Looks like we're gonna be judging this stuff on Saturday; judges Weebs, Eddie, Anthony and Antoine presiding. I don't have any more information than that at this point, been out of the loop on this year's contest.

Tomahawk wrote:

Herc, you asshole. You don't open a post with "LAST WEEK, steam had a sale". You advertise the sale that's going on now, fool!

Deus Ex trilogy (plus a port of a mobile game) available on Steam, until Friday, for the princely sum of $7.73 (CAN)!

If anyone has yet to experience Deus Ex, now's the time!

Darth Praxus wrote:

Doesn't reach the dizzy heights of Ghost Protocol, but a solidly entertaining entry. Some truly death-defying stuff from Cruise yet again (the diving sequence from the trailer is incredibly impressive, and the huge car chase set-piece is deftly handled as well), and the cast are all likable and engaging (this is the first movie I've actually liked Jeremy Renner in). There's a great sense of humor throughout, which is much appreciated. The only major complaints I have are both technical—first, while this isn't color-graded within an inch of its life like most similar movies these days, the orange sheen to everyone's skin is rather offputting. Second, the strobe cutting early on is extremely irritating; one early sequence in particular was bloody impossible to decipher due to the number of cuts per second. This got better as the movie went on, but I was bothered enough by its early appearances to be taken out of the experience.

Before Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation, there was a trailer to The Man from Uncle, and posters outside to Spectre, and earlier this year was Kingsman. Starting to get spy-thriller fatigue. They're turning into Marvel-esque overload. Plot's always the same: spies have to chase some MacGuffin through exotic locales with some babe in an opera gown, using gadgets & quips, etc, all while not getting their styled hair messed up. Villain is some generic PC (can't offend anyone!) group that finds humanity degenerate and so we must start again by destroying everything.

Write down all forms of transportation on pieces of paper and throw them in a hat. Now pull out one piece - that's the chaser. Second piece: the chasee. Third piece: The chaser or chasee changes their vehicle mid-way through chase. Now which country is giving you the best tax credits this year? That's where we'll set it.
And what crazy stunt haven't we seen yet? Let's write a scene based on that. Repeat for five actions sequences (they cost $20M each and we got over $100M budget based on the A-list star) and get the algorithm to shuffle the scenes until we get something vaguely coherent. Or not, doesn't matter. It's a thrill ride.

Anyone watching HUMANS?

Robots are domestic servants, a British re-make of a Swedish series.
I watched the first six episodes, but ready to bail out.
None of the characters pass the PLINKETT test. The entire main family mopes about incessantly.
There's a rogue sentient robot sub-plot that's been done better in Blade Runner. Episode after episode, we're only drip-fed the back-story.
Is it just another allegory for slavery or discrimination? Even worse, I can easily see this descending into standard soap tropes.
On the plus side, some of the actors playing robots look reasonably convincing - almost in the uncanny valley.

There's so much that could be explored, but this series pulls its punches. It doesn't have the budget for world-building (the impact on the economy would be huge). The rules on what the robots are and aren't capable of aren't clear.

Awaiting the American remake of the British remake of the Swedish series...