Treble

I was looking for another thread and stumbled across this one, reminding me how weird the film is. The film itself is pretty much garbage, but has some high-profile stars in it. Despite that it sunk without trace... or did it? Well, if you read the Wikipedia entry you'd think not: Errrrm.... ...and... First time I've seen Wikipedia used for 'creative accounting' purposes. I'm more inclined to believe it made under a million, than that it made more than - say - Logan Lucky, The Kid Who Would be King, or $30m more than If Beale Street Could Talk... o_O

Take this with a pinch of salt, but here are the rumours for v7.00 update: Pretty decent if true.

'Ekiro Play as The Goodies and travel back in time & space to feudal Japan, to practice the noble art of Thump.

I got the point, I just didn't like it

It's the VR thing, really, in that switching all pixels to white when the screens are just centimetres from your eyes isn't fun. Especially because your eyes have adjusted to having ambient light from the real world blocked out. Wipeout loads up with your regular black screens, small, discrete company logos, then BWAAAHHHHHH solid bright white attract screen

2019-05-11-- Dariusburst CS (AC mode)-- [Vita] 2019-05-13-- Astro Bot -- [PSVR] Not a huge fan on release, Dariusburst has grown on me over the years. The arcade mode is ok, but the CS mode is where it's at: very much the same philosophy as Outrun C2C's challenges, mixing-up the regular plan into small chunks with lots of variety. Good fun. Astro Bot I put as my GOTY for 2018, and had been putting-off completing the last couple of levels until now. I didn't want it to end. It's just magnificent; a VR totem for the ages and destined to be re-released and sequalised and loved throughout the virtual reality age until replaced for a new totem for whatever comes next - 16K bendy screens? Holography? Stuff pumped into your brains whilst the tides rise and the insects all die? Who knows. But in this milieu it's a solid gold classic, and something sweet and charming and kind in a medium that's most often choked with cynical, ultra-masculine bullshit. Astro Bot's this close to perfect. If you want to hear more of me waxing Astro Bot's car, here's what I wrote for the GoTY entry: Previously:

So this has now surpassed ET in box office revenues... and that IS adjusted for inflation :-o

Remove any white screens from VR games. I'm looking at you, Wipeout! Well, actually, I can't because my retinas have been seared.

fuckin love that scene

It's not that bad an ending: The season itself, as a whole, is pretty bunk though. And the end of S5 was the perfect Buffy send off, as has been said. As for Angel, I agree the season itself was good (well, the second half if it) and everything up until the last few seconds was perfect. But you should never, ever, end your series on a cliffhanger 'just in case' you get picked up by another network. And on a meta level, don't parachute-in another character from another show and start giving them your main character's hero moments and destiny just because they're a fan favourite elsewhere. That's a business decision, not an artistic one, and the sort of shit you'd expect from the likes of Happy Days. Even Frasier kept it to a minimum, and that was a comedy and not a plot-driven drama. Tl;dr: Spike ate Angel' s lunch, and I'm *still* pissed about it!

As for the bad: Angel. It wasnt awful, but stealing the Shanshu prophecy away and basically giving it to Spike (who'd already had his major hero moment in Buffy) meant no final redemption and an unfair payoff just because Spike had become so important to the 'brand' by that point. I did like the fact that pretty much everyone was dying, dead or about to die though.

Six Feet Under is 5 minutes of solid crying for people you hated at the start of season one. Magnificent. Sopranos. I enjoy the ending more every time - just completely appropriate and uncompromising.

You're very brave, I made it to about S01E04 of Discovery. Now that is some hot garbage. I don't hate watch stuff; I'm still enjoying this. Clearly it's as thudding as all get-out but has a fun inelegance. There's even a kind of joy in seeing something so beautifully made getting smashed to bits. It's like watching some kids playing Star Wars with antique figurines, using a faberge egg as the Death Star.

*ahem* No way I'm watching the Dreamcatcher adaptation

Just got back from the third viewing, and it seems to go faster each time, to the point where I'm hoping each scene would last a little longer. Its also funnier than most comedies! "I'm totally from the future" "My wife likes the name... Elmanzo" "Bee Gees or Mungo Jerry?" "So, Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?" "Piss-Ant" "Regular-Sized Man" Just so many good lines, and not always just glib throwaways, either