algroth

I've never been too big on Pixar though Coco looks like their most interesting film since Up or Toy Story 3 to my eyes. I'll have a look at it when I can.

I would say Darkest Hour and The Post look like the baitiest films in contention this year, but neither seems to be a top contender and what's more, I predict personally that at least one of them will very likely get shafted come nomination announcements. I did my predictions for most categories the other day, and suppose it'll look a bit like this this year (in the order of probability of winning or getting nominated IMO): Best Picture Lady Bird Get Out Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri The Shape of Water Call Me by your Name Dunkirk The Florida Project The Post Phantom Thread Best Actor Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread) Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) Tom Hanks (The Post) Best Actress Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) Meryl Streep (The Post) Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) Best Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name) Best Supporting Actress Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird) Allison Janney (I, Tonya) Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water) Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) Best Director Jordan Peele (Get Out) Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water) Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) Adapted Screenplay Call Me By Your Name The Disaster Artist Molly’s Game Mudbound The Death of Stalin Original Screenplay Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Lady Bird The Big Sick Get Out The Shape of Water Cinematography Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk The Shape of Water Darkest Hour Mudbound Film Editing Dunkirk Get Out The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Baby Driver Production Design Blade Runner 2049 The Shape of Water Darkest Hour Dunkirk Star Wars: The Last Jedi Costume Design Phantom Thread Darkest Hour The Shape of Water Victoria and Abdul Beauty and the Beast Original Score The Shape of Water Dunkirk Darkest Hour Phantom Thread The Post Sound Editing Dunkirk Blade Runner 2049 Baby Driver Star Wars: The Last Jedi Get Out Sound Mixing Dunkirk Blade Runner 2049 Baby Driver Star Wars: The Last Jedi Get Out Visual Effects Blade Runner 2049 War for the Planet of the Apes Star Wars: The Last Jedi The Shape of Water Dunkirk Documentary Jane Strong Island Faces Places City of Ghosts Human Flow Foreign Language Film Foxtrot (Israel) A Fantastic Woman (Chile) The Square (Sweden) Loveless (Russia) The Wound (South Africa) Animated Feature Coco The Breadwinner Loving Vincent In this Corner of the World The Lego Batman Movie As with last year I reckon 'diversity' will be a trending topic for the nominations, and bound to cause some hashtag outrage or another come nomination time, from either side of the discussion. I think Phantom Thread has been gaining a little traction lately and might etch its way into a BP nom though it could just as well be overcome by the baitier Darkest Hour - also I can see a world where Martin McDonagh or Steven Spielberg could make the best director shortlist, and by rule of 'inclusion' Gerwig, Guadagnino and Peele would force Nolan out of the group yet again, which ought to be cause for lighting a few torches amidst the tweeters. Also this is all independent about how I personally feel about these films, and what I would nominate instead - amidst what I'm wishing to see but don't expect happening is Logan getting some acting nods for Jackman, Keen or Pat-Stew, or even for writing, though again I seriously doubt it. All in all it looks like another very interesting year for the nominees, however - all of the top contenders look like genuinely great films, and what's more, there so far doesn't seem to be a legitimate top contender, rather it is shared between about four films or so rather evenly. I suspect there is always one or two that emerges amidst the rest as a clear favorite in the weeks between the nominations announcement and awards, and so far I reckon the one that's been gaining the most traction is Get Out, but... I wouldn't bet entirely on it either. Again, interesting, and glad to see many of these films up for contention too.

I can see cannons playing a part in naval combat, so there's that as a possibility (as well as explosives, gunpowder barrels and so on). Also Serafen will have a hand mortar though if I'm not mistaken it is also confirmed to be a unique weapon that only he can use. There will also be the ability to dual-wield pistols and blunderbusses so that ought to make for some interesting combinations/implementations too.

I have no issues with the proportions either, but I wonder if we'll have a variety of body shapes to choose from for each race too. I don't mind the 'skinny' dwarf but wouldn't mind a bulkier option as well either.

His channel is great, I've really liked his video essays so far. First ran across him due to this Tyranny video, which you can see here:

This has been touched on in a few threads before, and each has been locked for the same reason: this is baseless speculation. There is no evidence that the writer was 'forced' to do anything, let alone by Obsidian. The latest one can be seen here, with all discussion and info pertaining to this matter: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/93720-okay-so-here-is-what-actually-happened-with-obsidian-writer-that-resigned/

Here's a pretty good and 'fair' rundown of it, starting on 34:30:

*fart*

It's not April Fools yet, y'know.

I'd be up for taking part in a "worst video games" poll, though not sure I would be interested in hosting it, at least not right away. What would be interesting would be to see whether any of the games in the top 100 would also make their way into the bottom 100 - I know at least one of them would make my bottom list, maybe two even.

Well, they did help Arcanum place higher. But otherwise, sorry that it was the case.

Battlezone is another of those "haven't played in too long" games for me, so much so that I'd even forgotten I ever played/owned it. Your mention was a nice throwback though.

It was fun, on my part! :D

Oops, wrong thread

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

Actually my first Zelda was Link's Awakening on the GB. That's another of the "almost included but not sure if I still like as much as I remember".

I would have been interested in seeing those.

Well, two have: IV at #81, and Tactics at #60. On my behalf I admit I'm quite glad since I've never been a fan of the saga.

He's not exactly a god, I'm pretty sure in the story they delve into that in the last missions, that thaos's people tried looking for the gods and couldn't find them anywhere they looked or went using animancy, and other technological advances. So they made them selves "gods" in order to prevent wide out rage and chaos that if there where no gods intern there are no consequences to what a person does. We know the gods are created, doesn't really stop them being gods despite what Iovara said. The first greek gods were created by the Titans, and others were born of god-human pairings (Zeus in particular, the horny bastard), while other religions had humans ascending to godhood. It was more the origins of the gods that was the secret, and whether them being created made them unworthy of worship or not. I think the intention behind each case is quite different, however. All of the above is true but to the best of my awareness none of them were made with the express intention to deceive, as have the gods created by the Engwithans. Iovara states that the Engwithans had found by some means that there were no gods, and in trying to prevent chaos they created 'real' gods that would fill that void and thus support a particular set of beliefs and pantheon. Thus in this setting I do think the fact they were created goes against their claim to real godhood.

I'm actually a little shocked that Shadow of the Colossus go *NO* votes aside from my own, considering its history/reputation. Then again I reckon most of these games suffered simply from being console exclusive. Many other Playstation and Nintendo classics got barely a mention or none at all. Another I'm surprised got absolutely no votes is The Last of Us for example.

I didn't, but here it is: Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Studios, 1999) - 14 Baldur's Gate II (BioWare, 2000) - 12 Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (Obsidian Entertainment, 2007) - 10 Bioshock (2K Boston and 2K Australia, 2007) - 7 Fallout 2 (Black Isle, 1998) - 7 Portal (Valve Corporation, 2007) - 7 Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015) - 7 Okami (Clover Studio, 2006) - 7 Grim Fandango (LucasArts, 1998) - 7 Half-Life 2 (Valve Corporation, 2004) - 6 Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD Tokyo, 2007) - 6 Shadow of the Colossus (SIE Japan Studio and Team Ico, 2005) - 6 Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment, 2015) - 6 Icewind Dale (Black Isle Studios, 2000) - 5 Bastion (Supergiant Games, 2011) - 3 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Starbreeze Studios, 2013) - 3 DOOM 2 (id Software, 1994) - 2 Half-Life (Valve Corporation, 1999) - 2 Inside (Playdead, 2016) - 2 Pokémon Gold/Silver (Game Freak, 2000) - 1 Katamari Damacy (Namco, 2004) - 1 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD, 1998) - 1 Pokémon: Platinum Edition (Game Freak, 2008) - 1 Icewind Dale II (Black Isle Studios, 2002) - 1 Papers, Please (3909 LLC, 2013) - 1 I admit that the list did peter out a bit for me towards the end. There's a number of games I felt I could have included but didn't simply because it's been so long since I last played them, and I feel I would only be relying on my memory/nostalgia for their inclusion. There's a few games I ought to check out from this list, and I intend to before the year's done. We'll see how the list looks then too.

Here's the games that nearly made the cut: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Firaxis Games, 2016) - 9 (ShadySands (4), evilcat (5), Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games, 2015) – 9 (Fenixp (5), Epaminondas (4), Prey (Arkane Studios, 2017) – 9 (Fenixp (5), marelooke (4), Divinity II: Ego Draconis (Larian Studios, 2009) – 9 (SonicMage 117 (5), marelooke (4), Day of the Tentacle (LucasArts, 1993) – 9 (Humanoid (5), Huinehtar (4), Bastion (Supergiant Games, 2011) – 9 (algroth (3), Wormerine (6), Freelancer (Digital Anvil, 2003) - 9 (melkathi (3), Azdeus (6), MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (FASA Studio, 2002) - 9 (ShadySands (7), Azdeus (2), Elite (David Braben and Ian Bell, 1984) – 9 (Zoraptor (8 ), FlintlockJazz (1), Final Fantasy VII (Square, 1997) - 9 (melkathi (6), FlintlockJazz (3), Rome: Total War (The Creative Assembly, 2004) – 8 (Leferd (5), evilcat (3), F-19 Stealth Fighter (MicroProse, 1988) – 8 (Malcador (5), Humanoid (3), Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios, 2014) – 8 (Fenixp (5), FlintlockJazz (3), Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios, 2015) – 8 (SonicMage 117 (5), SadExchange (3), Mad Max (Avalanche Studios, 2015) – 8 (SonicMage 117 (5), SadExchange (3), Age of Mythology (Ensemble Studios, 2002) – 8 (injurai (5), SadExchange (3), Street Fighter 2 (Capcom, 1991) – 7 (Leferd (5), Pidesco (2), XCOM 2 (Firaxis Games, 2016) – 7 (Hurlshot (2), evilcat (5), Beyond Good & Evil (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2003) - 7 (Pidesco (2), TrueNeutral (5), Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores, 2008) – 7 (marelooke (4), Zoraptor (3), Donkey Kong Country (Rare, 1994) – 7 (Katphood (4), Humanoid (3), Divinity: Original Sin (Larian Studios, 2014) – 7 (Zoraptor (3), FlintlockJazz (4), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD, 1998) – 6 (Bartimaeus (5), algroth (1), Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (Blue Sky Productions, 1992) – 6 (IndiraLightfoot (3), Jozape (3), Outcast (Appeal, 1999) – 6 (Zoraptor (3), Fiasco (3), Jade Empire (BioWare, 2005) - 5 (eimatshya (1), marelooke (4), King's Bounty: The Legend (Katauri Interactive, 2008) - 5 (Pidesco (2), Zoraptor (3), Spelunky (Mossmouth LLC, 2008) - 5 (Pidesco (2), Wormerine (3), Metro 2033 (4A Games, 2010) – 5 (marelooke (4), Azdeus (1), Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Starbreeze Studios, 2013) – 4 (algroth (3), Wormerine (1), Mafia (Illusion Softworks, 2002) – 3 (Wormerine (1), Azdeus (2),