Ploppin' Fresh

A 10-minute loop of the theme song. Stranger Things was a highly enjoyable watch. They clearly knew which nostalgia buttons to press.

Thank you, kind sir! It was a great evening and fun had by all. Completely understandable that you couldn't make it, so no worries. Off to Hawaii tomorrow for the Honeymoon. Yay!

Went to see Star Trek Beyond last night with a few people. Awful stuff. Not Into Darkness awful, but awful nonetheless. I think they did solid character work, with good dialogue and humorous back-and-forth, but as was the problem with Into Darkness (and the Ghostbusters reboot), much of the action completely defied logic and laughed in the face of common sense, which I guess is the Justin Lin effect. I'm by no means a Trekkie, but I think one of things people appreciate about the the respective series and perhaps the movies is that they at least attempt to remain grounded in a sci-fi setting. This movie makes no attempt at that. I'm not sure which movie the reviewers were watching, but I couldn't disagree more with the consensus.

I went to see it last week with a few people, including my niece. She absolutely loved it! Me? Not so much. I'd say 2/3s of the jokes didn't land, a couple of characters were fairly flat and in several instances, there were scenes played for laughs at the sacrifice of logic or common sense. I'd rate it a 2.5/5 as an adult, whereas my niece is still talking about it a week later. Unfortunately, it failed to have the right blend of what appeals to both adults and kids.

I think I have to call bullshit on y'all. It seems you've been willing this movie to fail since day one. Yes, the trailers sucked. Yes, we've had an extremely healthy dose of reboot over saturation. And yes, it is right to fear damage will be done to a childhood favourite and classic. But cherry picking shitty reviews and calling out feminist blogs for being overly gushing as a response to the vitriol and bile aimed at this movie seems ridiculously subjective. There are plenty of good reviews out there, by both males and females that enjoyed this movie, saying it was a funny summer movie, which is exactly what the first one was.

Saying 'why this movie is very likely a mess' without expanding on why you believe this to be the case instantly aligns you with all the haters, in my opinion. Listen, Paul Feig, the director, has a pretty impressive CV. While I haven't seen The Heat, I have seen Bridesmaids and Spy, which were both very funny, character-driven movies (isn't that what made Ghostbusters so great?). He's also directed many episodes of some of the best TV shows in recent years; shows that many on here have loved. So shouldn't Paul Feig be given benefit of the doubt? He's certainly earned my respect, and while I share many of the same opinions (shitty trailers, childhood favourite, tired of reboots), I trust he's going to deliver something respectful to the original, funny and with great characters, which, by many accounts, is exactly what he's done. One of the common criticisms is that perhaps he was a bit timid, being too respectful of the original film. Is that necessarily a bad thing? I guess I'll soon find out, and fully accept that it could be total shit, but I'm at least going to try and be a little bit objective going into it and judge it for what it is, not what I expect it to be.

Brothers is fantastic. I highly recommend it.

I bought the PS4 last September when the new Destiny expansion was released. Myself and three others bought the Destiny special edition PS4, which included all of the previous expansions and the new one, The Taken King (TTK). For at least three months prior to that, the four of us had become quite addicted to Destiny - playing for 2-3 hours nightly - which only became worse once TTK was released. I have to say, I don't think I've ever been as addicted to a game as I have been with Destiny. It balances PvE and PvP content quite nicely, though I have mostly stayed away from the endgame PvP content, as it really is reserved for the best of the best.

Anyway, to move away from Destiny, I haven't played a whole lot else on the PS4. As a system, it's quite remarkable. The party chat feature is really excellent, and there are a ton of features on it that are a considerable improvement on the PS3. But to be honest, apart from Destiny, and Uncharted when it comes out, I don't see myself playing too many games on it. That's not a slight against the system, as it performs well, its just that most games I play tend to be on the PC. So was it worth dropping $400 on the PS4? For me, absolutely. Destiny is by far and away the best shooter I've played, and I will continue playing it as more expansions are released. But I can definitely see the argument for not purchasing a console.

I hadn't played in over a year, and the last time was on PS3, so hacking wasn't an issue. And in terms of the new game modes, I completely agree, they did not exist last time I played, but the game is better for having included them. The other nice addition are live, timed events. For example, a package is dropped in a specific location, and all the players in session go for it. Once a player has it, the other players try to get it from them in X amount of time. There are many different types of these live events, and from what I've seen so far, most players participate, so it's a nice break from the general random slaughter that used to be what most people were on for.

In terms of hacking, well, I've only had the PC version since Friday. That first day I played about 7 hours. I was at the airport a couple of hours in, trying to get on the roof of the terminal to take down a sniper that had found a pretty awesome eagle's nest located between the parking garages. However, as I was attempting to get on the roof, everything started shaking, and probably lasted a solid 3-5 minutes or so. My first thought was that Rockstar had added earthquakes into the game, which, you know, it's California, so not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Instead, what I discovered was this:



At the time, I had no idea hackers were apart of the PC GTA online experience. However, apart from a couple of other players I encountered in game that were absolute bullet sponges (some sort of God mode, I assume), it seems pretty clean. So all in all, with the exception of that experience above (which I actually found amusing), and the two or three bullet sponges, the 10-12 hours I've put in have been a blast. As always, its great playing with people you know, so if anyone is looking to jump back in, drop me a message.

You're one buzz cut away from being the Riddler.

Yea, I just thought I'd put it here as it's the same guy. He's definitely a dick, but a funny one, so he gets a pass in my books. I feel bad for the other guy because he's truly trying to be helpful and patient, but Daniel plays off of that really well.

This is also great.

Is there any way to drop a linked image inside a spoiler tag?

I've considered it several times, but have always opted for something else, which I'm sure speaks volumes.

I'd prefer to skip doing the small jobs bit by entering an arm wrestling competition.

Roy Dotrice is the King! Be warned, the original audio version of Feast for Crows (book 4) was not narrated by Dotrice, but he did eventually do it, so be sure to grab that copy. However, it is, in my opinion, the worst of the series, bogged down by several new characters and general bloat.

The follow-up AMA with regional earthquake experts.

Preparedness is half the battle!

Why do you choose to live so dangerously? From one hotbed to another.

Fascinating article. Scary stuff, though.

I continue to be impressed by the level of care that appears to be going into this movie, mostly regarding the use of practical effects.

Brilliant.

My theory is the giant dinosaur in the trailer that has apparently gone rogue is just a red herring. The real threat is a pack of hybrid Dennis Nedry-dilophosaurii that cackle mercilessly and spit out cans of shaving cream. I fully expect Chris Pratt to have fashioned a saddle to mount this new giant dinosaur to take on the Nedrophosaurs.

It looks like utter trash. I wasn't planning on going to the cinema to see this anyway, but I may not even watch it at home. Ugh.

The aforementioned BB-8 video.

If I had any doubts, they've quickly retreated to the sidelines after this. They've completely nailed the look and feel from the original trilogy, while at the same time making it feel fresh and its own thing. I did sit through an hour-long live stream of Star Wars Celebration, which kicked off with this horrible DJ remixing music and sounds from the OT. At that point, I was ready to throw in the towel, having little hope. It was a fairly cringe-y event, but Carrie Fisher was hilarious (intentionally so) and they had a real BB-8 roll out on to stage, which was fairly impressive. I was hoping to post a video of it here, but it doesn't seem to be available yet.

I think this is probably my favourite film from last year. The performance from the main character was pretty great. I'd notch it slightly higher at 4/5.