fuckle85

34 minutes ago, johnny said:

This was a great episode lol 

It's just dumb decision after dumb decision from characters who should know better but don't, and a lot of far fetch moments happening because plot and such. Brianne shouldn't have banged Jamie (good moment for Jamie, TERRIBLE moment for Brianne), Jon's way of handling the complications with Dany were hilarious and I'm not sure how much of it was intentional or not, the cringe dialogue between Gendry and Arya, Dany is flying miles above the ocean and somehow Euron's fleet stealth kills her dragon, Tyrion walking up to Cersei, Missandrei not even attempting to throw Cersei off the wall before what everyone knows is going to happen happens, etc.  And that was just this episode.  I's pretty clear to me that the show writers are struggling with landing this thing.  I sort of expected that, but not to this degree.  What I loved about earlier seasons was the lack of these dumb moments, but they've been incrementally happening more since season 6 or so.  It is what it is.  

30 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I thought it was one of the better episodes to date recently... the show got away from the supernatural stuff and went back to the actual political intrigue and once again proved that man is is own worst enemy. I felt like no characters were safe and that any one of them could get it at any moment... particularly

 

Breanne or Jamie (Thought either one of them could kill the other)

Jamie or Tyrion  (Had no idea what Bronn was gonna do... he was clearly fed up with their shit)

Varys (I thought that he was gonna turn around and Dany and Grey Worm would be standing their and OFF with his head)

Tyrion again ( I was pretty sure Cersei was gonna have him skewered... at this point I doubt if she really wants to kill him)

 

This was definitely a strong episode once the celebration was over. Jon is still an idiot.

There was definitely a feeling of unease during the early moments of the dinner scene.   But in retrospect it's mostly because you can just never trust a feast scene in GoT/ASOIAF.  There were a few truly surprising moments, but a lot of it felt to me like the writers were addressing/possibly using fan theories posted online.  I gotta wonder if it's possible GRRM is taking forever with the books since leaving the show over creative differences in season 4 because he wants to see how they handle fleshing out his sketch for the plot and the audience reactions before possibly changing up the story in the books.  It might even make the books better to some extent (if the ever come out, etc).

This is pretty much the episode where I can't take the show seriously anymore.  The massive dropoff in writing quality these past few seasons due to no books to adapt and GRRM leaving the show is very evident to me now.  But it'll still be worth it just to see fucking Cersei get what's coming to her.

Sam's reaction in that scene haha

Saw it again today. I've concluded it's one of those films that I see no point whatsoever in arguing about the logistics of anything. Live action cartoons and the "rules" pretty much come down to science magic. Still fun to watch though.

So it was leaked weeks ago that episode 3 was a battle episode.  Is another battle confirmed?

27 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Man, that was equal parts intensely satisfying and anticlimactic as all fuck.  The night king has been amassing forces for thousands of fucking years, and he gets done in by same sleight of hand?  I mean at the very fucking least, Arya could have pulled some of her many faced god shit.  I was secretly hoping that Bran would just roll out of his chair, stab the night king in the gut, and the pull his face away to reveal Arya.  Honestly, the only thing that really pissed me off was the crypt corpses coming back to life because I assumed the only way everyone in the show could be that fucking stupid was if the writers weren't going to do it, but here we are.  

 

Also, as a general whole, can we all agree to completely drop the redemption story arc?  "You're a good man Theon."  No Theon, you aren't actually a good man.  I liked your character arc and it's rewarding to watch it conclude, but we really don't need that final moment and becoming a better person because you were tortured isn't really something to celebrate.  Hey Theon, I know you murdered two random children and beheaded them, stole my family home which required more murder, and did a bunch of other really horrible shit, but you're here now and that's all that really matters.

There HAS to be some major significance between TNK and his army of zombies, The Many Faced God/God of Death, and Arya's journey of learning how to be an assassin from them and then severing ties ("What do we say to death? Not today.") but I can't quite piece it together.  Obviously it makes her character arc poetic af but there has to be even more to it than that.

It's pretty clear characters like Theon and Jamie are still shitlords. Bran was probably just using empathy to comfort Theon before he died. Jamie's redemption arc is a bigger mystery.  He's almost portrayed as heroic now (It was intended to be a meaningful, even tearjerking scene when he bestowed the title of honorable knight to Brienne, though it probably shouldn't mean as much coming from him). Dude did some horrible shit, all the way up through last season, yet the show still kinda wants you to root for him lmao.  From what I understand the book does a much better job of humanizing him.

14 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

The writers should totally subvert everyone's expectations about what will happen tonight.  This is what I'm thinking:

 

The Battle of Winterfell is raging but no major or minor characters have been killed yet though it's pretty obvious that the Night King's army is winning.  Theon and Bran are waiting for the Night King in the Godswood with Arya hinding to ambush him with her dragonglass-tipped javelin/spear weapon.  Just as the Night King arrives in the Godswood, the battle outside Winterfell is reaching its climax with the good guys clearly on the edge of defeat.  All hope seems lost as the Night King raises his sword, about to strike down Theon and the Three-Eyed Raven, ending the world of man and the memory of its history forever...when with a mighty cry Arya hurls her javelin which goes right through the Night King.  He stares in disbelief at the weapon protruding from his chest, realizing just how close -- and yet how far -- he is from his final victory...and then he dies.

 

As he dies, the entire Army of the Dead collapses in heaps where they stand, lying motionless in the snow.  It takes a second for our heroes to realize what has happened as they are stunned in their disbelief.  They exchange bewildered glances at one another, in both confusion at the dead wights at their feet and relief at being alive.  Eventually, it is Bronn who breaks the spell with an actual ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at the camera/audience and says:

 

"Right, that was a bit o' fun, eh?  Who's up for a drink?  It's bloody cold out here."

 

Fade to black.

Credits roll.

Benny Hill theme music plays.

 

Such an outcome is guaranteed to be the most memorable event in the history of television.  It must be so!

 

SFLUFAN was this a lowkey spoiler!? The fuck!!!!!!!!?

That was less an epic medieval fantasy battle than a zombie horror episode for most of it, but holy actual fuck.  Theon and Jorah dying so honorably, the fucking horror and tragedy of Lady Mormont's death, the dragon fights, the feeling of "what the fuck is going to happen now" as The Night's King approaches Bran, and then Arya coming through with the win, bish!!!!!!!!! That moment adds so much more meaningful context to her arc from her earliest scenes to all of that stuff with the god of death and faceless men. Damn I'm looking forward to watching those episodes again to pick up on the forshadowing that went over my head at the time.  I'm literally fucking shaking right now, haha.  I love this show so much again that I can't even feel disappointment for season 5 and 7 any more.  

Less than ten minutes, baby!

To get some hype going for anyone unaware of this, the Battle of Winterfell is apparently the longest on-screen battle in cinema history, lasting longer than the Battle of Helm's Deep in LOTR: TT.

For comparison, The Battle of Hornburg at Helms Deep was 40 minutes long in the movie adaptation of the Two Towers. 

Just got back from seeing it. 

After taking a break from Sekiro I might get back into that.  Spider-Man DLC, finishing up RDR2, Apex Legends (and then Titanfall to heal my shattered ego after I get my ass handed to me), Spyro, The Sims 4 and DMC5 are also on the table.  

6 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

Of course you hope for good reviews... they definitely don't hurt and can be tied to financial bonuses and stuff. All we were saying is that for some game, bad reviews may not mean as much and because of the general unreliability of gaming review sites these days, youtube and social media, reviews may mean even less when you can often talk to folks in real time who are playing a game in question and make up your mind yourself. I think these days most folks go by word of mouth from people they trust/know and actual user reviews than "professional" gaming reviews. The reviews for this game bear out how off reviewers can be. 

I'm sure there's truth to this. I'm always interested in having a bigger picture understanding of how impressions online (from both reviewers and popular streamers) impacts reactions to the game.  In real life, friends and myself would love games that might get lukewarm reviews, or weren't reviewed much or are very niche.  Or ones that nobody talks about online but we had a blast with. But that's just within my social bubble and when you look at the accumulative impressions spread across social media and forums with a large user base like Era and Gaf, you're obviously seeing a much larger scale reaction to a game.  Sometimes this is even acknowledged by developers themselves.

I don't claim that even all of this gives an comprehensive picture of a game or studio's success across the board, but over time you notice some patterns like how games which have clear issues (Red Dead Redeption 2, for example) getting near perfect metacritic scores and how the reaction seems overwhelmingly positive.  Then that might change over time until it seems like popular opinion has shifted to being more critical ("backlash", etc).  Sometimes sales and impressions seem to go hand in hand. Sometimes not. This has happened many times throughout the years and is often observable after streamers or journalists present a very convincing argument for why a game should be more heavily criticized.  The ebb and flow of that is interesting to me.

14 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

How? Most games do the majority of their sales in the first week. If the game is selling strong early, that means that it's probably doing well. As was said earlier in this thread, reviews don't matter as much for certain games. They just don't.

I honestly don't know enough about marketing to gauge to what extent strong reviews + word of mouth (on and offline) impact sales and success and for which games, but It can matter sometimes, especially long term, so generally as a studio you always hope for good reviews/impressions (that Benji guy seemed to confirm this in a previous tweet).  

This is turning out to be quite a year for zombie games, eh?  Despite feeling a bit burnt out by the genre, DG still seems like a good enough time that I'll probably pick it up when it goes on sale and after several patches are released.  I love the prospect of cruising around the open world and taking in the scenery while experiencing random interesting moments involving humans, undead, wildlife, etc.  It'll be worth my time and cash if it offers that much.

15 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

Though I hope this game does well, saying "Day 1, sales are strong" might be calling it a bit early, hehe.  My concern from the beginning was that lukewarm reviews might influence public opinion, eventually influencing sales numbers later.  For better or worse, this is common in the industry.  Too much stock is put into reviews sometimes.

I'm hyped over the concept of this game and it's Remedy so you know the shooting/psychic powers mechanics are going to be amazing.  

Both games are arguably some of the best in the series though I prefer Origins because I'm fascinated with ancient Egypt and Ubisoft put a lot of care into depicting it accurately. Haven't played Odyssey yet.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/business/media/steven-spielberg-netflix-academy-awards.html

Backwards compatibility is amazing news as long as Sony doesn't charge a subscription fee to use it.  PS3 and earlier would be nice as well but PS4 bc alone is enough to earn a pre-order from me.  Sony will probably continue to push PSnow, but hopefully it will take on the role of a much better option for renting games (since that's essentially what it is) and more PS1-3 classics will be ported to their online store.

Team Ico/Gen Design's approach to animation.  The way a character's body language and expressions tells you a lot about their character like how determined they are, clumsy, reckless, brave, etc.  The little touches like clothing rippling in wind, tripping over a step, the way animals are portrayed, like how Toriko will show subtle behaviors that your pet might have.  Most games rarely make me feel like the characters are as alive like those games do.

3 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Considering he'll be fighting in the big battle, Jaime is safe from Dany's wrath. Come on, guys.

My point is exactly that he will be safe to make it to the battle (not only from Dany but the Starks).  I didn't know/remember it was already confirmed for sure he would  though. Tyrion and Brianne will vouch for him and pretty sure Bran might pardon him too if it comes up.

So looks like there will be a Jamie trial next episode, but there's no way that he DOESN'T get bailed out by Brienne, right? His moments of honor were significant in setting in motion the events that led to the Stark family being reunited. Also Tyrion is there and can vouch for him too.

Friendly reminder: Vanquish and Bayonneta are on PC now

Also, if you happen to be looking forward to the next Vampire TM: Bloodlines, the original game is very janky but can be modded to be playable enough, Vampyr is a nice little story-driven Vampire RPG, and I recently learned that it takes very little effort to get Blood Omen 2 running perfectly on Steam.  All of these games are pretty immersive and have tons of atmosphere.

If you haven't played Cuphead yet, april 18th is the perfect day to start since there will be a massive update that adds new features including playable mugman for single-player, improvements and tweaks and fully animated cutscenes!

16 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

All simultaneously contribute in some manner, but for AAA games today, internet reactions and reviews matter much less in the short term than the long term.  Other factors like marketing are more important.

Agreed 100%

(not entirely, but I think it's reasonable to assume that we are both simultaneously making some good points and being full of shit until several perspectives with marketing cred in the games industry quantify to what extent online hype can be influential)