superior.

Raging Bull isn't in the top 10 biopics for me. (frankly, it's not even in the top 10 Scorsese films, but that's another story?)

 

I know you were addressing Smevz here, but as I'm already talking to a room where the guests at the party this conversation started at have long since left ?..... I'm going to do it anyway haha!

 

I think I might agree that Forman has that title right now - but I think James Mangold has the potential to surpass him at some point,if he dabbled with biopics in the future - I don't like every single film he's ever made, but Walk The Line and Ford Vs Ferrarri (Le Mans 66) whatever you like to call it, show that he's got some real potential there.... Right now though, yeah Forman has maybe got that title I'd say. Maybe Richard Attenborough as a close second?

 

I don't know - I'm fine with Raging Bull being on there - I'd be more worried about why The Sixth Sense is on there, when Amadeus isn't.... Granted I haven't seen The Sixth Sense, because I already knew the twist, but is it really a more worthy list contender than Amadeus? I find that hard to believe.

 

I'm one of those people that think De Niro robbed John Hurt of the Oscar with Raging Bull - De Niro's performance is wonderful, don't get me wrong, and the physical transformations he went through for it were insane, but John Hurt really nailed his part in the Elephant Man, heck they even created an Oscar category because of The Elephant Man - I've got a fair few issues with that film (despite really liking it,)  as I think it's a bit of a shame that Lynch decided to portray Joseph Merrick (not John) as little more than a victim, which if you read anything about the real person, you'll soon find out he was so much more than that - but there you go, Lynch had a specific story he wanted to tell, and he told it, truth be damned.

 

I'm going to stay out of this one on the Scorsese thing - I happen to think one of Scorsese's best films, and one of De Niro's best performances actually, is in New York, New York, which is a film that La La Land clearly took a huge amount of inspiration from, so my opinion might be rendered irrelevant just for thinking that.... I don't know - Raging Bull is fantastical on a lot of technical levels, some of the editing, and the sound design work (take a bow foley brothers and sisters, those punch sounds are evil,) and the actual mixture of those two things is sheer brilliance. It's not one I really feel the urge to re-watch that often though,unlike some of his other work. Actually The Aviator is possibly a better biopic functionally, than Raging Bull is, despite Raging Bull being perhaps the better film.

 

On 27/10/2021 at 8:26 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I get it - I was a massive Nirvana fan too, though the difference probably was that I was a Hole fan before a Nirvana fan - courtesy of a pretty cool babysitter! - so I never really had the irrational anti-Courtney thing. (Actually, I would probably still put Live Through This on my list of all time favourite albums)...

I did the other wearyingly predictable thing - I channeled my grief into an irrational (and indefensible) anti-Foo Fighters thing ?

 

Of course, that lasted all of 6 months, until I heard Watershed, and had to accept that I was the true monster, and admit they were also awesome ?

 

I also must confess to a slight anti- Foo Fighters thing - something I'm probably still a little guilty of actually, and yes I'm fully aware it's a me issue not a them issue. I've never really listened to them properly, which admittedly is a me problem, I've heard a lot of their bigger hits, and just found them a bit "tryhard" as a band. So I never really delved as much into them as I should have done.

 

I do like Hole a lot though - and some of Courtney Love's solo stuff - in fact Sunset Marquis is one of my favourite songs, and one I still listen to very often - it's got some really brilliant lyrics in it.

 

On 27/10/2021 at 8:41 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Those first two Foo Fighters albums were so freakin good, man. Dave Grohl could produce shit for the rest of his life, but that legendary status will still be pretty safe.

 

NOTED!

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, The_Kopite said:

I've never played either and I'm sure I likely never will lol

 

Wowzers that is impressive! Worked out nicely for you! Some games and definitely worth silly money nowadays. Makes collecting for certain franchises a whole lot harder.  Surprised CEX put something like that down in price a bit tbh.

 

If you want to continue your life in the best way possible - then yes, I'd say avoiding those two massive trash fires is probably the right way to go!

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, The_Kopite said:

That does sound like a real shame when someone who has created his unique IP and wants to do more things with it for the fans, can't because a massive company isn't willing to be nice essentially. 

 

Yes the new RE film does look pretty good from what I've seen so far. I have heard good things about Castlevania series, Witcher series, Dragons Dogma etc etc so yeah seems like companies are finally listening and respecting video game personnel and fans. Long may it continue.

 

Oh, I haven't watched the new Uncharted film trailer yet, but that does not sound good. I'm hoping I'll like it more than that haha

 

It's just really saddening is what it is - it's bad enough as a fan to see it happening - but for the guy that created that series, loves it so much, yet can't do anything with it, that must be even more of a gut punch.

 

I kind of didn't think to mention The Witcher series - I guess I don't really associate it with the games - as its an adaptation of the books more than it is the games - so I kind of just didn't mention it - I thought it was really good though, so I'd definitely recommend giving that one a watch.

 

You might like the Uncharted trailer - I'm not the worlds biggest Uncharted fan as it is, which I feel like I've probably mentioned in here about six thousand times ?...... So I was always going to watch it and be like okay then....

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, The_Kopite said:

Very impressive that you were able to get through Ethan Must Die. Respect to you man. Obviously as you know my gaming time can be very limited and thus I don't have time to be likely banging my head against an imaginary brick wall, especially when it adds nothing to the story as you said. I'm not obsessed with getting 100% of trophies for games though, even from my favourite franchises. The platinums and enjoying them are my main goals.

 

Jack's 55th Birthday was odd. I think I could get into it, but I haven't played much of it so far. Will see if I have the time to try again further down the line.

 

Bedroom was very clever, pretty tense as well. That was a well done one.

 

I've got 2 of the 3 card game trophies. Not sure if I will go for the last one as I don't know if it will save after every matchup or not. If not, I've not got a chance lol

 

Thanks - I mean there's a huge amount of luck involved in Ethan must die, that and knowing where all the traps are and using those to your advantage...  Yeah I wouldn't worry about then if you aren't bothered about having 100% of the trophies in the game, plus you'd have to see far too much of that old ladies erm "front garden" yeah lets just call it that ?.....

 

Again Jacks 55th birthday Party doesn't really add anything to the story - it's just a weird little fun side game, so I could see why you'd just leave that one alone too.

 

No, that last card trophy is brutal, you have to do all ten in a row, there's no getting around that with saving, it's just really brutal, and so luck dependant - I essentially had to learn how to count cards for that, because that's the only reliable way to get through that game mode, and even then it isn't exactly foolproof, but I still really enjoyed that one.

 

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, The_Kopite said:

End of Zoe was exactly as you said - super strange lol Joe's fists of fury lol it was hilarious in an (I think) unintentional and ridiculous way. The story resolution was very nice. 

 

Yeah it clicked more for me from the boat onwards, not because I thought it was better gameplay wise than the rest of the game that came before, it was mainly the story ramping up and that got me into it a lot more.

 

I don't know - I always thought Joe was meant to be funny - he's just that archetypal violent swamp man stereotype - except they actually turn it on its head, and it turns out he's actually fairly decent and has good intentions, but I always thought some of his dialogue was meant to be funny. There is a good chance that I just woefully misread that though ?

 

Some of the story stuff on the boat is great - and that kid really REALLY unsettled me......

 

  "I don't want to live at the lab anymore. I want a house. And I want you to be my mummy."

 

NAHHHHHH

 

kthnksbai

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, The_Kopite said:

Just grinded up to level 98. I say grinded, it took me 2 hours I think to go from level 69 to 98. Not exactly a grind really lol Yeah it's fun and the 2nd game is on the wishlist, but got the first one for a bargain £1.99 and hoping the 2nd one will go down to a pretty close amount too lo

 

I started the second Cat Quest last night actually - I think I paid like close to £6 for it, which it will probably drop in price, but I thought screw it, why not - everyone says it's awesome so why not just go and grab it.... It does seem pretty good so far as well.

 

Yeah I'd hardly say getting to max level in that first Cat Quest was too much of a grind - nothing in that game really feels like a grind to be perfectly honest - it's all just the right amount of playtime that nothing really outstays its welcome. I really enjoyed that aspect.

 

 

On 27/10/2021 at 6:09 PM, Slava said:

Haha, nice one. I know Vulcan Raven is an Alaskan native, but if Eli is discovered in Africa, then there's no reason Raven couldn't be.

 

That was exactly my thought process - I was like, I know he said he was from Alaska, but maybe they'd decide nah, he's from Africa Actually - because, erm....... Nanomachines? Haha

 

On 27/10/2021 at 6:09 PM, Slava said:

I did ?. Although, given the history of Kojima saying the next Metal Gear was his last since MGS2, and the fact that Portable Ops and Peace Walker were also supposed to be "The missing link connecting the saga" at the time of their releases, it wouldn't have been a surprise if he did MGS6, had he stayed at Konami. 

 

I'll be honest I always hoped that MGS4 would be the definitive end - like, no more games after that.... I know I love Peace Walker, and if that'd been the case I wouldn't have gotten Peace Walker, but more than anything else, Guns of the Patriots really felt like the definitive end - a lot of the loose ends were tied up, or at least as much as they could be with Kojima at the helm... Almost everything just felt final - and satisfyingly so too.... So in a way, I feel like it's a bit of a shame that it wasn't the end.

 

I'm totally with you on that thought though - that if he'd stay MGS6 would have happened - I mean heck it might have happened by now. I always thought with where they were going with MGSV, that they'd be doing a full on remake of the original MG - especially with some of the spoilery things we find out in TPP that we can't mention here so we don't spoil it for those who haven't played it yet - it just seemed like the natural next step, to expand upon that original story.

 

On 27/10/2021 at 6:09 PM, Slava said:

Edit: speaking of Star Wars, do you know the recent Hollywood trend where a sequel in a long-running movie franchize rewrites the timeline of bad sequels? Halloween (2018), Terminator: Dark Fate, etc. I've heard rumours that Disney people considered making the sequel trilogy non-canon after Rise of Skywalker. So there's more than one option ?.

 

Interesting.... I hadn't heard that, you're dropping all the interesting news scoops at the moment! So does that mean Disney are actually taking onboard the fact people aren't particularly fond of the sequel trilogy, or just toying with the idea of doing something else. I don't know how people would feel about that..... You can't seem to ever truly please Star Wars fans anyway. Nobody hates Star Wars more than them......

 

.... Y'know, I'm not sure how I feel about that, I'm in the minority of those who actually really like The Last Jedi, so I guess I wouldn't want that to be non-canon, but if it meant some of the drek that Jar Jar Abrams put out wouldn't have to be official maybe I could live with it.... I think he did a pretty great job with Force Awakens, but I genuinely think Rise of Skywalker is the worst Star Wars film ever made. Not counting those Ewok TV Movies either...

 

On 27/10/2021 at 6:09 PM, Slava said:

As I see you guys mention MGS2, my fingers are itching to start discussing it as well ?. But I know the review will come at some point. When the time comes, I will lay out all my knowledge about that game ?.

 

 

We'll definitely be getting there at some point in the future  - so I look forward to that, when we can discuss that one a little more openly potentially - I really dig that one, so it'll be interesting to talk about for sure... Especially as it sounds like you've got loads more awesome information stored up about it, that you can enlighten us all with! Bring it on!

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Platinum_Vice]

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

I still can't quite figure out how to just pull little bits of quotes out of previous pages - so I'll have to improvise, this'll be a long little section here.

 

I just quote the post and delete/edit it ?‍♂️

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

I also must confess to a slight anti- Foo Fighters thing - something I'm probably still a little guilty of actually, and yes I'm fully aware it's a me issue not a them issue. I've never really listened to them properly, which admittedly is a me problem, I've heard a lot of their bigger hits, and just found them a bit "tryhard" as a band. So I never really delved as much into them as I should have done.

 

Please make yourself a note to engage in some self-flagellation in the near future to address this.

 

For reference: of the alive rockers still making music, Dave is the probably most revered by both fans and other musicians in the industry. He's so popular for not being a tryhard and just being an all-around good bloke ☺️

 

If you want to get into them, I'd recommend their Greatest Hits album which covers the first half of their career, and then try 2011's Wasting Light.

 

If you enjoy those then you'll probably run away with it all yourself, but if you prefer a more visual medium, their live concert at Wembley Stadium (2008) and their documentary Back and Forth are also top tier. 

 

In my opinion, the best band that is still pumping out new music. There's plenty of gems to be found if you end up falling in love.

[YaManSmevz]

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Tom Hulce is one of the few reasons I have quite a soft spot for Disney's quite awful adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which is one of my favourite books). The Disney film itself isn't terrible or anything, but it's certainly not true to the book, but Tom Hulce's performance as Quasimodo is honestly phenomenal, and he's a hell of a singer, that softness and quiet sadness that he brings to that role are one of the absolute highest highs of that film, and it makes you empathise with Quasimodo in a way that makes you want to just give him a hug, and say "hey you go outside, who cares what you look like, screw those people who'll judge you for what you look like."  Well him and Tony Jay as Frolo,I guess too - because for as much as I criticise that as an adaptation - that Hellfire section is absolute cinematic magic. It's a great example of something Doc brought up, about great actors or scenes elevating not so stellar films. That scene though, is has notch cinematography, excellent animation, and thematically dark as night, which is rare for Disney.

 

I need to watch that! When those late 90s/early 00s Disney films were coming out, I was too young to realize I'm never too old for those movies, if that makes sense. I didn't know he voiced Quasimodo, but we do have Disney+....

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

DHP and John Mahoney really bring something special to that show - although I'm a little bit biased perhaps, as Frasier is my favourite comedy show of all time - I think might be one of the most tightly written and well crafted shows out there too. To maintain a high quality for eleven seasons is pretty special. It does dip a bit in Season eight, but it's still good. John Mahoney is really good in the film Cher won her lead actress Oscar for in Moonstruck.... He's not in it a whole lot, but the bits he is in are really memorable.

 

I remember always having Frasier on deck when Netflix had it - I loved it during its initial run, it's such a great show. I'm sure you've seen this before, but it's one of my favorite things I've stumbled upon:

 

 

I'm very curious about the reboot. Frankly, I'm just happy John Mahoney is still around to take part!

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't know - I'm fine with Raging Bull being on there - I'd be more worried about why The Sixth Sense is on there, when Amadeus isn't.... Granted I haven't seen The Sixth Sense, because I already knew the twist, but is it really a more worthy list contender than Amadeus? I find that hard to believe.

 

I'm one of those people that think De Niro robbed John Hurt of the Oscar with Raging Bull - De Niro's performance is wonderful, don't get me wrong, and the physical transformations he went through for it were insane, but John Hurt really nailed his part in the Elephant Man, heck they even created an Oscar category because of The Elephant Man - I've got a fair few issues with that film (despite really liking it,)  as I think it's a bit of a shame that Lynch decided to portray Joseph Merrick (not John) as little more than a victim, which if you read anything about the real person, you'll soon find out he was so much more than that - but there you go, Lynch had a specific story he wanted to tell, and he told it, truth be damned.

 

I'm going to stay out of this one on the Scorsese thing - I happen to think one of Scorsese's best films, and one of De Niro's best performances actually, is in New York, New York, which is a film that La La Land clearly took a huge amount of inspiration from, so my opinion might be rendered irrelevant just for thinking that.... I don't know - Raging Bull is fantastical on a lot of technical levels, some of the editing, and the sound design work (take a bow foley brothers and sisters, those punch sounds are evil,) and the actual mixture of those two things is sheer brilliance. It's not one I really feel the urge to re-watch that often though,unlike some of his other work. Actually The Aviator is possibly a better biopic functionally, than Raging Bull is, despite Raging Bull being perhaps the better film.

 

The Sixth Sense is in the AFI top 100???? ?

 

There's nothing wrong with that movie, but it always just felt like a novelty to me. I always felt it was overly reliant on the twist. Definitely not all-time great material!

 

I think the physical transformation played a big part in De Niro winning, but... I dunno man, choosing between those two performances is rough whatever way you slice it. They're both so devastating in their own ways. I hope afterwards John Hurt wasn't like "but I've tried so hard to be good!"

 

New York, New York and After Hours are next on my Scorcese-to-watch list. I remember Last Temptation being the movie that slapped me across the face like "He doesn't just do mob movies, stupid!" and I've been trying to pick up missed pieces ever since.

 

19 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

 

I just quote the post and delete/edit it ?‍♂️

 

Same. And yeah dude, Wasting Light was fantastic. I'm the opposite of you where i prefer the pre-greatest hits era, and I wasn't expecting much from that album but it absolutely knocked me on my ass!

[DrBloodmoney]

2 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

The Sixth Sense is in the AFI top 100???? ?

?

 

Dude, if that gets your blood up, wait for this one: Titanic is on there, but Terminator 2 isn’t.

 

I’m the guy who would go to bat for Terminator over T2 any day of the week - but even I know that if Jim Cameron is allowed anywhere near a list like that, Terminator 2 is the only sane excuse for why! ?
 

 

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think I might agree that Forman has that title right now - but I think James Mangold has the potential to surpass him at some point,if he dabbled with biopics in the future - I don't like every single film he's ever made, but Walk The Line and Ford Vs Ferrarri (Le Mans 66) whatever you like to call it, show that he's got some real potential there.... Right now though, yeah Forman has maybe got that title I'd say. Maybe Richard Attenborough as a close second?

I’ve not seen Ford vs Ferrarri - TBH I had no idea it was something to look out for, but in that company, I need to give it a watch!

 

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't know - I'm fine with Raging Bull being on there - I'd be more worried about why The Sixth Sense is on there, when Amadeus isn't.... Granted I haven't seen The Sixth Sense, because I already knew the twist, but is it really a more worthy list contender than Amadeus? I find that hard to believe.

Yeah, The Sixth Sense is a weird choice on that list - I mean, it is certainly a good solid film, but it’s not on that level really. It’s one of a few that really feels like a weird choice designed to recognise a genre more than the film specifically, but what a weird one to chose. I mean, I don’t think The Shining is even on there for goodness sake!

 

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm one of those people that think De Niro robbed John Hurt of the Oscar with Raging Bull - De Niro's performance is wonderful, don't get me wrong, and the physical transformations he went through for it were insane, but John Hurt really nailed his part in the Elephant Man, heck they even created an Oscar category because of The Elephant Man - I've got a fair few issues with that film (despite really liking it,)  as I think it's a bit of a shame that Lynch decided to portray Joseph Merrick (not John) as little more than a victim, which if you read anything about the real person, you'll soon find out he was so much more than that - but there you go, Lynch had a specific story he wanted to tell, and he told it, truth be damned.

 

Oh man - The Elephant man is such a great choice for a biopic - I forgot about that one - it’s such an artistically interesting movie that I forget to even include it as a biopic - even though it totally is!

 

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm going to stay out of this one on the Scorsese thing - I happen to think one of Scorsese's best films, and one of De Niro's best performances actually, is in New York, New York, which is a film that La La Land clearly took a huge amount of inspiration from, so my opinion might be rendered irrelevant just for thinking that.... I don't know - Raging Bull is fantastical on a lot of technical levels, some of the editing, and the sound design work (take a bow foley brothers and sisters, those punch sounds are evil,) and the actual mixture of those two things is sheer brilliance. It's not one I really feel the urge to re-watch that often though,unlike some of his other work. Actually The Aviator is possibly a better biopic functionally, than Raging Bull is, despite Raging Bull being perhaps the better film.

 

Hey man, I’m the guy who puts Bringing Out the Dead and King of Comedy on my top 5 Scorsese’s, so no shade cast on my part!

[rjkclarke]

On 27/10/2021 at 10:50 PM, GonzoWARgasm said:

I just quote the post and delete/edit it ?‍♂️

 

Thanks for the  heads up - I'll try and do that going forward then.....

 

On 27/10/2021 at 10:50 PM, GonzoWARgasm said:

Please make yourself a note to engage in some self-flagellation in the near future to address this.

 

For reference: of the alive rockers still making music, Dave is the probably most revered by both fans and other musicians in the industry. He's so popular for not being a tryhard and just being an all-around good bloke

 

If you want to get into them, I'd recommend their Greatest Hits album which covers the first half of their career, and then try 2011's Wasting Light.

 

If you enjoy those then you'll probably run away with it all yourself, but if you prefer a more visual medium, their live concert at Wembley Stadium (2008) and their documentary Back and Forth are also top tier. 

 

In my opinion, the best band that is still pumping out new music. There's plenty of gems to be found if you end up falling in love.

 

........ Right, here's the thing......

 

I actually have the Greatest Hits album loaded onto my iPod I guess that's the thing with having 80GB of storage, you tend to just chuck everything on there even if it doesn't get heard all that often. 

 

I'll be honest, my problem with them more arose from being a little twit head 17 year old - who was into about the heaviest metal I could get my hands on... So I remember listening to the Foo's and hearing something like  My Hero (which I now like by the way,) and just thinking something like " why doesn't he behead his hero and drink his blood or something." .........

 

Well nothing that quite extreme obviously - but when I first heard them they weren't what I considered Heavy enough...... Ironically, I don't listen to Metal too extensively anymore, so with that in mind.....

 

.... Looks like I'm off for some self-flagellation by Order of Mr WARgasm! ?

 

oh and to listen to some of the Foo Fighters back catalogue - it can't hurt to try.

 

 

5 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I need to watch that! When those late 90s/early 00s Disney films were coming out, I was too young to realize I'm never too old for those movies, if that makes sense. I didn't know he voiced Quasimodo, but we do have Disney+...

 

That makes perfect sense actually - I think we've all been at that point where we're like - I'm not watching that, it's for kids, or whatever - until you realise those feels can be just as worthwhile experiences with adult eyes.

 

It's not perfect or anything - and there's some serious eye-roll moments in it, mainly the talking gargoyles - but I find myself rewatching it fairly often just because of how much Tom Hulce and Tony Jay elevate that film - to be honest, I'd say it is probably worth it just for that.

 

5 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I remember always having Frasier on deck when Netflix had it - I loved it during its initial run, it's such a great show. I'm sure you've seen this before, but it's one of my favorite things I've stumbled upon:

 

 

I'm very curious about the reboot. Frankly, I'm just happy John Mahoney is still around to take part!

 

I hadn't seen that - that cracked me up though - I sent it to one of my friends who's also a big Frasier fan - think he'll get a laugh out of that too if he's never seen it before.

 

I hate to break this to you Smevz...... But John Mahoney isn't with us anymore ?..... I think he died a year or so back unfortunately.

 

I'm fairly curious about the reboot too, I don't know that it needs to happen - but I'm cautiously optimistic for it.

 

I think the logical first episode is that the gang all meet up for Martins funeral, which is going to be a colossally sad thing, but it'd be a nice little tribute to Mr Mahoney, and then at least they don't have to contrive a reason for all of them to be around each other again.

 

6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

The Sixth Sense is in the AFI top 100???? ?

 

There's nothing wrong with that movie, but it always just felt like a novelty to me. I always felt it was overly reliant on the twist. Definitely not all-time great material!

 

I think the physical transformation played a big part in De Niro winning, but... I dunno man, choosing between those two performances is rough whatever way you slice it. They're both so devastating in their own ways. I hope afterwards John Hurt wasn't like "but I've tried so hard to be good!"

 

New York, New York and After Hours are next on my Scorcese-to-watch list. I remember Last Temptation being the movie that slapped me across the face like "He doesn't just do mob movies, stupid!" and I've been trying to pick up missed pieces ever since.

 

When I looked at the list The Sixth Sense seemed like one of the most out of place ones on there for sure.

 

New York, New York is really good I thought - definitely get and watch that one - it's got a really interesting documentary on the Blu Ray too, about some of the films that influenced Scorsese during his creative process with that film.

 

I mean either  De Niro or Hurt could have won and I would have been happy, De Niro possibly should have won for Cape Fear as well. Not only is that a hell of a good remake, but he is so unsettling in that film  - it's  just like either of Jon Voight or Dustin Hoffman could have won for Midnight Cowboy - instead John Wayne won.... He should have won his Oscar for The Searchers, or maybe his last film The Shootist, but he shouldn't have won over those two in Midnight Cowboy that year, I don't think.

 

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Dude, if that gets your blood up, wait for this one: Titanic is on there, but Terminator 2 isn’t.

 

I’m the guy who would go to bat for Terminator over T2 any day of the week - but even I know that if Jim Cameron is allowed anywhere near a list like that, Terminator 2 is the only sane excuse for why! 

 

Great - now my bloods up too...... Do you check blood pressure? Or are you not one of those kinds of Doctors .....

 

That's really bizarre - at least his waffle with the 9ft Blue Aliens isn't on there *cough* A Man Called Horse (In Space) *cough*  ?........ I don't really mind Avatar or anything, but I know someone who went and saw that NINE times at the cinema..... I mean why?

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I’ve not seen Ford vs Ferrarri - TBH I had no idea it was something to look out for, but in that company, I need to give it a watch!

 

I definitely think he knows how to make an interesting biopic - he knows when to stretch the truth a bit to increase the films quality. It was on Amazon Prime a while back, so if it's still on there you might be able to find it there, it's one of those films I only watched because he directed it, I had pretty much no real interest in the subject matter, but he sure can make a good film.

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Yeah, The Sixth Sense is a weird choice on that list - I mean, it is certainly a good solid film, but it’s not on that level really. It’s one of a few that really feels like a weird choice designed to recognise a genre more than the film specifically, but what a weird one to chose. I mean, I don’t think The Shining is even on there for goodness sake!

 

 

Do yo think maybe they don't consider it an American film? The Shinning was shot over here,so I don't know if that's how they class it. Otherwise yeah, I'm in full agreement, the Shinning seems like another one that should be on the list but isn't.

 

Although it isn't on the BFI 100 either, so maybe we don't consider it a British film either then.... That's a head scratcher for sure.

 

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Oh man - The Elephant man is such a great choice for a biopic - I forgot about that one - it’s such an artistically interesting movie that I forget to even include it as a biopic - even though it totally is!

 

It's not one you immediately think of is it, every other brilliant element of the film sort of overrides that biopic element of it almost - I haven't watched it for a while, but I really should, it just makes me incredibly sad for a while afterwards.

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Hey man, I’m the guy who puts Bringing Out the Dead and King of Comedy on my top 5 Scorsese’s, so no shade cast on my part!

 

I don't think either of those would be controversial picks - King of Comedy would be one of my picks in a Scorsese top five as well - that's another absolute tour de force, from De Niro....... Fans of Comic Book Films, can and should thank Martin Scorsese for making that film, otherwise they'd never have gotten The Joker, you can see King of Comedy's influences all over it.

 

Screw video games lets just review films going forward! We can be the next Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo

 

Okay..... Okay...... I'll get back in my box and review video games! ?

 

Which reminds me - I actually have one to post..

 

Oh and I'm looking forward to diving into the science tomorrow - as I didn't see it had gone up until just as I went to reply to this.

 

[rjkclarke]

Another Feline New Platinum

 

 

Platinum # 334

Cat Quest II (PS4)

 

 

Pawlatinum
You are pawsome!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 28 October 202: 7:28:24 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 day, 19 hours, 7 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 65.51%

Trophy Number - #16,054

 

 

 

Cat Quest II is almost one of the purrfect (sorry, I had to,) video game examples of the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Every once in a while, that’s fine – sometimes a video game doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to still be a thoroughly enjoyable experience, for me that was pretty much my time with Cat Quest II.

 

Following on from the previous title – Cat Quest II is set many years after the events of the first game. For the record – this isn’t a game where you have to know any of the previous games events or the lore to really have a worthwhile experience with it though. There is a story of course – but if you wanted to, you can pretty much ignore it, it’s charming and very funny in places, so it is worthwhile, but due to the games fairly short runtime, it isn’t something I really found I paid all that much attention too.

 

Cat Quest II boasts the same charming visual elements that the original title has, vibrant and colourful, it looks surprisingly very appealing given how the game almost looks like a mobile title at a glance. It seems like there was a conscious decision this time around to try and diversify the enemy types and their respective appearances, which I felt often kept things fresh.

I’ve got fairly mixed feelings on the soundtrack – it’s perfectly fine, and I didn’t once find it tiresome, I just wish there was more of it, some of the tracks are recycled from the original game too, so I struggle to think of anything noticeably new that really reached out and grabbed me by the paw.... I mean hand...

 

The real thing of note is the addictive gameplay loop – which is a substantial improvement from the already, stellar fare seen in the original Cat Quest. Is it complex, intricate and deeply layered? No, not at all, but it’s so satisfying, and laid back to play that I don’t think any of the wordage I used above actually hamper the experience one bit.

As a small scale open world experience it’s very enjoyable – the dungeons in Cat Quest II have far more variety than they did in the first title. Some come in the forms of fight arenas, others are small scale puzzles, and one or two are pretty hilarious. One thing I felt Cat Quest II was really lacking was side-quests – I’m sure there was more in the original title, what there are, are actually very good – there’s a nice little Harry Potter inspired one, and plenty of other nice little pop culture references that’ll put a smile on your face. I actually think the fact I wanted more side-quests is a positive more than a negative, as that’s a pretty big endorsement of the overall quality on display within them.

 

That being said, this time around there is a few new wrinkles that do add something substantially different to the experience, which really sets it apart from the original title. This is the inclusion of two playable characters instead of one. Or alternatively, couch co-op – now, I might have played this game completely solo, but I can’t ignore how good this feature could potentially be, just because I didn’t make use of it.

 Solo or co-op your dog partner (yes you have a dog buddy in this game,) and yourself, have interchangeable equipment – neither the cat nor the dog, have any specific skills or abilities that only they can use. Which if I’m honest feels like a wasted opportunity, considering you can switch between them with one button press when playing solo, it might give you more reason to switch between them more regularly.

Here’s the thing – just the inclusion of another customisable character adds quite a lot to the whole experience, you can essentially have several set ups, you could have two melee users, or one mage and one melee user (my preferred set up,) or a few other combinations. This inclusion actually gives the games combat a little bit more depth than in the previous game, which really amounted to press attack – dodge – use magic – repeat. Whilst here,  if you want to play cautiously and do late game things early, so long as you’re efficient at dodging, or have high armour stats, you can essentially kite the enemies, as your partner deals steady damage.

 

I don’t expect anyone would spend more than about fifteen hours on their quest for the platinum in Cat Quest II. Nothing in the game is missable – so you can essentially play through it how you like – do side-quests as they appear, or wait until after the final boss, that decision is entirely up to you.  

 

Much like its predecessor Cat Quest II is almost the purrfect (sorry, I really must stop,) game to play after a long hard day – or a time when lethargy starts to take over – the game is simple and satisfying, yet still very enjoyable, and unlike with some other RPG’s  your progress doesn’t seem to slow to a crawl. In this game you always feel like you’re gaining momentum towards your goals.

 If you can find this for a decent price, and you wanted to scratch an RPG itch, one that you didn’t fancy scratching with something bigger, this might be just the thing for you.

 

Oh wow - I wrote a short-ish one for once - it was way shorter, but I thought it was too short, so I thought I should expand in the few areas that there are, to actually explore in a little bit of depth!

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The Road to Platinum and 100% in Arkham Knight Part 1

 

So I've been meaning to go back to this one for a while - so I thought why not make a little mini-series type thing about it in here. I'll give a little update whenever I make any significant progress with it. Think of them like when I was playing Final Fantasy IX and I'd add a little progress update at the end of a review or something.

 

I really should go back to Arkham City for clean up in the future too, but right now I'll save that for another time, as I don't really fancy exclusively playing as Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing for long spells.

 

So what do I actually have left in Arkham Knight I hear nobody ask..... Well, I'll tell you anyway, I'm 80% complete, trophy progress, wise, but I still have plenty to do. There's:  some miscellaneous base game trophies, alongside New Game plus, then the remaining Batmobile DLC's and the community challenges..... Something tells me I might be on those for a while.

 

Which ironically was the first thing I attempted tonight - and man was I rusty - well that and the fact that the Batmobile controls like absolute arse..... If only I had the racing skills of @Destructor-8 - I'd be powering through them... But I've at least made a little bit of progress tonight - I finished Scarecrows Nightmare, and managed to knock out the trophy for AR stars in Michael Keatons Batmobile, which actually does handle pretty nicely actually.

 

I'm looking forward to the occasional revisit with this one - it'll be nice having the Arkham trilogy ticked off nicely eventually. So onwards and upwards!

 

I'll catch you all in the next one! Which might well be the next Classic Review - so off to the Island of Monkeys and Herman Toothrot we go! ?

 

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

2 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I hate to break this to you Smevz...... But John Mahoney isn't with us anymore ..... I think he died a year or so back unfortunately.

 

...well, I was having a good day..

 

What?? I hadn't even heard that, and I could've sworn I'd seen promotional materials with him in them! Maybe that was denial?

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Dude, if that gets your blood up, wait for this one: Titanic is on there, but Terminator 2 isn’t.

 

I’m the guy who would go to bat for Terminator over T2 any day of the week - but even I know that if Jim Cameron is allowed anywhere near a list like that, Terminator 2 is the only sane excuse for why! 

 

Wait lemme have a look at this.. wait, what the fu..

 

It sure is! Above Pulp Fiction, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, The French Connection, and freakin 12 Angry Men?? I know these are to be taken with a grain of Salt, but wow, that's pretty terrible.

 

And Terminator 2 over Titanic ALL DAY. T2 was so well crafted, it took DECADES to start showing its age (and it STILL looks good!). I'm with you on the first Terminator though - I've always felt that T2 was the better experience, but T1 was the superior movie.

 

Even though the special effects were 80s as hell?

[Platinum_Vice]

8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Thanks for the  heads up - I'll try and do that going forward then.....

 

 

........ Right, here's the thing......

 

I actually have the Greatest Hits album loaded onto my iPod I guess that's the thing with having 80GB of storage, you tend to just chuck everything on there even if it doesn't get heard all that often. 

 

I'll be honest, my problem with them more arose from being a little twit head 17 year old - who was into about the heaviest metal I could get my hands on... So I remember listening to the Foo's and hearing something like  My Hero (which I now like by the way,) and just thinking something like " why doesn't he behead his hero and drink his blood or something." .........

 

Well nothing that quite extreme obviously - but when I first heard them they weren't what I considered Heavy enough...... Ironically, I don't listen to Metal too extensively anymore, so with that in mind.....

 

.... Looks like I'm off for some self-flagellation by Order of Mr WARgasm!

 

oh and to listen to some of the Foo Fighters back catalogue - it can't hurt to try.

 

 

7 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I really should go back to Arkham City for clean up in the future too, but right now I'll save that for another time, as I don't really fancy exclusively playing as Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing for long spells.

 

So what do I actually have left in Arkham Knight I hear nobody ask..... Well, I'll tell you anyway

 

 

 

"Why doesnt he rip off his head and drink his blood or something" well that would be pretty metal, sure, but what about breaking your leg in concert, vowing to continue the show after getting it splinted while the band plays cover songs, and then actually coming back that night and finishing the show? Or what about playing so loud that your show measures on New Zealand's Richter scale? Or what about doing a drum-off with Animal from The Muppets so that your daughters can see you on the big screen?

 

That's metal.

 

 

Best of luck with the Arkham trilogy. The DLC is too formidable for me!

 

 

Also: T2 is the best Terminator movie. @DrBloodmoney is tripping balls.

[DrBloodmoney]

7 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

So what do I actually have left in Arkham Knight I hear nobody ask..... Well, I'll tell you anyway, I'm 80% complete, trophy progress, wise, but I still have plenty to do. There's:  some miscellaneous base game trophies, alongside New Game plus, then the remaining Batmobile DLC's and the community challenges..... Something tells me I might be on those for a while.

 

Ah, the Community Challenge Pack awaits...

 

God Speed to you sir! That DLC should really have come in a special edition box, in the shape of a giant middle finger!

I spent so long trying to get Croc to appear in the Iceberg Lounge, that when I finally did manage it, I almost lost the fight immediately, as I had forgotten all the controls of the game besides the crowd control fight ones! ? I had to pause the game and look up a website to relearn the boss-fight and QTE controls!

 

10 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

Also: T2 is the best Terminator movie. @DrBloodmoney is tripping balls.

 

 

??

 

[PlutoRico]

Will be nice to follow your progress on Batman Arkham Knight, I did this game on my previous account and really enjoyed it. The Community Challenge DLC is the most challenging part but I believe you'll get through it ? 

 

I have always felt like Arkham Knight was under appreciated which led people to place Arkham City as the greatest superhero video game, so I'd be curious to know which one is your favorite and why. Maybe you can do this in some sort of review where you rank the trilogy based on their strengths and weaknesses ? ?

[DrunkenEngineer]

Looking forward to your progress on Arkham Knight!  That's my oldest trophy set here, and I'm primed to revist it as well.

 

If only I had more time in the day and games just stopped releasing.

[rjkclarke]

On 29/10/2021 at 3:39 AM, YaManSmevz said:

...well, I was having a good day..

 

What?? I hadn't even heard that, and I could've sworn I'd seen promotional materials with him in them! Maybe that was denial

 

 

Apparently he passed away in 2018, I thought it was much more recent than that, sorry to bum you out man!

 

On 29/10/2021 at 9:03 AM, GonzoWARgasm said:

"Why doesnt he rip off his head and drink his blood or something" well that would be pretty metal, sure, but what about breaking your leg in concert, vowing to continue the show after getting it splinted while the band plays cover songs, and then actually coming back that night and finishing the show? Or what about playing so loud that your show measures on New Zealand's Richter scale? Or what about doing a drum-off with Animal from The Muppets so that your daughters can see you on the big screen?

 

That's metal.

 

 

Best of luck with the Arkham trilogy. The DLC is too formidable for me!

 

 

Something tells me you really really like Dave Grohl

 

Those things are very cool to be fair.....

 

..... So it looks like I need to spend some time tomorrow doing some musical re-education - instead of being a little arse head and just writing them off as " not metal enough"

 

Thanks for the good luck with Batman - if I can do them, then you can be sure you'll be able to - so don't write yourself off just yet.

 

On 29/10/2021 at 9:17 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Ah, the Community Challenge Pack awaits...

 

God Speed to you sir! That DLC should really have come in a special edition box, in the shape of a giant middle finger!

I spent so long trying to get Croc to appear in the Iceberg Lounge, that when I finally did manage it, I almost lost the fight immediately, as I had forgotten all the controls of the game besides the crowd control fight ones!  I had to pause the game and look up a website to relearn the boss-fight and QTE controls!

 

 

That's erm...... Well that's daunting Doc......  Yet also hilarious!

 

Those are the ones I'm expecting will take a stupid amount of time to be fair, especially the ones for finishing the levels without taking a single bit of damage.

 

Until I fired it up the other day, I don't think that I'd played Arkham Knight since just before NieR: Automata came out,that's the last timeI remember playing it, I was doing the Batgirl DLC. So I'm going to be so rusty when it comes to the combat and some of it's finer intricacies, but we'll see how I manage.

 

On 29/10/2021 at 1:58 PM, PlutoRico said:

Will be nice to follow your progress on Batman Arkham Knight, I did this game on my previous account and really enjoyed it. The Community Challenge DLC is the most challenging part but I believe you'll get through it  

 

I have always felt like Arkham Knight was under appreciated which led people to place Arkham City as the greatest superhero video game, so I'd be curious to know which one is your favorite and why. Maybe you can do this in some sort of review where you rank the trilogy based on their strengths and weaknesses ? 

 

Thanks for the belief man! Much appreciated, I'll try and struggle through that's for sure - and I do like a nice little bit of challenge from time to time,so bring it on I say.

 

I am going to review Arkham Asylum and Arkham City in the lead up to doing the Arkham Knight one - so I guess I will be going into what you suggested in one way or another yeah - I don't quite understand why people go so wild for Arkham City myself..... Before I actually get into the review itself, I'll let you in on what my favourite one actually is, and that's Arkham Asylum.

 

I guess I'll expand on that more in a proper review though.

 

That's a great suggestion about ranking the trilogy - because I considered doing that with the Tomb Raider trilogies when I covered those a couple of months back, but haven't actually gotten around to doing a proper "ranking" post just yet, so I guess that's one for the future too.

 

On 29/10/2021 at 8:04 PM, DrunkenEngineer said:

Looking forward to your progress on Arkham Knight!  That's my oldest trophy set here, and I'm primed to revist it as well.

 

If only I had more time in the day and games just stopped releasing.

 

That's the eternal struggle right? Fighting against  a lack of free time and the influx of awesome new games.

 

Thanks though - I appreciate that man, I am equally looking forward to hearing about your progress on it going forward. I'm pretty sure you'll have it slain in no time, when you want something done you seem to absolutely go full on with it, so I reckon you'll decimate it!

 

Also - I finally have your Monkey Island review ready.... In fact I'm going to post it straight after this, sorry it has taken a while, for the longest time I couldn't quite figure out how to actually get it started, but hopefully you enjoy reading it.

 

So I guess I'll be back in here in a few minutes anyway!

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PS3)

 

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

100% Achieved - 29 May 2017: 10:27:55 AM

Time taken to 100%: 2 years, 9 months, 1 day

100% Rarity - 13.70%

 

 

 

I’ve got to be honest – now that I’m actually sitting down to write this Monkey Island review – a series I’ve referenced multiple times across a plethora of reviews, I’m a little worried I’m not going to do it justice. I’ll give it my best shot though as this video game series is one that is about as dear to me as a video game series can be to anyone.

So I think before we really get into the review itself, I guess I should elaborate on why it is I love this series so much to begin with, and why I’ll forever be thankful for it for the multitude of awesome gaming experiences I’ve had since playing this one, and will probably continue to have going forward.

 

I believe I was seven or eight when I was first introduced to the Monkey Island series. The first game I was exposed to was released just before my seventh birthday. The Curse of Monkey Island (the third entry) was the first one that I ever played.  I have the most vivid memory of going to my Godmothers’ house when I was off school for some reason, I was probably ill if I had to guess. I get there, and she asked me what I wanted to do, I think I’d brought some Doctor Who VHS’s with me to watch, and she asked me if I wanted to play Monkey Island, to which I asked what Monkey Island was, she said it was a game on the computer. I expect my little blue seven year old eyes probably lit up.

 

Video games weren’t a novel concept to me at this point; I think I first started to play them when I was about four, perhaps even younger. But I digress (surprise surprise, right?) As she was an English lecturer, she’d always encourage me (and still does) to do something that was a learning experience, but I was curious because it was a game, so I thought okay then. What I encountered was not what I expected – it turned out to be one of the most fun mornings I had as a child, to call my introductory experience of Monkey Island revelatory, would be an understatement.

I remember being absolutely blown away by the fact that video games “could be this.” It was wonderful, the shared experience of us sitting there trying to figure out some of the puzzles, we laughed, we got confused, and most importantly we had a lot of fun. Until that point I don’t think I’d ever realised that video games could be much more than – well, shooting things and jumping over or onto things. Ever since that day I’ve always had a much more experimental approach to video games, and I’ve always had a keen interest in any fascinating looking point-and-click adventure title as a result. I owe her a lot for being the one to really open my eyes to that, something she’s always encouraged me with, be it with literature or films too.

 

A testament to the quality of the series overall is that even when aspects of it at times make me a little sad, I’ve never associated the series with that tinge of sadness. It’s still always brought me so much joy. One of the best friends I’ve ever had is a huge fan of the Monkey Island series too, it’s something we discussed at length very often, and we used to have plenty of in-jokes between the two of us about it. The sad part is, she’s not a part of my life anymore, and I wish that she was, but realistically I doubt she ever will be again. Sometimes that just happens in life, I know she’s happy, and she’s successful, and that’s enough for me.

If it wasn’t a little obvious from how I worded that, I wanted her to be the Elaine to my Guybrush –  like an idiot, I should have just been happy that I had an amazing friend, and been content with that, instead of just gradually drifting apart. Nowadays I tend to look back on the Monkey Island series even more fondly as a result of that friendship, and think – well,  to borrow and tweak a line from Big Boss from the Metal Gear series. “This was good, wasn’t it.”

 

So I guess now that we’ve had another little dive into my head, one I thought was necessary to really explain why I love point-and-click titles so much, and often sing their praises, I guess it’s time to actually get into The Secret of Monkey Island, a world of three headed monkeys, insult sword fighting, and Pan Pipes, oh so much gorgeous Pan Pipe music.

 

The Secret of Monkey Island – was released in October of 1990. And whilst not the first point-and-click game by any stretch of the imagination, it is one of the very highest quality. What a powerhouse group of people that created this. Written by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman – you couldn’t really wish for a better group of three esoteric minds to craft an enjoyable, yet unusual story.

This game serves as the introduction to one of the most renowned characters across the entire point-and-click genre.  You take on the role of Guybrush Threepwood, mighty – or should that be hapless pirate? A loveable idiot, who often, if he doesn’t want to pick up an item, or in his own words “put that in my pants” will happily stuff them instead with a rubber chicken, with a pulley in the middle of it. He’s a goofy guy; it’s in the entire DNA of his character, so it fits remarkably well within the context of some of the off-kilter puzzle solving that has become synonymous with the genre. Dominic Armato returns to voice Guybrush for this Special Edition version; for me he’s as synonymous with Guybrush as someone like David Bateson is with Agent 47. Guybrush really is a loveable character, one that Rufus from Deponia wishes he could be, he does silly things sure, but it’s always clear he has the right intentions, whereas that’s a fundamentally missing thing with Rufus. But I guess I’ll elaborate more on that whenever I review the Deponia series down the line.

 

The characters themselves are one of the main reasons I think this game series resonates with so many people, they are ridiculously memorable. Are they the most nuanced characters you’ll ever find in a video game? Of course not, but they are memorable, and they are detailed – and some of them appear in some way or another, across almost every instance in the series. Their outlandish actions bring them to life in ways that mean you’ll never forget them. Stan the salesman and Murray the talking skull with delusions of grandeur are the perfect examples of this. Whilst both of them have fairly fleeting appearances in The Secret of Monkey Island, both of them have interactions with Guybrush, that mean you’ll never forget them, and they’ll almost certainly have you chuckling away at them.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition really, in that two characters like Elaine and LeChuck, are as memorable as they are – despite their appearances being fairly fleeting in this game at least, yet they’re also the driving force of the narrative. Guybrush loves Elaine despite having not interacted with her all that much, yet is willing to fight an evil ghost pirate in LeChuck, so it immediately gives us a reason to care about both of those things. To quantify the level of LeChuck’s evil deeds, he’s probably best compared to a Saturday morning cartoon villain, who has a multitude of grandiose plans that somehow always get thwarted by that “blithering idiot Threepwood.” Imagine someone like Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or even Dick Dastardly, to go even further back. Despite being the original title in the series, it does a fantastic job of setting up a universe of characters and places, which almost immediately make you want to return to them.

 

As this is called The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, I guess it would be remiss of me not to mention what it is that’s actually – well, special. Essentially this isn’t a common or garden remaster; this is a ground up remake. Or funnily enough it’s actually a ground up remake with the original sitting right underneath. If you chose to, you could play this game as originally intended, with the press of a button, as you switch into Classic Mode, tired of the spruced up visuals that came with the Special Edition? Turn them off, and play with the old ones – both options are there.

I’m not sure whether or not I personally have a preference between the two, they both look gorgeous, but the Special Edition visuals are quite the stark difference between some of the gorgeous pixel-art found in the original, they are slightly more reminiscent of the more cartoon-esque visual style seen in games from Curse of Monkey Island onwards. They do make the scenery look elegant, and the characters themselves have a finer detail, alongside this all of the characters costumes, are all the more vivacious, as a result. I do think there’s a little something lost in the visual department when you get close-ups of some of the characters like Mancomb Seepgood (yes, that’s really his name,) in the Scumm Bar, which is one of the most iconic visuals in the series, so to have it look so different might be slightly jarring for some.

 

Alongside, the new visuals – The Secret of Monkey Island, now contains voice acting – now, this is a bit of contentious one for me, because I’ve seen a lot of criticisms aimed at this special edition, specifically regarding the voice acting. So let me make this very clear, the voice acting itself is high-quality, unfortunately the way it’s been recorded is not. I wish reviewers and critics could actually tell the difference between those two things. There is a gulf of difference between those two things. It just sounds ever so slightly compressed in places, or that the actors are too far away from the microphone, so as a result, it can become a little distracting.

Overall it does a good job of bringing to life some characters I never expected to get a voice – I never expected Meathook (a painter with no hands, just hooks,) to have a voice, not only that, but to be voiced by one of my favourite voice actors in Cam Clarke. He also appears further into the game as one of the cannibals, and gives some of the funniest performances across the entire game. On balance, despite a few audio issues, I think it does add something positive to the mix to be able to play an already great game, with some added voice acting, including some returning voice actors, to make it all feel all the more authentic. It’d make the game even more palatable to newcomers of the series too – so if it managed to engage newer fans of the series as a result, then that’s absolutely got to be seen as a positive.

 

I won’t take up too much of your time by waxing lyrical about the soundtrack, even if I could – however much I might like to. Just be safe in the knowledge that it’s fantastic. Each area feels so distinct and memorable as a result of it, all I’d need to hear is a small sampling of something, and it’d immediately make me think of that area of the game. It’s really that good. I mentioned briefly in my Thimbleweed Park write-up how it can be a sign of good quality if a soundtrack can loop, yet never once be bothersome. The Secret of Monkey Island is almost the perfect example of that. The main Monkey Island theme itself is tremendous, and even thinking about it – is  always guaranteed to slap a nice big Joker-esque smile on my face, and the sheer amount of covers in various styles you can find online are a true testament to how deservedly beloved it really is.

 

Aside from the obvious pointing and clicking, the gameplay of The Secret of Monkey Island is fairly simple. The Special Edition version has had a significant overhaul, and a multitude of quality of life improvements. In the sense that you don’t have an entire panel of verbs in the bottom half of the screen dictating what you can and can’t do, instead they are made more context sensitive, and as a result a little more dynamic. For instance, instead of manually selecting the give verb and then clicking on the item, you now just press diagonally upwards and left on the D-pad, to select that action. Of course if you wish to, you can change those by turning the game into Classic Mode, if you longed for the more authentic experience. Those changes are made across the board regarding the verbs, and as a result make for a much less cumbersome and streamlined experience.

The Secret of Monkey Island introduces us to a few series staples too such as insult sword fighting, one of my favourite aspects of the game, that have you hurling insults back and forth, ranging from hilarity to downright unusual, to try and outwit your opponent. Add to this, the fact that some of the puzzles are randomised each playthrough of the game, there’s always going to be an aspect of freshness to almost every playthrough of the game. Point-and-click games in general are always known for their fairly abnormal uses for items, and that only continues here, I assume most of us wouldn’t immediately see a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle of it – and then have the brainwave to use it as a zip line across some rope, and that’s only scratching the surface.

 

Don’t be alarmed if you look at the amount of time it took me to get the one hundred percent completion in this game. It’s very straightforward.  I played up until a certain point and then didn’t go back to it for years, probably because I’d already played the game several times before I even played this version that had trophies in it, so I think I always intended to go back to it, but took a much longer time than intended actually getting there. It’s a very simple list; you essentially play through the game without using hints, and then use one save slot for two endings, alongside some miscellaneous tasks.

There is a speedrun trophy for finishing the game under three hours, and here’s my advice – do that on a second playthrough if you’ve never played this before. Just experience it once by yourself, use a guide if you have to, but don’t be bound to it, half the fun in these types of games come from those EUREKA! moments. The ones where, you’ve figured out the puzzle solution, despite the fact it might have – well, been staring you in the face the whole time, until something really obvious just clicks.

 

To the surprise of literally nobody....... Of course I would recommend this game. I can’t promise you’d love it the way that I do, heck this isn’t even my favourite one, but it’s still excellent. However, if you don’t have access to a PS3 and felt like you fancied playing it at some point, have no fear, as I believe it is still on PSNow – so you could quite easily hop on there and give yourself a nice little trip to see “the second biggest monkey head I’ve ever seen.” Any lag you’d potentially get from PSNow would be negligible anyway, as you are predominantly just – well, pointing and clicking, so have at it

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I feel like I have to say a huge thank you to @DrunkenEngineer for requesting this one - I was always going to get around to covering a Monkey Island game sooner or later, but I'm so glad that I have now. I put quite a lot of myself into that one - so I guess that's not a review in the most traditional sense, it deviated a bit like my Broken Sword 5 review did, so anyone that read that one will probably know what I mean.  I remained objective though, it's just that this happens to be a very good game, that doesn't contain all that many flaws to really speak of.

 

This has been an absolute blast writing this one - I'm going to have to do one about a Legacy of Kain game at some point, even if it doesn't have trophies in it, I still feel like I ought to write about one of them, as I reference them a lot, so it'd be nice if I can share with anyone that reads these exactly what I find so interesting about that series.

 

As always if you want to request something specific, all you have to do is ask - you can find any details you might need in the first post of this thread -  I've got plenty of pretty interesting ones to review now as a result of @Copanele's long list I've been tasked with, but if you wanted to make that list even longer,? then the option is there. They'll all get done eventually, and I'll always remember to tag your name whenever I actually get around to writing that review.

 

Catch you in the next one folks!

Edited October 31, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Classic Review

 

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PS3)

 

 

 

Outstanding!

 

I loved how much this game meant to you, and how eloquently you expressed that. It was a joy picturing mini Mr. Clarke playing a game with his grams!

 

Sorry to hear about your friend, but happy that the friendship left such positive memories. When you said Elaine, however, for some reason I thought you were going to make a Seinfeld analogy and then when I read Guybrush, I thought it was a joke about Jerry that simply went over my head?

 

Damn, Cam Clarke! I remember when I realized that Liquid Snake and Leonardo were voiced by the same person, I could hear how startlingly small the gap between the two voices was and it blew my freakin mind.

 

I love when soundtracks can loop and it never loses its freshness... I'm experiencing that with Hotline Miami at the moment! Also experiencing the laborious experimenting it takes to solve a puzzle until the light bulb goes off over your head with The Witness. So rewarding!

 

Great review man, as always?

[DrBloodmoney]

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

Classic Review

 

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PS3)

 

 

Hey - saw you post this over the weekend, but decided to save it for when I could sit down with a coffee and read properly, as I had an inkling you'd be delving here!

 

?? - and you didn't disappoint!

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

...she said it was a game on the computer. I expect my little blue seven year old eyes probably lit up.

 

Video games weren’t a novel concept to me at this point; I think I first started to play them when I was about four, perhaps even younger. But I digress (surprise surprise, right?) As she was an English lecturer, she’d always encourage me (and still does) to do something that was a learning experience, but I was curious because it was a game, so I thought okay then. What I encountered was not what I expected – it turned out to be one of the most fun mornings I had as a child, to call my introductory experience of Monkey Island revelatory, would be an understatement.

I remember being absolutely blown away by the fact that video games “could be this.”

 

These are my favourite parts of these write-ups that folks do - when you get to see which were the games that awoke people to the reaches and the elasticity of the medium - and see what games it was that drew someone in, and stuck them there so firmly that they never got back out!

(I call them "Myst Moments"... and it probably doesn't take a rubber chicken and a selection of verbs to deduce where that oh-so-on-the-nose nomenclature comes from ?)

 

It really is an amazing medium, videogames - unlike almost any other one, that first really amazing moment with a game comes along much earlier than it generally does with film or TV or novels, and really shapes how a person views and approaches the whole medium from that point onwards.

You never hear anyone going "Well, the first film I saw was Basil and the Great Mouse Detective - so all movie with mice have really spoken to me since..." but it really feels like whatever was the 'awakening' moment in games, it affects a gamer's outlook forevermore!

 

 

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

The Secret of Monkey Island – was released in October of 1990. And whilst not the first point-and-click game by any stretch of the imagination, it is one of the very highest quality. What a powerhouse group of people that created this. Written by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman – you couldn’t really wish for a better group of three esoteric minds to craft an enjoyable, yet unusual story.

 

What I always admired about the Monkey Island games, is that they seem to really be the nexus point between the broad comedy, and the more serious 'adventuring' adventure games - they are just as daft and irreverent as something like Grim Fandango or Day of the Tentacle, but also have one foot still squarely in the Broken Sword / Siberia camp, in the sense that their plots and stakes aren't treated as a joke - just the circumstances and solutions. The goofiness feels layered on top of a functional narrative that could, if all the humour were (nightmarishly) drained away, still function as a serious tone too.

I guess the difference between, say, Airplane or The Naked Gun - where the story is an actual plot line, but the humour comes layered on top, as opposed to a purely broad comedy, where goofiness is untethered by any real plot, and can lack flavour for it. The humour comes from goofy characters, rather than the entire world being one long joke.

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

As this is called The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, I guess it would be remiss of me not to mention what it is that’s actually – well, special. Essentially this isn’t a common or garden remaster; this is a ground up remake. Or funnily enough it’s actually a ground up remake with the original sitting right underneath. If you chose to, you could play this game as originally intended, with the press of a button, as you switch into Classic Mode, tired of the spruced up visuals that came with the Special Edition? Turn them off, and play with the old ones – both options are there.

I’m not sure whether or not I personally have a preference between the two, they both look gorgeous, but the Special Edition visuals are quite the stark difference between some of the gorgeous pixel-art found in the original, they are slightly more reminiscent of the more cartoon-esque visual style seen in games from Curse of Monkey Island onwards. They do make the scenery look elegant, and the characters themselves have a finer detail, alongside this all of the characters costumes, are all the more vivacious, as a result. I do think there’s a little something lost in the visual department when you get close-ups of some of the characters like Mancomb Seepgood (yes, that’s really his name,) in the Scumm Bar, which is one of the most iconic visuals in the series, so to have it look so different might be slightly jarring for some.

 

I really like when updated games do this - though  I end up in ADHD mode - flipping between them in every scene ?

Out of curiosity, which did you play the game in as the 'dominant' one?

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

Alongside, the new visuals – The Secret of Monkey Island, now contains voice acting – now, this is a bit of contentious one for me, because I’ve seen a lot of criticisms aimed at this special edition, specifically regarding the voice acting. So let me make this very clear, the voice acting itself is high-quality, unfortunately the way it’s been recorded is not. I wish reviewers and critics could actually tell the difference between those two things. There is a gulf of difference between those two things. 

 

Word!

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

To the surprise of literally nobody....... Of course I would recommend this game. I can’t promise you’d love it the way that I do, heck this isn’t even my favourite one, but it’s still excellent. However, if you don’t have access to a PS3 and felt like you fancied playing it at some point, have no fear, as I believe it is still on PSNow – so you could quite easily hop on there and give yourself a nice little trip to see “the second biggest monkey head I’ve ever seen.” Any lag you’d potentially get from PSNow would be negligible anyway, as you are predominantly just – well, pointing and clicking, so have at it

 

Great review man - every time I see a passionate review like this, where you can feel the love for the game coming through every line, it just makes me think of all those times I see people seemingly pooping on every game they play, and making me wonder "what are you here? do you even like games?" ?

 

This one makes me want to play this all over again!

 

 

On 31/10/2021 at 1:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

As always if you want to request something specific, all you have to do is ask - you can find any details you might need in the first post of this thread -  I've got plenty of pretty interesting ones to review now as a result of @Copanele's long list I've been tasked with, but if you wanted to make that list even longer, then the option is there. They'll all get done eventually, and I'll always remember to tag your name whenever I actually get around to writing that review.

 

No pressure to get to anything quickly, but a game I'd love to see your take on on your list is Yesterday Origins! That's one of those games I don't know anything about, but for some reason, it keeps needling it's way into my mind whenever I see it on sale...

 

Having said that - there is another one that I really, really want to see you review - purely so I can read the eight pages of interesting back and forth between you and @The_Kopite that it will inevitably precipitate - FFX-2!

[rjkclarke]

On 31/10/2021 at 9:06 AM, YaManSmevz said:

 

Outstanding!

 

I loved how much this game meant to you, and how eloquently you expressed that. It was a joy picturing mini Mr. Clarke playing a game with his grams!

 

Sorry to hear about your friend, but happy that the friendship left such positive memories. When you said Elaine, however, for some reason I thought you were going to make a Seinfeld analogy and then when I read Guybrush, I thought it was a joke about Jerry that simply went over my head

 

 

Thanks man!

 

I would call it a labour of love - but nothing about writing that was laborious - the version of Monkey Island that's been sitting on one of my shelves for years is the exact same copy that I played with her all those years ago, so it still gets dusted off occasionally.

 

I think that's the only way to look back on that friendship, is as a positive one - I guess it'd be easy to get caught up in what ifs and negativity, but it was a happy time, for both of us, and it might not have worked out exactly how I'd wanted it to at the time, it's still something worth remembering fondly.

 

You know, Seinfeld is something I really have to educate myself on - I've not really seen enough of it, it didn't get repeated all that much over here, or if it did, it wasn't anywhere I was aware of, so I kind of stumbled into it a bit later on, but I feel like that's one of those things I need to really dive into, because it always gets such universal praise.

 

On 31/10/2021 at 9:06 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Damn, Cam Clarke! I remember when I realized that Liquid Snake and Leonardo were voiced by the same person, I could hear how startlingly small the gap between the two voices was and it blew my freakin mind.

 

I love when soundtracks can loop and it never loses its freshness... I'm experiencing that with Hotline Miami at the moment! Also experiencing the laborious experimenting it takes to solve a puzzle until the light bulb goes off over your head with The Witness. So rewarding!

 

Great review man, as always ?

 

Speaking of Cam Clarke - I don't know if you've seen this but Cam Clarke had this up on his YouTube channel a few years back around Christmas

 

 

It's a funny little bit from himself and David Hayter - I remember showing this to one of my friends and he loved it too. I was going to send you this at Christmas, but you might have seen it anyway, and I'm clearly impatient haha ?......... You might like this too @Slavaif you've never seen it.

 

My favourite Cam Clarke performance is actually from Tales of Symphonia - I don't think Kratos (not angry bald fanny in a loincloth, a different one, ?) would have half as much nuance, and depth if he didn't have Cam Clarke's voice attached to it, he is absolutely outstanding in that game!

 

You're right too, there isn't a world of difference between Leonardo and Liquid Snake - there's something very very, distinctive about the way he says certain words, that you can't help but notice it.

 

Great to hear you're having a great time with those respective games too. I really have got to play The Witness at some point - Doc's review pretty much cemented for me that I'd have a great time with it, I just haven't quite gotten around to starting it yet.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Hey - saw you post this over the weekend, but decided to save it for when I could sit down with a coffee and read properly, as I had an inkling you'd be delving here!

 

 - and you didn't disappoint!

 

 

Thanks mate - I really appreciate that - that's pretty much why I sometimes take a bit longer to respond to your science rankings sometimes, I always want to sit down with enough time to really take everything in, and relax with a good cup of coffee or tea (not mixed together, I'm not a monster ).

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

These are my favourite parts of these write-ups that folks do - when you get to see which were the games that awoke people to the reaches and the elasticity of the medium - and see what games it was that drew someone in, and stuck them there so firmly that they never got back out!

(I call them "Myst Moments"... and it probably doesn't take a rubber chicken and a selection of verbs to deduce where that oh-so-on-the-nose nomenclature comes from )

 

It really is an amazing medium, videogames - unlike almost any other one, that first really amazing moment with a game comes along much earlier than it generally does with film or TV or novels, and really shapes how a person views and approaches the whole medium from that point onwards.

You never hear anyone going "Well, the first film I saw was Basil and the Great Mouse Detective - so all movie with mice have really spoken to me since..." but it really feels like whatever was the 'awakening' moment in games, it affects a gamer's outlook forevermore!

 

 

 

Yep I love reading about those "Myst Moments" too (great description by the way,) I thought I ought to delve into it a bit - because unfortunately point-and-click games have got a tiny bit of stigma attached to them, in that they usually contain easy trophies (which some people think are a crime apparently,) so I wanted to really make it clear, how much I'd love games like that even if trophies never came into existence.

 

That's a great point you make, and the more I think about it, the truer it is - especially when you think that video games as a medium seem to still be an evolving giant (long may that continue). I suspect it has a lot to do with the interactive element,I guess our exposure to that interactivity at those early points means we end up finding it all the more engaging as a result. It's a bit like we discussed a bit with This War of Mine, video games have the ability to do that in a much more personal way, than a film or a book might, just because the interactivity is heightened by so much, which is probably quite important at an early time.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

What I always admired about the Monkey Island games, is that they seem to really be the nexus point between the broad comedy, and the more serious 'adventuring' adventure games - they are just as daft and irreverent as something like Grim Fandango or Day of the Tentacle, but also have one foot still squarely in the Broken Sword / Siberia camp, in the sense that their plots and stakes aren't treated as a joke - just the circumstances and solutions. The goofiness feels layered on top of a functional narrative that could, if all the humour were (nightmarishly) drained away, still function as a serious tone too.

I guess the difference between, say, Airplane or The Naked Gun - where the story is an actual plot line, but the humour comes layered on top, as opposed to a purely broad comedy, where goofiness is untethered by any real plot, and can lack flavour for it. The humour comes from goofy characters, rather than the entire world being one long joke.

 

Another great point - Monkey Island as a series has always managed to maintain that balance fairly well I'd say. I'm glad it has too, because otherwise I seriously think it might lack something.

 

I'm a bit bummed out I can't really ever do any reviews on Syberia on here - I've never bothered to play the PS3 version, as the 100% is unobtainable in the version of Syberia 2 that's in our region store, so I'd have to make a US account then buy that version just to be able to review it, but I quite enjoyed those Syberia titles when I played them back in the day. I've not played the third one yet, so I guess I'll just leave that as a maybe for now.

 

Speaking of Monkey Island but with the humour drained. Have you ever seen Cutthroat Island? I've always thought of that film, as Monkey Island-ish, but with pretty much all of the goofiness and the humour drained out of it. I don't mind that film, but it definitely takes itself a little more seriously than I think it needs to - yet aesthetically and plot wise, there's plenty of similarities between both of them, and I don't just mean the obvious pirate connection.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I really like when updated games do this - though  I end up in ADHD mode - flipping between them in every scene 

Out of curiosity, which did you play the game in as the 'dominant' one?

 

 

I don't think you are the only one ? - I found myself doing that a lot, just switching between the two pretty often to see the differences between the two.

 

To answer your question though - when I first played it going for trophies I'm pretty sure I played it with the Special Edition graphics, as the dominant one. Because I'd already played it plenty of times before with the original graphics so I thought I might as well just predominately use these new ones.

 

On subsequent playthroughs - I'd probably say more often than not I go for the Classic Mode look - but keep the voice acting on so it ends up becoming a bit of a hybridised version that I tend to go for.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Great review man - every time I see a passionate review like this, where you can feel the love for the game coming through every line, it just makes me think of all those times I see people seemingly pooping on every game they play, and making me wonder "what are you here? do you even like games?" 

 

This one makes me want to play this all over again!

 

 

Thanks again - I'm happy that I managed to actually get that passion across, I did worry that I was praising the game maybe a little too much - until I remembered the game is actually excellent anyway, regardless of my personal feelings towards it.

 

That makes me feel a little more sane for thinking that too then - because I always think that when I see someone just crapping all over pretty much every game that they pick up, and I do end up thinking " why are you doing any of this? If none of this is actually fun for you." It certainly does make you question why people bother sometimes, if all they ever seem to experience is a negative one

 

Part of me wonders if it's a case of people playing a game for the trophies as opposed to - well, because they actually want to play it. Which is a mindset I've always tried to avoid.

 

I mean there's worse games you could spend your time playing..... So as you've been on a PS3 revisit lately, you could always hop on a little boat to Monkey Island......... ?

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

No pressure to get to anything quickly, but a game I'd love to see your take on on your list is Yesterday Origins! That's one of those games I don't know anything about, but for some reason, it keeps needling it's way into my mind whenever I see it on sale...

 

Having said that - there is another one that I really, really want to see you review - purely so I can read the eight pages of interesting back and forth between you and @The_Kopite that it will inevitably precipitate - FFX-2!

 

That's interesting you specifically mention Yesterday Origins - because I played that almost exactly a year ago, and I still think about it very often - so that'll be an interesting one to revisit for sure. So I'll get around to that in the near future. Put it this way if Charles Cecil somehow teamed up with Pendulo Studios to make a sixth Broken Sword title, which I'd read he's been thinking about making fairly recently, then that game could be phenomenal, even without Pendulo's involvement it could be great, but Yesterday Origins takes so much inspiration from Broken Sword. I look forward to getting to Yesterday Origins now then, now you've given me an excuse.

 

I worry that, that back and forth between Kopite and I would just be interesting to the three of us, and maybe nobody else ? - I swear there's already like five pages at least of this thread of us discussing Final Fantasy already. Haha!

 

That's an interesting one though FFX-2 - I'm obviously going to have to do FFX first I think - just for context and what not, and that's going to be a fairly lengthy one, what with it being my favourite Final Fantasy title. FFX-2 will be bizarre, because I've got such mixed feelings about that game, I guess I'll just have to iron them out and watch the as you say "eight pages of back and forth" play out 

 

Thanks for the feedback though - I'm looking forward to tackling those!

 

I might get to at least FFX this month, it's already going to be a fairly RPG heavy one - as I've got the review of the original NieR dropping on the 7th (the tenth anniversary of me getting the platinum) and then later on at the end of the month on the 28th I've got Tales of Zestiria pencilled in for a very specific post I've been thinking of for a while, so I'm sure I can probably cram it in somewhere.

Edited November 1, 2021 by rjkclarke