I'll keep coming
An even bigger media post!
The new Peanuts movie was super cute and a great throwback to the classic cartoons, despite the new animation. Even with, it still felt right. Jason wanted to go see it, so we decided to on somewhat of a whim and it was a good time. :D
Ended up catching up on my Terminator movies thanks to Piccolo letting me borrow Salvation. That was a great love letter to the series in the same way that MGS4 was in an attempt to wrap up everything...but then fuck it, have Genisys. :P It goes sorta off the rails at that point, but I love Pops and that made it worth it.
On the sequel note is Spectre. It's nowhere near as good as Skyfall and it really tries to hard to tie in everything and sort of breaks my headcanon that James Bond is honestly and truly only one person, but maybe we can still pretend. The reveal was the kind of reveal that happens in reboot series these days, so while I'm happy for the return to form, the baggage from the old canon makes it a little harder to enjoy. I need to just watch it again.
It was a few days before I saw it because of different things going on during the holidays and trying to see it with Rachel, but it worked out.
I did end up seeing some movies with the members of OKiS, cementing those friendships a bit more. Powers is pretty amazing and I get along pretty well with Nikki, too. There was a library booksale here in February and Nikki and I got coffee before hand and got to know each other a little better.
The movies we saw was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (with delicious Freddy's afterward, grateful that Jason remembers the receipe for The Good marshmallow / peanut butter business) that was just kind of okay for me. It's pretty faithful to the original Austen story and that was never particularly my digs, so.
We also saw Mockingjay Part 2 since seeing that around the holidays never really came together with Tierney. And it was...well, Mockingjay Part 2. The movie didn't seem as crushing as the books, but maybe just because I knew what to expect? And maybe Coin was a bit more sympathetic? A solid end to the series, though.
Inside Out messed me uuuuup. Beautiful coming of age story as well as giving cute and clever explanations behind a lot of little things about feeling and memory. Growing up is a sad one way door and I definitely relate to moving being a force that can change a person. One of the deepest Pixar movies, for sure.
Agent Carter Season 2 just wasn't as strong as Season 1. Not only was Angie all but gone (:C) but forced love triangles can also go the hell away. There's some clumsy writing (let's drop everything!), but that's not to say it was without redemption. The Jarvises are the best and the character of Whitney Frost was layered, intriguing, and wonderful. More Madame Masque, plz.
Agents of SHIELD was kind of everything that we ever wanted. :'D While SO MANY TEARS were shed at the love triangle angle, it tied in to the main story and didn't stop from FitzSimmons being end game. :D It's so good to see them together! And end the season on a note that isn't completely and totally depressing. The Fallen Agent build was very stressful, but it paid off in a way that I knew the production/writing team was capable of. FitzSimmons returned to form yay, but I wish we had a bit more focus on May's strife because she's been through a lot this season, too. It'd be good to see a Mack debrief, as well.
...man, I need those Season 2 trading cards.
Started Daredevil and I'm a fan! Foggy and Karen are the best and I'm excited to start season 2...eventually. I just hope no one diiiiiies. It's also really good to see a fleshed out villain backstory. I'd say maybe the strongest of the MCU so far.
Got to see Mary at Rent and ran into Kasey from OKiS while there. I'm so glad that I've never seen a production of Rent until seeing a stage production live. There's a power to the music and the performance and that just can't be expressed through a screen. Very enjoyable and very proud of Mary's performance.
Let's talk random movies I saw with Piccolo and company.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is good spy fun. Long and short of that. The Martian was carried by Being In Space with Matt Damon but Jessica Chastain is always good times. It was a fun movie, but I was only ever marginally ever worried about Matt Damon surviving versus Gravity which was like 50 minutes of being really sad.
Deadpool was great because it was like 1/3 random issue of X-Men, 1/3 origin story...uh, 1/3 Seth Rogan comedy. Well, I could live without that last part, but it was definitely funny when it wasn't wading in Dick jokes. I'd like to see it again because Negasonic Teenage Warhead is the best and it was clever and funny.
We also got Evolution together to watch both parts of the Attack on Titan live action movies. While they diverged from the anime/manga to say the least, they are definitely still solid. It was neat to see the tech from the world in live action form and the relationships in the vaccuum of the movies made sense, at least. Spencer's "Mini Me" is also kind of a nut (just like his dad) and I'm curious how he's gonna grow up. :P He's not a bad kid, just probably the most excitable kid I know.
Unfortunately did not get them together to see Hateful Eight, but I really wanted to see the 70mm roadshow before it disappeared. Definitely an amazing format to watch that film in and I'm glad to have experienced it and the film grain reminded me of seeing films back in the day. The tension, even for a Quentin Tarantino movie, was at an all time high. A great ride. I've described it as a two and a half hour bar scene from Inglorious Basterds. I don't know if I like it as much as Django, but it's definitely still enjoyable.
We got all of Evolution together to try to put finishing touches on the plans to see Wrestlemania and see Batman vs. Superman, but that fell apart while we were there. Piccolo had a death in the family and Spencer was a little empty handed cash wise, so we more or less booked it on the fly. Piccolo later got sick (it seems like he's okay, though) and we pulled it together at the end to have a great time at Wrestlemania.
Before Wrestlemania, it was important to me to beat Metal Gear Solid V.
First, I took the week off before AnimeFest to try to beat it, but that was nowhere enough time that it would take for me to finally finish it. It took me over 120 hours to finally complete it and I didn't even make it a fifth of the way before I had to get to AFest.
The difficulty starts steep. I didn't help myself by turning off markers. Another problem is glitchiness with the game. Being open world, the series of event triggers can be very specific, causing weird reactions. The AI seems to jump off the tracks as well and at the best case, is just funny. At the worst case, can be almost mission breaking. It's very unusual what triggers behaviors and what doesn't. It creates a very frustrating environment when it doesn't work well. And these frustrations lead to progress blocks that you don't want when you're trying to get through the game. I wasn't alone on this, as many friends were caught on the same missions I were. Surprisingly, I had nowhere near the problems with the Skulls that everyone else did. I'm sneaky. >:)
But once you get into a rhythm, the glitchiness stops, and you get your tech leveled up, an addicting, very free game opens up. It's a load of fun and challenging with a lot of possibilities. I've had a lot of holy shit moments or times where everything goes exactly to plan. There are so many stories that can be told out of the gameplay, and I think that's something that Kojima wanted.
To consider what Kojima wanted is very important to this game, I think. I wasn't fully mentally prepared to handle this as the final Metal Gear game. But there it is. In the months leading up to the release, the tension between Kojima and Konami became very apparent. A direction in the company had changed and I think spending got out of control. Kojima's choice for MGS ended with V and I believe that the story is a parable to that.
(I'm realizing that I haven't written about P.T. yet...which adds more fuel to that fire.)
Language as control represented the constraints that Konami placed upon Kojima, but his expression through language and without allowed him to make his own path. The cycle of revenge that needed to be quenched, the final piece of the puzzle, but also, at the same time, leaving a void that cannot be filled and needing to come to that peace on your own. The cycle continuing away from the wheel.
I'm at odds with the parasites...they both explain away some of the most fantastic aspects of the series, but also leave a little bit of magic left for Fortune.
...it took the profound loss of MGS for Kojima to truly realize what he was losing when it was stripped from him. He wanted to be free, a constant yearning of other projects, but he kept being pulled toward MGS. But when he was forced to split away...only then could he find the peace to move forward.
I can see where that is coming to my own life. MGS followed me to its end. I'm anxious to move to the next part of my life without it.
But with the final notes of MGSV, Kojima left me solace there, too. Somehow, I got to the end after months without it being spoiled for me. And I hope that anyone out there reading this who cares doesn't get it spoiled for them, too.
But, Kojima aimed to give us MGS in our identity, hearts, and lives with the ending of MGS2. And after that was rejected, with all of the technology of the modern age, it was reattempted in MGSV. It felt a little heavy handed because of the reprise, the execution, and the language, but I understood. When Operation Intrude N313 loaded up on the MSX...I knew that it was over and it was okay. It leaves a weight that Big Boss instructed us to carry on into our lives and where it will live forever. The circle is complete and the lessons that I've learned from the Metal Gear Saga will live with me forever.
It's over and it's okay.
It took a lot to interpret that and come to terms with it. I'm sad, but I'm not in denial. It's the best that it can be. We all move on. It helped talking about it with Grace (who understands the material very well and knows of my connection to it) and holding her and moving forward. Metal Gear will always be a part of me and I still want to pay tribute to it and enrich my life with it, but I know without Kojima it won't be the same.
Losing P.T. is another tragedy. Even just as a teaser, that game was -very- unnerving. I still haven't actually completed it because of how off beat and random the conclusion is. And the ending radio transmission could easily be seen as another criticism of Konami. It would have been a true return to form for the series...we can only just hope that it comes back to life in some form under the new Kojima Productions.
Death Stranding also looks amazing and I'm obsessed with it already. You can immediately see the reflection of Kojima's life in it and I honestly feel like the way is being led for me, too.
Order of Ecclesia is the finest Castlevania game that I've ever played. The difficulty is almost like Demon's Souls or a bullet hell shooter when it comes to bosses and some enemies...you absolutely have to be sure of what you're doing and know the patterns or you are toast. It's hard for me to imagine a better Castlevania game, but I'm excited about Bloodstained.
After 12 hours practicing, I finally beat Mr. Dream in Punch Out. It's one of those things that I just couldn't do before, but I was determined. Got the 3DS version for free thanks to Megan's family and the closing Nintendo Club. And even then, I have to get lucky shots and make very few mistakes. I want to beat it on the NES, but I realized that my NES is busted. :c I don't know if it's just a power adapter or something more. It makes me want to get a Retrocon or something, but I dunno..
Transistor is a fun, indie, fast paced Parasite Eve. :) Other cool indie games was Life is Strange. I really like it because it's your standard Telltale adventure interface but when it comes to a choice branch, you are given the power to rewind and try to make your choice more appropriate to how you want it. I think it fits really well. The story is very slice of life and coming of age, so I'm looking forward to playing more and getting more into it.
I got super excited that Lego Avengers got Agents of SHIELD DLC! It's fun to play the Lego games although they very much feel like video game candy and I wonder why I'm playing it sometimes. It's maybe better to play with people?
Rewinding time a little bit to tie the autumn into things that happened in 2016.
The new Peanuts movie was super cute and a great throwback to the classic cartoons, despite the new animation. Even with, it still felt right. Jason wanted to go see it, so we decided to on somewhat of a whim and it was a good time. :D
Ended up catching up on my Terminator movies thanks to Piccolo letting me borrow Salvation. That was a great love letter to the series in the same way that MGS4 was in an attempt to wrap up everything...but then fuck it, have Genisys. :P It goes sorta off the rails at that point, but I love Pops and that made it worth it.
On the sequel note is Spectre. It's nowhere near as good as Skyfall and it really tries to hard to tie in everything and sort of breaks my headcanon that James Bond is honestly and truly only one person, but maybe we can still pretend. The reveal was the kind of reveal that happens in reboot series these days, so while I'm happy for the return to form, the baggage from the old canon makes it a little harder to enjoy. I need to just watch it again.
It was a few days before I saw it because of different things going on during the holidays and trying to see it with Rachel, but it worked out.
I did end up seeing some movies with the members of OKiS, cementing those friendships a bit more. Powers is pretty amazing and I get along pretty well with Nikki, too. There was a library booksale here in February and Nikki and I got coffee before hand and got to know each other a little better.
The movies we saw was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (with delicious Freddy's afterward, grateful that Jason remembers the receipe for The Good marshmallow / peanut butter business) that was just kind of okay for me. It's pretty faithful to the original Austen story and that was never particularly my digs, so.
We also saw Mockingjay Part 2 since seeing that around the holidays never really came together with Tierney. And it was...well, Mockingjay Part 2. The movie didn't seem as crushing as the books, but maybe just because I knew what to expect? And maybe Coin was a bit more sympathetic? A solid end to the series, though.
Inside Out messed me uuuuup. Beautiful coming of age story as well as giving cute and clever explanations behind a lot of little things about feeling and memory. Growing up is a sad one way door and I definitely relate to moving being a force that can change a person. One of the deepest Pixar movies, for sure.
Agent Carter Season 2 just wasn't as strong as Season 1. Not only was Angie all but gone (:C) but forced love triangles can also go the hell away. There's some clumsy writing (let's drop everything!), but that's not to say it was without redemption. The Jarvises are the best and the character of Whitney Frost was layered, intriguing, and wonderful. More Madame Masque, plz.
Agents of SHIELD was kind of everything that we ever wanted. :'D While SO MANY TEARS were shed at the love triangle angle, it tied in to the main story and didn't stop from FitzSimmons being end game. :D It's so good to see them together! And end the season on a note that isn't completely and totally depressing. The Fallen Agent build was very stressful, but it paid off in a way that I knew the production/writing team was capable of. FitzSimmons returned to form yay, but I wish we had a bit more focus on May's strife because she's been through a lot this season, too. It'd be good to see a Mack debrief, as well.
...man, I need those Season 2 trading cards.
Started Daredevil and I'm a fan! Foggy and Karen are the best and I'm excited to start season 2...eventually. I just hope no one diiiiiies. It's also really good to see a fleshed out villain backstory. I'd say maybe the strongest of the MCU so far.
Got to see Mary at Rent and ran into Kasey from OKiS while there. I'm so glad that I've never seen a production of Rent until seeing a stage production live. There's a power to the music and the performance and that just can't be expressed through a screen. Very enjoyable and very proud of Mary's performance.
Let's talk random movies I saw with Piccolo and company.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is good spy fun. Long and short of that. The Martian was carried by Being In Space with Matt Damon but Jessica Chastain is always good times. It was a fun movie, but I was only ever marginally ever worried about Matt Damon surviving versus Gravity which was like 50 minutes of being really sad.
Deadpool was great because it was like 1/3 random issue of X-Men, 1/3 origin story...uh, 1/3 Seth Rogan comedy. Well, I could live without that last part, but it was definitely funny when it wasn't wading in Dick jokes. I'd like to see it again because Negasonic Teenage Warhead is the best and it was clever and funny.
We also got Evolution together to watch both parts of the Attack on Titan live action movies. While they diverged from the anime/manga to say the least, they are definitely still solid. It was neat to see the tech from the world in live action form and the relationships in the vaccuum of the movies made sense, at least. Spencer's "Mini Me" is also kind of a nut (just like his dad) and I'm curious how he's gonna grow up. :P He's not a bad kid, just probably the most excitable kid I know.
Unfortunately did not get them together to see Hateful Eight, but I really wanted to see the 70mm roadshow before it disappeared. Definitely an amazing format to watch that film in and I'm glad to have experienced it and the film grain reminded me of seeing films back in the day. The tension, even for a Quentin Tarantino movie, was at an all time high. A great ride. I've described it as a two and a half hour bar scene from Inglorious Basterds. I don't know if I like it as much as Django, but it's definitely still enjoyable.
We got all of Evolution together to try to put finishing touches on the plans to see Wrestlemania and see Batman vs. Superman, but that fell apart while we were there. Piccolo had a death in the family and Spencer was a little empty handed cash wise, so we more or less booked it on the fly. Piccolo later got sick (it seems like he's okay, though) and we pulled it together at the end to have a great time at Wrestlemania.
Before Wrestlemania, it was important to me to beat Metal Gear Solid V.
First, I took the week off before AnimeFest to try to beat it, but that was nowhere enough time that it would take for me to finally finish it. It took me over 120 hours to finally complete it and I didn't even make it a fifth of the way before I had to get to AFest.
The difficulty starts steep. I didn't help myself by turning off markers. Another problem is glitchiness with the game. Being open world, the series of event triggers can be very specific, causing weird reactions. The AI seems to jump off the tracks as well and at the best case, is just funny. At the worst case, can be almost mission breaking. It's very unusual what triggers behaviors and what doesn't. It creates a very frustrating environment when it doesn't work well. And these frustrations lead to progress blocks that you don't want when you're trying to get through the game. I wasn't alone on this, as many friends were caught on the same missions I were. Surprisingly, I had nowhere near the problems with the Skulls that everyone else did. I'm sneaky. >:)
But once you get into a rhythm, the glitchiness stops, and you get your tech leveled up, an addicting, very free game opens up. It's a load of fun and challenging with a lot of possibilities. I've had a lot of holy shit moments or times where everything goes exactly to plan. There are so many stories that can be told out of the gameplay, and I think that's something that Kojima wanted.
To consider what Kojima wanted is very important to this game, I think. I wasn't fully mentally prepared to handle this as the final Metal Gear game. But there it is. In the months leading up to the release, the tension between Kojima and Konami became very apparent. A direction in the company had changed and I think spending got out of control. Kojima's choice for MGS ended with V and I believe that the story is a parable to that.
(I'm realizing that I haven't written about P.T. yet...which adds more fuel to that fire.)
Language as control represented the constraints that Konami placed upon Kojima, but his expression through language and without allowed him to make his own path. The cycle of revenge that needed to be quenched, the final piece of the puzzle, but also, at the same time, leaving a void that cannot be filled and needing to come to that peace on your own. The cycle continuing away from the wheel.
I'm at odds with the parasites...they both explain away some of the most fantastic aspects of the series, but also leave a little bit of magic left for Fortune.
...it took the profound loss of MGS for Kojima to truly realize what he was losing when it was stripped from him. He wanted to be free, a constant yearning of other projects, but he kept being pulled toward MGS. But when he was forced to split away...only then could he find the peace to move forward.
I can see where that is coming to my own life. MGS followed me to its end. I'm anxious to move to the next part of my life without it.
But with the final notes of MGSV, Kojima left me solace there, too. Somehow, I got to the end after months without it being spoiled for me. And I hope that anyone out there reading this who cares doesn't get it spoiled for them, too.
But, Kojima aimed to give us MGS in our identity, hearts, and lives with the ending of MGS2. And after that was rejected, with all of the technology of the modern age, it was reattempted in MGSV. It felt a little heavy handed because of the reprise, the execution, and the language, but I understood. When Operation Intrude N313 loaded up on the MSX...I knew that it was over and it was okay. It leaves a weight that Big Boss instructed us to carry on into our lives and where it will live forever. The circle is complete and the lessons that I've learned from the Metal Gear Saga will live with me forever.
It's over and it's okay.
It took a lot to interpret that and come to terms with it. I'm sad, but I'm not in denial. It's the best that it can be. We all move on. It helped talking about it with Grace (who understands the material very well and knows of my connection to it) and holding her and moving forward. Metal Gear will always be a part of me and I still want to pay tribute to it and enrich my life with it, but I know without Kojima it won't be the same.
Losing P.T. is another tragedy. Even just as a teaser, that game was -very- unnerving. I still haven't actually completed it because of how off beat and random the conclusion is. And the ending radio transmission could easily be seen as another criticism of Konami. It would have been a true return to form for the series...we can only just hope that it comes back to life in some form under the new Kojima Productions.
Death Stranding also looks amazing and I'm obsessed with it already. You can immediately see the reflection of Kojima's life in it and I honestly feel like the way is being led for me, too.
Order of Ecclesia is the finest Castlevania game that I've ever played. The difficulty is almost like Demon's Souls or a bullet hell shooter when it comes to bosses and some enemies...you absolutely have to be sure of what you're doing and know the patterns or you are toast. It's hard for me to imagine a better Castlevania game, but I'm excited about Bloodstained.
After 12 hours practicing, I finally beat Mr. Dream in Punch Out. It's one of those things that I just couldn't do before, but I was determined. Got the 3DS version for free thanks to Megan's family and the closing Nintendo Club. And even then, I have to get lucky shots and make very few mistakes. I want to beat it on the NES, but I realized that my NES is busted. :c I don't know if it's just a power adapter or something more. It makes me want to get a Retrocon or something, but I dunno..
Transistor is a fun, indie, fast paced Parasite Eve. :) Other cool indie games was Life is Strange. I really like it because it's your standard Telltale adventure interface but when it comes to a choice branch, you are given the power to rewind and try to make your choice more appropriate to how you want it. I think it fits really well. The story is very slice of life and coming of age, so I'm looking forward to playing more and getting more into it.
I got super excited that Lego Avengers got Agents of SHIELD DLC! It's fun to play the Lego games although they very much feel like video game candy and I wonder why I'm playing it sometimes. It's maybe better to play with people?
Rewinding time a little bit to tie the autumn into things that happened in 2016.