51

(58 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Alright. I'm finished with Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

I'm torn.

On the one hand, it's an excellent viking simulator. Not exactly realistic, but hey. On the other hand, it's supposed to be an Assassin's Creed game.

I like the setting. 9th century England and Norway is great. I like the environment, the general tone of it, the setting as a whole is quite a spectacle to behold.
However, Assassin's creed games used to be set in a single city(or a few), which worked so much better. Having to ride across the English countryside to get to another "city", which honestly passes more as a settlement than anything else, feels like a chore. It used to be "get to that district", and now it's "get to that county", and when the games compress entire countries into a 8km by 6km piece of land, it feels too tiny. Days may pass, story-wise, between towns, but it took a few minutes to ride there, which in game-time, translates to a few hours, judging by the day/night cycle.

The games used to be about parkouring your way through city scapes, and assassinating targets. Now it's a ridiculously large open world, and Dark Souls. Because the combat isn't what it used to be, and while it's good they changed it up, why does every goddamn game have to be dark souls now?
Even assassinations now, are based on dmg+crit chance. If I managed to sneak past an entire army, to perfectly stealth kill my target, I expect to be able to do just that, instead of a hidden blade penetrating the jugular be just a flesh wound, and now the entire fucking village is on to me. Not to mention the combat system is so much based on perfect parries and dodges, lest your stamina runs out.

On the story;
It's a fairly straight forward one. Go to England, seize the entire country. There are of course intrigues, drama and humor in there, but nothing I didn't really see coming.
As for the modern day setting, they actually did bring some interesting stuff to the table, only to cut it short way too early, leaving me wanting more. Classic, sure, but when theres a 2 year wait for the next game(I assume), and they have like 30 minutes or so of modern day stuff, they could've made it more compelling, if not complete.

This is the third game in the new style of games, and I still play them, but I did just download the Ezio Trilogy to play those again. Hopefully they're as good as I remember them to be, but it's been 10 years.

52

(51 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

I cannot stress how much I'm fanboy-ing out having Bo Katan Introduce Ahsoka, and then Ahsoka introducing Thrawn.

53

(58 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Well, I'm not gonna write a review or anything for Watch Dogs Legion. What I will say is I stopped playing it once Assassin's Creed Valhalla came out, and I don't really want to go back and complete it. It's just meh. It's not very varied, and the story is too thin.

Valhalla, on the other hand.. is amazing.

54

(58 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Will check out.

EDIT: Did check out. Definitely not my thing. Too much trial and error. I see the appeal though, I just absolutely can't stand games where you have to keep doing the same section again and again and again to complete it. I don't get the satisfaction other people do when I "finally" complete it. Also, the controls weren't super intuitive. I suppose once you've played a few levels, they're tight. Felt kinda weird to jump on RB instead of just A.

Also, currently playing Watch Dogs Legion.
It's a mixed bag. London is a cool city to play around, and the game mechanics are super fun, but the story is a bit cliche(if not relevant), and the characters, because you can play as every single NPC you can fin, are paper thin.

I'll come back and write a review maybe. But then there's also Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla in the next two weeks.

Time to hurry.

55

(356 replies, posted in Off Topic)

BigDamnArtist wrote:

Fun fact: Danny Elfman is the singing voice for Jack Skellington.


That's exactly what I was referring to.

..But I can see how I confused you.

56

(356 replies, posted in Off Topic)

And here I was thinking Elfman only wrote the music. I had no idea until *NOW* he actually performed it too.


The more you know.

57

(6 replies, posted in Creations)

I agree on all points.

And I'm definitely in if you ever make a sequel/other project.

Eh, I don't know, we released a second single.
Does anybody want a karaoke version?

59

(64 replies, posted in Coronaviral Activities)

I went to a studio. Like a proper one, and recorded a new single.

I mean, I wasn't alone or anything, the band was there, but that happened, and was amazing.

60

(31 replies, posted in Coronaviral Activities)

I'm absolutely down to do this, so long as my schedule works.

look at me, adulting the hell out of life. Schedule. 2 years ago, that was a lol-kind-of word, and now, it's an actual thing.

Anyway, hit me up.

Teauge, it's been 6 years now. Did you find him?

62

(356 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Drew: I don't know the musical term for it per se, but Tool are masters of changing time signatures.
The song "Schism" does so 47 fucking times. FOURTY SEVEN. And it's beautiful.

Legendary for its odd timing and 47 time switches, Tool's "Schism" takes the crown this week. Here's a more detailed explanation from Wikipedia: "The song begins with two bars of 5/4, followed by one bar of 4/4, followed by bars of alternating 5/8 and 7/8, until the first interlude, which consists of alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8.

"The following verse exhibits a similar pattern to the first, alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8. The next section is bars of 6/4 followed by one bar of 11/8. This takes the song back into alternating 5/8 and 7/8. Another 6/8 and 7/8 section follows, and after this the song goes into repeating 7/8 bars.

"The middle section is subsequently introduced, consisting of three bars of 6/8, one bar of 3/8, and one bar of 3/4 repeating several times. At one point it interrupts with two bars of 6/8 followed by a bar of 4/8, twice. A bar of 5/8 is played before the meter switches back to 6/8 for two bars and 2/4 for one bar.

"This repeats, setting up another section: two bars of 9/8 followed by a bar of 10/8, that pattern again, and then a single bar of 9/8 followed by alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8. The outro has alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8, ending with alternating 6/8, 2/8 that one could interpret as pulsing with a 4/4 feel.

"The band has referred to the time signature as 6.5/8. Although many composers would use 13/16 instead, 6.5/8 is still a valid fractional time signature."

63

(116 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I bought a new gaming PC.
I bought it a week ago.
I'm still waiting for it.


I hate waiting.

Will post pictures when it's all set up though!

64

(356 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It's hard to say.

I started with 10.000 days, and I love the album. Then, slowly moved through the whole catalogue.

If you liked that song, I'd say Lateralus(album) and 10.000 days(album) would be a safe bet.

The song lateralus is actually built upon the fibonacci sequence as well. It's a mathematical song.

it's hard to even define this band, because, while, they do "classify" as prog metal, it's a whole lot more to it. The vocalist is also in "a perfect circle", and Tool is more of an ensemble band than anything else, but it's just very good music.

I mean, my favorite bands are Linkin Park, Fall out Boy, 30 seconds to Mars, Paramore and that sort of thing, but for some reason, Tool just stuck with me.

I remember hearing about them back in 2003, from a friend, who said I wouldn't like them, and 2003 me agrees with that statement. However, my first real expore to them was in Guitar Hero World Tour, where schism, parabola and vicarious were playable songs, and from there on out, I just knew this band "got me". You know, how emo's in the early 2000's would define a band as getting them, not the other way around. Tool has great music, excellent compositions, and lyrics that match to boot.

I've even done Schism in a karaoke bar. Sure, the crowd probably didn't like the music, but hell, I sang Tool live.



Tool is awesome.

65

(356 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I just love Tool.
This song was the first single released from the 2019 album, 13 years after the last one, and it was absolutely bonkers!

The rest of the album, however, was ok+. Not great, not at all bad, but just not ace. Still, this song was great.

66

(36 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I demand pictures of Gary the goldfish.

67

(9 replies, posted in Off Topic)

We also have a Discord.

Which is like the chat, but better.

My band did a livestreamed concert on facebook. Does that count?

69

(5 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I think it's an excellent tool. A gift and a curse.
While the technology allows us to revive actors and actresses visually, getting their voices right is something else, albeit, according to Adobe, totally possible too.

I like the idea of getting performances post mortem, especially if the person in question died before being able to complete their work, because as a person of the audience, it's great. Simultaneously, as an ethical human being, it's digital cloning in the ethical "should it be done" kinda way.

For instance. Ryan (Wieber)sort of pioneered cloning done at a home computer back in the day. Sure he wasn't the first to do it, but in our fairly closed community, he was the first to perfect it. At least for 2004(ish) standards.
However, Ryan did both performances and then seamlessly blended it together to make seem like there were indeed two of him (or more) in the shot. Great stuff.

The issue now is that even though someone actually kicked the bucket, we can bring them back no worries. All it takes is computational power, and time. And while I really enjoyed Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One(although not a deep fake), it also means that nobody really ever dies.
It's a great concept for the audience, but at the same time, we gotta take families and friends into consideration. Say I died. And people would watch me on screen for the next 25 years. They would have issues with it, for sure.

I mean, it's hard to explain, at least in a semi-drunk, semi-coma state, as I'm not feeling my best, but there's pros and cons to this technology, and while the pros may outweigh the cons from a viewer perspective, the ethic perspective is on the other side of the equation, and it's a hard balance to, well, balance. Similar to human cloning, except it's all virtual.

On a side-note, there was a video going fairly viral a little while ago, where a mother was able to meet her deceased child in a VR fashion. It was heart-breaking to watch, and while that was an interactive experience, and an experiment, it almost falls in the same category, ethically. I forget where I saw it, but a quick google search brought this up:

What happened to your hair, Teague!?

I actually did try to record something at home, but... I got a band, so here's a cover.


Stupid BBCode doesn't accept links to specific times in youtube so clikc me.

72

(28 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Because of what Ben said, I'm pretty sure.
Discord is great, for chat, and for various topics.
The issue is that it's much harder to keep track of threads, as it's really just a server with multiple chatrooms.

73

(59 replies, posted in Off Topic)

The real Tom stands up. Starts a band. Releases a single.

I have spoken.

74

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Beeg wrote:

Had a very good laugh, zero stars would not recommend, but go see it.


Yeah, I don't think I will.

75

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

My point being it's no wonder it makes a lot of money. Kids will see it over and over again.