#i also wanted to add arrows but i felt like that would detract from the contrast
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i've always wanted to die clean and pretty
but i'd be too busy on working days
so i am relieved that i left my room tidy
they'll think of me kindly as they come for my things
- last words of a shooting star
#do you know what shooting stars do? they fall.#i also wanted to add arrows but i felt like that would detract from the contrast#secret life smp#secret life#secret life etho#life series#ethoslab#trafficblr#secret life spoilers#kiwi’s scribbles#blood tw#ALSO THE ENTIRETY OF THAT SONG IS HIM IT WAS SOO TOUGH PICKING LYRICS FOR THE CAPTION
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DC CW Shows
I finally caught up on all the DC Universe shows. Quite an accomplishment for me considering I was 2 seasons behind. It feels good to finally get caught up to speed, but some of them are starting to feel like chores getting through them, rather than fun entertainment. A concern that gets amplified by the fact that the producers want to add on 2 more shows to the line up. So I felt like it was a good idea to breakdown my thoughts on each of the shows and what I liked/didn’t like. Plus then I will break down my thoughts on Crisis, because I have a lot of them. I’ll also rank these as I go as far as which ones I liked best, beginning with least to best. So let’s begin:
#7 - The Flash
I used to love this show so much. The first two seasons were a lot of fun and I loved all the characters so much. Thanks to the writing though, I can’t honestly say I don’t like this show much at all anymore and that’s kinda sad. Part of the reason is it became soooo angsty. Like the reason The Flash was great, was it was the antithesis to the angst on Arrow which made it so refreshing to watch. Now it’s like everyone must suffer some sort of pain over the tiniest things or worse, they become entrapped in characters and situations like its been haunting them for years when it only got introduced a couple episodes ago. At this point the only characters I care about are Caitlyn/Frost, Joe and Cecile West, Wally (when he’s on, which is like never), and Ralph. And that’s painful that Hartley won’t be returning to fill that role anymore because he was the only one who still could joke and laugh around like old Team Flash.
Season 5: Overall season 5 had a pretty solid storyline despite some of the angsty writing. After a while though I got pretty sick of fighting Chicada over and over again, especially Grace’s version. My one big pet peeve with it though was the relationship of Nora to Barry and Iris. I’m sorry. I can’t honestly picture any 20-30 something meeting their adult daughter and automatically assuming the role of an actual parent and treating her like a preteen. That always felt super weird and uncomfortable. Not to mention it happened almost automatically with little to no hang ups on ‘is this really our kid? Should we trust her?’ Plus then it created angst between Barry and Iris which I’m really over at this point in the series because their relationship was never my favorite to begin with.
Season 6: A hot mess. Granted, because of Crisis and Covid-19, the season probably didn’t get a fair chance to play out to it’s full potential. But cutting the season into two arcs didn’t do it any justice. Especially because instead of having character growth, I felt like a lot of the characters regressed. Take Barry for instance. The whole first part of the season is him prepping/training the team to take over for him after Crisis since he believes he is going to die. Only when he doesn’t, he assumes the role of leader still without actually leading. He stops telling his team members key details and putting aside the fact he killed the speed force, he stopped being a hero. The whole fight scene with Mirror-Iris, was so bizarre to watch. Yes, Barry would never hurt the real Iris, but she’s not and instead he just stands there and gets stabbed over and over, crying at the end that she’s not there. It’s really hard to watch.
#6 - Arrow
Arrow used to be in my top 3 slots as last I left it. The storylines were still on point. But leading up to Crisis and the show ending, there were some things that worked for me and some that didn’t. Still, kudos to the team for standing their ground and saying that we’ve told all we can tell, let’s put this show to bed and give it a close it deserves. It made the ending super emotional, but at the same time satisfying despite, Oliver’s death in the universe. My only complaint is the fact that the producers can’t put it fully to bed and now want to reboot Arrow all over again with Mia and the canaries. Don’t get me wrong watching strong women take more of the leading roles is awesome, but not to tell and retell the same storylines.
Season 7: The first half of the season when Oliver was in Iron Heights was not my favorite. Mainly because as it continues to develop it was like all the reasons he got put in Iron Heights to begin with no longer mattered. Diaz is still on the lose, he’s still playing his games in prison, and really what was the point? Now the second half of the season where we focus on his rehabilitation into society and working with the SCPD to track and take down his sister Emiko, was actually good. Too bad it got horribly overshadowed by a time travel flash-forward storyline to introduce and make us care about Mia.
Season 8: Obviously this season was the closeout season and the season leading up to Crisis. But I liked the way they treated it. They gave cameo spots and guest starring spots to former faces like Thea (she’s still freaking awesome), Tommy, Moira, and even Merlyn came back. My only complaint was that all of sudden we did have another time travel situation on our hands to meet our future kids. Thankfully I felt Arrow overall took that development better than the Flash, which since that was only a couple episodes and not a season, says something about the writing. Plus the post-Crisis pilot for the Green Arrow and Canaries felt a little out of place given everything that happened and a little insulting.
#5 - Supergirl
There’s parts of Supergirl I still absolutely love to pieces and the writing that are still doing it the justice that started the show by telling storylines of not only heroism, but commentary on today’s events to help push for progress. I love the whole cast of characters and think the acting has been great. My only complaint is with Season 5 and the fact that the show is beginning to find its tipping point of being less than stellar. I mean, I still enjoy it, but it’s beginning to show its where and tear so I’m worried what’s going to happen as it continues forward. Especially as it gets hyperfixated on Lex Luthor, who don’t get me wrong is a fabulous villain, but isn’t that Superman’s arch nemesis, not Supergirl’s?
Season 4: What a great commentary to tell throughout the season that parallels the feelings and conversations being had about immigration in our own world. I thought the idea of the Alien Amnesty Act squaring off against Ben Lockwood and his Agents of Liberty was not only great commentary but great story telling. I also loved that we got to introduce Nia Nall into the series because she’s fantastic and has become one of my favorite characters. I even love the twist reveal of how Ben Lockwood isn’t the enemy, it’s really Lex Luthor and his communist Supergirl clone. Plus Jon Crier plays an amazing Lex Luthor.
Season 5: Don’t get me wrong, the stakes and the storylines with Leviathan and Obsidian North, I do think are important and worth telling, but they detracted from the main storyline that developed at the end of last season which was Lena and Kara’s new relationship. Yes, it was still hit on and explored, but by far that was the storyline I was interested in seeing the most, not Ramah Khan or Virtual Reality horror stories. Also, while I like Lex, thanks to his antics during Crisis, the second half of the season felt hijacked and became this witch hunt. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see what he and Lillian are doing, but I wish it played out more in the shadows and less of the actual screen time. I’m also glad Lena is back on Kara’s side again. But Brainy better not be dead! He’s one of my favorites even if his motives during this season were hard to watch.
#4 - Batwoman
I actually really, really, really liked Batwoman’s first season. Getting to know the badass that is Kate Kane and watch the horror’s of Gotham play out week to week was such a refreshing change of pace. After all, The Flash and Supergirl are undeniably heroes and must carry those burdens(?) as they fight for truth and justice. And Oliver was a vigilante, but while he took down drug lords, weapons dealers, etc. the stakes of being a vigilante in Star City is nothing compared to wearing the cape in Gotham. I loved the cast and seeing the stories play out of their past and how they connect to each other and also how some of them discover who Batwoman is, was fantastic. Even as creepy as Alice is, I enjoyed seeing the performance of the completely unhinged and psychotic villain take the stage to play out her twisted fantasies. I also appreciate the openness that Kate brought to being an out and proud lesbian, even revealing her super identity to a teenager to prove that it does get better and lesbians can be awesome is super freaking powerful. I even like that with the shortened season, it didn’t feel like we got robbed of an awesome storyline, but now we get to why this ranks fourth on my list instead of higher: Ruby Rose left the show and we get a whole new Batwoman. I get that this is out of the hands of the producers and the writers and I am super sad to see her go. But its hard not to feel like we lost a whole season of introduction and development to just reset and begin again. I’m not sure how they will handle it, but I do hope that a lot of the cast stays and stays in their roles. Especially Luke and Mary who are a great team. Mary is also like my all time, instant-favorite character because not only is she super wicked smart, but she has so much humanity in her so I hope she still continues on the show.
#3 - Stargirl
Yes, yes, this show is still airing which is why I can’t speak to the overall season arc in finality yet, but I absolutely have been loving this first season. Again, what a refreshing new reality to step into and what a great new storyline to pursue. This rag-tag group of teenagers becoming the new Justice Society of America is a fun telling and already, the stakes of the Injustice Society are so high! Like I was expecting that it was going to be like the other shows where slowly by slowly we meet all the bad guys in different seasons, but instead it feels a little flipped since we don’t have all our new heroes on the stage yet. Still I love Courtney and her relationship with Pat as she discovers these secrets of his past and their new home of Blue Valley. I love her recruiting reasoning to bring Yolanda and Rick into this crazy plan and even her acceptance of Beth becoming the new Doctor Midnight. Plus, the show keeps surprising me because on one hand, giving these teenagers these powers to help them redeem their self esteem is a great storyline, which is why I was expecting them to force us to like Cindy since the beginning of that episode was leading up to maybe becoming friends with her, but no. Turns out she is the super bitch and super villain of the show and that’s kinda awesome. Also I like how because their teenagers, their secret identities aren’t really that secret, which makes it’s kinda fun, but also dangerous. We’ll see how the last 3 episodes play out, but I can’t wait.
#2 - Black Lightening
Talk about real gritty, dark, and powerful storytelling. I enjoyed the first season, but these last two have been a real punch in the gut in good ways and the writers have been outdoing themselves to provide heartfelt, real, honest emotions and discussions to the world of superheroes, compared to the other shows. And it’s hard, but the gruesome nature of the show also highlights some of the real struggles going on in the Freeland Community which of course highlights the issues in our own world around the Black Community. The whole spinal chord ripping scene will haunt me forever and not only because they keep replaying it, but because of how insane that was. The cast is also great and I love that at the end of Season 3, it’s not just a family of super heroes, but a group of powerful metas squaring off against the government and the most dangerous threat of all so far: Gravedigger. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.
Season 2: Now that the whole family knows the stakes of what they have gotten themselves into with Tobias and revealing the girls have power, I love the way we got introduced to the ASA and the pod kids as a menial threat while still struggling to take down the perceived ‘bigger threat’ that is Tobias. Jennifer also having trouble coming to terms with her powers and how to use them I think was a great way to explore that not everyone wants to be a superhero, especially in antithesis to Nyssa who is a full on badass as Thunder and Blackbird. Watching Khalil’s story in this go from obedient lap dog to a runaway and finally a victim of Tobias’ violence was hard, but I felt was justified throughout and made him that character you want to root for, even when not everything he’s done has been great.
Season 3: What a harsh turn of direction. A full on occupation of Freeland, house arrest, killings on the street, and an underground railroad of metas or suspected metas completely changed the tune of this show. Watching each of the Peirces struggle to find out who the ASA is, what their doing, if their actions are justified and if the Marcovian threat was real was really fascinating to watch. The showdown with the Marcovians too with a whole team behind them was also a nice change of pace, even if their mission didn’t end the way they expected. I think the amplified stakes though of what happened and what’s to come will continue to develop into an incredible show, minus one now big problem I have, but I will detail that out below when we talk about Crisis.
#1 - Legends of Tomorrow
You can fight me, but Legends of Tomorrow is the best goddamn shown on this network for one simple fact: They don’t take themselves seriously. There is no real angst and because of that it makes the adventures so fun and so hilarious that its such a great break from all of the other shows. Plus, because they keep swapping new and old cast members into the show, it always feels new. Kinda that Doctor Who spirit, which I love. That and because there are hardly any rules to a time travelling group of heroes who don’t really want to be heroes, you get ridiculously themed episodes like Bollywood Musical or TV Crossovers. It is what makes the show a total blast.
Season 4: As the team gears up to track down magical creatures throughout history, you get the introduction of permanent team member, John Constantine who I freaking love for his cool, aloof character and yet sarcastic and sassy contrast to the sunshine and bro-squad that is Ray and Nate. I also love that the season not only was about capturing these magical creatures, but fully rehabilitating Norah Dhark into a good guy now accidentally turned fairy godmother. To be honest, I definitely did not see that one coming. I like that fighting the demon lord also helped transition the show from Season 4 to 5 to fight hell spawn creatures. Quite a leap from the original Legends concept, but again that’s what makes this show so fresh.
Season 5: Part of the other fun of Legends is getting to see old characters get reinvented. I loved the storyline with Charlie and her reveal to be Clothos, one of the 3 fate sisters and the reason the ancient loom got destroyed. I also loved Tala Ashe’s portrayal of Zari in a different timeline because the difference between tech-geek, super smart Zari and social influencer extraordinaire Zari were well done. Plus we got another awesome bro-squad member in Behrad who I hope sticks around for a while. The only bummer was saying goodbye to Ray Palmer. Ray has been one of my favorite characters in the Arrow-verse and seeing his exit was sad and partly because I think it could have been handled better. Like don’t get me wrong, seeing him have to get approval from Damian Dhark to marry Nora was entertaining and I’m glad he isn’t dead like Dr. Stein or Leonard Snart, but I just feel like the exit was a bit rushed. The good news is, it opens the door for Ray to return and I hope we get to seem in the future.
Alright...... To end this long spiel, let’s talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths and what that now means for all these shows. Because unfortunately.... it can’t be ignored. And I’m sorry to sound pessimistic, but to be honest, Crisis wasn’t my favorite story and was too hyped for the end result.
The only show who came out better for Crisis, in my opinion, was Arrow. Mainly because the story of Oliver’s last sacrifice to reboot the universe was the only one that made complete sense and doesn’t complicate the show after it happens. Granted it could be because it was used as the show’s exit, but still. I used to love crossover episodes and getting the whole team together, but now because there is soooo much going on in each show and such a large cast, these big multi-night and multi-universe shows just feel scattered because you are constantly hopping around and between each of the characters and all the individual storylines don’t matter. Like remember when Barry and Oliver would actually talk about what they were up against? Miss that. That and Oliver, Barry, and Kara stole the show even when it was other shows turn to shine. Like Kate was hardly in it, even in her own episode and the Legends weren’t in it at all. It was just Sara and Ray which was disappointing because as Crisis was their season opener, you missed a real chance to have the Legends save the day. Don’t get my wrong, there were some great moments during crisis and I liked the nod to past versions of the DC characters, including Brandon Routh getting to play Superman again, but overall it just made chaos for things that don’t make sense post-crisis.
Like yay, all our favorite heroes are in one place and created the justice league to help each other, but once Crisis is over, nope sorry, no one can be bothered to borrow a hero friend. Like that makes sense for some shows, Batwoman for instance isn’t that close to everyone and her storyline is so rooted in her own family drama, that ignoring the other supers made sense. The Flash’s stakes weren’t high enough to involve anyone else, so fine. And Legends of course travel through time and so aren’t around, fine. But Supergirl’s takedown of a longstanding secret group of people capable of bending Earth’s elements to create catastrophic events, isn’t enough to at least reach out to Cisco or Luke for help tracking them? That seems underwhelming. Plus where are the aliens in all the other cities now? Or the metas in National City? That’s a pet peeve, but more so because of the biggest twist in Crisis:
Pulling Black Lightening into the Arrowverse. Like the shows writers and producers, I think Black Lightening works better outside the Arrowverse which was the intent and goal from the get go. Pulling Jefferson Pierce’s family and world into the same Earth as all the other shows, no longer makes the shows storytelling as strong and maybe it was because this was a last minute decision, but there is just no justification post Crisis as to why they had to come in. I mean, The Flash and Black Lightening have metas related issues, you would think that alone would be a prime source of teaming up. Especially when Cisco goes out on a worldwide quest to document metas, you’re telling me skipped over Freeland? And where’s our favorite Kyrptonian to fight for truth, justice, and the American way as Freeland is being occupied by the ASA? Oh, what too busy going after Lex Luthor? Sorry, I’m not buying that Kara Danvers ignores racial injustice. Like I get that maybe it was a way to be able to use Black Lightening later in cross-over events, but the fallout from bringing them in this season with everything going on is a huge mistake in my opinion. And heck, having shows exist outside each other is probably a good thing. Too many and these crossover events don’t feel fun anymore, they just feel chaotic. I think I’m with the Legends on this one: the crossovers aren’t worth it anymore.
#cw dc universe#thoughts#reactions#legends of tomorrow#black lightening#stargirl#batwoman#supergirl#arrow#the flash#crisis on infinite earths
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ENTM Tumblr Cycle 11
Round 7: Action Movie
Hi everyone! I’m busy preparing the new ENTM website, but that kind of work doesn’t stop a cycle in progress!
Last week, I asked our models to go out and film a scene from an Action Movie - to get me a visible opponent and give me the coolest, most epic pose they could come up with to match it. Our models set things on fire, got revenge on their foes from Boss Monster, and even re-enacted an old samurai drama. But the model who put together the best action movie last week was:
Kota Tumet
Congratulations! The decision to use the cinema frame was a smart choice, and by narrowing it down you gave this shot an excellent panoramic feel. The judges liked the colors and lighting effects, as if you are seconds from everything behind you exploding. Great job!
Our judges this week was the original host and founder of ENTM, Rongi Pongi.
There is ONE MORE ROUND to go in ENTM Tumblr Cycle 11. For those not on our Discord, next week will be our final cycle that uses Tumblr as a platform. Tumblr Cycle will instead return next fall on our website, rebranded as ENTM Classic Cycle, with an integrated blog post, image galleries, and polls instead of using third party platforms. ENTM Instagram Cycle will continue to be hosted on IG, of course, and YouTube cycle isn’t going anywhere either. But the decision to move to a bigger blog means More Cycles! More models! More hosts! Overall, much more ENTM!
Stay tuned for an announcement regarding our launch party in May!
For the models (and everyone else), please continue along for critiques from our judges.
Judge Terrini
Luma: You have managed to capture yourself beautifully here. Your colors pop, your pose is fun, and the lighting makes things exciting. The explosion zeroing in on your opponent makes this shot seem tense and it's captured at a delicate time where it's still prominent and doesn't completely obscure your opponent. The framing and pose makes it hard to tell if you are attacking or running away in shear terror. A wonderful shot, but a bit more cause and effect in the posing would enhance the scene.
Ni'ko: It doesn't really come as a surprise that you love the pink and purple Mindflayer, Ni'ko, and the framing here his brilliant with the opposing sides in direct opposition and the action frozen with dynamic interaction. The only annoying factor is that the bowstring is running through your chest.
Peaceful: A lovely dynamic action pose you have here, and the setting and costume choices are all appropriately thematic. However, the biggest trouble is the light of your skill turns much too bright against your outfit and it matters all the more with the black and white filter not allowing color to shine through at all. It might have been a bit more bearable if the shot was in color, but I think the color of your robe being so bright and white would still be an issue. Also, with the framing, I feel the upper left corner of the picture feels empty since the angle promotes looking between the bottom right and lower left. Adjusting the angle to be less from the ground and more even might help frame the buildings better, or using the cinematic movie strips would help contain the empty corners more.
Yomu: This shot really grips me and makes me think of a simple shepherd picking up a spear to defend his flock from a giant predator. The fact that all the sheep are grazing peacefully in the bottom third, the threatening beast is in the middle third and you are aiming to strike in the top third makes this lovely pecking order that just adds to the intesity of this picture. My only disappointment is the black sheep's snout is cut off, but that's a nitpick for the sake of nitpicking, I honestly think you couldn't have arranged a better shot.
Judge Wulf
Adam! That’s a lot of fire! And it doesn’t look like you have much on, I hope you don’t get burned! I very much love the initial reaction I get from this picture: it’s very out of the box and surprised me! After that though, I find myself a bit...confused. Everything is pretty muddled, honestly, and I feel the fire is a major culprit due to this. I must admit, I am having a hard time seeing your enemy and even you to an extent. I’m very proud of you for taking a risk, but I’m not quite sure how well it paid off here. As a takeaway for this week, make sure your visibility is Priority Number 1! Even if this week didn’t do it for me, I know you’ve got some serious creativity, keep going!
Haila: I really love the shine that this shot gives, it almost has a sort of dreamlike feel to it! My eyes follow to the staff-crossing between you and Shiva, and that’s a really nice touch! Here are my notes for this week: while the opinion on back shots is mixed, I don’t think it was the best option for you this week. Since I can’t really see your face, and there’s only mostly the side of your body visible, a majority of my attention goes straight to Shiva.
Yojimbo: Ifrit is always a classic when it comes to fight scenes, I’ve noticed, and I think you’ve really taken the trope and made it your own! My favorite part of the picture is the cut line across Ifrit’s face, that has to hurt! It provides a nice line of sight to see both where you are and where the line of action is going. Here’s my note this week: you are very far away from us! I’ll admit being this far zoomed out from the action makes me as a viewer feel a little left out. It also doesn’t allow us to see you: who should be the star of the shot! I can tell you’re starting to explore outside of your comfort zone, though, so keep it up!
Yomu: PROTECT THE SHEEP! Seriously though I’d like to start off my saying that including the flock in this picture adds a level of story that for sure wouldn’t have been there without it, and for that I’m very proud of you for adding in that little detail. You’ve got a nice line of action here with each of your key players all looking in the right direction: Ratholos is looking at the sheep, and you’re looking at Ratholos. My eyes can either go up or down the picture and it feels nice to look at and tells a cohesive story. As is the nature with jump actions and some back shots, though; you are very hard to see. Yes, you are fighting a big dragon here but remember: you are the star, and how can you be if the viewer can’t even see your head? I feel like this picture in profile would have added that level of visibility to get around this, but from this angle I lose a bit of you in that regard. Awesome job this week, though, and keep your storytelling skills up!
Kota: This is the kind of shot I expect to see either right before and explosion, or before the logo flashes across the screen. I get a sense of punctuation here, this is either a major beat or straight up the end of something big, and the black bars really accent that with a widescreen view. This is a nitpick, for sure, but my eye keeps being drawn to the light behind the boss on the left side; it’s very bright. This is probably due to the filter used and also a necessary sacrifice for the image as a whole, but just something to watch out for. Good job this week!
Judge Nadede
Bria Rirsa: This is pretty nice shot from you this week. The expression that I see with your eyes are what one would expect to see when two swords are clashing together.The lighting within your image is nicely done. What I do find myself wishing is that you had chosen a background that perhaps felt more menacing or went with the outfits that are being worn. If/when you are trying to tell a story through the use of images, just ask yourself “do my surroundings work well with the story I’m portraying?” Another thing that does detract from your image is we have a furry little friend photobombing the lower right part of your image and what looks like might be a slight tear/clipping in the back of the other person’s outfit. It is sometimes the smallest of details that can detract from image, especially if it appears out of place. Overall good work.
Haila Wetyios: While I feel that this is a pretty shot from you, for some reason I feel as if though you are playing it safe. The image itself is done nicely with the lighting and the composition. You even managed to get a nice image of Shiva as well. To me, though, it does not say “action movie” much at all. I find myself wishing that there was more going on within your shot. To me, this appears as if you’re having a conversation someone and perhaps making some form of pact with them. I want to challenge you to play with your shots more. I’d like to see more of a variety from you than what you tend to go for… where your back is facing the viewer or giving us a ¾ back shot and an image that is vertical. There has been a very few times where it has been the opposite but I’d rather be surprised at what is different than seeing something the same, if that makes any sense to you. Like I said, this is a nice shot but it is too safe for me. I do look forward to seeing what you come up with for next week.
Ni’ko Shae: The scared little kitty isn’t so scared of the mean old monsters anymore! Heck it even appears that the monsters are not too thrilled with the blinding light the tip of your arrow is making. The angle of the bow and arrow and the direction of your face helps lead the eye to the monsters and how the monsters are looking back up and you brings the viewer’s eye back around. The lighting in your image is also nice done and I am glad that neither you nor the mobs blend into the background. It was kind of bold for you to use the same dungeon from an earlier shot for a different theme, but put the two together and they tell a story that works. Overall I think you’re doing a fairly good job and looking to see what you will do next week.
Peaceful Ursa: Out of all the images I have see from you this cycle, this one I really do like and has become a favorite of mine this week. It appears that you are taking feedback and putting what is said to use, and it shows in this image. I am happy that you paid tribute to the old black and white samurai movies. I do wish that you had used the cinematic border. I think it would have made an even bigger impact with your image. The lighting in your image is almost spot on even though just a bit more on your face could have helped. The fog in the background also helps with the mood of the scene and helps separate the mountains in the background with what is in the foreground. Having your image at an angle helps give your shot a more dramatic scene as well as help helping guide the viewer’s eyes around. Overall nicely done and good job on improving each week.
Judge Ona
Adam: If “epic fire battle scene” was a thing, Adam, this image would be the definition. There’s smoke and flames and a two people battling it out right in the middle of it all. But where all those things are epic, I don’t really understand what is going on. Are you being shot? Are you dodging the fire? Also, I am finding it very hard to see which enemy you are fighting. I hate to say it, but the effect is too strong, and I feel that I have lost Adam in the mix.
Things that I would work on, changing the viewpoint of the image. If you brought the enemy closer to the front, or yourself, and created a depth of field from the placement of yourself and the enemy it would have created a more dynamic image overall. Additionally, if you placed yourself farther from the camera point, we could have seen your face more.
Things that I love about this image, the glamour fits and I love the feeling of movement from you Adam. I wish I knew what was causing that movement though. I also love your use of the same effect through image, just be careful in the future that the effect doesn’t overtake the shot, and leave the viewer seeing more flame than Adam.
Bria: I don’t know how you managed to get the swords to stop so they were notched like this, but its an awesome screenie! I definitely feel the battle that is happening and the struggle that you and this unnamed assailant are having!
I am left wondering why you chose this location? To me, it doesn’t feel like it was chosen on purpose, and it doesn’t do much to add to the story. Likewise, it feels very constricted with the object in the background. With so much cut off I can’t tell if it is a ship, a landing platform, or something else. Finally, your minion is just chilling in the tall grass by your feet. I have a feeling they would have ran away if a fight were happening.
Things I love about this image: Your glam is beautiful. You kept two main colors, the black and dark red brown. I also love the use of this sword to create the notched effect with the other blade. I also like how you positioned the image so that you are facing the camera, but engaged with the enemy. I would make sure that you are paying attention to the entire scene and positioning of your weapon so that it doesn’t restrict so much of your face.
Luma: What a strong image this week Luma! That explosion is so powerful and definitely fits the definition of epic! I really love how you have put the judge’s critiques to use and grown. This week definitely shows that!
While this image is your strongest yet, please continue to be mindful of things such as cutting off limbs and other body parts, and the physics of your clothing. I know it’s a lapel on your jacket, but this angle puts it directly across your face, and it detracts from your expression.
Things I love about this image: Your glam. You are so very steam-punk-esque and it works with battling a big robot! I also love the lack of saturation in the colors of the image. The yellows and reds of the explosion are bright enough to make the viewer take notice, but that single whiteish flare brings the viewers eye back to yourself. I also love the use of the depth of field here, creating more focus on yourself and blurring the enemy in the back just enough to keep the focus on yourself. Just make sure your WHOLE self can be appreciated and include all limbs.
Kota: By the Twelve this is a gorgeous image! This long frame, and the use of purple tones throughout has created an epic steam-punk image for this round. It is a strong and well-crafted shot!
In looking over the image, I struggle to find much that could be improved upon. Even though everything shines with that beautiful purple sheen, your character has movement and sharpness to her that brings the eye back to her. I do wish I could see your whole body, and possibly a mask that we could see your eyes may have played to this stance more.
Things I love about this image: The color palette, especially since it creates a feel for the whole image. The glam goes perfectly with this type of boss and definitely plays into an epic movie battle. The lighting is spot on and is perfectly placed. The position of your body to the screen and the use of this frame are also very strong for this week’s theme. Overall, there really isn’t much I can say other than, Well done this week!!!
Judge Rongi
Haila: I knew this was Haila’s image before evening scrolling down enough to see her. Very signature Haila. Shiva is looking down at you, and the crossing of the staves shows some interesting interaction, so the viewer is looking back and forth and in between. The balance between you two is done really well, and the fade from white to dark blue not only in the background but also the two characters is beautiful.
Peaceful Ursa: I love the black and white old movie style of this shot. And this famous battle scene that everyone knows is really done well. I love the wisps of smoke we can still see that seem to be rising from the ground after you slid across it. The weakest part of this image is that I can barely see any faces, but everything is else is great.
Adam: I am not really sure what I am looking at in this image. I can’t tell if the fire is coming from you or the monster, what monster that is, or what your pose is. I think having everything a little bit more defined in the image through use of a different angle maybe would have been a stronger choice for this image.
Bria: I would have loved for this image to be twisted back behind the male model just a few inches more so we were looking over his shoulder and into your snarling face. The look between you all and the crossing of the swords is great. My only question is why this background choice? This shot would have been perfect in a fiery or purple-aether area.
Luma: I love how your character is riding the explosion and saying Yea!! As the boss explodes. Very movie scene feel to this shot. The straight lines coming out of the boss do make my eyes go back to him each time instead of you, but its still a strong enough image.
Ni’ko: This is a strong image. Great balance for all creatures involved. The lines bring my eyes all over the image, and since everyone is looking at you I am still brought back to you at the end of the day. The only part of the image that needed the tiniest tweak is that your character is looking perfectly right instead of inward, so while all the mobs are looking at you, you are looking past them. Still, very strong.
Kota: A Scene straight from a movie. It looks more like you and Alexander are a team then battling though, and that little explosion on his leg doesn’t scream action packed like the other shots do this week, but you do look awesome firing a shot and then looking back at us like “I’m gonna need a bigger gun” haha. I’d have gone all out with explosions to make this an even stronger image. Great colors.
Yojimbo: We’ve had Ifrit rounds in the past, so not only are you competing with all your fellow Cycle 11 models but also the memories of 2 past cycles. I really like that you have the camera in position so that we see the outer ring of fire and then the rest in the background, but I wish you had been closer to the camera because you are too small and far away. The right half of the image is entirely dead space. I’d have cut all that out and zoomed in more on you.
Yomu: Those little innocent sheep don’t even look scared as the dragon swoop in from above. Haha. Your shot this week has a great story with it, and is balanced well. Some judges don’t lie back shots, and others do, and I am one that does – but in this case not only is this a backshot, but we can’t even see your head! So I do wonder if there had been another way to at least the back of your head some how.
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I seriously underrated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
**Some minor spoilers contained in this review**
I won’t beat around the bush, BOTW isn’t just the best game I’ve played this year, it’s the best game I’ve played in a long, long time. Maybe ever. This is coming from someone who was skeptical of an open-world Zelda game, as Ocarina of Time was my favorite Zelda game before this, I really enjoyed the traditional dungeon and progression.
I don’t say “potentially the best game I’ve ever played” lightly. I went into this game critically, looking for things it didn’t do well. And, of course, there are some things it doesn’t do quite as well as others. However, overall, the game is a true masterpiece and a testament to everything Nintendo’s creative minds are capable of. I truly think that nearly everything implemented in this game is implemented nearly perfectly.
The Not So Good
This is all I can think of for negatives. While this seems like a long list, a lot of critical thinking about the game went into this, and, for the most part, these are all very minor. I cannot stress this enough, these negatives DO NOT even come close to detracting from the overall experience of the game. I am only listing these to try to be as objective and honest as I can, as I believe calling it a “perfect” game would be disingenuous.
Graphics and Art
The game can drop in FPS pretty significantly, particularly when there are a lot of particles or in large fights.
Some character models aren’t very visually appealing. Compared to the beauty of the world, character models are somewhat lackluster, particularly their faces.
Enemies
Enemy difficulty can be a little low. The first time or two, Major Tests of Strength or Hinoxes or Lynels were tricky. However, after those times, I never really struggled to fight them and win. I’m sure my thoughts on this will change once I start my Master playthrough.
There isn’t an enormous amount of enemy variations.
Puzzles
Some puzzles can be a bit finicky, especially motion control puzzles. Usually it’s not too bad and just requires a few tries, but it can be bothersome at times.
While they were fun and well designed, the Divine Beasts really didn’t take much time to get through compared to the rest of the game. I would have liked to see them take a tad bit longer.
Considering how there is no way (that I know of) to locate Korok Seed puzzles via the map/Shiekah Locator, it can be somewhat tedious to expand your inventory. Perhaps it would be better if you needed an extra seed every two upgrades instead of one, or implement a way to find the seeds.
*Further reading has shown that this problem is solved by one of the DLC’s which I have not read yet.
Weapons and Items
While the weapon durability system is a lot better than I expected it to be, and I actually think the system as a whole adds to the game, I think weapons should all have a bit more durability.
Special arrows are a bit expensive, and hard to find from chests and enemy bases. I would like to see them show up in chests a bit more often, especially considering the amount of basic swords and bows I find. This affected me more than it may affect other people, because I have been going for a stealth-archer style character.
Mechanics and Systems
Link is weirdly bad at swimming, considering how good he is at climbing. There have been times where I was feet from shore and drowned. This can be pretty frustrating.
The Shrine locator is a bit noisy.
In some areas, it rains just a tad bit too much.
Personal Complaints
This is a personal preference and not objective nor does it really detract from the game, but I don’t like the fact that there is voice acting. I prefer Zelda games to only have the unintelligible noise when you interact with someone and background music.
This is a complaint of mine personally but also a testament to the scope of the game: there’s a bit too much to do. I’m a completionist and really like to complete games I play 100%, especially if they are games I really enjoy. There is just so much. The most tedious is the astounding 700 Korok seeds. I plan on completing everything but the Korok seeds, but the fact that there are so many of them is a bit annoying to me as a completionist.
The Good
As I’ve already said, this game is astounding. One could write a book about how incredible the game design of BoTW is. It’s simultaneously intricate yet simple, easy yet with an infinite skill ceiling. This game will be studied by developers for years to come.
The World of BoTW
The world is gorgeous, and huge. Everywhere I go, I am struck by the beauty and the atmosphere. Every ridge I climb up, I come across a beautiful landscape view. I personally don’t enjoy exploring open-world games that much in general, but BOTW has completely changed that. Everywhere I explore is fun and exciting.
Continuing off of the last point in the last paragraph, the world is dense. I’m very rarely bored while roaming through the world. Whether it’s needing to go quickly so that my Fire Resistance Potion doesn’t wear off, needing to stealthily navigate a field to avoid Guardians, coming across a large Bokoblin camp, seeing old chests hidden in lakes, finding interesting NPC’s and doing missions for them, or simply coming across shrines and towers, there is always something to do.
The world is fully open, but you’re never lost. In a lot of open-world games, I find myself going in a direction where I shouldn’t be and either be turned back because I shouldn’t go that way or getting lost. In BoTW, they deter exploration into later areas by putting you up against enemies that are difficult. You could push your way through, but it will be challenging, and you are usually naturally and intuitively led on a path of enemies that of an appropriate difficulty. Before going into the game, I felt I would feel overloaded with options, but I usually am able to intuitively do what seems right to me. This fully open-world also makes the game excellent for speed running, as you are only limited by how good you are.
The Beauty in the Details
The Towns and Villages are all thought out with incredible amounts of detail. They each have distinct cultures and histories that are reflected through the architecture, lifestyle, and personalities of the NPC’s. Whether it’s a laid-back beach village or a prosperous, modern town that was mostly unaffected by the Calamity, each town and village is fun and engaging to explore.
Speaking of NPC’s, they’re very well-written. Even basic NPC’s in towns and on paths all have personality quirks that make them entertaining to talk to. BoTW has perhaps the most well-written NPC’s in any game I’ve played. Every one has a witty anecdote or hints at a treasure or shrine.
The world is full of small bits of history that paint a large picture of the history of the world of Hyrule. Each book you read or slate you find tells a story, and when you put them together, you get a fully fleshed out history of not just Hyrule, but each area and each Village.
Puzzles and Quests
The quests are abundant and fun. There are few “filler” quests that I have come across, almost all of them are either genuinely fun or very short. My favorite of these quests are Shrine quests, which offer puzzles in the forms of riddles. These are very creative and often times quite tricky to decipher.
The puzzle system is well-thought and a refreshing shift from traditional puzzles. The tutorial section does a good job of introducing the basic concepts of the Sheikah Slate’s abilities as well as showing that puzzles often have more to them than meets the eye. The player quickly learns that most puzzles have a relatively basic main path following a certain theme, and side paths which offer secret rewards for taking the themes learned from the main puzzle, and making them more complex.
Mechanics and Systems
The stealth system is, surprisingly, extremely well done. I went into the game knowing stealth was a possibility, but thinking it wouldn’t be a fully-fleshed system. Regardless of that, I knew I wanted to attempt a stealth playthrough, and wow. After honing my skills for the first few hours of the game, such as landing headshots, target selection, and use of my environment, I could easily clear most camps without being detected with some thought. As someone who loves stealth games, I really appreciate this system.
Outside of perhaps Dark Souls, the sword fighting system is the best of any game I’ve played. It does an excellent job of being interactive, rewarding good timing, giving you options, and allowing for personal skill progression. At first, I was slightly concerned that the controls weren’t very intuitive and that I would struggle to implement it in fights, however, with just minutes of practice, I was able to get a solid grasp of it. The sword combat system is an excellent example of “Easy to Learn, Hard to Master.”
The physics and weather systems make the world feel alive. I haven’t played a game that has put this much attention to science details. The biology of the animals matches their terrain. Things that you think should work, work. If you have a metal weapon out in a thunderstorm, you’ll get struck by lightning. Hot air will rise, so if you set something on fire, you are able to use that to your advantage. Rain makes things slippery, but usually not impassable (if you have enough stamina).
Additional Aspects
There are a lot of fun things to do on the side of the game, such as experimenting with cooking and potions, or filling out your Hyrule Compendium. There is always something to keep you from getting bored.
I’m a sucker for games with multiple playstyles, and the armor system in the game does that very well. For instance, I played mostly with the stealth armor, but you could also use armor that helps you climb better, swim faster, or be protected from certain elements. Another thing the armor system does very well is give you collecting options. You can buy pieces of armor from stores around the land, or you can earn them from various missions.
While the game doesn’t require exploration, it encourages it in a very natural way. If you want to upgrade your health or stamina, or want to get more inventory, or want better food and potions, or want more powerful weapons, then you’ll have to explore. None of these are required to finish the game whatsoever, but are accessible and fun to look for. I believe that the natural and flawless way that they encourage you to explore the beautiful open world they have created is the pinnacle of all of the excellent game design that BoTW exhibits, and future open-world games will look to BoTW for inspiration for how to create their own worlds.
Summary
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best thing the gaming community has scene in quite some time. It marks a positive shift not only for the Legend of Zelda franchise, but for open-world games as a whole. Despite its few minor flaws, this game is a masterpiece from the largest of scales down to the tiniest of details.
#zelda#legend of zelda#zelda breath of the wild#zelda botw#botw#breath of the wild#nintendo#nintendo switch#gaming#games#video games#review#game review
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Amazon – Final Rating
Written by TBD
It’s time to see how Amazon: Guardians of Eden fares in our PISSED rating. In my rating I’ll be specifically comparing it to the developer’s predecessor, Martian Memorandum.
Do I feel like I was treated to an incredible journey of adventure? Let’s find out.
Puzzles and Solvability
Ah, puzzles. Those who’ve been reading along have probably noticed my frustration with many of the puzzle choices in this game. In previous Final Ratings I’ve mentioned my trilogy of ‘bad’ puzzle design. I’m going to add a fourth bad puzzle to that list in future due to this game.
Mazes: No mazes in this game. And they could have easily done a repetitive jungle maze so, thank you Access Software.
Dead-ends: Sigh – there are a lot of dead-ends in this game. I came across a few myself but could see many potential others. I see no good at all in these dead ends. They detract from the atmosphere and urgency and add to the frustration.
Bad mini-games: There are a few little mini-games; the river canoeing, the walking around the slaver boat avoiding the first mate and solving puzzles. They work well. They both add to the game and don’t overstay their welcome (okay, paddling down the river overstayed its welcome a bit with its three long sections – I did four sections, but that’s largely a dead-end issue.)
And now…Timed sequences: Oh, the timed sequences in this game. In general these timed sequences add to the atmosphere that I’ll get to in the “E” section. But from a puzzle standpoint – constant deaths without giving me time to think are just annoying.
Some of the inventory puzzles are baffling. Giving the boat Captain cigarettes and a nugget of gold as passage is ridiculous both from a story perspective and because both items can be easily missed and even if I knew a gold nugget would be required, which I had no indication of, the last way I’d expect to get it would be from a poor serving boy in a small village.
Some other puzzles would be much more rewarding if I hadn’t been rushed by timed sequences. The bridge of death sequence could have worked excellently but I spent most of the time there just dreading the moment I ran out of time – let me try a few things before I die, game!
I can’t think of any particularly good puzzles. Turning on the librarian’s car headlights so she leaves her post back in Chapter 2 was one of the few times I got some information and had to work out what to do. I also somewhat enjoyed the cannibal village where I had to solve a few simple puzzles – but the potential enjoyment was quickly tempered by frustration as I was in a timed sequence.
The Chapter style hurt here. After the first few chapters each screen was largely separate and once I entered I couldn’t leave without solving the puzzle. This would have made the game easy without the dead-ends – perhaps the dead-ends were an attempt to make the game more challenging. Have I mentioned how much I think dead-ends detract from the puzzle-solving experience?
I mentioned when I was stuck near the end that I wouldn’t be happy if I needed an arrow after not being able to take obvious arrows earlier – fear my wrath, Access!
The empty eye socket stares blankly toward me and the arrows sticking out of his ribs steadfastly refuse to be interacted with…
… however, a different arrow hiding behind a nondescript bush needs to be taken in order to proceed two chapters later
I told you I wouldn’t be happy, game. I was already going to score very low here so this issue isn’t altering the final score but I still wanted to vent my frustration.
I considered giving this game either a 2 or a 3 for this category, but I also thought I might give it some credit for the included hint system. So how about we stick with a 3.
Final score: 3
Interface and Inventory
The interface itself is largely a slight improvement over Martian Memorandum’s. The inventory list and verb icons have changed from text to graphics.
The lack of tooltips, which I’ve mentioned as a negative in a few of my recent Final Ratings, has more of an effect here than other games. When I’m at the Bridge of Death, the middle of the bridge is a different item to the rest of the bridge. But of course, I don’t find that out until after I’ve died quite a few times because I’m in a timed sequence and don’t have time to properly examine my surroundings. Pixel hunts aren’t fun!
The inventory works well enough. The graphical representations have a text label when I move the mouse over them. (See Access Software, you do know how to do tooltips – try using them in the game screen as well.) There is combining of inventory items, which was used a few times and worked simply, with the graphics of the two items zooming out before the graphic of the combined item zoomed in.
It is good that items that are no longer useful leave my inventory so I don’t spend too long trying inventory objects on everything when I’m stuck, but why do I have Jason’s car keys with me for the entire game?
I gave a 3 to Martian Memorandum, so I’ll leave it the same. There are some graphical improvements but the negatives are exacerbated by timed sequences and dead-ends.
Final score: 3
Story and Setting
The story was good. Much of what I liked about it will actually be covered in the Environment and Atmosphere section so I’ll stick to story and setting for the S rating.
The story was simple, but fun. It didn’t have the emotional impact that Martian Memorandum had on me, and it wasn’t anywhere near as fun an adventure story as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, but it was still good. Even when I was frustrated by the puzzles I still wanted to keep playing to see the story play out.
I’m still wondering why Maya decided to spend the night just outside the secret door to the safety of her temple, giving Sanchez the opportunity to catch up to them, shoot Maya and find the secret door.
The Amazon jungle makes a good setting for an adventure game. My first thought was that the jungle setting was slightly underused here, but as I thought more about it I recalled that there are a lot of set pieces in the jungle – we saw cannibals, piranhas, a small village, an old Spanish treehouse, and of course the Amazon river itself. Most of the sequences are very short and the ones that are long are only long because they’re full of deaths and reloads.
The game is worthy of a solid score here.
Final score: 6
Sound and Graphics
The FMV sequences were an admirable addition – having full video when talking to people was nice and added to the movie serial atmosphere they were going for. Fully voiced adventure games are becoming closer to the norm now but full motion video is still new and only used in a few games. I’m sure it will take on and most games will be using FMV in a few years…
Apart from the FMV, the graphics and sound are about as expected for the time. It’s not as good as some of the best games, but it’s good enough. Things generally look like what they are supposed to. Which is understandable when you realise they actually used toys with paintings as backgrounds.
They did make some alterations after digitizing. Including turning an orange car blue!
The voice clips have a noticeable clicking sound at the start and end of each, but I’m not sure if that’s a dosbox emulator issue and it’s not distracting enough to change the rating.
The music again does its job. As usual for me I don’t remember much game music but when I go back to sample it for this rating the different pieces are appropriate for each situation and do their job of not distracting me from the game, so a thumbs up without being exceptional there.
Martian Memorandum got a 4 for the sound and graphics section. The slight improvement gives this game a 5.
Final score: 5
Environment and Atmosphere
The atmosphere is great. They were aiming for an old fashioned serial feel and nailed it. I felt somewhat Indiana Jones-y (it’d probably give me more of that feeling if I hadn’t recently played an excellent adventure game that made me feel extremely Indiana Jones-y.)
Though technically swinging on a vine is more Tarzan-y than Indiana Jones-y
And despite my disdain for them, the timed sequences do help the atmosphere here! They add to the urgency and the feeling of danger. I still hate these sequences with a passion, but for the purposes of environment and atmosphere, they do have a positive effect!
One negative though – the dead-ends detract from this somewhat. After a few deaths I stop thinking about the setting and game and just concentrate on trying to do things before time runs out.
What would Indiana Jones do if he forgot to pick up something that would become useful two chapters later? Would he give up, upset that he missed the item, or would he find some way to solve the problem with the items at hand? Alternate solutions to puzzles could have helped here – this game was designed to live by its atmosphere – bringing the story to a dead halt and forcing me back a few chapters lessens the impact considerably.
Martian Memorandum got a 6 here, and this game does the atmosphere a little bit better but undoes some of the good work with the immersion breaking dead-ends. I’ll stick with a 6 for this one.
Final score: 6
Dialogue and Acting
The dialogue was pretty good. Almost every character was a stereotype and written exactly as you’d expect. But that fitted in to the cheesy 50s serial vibe they were going for and worked well at evoking that vibe throughout. The game never fell into the trap of taking itself too seriously. Colonel Sanchez in particular is very over the top, both in writing and acting.
Colonel Sanchez – just a pair of glasses and a sense of humour away from being Groucho Marx
The dialogue puzzles in the game weren’t as successful. Maya leaving after I failed the dialogue puzzle because I was mistrustful of her made little sense, particularly after I found out her history. They’d work better if we got multiple chances to succeed or if they were less specific about what was required – the chances of me working the puzzle out by thinking it through rather than trial-and-error was low, but at least failing dialogue resulted in a death screen rather than another dead-end.
Ah the acting. In some ways it hits the ‘so bad it’s good’ mark – my particular favourite was Jason’s “Nooooo” when his brother sacrifices himself for their safety. Other times it just hits the ‘it’s bad’ mark.
It’s no surprise that when I looked the game up on IMDB, almost all of the actors had only this game as an acting credit. But they give it a good go.
I did like that there was physical acting as well as voice acting. Talking to people and having them physically move their mouths and bodies as they reply added to the realism.
I gave Martian Memorandum a 7 before taking away two points for bad grammar and spelling. I was pleasantly surprised that I only found one error in this game. I wasn’t particularly looking for them so there may have been more but they were a major distraction in the previous game so I’m very happy Access put the effort into getting it right this time.
This game also improved on Martian Memorandum by having more acting – the cheesiness of the acting, while often bad, served a purpose. How much of that cheesiness was a deliberate decision rather than just a consequence of actors unable to convey subtleties doesn’t change that the result worked often enough. If the game had taken itself seriously the acting would have been a negative here.
But the writing evoked less emotion than Martian Memorandum. I still feel something when I think of the massacred colonists of the Stanton Expedition. So I’ll give us a 6 for this. A slight step down overall but a step up in proofreading and acting.
Final Rating: 6
Final Rating
This gives us a Final rating of… 3+3+6+5+6+6*10/6, which equals…
48 seems fair. I liked this game a little less than Martian Memorandum, which scored 50, and while I appreciated the dedication and success at emulating the cheesy mid-20th century serials, as a game the frustration to enjoyment ratio ended up rather high. It started on a good note though and I was really enjoying it, but it started to get increasingly frustrating around Chapter 6 or 7, which was coincidentally when I started hitting dead-ends and timed sequences.
In fact, this entire Final Rating can be summed up by a comment made by ShaddamIVth in the penultimate gameplay post…
The B-movie element is surprisingly gripping, they seem to be well aware of how cheesy they are being and using it to good effect. If only they were aware of how frustrating they were being with the timed sequences, I have never felt them to be fair in adventure games where you’re supposed to explore as much as possible.
Well said, ShaddamIVth. I couldn’t agree more.
So for my personal PISSEDOFF rating, where I include how much fun I thought the game was. What would be my Overall Fun Factor rating? 3. A score of 3 from me means I won’t be playing the game again in the future but it did have some kind of redeeming quality. The bottom line is that I just didn’t like this game as a whole – it wasn’t terrible, but the frustrating parts made much of the second half of it a chore rather than fun and that frustration quickly overtook the good the game did. I’d have likely enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn’t playing it for the blog and could just use the hint section as soon as I started to get frustrated. But I wasn’t, so the PISSEDOFF rating ends up as… 3+3+6+5+6+6+3+3+3*10/9 which equals 42! A much lower score but a much more ultimate answer.
The crew from Access Software will be back in 1994 in their continuing attempt to combine full motion video with adventure game puzzles when they release Under a Killing Moon! And we’ll be there to cover it sometime between 2019 and 2022!
CAP Distribution
100 CAPs to TBD
Blogger Award -100 CAPs – For playing through the game for everyone’s enjoyment (I would have gotten more CAPs if I got 1 CAP every time I reloaded to an earlier saved game)
55 CAPs to Joe Pranevich
Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for playing through Wishbringer for our enjoyment (MEOW!)
Telling Tales Award – 5 CAPs – for passing on the news about Telltale Games going out of business after making a number of Adventure Games in recent years.
30 CAPs to Laukku
Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for guessing the Final Rating of Amazon by simply averaging the other Access games
While Stocks Last Award – 5 CAPS – for letting us know that we should download our Telltale games again because they should now work without DRM
Aces High Award – 5 CAPs – for letting us know that the Ace Attorney series will be coming soon to current consoles and PC for the first time
Classic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for guessing the Final Rating of Wishbringer
24 CAPs to Lisa H
Does Whatever a Spider Can – 5 CAPs – for pointing out that the Amazon must be home to a new terrifying creature – the spider-jaguar!
For Granite Award – 3 CAPs – for pointing out that the useless clue may be useful in some circumstances
Film Crew Award – 4 CAPs – for pointing out that Allen Roberts’ favourite film is actually real!
If Wishes Were Horses – 7 CAPs – for pointing out more alternate solutions to Wishbringer
Get Out of Jail Free Award – 5 CAPs – for mentioning that there are more ways to escape jail in Wishbringer
20 CAPs to Leo Velles
What’s Your Story Award – 20 CAPs – for submitting his What’s Your Story answers
20 CAPs to Michael
Appreciation of Your Appreciation Award – 4 CAPs – for twice thanking TBD for sacrificing his time to constantly reloading old saved games.
Abstinence Award – 3 CAPs – for being disappointed that there wasn’t a sex scene at the end
Six Degrees of Murray Award – 3 CAPs – for playing the Kevin Bacon game without including Kevin Bacon
Tell it to the Judge Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out that Darlene looks (and acts) suspiciously like Judge Judy
Dog People Award – 5 CAPs – for noticing that with the exception of the Coles, most adventure gamers aren’t nice to our feline friends in their games (MEOW!)
12 CAPs to Alex Romanov
Assistance Confirmed Award – 2 CAPs – for confirming that Voltgloss’ hints would be required
Assistance Granted Award – 10 CAPs – for helping TBD when he got stuck in front of the Amazon Queen
11 CAPs to ShaddamIVth
Succinctly Said Award – 6 CAPs – for inadvertently summing up TBD’s final rating in a single paragraph
Bad Luck Award – 5 CAPs – For pointing out that there may in fact be graphics in Wishbringer and that the graphics just meld into the black background (MEOW!)
10 CAPs to Voltgloss
Assistance Granted Award – 10 CAPs – for helping TBD when he had gotten himself dead-ended by not breaking into a truck and stealing the driver’s cigarettes
10 CAPs to Ilmari
Solidarity Award – 5 CAPs – for showing sympathy at TBD’s annoyance with timed sequences
It Is Very Dark Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out an alternate solution to getting to the theater in Wishbringer
10 CAPs to MisterKerr
Friends With Benefits Award – 5 CAPs – for having a friend’s dad work for Access during the day and being able to see this game while it was being made as a kid
More Friends With Benefits Award – 5 CAPs – for having helped members of Access Software at Comic Con as an adult
6 CAPs to Will Moczarski
Encoded comments Award – 6 CAPs – for discussing Wishbringer with possibly the longest sequence of ROT13 ever seen in our comments section
5 CAPs to limbeck
Choking On Ambitions Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out the dangers of treating precious gems as food.
source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/amazon-final-rating/
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Enterprise of Graphic Design – Festival Project
Module Reflective Evaluation
The aim of my project was to create a series of graphics promoting my own made up festival, Shock Wave Festival. I wanted to create a festival that I myself would go to and explore how to market a festival that has multiple different genres and could be considered to target a range of different demographics. I felt that this brief was mostly digital-based, something I am quite comfortable with, but still wanted to explore some new mediums, and found myself learning how to create gifs and also explore information graphics a bit more within this module. I feel that learning new skills such as creating gifs in photoshop will really benefit me further in future modules.
My initial starting point began with research into other festivals of different genres. I wanted my own festival to have quite conflicting music styles – traditional festival music from the rock genre contrasting with much more culturally relevant hip hop and rap. I started by looking at Reading and Leeds, which I feel in recent years has gone for a much more diverse line up when considering genres. I observed how their posters and branding have changed over the years as the music styles have changed and branding has become more minimalistic. My initial poster design was quite busy and cluttered; and was made up of just black and yellow. Similar to the old Reading and Leeds posters, I felt that this looked a bit outdated and didn’t really seem to fit with my modern festival. From this research, I decided to strip back my line up poster and add a different element. Having this largely diverse festival as a reference point was incredibly useful throughout my project when tweaking and iterating ideas. I also looked at some festivals with different styles, such as Boomtown fair. When I started to develop my initial poster and brand ideas, I wanted to include some kind of illustrations. Using Boomtown as a reference point, I compared a lot of the graphics surrounding this festival and decided not to use illustrations as I felt that they detracted from the line up itself. It was interesting to look at how a festival with a different music genre and different demographic designed their posters with their audience in mind. In this case, for Boomtown’s audience, I felt that the illustrations and unusual, steampunk-esque style would be really appealing, but felt that my wider audience might take better to a less busy, line up focused poster.
My starting point for this project following the research stage was an impromptu poster that I designed using the name Shock Wave. Inspired by some of the warehouse/ rave culture around Birmingham, I went with quite a distressed look on this poster, incorporating danger signs and warning tape. I used a bright yellow colour that I associated with warning signs and felt that this was really eye-catching and would fit in really well with my theme of electricity. Following this poster, I played around with my type and the layout and created a much simpler logo design. Using the arrow found on most high voltage warning signs, I created a really effective starting point for my festival branding. I kept elements of the original warning poster using the black and yellow tape still but left out the actual sign which I felt made the design much cleaner.
During this project, I really wanted to challenge myself and learn some new photoshop skills, such as creating a gif. I wanted to create a gif that was relevant to my branding style and that would fit in really well with a social media marketing campaign. With the idea of electric shocks and high voltage linking really well with ‘Shock Wave’, I decided to create a glitch gif, which gave off the idea of a power outage or overload more so that a computer glitch. I think that the gifs I managed to create in this project are really successful, and probably my strongest pieces of work in this module. I used the simple logo design for these gifs and experimented with different colours for more choice.
Following the creation of my gifs, I wanted to put most of my focus onto the line-up poster as I feel that this is the most important part of festival branding. My initial poster followed on very much from the warning tap theme created in my original teaser poster. Whilst I thought that this was a really good example of continuing the theme, this poster looked too crowded and a bit outdated. After researching the change of Reading and Leeds posters over time, I wanted to follow suit and strip back my poster to make it more minimalistic. I made the decision to scrap the warning tape on my poster and keep that for the logo and some of the teaser posters. To replace this element, I added geometric white lines onto my poster to highlight the important bits of type and add another dimension to my poster. I think that adding an extra colour into my poster created an interesting contrast and helped to guide the eye to the crucial bits of information.
I wanted to explore information graphics a bit more in this module and wanted to design a festival map. I found this quite challenging as the map had to be both aesthetically pleasing and easy to read and had to work on my map to make it simple enough but also fit in with my graphic style. Overall, I think the map is quite successful, but perhaps not detailed enough. I think that it does read quite well but looks a little amateurish.
I have really enjoyed this module as a whole and feel that I have learned lots of new skills and have explored some new areas of graphics. I would definitely like to do some more work on information graphics in the future so as to improve my skills in this area.
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Did you like the way Arrow handled gun violence in 513? Marc has said he wants to do an ep on Black Lives Matter this year, but I am very concerned. There aren't any black writers on staff. Many are worried, rightfully so, that an attempt at examining all sides will result in "all lives matter". Is Arrow/ its writers equipped to handle this? BLM and victims of police brutality are already routinely villianized/ridiculed in media. I don't want this to add to it.
I did like how they handled 513. I thought they did about as well as a show like Arrow possibly could with that subject. They did sort of have natural limitations in the way they could take a position because the show has it’s main characters go out heavily armed each night to fight crime (and to be clear, I don’t think that’s hypocrisy, that’s just recognizing the difference between fiction and reality) but still wanted to address an issue the writers felt strongly about. The ending is a little… “here’s our magical solution that everyone likes but we’re not gonna tell you what it is”. But I’m mostly okay with that because the episode had a little bit more of a theme about “lets acknowledge that there’s a problem and open up the lines of communication”. But yeah, mostly I thought they did really well even with the natural limitations because of the specific characters being used.
I hadn’t heard about the idea of a BLM episode. I… I don’t know. I’m not thrilled about the idea. On the one hand, I don’t think you have to worry too much about the actual position the episode would take because based on what I’ve seen about Guggenheim’s political views (paired with the knowledge that according to political demographics, the entertainment industry skew heavily to the left) I would think that the position would align pretty strongly with the BLM position.
The lack of black writers could potentially be an issue, but hopefully black members of cast and crew (David Ramsey, Echo Kellum, Juliana Harkavy, Adrian Holmes, Sydelle Noel among others) are able to help ensure the sensitivity of the episode. I don’t know though.
On the other hand, having a BLM episode within the specific context of Arrow has some… interesting peculiarities. 1. SCPD has been notoriously corrupt so any issues of police brutality would have to either work in tandem with that– which… I feel like detracts from things? Because when the police are willing to shoot their own people to pull off a heist, be on the payroll of a drug kingpin, or help a serial killer… yeah of course they’re going to be unjustly killing people, and in that context it seems more like just a trait of the crime-ridden, heightened reality of Arrow’s world. And 2. Arrow’s particular set of police characters. On Arrow we have former-police Lance; Dinah; a new FBI character; the presumably still alive Captain Pike and previously we had Hilton, McKenna, Liza Warner, Kelton, and Billy. What’s significant about this group of characters? Well for one thing they’re never gonna paint Lance, Dinah or Pike as racist. But more than that of the nine characters listed, six are POC. The three white police-affiliated characters are either dead or no longer on the force. Which is not to say that that means no racism could be present, or that Arrow exists in a world free of race-motivated police brutality, or that police brutality could only come from white characters. It just is harder to do an episode about police killing black people when your police captain is black, your FBI character is black, and your detective character is jewish/dominican/african/chinese. Not insurmountable, but an obstacle.
Honestly, I don’t really know. I don’t see the Arrow writers riding the fence much with this one (nor do I see Guggenheim being willing to do the episode if that’s what the network execs push for). But I also struggle to see how they would work it into the show naturally.
I truly am not the best person to speak on this- it’s not an issue that I’m very familiar with and I’m not the person it would affect. So yeah. I don’t know.
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