Raithe

Because it's that time of the year...

In some ways it sounds like they're taking everything as a personal disappointment. It almost has a feel of someone's personal faith being shattered by the priest turning around and mooning the worshippers, rather than purely a game review...

Because some politicians do seem to go to these sorts of places.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ev4HY6BUbY

Gamespot - ME Andromeda File size revealed, Preloading begins for some

Sorting some things out and realised I have a box taking up space.... and it's full of games from the mid to late 90's. All in their boxes - the classic "big" game boxes before dvd slip cases became the norm. Most of them with cd's and floppy discs in and in pretty darn good condition. The likes of the original Aliens vs Predator, Imperium Galactica II, FF VIII and more... Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. It just seems sacrilegious to just dump them all in the rubbish, yet they're really too old to be taken down a charity shop.

Office Christmas Party. Nothing stunningly out of this world, but pleasantly funny with a few good chuckles. Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T J Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Kate McKinnon along with a whole lot of faces you'd recognise but not be able to name, playing the parts of an office branch threatened with closure and mass firing just before Christmas and the office party they throw in an attempt to land a big client. Things, as might be expected, escalate wildly out of control.

Eh. Well I've got Origin Access at the moment, so I'll give the demo a try and possibly comment on it here when it's out later this week.

To be fair, one half of the visual design of Avatar looks interesting, the other half does seem very..animated Ferngully approach. It's got some "nice" cgi, but I wouldn't really say the visual design was glorious (at least in my mind of thinking). The way they approached it and all the lifeforms (apart from the space smurfs) came from a six-limbed biological background was interesting (if not great science), and those sorts of touches from a purely aesthetic viewpoint were nice to see, but once you step past the "gee whiz next level CGI!" of it all, it falls somewhat flat. Jupiter Ascending is in some ways similar to 5th Element, although 5th Element has a better story, in that all the design choices work, and don't come across as glaringly CGI porn only. The costume designs, the background sets, the starship aesthetics... The whole look and feel connects together and has a certain impact to the eye and brain.

I just wonder if they'll ever release this as a full song rather than just a 30 second theme.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj7z3P3bydQ

Jupiter Ascending on in the background. It might have a lot of silly, but the visual design is pretty damn glorious.

Decided to have a dabble with The Saboteur. Interesting feel of captured Paris and use of monochrome in the city, with it gaining colour as you help the resistance succeed. Plus all the amusing "kill Nazi!" moments.