I watched the first season of Dark Materials and mostly liked it, but wasn't even aware the second season existed. And I have HBOMax! So indeed it was a well kept secret.
I feel that the Pixar Sparkshorts on Disney+ have not been talked up enough, with only "Out" getting much comment, mostly from people frustrated by the approach it took to its subject matter. So far I haven't seen one that I've disliked, and a lot of them are straight-up great. I haven't bothered with Disney/Pixar features of late (save for Toy Story 4) because they're pretty much all the same now, as you noted a little while back, but the Sparkshorts are something I can still look forward to.
The glut of shows nowadays make it feel like *every* series happens in secrecy except for one lucky winner every month. If I hear more than a low murmur about a show while it's happening, that's the exception. And some excellent shows like the Amazon miniseries Undone ... crickets.
They were peppering in the Pietro references so I was expecting & hoping for a gut-punch ending with Wanda subconsciously having resurrected Johnson, as opposed to consciously resurrecting Vision. I was surprised that they moved quite so fast (pun intended) in integrating the X-Men movies by directly including it in their big Phase 4 opening salvo, pleasantly so.
I like that Vision has agency. I assume he will be the one to eventually get through to Wanda and convince her to stop the reality warp bubble, knowing full well that that means he will be sacrificing his life a second time. I'm enjoying that they're ratcheting up the disturbing moments like with Vision's colleague at work. The Wanda-summons-the-credits moment was gloriously surreal ... very Too Many Cooks.
Not liking "The Last of Us" is fine, I find them extremely overrated. For a much better narrative experience from the same creators as CP77, go play The Witcher 3.
If fooling around in a digital sandbox is your thing, now might be a good time to check out IO's Hitman trilogy. Get part 3 and the missions from the first two games as DLC for it. It will be pretty obvious why these guys scored the Bond license. Hitman 1-3 perfectly capture the glamorous secret agent thing.
I played THE WITCHER 3 when it came out and enjoyed it greatly. I think my SKYRIM addiction meant it didn't quite land on me with both feet, but I thought it was great.
I just recently picked up HITMAN III with all the DLC. Funny you would say that. So far, I am not quite sure I get it. I'm not good at it at all. But I am curious enough about it to try to get better at it. It's certainly a very slick world. And, yeah, I saw that about them getting the Bond license... TO KILL. I'm sorry. Dad joke instincts.
Ha, way to go! HITMAN didn't click with me at first, but they get better the more you play them. When you know a map inside out and have a grip on the mechanics of the game, it's *chef's kiss*. Have fun, 47!
I had a feeling that people were talking a bit about the first season of HIS DARK MATERIALS, but season 2 was HBO's second best kept secret last year, right after their plans to go day-and-date with the WB releases for 2021.
In regards to what we're getting from Marvel, when do we have to start referring to it as the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse?
I think the only downfall of 'The Last of Us' is its degree of difficulty. In terms of narrative, it absolutely blew my mind, and I consider my playthrough as profound a gaming experience as I've ever had. But good grief, it's hard, man. And I understand that was a specific design choice on the part of Naughty Dog, very much baked into their intentions for the player, and I can appreciate that. To a degree. But when your desire to challenge overwhelms their ability to experience the story, then something's out of balance, plain and simple.
Despite my interest in re-playing it, any attempt I've made since that first time through has petered out before long -- usually at that nightmare point relatively early on when you (as Joel) get caught in the refrigerator trap that hoists you up into the ceiling, and you have to take out a preposterous number of swarming infected while dangling from one leg, upside down, with far too little ammo and virtually no room for error. It's intense, to be sure. But truly, absurdly difficult.
I'm not spectacular at video games by any stretch, but I'm not terrible, either, and that is one of a number of moments during 'The Last of Us' that I had to play so many times over, it wrung every drop of goodwill out of me, and then started drawing blood. Challenging, I understand. But prohibitively difficult, I question.
I know there are gamers who enjoy being punished, and more power to 'em. The Dark Souls Posse will never see me as a member, but I'm happy they have stuff to play that pummels their kidneys like they seem to so enjoy. In this case, however, I'd have thought the studio would value sharing their story with people over making it hurt so much to get through, and it bums me out that people missed out on it as a result.
Did you ever play Horizon: Zero Dawn, Drew? That's another sprawling open world game with a positively spectacular narrative. The combat can certainly be challenging at times, but not oppressively so, and most of the tougher challenges are skippable if you'd rather just explore & enjoy the story. I really think you'd dig it, and I think you can pick it up for next to nothing these days.
I loved HORIZON: ZERO DAWN. It was difficult at first, but I thought it had a satisfying learning curve, and I loved the world. The trailer for the next one is gorgeous, and I hope I have a PS5 by the time the game arrives.
For me, there is a certain point where "difficult" simply isn't fun, and if I don't enjoy something about the game play on some level, I'm done. Period.
The concern about being able to finish a television adaptation of a book series is my biggest worry about The Dark Tower, which seems destined for television someday when someone inevitably wants to try again. I could totally them making it to, say, The Waste Lands, and Netflix with their penchant for unceremonious cancellation going “Okay well that’s enough.”
Based on the games you mentioned you have devoured, I would certainly recommend you try Last of Us again.
I just can’t see how you won’t get it into it. From a pure piece of interactive narrative, nothing touches those two games. They are as close as anybody has come to making me feel like I was experiencing a movie - without any jarring look behind the curtain.
Give it another go. It does radically change and settle into what it becomes pretty soon after it’s opening.
Never gonna do it. I tried too many times, and it's a gameplay issue. Simply put, I hate the gameplay. I hate the controls. I hate that kind of stealth. I hate the bad guys. I just hate the experience.
I appreciate that it may have a fantastic story. I will look forward to the TV adaptation, which I will watch without a controller in my hand, which will free me up to enjoy the narrative without wanting to kick a hole in the wall.
Huhu. Im new to this Newsletter and the thing that shocked me more than the WandaVision Episode is the fact how many media you can read, hear and watch in a week! Chapéu!
That WandaVision moment was one of such genuinely delightful SHOCK, between this and the ending of The Mandalorian I feel blessed to not have being spoiled at all. In the age of "scoops" and leaks, it gives you a certain kind of satisfaction to experience the Big Moment like this, kudos to Disney for keeping a tight ship.
I'm almost ready to dip into the second season of His Dark Materials myself, I love the books and enjoyed the first season with a few asterisks.
And last but not least, I'm really glad you are trying The Expanse, the last season was terrific once again and still think of Season 3 as Hall-of-Fame level of sci-fi. It fills the Battlestar Galactica hole veeeeery nicely. Looking forward to reading your reactions.
That episode of WandaVision blew my mind. It never occurred to me before, but now it's clearly such an obvious way to both confirm there is a multiverse in the MCU and bring mutants into it. Apparently there are some theories out there saying another entity is controlling Wanda, but I was dismissive of that idea until this episode. There were several times that Wanda acted very surprised about something, like Pietro. It could be that she's simply suppressing things, but I'm willing to consider the idea she's not necessarily in as complete control as she seems to be.
I agree with your experience with Cyberpunk 2077. I've been playing on PS5, and while I had a lot of problems with crashing until about a week ago, I have enjoyed the game itself immensely. I mean, I spend hours just exploring the nooks and crannies of Night City even after completing it twice. I found a way to get up onto the monorail track that circles the city and followed it for quite a ways. There are several hastily completed stations up there, some of which have big holes in the geometry to fall thru if you're careless. I do differ from you in one way, however: I HATED the main storyline with Johnny Silverhand; partly because I really dislike it when games force you to play a different POV character, and the other reason is that most of the endings feel like a kick in the balls. "You just spent all that time leveling your character and now Johnny Fucking Silverhand is gonna take it over" or if you tell Johnny to get lost, you only have 6 months to live because your brain has been fucked over by that stupid Relic. Very unsatisfying for me personally. But I love spending time in the world they created.
I guess it makes sense there are different endings. I haven't read about alternatives at all. I just know that for me, I decided to recruit Panam and her gang to help me, and they made me a member of their gang. We went in under the city in a siege. I thought it was a lot of fun. I do think it's a bummer that they leave you with a death sentence, but that door's open enough that they can fix V. for a sequel.
Or could have if this hadn't been a fiasco for them.
You chose the best ending; I did that one on my second playthru. I'm sure my opinion would be less sour if I had done it first too. My first time thru I listened to Johnny at every decision point and wound up with him taking over my female V, and as he's wrapping things up to leave NC, you get a notice about scheduling a sex change or something along those lines. I know that is part of the lore, but after experiencing what a douche canoe Johnny is for most of the game, it felt pretty misogynistic. I don't roleplay a woman when I make a female character but I still found it insulting. I won't spoil anything else in case you decide to replay it, but the Aldacado ending is far and away the best one.
I probably won't replay it. At least not for a while. I'm heading into ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA now, and I have been messing around a little with HITMAN III. I think that's it for me and Night City.
Hello, New to the letter and really enjoyed it. Is it possible that the Neal character in wandavision saying “you have to stop her” could be referring to a different her? It might be a red herring is all I’m saying.
I watched the first season of Dark Materials and mostly liked it, but wasn't even aware the second season existed. And I have HBOMax! So indeed it was a well kept secret.
I feel that the Pixar Sparkshorts on Disney+ have not been talked up enough, with only "Out" getting much comment, mostly from people frustrated by the approach it took to its subject matter. So far I haven't seen one that I've disliked, and a lot of them are straight-up great. I haven't bothered with Disney/Pixar features of late (save for Toy Story 4) because they're pretty much all the same now, as you noted a little while back, but the Sparkshorts are something I can still look forward to.
The glut of shows nowadays make it feel like *every* series happens in secrecy except for one lucky winner every month. If I hear more than a low murmur about a show while it's happening, that's the exception. And some excellent shows like the Amazon miniseries Undone ... crickets.
They were peppering in the Pietro references so I was expecting & hoping for a gut-punch ending with Wanda subconsciously having resurrected Johnson, as opposed to consciously resurrecting Vision. I was surprised that they moved quite so fast (pun intended) in integrating the X-Men movies by directly including it in their big Phase 4 opening salvo, pleasantly so.
I like that Vision has agency. I assume he will be the one to eventually get through to Wanda and convince her to stop the reality warp bubble, knowing full well that that means he will be sacrificing his life a second time. I'm enjoying that they're ratcheting up the disturbing moments like with Vision's colleague at work. The Wanda-summons-the-credits moment was gloriously surreal ... very Too Many Cooks.
Not liking "The Last of Us" is fine, I find them extremely overrated. For a much better narrative experience from the same creators as CP77, go play The Witcher 3.
If fooling around in a digital sandbox is your thing, now might be a good time to check out IO's Hitman trilogy. Get part 3 and the missions from the first two games as DLC for it. It will be pretty obvious why these guys scored the Bond license. Hitman 1-3 perfectly capture the glamorous secret agent thing.
I played THE WITCHER 3 when it came out and enjoyed it greatly. I think my SKYRIM addiction meant it didn't quite land on me with both feet, but I thought it was great.
I just recently picked up HITMAN III with all the DLC. Funny you would say that. So far, I am not quite sure I get it. I'm not good at it at all. But I am curious enough about it to try to get better at it. It's certainly a very slick world. And, yeah, I saw that about them getting the Bond license... TO KILL. I'm sorry. Dad joke instincts.
Ha, way to go! HITMAN didn't click with me at first, but they get better the more you play them. When you know a map inside out and have a grip on the mechanics of the game, it's *chef's kiss*. Have fun, 47!
I had a feeling that people were talking a bit about the first season of HIS DARK MATERIALS, but season 2 was HBO's second best kept secret last year, right after their plans to go day-and-date with the WB releases for 2021.
In regards to what we're getting from Marvel, when do we have to start referring to it as the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse?
I think the only downfall of 'The Last of Us' is its degree of difficulty. In terms of narrative, it absolutely blew my mind, and I consider my playthrough as profound a gaming experience as I've ever had. But good grief, it's hard, man. And I understand that was a specific design choice on the part of Naughty Dog, very much baked into their intentions for the player, and I can appreciate that. To a degree. But when your desire to challenge overwhelms their ability to experience the story, then something's out of balance, plain and simple.
Despite my interest in re-playing it, any attempt I've made since that first time through has petered out before long -- usually at that nightmare point relatively early on when you (as Joel) get caught in the refrigerator trap that hoists you up into the ceiling, and you have to take out a preposterous number of swarming infected while dangling from one leg, upside down, with far too little ammo and virtually no room for error. It's intense, to be sure. But truly, absurdly difficult.
I'm not spectacular at video games by any stretch, but I'm not terrible, either, and that is one of a number of moments during 'The Last of Us' that I had to play so many times over, it wrung every drop of goodwill out of me, and then started drawing blood. Challenging, I understand. But prohibitively difficult, I question.
I know there are gamers who enjoy being punished, and more power to 'em. The Dark Souls Posse will never see me as a member, but I'm happy they have stuff to play that pummels their kidneys like they seem to so enjoy. In this case, however, I'd have thought the studio would value sharing their story with people over making it hurt so much to get through, and it bums me out that people missed out on it as a result.
Did you ever play Horizon: Zero Dawn, Drew? That's another sprawling open world game with a positively spectacular narrative. The combat can certainly be challenging at times, but not oppressively so, and most of the tougher challenges are skippable if you'd rather just explore & enjoy the story. I really think you'd dig it, and I think you can pick it up for next to nothing these days.
I loved HORIZON: ZERO DAWN. It was difficult at first, but I thought it had a satisfying learning curve, and I loved the world. The trailer for the next one is gorgeous, and I hope I have a PS5 by the time the game arrives.
For me, there is a certain point where "difficult" simply isn't fun, and if I don't enjoy something about the game play on some level, I'm done. Period.
The concern about being able to finish a television adaptation of a book series is my biggest worry about The Dark Tower, which seems destined for television someday when someone inevitably wants to try again. I could totally them making it to, say, The Waste Lands, and Netflix with their penchant for unceremonious cancellation going “Okay well that’s enough.”
Based on the games you mentioned you have devoured, I would certainly recommend you try Last of Us again.
I just can’t see how you won’t get it into it. From a pure piece of interactive narrative, nothing touches those two games. They are as close as anybody has come to making me feel like I was experiencing a movie - without any jarring look behind the curtain.
Give it another go. It does radically change and settle into what it becomes pretty soon after it’s opening.
Never gonna do it. I tried too many times, and it's a gameplay issue. Simply put, I hate the gameplay. I hate the controls. I hate that kind of stealth. I hate the bad guys. I just hate the experience.
I appreciate that it may have a fantastic story. I will look forward to the TV adaptation, which I will watch without a controller in my hand, which will free me up to enjoy the narrative without wanting to kick a hole in the wall.
Huhu. Im new to this Newsletter and the thing that shocked me more than the WandaVision Episode is the fact how many media you can read, hear and watch in a week! Chapéu!
I am a sponge, my friend. Welcome.
That WandaVision moment was one of such genuinely delightful SHOCK, between this and the ending of The Mandalorian I feel blessed to not have being spoiled at all. In the age of "scoops" and leaks, it gives you a certain kind of satisfaction to experience the Big Moment like this, kudos to Disney for keeping a tight ship.
I'm almost ready to dip into the second season of His Dark Materials myself, I love the books and enjoyed the first season with a few asterisks.
And last but not least, I'm really glad you are trying The Expanse, the last season was terrific once again and still think of Season 3 as Hall-of-Fame level of sci-fi. It fills the Battlestar Galactica hole veeeeery nicely. Looking forward to reading your reactions.
That episode of WandaVision blew my mind. It never occurred to me before, but now it's clearly such an obvious way to both confirm there is a multiverse in the MCU and bring mutants into it. Apparently there are some theories out there saying another entity is controlling Wanda, but I was dismissive of that idea until this episode. There were several times that Wanda acted very surprised about something, like Pietro. It could be that she's simply suppressing things, but I'm willing to consider the idea she's not necessarily in as complete control as she seems to be.
I agree with your experience with Cyberpunk 2077. I've been playing on PS5, and while I had a lot of problems with crashing until about a week ago, I have enjoyed the game itself immensely. I mean, I spend hours just exploring the nooks and crannies of Night City even after completing it twice. I found a way to get up onto the monorail track that circles the city and followed it for quite a ways. There are several hastily completed stations up there, some of which have big holes in the geometry to fall thru if you're careless. I do differ from you in one way, however: I HATED the main storyline with Johnny Silverhand; partly because I really dislike it when games force you to play a different POV character, and the other reason is that most of the endings feel like a kick in the balls. "You just spent all that time leveling your character and now Johnny Fucking Silverhand is gonna take it over" or if you tell Johnny to get lost, you only have 6 months to live because your brain has been fucked over by that stupid Relic. Very unsatisfying for me personally. But I love spending time in the world they created.
I guess it makes sense there are different endings. I haven't read about alternatives at all. I just know that for me, I decided to recruit Panam and her gang to help me, and they made me a member of their gang. We went in under the city in a siege. I thought it was a lot of fun. I do think it's a bummer that they leave you with a death sentence, but that door's open enough that they can fix V. for a sequel.
Or could have if this hadn't been a fiasco for them.
You chose the best ending; I did that one on my second playthru. I'm sure my opinion would be less sour if I had done it first too. My first time thru I listened to Johnny at every decision point and wound up with him taking over my female V, and as he's wrapping things up to leave NC, you get a notice about scheduling a sex change or something along those lines. I know that is part of the lore, but after experiencing what a douche canoe Johnny is for most of the game, it felt pretty misogynistic. I don't roleplay a woman when I make a female character but I still found it insulting. I won't spoil anything else in case you decide to replay it, but the Aldacado ending is far and away the best one.
I probably won't replay it. At least not for a while. I'm heading into ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA now, and I have been messing around a little with HITMAN III. I think that's it for me and Night City.
Hello, New to the letter and really enjoyed it. Is it possible that the Neal character in wandavision saying “you have to stop her” could be referring to a different her? It might be a red herring is all I’m saying.
Absolutely possible, and I think it's likely that we only have part of the picture so far.
Norm* not Neal. Rewatching episodes has been illuminating.