Greatoneshere

Sounds like every aspect of the game is excellent, which is what I expected . . . except the story, which I only skimmed to get an idea overall if it was good, and it sounds like it is and it isn't. Fortunately the reviews I scanned didn't spoil a thing but that seemed to be the only real issue people had with the game (that and some forced stealth sections it sounds like). Glad I could be wrong about the story but it doesn't sound like a slam dunk on that front either.

Right, but what you said is you don't get the hate which is a bit more than just saying I like something, you don't. And while art/film is subjective to some degree, we can arrive at intersubjective truths using macro data like RT and IMDb. So it's not just purely subjective. I like a lot of movies the majority doesn't like but I usually get why they don't like something en masse even if I disagree or see some merit(s) to the film even if they don't. Intersubjectivity - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Additionally, all opinions are not equal. As the great writer Douglas Adams (The Hitchiker's Guide) once said: “All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.” Saying something is "subjective" is just a cop out from entering an educated discourse which can help arrive at an intersubjective understanding of whatever it is that is being discussed. Currently, Eli Roth is fairly universally panned. If everything was purely subjective with no intersubjectivity, then there'd be no point to message boards or reddit or any discourse on anything that is considered an opinion and not a fact. But because all opinions aren't equal and there is a higher understanding to be had with any subject than simply one's simple visceral/emotional response to it, I'm gonna say no, it's not subjective, not completely.

Yeah . . . I'm not sure what your floor is on films but there's a reason all those films (except Thanksgiving) are rated low by both critics and audiences across both IMDb and RottenTomatoes. There are a lot of reasons Eli Roth gets hate, just check out basically anyone's review of any of those films. I'm not counting Fin as it's a documentary and thus not really about his skills as a writer or director of films in the same way. Even films he hasn't directed but just co-wrote are terrible like Aftershock, The Man with the Iron Fists and the remake of his film Cabin Fever.

Kind of weird to delay it a year and have John Wick series director Chad Stahelski come in and help director Len Wiseman with additional reshoots and additional action scenes (two directors at the same time?). Either something was really wrong with Wiseman's cut or I don't know. I mean, are we sure the director of Underworld 1+2, Live Free or Die Hard (which I like) and the Total Recall remake can deliver a great John Wick spin-off film? I hope so. I like Wiseman but he hasn't directed a feature film since 2012. He's always been solid with action though.

Well, she did just do Tar, so it's not like she's stopped doing real movies, but I suppose she's diversifying. Which Eli Roth movies did you think were genuinely good?

Banana Mania was just 3 years ago, a new game with the same studio whose been making bad ones is unlikely to be much of an improvement. I mean, it's been like 8 bad games in a row. It's at least some proof the recent games are bad, but play your bad Super Monkey Ball games, no one's stopping you.

It should at least be noted that the director behind the two recent, excellent Jedi games left Respawn last September. With Apex Legends continuing to get worse and worse, hopefully this doesn't mean a dip in quality. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor director Stig Asmussen is leaving EA WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Stig Asmussen, the director behind the acclaimed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is leaving …

I'm not sure why anyone is excited for this? My brothers and I loved the original Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 when they came out for the GameCube (they're still great) but every Super Monkey Ball game since then has sucked. My brothers and I tried the most recent Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania but it was just Super Monkey Ball 1+2 with infinite lives essentially (which is worse). The competitive nature of doing the levels with a group was just completely missing, and it was otherwise a carbon copy of all the levels in the first two games. I don't expect this next one to break the trend of finally being good. I checked Metacritic just to see if I was misremembering, and nope, both critics and audiences have essentially unanimously eviscerated every Super Monkey Ball since Super Monkey Ball 2 except for the recent Banana Mania, which got "good enough" reviews (critics were kinder to it than the users were).The Fall Guys-style online multiplayer mode in this has potential at least.

In a good way or a bad way? Other than Thanksgiving I don't think he's ever made a good film.

In part, apparently. I actually loved Joker on release and now, away from all the discourse at the time around it, I think it's only gotten better as something very different for a "comic book" film than what we've been getting over and over. Looks like director Todd Phillips plans to go even crazier with the sequel.

I'm not even sure what this means. I've never watched the trailers for Gran Turismo (so I can't say if this movie's trailers "look better" than Gran Tursimo's did), but the final product was surprisingly solid. I wouldn't say "raves about" though. A solid 7/10 film when I expected a 4/10, and director Neill Blomkamp did a good job. I did actually watch the trailer for this since I'm not all that invested in Borderlands (though I did play the third one online for others) and yeah, that looks like Borderlands. Honestly doesn't look terrible, which is a great start for something I thought was likely going to be trash. Set and costume design look well done and they certainly nailed the extremely immature, for teenage boys raunchy comedy and toilet/gross out humor the games are certainly known for. It's also strange to see legitimate actors Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis slumming it in this alongside Jack Black and Kevin Hart who do films like Jumanji and Kung Fu Panda. I feel all the actor cred could at least elevate the film even if it is bad (in the same way perhaps that Djimon Honsou and David Harbour did in elevating Gran Turismo with their acting). Also, Eli Roth was finishing his horror film Thanksgiving so he didn't even do the customary reshoots for this film, Deadpool/Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller did, which is something. ‘Borderlands’: Tim Miller Dishes on Directing Reshoots and Reaction to Movie [Exclusive] COLLIDER.COM The director stopped by Collider Dailies to chat about Eli Roth's upcoming 'Borderlands' adaptation and more.

The entire trilogy is excellent. The other two aren't as good but they are good. The Departed takes stuff from all three movies, not just the first one. I also prefer Infernal Affairs over The Departed, even though I think The Departed is great.

All true. But more importantly, the problem is he's often wrong, biased on a number of issues, and is a pseudo-intellectual who thinks he's some amazing political philosopher when he frequently is on the wrong side of a policy issue. And he's only gotten worse as he's gotten older. People should stop listening to what he has to say.

But Bill Maher is absolutely terrible.

The weekend recap: -Sherlock Holmes (2009; dir. Guy Ritchie): 8/10 -Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011; dir. Guy Ritchie): 6.5/10 -Valhalla Rising (2009; dir. Nicolas Winding Refn): 8/10 -The Platform (2019; dir. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia): 7/10 -Afire (2023; dir. Christian Petzold): 6.5/10 -Blue Beetle (2023; dir. Angel Manuel Soto): 6/10 -Legend (2015; dir. Brian Helgeland): 6.5/10

I finally finished off my backlog (Furi, RE4: Separate Ways, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and King Arthur: Knight's Tale), with this being the final game in it. I wasn't far, only at Balteus but once I got back into this game proper I had a blast. The game actually isn't very hard at all, especially when you can start making clear cheese mech builds if you want (I did for fun, but tried to stick to a non-cheese build for my first run through). This game absolutely demands you go through it again two more times after you initially beat it. New Game+ gives you new missions as well as alternate versions of previous missions, and New Game++ adds additional new and alt missions. This shapes the story quite considerably into something that initially felt throw away to something I became quite invested in piecing together, ala Dark Souls. You get new dialogue, new boss battles with characters you didn't battle with before in the story, and three different endings as well. I used a cheese build for my second and third run throughs so I could do missions quickly and pick up any and all missed data logs and combat logs (for more story). The gameplay itself is incredibly buttery smooth, exactly what you want mechs to feel and play like. There is also something incredibly beautiful about the environments and horizons contrasted against all the metal around it. Beautiful, great game, a perfect marriage of arcadey mech action and actual skill with a fun, surprisingly interesting story. I recommend everyone here definitely do the new game plus stuff for the additional story and characters. Unlike a lot of New Game plus modes, this one is more like Nier or Triangle Strategy where you really do need to do it to get the full story. Anyway, really happy I came back to the game and stuck with it, very worthwhile. FromSoftware nailed it here. Since we're not really getting new Virtual On, Zone of the Enders, or Mech Assault games for a long time now, this really filled that mech gameplay I was craving.

My brothers and I are close to 100%ing Helldivers 1, we'll be going right into Helldivers 2 once we're finished, probably next week, hopefully by then any and all issues are mostly smoothed over. Can't wait!

To be clear, I liked the season (and the finale) well enough, but the writing really was all over the place while they meandered too much in the season. A lot to like though. My feelings are close to this Vox article, where it's good to get rid of the misogyny from previous seasons but this season was weak in some regards. An attempt to reckon with True Detective: Night Country’s bonkers season finale WWW.VOX.COM What True Detective’s fourth season gets wrong about True Detective.

This was a pretty great episode - a lot of plotlines but they weaved pretty well, and the day players like the golf tutor had some genuinely good improvised lines like: "it's not a lingering bench, it's an aesthetic bench". Also, the ridiculousness of the women interested in Larry continues, this time it's Sienna Miller. Also great to see Vince Vaughn back, who brings a great energy to every scene. And more Richard Lewis!

Yeah, I agree with both of you. I liked aspects like the atmosphere, acting, concept, setting, etc. But there was a lack of ooomph to the proceedings. It felt like the season never really ramped up in any way. I think the biggest problem the season had was that the central mystery of who killed the Tsalal men (and Annie K) just wasn't that compelling. The answers we got in this finale were very straightforward but with none of the bombast that usually comes with True Detective. Also having no central killer/villain didn't help either, there was no imposing figure to be worried about. In season one, when the one meth cooker comes out in underwear and a gas mask and a machete walking outside at the end of one of the episodes, you're freaked out by this guy. There was nothing like that here. I enjoyed this season but wish more of the hints of things (like magnetic noises, electrical sounds, oranges, etc.) were more than just window dressing. It's the most watched season of the show and Issa Lopez said she'd be down to do more if the network is, so we'll see. I do think only 6 episodes was not enough but the season didn't have enough story meat on the bones to really warrant more episodes either. A solid season of the show but does speak to how unique Pizzolatto's style is, not easily replicated.

Will definitely be watching this. I keep meaning to watch Chan-wook Park's previous TV show, The Little Drummer Girl as well.

Crazy news, sad to see right before the release of this game (a game I'm pretty hyped for, which releases this April): Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama has passed away WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Yoshitaka Murayama, creator of the Suikoden RPG series and scenario writer for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, has p…

I did see that they weren't from the official channel but sometimes it does happen that other channels will host the official trailer for a studio, these were much newer and scanning through them I just assumed. Nice heads up!

Just a reminder to everyone the first two episodes of this ten-episode season dropped last Thursday (with one new episode coming out each Thursday following). Interesting they expanded season 1's 8-episode length to 10 episodes, which I think will allow the show some breathing room given how fast paced season 1 was. Anyways, the first two episodes are really good - very engaging, streamlining out the weaknesses of season 1 while focusing on the strengths. Episode 1 takes care of most of the cliffhangers from the end of season 1 (except whatever's going on with Tozawa) and episode 2 has a three month time jump which really helps to push things forward to new places. I also continue to appreciate this was shot in Japan and many scenes consist of people just speaking Japanese, including our two white characters. I really hope people support the show, it's something different that's being done at a high level. I could honestly just watch episodic stories of Jake covering other stories (as he does in episode 2) and hanging out with Ken Watanabe if the yakuza stuff with Sato wasn't also so engaging. The A.V. Club liked the first half of the season (which was all that was shown to critics), a fairly strong review. Tagging people from this thread who might be interested: @Commissar SFLUFAN @skillzdadirecta @johnny @Dre801 @_BJ_ Tokyo Vice season 2 review: A slow-burning sophomore run WWW.AVCLUB.COM Max's crime series returns with a more methodical, gripping, and atmospheric outing.