ktchong

None of my top favorite games from recent years is available on GOG, (XCOM, Tomb Raider, Walking Dead, Batman Arkham series.) None of Obsidian's recent games is even available on GOG. Used to prefer GOG over Steam because games on GOG are DRM-free... until I realize, wait a min, all of my top favorite games from recent years are on Steam and not GOG.

Just came back from Tomorrowland. A good action-adventure sci-fi movie... spoiled by a very creepy romantic scene. SPOILER: In the movie, George Clooney's character, Frank, was recruited into Tomorrowland as a child by an android that appeared as a little girl, Athena. They fell in love since he was a child, but the problem was she could never grow up. "Mentally" she had matured, but she was stuck in the body of a little girl. So Frank resented Athena for being just a "program" and "tricking" him. Athena is actually a major character. She is really the character that sets everything in motion. She actually has more screen time than George Clooney, (given that different ages of Frank were played by different actors while she stays the same age,) and she has a lot of action and fight scenes. She is actually the best thing in the movie. She reminds me of the archetypical female robot character in Japanese anime and manga. (Actually, the entire movie felt like an anime... Japan will love this movie.) Here is a big problem in the movie: in the final big action scene, Athena sacrificed herself to save Frank. In her final moment, there is an "emotional" scene in they finally admitted their love for each other, and Frank carrying Athena's dying body (which was set to self-destruct) to destroy a particular location. The scene was performed by 10-, 11- or 12-year-old girl and the 50-something-year-old Clooney. That scene felt really awkward, super creepy, and very uncomfortable. (And then she died - and was not resurrected or put into a body in the end. I thought Athena would reappear in a new body as an adult woman at the end... did not happen. She stayed dead. Which was surprising for a Disney movie.) Another problem: Most of the movie takes place in our world outside Tomorrowland. The first and second acts of the movie keep building up the expectations of what an amazing place Tomorrowland is. The first two acts only show glimpses of Tomorrowland. We do not get to see Tomorrowland until the final and third acts. When Frank, Athena and Casey finally reach Tomorrowland, (which is near the end of the movie,) the place is mostly abandoned, decaying and crumbling - because the Governor has exiled everyone who stood up against him. The actual Tomorrowland turns out to be a disappointment. Our expectations of all those wonders are not met. Still a good movie, though.

The main plot is about the wives of Immortan Joe - or "breeders" as they are called in the movie - who tries to escape enslavement. In addition to his breeders-wives, Immortan Joe enslaved dozens of women, kept them impregnated at all time, and hooked up the pregnant slaves to milking machines - so the female "cows" would continuously produce milk to feed his army. So much for the feminism in the movie. IMO, if the movie did not insert a strong female heroine to counterbalance all those helpless female slaves and breeders and cows and properties, it would have turned out to be very misogynistic. Imagine a movie with all those poor helpless women, who are relegated to demeaning roles as sex slaves and cows and breeders and properties; and their only hope is to rely on the Great White Man (i.e., Mad Max) to be their savior. That would have been a very sexist movie. Charlize Theron's Furiosa as the women's actual savior brings a much-needed balance to the extremely demeaning roles of other women in the movie.

In addition to the guitar guy, there was another bad guy - i.e., one of Immortan Joe's lieutenant - whose teeth are bullets. When he needed to reload his gun, he pulled out his bullet-tooth and put it into his gun. The movie certainly has a lot of colorful villains and henchmen.

The next film is titled, "Mad Max: Furiosa", so yeah. It was reported to be shot back-to-back with Fury Road, so it should come out soon. I've seen Fury Road. It is the best Mad Max movie IMO. The story is streamlined and cohesive throughout the entire film - unlike the earlier three movies that have stories that fell apart or contrived at one point or another. The weakest part of the movie is actually Tom Hardy. His performance as Mad Max was underwhelming. Tom Hardy tried to channel Mel Gibson, he tried to duplicate Gibson's Max; he even tried to copy Gibson's speech pattern and accent. He held back so he could be more like Gibson's Max. Which IMO was a mistake. Hardy should have given his own take on Max - i.e., a whole new different version of Mad Max. So Hardy brought nothing new to the film. Fortunately for the film, Mad Max is actually just a supporting character. The main character is Furiosa.

The movie already has 190 critic reviews. When a movie gets a very positive first round of reviews, the reviews are often numbered at a few dozens at most. Then, as more and more reviews came out, the review scores went down. However, given that Mad Max: Fury Road already has 190 reviews at the moment, it is unlikely the overall review score will go down by too much when the few remaining reviews come out. (i.e., most blockbusters get about 200 to 250 reviews total; Furious 7 got 198 total, and Age of Ultron 257.)

On one of the bad guy's vehicles, there is a mutant standing on a platform and playing an electric guitar that shoots flames, with four synchronized drummers in the back. They provide the soundtrack during some of the chase scenes. Watch the movie for that reason. P.S., The guitar guy, called Coma-Doof Warrior in the movie, was actually played by iOTA, a real guitarist, who composed some of the soundtracks for the movie.

Updated: 98% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, with 215 critic reviews. 211 postives, 4 negatives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJ7-_G16G0

https://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/208632365253244218 Removing Payment Feature From Skyrim Workshop April 27 - Alden We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s64CDaHS1ss

Because I love to watch the world burns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLrHTW-zVWk

When was the last time gamers brought a class action lawsuit against a game developer? When was the last time gamers won a class action - or individual - lawsuit against a game developer? When was the last time gamers successfully boycott a developer? Ever? Paying for patches will happen. The class action will not. There will not even be a boycott. Sure, gamers will call for one, but as if gamers can ever follow through a boycott. Gamers calling for a boycott of a game or a studio is just like heroine addicts saying they are gonna boycott drugs.

It's the small baby steps. People have already accepted paid DLC as okay. When first-day DLC was introduced, I remember people were fuming and calling for blood. Then, as the years have passed, now people do not even think much of day-one DLC anymore. We have just accepted it. Then came the micro-transactions and in-game purchases, which have become okay as well. Now comes the paid content and cosmetic mods. People are fuming and calling for blood right now. Gabe Newell is taking fire and being dragged through the mud right in Reddit right now. However, people are, slowly and gradually, being conditioned to think that is okay as well. So what's next? It's the small steps that slowly and gradually change how people feel about paying for things that used to be free and part of the products/services. All those things that used to be included in the games for free. companies kept looking for ways to "monetize" them and make people pay for them. If this slippery slope continues, I fully expect patches to become "optional" and "monetized" in my lifetime.

Class action lawsuits against fans who provide unofficial patches? I dunno, do you think we can use class action lawsuit to force electronic manufacturers to provide support after the typical one-year warranty period? So what makes you think class action lawsuit will force developers to provide long-term support for free? What law requires software developer to completely patch their products? If there is such a law, then a lot of developers - Obsidian being a prime example - have broken and are breaking that law right now.

So. Steam has started charging for mods. I have never used a content mod, so the new change mostly does not affect me. The only "mods" I have used are unofficial patches that fix bugs that were left unfixed by the developer's final official patch. So here is my concern: Some developers like Bethesda and Obsidian are infamous for releasing products in very, very buggy states. After the initial release of a broken game, Bethesda or Obsidian would put out a few obligatory patches. Then the developer would stop, so they can move on and redirect their resources to newer titles. Bethesda and Obsidian have never fully patched a game to a completely stable condition. In the end, it has always been the fans who took over and continued to make mods to patch the game over many years. So, will we have to pay for those fan-made "unofficial patches" (which are actually mods)? My next concern: When Bethesda, Obsidian and other studios see that people are willing to pay for unofficial patches, (and those are the mods for which people are most willing to pay,) how long do you think it will take them to start charging for official patches? The industry will standardize a new practice. After the initial release, studios will put out one or two obligatory "follow up" patches to fix the major bugs. Then, for any further patches, you will have to pay for them. They will tell you those patches are "optional". They will justify it by telling customers, "We still have to put in manpower and resources, we still have to pay our employees, to continue to make patches. We have to recoup those costs, but in return our customers gets the better experience!" You know it will happen.

I was asking an honest question. I have not played Pillars of Eternity, or even followed its development, release or reviews. I've been busy and haven't had any time for gaming in the past couple months or so. So I have no idea what the situation is. I read the topic and first message of this thread. I assumed the original poster was unhappy with Pillars of Eternity because the game is buggy. I know about Obsidian's history, (i.e., Black Isle and Troika,) and how their past releases had always been plagued with bugs and glitches upon released, and how their games have taken dedicated fans many, many years and even decades to fix with "unofficial patches". However, I read that Obsidian finally cleaned up their act with Dungeon Siege III and South Park: The Stick of Truth, which I have played and know are relatively stable games with surprisingly few bugs. So I thought, at last, Obsidian's buggy days are in the past. I really have no idea what is going on with Pillars of Eternity, so I asked an honest question: is it really buggy and glitchy? Like how Fallout, Vampires Bloodline, etc. etc., their older games used to be? Has Obsidian reverted to their old habit? What's going on?

So... is Pillars of Eternity very buggy? I thought they finally moved away from releasing buggy products after Dungeon Siege III and South Park. Apparently not.

I watched the leaked four episode. The quality has indeed gone down a bit. However, the fourth season (surprisingly) still stays fairly close to the source material, (i.e., as close as the first four seasons were to the books.) I had read that this season would deviate quite a bit from the books.

Playing bad guys and terrorists in Hollywood movies and video games. Seems like Russia villains are the fad now.

Michael Palladino, president of the Detective’s Endowment Association (i.e., the police union): "Detective Cherry is a person of good character and an excellent detective... He really should not be judged by one isolated incident." The Wall Street Journal: "Over the course of his 14-1/2 years on the force, Det. Cherry has has received a total of 13 civilian complaints against him according to a person with knowledge of the latest complaint. That complaint alleges the officer was abusive, threatened the driver with arrest, was discourteous and used offensive language regarding the driver’s apparent ethnicity, ..." The New York Times: "Detective Cherry has been the subject of 12 previous complaints to the review board, city officials said, dating to 2001. Some involved similar allegations. A spokeswoman for the board would not disclose the dispositions of those cases." **** YOU, MICHEAL PALLADINO. http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2015/04/01/nypd-officer-who-berated-taxi-driver-in-youtube-video-placed-on-desk-duty/ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/nyregion/new-york-detective-put-on-desk-duty-after-tirade-with-uber-driver.html

Maisie Williams on Jimmy Kimmel Live - with a new clip from Season 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UwQqgGuJp8 The four leading "good" characters aka main protagonists - i.e., Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen - sum up Game of Thrones in 30 seconds: