Garibaldi

I’m actually a bit upset after watching the latest trailer. Thinking that this deeply mediocre series will be Stewart’s last outing as a character that made his career, and is so beloved by Star Trek fans. It feels like witnessing the horror that was the recent GTA remasters - a cynical, charmless mess that leaves boot-treads in your fond memories as it’s dumped into your lap as though you should be happy about it. Going back to present day ala The Voyage Home just proves to me, if it were ever in doubt, how devoid of ideas and ambition the show runners are. ‘Time is broken?’ Nah, Star Trek is broken, and it’s because of pricks like Kurtzman, Chabon, and Goldsman.

I’m on PS5 and yes, they are. At least, they were the last time I played. Even though that was a few months ago, I feel confident to say it hasn’t changed as 4A Games don’t exactly update their stuff at light speed, if at all. Odd to me, really, as they made such a fuss over the next-gen update you’d think a fix like that would be a point of pride.

Yeah, some of those are fair. The gunplay can be a bit clumsy, though I think I avoided the worst of it as my default approach in FPS games is often stealth and silent kills. The game doesn’t hand hold and it’s entirely possible to miss cool weapons or handy upgrades as a result, which can either be quite refreshing or a huge pain. The map kinda worked for me as it triggered a sense of ‘I wonder wtf that place is?’ Curiosity which was sometimes rewarded and sometimes not. You certainly need to keep some sense of where everything is in your own head as well. I would turn off HDR before playing this game tbh. It just doesn’t work and makes some parts unintentionally comical (played without, there’s an area that’s a dark space filled with skittering sounds, played with and it’s so bright you can literally see all the spiders just chilling, waiting for you.) I certainly agree on the dialogue. You think it’s over and are wandering off when the guy you’ve been speaking to starts blabbering again, triggering that awkward real-life feeling of ‘sorry, I really need to….yeah, I can’t stay for…’ Don’t be afraid to just walk away when you think you’ve heard enough. Outside of main character discussions, it’s mostly all flavour anyway.

An entertaining round-up. Their feelings on Boba Fett and (most) of the marvel shows pretty much mirror my own. Funniest part was discussing Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell awkwardly going for maximum Jewishness.

I know next to nothing about the character, apart from once being told that he’s like a more murdery Batman. Which obviously had me intrigued.

Friend said to me ‘All of us are dead on January 28th,’ yesterday, and I just nodded like this was no surprise before they clarified they were talking about a TV series. Looking forward to it.

Have it your way. I tried to meet you in the middle but if you’d rather respond with smugness and sarcasm then have at it.

Sarcasm aside, we’re just not going to see eye to eye on this one. As I say, it was not ineptly written, but while you see a masterful and fulfilling tapestry of timelines I see a circling of events that never had any meaningful pay off. I was quietly impressed with some of the intermingling, I will admit, but that didn’t stop the novel’s conclusion feeling like a ‘pencils down, please’ moment rather than a poignant conclusion. Such as the way the novel’s antagonist is dispatched. Realistic? No doubt. Satisfying? God no. If you can fully invest in these characters then I could see it being a great novel. To me, however, they were only ever of mild interest, and mild interest didn’t justify all the time spent stitching their lives together.

The PS4/5 player base is severely depleted by now, unlike XBox which will have seen a significant boost from gamespass, so you’re only likely to get matched on difficulties from intense and above. Is there any particular reason why you’re playing on casual? I only ask because casual and normal can feel quite slow and predictable, as the game only really comes into its own on intense. Feel free to add me if you ever want to experiment with higher difficulties.

Obviously every story has a plot, even if it only consists of someone waking up, drinking tea, then going back to bed. Everyone understands that, but it’s also true that ‘there was no plot’ is shorthand for someone finding a book or a film boring or aimless. Hence my use of quotation marks. Station Eleven followed the trend of most literary novels I’ve read in that it was all about the journey without any particular destination. It felt realistic in a lot of places, but realism on the page can result in ‘oh, ok. And?’ at least as often as it does a moment of reflection or pathos. I can understand why people may find it effecting, however, as though I have issues with the pace and throughline it certainly wasn’t ineptly written.

Yeah, I felt much the same. Kept waiting for it to build to something but the author was content to meander in circles. I guess it’s one of those books where if you love the writing, the lack of any real ‘plot’ doesn’t matter. Have to say, I never would’ve expected anyone reading it and saying ‘this would make a great TV show.’

Really not a fan of extreme and insane on this game. Increasing the damage the aliens can take was the wrong move, and turns it into a bullet sponge exstravaganza. Don’t make them tougher, just up the number of spawns, so you’re fighting more of them! Hopefully the devs reconsider their approach there, but they’ve seemed oddly stubborn on certain points with this game so I’m not holding out too much hope.

As long as there are no more appearances of the unsettling, muppet faced child version of Aloy I think we’ll be ok.

Hopefully they keep going and bring out some more shells. As others have said, perhaps some limited edition ones. Not like the PS4 faceplates which Sony released a handful of then forgot about entirely.

It’s also a great series for cementing Chief O’Brien as the Sisyphus of the Star Trek universe. Doomed to forever push that boulder up the hill while Keiko shrieks at him.

I wasn’t entirely convinced in the beginning, but found myself really enjoying this series as it went on. Final episode had a perfect feeling of being both expansive and claustrophobic

Are we talking ‘GOT attack on Winterfell’ levels?

Two things they got rid of on this console that really irritate me (I’m sure there are others, but these keep jumping to the fore): user reviews on the PSN store, and patch notes. Getting rid of user reviews is, obviously, a move that is in no way intended to benefit the customer, especially with only every one in fiftieth game having a demo anymore. I’m sure Sony will waffle something about review bombing, but honestly I never saw a game with a low rating and didn’t think ‘yeah, probably right,’ after checking out the blurb and the trailer. Patch notes were often a bit half assed on PS4, but certainly gave me an idea as to whether I wanted to seek out further details. Even ‘general bug fixes and performance improvements’ was useful, as often if the bugs were notable then those would otherwise be detailed. Removing this feature when most games subsist on a steady stream of patches, having often been released not quite finished, is unhelpful and unnecessary. Getting rid of the web browser isn’t quite as heinous, though certainly another irritation for me, as they listed it as one of the primary methods via which the console can be hacked.

I found Finch to be slick enough, and Hanks does the best he can as a one man show, but it was all so utterly predictable that I could’ve watched the trailer and had almost the same experience. Even now my brain is struggling to hold onto specific details about it all.

But you saying that means it must be awesome. Stop confusing me!

I guess because….

It bought back a small amount of goodwill from me. I can only agree with the comment made earlier in the thread that everything just feels too safe thus far. I know these are the early stages of the invasion, but just seeing random casualties in a military camp isn’t sufficient. At least the plot strands now show signs of going somewhere interesting, but we’ve taken five episodes to get there.

Season 3 will probably be the sweet spot for you. After that, they drafted in two hacks with little experience who slowly but determinedly turned FTWD into the absolute joke it is today.

From what they’re saying on the reddit sub it’s currently a bit wobbly. PS4/5 in particular had a bug which deleted your saves pretty far into the game. Though it’s apparently now been patched, people are still wary.