Loki

I do the sound effects and music implementation; another chap writes the actual music.

@RedRooster I think it's pretty Steam Deck compatible, yes!

So my latest game project is out in Early Access today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1252680/SENTRY/

It's a scifi fps tower defence game, sort of like Orcs Must die in space.  Check it out.

 

He was a miserable old bastard, but if a 30 yr old Dynamite Kid was working in Japan in this era he'd be getting signed up to AEW on a multi-million dollar contract and working incredibly hard, violent main events with Danielson et al.

For someone so utterly shite on tv at the moment, Kross does a great Ventura impression.  Where's this personality on Smackdown?

I'm not sure that it's Cody that's most at risk from being overshadowed by The Rock.  For me, it's Roman Reigns that is most at risk of being in the shade.  Reigns' charisma is sort of a smouldering one, built now on a solid foundation of being THE guy for years and a very, very long title reign.  He's the one most contrasted with the bright burning flame of The Rock.  

But in all honesty, it's for these guys to step up.  They're getting equal screen time with him, they have the opportunity to knock it out of the park.  When Hogan came back in The Rock was in a similar position but the two of them managed to put on a classic and improve both their reputations.  

Personally I think there's only one guy on the roster with the sort of charisma you need to stand up to The Rock, someone with undeniable kavorka.  Rocky may have the flowery shirt, but he has the shoes of a champion.  Yeah.

9 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Watched Top Gun - Maverick for the first time last night. I was grinning from ear to ear from start to finish. Absolutely marvellous fayre!

Just watched it again, I was rock hard the whole way through.  Superb, even on the small screen.  Tom Cruise is the greatest living film producer.  

5 hours ago, Scratch said:

In 2018 I took delivery of my new car. It’s not something you see everyday, with only 120 made in the UK. Needless to say, it was the result of decades of hard work and it’s very much my pride and joy.

In January, it had to go in for the first part of a service and I was told there was also a software update. When I asked what it would change, I was told it would change one thing and one thing only, and as that was something I never used, I saw the benefit in at least ticking the box and keeping the car up-to-date with the manufacturer.

When I picked it up, the update had significantly and negatively changed how the car behaves, sounds and drives. I’m still waiting to hear from the manufacturer what they’ll do, but for now it seems somewhat irreversible. When I called the dealership having gotten home, they said that when they re-read the release notes, it was clear that the update was much larger than I had been told that morning.

Last week, the car went back for the second part of the service. I was told to pick it up at 15:00 and I got there 5 minutes beforehand. As I was about to pull in to the dealership, I saw my car leave the forecourt with 2 blokes in it, so I followed them as it looked very much like a jolly.

I followed them as best I could, but they absolutely didn’t hang about. When I got the car back, I took the footage from the Dashcam and clocked them doing 52mph on a 30mph road (right past a nursery at picking up time), 64mph in a 40mph zone and 98mph along a stretch of an A road.

I followed them back, and immediately had it out with the two blokes who shrunk like a pair of schoolboys having been sussed. Despite my immediate horror, the look on their faces when I informed them I’d just witnessed their entire joyride was truly beautiful.

On Friday I had a missed call from the bloke on the service desk who’s been dealing with my complaint, asking if I wouldn’t mind leaving them a good review when head office send out their customer service questionnaire. The shake in his voice was truly painful to listen to, it being very much apparent how ridiculous he knew it was to be asking.

First world problems and all that, but I guess a reminder how modern services seem to be so lacking in care and respect, whilst being absolutely bound by a constant need for positive customer feedback.

Was this the dealer?  I take my car to an independent specialist for very similar reasons, because the local official dealership are massive charlatans. I had a coil pack replaced by them and they sent me a “quote” for other work that needed doing that amounted to 3k.  I declined but got my local friendly mechanic to look at the list when he subsequently did the MOT and he said it was all bollocks, unnecessary stuff.

7 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

I think its the difference between myself and Sir Scorch. He's a gentleman, I'm an oik. 

I think you’re doing yourself a disservice there.

 You’re both oiks!

 What do we think the lady said to Roman that got bleeped - “grow the fuck up” I think.  

Brilliant isn’t it.  Crowd are rabid, Sid is super charismatic, big chokeslam, huge powerbomb, DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE.  Everyone goes home happy and healthy.

 Up next… Sunny!

 Perfect wrestling tv.

Having one semifinal decided between two replacements was really underwhelming.  The girls' semi was really good though.  Did they show these out of order?  Because Sabre was injured in the last semi but was back for this one.

1 hour ago, Jazzy G said:

Barney isn't too bad, I think if he had somebody else to present alongside it might not be as bad. It's Bradley with those awful jokes. 

The jokes are holiday camp fun, though, that works for me.  Barney is getting better but he's far too stiff and awkward still.

Sycho Sid v Bradshaw

Bad week for the conspiracy nuts as it turns out the Princess of Wales has cancer and has been receiving chemotherapy.  And they didn't want it made public until their kids' term time was over.

I'm not particularly a monarchist or anything but by Christ I wish we'd got Leveson 2 as the tabloid press are, if anything, worse than before when it comes to hounding public figures mercilessly.

15 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

What do you make of Cosmo Jarvis? I’ve heard him described as 80% Tom Hardy which is pretty funny and quite accurate but I do enjoy him as the gentle brute who thinks the really clean incredibly disciplined people are the savages.

I'm impressed - he's got that Tom Hardy physicality about him for sure.  His accent is super plummy but that's deliberate I think, to distinguish that he's English even though he's actually speaking Portugese.  There is, I think, a LOT more to his character than the initial episode suggests and it's not even really clear if he's a "good guy" or more of an anti-hero.  

Non wrestling, but... excuse the shitty instagram headline

I've only watched the first two episodes, but Shogun (Disney+) is good.  Really, really good.  It's fantastically well shot and directed, and the pacing and writing is absolutely top notch.  

It's not even remotely fantasy, but it has that Game Of Thrones thing of weaving a wonderfully complex political intrigue.  I've no idea where it's going but fuck me, it's great tv.

Probably the best series I've come across in a long while, since Bosch probably, where all the elements are done well and you end each episode wanting to roll straight into the next one.

He should get Paul Heyman to be his advocaat.

If you can find a mirror @SuperBacon feel free to post it, I couldn't.

On the other hand, Starmer absolutely shamed Harry Cole at this point in the interview - 
 

Asking a lawyer why he represented "wronguns" displays such a stunning ignorance of how the legal system works, and Starmer handles it very well.

 Edit: in case the time stamp doesn’t work, it’s from about 33 minutes.

6 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I guess the one thing you can't port over, no matter who it is, is a long term emotional attachment if you've not followed their journey before. There's top stars and then there's favourites and a mixture of both.

I mean, it's a problem with either complex character, or 'workrate' based gimmicks generally in wrestling.   If your main strength is that you have great 40 minute matches, you're going to have to have some great 40 minute matches before a new audience invests in you.  That's why it took ages for guys like Chris Benoit to get really over in WWF, he had to wrestle his way into people's enthusiasm.  If, say, Adam Page ends up going to WWE, they'll have to properly introduce him to the audience and let his character develop in front of them, and so on.

If you're Scott Steiner, you rock up looking like the Michelin Man, and your first words are "gimme the fucking mic" then everyone has got your character within 30 seconds of hitting the building.  Samoa Joe strolls out with his towel and scowl and he's off to the races.

I'm still genuinely sad that AEW haven't seen fit to do

Christian Cage v Brian Cage in a Cage

Or even

Brian Cage v Adam Page v Nick Gage 

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

You've all forgotten Madison Rayne and the MYAH MYAH MYAH weather man himself, Black Reign.

Special announcer Gareth Hale.

Madison Rayne v Black Reign v Luther Reigns v Roman Reigns in a 4 Way (rain)Dance.

47 minutes ago, Factotum said:

To this day I do not understand just not allowing Statham to be English in his films. Just let him have the accent. Nobody questioned Arnie as all American Dad when he was talking with his thick avvent

What accent?

Okada obviously a fan of the CovidZone era of Raw, because during the ad breaks he pretty much stopped doing anything in the ring.  A glacial pace to his offence generally, which I presume is part of his heel persona, but is uncommon for AEW.  Combined with some Shawn Michael-esque over selling, this was a fairly odd match especially for a title change.  A slightly disappointing end to Eddie's Triple Crown reign but he's better as an underdog so it needed to be done.  Perhaps he'll consider NOT letting his opponents tee off on him uncontested now?  Naah.

It's all been pretty terrible, hasn't it!  Considering it's all filmed in The Volume at the cutting edge of technology the series all look pretty awesome, and great world building, but the pacing and writing is almost uniformly bad.

It's an issue with TV generally.  The best TV format is the 45 minute standalone episode - so a story that starts and finishes in the same episode.  It was perfected over decades, and you can look at say Star Trek, or Law and Order, or ER or whatever to see how it works.  Even great, groundbreaking series like The Sopranos stick fairly much to this formula.

Once you start to get away from those restrictions, I think it actually becomes a lot harder.  If every episode is 1hr, 1hr15 and they are all meant to be chapters in an ongoing story, there's just so much.... time to fill.  And it makes TV really drag.  Recent stuff like Lord Of The Rings, the Star Wars stuff, The Witcher suffers so much from this.  It's just.. boring.  Writing a 10-hour long film divided into 10 parts is a lot harder than writing 24 45 minute stories.

 

On 3/18/2024 at 2:06 PM, The Gaffer said:

5 - TimeSplitters 2

Again all of then are close together here for me, but the first one (yes, it's got merit. Probably the fastest gameplay and best multiplayer maps of the bunch) is too bare bones whilst Future Perfect is a tad too EA-ified. The true GoldenEye/Perfect Dark successor and so synonymous with PS2 split screen carnage in the early to mid noughties. a 15" screen split in four? No problem. It's not like you could even aim properly in this game anyway. I'm still taking your head off with a shotgun from the 16th century whilst trance music pumps out. 

Good call!  The 4-way split screen on the Xbox was the business.  So much chaotic fun, there's not been a multiplayer experience like it since for sheer bragging rights.  It had a funky level editor too, a rarity on consoles.