@Auspice Setting pitch:
California, post Independence Election. A Boomtown in the Great Maze, about in the middle of California. The town is spread over two islands connected to each other and the mainland by bridges. North island deals with the Union, south Island deals with the Confederacy. Mainland has the rail connections to the rest of the continent.
@ZombieGenesis Ravenloft would also be fantastic.
Necessary Evil is a good call too, something for a change from the usual that's already out there. But, no zombie supers game for me.
Underground or Aberrant would also be a nice change for pace for a supers game away from the combined universe jumble we have now.
TORG has that same kind of 'any character you want' potential as RIFTS, but is MUCH more balanced. Granted, it's not as high-powered as RIFTS, but it all works much more smoothly and seamlessly.
So, for whatever value my 2 copper pieces are...
D&D Spelljammer, Birthright, Dark Sun. As much as I love the Forgotten Realms, something besides the 'standard' fantasy setting. Birthright is also a L&L game with a simple wargame component and intrigue/politics rules.
Deadlands There's really not any Western-themed games out there, and Deadlands has the extra weird horror element to bring in players.
TORG The new edition is still doing well and is a fantastic multi-genre game allowing Players and Storytellers great flexibility in creating and running.
Blue Rose For the L&L/Valdamar fix
Star Wars Set in a single sector so the Players have a greater impact on the game setting
Superhero Preferably an all-original setting to avoid some of the hassles that the all-FC settings have in regards to characters, power levels, etc.
Scion The first 2 books for Second Edition are available now.
Fading Suns
Traveler
Eclipse Phase
Altered Carbon
'Victorian' Era You can add in a genre like Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, or Superheroes. Or, a straight up Space 1889 or Victorious game.
@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
@Jennkryst said in General Video Game Thread:
Double Post, but the MEGA CONTROVERTIAL Pokémon announcement wounds me, and now I want that Pokémon MU to be a thing even more.
Woe.
While I am going to be very sad if I cannot bring my favorite buddies I have amassed over into Sword and Shield, I'm actually not surprised by this.
By, say, Sun and Moon, all they had to do was add models/animation/sprites/sound for the new Alolan Pokedex, because they already had all the 3D models/animations/sprites/sounds. Sword and Shield, they probably wanted to make higher detail models/animations, and I'm betting that redoing every single Pokémon from all previous generations would have quickly caused madness and weeping if they also tried to stay on deadline. Under that logic, I was sort of prepared to be a bit impressed if they had gotten all 807 National Pokedex entries redone.
And in fact, that's the justification given in interviews; they just didn't have the time to get through all of them, so the ones you can't transfer in are the ones where there just aren't assets in the game for those Pokemon, period; it allowed them to focus on the ones they knew had to be in the game. And based on the Alolan Pokedex (302 entries in Sun/Moon, 403 in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon), I fully expect us to get at least a sizeable chunk of the National Pokedex in the Galar Pokedex.
I'm disappointed, yes, but not surprised.
They'll probably be working on porting the rest over time. Maybe halfway through the new Generation lifespan, they'll have it all completed. A bit disappointing, but still hopeful.
Which reminds me I need to get back to the grind of building my Living Dex.
And, capping off E3....
SquareEnix's Avengers game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-gNBAhDUH8
And, they're saying that future characters and expansion DLC will be free.
https://gamerant.com/marvels-avengers-heroes-regions-dlc-free/
@Jaded Good. Hopefully, this means that they'll (CDPR) will open up their new merch store to the US as well. Mostly a shipping thing from what I understand.
@Auspice said in General Video Game Thread:
@Jaded said in General Video Game Thread:
@Ghost
They do. But I just found out that the Collector's Edition of Cyberpunk 2077 won't be available in the U.S.As far as I could tell last night, the PC Collector's Edition won't be.
PS4 and XBox will be. My guess on that front is that so far, the PC edition in the US is digital-only and being issued out by Steam and GOG who don't do physical copies of stuff.
So, well, I'll buy it for PS4. Problem solved (for me at least).
But yeah, I had no problem pulling up the pre-order page for the PS4 Collector's Edition last night on GameStop (not that I CAN pre-order it yet, but it's there).
Yeah, did my pre-order yesterday (Monday) online. GameStop isn't taking physical pre-orders in the store; it's all via website and shipped to your house.
Also, it's pretty much all but confirmed that Keanu is playing Johnny Silverhand in the game. Some are even speculating it's Keanu singing on that Chippin' In audio track.
@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
A whole bunch of Pokémon Sword and Shield / Gen 8 reveals today! A couple of new Gen 8 Pokémon revealed! The legendaries for the Galar region revealed! Dynamax (giant) Pokémon! Multiplayer cooperative battles, where you can meet up with your friends and battle together instead of as opponents!
flails around madly
Gameplay reveal trailer, as well as the general game information page with new information and a longer version of the above gameplay trailer.
flails around more
(Look, there's a special place in my heart for games falling into the "RPG I can carry in my bag and play in short bursts throughout the day, but could also play for hours on a plane" category; the Pokémon games have long dominated that particular spot, though admittedly the Fire Emblem games also often wander into that bucket.)
Not sure if you saw the other Pokémon announcement, but Pokémon Home will be released in 2020. It's a new cloud storage program for the Switch that will work with Pokémon Bank (Generation I-VII) as well as Go/Let's Go. So, full unification of all games.
@KQ But, they did give a glimpse of that story from the beginning with Avengers.
'Master...the humans are far more capable than we were led to believe. To oppose them is to court...Death'.
Thanos smiles in our first look at his face
Also, we were getting into Cosmic Entity territory with Ego, the Celestials, and the Elders of the Universe showing up in recent movies.
@TNP Well, IW was already filming when Black Panther was released, so I don't think it was Killmonger quite yet, although he was still an incredible antagonist.
There were also previous successes like Vulture in Homecoming, Zemo in Civil War, Kingpin in Netflix' Daredevil series, and Loki overall. Mostly, though, I think it's part of a larger entertainment trend to give the Villains some form of empathetic resonance rather than be just 'pure evil'. I'm sort of mixed on the idea itself; as an example, I hate it in 'Wicked', but liked it in 'Maleficent' and 'Once Upon A Time'.
@Thenomain You're right; if you haven't watched all the movies up to that point, Infinity War has some emotional impact that you're not going to get. And you're also right that IW's big failing is trying to make Thanos empathetic; mostly, because they completely shoehorned in that aspect of the character, rather than staying with the original comic personality.
In the comics, Thanos is the ultimate nihilist. Killing and destruction are his way of expressing his love for the actual cosmic embodiment of Death. The whole reason he goes looking for the Infinity Stones in the first place was for him to prove himself worthy to be Death's consort. The 'snap' was his 'boombox outside the window in Say Anything moment'. In the DC Vs. Marvel crossover back in the late 90's, as both universes are being destroyed and the realities themselves are actually bleeding, he's gazing all starry-eyed and whispering 'So beautiful...' as his DC counterpart and fellow Kirby creation Darkseid is watching in shock and horror as the realities begin to end.
But, somewhere, someone got the idea in their heads that Thanos had to be 'relatable' to the general audience, even though previous MCU villains like Stane, the Red Skull, and Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy) were far from empathetic & relatable in their motives. So, they shoehorned this new 'resource crisis' motive. Which is stupid on it's face value because if you pause to think about it, in a couple of generations, you're back at the same problem of overpopulation/resource crush that you were at. You have to periodically snap to 'restore the balance' every century or so. Until the end of time.
City of Heroes Update:
There's still a few stability issues (there was a a server-wide fall through the floor bug), but the game is getting more stable each day. A second shard/server has been added; Excelsior.
Right now, every mission Blue-side and Red-side are working, as well as Architect missions. Auction House is still a bit wonky.
Development on a 'Server in a Box' download for torrenting is still proceeding, so people that are inclined will be able to host their own servers.
Talks with NCSoft about CoH becoming a 'community owned/developed' property are continuing.
@ZombieGenesis A FASERIP game would be awesome.
But, just remember that the primary obstacle in a mixed DC/Marvel game will always be getting the power scales to mesh.
Still, I say go for it.
So. Paragon City is back from the ashes....
Things are pretty slammed right now, so if you want to get back in, wait for a few more days of the servers being fine-tuned is my advice.
@Ganymede Zack Snyder does some comics stuff well; mainly the Frank Miller ubermensch type characters. 300 was great. Most of Watchmen was amazing. But when it comes to super/metahumans, Snyder doesn't get them, just like Frank Miller doesn't get them. Both Snyder and Miller work best when telling stories of average or slightly powered heroes rising above their human limitations. I.E. Batman and Daredevil. Snyder would have been the best pick for Batman movies, but not a character like Superman, who's diametrically the opposite of Batman. Superman is a God that chooses to live as a Man; Batman is a Man who chooses to challenge Gods, often through sheer strength of will.
@ZombieGenesis Agreed. Also...take a look at the Battle of Metropolis from 'Man of Steel' and the Battle of New York from 'Avengers'...
Color Palette: MoS is drenched in a saturated blue filter, adding a more gritty, depressing tone. Avengers doesn't use a color filter to affect the emotional mood of the audience.
Heroic Acts: I'll admit that this might be a bit nit-picky here, since Superman is still just one guy, despite all his powers, and you had 6 Avengers. But, you have the Avengers going out of their way to protect and rescue bystanders, prioritizing the safety of those caught in the crossfire over their own. The only civilian we see Superman actively saving is, of course, Lois Lane.
Subtle Imagery: In Avengers, there's lots of destruction. You have one of the Chitauri 'dragons' falling on and collapsing an apartment building. In Man of Steel, those gravity pulses are also brutal, but you have a scene where there's an actual person off in the corner of the frame being picked up and slammed back down by the pulse repeatedly. Sure, Avengers had civilian casualties, and they address that in the news wrap-ups, but you don't see people dying or getting brutalized like that; it just re-enforced the gritty and depressing nature of the film.
But onto more positive news....
I'm psyched for the idea of an Old Republic film(s). I would say, turn KOTOR 1 & 2, and the 'Revan' novel into 'Star Wars Story films. Then, get Dave Filloni to do an 'Old Republic' animated series, following the TOR storylines.
Everyone get ready.....
Revan is coming
https://heroichollywood.com/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/
Greetings, fellow Citizens.
The following info-vid is mandatory viewing for all Citizens. Failure to view and like the info-vid will lead to accusations of you being a Commie Mutant Traitor. And we wouldn't want that, would we?
@fatefan That or possibly Rogue Trooper, since that's Duncan Jones' next film project.
@Thenomain said in Good or New Movies Review:
Edit: I just learned that Friday was International Women Day. I cannot for a moment believe the movie release date was a coincidence.
Nope. Just like Black Panther was deliberately released in February last year.
Not complaining or shaming, just recognizing that if you have specific events relating to a demographic that is tied to a movie you made, it makes sense to release the movie on or around that event.