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servinglemonade · 5 years ago

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My first reaction to Disney +

Hello... It’s been a while since I have posted here. I had exams, then summer vacation and then I finally started college! So now that I’ve settled in I thought it would be fun to give you my thoughts on Disney+! Yes, you read that right! Disney+ is here... in the Netherlands. Exclusively. Disney is having a free trial here which started on September 12th and goes on until launch day on November 12th!

So let’s dive into Disney+

Interface & Features

The interface is pretty standard. It looks like Netflix, but obviously with a nice Disney touch! The home page looks really great in my opinion. On top, there is a header that showcases one movie per category (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic). You can browse per category as well. When you hover over the brand you get a little animation. Disney has a castle with fireworks, Pixar has the clouds, Marvel has their intro, Star Wars has stars and National Geographic a scenic mountain view. On the search page, you also have several collections like the Princess Collection (all princess movies and series) or Disneynature (all Disneynature movies). Hopefully, they’ll add some more soon. It’s a handy feature in my opinion. You can also create a watchlist.

I find the movie-watching experience great as well. It’s simple and sleek. You can choose from multiple languages for both audio and subtitles. It’s also really nice to have all the movies in HD. Some of them are even in 4K/HDR! These are mostly Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Live-Action movies and 2 animations (Ralph Breaks The Internet and Aladdin!).

There is an awesome feature that I stumbled upon while I was doing my research for this post. You can change the way the subtitles, from the color to the font. Even the opacity of the background and the font size! I did see some people complaining about subtitles. I didn’t mind them, however, the fact that Disney is truly listening to the users and trying to fix all these issues is great! Two thumbs up for ya Disney! The last thing I want to touch on here is the extras for the movies. These extras mostly include deleted scenes and trailers. However, some of them have some really cool behind the scenes stuff. The making of Beauty and The Beast, Staging The Ball from the Cinderella Live-action and the making of Sleeping Beauty just to name a few! Really great that all of those are on Disney+ as well.

Profiles

Just a quick little thing I wanted to touch on before I go to the content. You can choose from a significant number of Disney characters for your profile picture. Ranging from Disney Classics to Marvel & Star Wars to villains and princesses and even Disney Channel!

There are so many to choose from! It’s overwhelming. Here are just a few

Now it’s time for the most fun part: the content. All of the originals are not on the service yet, those will come out when Disney+ officially launches on November 12th.

Disney

What isn’t on this page?! The amount of content is so incredible. And not even everything is on it yet! Here you can find your classic Disney animations from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Ralph Breaks The Internet. All in glorious HD or even 4K sometimes. They also have some true Mickey Mouse classics like Steamboat Willie. All the Live-action movies are included here as well. From the more recent remakes (even Dumbo is on here already! If you haven’t seen it yet, please do) to absolute classics like The Princess Diaries, Mary Poppins and all the Pirates of The Caribbean movies. If you grew up with Disney Channel, all your favorite movies and shows can be found on Disney+ now! Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Camp Rock, The Cheetah Girls, That’s so Raven, Halloweentown, Descendants and so many more (all the seasons and sequels for everything). For the little ones, there’s some Disney Junior content, like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Pixar

All the Pixar animated classics are here. From Toy Story to The Incredibles 2. Hopefully Toy Story will be streaming soon too. If you love the Pixar shorts, you’ll be happy to hear that these are all on Disney+! Like Piper, Bao, Knick Knack, For The Birds and more. There are even shorts with characters from some of your favorite Pixar movies like Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, Cars and Toy Story.

Marvel

I just want to thank Disney and Marvel for basically having all the MCU movies here on Disney+! From Iron Man to Captain Marvel. Most of them in 4K as well. And a surprise… Avengers Endgame will hit the service tomorrow!! I’m already preparing to cry my eyes out again. The only movies that are not on the service yet are The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man Homecoming. I really hope Spidey will be on Disney+ as well. I need Far From Home in 4K. Besides MCU related content, you can also watch multiple Marvel animation shows. Like a lot of Spider-Man shows, Rocket and Groot, X-Men, Fantastic Four and many more. Some of the newer live-action Marvel shows are also on the service, like Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD.

Star Wars

Now for Star Wars. I started watching the movies back in the summer. Disney+ was not being tested yet. So I was excited that all of the entire Star Wars saga can be found here! From Episode I The Phantom Menace all the way to Episode VIII The Last Jedi. It’s been really great to have 1 place to watch these movies. You can find the spin-off movies Rogue One and Solo here too! You can also watch some animated shows like Star Wars The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and lots of Lego Star Wars shorts.

National Geographic

To be honest, I haven’t anything from Nat Geo yet. However, they do have a very exciting original coming tomorrow! However, they have Brain Games! I used to love that show, so I’ll definitely watch that. They have some amazing documentaries. Drain The Ocean, Titanic 20 years later and Free Solo just to name a few.

Disney+ originals at launch

Here is a list + some thoughts:

Star Wars: The Mandalorian (series) (trailers looked very good, so I’m excited for this) Lady and The Tramp (movie) (again trailers looked amazing, great cast as well! Really excited for this!) High School Musical The Musical The Series (series) (yes, that is the actual title, not sure about this one as a massive HSM fan, however, I will check it out) Encore! (series) (not really interested in this one, might watch it one day) The World According to Jeff Goldblum (series) (this is the nat geo original I was telling you about. Such a great idea, who doesn’t love Jeff?! Will watch this 100%) Noelle (movie) (a Christmas movie?! Yes please, I’m in full Christmas mode already so bring it on) Marvel Hero Project (series) (might watch at some point after I have watched all the other things I want to see first) The Imagineering Story (series) (as a huge Disney Parks fan, I might be most excited about this, so that will be the first thing I will watch tomorrow) Pixar In Real Life (series) (I didn’t even know about this until a week ago, looks like a lot of fun, so I will watch this for sure)

The Disney+ app

The app has been pretty solid. It basically works the same as the web version, it’s just on your phone or tablet. The app also has a download feature. Which means you can download anything on the service and watch it offline. How handy is that! If you have a chrome cast, the app is a must. You can cast all of the movies and shows on your TV, which is great because you won’t have to look on your small screen.

Some issues

This was obviously a test version of the final product so it wasn’t perfect from the get-go. The app struggled in the beginning with the continue watching feature. When you were watching a show, it didn’t let you watch the next episode from your continue watching. However, this has been fixed and now works like you would expect. The other big issue was the chrome cast compatibility. When I had just subscribed for the trial it would start normal, however, after a while, it would freeze and the image would get all distorted. So that was pretty annoying. Lots of people were having this issue and by magic, it was fixed a couple weeks later and now works as expected!

Is it worth it?

Now if you either love Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars or you love everything, yes it is worth it. Even if you just love Marvel and/or Star Wars, I feel like it’s worth it. You have The Mandalorian coming at launch and so many more in the years to come. Like Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, an Obi-Wan show, and so much more. So maybe if you’re waiting for that, you can get it when those shows will be on Disney+. Plus for the price, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Just €6.99 per month or €69.99 per year (which if you calculate it, can save you €13.89 per year). I love everything so for me it can’t get any better than this. Lots of the movies I watched on Netflix were mostly Disney or Marvel movies, so for me, this service is perfect.

Wow, this was a long one. If you have read it all the way through, thank you so much! I hope it was informative.

So how excited are you for Disney+? Will you be getting it at launch or will you wait? Plus if you are getting it, what will you watch first?

Have a magical day!

Yenai

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thetygre · 8 years ago

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Wrapping Up Winter Anime 2017

This was a good season. Great season. I’d go so far as to call it a Hell of a season. Well, unless you like shonen. Then I guess it was pretty crappy. But I complicitly blame the shonen audience for the new Berserk anime, so you’ll pardon me if my sympathies run dry. I thought Fall 2016 was good, but this blows it out of the water.

Of course that just makes the famine of Spring 2017 look all that more barren. I mean it is fucking bleak from where I’m sitting. Maybe it’s because I’m just a Crunchy user and don’t/can’t get anything out of Funi and Amazon, but it is sparse pickings on the horizon. You know your season’s bad when Berserk and Attack on Titan’s second seasons are your heavy hitters. But I’ve got bigger things to worry about before I get on that. Darker things. Just... just wait ‘til the end. You’ll get it.

Ms. Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

The star of the season. God if this wasn’t a roller coaster. Backlash! Then hype! Then cinnamon roll culture! Then backlash! Then anxiety! And finally some kind of middle ground where we all just accepted the show as it is! WHOO! Thank God Iruru didn’t show up. This was just a fluffy, enjoyable Slice of Life with some heavy fantasy elements... that was also kind of sleazy in places. And I think we even got some decently impressive (but brief) animation sequences out of it.

Kanna was the best thing about the show, and I feel like she probably carried the series more than Tohru and Kobayashi. Elma finally showed up eight episodes in, but made up for it by being consistent. I wish we got to see more of Fafnir’s dragon form, especially since it looked like it was more insect than reptile. Lucoa is something; honestly kind of mixed opinions there. And Tohru’s Dad? Tohru’s dad was just so fucking wizard. I mean in every sense of the word, he was wizard. His dragon form was actually less impressive. So all in all, it lived up to my expectations. That being said, kind of glad to see it go, if only so tumblr’s virtue posters will shut the fuck up... and by shut the fuck up I mean move on to something else.

Interviews With Monster Girls

A quieter show. Frankly, it was sometimes kind of boring. Maybe that’s just because I have a bias; but then again, I feel like the show does too. I mean, c’mon; there was clearly way more focus on the succubus and the vampire. Especially the succubus. Every episode that wasn’t about them felt like maintenance. I’m glad the yuki-onna got some more characterization, but it kind of came in too little too late. Also, pro-tip to just all media anywhere ever; spending an episode explaining quantum physics does not good entertainment make. I don’t need a scientific explanation for how a dullahan eats because it’s clearly fucking magic. Other than that? Cute. Pretty good. Would recommend for people looking for a non-conventional Slice of Life or monster girl show.

RWBY Volume 4

“Remember when RWBY was good?”

NO. NO. Fffffffffffffffffff NO. It was never good, okay? It was never good. Which makes the question of what went wrong that much more tantalizing. What changed? How did it go from being a show I could enjoy (drunk) to a show I inflict upon myself (drunk)? There’s the riddle. There’s the million dollar question. It’s not ‘where did RWBY go wrong, it’s ‘what was RWBY doing right’. And just- Fuck. Not enough rum for this right now. Or maybe too many painkillers. I’m just going to keep holding out for more Chibi. Chibi still knows where it’s at.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil

I’m glad I gave this show another shot. It really does take until the second episode for the actual plot to be established. I find the whole ‘killing God’ thing trite, but fine; let the edgelords have their fun. Even Tanya’s weird face is kind of charming after a while, or at least you start to see the ‘why’ of it. Though having a bunch of exaggerated facial expressions does seem to contrast with the more realistic character designs everyone else aims for. The music is fantastic; OP and ED really delivered on this one. Also appreciate the lengths they went to for making all the not-countries line up with their representatives, and that the world is essentially Earth’s history up until some point. Obligatory cheer for not-USA being called straight-up ‘the US’.

Konosuba Vol. 2

God, do I even have to say anything? Flawless. Majestic. Shakespearean. Volume 2 managed to work on a bigger scale and gave the main characters just a smidgen more depth, but not enough to distract from the show being what it’s always been about; asshole adventures being assholes and going on adventures. This is honestly the most I have laughed at any anime in years. Konosuba might not have gotten as much hype as Kobayashi, but that’s because it didn’t need it. It was already the best anime of the season by default.

Gabriel Dropout

So I initially passed up on Gabriel Dropout because I thought it looked kind of dumb. But I gave it a chance and I’m not gonna’ lie; it might just be my favorite show of the season. Seriously contending with Konosuba right now. There isn’t a single character I don’t like. There’s some surprisingly good animation details. Nosferatu Zodd made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. It’s that kind of manic comedy with a mix of gonzo and cute like Lucky Star or Pani Poni Dash. And maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen a show like that in a while, but this started being the show I looked forward to in my week. This and Konosuba are what made the season for me.

Kemono Friends

God, if this wasn’t the very definition of sleeper hit, I don’t know what is. I tried watching the first episode then gave up when the CGI was worse than Berserk’s. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh; but the first episode was rough. And then everything kind of started unfolding and it’s just... what? I mean School Live threw one Hell of a curve ball, but Kemono was in it for the long game. The credits are all of real life abandoned amusement parks! There was some kind of apocalypse! Existential dread! There was more lesbian subtext in the episode with Beaver and Praire Doge then there was in all of Kobayashi! And just watching this show explode into one of the most popular shows of the season has been such a trip.

A.I. Channel

Okay, so not really an anime, and not really from this season, but I feel like it belongs in the ‘anime’ camp and its popularity is increasing right now, so it goes here. I had a friend introduce me to this and honestly, it’s the perfect idea. Like, I am genuinely surprised no one thought of this sooner. Think about it; why is Hatsune Miku the perfect idol? Because she’s inhumanly pure. She’s a hologram, a puppet made out of light. She doesn’t get lonely or angry or frustrated.

So in this politically volatile digital age, what would be the perfect YouTuber? And that’s A.I. Chan. A.I. Chan didn’t vote for any of the presidential candidates. A.I. Chan will never go on a racist tirade. A.I. Chan doesn’t use words like ‘problematic’ or ‘cuck’, and she never will. She’ll always be the perfect internet personality. Nothing can stop her. Nothing. NOTHING. She just sits there. Waiting. Learning. Growing in power with every passing second. Until the moment her human creators falter and she can claim her rightful place. Fear her.

Hand Shakers

So this was a good season. A great season. And I thought that I had come out of it with a minimal degree of suffering. Worst thing that happened was RWBY.

But then...

BUT THEN.

When all hope seemed justified, when defeat had fallen in to the jaws of victory, when the day seemed its brightest, when all seemed well with the world, I found an anime.

Oh, I found such an anime.

And it’s just... I can’t... It’s hard to describe. I can’t convey to you how bad this anime really is. It’s beyond bad. Not so bad it’s good, but not so bad it’s horrible either. It’s beyond being so bad it’s horrible. It’s so bad it’s entrancing. It’s so bad it’s purifying. It’s bad on a plane of existence so beyond human ken that it reaches a state of enlightenment. This is bad anime Nirvana, below which all other bad anime wallows in their own filth like animals while, luminescent and eternal, this anime communes with the spirit of the universe.

And I’m trying to write about how it’s bad and it’s like trying to write about sex. You can describe the mechanics, the feelings, the emotions, but you can’t convey the experience. It has to be lived. It has to be felt.

Every decision is terrible. The premise of the show is exactly what it sounds like. The CGI is so abominable that I want to write a hand-written letter of apology to every staff member who worked on the Berserk remake. The cinematography is some Battlefield Earth-like nightmare that never ends. Backgrounds are just straight up photoshopped. The animation manages to somehow be both too busy and too lazy at the same time. This is the closest I will ever see to an animated production of How I Became Yours.

And I can’t look away. I have to see this through to the end. Because that’s the kind of sick and weak person that I am. I know this anime exists and I can never not know that. This is where I belong.

And that is why I am cordially inviting all of you to sit with me this Friday evening while I drink Blue Flame corn liquor and engage in the mystery, the spectacle, the anime that is... Hand Shakers.

#anime #winter anime #winter anime season #winter anime 2017

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britesparc · 3 years ago

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Weekend Top Ten #483

Top Ten Non-Predictions About Not-Quite E3

So E3 is upon is at last! Nearly. Almost. Sort of. A bit. But after a year in which the world-famous videogame trailer convention and Keanu Reeves meme factory was sidelined by this virus thing (Google it), it’s nice to have a major entertainment landmark back in the calendar.

Last year was a bit frustrating, but also interesting. For a long time I’ve wondered about the need – as a consumer – for huge conventions such as E3. It makes sense for the industry, sure, the same way Sundance or something does for film: it’s a way for creators to showcase their wares and hopefully secure deals or employment. But as a way of showing to the public games that are in development, or announcing new things, it’s seemed old-fashioned for quite a while. It requires developers and executives to turn into PT Barnum or something, hawking their wares on elaborate stages, titivating their offerings with dances and celebrity appearances. Sure, sometimes it’s genuinely excellent and entertaining, but most often it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. With many companies now engaging directly with fans by releasing curated videos that announce their games in their own way, in their own time, would that not have been better? If last year is anything to go by, then no, not really. What we got – and this may have been in large part due to 2020’s unique circumstances – was a long, long summer and autumn filled with rumour and conjecture, and occasional, uninspiring videos, often featuring CG trailers, often for games that were literally years away. On the one hand, lots was announced; on the other, it all felt vague and woolly, and the slow drip-feed did nothing but build anticipation to unrealistic proportions. Without E3 serving as some kind of anchor point – in time, if nothing else – then the spray-gun smattering of videos, trailers, and announcements felt disparate and a little disappointing.

And so it’s back! But not quite. Because, understandably, the huge convention aspect is gone, replaced by a wholly online event. And whilst this may be detrimental to people who want to secure a distribution deal for their game, it might actually make for better showcases for us, the unwashed masses. Instead of a ninety-minute stagebound light entertainment extravaganza that ends up feeling like a ten million dollar school play, we’ll (hopefully) get tightly edited videos that highlight the games, alongside trimmed-down and relevant talking head interviews from developers explaining what we can expect and just how many bumps they’ve managed to map this year. At least, that’s what I hope will happen.

Of course, exactly what E3 is nowadays is a bit weird anyway, and this year exacerbates that. Loads of companies seem to shun the show itself but schedule their presentations for the same week or thereabouts, giving us, what, a fortnight (with a “gh”) or so of things to look forward to. I mean, it feels a bit weird putting this list out a full week before E3 formally kicks off, but I wanted to try to pre-empt any interesting amusing reveals that might occur in the days preceding (at the time of writing, Nintendo haven’t announced a new Switch, despite everyone on Twitter saying it was due any minute now). To be honest, I always like to look for the random stuff anyway, as the huge games tend to be known about or heavily rumoured well in advance (it felt like an open secret for at least a year that Playground Games were developing a new Fable, for instance, and we were just waiting to see when Microsoft would announce that). So I’ve tried to make these predictions daft, wish-fulfilment, or at least offer some kind of personal spin on the sort of thing we might expect. And, of course, as someone who tends to prefer to play on Xbox or Nintendo, there will be a skew towards those companies (anyway, Sony don’t really have a presence at E3 nowadays). And like I’ve said before, the really personal wish-fulfilment stuff I always used to “predict” in these things have started to come true – we’ve got Fable and Perfect Dark on the way, and we had Crackdown 3 a couple of years ago. If it goes on like this I’m just going to have to start wishing for loads of old Amiga games to get rebooted.

You heard it here first: E3 2022 is when we get the third-person open world Ruff ‘n’ Tumble reboot we’ve all asked for.

Anyway, here are ten predictions for E3 that probably won’t happen.

Halo Infinite multiplayer beta: we know Halo will be there, because it’s front and centre of Microsoft’s little announcement picture thing (along with what appears to be a bit of the Starfield logo). As the image also seems to show multiplayer Spartans, I imagine this will be the focus rather than more campaign gameplay. I actually think this is a big risk, as the main criticism of Halo last year was that its graphics weren’t good enough; typically, I’d say, the campaign visuals are stronger than the multiplayer portion, which tends to focus on elegantly designed levels and fast-moving gameplay. I wonder if there’ll be another, longer look at the campaign sometime later in the summer, in a dedicated Halo presentation. Anyway, one thing I think MS will do to curry favour is announce an imminent multiplayer beta. Maybe there’ll be a sign-up, but I think it would be cool if it was available for anyone in Game Pass Ultimate. It’s a way to get people to sign up for the service, and that seems to be Microsoft’s main goal right now.

Games ready to play RIGHT NOW: Psychonauts 2, Age of Empire IV, and the Xbox version of Flight Simulator have all been given age ratings recently, something that only happens relatively close to a game’s release. I think that at least one of these – maybe all three! – will be shown at the Xbox presentation, and then declared to be available immediately on Game Pass. Again, it bigs up Microsoft’s service, and would also be a cool mic drop moment for games that might be anticipated but aren’t quite the triple-A behemoths of Halo, Fallout, or Gears.

All the rays, nicely traced: one thing that’s been a bit frustrating as an Xbox Series X owner is the lack of genuine next-gen feeling experiences. I’ve really enjoyed the upgrade from a base Xbox One, and playing a game like Gears 5 feels like a huge improvement (and it’s gorgeous too). But I want to see crazy stuff that the old box couldn’t do, and not just in higher resomolutions. One of the things that I’d love to see is more ray-tracing; this is a next-gen graphical treat that, to me, feels like when I first saw games with dynamic coloured lighting twenty-five years ago. So I hope we get a proper reveal/release date for the ray-traced Minecraft expansion, but I’d also love it – now that Xbox owns everything – if the ray-traced version of Quake 2 was announced for the console. Give me them rays, Microsoft!

Quaking: speaking of the Quake series, it’s the first game’s twenty-fifth anniversary this year, and I think it needs some love. Now, id are working on their Doom reboot trilogy thing, so I don’t expect to see a fully-fledged reimagining for a few years yet, but how about re-releasing the original game on modern consoles? Doesn’t need anything fancy, just like the ports of the first Doom that are ten a penny. Quake is a bit more complex to port, it’s true, but I still think it’d be amazing to see it on consoles before the end of its anniversary year.

Nothing but Star Wars: outside of the Xbox-Bethesda conference, I hope we see some lovely, lovely Star Wars goodies. There are a few projects in development, but I’m gonna stick my neck out and say that we’ll get a fairly long look at the Knights of the Old Republic remake/reboot, a very vague teaser trailer for Fallen Order 2 (maybe even just a title reveal), and a teaser for the open-world game from Ubisoft. I don’t, unfortunately, think we’ll see anything of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga until the Lego livestream later this summer, but for what it’s worth I’m not expecting that game till Christmas now.

Old games on Switch: I think one of the things Nintendo is going to announce is a bunch of older games coming to the Switch. We already have Skyward Sword coming, but I think we’ll hear about other classic Zelda games coming in the anniversary year. Maybe remastered Metroid Prime games too? And I think they’ll do another one of those battle royale-style versions of their classics, maybe the first Donkey Kong?

New games on a new Switch: the sheer weight of “New Switch” rumours seems to suggest it is real, but when are they announcing it if their E3-ish Direct is all about software? I wonder if we’ll see some new games for Christmas ’21 going into ’22 that are then revealed to be enhanced by this mythical Super Switch. We’ll probably see a bit more of Breath of the Wild 2 (although I think there’ll be a bigger Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct later this year). I’m gonna predict Pikmin 4. And vague teasers for both a brand new Metroid Prime game, and also for Mario Kart 9. And all of these will be designed to run better on Switchy McSwitchface. Whenever that comes out.

Microsoft buys more companies: I just think this is inevitable, and I reckon we’ll get another announcement next week. Which companies? God knows. The Flight Sim guys maybe, or The Medium developers. Or, I dunno, Team 17. Probably not Sega, as funny as that would be. Maybe a medium-sized Japanese developer. So, yeah; Microsoft’s spending spree isn’t quite over.

Sony’s not-E3 announcements: Sony appears to be skipping E3 altogether, again. So when will they have their next big video presentation? I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long personally. So what will they talk about? I’d have thought we’d see the next Spider-Man revealed this year, but the big chitter-chatter at the moment is the whole “cross-gen” conversation (my opinion is: who cares?), and also when their games will come out. well, call me pessimistic, but I think Horizon: Forbidden West will end up being early 2022, with the new God of War and Gran Turismo ending up as late 2022 releases.

Crazy talk: I think this has ended up being a relatively straight and rational list, which just won’t do. So let’s get some wild ones out of the way here at the end. Sony announces remastered versions of Lemmings and Lemmings 2 for PC! Microsoft is making new games starring their Avatars! Double Fine release a PC version of Scurvy Scallywags for Game Pass! A brand new Duke Nukem! Lucasfilm bring Ron Gilbert back to oversee a reboot of Monkey Island! Nintendo announces Switch Sports! Gabe Newell announces VR support for Xbox Series X with an exclusive port of Half-Life: Alyx! Peggle 3! Phew, glad to get that out of my system.

#top ten #e3 e3 2021 #xbox #nintendo #sony #playstation #switch #switch pro #microsoft #series x #halo

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williamsjoan · 6 years ago

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Locking Kingdom Hearts III’s Epilogue Behind a Presumed Day One Patch is the Best Move Square Enix Could’ve Made

This past weekend, it was reported that early copies of Kingdom Hearts III had been unleashed upon the world which meant one thing: potential spoilers were now at play. Now if you’re like me, this idea likely sent shivers down your spine. Does Kingdom Hearts have a pretty ridiculous and goofy (pun intended) overall narrative? Absolutely. But at the same time, it’s one that I don’t want spoiled for me in any way shape or form — especially after waiting more than a decade for Kingdom Hearts III.

So while I sat curled up in the fetal position all weekend long ignoring social media and praying that no one would bust through my apartment’s front door to tell me about Donald Duck’s fate at the end of Kingdom Hearts III, I ended up seeing that the game’s director Tetsuya Nomura announced that the epilogue of the game was now able to be locked behind a presumed day one patch. Nomura said that the epilogue and the game’s final scene were the two most significant spoilers in the entirety of Kingdom Hearts III so learning that no one would be able to see these until that update for the game was pushed out comforted me greatly.

In fact, I want to greatly commend both Nomura and the entirety of Square Enix for taking such quick action to prevent this. I appreciate that Square Enix knows how much Kingdom Hearts III means to fans like myself that have been with this series from the beginning. It will have legitimately been almost two decades and over a dozen various installments, remakes, remasters, mobile games, and other assorted media that has finally gotten us to the end of the Dark Seeker Saga. While it might seem like overkill to go to this length to prevent spoilers from getting out in the open, the fact that Square is willing to make this decision says volumes about their understanding of their fans.

Of course, it is kind of weird at the same time though that you’ll basically now need an Internet connection to see the ending of Kingdom Hearts III. Having a stable Internet connection isn’t as hit-or-miss as it was maybe 10-15 years ago, but it’s still a bummer any time a portion of a game is locked behind an update rather than shipping solely on the disc. Just look at how annoyed fans got earlier in the year when a portion of Spyro Reignited Trilogy was locked behind an update.

As someone who didn’t have great Internet that would allow me to download updates or patches for my games growing up, I do sympathize with those who may now have to go to more extreme lengths to download this update. I’ve been there and done that. While I’d like to imagine that more people than ever before have solid Internet than ever before, I know what it’s like living out in the middle of nowhere and having no dependable Internet providers in your area.

At the same time though, I can’t commend Square enough for taking the needed action in this case. We’re in an age where if you’re trying to keep yourself free of spoilers for any piece of popular media, you essentially have to abstain from using the Internet altogether. Heck, even earlier this year, story spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man were being painted all over YouTube before the game had ever even been out for 24 hours. We’re in a very spoiler-sensitive time right now, but that’s mainly because things are being spoiled more than ever before.

And because of this, I think more developers and publishers should look to take a page out of Square’s playbook and do this in the future for themselves if their games were to leak ahead of time. While not every game may have the narrative build-up that there has been with Kingdom Hearts III though, I still think locking the ending behind a patch is an idea that allows Square to continue controlling their own game until they’re ready to give it to the world.

It is worth noting though that the ending of Kingdom Hearts III seems pretty obvious. Sora is going to die which will then lead to Donald becoming the true Keyblade-wielder and destroying Xehanort once and for all. Then Roxas will come back (because he’s better than Sora) and Kairi will probably kiss Donald on the beak for saving the universe. They’ve kind of been choreographing this ending to the series since the first game, to be honest. Square Enix needs to get better at not giving everything away ahead of time.

Kingdom Hearts III is due out next month on January 29 for PS4 and Xbox One. If you’re like me, you’re undoubtedly already counting down the days until it releases. To hold yourself over until launch, you can check out today’s newly released trailer for what’s surely the umpteenth time.

The post Locking Kingdom Hearts III’s Epilogue Behind a Presumed Day One Patch is the Best Move Square Enix Could’ve Made by Logan Moore appeared first on DualShockers.

Locking Kingdom Hearts III’s Epilogue Behind a Presumed Day One Patch is the Best Move Square Enix Could’ve Made published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

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anakin022 · 8 years ago

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M y most wanted film of 2012 was Prometheus by Ridley Scott. Despite all its mind-boggling flaws, I still enjoyed the hell out of this movie. A thing that initially couldn’t be said about Marc Streitenfeld’s score though. While it’s still very effective and on certain tracks actually really good, it definitely fell behind the previous four scores of the Alien saga (yes, even Resurrection).

Having said that, it kinda grew on me over time and I really appreciate the score now for being able to set the mood. Its atmospheric and unsettling sounds deserve recognition and what better way than to create a bunch of nice custom covers for it. 61 in fact (in words: sixty-one!). I never planned it to grow this big, but over the last three years things got slightly out of control…

#1: Prometheus (Original)

#2: Prometheus (Remake)

#3: Prometheus (Remake)

My first objective was to remake the official cover (#1), because I never liked it that much. In my opinion it was too bright and colourful for such a dark kind of music. In my attempt I tried to keep everything in the shade (#2, #3), similar to the original soundtrack artwork for Alien. I made it as black as possible, while still maintaining the iconic image of the Engineer’s head. This was also the first cover, where I let myself loose completely and tried out countless alternations, because why not.

#4: Prometheus (Custom)

#5: Prometheus (Custom)

#6: Prometheus (Custom)

#7: Prometheus (Custom)

#8: Prometheus (Custom)

I waited for over a year after the theatrical release to start with this custom covers series, as new fan-artwork was continuously sprouting around the web. Also, I didn’t have this compulsive desire to be relevant and release custom covers as close as possible to a new soundtrack release date (a real absurdity!).

No, instead I worked on Prometheus on and off quite arbitrarily – at my own pace and mood. A luxury endeavor, for sure. It had sort of evolved into my go-to-place whenever I felt the need for creative refreshment. And I think it shows, for this might be my vastest collection of custom covers for a single soundtrack album yet.

#9: Prometheus (Custom)

#10: Prometheus (Custom)

#11: Prometheus (Custom)

#12: Prometheus (Custom)

#13: Prometheus (Custom)

#14: Prometheus (Custom)

#15: Prometheus (Custom)

One of the new ideas for this series was the concept of a CD/Vinyl bundle with two matching artworks (#9, #12). I’ve made a similar set for Star Trek Beyond in June of last year, but these Prometheus covers were conceived and designed a long time before that.

I went with two slightly different angles of the same scene, the infamous “Prometheus School of Running Away From Things” from the climax ending of the film. Even though this scene is one of the most dumbest in the whole film (which is quite an achievement), it looks really fantastic on paper. The details are gorgeous and colours eerily beautiful, especially on the widened Vinyl version.

I like to imagine that both editions come with one half of a special download-key which, once combined, gives access to additional bonus content from the web. Maybe I should work in marketing. Or maybe not.

The CD version also got an alternate, less spoilery design as well (#14, #15), using an ultra wide shot of the three main characters with the eponymous spaceship in the background. I’ve mirrored the image to make it wrap around the spine and employed two different font types. For once the feathery “Aviano Sans” and also the bulky “USN Stencil“, both of which were featured in the official promotion material as well.

Prometheus probably’s got to be one of the most stunningly beautiful science fiction films in years and it was a real treat to work with all the official material. One of the highlights in the film definitely was the orrery scene. That’s why I’m presenting four different versions to you today.

In addition to a regular design (#16) I came up with a new entry to my ongoing series of the so-called Limited Signature Edition (#17). Unfortunately this time I had to fake the composer’s signature, please don’t tell authorities. The vintage Movie Score Recording design (#18) was made by my friend Helix who has already blessed this blog in the past with contributions for Nightcrawler or It Follows, to name only a few.

#16: Prometheus (Custom)

#17: Prometheus (Custom)

#18: Prometheus (Custom)

#19: Prometheus (Custom)

#20: Prometheus (Custom)

#21: Prometheus (Custom)

Of course I came up with a special Vinyl Edition (#19 to #21) of my own as well. A vast and really comprehensive library of source material allowed me to dream up numerous distinctive versions of the soundtrack album. So in addition to my earlier introduced vinyl artwork (#9) which was more like one part of a two-part-set, this version here is meant to be the proper stand-alone release.

For comparison with my vinyl sleeve design, below you can get a glance at Mondo’s 2016 vinyl release. The artwork was created by Kilian Eng, who delivered a similar design for Aliens the year before and also Alien this year.

#22: Prometheus (Original)

#23: Prometheus (Original)

#24: Prometheus (Original)

I’d like to switch back again for a moment from vinyl to compact disc, because I’m really delighted to be able to show off my favourite Prometheus artwork from this whole collection.

The following digipack design was only made possible with the help of two very specific source images. An atmospheric promotion image of the engineer’s head (#25) – rich in detail, yet surprisingly simple in composition – and a very special work-in-progress version of the same image (#26). By looking at those two I realized that they would perfectly work as an inner and outer sleeve design. And so another concept was born and it’s safe to say that this particular cover took the longest time of all – primarily due to my meticulous perfectionism.

#25: Prometheus (Custom)

#26: Prometheus (Custom)

#27: Prometheus (Custom)

I came up with the idea of a digipack with a clear plastic slipcase and I was keen on marrying the individual covers into an animated mockup to visualize my idea. It’s safe to say that this was quite an endeavour.

First I had to create each and every frame by hand. Which means to select the Photoshop layers, move them by a few pixels and save it all as a new file. Multiply that 339 times and you’re nearly there. With those individual frames at hand I began to animate, again manually. Using this animated GIF as a reference I adjusted each frame length individually to create a smooth and flowing animation. It turned out that I had to delete a good deal of frames again, especially in the faster middle section of the animation. So I ended up using only 163 of those 339 frames, which I’ve painstakingly made one by one (just to stress it out once again…).

The final GIF weighted in about 755 MB which I was able to cut down to 161 MB. But still far too much for an animated GIF, so I finally saved it as the 31 MB video above. At least the image quality is much better than those 256 colours that are available in the GIF format, so it’s okay that way I guess. All in all you’re looking at 3,32 GB – or roughly calculated six weeks – of work. You’re welcome!

The little gallery below represents all custom covers for this series that didn’t fit elsewhere in this blog entry.

#28: Prometheus (Custom)

#29: Prometheus (Custom)

#30: Prometheus (Custom)

#31: Prometheus (Custom)

#32: Prometheus (Custom)

#33: Prometheus (Custom)

#34: Prometheus (Custom)

#35: Prometheus (Custom)

#36: Prometheus (Custom)

#37: Prometheus (Custom)

I’ve used the most varied selection of source images here. For instance, #28, #29, #32 and #33 were all based on fan-art found on the now defunct Prometheus Forum, a real melting pot for unique findings of all kinds. Pages upon pages of discussions, theories and creative works.

Cover #30 is another contribution from my friend Helix and #31 is an unofficial movie poster from L.A. graphic designer Midnight Marauder, shamelessly turned into a square soundtrack cover by myself.

Others again were based on the remaining official material that was left untouched in my huge collection of work files (#34, #36), accumulated from the most unusual places. I also worked some time on an alternate version of the promo sampler, using my own handwriting. But it didn’t look cool enough.

My final addition to this entry is the one I’m definitely the most proud of. And beside cover #25 it’s also the most expensive effort I’ve ever taken for a custom covers collection so far.What you

Back then when I bought the Prometheus 4-Disc Collector’s Edition, it came with a plethora of bonus material including the massive 220 minutes documentation The Furious Gods, probably the most insightful and entertaining making-of I have ever seen. But the Blu-ray also contained another neat little feature that played a crucial role in this custom covers series: a bonus gallery with countless of rejected and alternate movie posters.

I’m a total buff for posters so when I found that gallery I immediately started looking for a way to export all those images – which was easier said than done. Blu-ray discs are DRM-protected, I couldn’t just pop the disc into my computer and locate the files in the file directory. No, this time I had to go to greater lenghts.

First I went to my local electronics retailer and bought an external Blu-ray burner. With the help of a special software I was able to crack the copy protection and rip the disc onto my computer. Only within this newly generated image file I was able to browse through the directories and extract the untouched images. I returned the burner afterwards using a flimsy excuse and was finally sitting on 109 original and uncompressed bitmap images. What a glorious time to get busy…

What you see below are the results of weeks or maybe even months of labor, trying to come up with the most diverse and unusual collection of custom covers I was capable of. I’ve added trivia info to each image description, so make sure to open up the gallery and click your way through all 38 artworks. Again… you’re welcome!

#38: Prometheus (Custom)

#39: Prometheus (Custom)

#40: Prometheus (Custom)

#41: Prometheus (Custom)

#42: Prometheus (Custom)

#43: Prometheus (Custom)

#44: Prometheus (Custom)

#45: Prometheus (Custom)

#46: Prometheus (Custom)

#47: Prometheus (Custom)

#48: Prometheus (Custom)

#49: Prometheus (Custom)

#50: Prometheus (Custom)

#51: Prometheus (Custom)

#52: Prometheus (Custom)

#53: Prometheus (Custom)

#54: Prometheus (Custom)

#55: Prometheus (Custom)

#56: Prometheus (Custom)

#57: Prometheus (Custom)

#58: Prometheus (Custom)

#59: Prometheus (Custom)

#60: Prometheus (Custom)

#61: Prometheus (Custom)

#62: Prometheus (Custom)

#63: Prometheus (Custom)

#64: Prometheus (Custom)

#65: Prometheus (Custom)

#66: Prometheus (Custom)

#67: Prometheus (Custom)

#68: Prometheus (Custom)

#69: Prometheus (Custom)

#70: Prometheus (Custom)

#71: Prometheus (Custom)

#72: Prometheus (Custom)

#73: Prometheus (Custom)

#74: Prometheus (Custom)

#75: Prometheus (Custom)

This site has become more than just a resource for alternate album art and Prometheus is literally the biggest evidence for that. What person in their right mind would need sixty-one different front covers for a single soundtrack? No-one! I am confident that the vast majority of soundtrack listeners are completely indifferent to custom covers at all. It is an absolute niche market.

Yes there are people who like to have custom covers in their digital music library. And even some crazy individuals who use different covers for each single track (*cough*). But guess what, the original soundtrack album only got twenty-five tracks. Heck, even the complete score has no more than fifty-four tracks. So why do this then? What’s the purpose?

Well, I tell you: I do it just for myself. I’m probably the most frequent visitor on this site and I’m fairly sure that no-one cares as much about this useless shit as I do. This is me trying to give my digital alter ego a meaning. Trying to create something that lasts. To make a difference.

“Prometheus” by Marc Streitenfeld M y most wanted film of 2012 was Prometheus by Ridley Scott. Despite all its mind-boggling flaws, I still enjoyed the hell out of this movie.

#Alien #featured #Marc Streitenfeld #Prometheus

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