#its a pointless loop de loop and i wish ...

[grahamcarmen]

Side note I see the rant and I actually really really REALLY agree but im also very tired and need a break from the loop de loop. It does however piss me off too

[ducktracy]

129. plane dippy (1936)

release date: april 30th, 1936

series: looney tunes

director: tex avery

starring: joe dougherty (porky), billy bletcher (sergeant, professor blotz), bernice hansen (kitty)

the first cartoon to proudly display “featuring porky”—a trend that would continue on for years and years (my favorites are cartoons that explicitly have daffy in the title, yet the title card still says something like the daffy doc featuring porky or tom turk and daffy featuring porky.) beans makes his last ever appearance for real this time, reduced to cameo, kitty also bids goodbye by possessing a small role, and a glasses wearing dog with an overbite makes an appearance and would reappear once more in shanghaied shipmates. ham and/or ex are the last to survive, making a small cameo in porky’s pet. porky’s time has finally arrived. our hero wishes to enlist in the air force, but quickly discovers he isn’t much good at it. instead, he’s sent to clean a voice operated airplane, and things quickly turn sour—and destructive.

we begin with our hero strolling down the street. he comes across a poster: JOIN THE ARMY — INFANTRY DIVISION. porky thinks it over with careful decision, yet decides it’s not for him. another: SEE THE WORLD — JOIN THE NAVY. the same thoughtful mulling, the same rejection. and finally: LEARN TO FLY — JOIN THE AIR CORPS. the perfect job. porky gives his affirmation with a dutiful salute, and marches inside to speak about the job.

right away, he approaches a burly (and surly) general, who is scribbling away at his desk. porky wordlessly salutes at attention, and is blown back from the impact as the sarge growls “WELL?” porkys says “i wanna learn to f-fl—i wanna learn to f-f-f—“ he can’t quite get it out, and instead resorts to making airplane noises while imitating a plane with his arms.

the sergeant grunts “what’s your name, bud?” and once more porky gets tripped up in his words. the sarge instead hands him a slate and some chalk and instructs him to write his name. a gag too good for words as porky physically writes out “P-P-P-P-P-“ as he continues to stutter his name. to get him to spit it out, the sarge whistles—a common dougherty era gag as i mentioned previously—and porky gives us his easy to remember, alliterative name that rolls so easily off the tongue: ���porky cornelius washington otis lincoln abner aloysius casper jefferson filbert horatius narcissus pig.” a fantastic joke that hits really well with the timing. i wonder how many takes that took dougherty—he only stutters a few times. i don’t even have a stutter and i certainly couldn’t spit that out to save my life.

instead, the sarge drags porky by the arm and throws a uniform in his arms. he tosses porky into the changing room and waits patiently for a few seconds. out comes a giant lump of clothes, much to the sarge’s surprise. to assert he’s dealing with the same stuttering pig from before, the sergeant pokes his head inside the oversized collar, and a “hello!” responds from the abyss of fabric. porky’s “hello!” is hysterically out of place and sounds nothing like him, and was likely used for that reason. it’s incoherent, and slightly confusing at first, but it also enhances the gag. to remedy the situation, the sergeant picks up the mass of clothes and dunks it in a nearby barrel of water. the clothes gradually shrink, and we’re reunited with porky as he now dons a suitable uniform.

tex’s love of typography gags is prominently displayed as we get white text on a black background: DIZZINESS TEST. the words whirl around in a circle as we transition to the next scene, the sergeant winding porky up like a top with some duct tape. with a whip of the tape (or ribbon, up to interpretation), porky whirls around the room tasmanian devil style. the sarge stops him and picks him up, just in time for beans to make a cameo by drawing a straight line on the floor. the sarge places porky back down on the line, and he zips uncontrollably around the room.

bullets spell out our next test: TARGET PRACTICE. porky and the sarge are in a different room, both positioned behind a gun on a tripod. the sarge provides a demo by propelling a toy plane into the air and shooting the gun at the plane, hitting it in one go. he grins at his handiwork and offers porky the gun to do the same. the sarge tosses another toy plane in the air, and porky attempts to shoot it. instead, he has great difficulty controlling the gun, shooting everywhere BUT the plane and nearly taking out the sergeant himself. a cloud of smoke fills the scene. once the smoke clears, porky’s left standing on a wooden floor, now finding him outside as the entire building is reduced to debris and bricks around him. the gun and the plane survive the wreckage, and porky gives the gun a frustrated kick. to his befuddlement, the kick prompts the gun to shoot, and it hits the plane perfectly.

READY FOR DUTY. now, the sergeant tosses rifles into the hands of aspiring soldiers, the force of the throw so strong that they each stumble backwards (fittingly accompanied by a gunshot sound effect.) dutiful porky prepares to receive his honor... and a duster is thrust into his possession (still hilariously accompanied by the gunshot sound.) as porky ogles at the duster, the sarge thrusts a paper that merely reads “ORDERS” into his grip and points to a nearby shed. outside of the shed reads a sign: “ROBOT PLANE — KEEP OUT!” perfect for porky to wander into.

porky obeys captain’s orders, and meanders into the shed. he gives a few whistles to alert his presence, and he’s met with nothing. suddenly, a monkey whips a cloth off of a covered object, spinning porky around like a top from the impact. thusly uncovers said robotic plane as the monkey inquires “well?” porky hands him the orders with a loyal solute. “to professor blotz — this helper O.K. for your robot plane tests.”

professor blotz wastes no time interrogating porky, instead showing him his new invention. he drags over a radio and microphone, ordering “get ready!” into the microphone. a signal is sent directly to the robot plane, the propellor whirring to life. “take off!” porky runs out of the way as the plane zooms into the air. professor blotz shows off his fancy voice activated plane, much to the fascination of porky. loops, nosedives, ascensions... there’s nothing the plane can’t do.

now the professor offers the microphone to porky, coercing him with “try it!” porky struggles to get his command out, and the plane comically shudders and jitters in conjunction with porky’s stuttering. the plane does an uncertain l-l-lo-loop d-de l-lo-loo-lo-loop and hastily g-go-goes u-u-up. the plane inches closer and closer to a nearby hot air balloon, and porky manages to order it down just in time. professor blotz yanks the microphone out of porky’s grip as the plane parks itself outside, growling “ooooh, get to work!” and thrusting the feather duster in porky’s hands.

while porky starts his cleaning duties, the professor haughtily places his radio in the window of the shed. out come little kitty, a puppy, and the unnamed dog with an overbite from i haven’t got a hat. kitty giggles as the puppy licks her and asks the dog (a goofy and pluto situation going on it seems) “does he do tricks?” of course! the dog orders his pup to sit up. of course, the microphone picks up on his voice, and porky, who’s dutifully dusting the plane, now finds himself clinging onto the plane which is now sitting on its hind legs.

“wag your tail!” the plane shakes its rear wings to the befuddlement of porky. now kitty tries, armed with a balloon. “get the balloon!” she tosses her balloon and giggles as the puppy chases it. and, of course, porky is thrown into the seat of the plane as it takes off at frightening speeds and immediately pops the hot air balloon, the gag made even more amusing with the detail of two figures floating with parachutes after the accident.

porky is now stuck in a shanghaied plane. kitty orders the pup to chase his tail, and the plane spirals towards the ground in an attempt to chase its own tail. in the midst of the game gone horrible wrong, porky reduces a clock tower to debris as he rams into each “level”. he finds himself flying through a nearby circus. he pops out of the other side of the tent, acrobats performing their routine as they hang from the bottom of the plane.

now led towards the ocean, porky’s plane serves as a speedboat as the acrobats transition into water skiers. the timing of all of these scenes is very well done. just the right sense of urgency conveyed, yet executed so the gags have time to settle in as well. a swordfish leaps out of the waters and cuts the line connecting the acrobats to the plane, and they’re left behind as porky is sent underwater, desperately trying not to cut the fish into sushi. some nice camera angles as porky chases a fish in and out of the foreground.

the plane leaps in and out of the waves like a dolphin, chasing the hapless victim fish. eventually, porky resurfaces with an intimidatingly huge whale hot on his tail. elsewhere, the dog overbite orders his pup to chase a cat (“sick ‘im!”), and porky is sent hurtling straight towards an innocent victim flying in his own plane. the two planes tussle, the poor pilot clinging onto a lone propellor as he sinks towards the sea below. porky tears into a blimp. once advertising “SMOKE ROPO CIGARS”, the blimp is cleverly reduced to “SOS” thanks to porky cutting up half of said blimp.

even the clouds fear porky, taking form of an anthropomorphic human running away from the destructive blades of the plane’s propellor. the cloud man seeks refuge in his cloud house, slamming the door on porky. porky is then launched into a nosedive, shredding a farmer’s stack of hay into a shower of already made straw hats. a group of planes zip out of frame so as to avoid porky and zip right back up into their leisurely positions, the timing spot on and making a seemingly pointless gag much funnier.

a whole crowd of children have congregated around the pup causing so much trouble. all of the kids shout various conflicting commands, all picked up by the receiver. porky’s plane is all but in control, at one point doing back hand springs and zigzagging all throughout the screen. the little puppy has tired itself out, and his owner coos “you’ve had enough”, summoning him home.

good news for porky as the microphone picks up the “come on home” command. the plane skids to an uneasy halt, animation light, delicate, and floaty as the wings scrape the grass. the plane skids right through the shed, and porky is launched out as it crashes into the window. and, with amazing speeds, porky propels himself to the registration office. a sign on the outside advertises the army as porky declares “i wanna learn to march!”

finally, our happy little soldier gets the ending he’s always wanted. bob clampett animates an eager porky marching in the infantry, intermittently flashing hilariously ecstatic grins at the audience. perhaps even funnier is that he isn’t even in time with everyone else’s march, doing a much more hurried speed walk (speed waddle?) slightly out of time. a happy end as we iris out.

while this isn’t my favorite tex porky short, it’s undoubtedly entertaining. speed is a big factor to tex’s cartoons, and it certainly plays a big role in this one, conveying the urgency and out of control nature of porky’s shanghaied plane. the opening almost feels a little TOO fast, with porky getting registered right away and doing all his tests one after the other. it’s a minor complaint, and it isn’t even that noticeable. my ADHD would much rather prefer too fast than too slow. also amazing how, for lack of a better word, relevant this cartoon is today, where voice control becomes more and more popular. not in a durrr technology bad way, but just in a comical way that makes you draw comparisons. a highly amusing short that’s worth a watch, just because.

link!

[terryblount]

Devil May Cry 5 – Review

The darkest of night falls around your soul, and the hunter within loses control. After more than 10 years, the Devil May Cry series performs the rarest of video game industry feats- the elusive de-boot and returns to it un-rebooted universe with Devil May Cry.

For those not in the know, the Devil May Cry series posits the simple question: what if we added another layer to character action where the objective was more than simply “kill all the monsters”? The result is the thesis of the Devil May Cry series- “Can you kill all the monsters while looking cool as hell?”

The result is a series of some of the best character action games in the business. But the games industry has changed much since Devil May Cry 4’s release in 2008. Could the game’s tongue-in-cheek style and fast-paced action still be relevant in today’s videogame landscape? Short answer- a big ol’ Smokin’ Sexy Yes.

The facial work in the game looks amazing- combined with the amazing direction for the cutscenes, it leads to an actually enjoyable experience watching the cutscenes.

Presentation

Given the series ties to Resident Evil it’s no surprise Devil May Cry 5 is running on the new RE engine developed for the new wave of Resident Evil games. The result is a game that looks much grittier than its previous entries. Due to the engine originally being for a first-person horror game though, it gives DMC a variety of useful quirks, one of them being the faces in the game. They’re just stylised enough that they don’t look entirely anime, but steer off the uncanny valley.

Despite the gorgeous visuals of the game though, the game doesn’t suffer for it. The game runs at a solid 60 fps even on a regular PS4, and even has customizable field of view.

One thing older fans may notice is the sheer volume of long cutscenes in this game. While not Kojima-level, the game does a better job of mixing the plot and gameplay, and as a result it feels like every mission starts with a long cutscene explaining how we got from the end of the last mission to this one.

The one concrete net-flaw of this game would be its loading screens. Selecting a mission will give you at minimum two loading screens, bookending the introductory cutscene for the mission. Any attempts to customize your character (which in Nero’s case you will be doing for every mission) add another two, taking you back and from the customization menu. These screens aren’t short, either, and the amount of delay between wanting to start a mission and actually getting to play the game are a blemish on the game’s good streak.

Feats like Jump Canceling are much easier to do now, allowing more people to do complex moves as part of their big combos

Gameplay

If I could describe the combat in DMC 5, it would be as follows: Low barrier of entry, high skill ceiling. The game plays better than it looks, with a fluid and deep combat system that many action games could stand to learn from.

For newcomers, the Devil May Cry games have a “Style ranking”- a gauge that fills up as you do technically impressive and powerful moves. They give diminishing returns in score if you overuse them, though, so you’ll need to get creative with your combos.

Upping the ante from 4, you now get three playable characters, who each play differently: The veteran demon hunter Dante who changes his playstyle with his 4 “styles”, the young Nero, whose core moveset is more holistic but swaps out different tools to enhance that, and newcomer V- a unique keepaway character who controls demons to fight for him.

Unlike DMC 4 and many games with multiple heroes, you never really play one character for too long at once. The story jumps back and forth along a timeline, as you get to learn what the three characters were up to during key events in the game’s story. On one hand, this may seem disorienting as you forget your combos for V as you play a Nero stage.

On the other, however, it prevents a problem in DMC 4: what if you just didn’t like the other character? If I have to play as V after a Dante section, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of Dante, I can keep playing him a few missions later.

Aside from that, there’s the levels themselves- it feels so refreshing to say the words “level design” because the game actually has these- actual levels, with actual design put into them. Enemies present complex problems you need to solve, while also solving the game’s main problem (keeping up your style meter).

There’s an enemy that gains armor after taking too many hits- meaning you can’t flinch it out of its next attack, which means even the most offensive player is going to need to guard or dodge the next hit or hear the disappointed cry of the Style announcer calling you out for your mediocrity. There’s another that spins in a wheel and needs to be shot at to flinch it out before it hurls itself towards you to rob you of your health and style points. All of these are presented in sealed off kill-rooms, meaning you’re going to have to solve these problems before you’re free to progress.

In contrast to DMC 4, the combat feels a lot more streamlined in the sense that the levels aren’t built to waste your time. Gone are the elaborate platforming puzzles and dice games, which is more a sign of the series growth, knowing that its core gameplay loop- that of fighting enemies, has been trusted to carry you for the entirety of the game. There are still the occasional puzzles, but, save for one Nero stage, never are they so bad that you wish you could cut through it to get to the next fight.

The game has plenty of reasons to go back to older missions, not least of all the pursuit of higher style

Content

An astounding amount of content has been put into Devil May Cry 5, yet in such a way that it doesn’t take you from the main focus of the game. Rather than add countless minigames, puzzles et cetera the game gives you plenty of customization for the three playable characters.

Chief of customization is Nero, who uses a series of mechanical arms with all kinds of support abilities from stopping time to piercing the heavens with his drill. They range from “powerful attack” to “powerful tool”, letting you really play Nero the way you want to. You can swap out these loadouts before the mission starts or at select points in a mission, similar to the Goddess of Time statues from previous games.

Dante has his staple of collecting Devil Arms, too, gaining more weapons as he defeats more bosses. Unlike previous games, however, he now has the ability to simply not use certain weapons to downsize on how many he has to swap between to combo. He even has a secret gun- one unobtainable unless you actually seek it out, which leaves you with a good feeling knowing that not everything is simply being handed to you.

This brings me to the next big point- the levels, again. Despite DMC 5 being a linear game, they’ve packed the levels with plenty of secrets and collectibles, but not too many that it feels like busy work. All the usual staples are there- Blue Orb shards for health, Gold orbs for revives and Secret Missions- though those come with a neat twist that makes them easier to spot.

Speaking of Secret Missions, the game does carry over one thing the reboot did right- the ability to replay Secret Missions from a menu. This seems to go well with the game’s central mission- not to distract you from the action with pointless busywork.

The game also has a weird co-op mechanic- the Cameo System. How this works is that certain missions are linked to each other, as a result of the game’s tendency to hop along a timeline. For example, you could have one Nero mission and one V mission several missions apart, but in the context of the story, they’re happening simultaneously and not too far from each other. As a result, if you are playing the Nero part of that story, you can glance over and see V in the distance playing his own mission, and it would be controlled in real time by another player, which the game will inform you.

This all seems like a nice gimmick until you reach a certain point in the game that turns it up to eleven- during one mission in the game, you can choose which of the three heroes to play as. After selecting it, you now get to share three killrooms with other players, playing as the other characters. There are tools in the settings to pair you up with friends though they seem to work at their own discretion, but even the excitement of working together is just a whole other level of excitement, especially after always being blocked by walls and distance.

Verdict

Devil May Cry 5 is a game that values the player’s experience, having been lovingly crafted to ensure that no matter what you’re doing, you’re having fun. It has an astounding amount of replay value with harder difficulties and simply the pursuit of higher style leading you to keep playing the game.

If you don’t care much for story, I could totally recommend the game simply on the merit of “it’s just that bloody good”. For the more story conscious, though, I’d recommend at the very least picking up DMC 4 first as it is very much a continuation of Dante and Nero’s story rather than its own standalone thing. The game does come with a primer on the backstory of the previous games to bring you up to speed, however, and if you’re fine with looking to Wikipedia or spelunking through the game’s datalogs to get more answers, then, by all means, you’re going to have a great time with this game.

This is a game that knows it’s cool, but wants you to know it’s even cooler than that.

And you know what? Jackpot.

Game reviewed on PS4. Copy purchased by reviewer

Devil May Cry 5 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/