Greatoneshere

The real question is will we ever get Collection of Mana on PC and will they ever do a Dawn of Mana remaster or remake? It's the final one that needs to be done in the mainline series. They even did a great remaster of Legend of Mana.

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Yeah, but have you ever thought of how seeing a man cry, a woman shaped like a body builder, or even a queer person might ruin the artistic integrity of these games designed in board rooms with PowerPoint presentations based on market research and urges from capital investors and the stock market?

 

If people really need to get the rocks off on virtual men, women, and everything in between there are more than a few of us on here that can direct them perfectly repulsive hentai. I won't kink shame.

Agreed. With so many diverse kinds of porn out there for adults to seek out I'm not really sure why this softcore/fan service demand is still around and to demand it and criticize positive normalization of gender portrayals in regular (non-porn) media. Says more about the person than anything.

4 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Oh, the horror of suggesting that devs should avoid negative gender stereotypes for both male and female characters if they want to reach a larger audience. Male characters with a full range of emotions? Female characters with armor that matches its function? The absolute travesty.

 

What a dumb article title for an incredibly benign recommendation from Microsoft. I swear, gamers are some of the whinest bunch of people on the planet.

 

I remember the collective shit gamers threw when Nintendo first started throwing optional difficulty reducing items in Mario games. Games being enjoyed by more people than just me? I'm utterly verklempt.

I had this exact same reaction - it's like an entire demographic of gamers don't understand their sexism is so ingrained it's subconscious and they don't even realize they're reacting negatively to positive changes for all genders in media protrayals.

17 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Bayonetta, Nier Automata, Dead or Alive and a bunch of other games are on Xbox.... I'm confused by this video.

The screencap to the video alone says all there needs to be said about the video. That's some rage clickbait right there, or what certainly looks like it.  

Man, another absolutely fantastic and compelling episode of TV. They are doing the best they can to nail the surreal poetry and romance from the book of scenes like praying in two different languages at the same time with a wall between Blackthorne and Mariko or everything with Kiku at the Willow World. Four more to go.

2 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I mean Pedro Pascal emotes just fine with a Helmet on. Master Chief in Halo Infinite emotes just fine with a Helmet on. And there are ways you can convey emotion with cinematography like lighting, camera angles, camera moves. Then there’s the music too. Is it unorthodox to have a character who’s face you cannot see for an entire season? Sure. But they chose the franchise and character. 
 

to quote gamers: “skill issue”. 

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it was highly unlikely that they were going to do it with Halo. You're naming a one in a billion exception. I'm not saying Master Chief doesn't emote just fine in the games, I'm saying you need to look at it from a producer's perspective - they're stupid and will assume audiences can't connect to the character and so here we are. It's the same stupid reason why we have a human character for the Covenant POV or why the Transformers movies or the American Godzilla movies have random, usually uninteresting human characters as the main POV rather than just focusing on the monsters or robots with no need for a focus from a human perspective. I don't agree with it at all, but that's how studios and producers think. He does have his helmet on a decent bit, if that's any consolation, but it's nowhere near all the time.

3 minutes ago, legend said:

I feel like I'm more comfortable with it in this because it wears it on its sleeve. Fan service is far worse when you're purporting to be a more serious story and then all of a sudden its fan service nonsensical sexy time for characters that have no business doing that.

I agree in that you have to have your tone match the overt sexualization of the character(s), for sure. Hence people's issues with Quiet in MGS5 by comparison (a game I loved but yeah). 

I mean, it seems leering at or ogling women, fan service, and pushing the male gaze is strong with this one, regardless of game quality, it should be amusing to see the online discourse on this when it drops. The best part is when he says: "this is entertainment for adults" to justify the teenage boy fantasies. Just be honest my dude. 

Stellar Blade dev, also known for butt-jiggling game Nikke, says he "put special attention" into the female lead's back because that's what players see most of the time | GamesRadar+

WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM

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"This is entertainment for adults"

6 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

One characterization it sounded like the show changed that I am not too fond of is where they have chief out of armor so much again and now trying to come to terms with what happened to him as a child and whether he even wants to be MC. As if he’s Bruce Wayne looking at the Batman cowl wondering if he still wants to be Batman. 

 

Dr Halsey is a more suitable character to be the lead because she was closely involved with all aspects of the Spartan II program and kept up with their deployments. Regarded by most if not all Spartan IIs as the closest thing they had to a mother. She had political enemies within the UNSC upper leadership who wanted their own super soldier program to be adopted and wanted to shut her down. She’s the character that can ask and asks of the audience to answer the questions; is it right to sacrifice your humanity to save human civilization? Can your prior sins be absolved by future needs for what you’ve done? 

I mean, unfortunately one has to accept this is a show, not a movie, and to cultivate any sort of character arc for John-117 over the course of the show you have to have his helmet off to emote, etc. This isn't a one off movie like V for Vendetta, Dredd, etc. That being said, I agree with you, to make all this child soldier/spartan stuff be at the forefront of season 1 (he's moved on from it in season 2) is strange, as if they wanted to bridge the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn web series and the current timeline. The Spartan program stuff is some of the better stuff on the show because at least that stuff lines up better with the Halo games but yes it's weird the show focuses on that. It doesn't come off as Bruce Wayne-like or comic book-y, but it is there.

Imagine assuming governments evolve within a vacuum like a science experiment rather than, ya know, in the world, affected by other forces like capitalism, foreign countries, other economies, etc. 

3 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Say what you will, the movie is fucking hilarious. But yeah, not great.

I'd fallen behind on this season and finally caught up - man this season is really firing on all cylinders, first eight episodes of ten have been excellent.

Edit: It was also nice that we've finally come back to the two years later opening flashforward from the pilot episode of season 1 where Ken Watanabe and Jake talk to Tozawa's second in command in that hotel high rise place. I was worried the show would never get to that point so that we could enter truly uncharted territory story-wise but episode 8 finally caught up to the Michael Mann-directed pilot. It will be interested to see where things go from here.

51 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

Maybe I need to re-watch the beginning of season 1 and I just didn't pick up what they were giving us, but I feel like they did a terrible job of setting the stage. Episode 1 we had Spartans, including Master Chief, saving (or at least attempting to save) insurrectionists from Covenant. It was really not clear if humanity was still in some civil war, what exactly was happening with the war with the Covenant, to what extent MC was already some legendary hero, or why. I think some of that is their failing, and maybe some of it is that it conflicts with the games.

 

I'm fine with dropping the audience off in media res, but I feel like that works best when things are simple and it's easy to get your bearings. You don't watch the opening of Star Wars and wonder who the good guys are. It felt to me like they wanted to make Halo more complex in different ways than the game did, when I think it would have worked better without all the mess. So I completely agree with you that the "UNSC does bad stuff" threads were so weirdly the core of this show, arguably until the very end of season 2.

I agree with you - they did not set the stage well at the beginning of season 1. They basically hint that the outer colonies and humanity at large are not that aware of the existence of the Covenant, as if they haven't already been fighting them for 27 years like in the games. The revolutionaries consider it UNSC propaganda to quell unrest. But the Spartans and UNSC are fully aware and have already been fighting them for some time (for how long is never mentioned, but it doesn't feel like 27 years, that's for sure). And yeah, I don't know why but the show loves the UNSC is bad and McKee plot threads a lot. 

You really don't choose your neighbors if Ridley Scott lives near P. Diddy. How strange. 

I mean, after the appeals court granted Trump a lower bond amount, are we at all surprised by this? And yet, it stings every time. 

1 hour ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Ive always wanted a Band of Brothers style and inspired Halo show that shows the events from the Fall of Reach into Halo CE and Halo First Strike. Ive known for a long time that would never happen. 
 

I will admit part of my issue is also that I do not like where 343 took the Halo lore and this show seemingly wanted to jump right into incorporating that lore. Halo under 343 has always felt like bad fanfiction, because they so badly want to differentiate their Halo from Bungie’s Halo.  

Well, season 2, episode 4 does cover the fall of Reach and the season 2 finale we finally land on Halo but I imagine you'd be disappointed with how they portray both, though at least with those two things it's much closer in look and feel to Halo as compared to the non-Halo stuff on the show. They do lay down groundwork in the backstory of Halo 4 and onward stuff because they kind of have to if they're going to incorporate all Halo lore but it's not come up too much so far. The Covenant are there, look good, speak their alien language, the Spartans act and move and look like Spartans, etc. It's a show at war with itself. Definitely nothing like Band of Brothers though nor is it of the level of quality Halo deserves.

I don't mind the 343i additions in theory, I'm assuming you're referring to things like the Precursors, Ancients Humans, the Prometheans (part of the Forerunner rates/castes), etc.? If so, it's fun but definitely comes off as fanfiction, especially when done poorly.

1 hour ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Everything Ive read and heard about the story and portrayals this season has made it clear to me I wouldn’t like this season. The show still doesn’t know what MC is nor care about the source material. They still want to do their own thing and this show is Halo in name only, because these talentless people (lead actor included) know that nobody would watch this shit if it was a new original IP made for Tv. 
 

The commercials to sell Halo games in the were more faithful and better crafted than this self servicing imitation. 

You would be right, it's not really Halo. There are moments where it is pure Halo, but they are few and far between (but well done when they show up). Despite season 2 having an entirely different writers' room compared to season 1, it still does seem like the show is written by people who don't like or get Halo. The season 2 finale did course correct a significant number of things so I'm wondering if the season 2 writers were contractually bound to use the actors set up from all the terrible plotlines from season 1 because if they do a season 3, there is a pretty clear opportunity to finally make Halo and it can mostly be done given the finale killed off a lot of the not-Halo stuff while finally bringing us to Halo with Cortana and Master Chief so that's something. There are still things that would bother any Halo fan that can simply not be corrected at this point short of just ignoring what's been established in the show so far (which is possible) but I'm curious what a season 3 could look like if they get writers who care about Halo.

19 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I'll take Mackee over Kwan Ha.

Kwan Ha is at least more likeable than McKee but both need to be jettisoned from this show since both make Halo far more stupid and far less like Halo. It's not the actors' faults, it's just how unnecessary they are to Halo.

4 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

Bad Boys 2 is one of my all time favorite action movies. 3 was alright. I didn’t hate it but I only watched it once in theater and never felt the need to rewatch.

Yeah I only saw the third once at home but what I thought was going to be a disaster was actually fairly funny and entertaining, particularly the generational difference angle. It was nothing memorable (I only remember a few bits of it now) but it wasn't a bad or mediocre film either.

13 minutes ago, ort said:

He should be selling gold colored bibles.

The irony of the golden calf writ large . . . on literal Bibles! 

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The series peaked with the second film where they invaded Cuba.

Few things will ever top the sheer gonzo insanity of Bad Boys II. Movie is epic.

As for this one, the same guys who directed Bad Boys III came back to do this one and that one was surprisingly solid. Nothing great but good enough for a Bad Boys film. I have faith this will at least be as solid as that.

22 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I'm not intimately familiar with Halo lore, but wasn't the SPARTAN program initially developed to counter human insurgents then the timing of the Covenant threat just kinda happened to work out?

That is the case, but the show takes place primarily in 2552 (the same year as Halo 1), 27 years after first contact at Harvest and by now there should be no "outer colonies revolting" plot by the time of Halo: Reach and Halo 1 yet in season 1 (and somewhat in season 2) the UNSC are "bad" is a bigger plotline than warring with the Covenant and stumbling on Halo which is just strange, but that's one aspect I don't have much issue with compared to everything else I mentioned. When you play the original games you get that the UNSC, like any militaristic organization, gets up to some shit but you never get the sense they are completely incompetent and evil like the higher ups are portrayed on the show. It's just a tonally strange swerve to make when adapting Halo of all things. But the human touch point I'm referring to is a McKee, who is a human raised from a young age to follow the Covenant and for some reason is still around and it's like: just give us the Arbiter from Halo 2 and make him the Covenant POV, no need for McKee (they almost did it with the not-Arbiter that was following McKee around, but that's not Keith David's Arbiter so who cares).

On 3/22/2024 at 9:21 PM, TwinIon said:

Season finished up and it’s not uniformly terrible, but I just have a hard time connecting with it. I think there’s a lot to like. The finale ended with some pretty decent action. There are some very cool shots in space, some nifty horrorish sequences, and I appreciated the lack of cuts from the final fight. I think a lot of the issues I have with the show are remnants from a first season that failed to really connect me to all these characters. So even when individual scenes are well done, they’re just not hitting me with the weight they’re trying for. 

 

That said, I’m kind of excited about Season 3, if we actually get one. 

 

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The finale jettisoned a lot of potential baggage (even if it wasn’t as much as I’d like) and more importantly, Master Chief is finally on Halo! Also, Cortana is in his suit, and they get along. So if season 3 happens, which I wouldn’t bet on, then we’ll actually be at the point where we’re getting an adaptation of the first game.

 

As for the narrative, I think it’s kind of cowardly to give all the antagonists a human touch point. I understand why that would be a storytelling instinct, or even a note from the studio, or even for budget reasons, but to me it robs us of a more interesting perspective. First we had Makee as our intermediary for the Covanent, which isn’t a horrible choice in and of itself, but now they have Kwan Ha as a connection to the flood? I haven’t minded that storyline as much as I did in Season 1, but it’s still a weaker part of the show in my opinion. I also just like the flood to be this incredible force of nature. Introducing the mind of it so quickly is like introducing the Borg queen first. 

Still, I’ll watch season 3 if they make it.

 

 

I land about where you do - the show isn't very good but whenever it tries to actually be like Halo (namely in the action sequences and the set, costume, and production designs) it's actually quite good. It's very unfortunate the show introduces the Flood wrong, has mystic mumbo jumbo, no Avery Johnson, the UNSC is "bad", etc. I feel like viewers deserve to get a season 3 after all the fucking about the show has been doing as an adaptation. And yes the human touch point has been a problem for two seasons now.

The weekend recap:

-Road House (2024; dir. Doug Liman): 6/10

-Miami Vice: Unrated Director's Cut: 8/10

-Bulletproof Monk (2003; dir. Paul Hunter): 5/10

-Captain Marvel (2019; dirs. Anna Boden/Ryan Fleck): 6.5/10

-Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997; dir. Steven Spielberg): 7.5/10

The A.V. Club really liked the season, giving it a B+, which is promising as I'm about to dive into this series though Moa's take is tempering that a bit.

3 Body Problem review: So is this the next Game Of Thrones?

WWW.AVCLUB.COM

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No, Netflix’s heady sci-fi series isn’t that (which is just fine by us).