Truth Seekers

What an utterly fantasticly fucking BIZARRE delightful little thing this is.

I don't even know where to begin trying to describe it.... throw Supernatural, Spaced, the newest Dirk Gently, and Ghost Hunters into blender and pour into a glass with the words "THIS WAS MADE IN 2020" stamped across the side in big bold letters. It's a 'light supernatural drama-comedy that occasionally cold shanks you from behind with legitimately horrifying moments'. It's genre smashy, ghosts, and mad science, and soul-horror, and things that will keep you up at night as every inch of your mind and soul screeches in terror at the mere thought of it's possibility, and yet filled with an overabundance of delightful sarcasm, charm and heart.

I. LOVED. THIS. SERIES.

So for the unfamilar, it's Nick Frost's new series on Prime. Simon Pegg plays a supporting character that is just... gosh I can't even describe it, it's just such a thing of exsquite beauty you really must experience it for yourself. And Nick Frost is just absolutely perfect throughout the entire series, just nailing the 'down his luck jolly eccentric guy with a big heart' thing with a subtely and charm that is extraordinary, even for him. And the rest of the cast is equally as amazing, Malcolm Mcdowell plays a crotchedy old fart in that special way where you can tell he was having a /BLAST/ the entire time, honestly that alone would have been enough to sell me on this series.

I really don't want to spoil any more than that because it is such a truly bizarre show you need to experience it unroll before you. They are playing fast and loose with reality, but in a way that still feels consistent to the reality of the show, and it just gives it such a specific vibe to it that is wholly unique, and almost has a bit of that dreamlike quality to it.

So yeah, I really recommend it, it's a ton of fun if you're looking for something light and charming, but also with a few ghost-y spook em ups. The only thing that slightly tamed my love for it, is that it does have that awkward... "we're a small production so we're gonna reference real world technology and how people really use tech today so it feels more like reeeeaaaalllity..." thing about it at a few points. Like they do a livestream at one point, and the show takes tremendous pains to make sure to explain to us, the watcher, what a livestream was. So it just comes off feeling like "We want to use all this real stuff and how people today in 2020 actually use these things so it feels more reeeaaalll, but we also don't trust you to understand what's going on when they do... even though the whole point of this was to appeal to the things you are familiar with to make it more relateable." and it's just a weird paradox and makes my brain go a little wibbly watching it on screen. But if you can manage that, excellent show.

PS. I also just finished binging the entire series in one sitting... so I may be a little biased at the moment.

PSS. Also... this is Big Damn "What do you mean it's 'objectively terrible and the only reason I like it is because it's doing some dumb and weird', I LOVE IT" Artist we're talking about here, so you know, ymmv.

Thanks dude, I'm glad I could get at least a few forum easter eggs in this thing before all was said and done.

@Saniss: Considering what particular story point of the flashback memory dump this is conveying... you're not /entirely/ off the mark.

Teague:

Ghostrunner.

Cyberpunk. Parkour. Ninja. Robot. With A Sword.

I am absolutely loving the /hell/ out of this game, I'm not usually one for the speedrunner platform-y games, but this one has managed to blend together a really fluid movement system, a challenging (and extremely frustrating at points) but satisfying progression of difficulty, and wrap it up in a GORGEOUS cyberpunk aesthetic.

Usually with these sorts of games I've found it feels like the levels are designed to be frustrating rather than fun, but Ghostrunner manages to find a really nice balance where it can be incredibly frustrating and will take a while to get the hang of the flow, but it never feels out of reach, even in the level that is literally just a spinning blender of lasers and gunfire (everything in the game is one-shot one-kill, including you) you can parse out and discover the route that flows naturally, and within a couple dozen tries it sinks into your muscle memory and you're just this unstoppable killing machine flowing through the levels like water, and THAT is an extremely cool feeling. It's definitely a try and try and try and try and experiment and try again until it works sort of game, which again, isn't usually my bag, but this one really makes it work for me.

If anyone ever watched my old series, way back when, in Cloudbuilt, it has a very similar sort of feeling but with a much more refined flow and movement system.

Plus, obviously gotta mention it, Cyberpunk as fuuuuuuuck. An extremely cool universe that just goes all in with a lot of old school cyberpunk tropes, it takes place in a giant megacity, with social stratification and a once virtuous now maniacal leader, that has fallen from the promised utopia to a grime filled dystopian nightmare run by gangs hopped up on augs and guns, and you're an AI powered robot assassin with a sword being guided by a giant holographic face; all that good stuff. But it's never in your face about it, the universe just nicely sits in the background as the canvas for the story and levels, just happily bein all rad. And if you watched the trailer up there, the music is that good all the way through, this soundtrack just makes my little synthwave heart happy.

Definitely not a game for everyone, but if if this sort of thing is even kind of in your wheelhouse, HIGHLY recommend it.

OH!

And this game did something that A) I was super happy to see, because games don't do them anymore and B) is absolutely what swayed me into buying the game.... they have a fully functional demo of the first 2 levels so you can actually try it out and see if you like it. Which is always a concern for me with games like this, because how it feels to play is what makes or breaks it and it sucks spending 20-40 bucks on a game only for it to feel terrible to play.

So yeah... check out the demo if you're curious: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1139900/Ghostrunner/

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

(Also the whole Oingo Boingo thing, which I only know of by reputation and that fact he was the singer-songwriter... so I'm not really qualified to talk on that one)

This is one of the most singularly engaging things I've seen all year.

NGL I literally /just/ remembered Villeneuve also directed 2049 when you said that. I knew I stopped more or less caring about about directors at some point, but damn. Apparently he and I are just right on the same wavelength.

And aw, that's a shame, the monochromatic look is one of my favorite things about the trailer, absolutely pitch perfect for the movie it looks like they're making (again, not a damn solitary clue about Dune beyond this trailer.)

Helen Arney, Matt Parker and Steve Mould, otherwise known as Festival Of The Spoken Nerd (Highly recommend their lives shows and individual youtubes btw, links for anyone that might not already know about them later), also used to (pre-covid) run a small live show called An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail where they would do little mini talks and invite other nerd-y people in to talk about some random bit of fun nerdery they're passionate about in a slightly unnecessary amount of detail. Well, now they've decided to take that concept and turn it into a podcast. And if you're already a fan of Matt, Steve or Helen, it'll fit right in, if you're not, you will be.

There's 4 episodes so far, with more to come for the first season.

Also, Matt has /another/ podcast, with comedian Bec Hill where they try to answer random nerdy questions, I've only had the chance to listen to one episode so far, but I mean, it's Matt and Bec, it's gonna be great.

Festival Of The Spoken Nerd: https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/watch/
Steve: https://www.youtube.com/user/steventhebrave
Matt: https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths
Helen: https://www.youtube.com/user/HelenArney

Today in visions from another reality:

What a trip.

Cave Puppet Films (Rob Jacobsen's production company; Rob and I made Skinner and a few other projects over the years, for reference) just publicly released their latest short film Tessellate (after doing the festival rounds) that I did a few bits and bobs of VFX on. Primarily the handheld tablet UI.

RIGHT?! Of all the things I was expecting to happen once he started, it wasn't that. It's incredible.

If I'm reading the bio on their website right, they're a group of Danish travelling musicians living/working in New York.

How To be A Megastar Live has the distinction of being one of the few albums I actually really like the live version of and will actively seek out to listen to, there's just something about the energy of the crowd that works so well with BMG (and vice versa) in a way I just find exceptionally annoying with other bands.