New Games

 

I just finished the Bethesda and Xbox showcase at E3 2021 and as always it was a massive overload to the senses.

I also watched the Summer Game Fest the other day, but the only game that grabbed my attention there was Elden Ring. This incredibly anticipated game by From Software (Dark Souls, Demon Soul, Bloodborne etc.) in collaboration with George R R Martin finally has a release date: January 21, 2022. I am interested in finally coming to grips with one of these games, but I'm far from committed to playing. I will at the very least enjoy watching lets plays.

So, back to the Bethesda/Xbox thing.

The first thing that struck me is that this truly is the season of the sequel. There was a small handful of original games, but I can't even remember them anymore, with one exception. We'll get to that later.

Another thing that struck me is how popular snarky, cutesy and quirky has become. Between the Summer Fest and the Xbox presentation, there was a ridiculous amount of games what lean heavily on one or more of those three. I guess it is a change from the ever present gray and brown military shooters with their overly dramatic machismo, but it grates on the nerves after a while. Does everyone have to have a quippy comeback? Does every team need someone to trip and pratfall in an exaggerated way? Well, no. But it has become pretty common and as with all forced comedy, it's rarely funny. I hope they pull it back a bit going forward.

I'm not going to list all the games, there were 27 of them, but some of them were Stalker 2, Psychonauts 2, Age of Empires... sequel, the new Halo game, The Outer Worlds 2, a Pirates of the Caribbean add on to Sea of Thieves, Far Cry 6... the list goes on and on and on.

They cleverly started off with presenting a small teaser for Starfield, Bethesda's upcoming sci-fi RPG. It is the first original setting they've done in over 20 years but I still have no idea what you're supposed to do in it. Seriously, no clue except you are in space and you seem to be an astronaut of some kind. Apparently it launches next year so hopefully we'll find out more before then.

They also showed a pretty little movie for RedFall by Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey). This was the original mentioned above. It shows a colorful group of vampire hunters in a sci-fi near future. But again I have no clue of the game play. They did say that you can play solo or in co-op which is nice. So many games insist on multiplayer only, probably in order to sell micro-transactions.

The absolute stand out however, was Forza Horizon 5. Set in Mexico this time, the game is near photo realistic. The skybox is in fact photographed and it all looks incredible. No, scratch that, it looks impossible. I'm saying that as a dude who doesn't even care that much about cars or motor sports. I really urge you to watch that trailer/showcase as it is just that beautiful.

So far, this is the first E3 in years that haven't shown me a single game that has made me sit up an go “Whoah, I need to play that”. That's alright though, as a patient gamer I have no shortage of games to play in the near future.

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

The French Connection

 

Today we're looking at The French Connection (1971).

This film has been high on my list of classics that I really want to watch, so I did. I was inspired to do this after an old friend did and gave it a good review.

What we have here is a pretty straight cop movie. It's tagged Action, Crime, Drama on IMDB, which is correct. It stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider as the two central NYPD detectives and Fernando Rey as the French drug smuggler.

It's directed by William Friedkin who is perhaps best known for directing The Exorcist two years later, and it shows. The French Connection has many scenes what felt like The Exorcist in tone and color, though there are no demon possessed girls here.

The French Connection is one of those movies that have seeped into media on multiple levels. I had never seen it before, but there were scenes that I have seen parodied elsewhere, like the subway chase being lampooned in The Simpsons episode Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes. I also got the feeling I was watching a kind of 70's prototype version of The Wire. I can't point out anything in particular, I just got a strong vibe of it.

I was warned that there is no twist here. Just a Frenchmen who wants to sell a large amount of drugs in New York and the police wants to stop them. This is literally the truth, and it's also based on a true story. It's more about the journey than the destination and you get a lovely tour of New York watching this. The acting is good, that almost goes without saying and the action is excellent. The above mentioned subway chase stands tall even today. It is worth noting that they didn't really have permission to film this highly dangerous scene and it's amazing that no one got hurt.

What surprised me though, was some really jarring plot holes in an otherwise carefully crafted film. Mild Spoilers ahead:

At one point, Hackman goes after a sniper up on the roof of a tall building. From there he sees that the shooter has eluded him and is now sprinting down the street. Somehow, Hackman has time to run some five or six stories down and give chase, and it's a tight chase.

At another point, the cops tear a car apart, and I do mean tear apart. Yet somehow they put everything back together so well that the paranoid owner suspects nothing in what must have been a single afternoon.

These are perhaps the most glaring problems but the script has a couple of similar lesser scenes. Not that they detract from the experience, but it is weird that they exist.

I probably should mention that as this was filmed in 1971, social norms were a bit different. Hackman drops the N-word very early on and it's not the only racial slur either. Apparently he initially refused to say that line, but when he found out that the real person his character was based on talked like this, he relented.

Do I recommend The French Connection? Yes I do, but not for everyone. It is slow, really slow at times. If you get bored easily, this is not the movie for you. Otherwise it is an excellent slice of New York in the early 1970's.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

The Master of the Task

 

Alright, I'm 95% sure I have not blogged about this before so here goes.

If you had asked me a year ago what my favorite British game show is, I'd have said 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown, which is a hilarious show. I highly recommend it, but these days my answer has to be: Taskmaster.

Taskmaster is weird, odd, funny and wonderful. In every season five British actor/comedians, and sometimes others, compete against each other in a series of absolutely ludicrous tasks, ranging from throwing a potato into a hole without stepping on the carpet surrounding the hole, to entertaining a mayor, to filming an upside down film.

A large part of the fun is the contestants trying to find loopholes in the tasks combined with the sharp wit these professionals are so good at.

The contestants are a veritable who's-who of talent, and it keeps getting better. The only constants are the Taskmaster himself, Greg Davies and his “assistant” Alex Horne. The show was originally created by Horne, who also participates in some tasks, but is usually just the administrator during tasks. Greg Davies is the ultimate judge and distributor of points and humorous insults.

The show became a massive success, spawning international versions in countries such as Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Finland, the US and New Zealand.

You can find some of the show on the official Youtube channel, but a casual search of he site can net you several seasons. I don't know what else to say really, just look for yourself. I'll link a few of the tasks below.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

Grand Theft Auto

 

Say what you will about the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but it is incredibly popular. I myself have played many of the games, particularly GTA V.

Why am I bringing this up? It's because I found a great video documenting the entire history of this best selling series. It even goes beyond GTA itself, starting in the old Lemmings days in the 90's, and ending today.

I was originally planning to go through the games I've played, detailing the good, the bad and the ugly, but I'm a bit slammed so I have to keep it short.

In essence, I tried GTA 1 a little bit, played most of GTA 3, nearly completed GTA Vice City, rage quit GTA San Andreas, played some of GTA 4 and GTA 5, but the majority of my time played is in GTA Online. Online in a private lobby that is, since I abhor the trolling and hacking that has become so prevalent in Online, which has become even worse since the game was free on the Epic Game Store. Lots of people bragged about using bots to grab as many copies as possible in order to render a game ban irrelevant when engaging in blatant hacking and cheating. So why play there? Simply because I can play MY character not the weirdos Rockstar is so fond of. I haven't really liked a GTA main character since Vice City which was released in 2002.

Anyway, please enjoy this wonderful history of Grand Theft Auto, the ups and downs of its history, the technological advances it has pushed and the controversies it has engendered.

Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poKPUS7pu5Y

 

 

Epic vs. Apple. Fight!

The Epic Games vs. Apple trial is well under way and it is a complete circus.

From the summaries I've read it seems Epic is shooting themselves in the foot every time one of their executives open their mouths, at least when either Apple's lawyers or the judge can get a straight answer out of them.

In an effort to summarize the summaries, I'll try to be brief but in a nutshell:

Epic's claim to be fighting an unjust monopoly on behalf of everyone went out the window when CEO Tim Sweeney answered “Yes” when asked “If Apple offered you a deal for only yourself, would you have taken it?” So no, Epic isn't fighting on behalf of the greater good...

The Judge essentially asked Sweeney if he understood the contract he willingly signed with Apple in 2010 and if he broke said contract on purpose. Answer: Yes.

Under questioning, Sweeney was forced to admit that they have Fortnite on stores belonging to Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. All companies charge Epic 30% and all four forbid them to sell in-game currency without giving the store owner a cut. But, Epic made the least on Apple which alleges that this is why they chose to sue Apple and none of the other companies.

Documents and testimony from Epic proves that Sony charges more from publishers who want their games to have cross-platform play on Playstation. Sony is immediately sued for this and Sony and others are furious over Sweeney & Co. breaking multiple NDA's in court.

Epic recently bought Itch.io but failed to lock down the adult games for sale. If you enter the site the normal way there is an age verification barrier, but if you go through the Epic store, there isn't, allowing underage children to access pornographic games.

Sweeney had to apologize to Ubisoft after fraudulent purchases of Division 2 reached 90%. This is due to a lack of proper security. This isn't the only security problem Epic has but from a business perspective it seems to be the worst.

It seems as if EGS is being investigated by the FTC for COPPA (children's online privacy act) violations. This is not 100% certain as the court was cleared during this part. Time may tell.

Epic's own numbers prove that the Unreal Engine makes them a pittance and that Fornite has earned them $9 billion during the last two years. Even so, the EGS is hemorrhaging money at a fantastic rate. Their own calculations show that the Epic store might become profitable in 2024 after costing them $840 million. In the mean time, exclusives are slowing down as publishers have learned that the Epic exclusives aren't worth it even with the upfront payments. If Fortnite fails for any reason, they are down to the wire, cash wise. Likewise, the numbers demonstrate that while their weekly free game giveaways have boosted the number Epic accounts enormously, only 7% have actually bought anything from the EGS.

Finally the subject of micro-transactions and children has been brought up concerning impulse purchases and predatory sales techniques. This in itself is important as it now has precedent in the US court system.

There is more, so much more, but my space is limited. You can easily find all this stuff with a simple google search if you want to know more.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Mudlarks and more

 

Today I want to talk about mudlarks.

Mudlarks were originally children and sometimes robust elderly scavengers in the 17^th and 18^th century combing through the mudflats of the Thames at low tide for things to sell. I suppose they existed elsewhere as well, but the typical mudlark worked the Thames.

As one can imagine, it was a grueling, dirty and dangerous job as the mud wasn't just mud but also raw sewage dotted with the carcasses of animals and even humans. This combined with the chance of getting cut on glass, ceramic shards and bits of metal made the risk of infection quite high. There was also the danger of getting stuck. What looks like somewhat solid ground could be a mud pit that can suck you down, trapping you until the tide comes back in. Unless you had a friend that could pull you loose, you would probably drown.

They did however make a living off it, even though it was a meager one. Interestingly enough, it was possible to state your legal occupation as mudlark as late as 1904 but in 1936 the term had fallen out of fashion.

Until modern times. Mudlarking has become a hobby for some people armed with metal detectors, magnets, radios and sometimes even hovercraft. Most mudlarks don't use anything fancier than metal detectors and magnets, crossing over into the hobby of magnet fishing.

So why do they do it? For fun mostly, but also profit and environmental reasons. When the Hertford Union canal was drained for repairs, the Authority in charge invited several mudlarks to help clean up the waterway by picking up litter. Most of the Victorian junk isn't really that bad for the environment anymore, as the organic stuff has broken down ages ago, and glass and ceramics aren't really a pollutant but they pulled out a lot of plastic as well.

So how do I know all this? A couple of months ago I found a Youtube channel called Si-finds Thames Mudlark. This guy and his friends are passionate mudlarks and he even sometimes dig up Victorian garbage dumps in search of antique glass bottles that he cleans up and sells. The broken ones are cut down, sanded and made into awesome drinking glasses. Check it out if it sounds interesting.

I do have something else to mention today. My wife has started streaming on Twitch, and I want to give her a shout-out. She streams World of Warcraft from the beginning (though she is a veteran) with a brand new account. Do come and check out the adventure at: Twitch.tv/Chelidda 

You can catch her live Mondays and Fridays at 10.30 and Wednesdays at 19.00 GMT. (6.30 am EST and 3.00 pm EST). Come by and check it out, and if you don't feel like chatting, you can always just watch.   

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

A weekend to remember

 

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a video about stunt people when they mentioned a real blast from my past; Weekend at Bernie's (1989). I had completely forgotten about this crazy comedy so I gave it a re-watch to see if it still held up after all these years.

The movie stars Andrew McCarthy as Larry Wilson and Jonathan Silverman as Richard Parker, two cubicle slaves working at an insurance company. They discover that someone has been stealing millions of dollars from the company and the boss, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser) is so grateful for their discovery that he invites them to his luxurious mega house on an island as thanks. Only, when they get there Bernie is dead and the guys fear that they are next unless Bernie is seen to be with them and alive. A morbid game of puppetry ensues.

In case you are thinking “Dude, spoilers!” let me just say that Bernie's demise is spelled out on the front cover, so it's no secret.

Weekend at Bernie's is a zany comedy of errors, and a lot of the humor comes from the interaction between clueless people and the titular corpse as well as Larry and Richards desperate attempts to make him seem alive. I laughed myself silly back in the day, and it is still pretty funny. As I watched it now, scene after scene came back to me, and Bernie's isn't really the kind of film that gets better with repeated viewings.

I did expect the humor to pretty dated but it wasn't too bad. It isn't even that sexist which unfortunately many older comedies are, it's more a case of everyone being over the top and silly. If anything it pokes the most fun at the excessive lifestyles of the wealthy.

If you haven't seen Weekend at Bernie's I say give it a shot. Turn off your brain and have a good time for an hour and a half. It isn't a masterpiece but it doesn't have to be. I'll include the trailer below. Just be aware that it's pretty spoilery.

They did make a sequel where Bernie gets reanimated by a voodoo ritual or something, but I haven't seen it and I don't intend to. The original is good enough for what it is.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres and until then. Have a great week and stay safe!