2013 media thread

[Ronin Storm]

Surprisingly, the last thread on this was in 2012... time to revive the concept.

To kick us off, some TV series coming later this year or very early next:

Intelligence

A CIA agent is implanted with a chip that effectively integrates his brain with all electronic information sources he can access and then displays it in his vision like "a virtual evidence board". And then he shoots bad guys. Something like that. Very pretty, though honestly, I don't think this is going to be a hugely complex thing, but it looks like it has a good number of elements that could make it entertaining.

Almost Human

Following the footsteps of I, Robot and, given that this is Karl Urban starring, a little bit of Judge Dredd, a near future cop story where cops are partnered with "synthetics", effectively humanoid robots or androids in the style of Bishop (or Ash, I guess). Except this particular cop has had a bad experience with synthetics and throws his out the car first chance he gets... so he's assigned an older, stranger model. Of this little set, this may be the weakest trailer but I like the premise and it may have enough potential to lift itself from the easily expected.

Agents of SHIELD (September 2013)

Yes, that SHIELD; the one from the various Marvel comic movies recently. If you didn't like the films, I imagine this'll not work for you either. If you're a major fanboy, then know that this is Joss Whedon doing TV with an ordinary human agents versus superhumans theme. I'm something of a fanboy and I like Whedon's stuff so this is likely to be a big win for me.

Once Upon A Time In Wonderland

Following from the events of Alice in Wonderland (and others in that series?), Alice is back in the real world and she's been committed to the lunatic asylum by her father. Time has passed and she's just wanting out of the asylum and doesn't see another way than to undergo what I anticipate will be a labotomy. Except that creatures from Wonderland come to rescue her. A tale of modern fantasy, true love, swashbuckling, magic and more. Of the four here, this one was my favourite trailer and I have high hopes.

 

[Panda with issues...]

I'm still waiting for Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves! It's been about 5 years or something!

Apparently release date is October!

There's rumours of a new Tool album later this year too. It's been maybe 7 years since the last one?

 

[Iron_fist]

Definitely looking forward to the Whedon Much Ado about Nothing
due out in about a month at small cinemas around the country!

 

[Haven]

Almost Human has me very interested.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Is this the appropriate place to discuss the xbox launch?

Nothing to see here.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Some interesting comments which I feel sum up the launch: (none of them mine)

'Three shooters and five sports games. Exciting.'

'I still don't think the general public is ready to have a calm conversation about the idea that their software is a service not a product. A lot of that comes from the way the transaction occurs. They go to a counter, pay $40-$60 walk home and use the software. Its easy to see that as a product, even in the digital space buying a $1 game that you can play on or offline, still feels like you own it, regardless of what the EULA says. Conversely nobody feels like they own the movies they watch on Netflix. There is a clear understanding that because its not individual buys and you pay a monthly fee that ending that relationship ends your access to the content. I think that the public would be more accepting of limitations on software licensees if there was an all you can eat model in play. Sony is messing around with this in Plus, problem is for most of the people I talk to the libary is too small vs the cost of subscription. Add to that you only get content added after you joined or something crazy like that.
I understand why publishers are trying this, but man the backlash could be rough from people who don't understand or will just have their way they enjoy gaming disrupted. Imagine all the parents or spouses of gamers who are going to think this is bull, or just gamers who don't read game sites, there are actually a lot of those I bet. They are going to be surprised when, they try to play their game at a friends house, or lend a game, or when the value Gamestop offers is way lower than they are used to and once it gets explained to them its very likely they will be pissed. At the end of the day the first rule of business is going to come into play regardless of what EULAs and licensees say the customer is always right and if they steer their friends away from the One because of their bad experience they could negatively affect the box. Maybe they won't and this will become the new norm. Time will tell.
I always felt the best way to curb used games was to make games I would not want to trade in. I don't typically buy used, but I trade in all the time in order to afford to play more games than I would otherwise be able to. When I go to do my trade runs there are always titles like Arkham Asylum or Mario Galaxy that I just couldn't imagine parting with. I could easily see myself playing through them or playing parts of them again. If more games could just hold more value to the gamer then there would be fewer copies floating around in the used market, problem, somewhat, solved.'

'Games? Wtf are games?!'

'Oh joy, a 50% increase in the amount of time (read: money) required to create assets! Just what the bloated AAA games industry currently starting to collapse under its own weight needs'

 

[Ronin Storm]

Is this the appropriate place to discuss the xbox launch?

If it runs big, I'll split it. Otherwise, yes.

Honestly, I don't think these launch events are for us. They're for games and entertainment companies, and for investors, but not so much for the consumer. Their unwillingness to talk about, y'know, how games will really work (with particular note to second hand or borrowed games) is key to that; it's a down note in what they want to be an unbeat corporate announcement.

That said, I thought there was more to like in the PS4 announcement (though that was similarly targetted).

 

[Ronin Storm]

Sony is messing around with this in Plus, problem is for most of the people I talk to the libary is too small vs the cost of subscription. Add to that you only get content added after you joined or something crazy like that.

I don't think the quote from this guy properly reflects what Sony offer in the Plus package.

Each and every month, they offer 3-4 new PS3 titles and a similar number of PS Vita titles for free to Plus subscribers. They can download these games and keep them for all the while they remain a Plus subscriber (~£40 for the year, though it can be as low as £25 if you find a good deal). Additionally, if you just subscribed you can also see last month's titles and download those too. Fine, you can't go back further than that, so it's not an all-access thing for people who join in on Plus later, but it stacks up favourably over the year if you can even find a game every other month that you'd like to play for free as part of the subscription.

The title split seems to be 1-2 major titles, 1 smaller title, and 1 indie or oddball option. To me, it really does seem to be a pretty good idea and decent value.

So, said another way, I call that guy's assessment as being based on poor, second-hand information.

Never thought I'd be defending a PS3 thing...

 

[Panda with issues...]

I think the major points he makes still stand though.

 

[Haven]

Re: Xbox (insert cool name/number/moniker here): Lots of excitement over a black square(ish) box ... nothing interesting to see until they start showing content and integration. Its a black box folks ... literally!

 

[thatbloke]

I'm so far underwhelmed by the amount of information available about both the XB1 and the PS4 - both companies have keynote speeches going on at E3 in a few weeks, so hopefully all (most?) of these unanswered questions will be answered - and also maybe we'll see an actual PS4....

 

[BiG D]

They've already said E3 is for games; yesterday's event was about the new hardware. So, nope, the even didn't focus on the stuff they said it wasn't going to focus on! Crazy!

However, 8 new franchises by the end of 2014 sure sounds nice.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

While those trailers are solidly scifi and look awesome; Ronin have you watched any of Person of Interest, its just finished its season 2 and it may be just your cup.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Ronin have you watched any of Person of Interest

All of season 1 so far; I'll get onto season 2 when I've finished my current plate of watching. So, yeah, good suggestion, and it does fit with me well.

 

[Panda with issues...]

I'll just leave this here.

 

[Ronin Storm]

I'll just leave this here.

Reminds me of Dune 2 after a fashion...
(I said Dune 2000 originally, but I was mistaken.)

 

[Panda with issues...]

I got the latest Queens of the Stone Age album "Like Clockwork" as a gift from my dad. It's actually really rather good.

Not a return to the form of "Songs for the Deaf", but frankly that's an unreachable goal. That is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and one any band would be proud to leave as a masterpiece.

But yeah, after a couple of casual listens, I really like this one.

'Pensive' is a word I would use to describe it, and with my increasing age, that suits me just fine.

 

[Panda with issues...]

I'd like to upgrade my review to 'excellent album'. Really top notch.

 

[Haven]

Almost Human has me very interested.

Almost Human is now out - first couple of episodes at least. Not watched either but I believe its been quite well received based on the characters.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Almost Human has started decently and could turn out to be really good. Even in episode 2 the characters are bedding in well enough that there's a one on one chat between them that is laugh out loud funny. Of the recently released series, I'm of the opinion that Almost Human could be the best.

The Blacklist would probably take second; I didn't much care for their first episode, but it's been consistently decent ever since.

Agents of SHIELD started well but I feel like they're stringing out too few threads and relying on weird-thing-of-the-week too much. Still, it's engaging and I have a suspicion (somewhat evidenced in the most recent episode) that they're going to pick up threads from the films and possibly vice versa and that sort of interplay could turn out to be interesting.

I'm a couple of episodes behind on Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, but as the series that was at the top of my interest list it has turned out to be the most disappointing; it might redeem itself yet, but it's wavering fairly hard.