tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098rebootiedJournal for Kids Who Don't Read Goodchronovore2024-02-11T09:45:39Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:566759Saints Row 2022 reboot finished2024-02-11T09:45:39Z2024-02-11T09:45:39Zpublic0Kicked off a mission that had a warning attached to it, turned out to be the final mission. It's long-ish but not nearly as difficult as Saints Row 1 or 2, or any of the GTA III, VC, SA, or IV missions were. Those were maddening, and I'm grateful for games that put something I can finish as the final story mission. Shit, just save the hard stuff for the side missions, let regular joes finish the fucking game.<br /><br />Watching the SR2022 staff roll, it starts with a dedication to two devs who died during the making of the game, both younger than I am. Then it moves to a long set of credits with lots of pictures of the devs teams at all kinds of events and settings, it looks like they tried to get a picture of everyone in there. Thinking about players pissing on the game when these are the people who put everything into the game, only to have it come out, get trashed, and then Embracer shutters the studio -- well, it hurts. They deserved better.<br /><br />Though I finished the game, I am going to keep playing through the activities, maybe try for platinum, though I usually don't care about trophies. A lot of heart went into this game.<br /><br />Pros<br />It's a SAINTS ROW GAME. It's a return to more grounded SR 1-3 era gameplay, with an emphasis on Activities.<br />Boss customization is wild, though not as nuts as SR2's, which caused heaps of problems with cinematics. I played the final mission as Mystique from the first X-Men movie.<br />Heaps of stuff to do in the open-world.<br />Heaps of unlocks - almost every side-gig or Activity unlocks a weapon, clothes, or material for customization<br /><br />Cons<br />Base/HQ customization is limited compared to previous games. There's one HQ, and items around the map can be found, snapped with the camera, and then set up in alcoves or pedestals at the base. It's an OK concept, with limited visual effect. They could have assigned materials to the building, like they have with the clothes and vehicles.<br />Visual language in-game is inconsistent. Placing a business on the map brings the player to the business' location, but doesn't clearly state that THAT LOCATION is not where the player carries out that business' operations. There are new pips on the map showing where the Activity is, but there are SO MANY icons on-map at that point, it's not clear. Once arriving at the location, finding the EXACT spot to launch the Activity is not clear. Sometimes there's a consistent prop, but it's not highlighted and can be mistaken for the regular landscape. More often than that, there's NOTHING. I just use the mini-map to move close to the icon's center, and then meander until a prompt appears on the main screen. Like I said, lack-of-polish. It wouldn't surprise me if some Art Director fought with the Designers about having an "immersion breaking" highlight on the screen.<br />Gunplay feels stiff, and the default haptic triggers are ridiculous. Sometimes there's lock-on, most times not.<br />Perks, skills, power-ups are almost an afterthought. It's like they started making a load-out focus, then abandoned it, but not entirely.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=566759" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:565952movies watched on a 12-hour transpacific 777 flight2023-12-06T08:42:48Z2024-01-14T14:00:05Zpublic0Fast and Furious Nine<br />Agressively dumb. The kind of dumb that walks up, gets in your face, and dares you to disagree with it, like a jock cutting line in the school cafeteria. This should only be watched by people who wished they still played with Hot Wheels, and maybe thought GI Joe would have been cooler if everyone was based out of East Los Angeles. What is the goddamned lore here? Former street racers and VCR thiefs are now the go-to special operatives despite a history of destroying just about any city their op places them in? <br /><br />Some other Dumb Movie (edit: it was THE MEG)<br />There was another film that was just about as over-the-top as F&F9, but it was more coherent and felt like they were embracing a near Greek pantheon approach to the heroes simply having realms where they cannot be bested. Hopefully I remember it soon; it was a welcome contrast.<br /><br />Strays<br />This movie about talking dogs made more sense than F&F9. Crass, gross, crude, and somehow both predictable and surprising in turns, this quest to bite the dick off an abandoned dog's bad owner made me laugh out loud repeatedly. <br /><br />Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One<br />Saw this in theaters and was disappointed. The re-watch was more enjoyable, as I was able to tie things together better in my head this time around. It's still not as good as III through VI. It"s a disjointed attempt to string together action sequences, with a near-mythically-powered bad guy. <br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=565952" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:564594Pandemic Airport Precautions2023-05-19T07:57:37Z2023-09-12T23:24:46Zpublic0On arrival back in Japan at KIX, there was construction on the wing for International Gates, which caused remarkable traffic waiting for the tram back to Immigration.<div> </div><div>The arrival platform had a guard in front of the escalator down to Immigration area, who held us for 15-20 minutes before allowing us down to the eight-deep stanchions prior to the actual lines for the Immigration check itself. I've never seen anything like it.</div><div> </div><div>What's more, after Immigration, the Customs area has adopted a new QR-code based process for declarations, and have two areas supporting that, and only one area supporting the traditional paper form that the airlines give during the flight.</div><div> </div><div>All in all, a C-minus experience for returning to Japan in the post-panic pandemic era.</div><div> </div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=564594" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:564190something for me to remember2023-01-12T02:54:19Z2023-01-12T02:54:19Zpublic0“Remind yourself these are your only three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it. These acts create happiness; holding onto bitterness never does.”<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=564190" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:563641Star Wars2022-09-29T00:44:40Z2022-09-29T00:44:40Zpublic0I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but:<br /><br />I saw Star Wars in its opening month in 1977. It became an immediate obsession. I was so crazy in love with the movie, it was just amazing. Close to a religious experience, for my young mind.<br /><br />I collected every series of Topps Star Wars Cards, and when the "Darth Vader's TIE Fighter" card mentioned "next year's model," I took it to mean there would be a sequel. I was overjoyed.<br /><br />ESB came out in 1980, and it was even more enthralling and engaging than the first movie had been. Lucas talked about making 9 movies total. I was giddy.<br /><br />ROTJ played in theaters in 1983. I was working in a comic book store at the time, and Marvel accidentally sent out the comic adaptation a week or two early. I grabbed my copy from the store's stash, and read it that very day. It seemed... okay. The movie came out, there were teddy bears beating up stormtroopers. Han Solo didn't seem cool anymore. Vader is redeemed by tossing the Emperor down a hole, though he has killed billions of people. This all seems overly simplistic and childish.<br /><br />GL stops making Star Wars movies.<br /><br />Fast forward to 1999, Episode I is released. I stay up to watch a 1AM showing on its launch. On the way home, I wonder what the fuck I have watched. Home Alone in space? This was not great. The Prequels, on the whole, are entirely disappointing. GL shows us just how much he doesn't want to work with actors. Episode II is worse than I. Episode III is the least bad, but still confusing, ham-handed, overly-reliant on its CG budget. The best thing that can be said is it makes Return of the Jedi seem to make a little more sense by humanizing Anakin.<br /><br />When Episode VII: The Force Awakens finally appears, it looks like someone has remembered how to make a Star Wars movie. Practical effects, practical sets, some mystery, and a sense of the familiar among everything that's alien. It's good fun.<br /><br />I know it's contentious, but Rian Johnson's Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is my third favorite starwars work. Listen to the dialog. Hear what he's saying. Rian did his best to take the story from one of hereditary greatness, divine right, the right of kings, to instead democratize the Force. Rey is NO ONE. Her temptation is to join in the service of the selfish, sociopathic hereditary heir, or to risk death and die as a talented nobody. She risks death rather than submit to serving as nihilism's partner. Kylo himself has a point: sometimes you have to tear down the past in order to build the future. Leave it behind. It's fucking great.<br /><br />But the butthurt fanbois of the world couldn't take a girl hero, couldn't take that their incel champion was simping after this "Mary Sue" character, and so JJ Abrams went back and undid all the democratization of the Force, reintegrated Rey as a member of a heroic bloodline, and erased everything that is interesting in Episode IX.<br /><br />If you told me in 1977 that all nine films would eventually be made, but that the last one would be so utterly horrible that it would diminish my love for the work as a whole, I would not have believed you. But there it is. Episode IX is irredeemable. åç<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=563641" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:563261anime club2022-04-21T00:24:29Z2022-04-21T00:24:29Zpublic0Weird memory: I remember going to an anime club when I was in HS. It was in a gym or community center, and they were watching laserdiscs imported from Japan by the senior members of the club, and VHS decks were daisy-chained from the LD player, with the "junior" members of the club having their VHS decks on cable splitters, further generations away from the source. I enjoyed the anime, but there was clearly some geek hierarchy they were trying to enforce, so I never went back.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=563261" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:562327Star Wars2022-02-16T07:06:52Z2022-04-08T07:54:45Zpublic0So I've been off-and-on watching Star Wars again, with an emphasis on recent TV shows. <b>The Mandalorian</b> I absolutely loved from the beginning to end. The Ugnaut who worked his way out of servitude. The Ewoks being disgusting in new ways. <strike>Raylan Givens Seth Bullock</strike> Cade Vanth as a marshall in a lawless town. And a near-silent Mandalorian steeped in mystery. <br /><br /><br />So it's not surprising that <strong>The Book of Boba Fett </strong>had to find some new ground to cover, since The Mandalorian had covered most of what I'd expected. <strong>TBoBF </strong>is a flawed show, mainly because it can't commit to who or what Boba Fett is. Is he a villain? Is he the underdog crime lord staking his claim? Is the guy who got accidentally knocked into the Sarlacc Pit by Han Solo secretly as incompetent as he appeared to be? Is he a hero, or an anti-hero? Oddly, if they'd simply called it <em>Star Wars: Mos Espa</em>, and role-switched Fennec and Boba, it may have been better. Fans would clamor for any scrap of Boba, like before, and no-one would have had expectations for Fennec's personality or role. The creators could tell other crime stories set in the city, switching perspectives to other syndicates. <br /><br />Similarly, I'm interested in both the animated series <strong>Clone Wars</strong> and <strong>The Bad Batch</strong>. The painted textures are an interesting choice, but the earliest episodes suffer from horrible lighting, shot composition, and animation. Very cheesy. Watching the updated look of <strong>Bad Batch </strong>shows just how far that look has evolved. It's pretty.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=562327" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:560636airplane movies supplemented with downloaded netflix on ipad2018-03-08T02:15:29Z2018-03-08T02:15:29Zpublic0Pixar’s <strong>Coco</strong> - Moving and beautiful. I get soppy when watching family drama on airplanes, and this one really did me in. I loved it.<br /><br /><strong>Justice League</strong> - fell asleep the first time I watched it, woke up at different places in the story, didn’t care that I had missed stuff. Went back after a snooze and watched the parts I missed. There’s some decent Whedonesque dialog in there, the the effects are OK except for Steppenwolf and Cavill’s missing mustachio. Ezra Miller's Flash is cute. I still like Batfleck. I will watch Gal Gadot do whatever she wants for as long as she wants. Cyborg was moody and poorly CG-animated. Boozy bro Aquamauri didn't work for me, tonally. <br /><br /><strong>The Temple</strong> - I like slow burn suspense films, and I like j-horror, but this is just a lethargic mishmash of Japanese horror tropes and mid-2000s creepypasta image-editing “spoooooooky” visuals. The lack of coherence or any explanation of its goals is as complete as it is irresponsible. <br /><br /><strong>The Cloverfield Paradox</strong> - Had to unplug my brain with extreme prejudice to enjoy this. It’s filled with so much “That’s not how that works. <em>That’s not how ANY of that works!”</em> that I was eventually able to just shut off my meager physics awareness and go with it. Chris O’Dowd was funny in it. I watched the first ⅓ without English closed-captions, and assumed they were treating Xing Ziying like Chewbacca, and that everyone’s responses were what made her Chinese utterances contextually clear to the audience. Turns out, no, they just relied on subtitles that were not automatically enabled. :lol Having an international crew who speak some Chinese to the one Chinese crewmember, despite having a Russian and a German who never speak their language natively seemed tone-deaf. Cloverfield license was tacked on clumsily, but the whole movie does everything so clumsily, it's part of its "charm."<br /><br />I should also admit to seeing <strong>Daddy's Home 2</strong>, which was more of what the first one was, but fewer surprises, no weirdo side characters like Hannibal Buress and Thomas Hayden Church. I guess that was supposed to be Lithgow (underused) and Gibson (under-punished). <br /><br />Lastly, <strong>The Kingsman: Golden Circle</strong> was trashed by reviews, but it's a worthy sequel to the first movie. It's nonsensical, humorous, action-packed, with an oddball villain. If NOTHING ELSE, the scenes with Elton John make the movie worth seeing. There's plenty more to enjoy though. Channing Tatum's role is practically a cameo. Part of me wonders if he wasn't supposed to be Agent Whiskey, but then had a scheduling conflict.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=560636" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:559263free fire2017-12-02T09:23:16Z2017-12-02T09:23:16Zconversation intercom - 2manyDJspublic0 Watched Ben Wheatley's '70s gun deal gone wrong flick. The ambiance was good, the dialog audio levels were too low, the performances were uneven but largely appropriate to the tone: somewhere between comedy and drama. <div> </div><div>One of those movies where <em>everything</em> goes wrong, but it's okay because <em>everyone</em> is unlikable. </div><div> </div><div>Probably my least-favorite Cilian Murphy performance, which is to say, he was still good but had no real reason to be there. Brie Larson does nothing to show why she previously won an Oscar. Armie Hammer is a big, dopey fixer who doesn't really seem like he fits in any of the scenes. Probably the best performances were Sharlto Copley and Michael Smiley, who sell the movie's tone more effectively than anyone else. </div><div> </div><div>A solid 7/10. </div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=559263" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:559020deadgirl, tucker and dale vs. evil2017-11-26T05:36:21Z2017-11-26T05:36:21Zpublic0 I watched <strong>Deadgirl</strong>, which deserves better than the 29% Rottentomatoes it sports, but is still problematic and a difficult film to watch. I'm curious about how it can be seen as feminist horror, or even misandrist. The core message is that #notallmen is wrong (duh) because even just standing by when wrong is done, we are complicit in the consequences due to our inaction. The film goes on to show that it is, in fact, a #yesallmen scenario, because we benefit from our inaction, just reaping the rewards of systematic oppression. Which is, honestly, a big social message that I had not expected to come from a teen drama centered on zombie raping. It was pretty difficult to watch, to be honest.<div> </div><div>To follow up, I wanted more horror, but needed something lighter, and watched <strong>Tucker and Dale VS. Evil</strong>. It's well-written and well-acted and as self-aware as Scream was. It was as enjoyable as a horror movie that is also a comedy of errors can be. </div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=559020" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:558687hannibal2017-11-12T07:07:42Z2017-11-12T07:07:42Zpublic3 It's a better movie than book. I guess a bunch of the corners which are cut don't really offend as much in a movie as they do in a book. I expect less from movies. I expect that they're trying to make everything fit into a theater friendly run time. So it wasn't as bad. It was an entertaining movie. Julianne Moore is as good or better as Starling, Ray Liotta is perfect (but typecast) as government black hole Kendler, and Anthony Hopkins is still definitively the character he established in <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>. As a Ridley Scott film, the visuals deliver a consistent lushness that the base material doesn't necessarily deserve. <div> </div><div>The later dining room scene in the book that almost made me pass out is just about as shocking in the movie, but the cognitive dissonance was absent, so I was fine watching it. I also had to pause and unpause it repeatedly as my son kept coming into the room for god-knows-why reasons, and it ended up stuttering the emotional impact out of that scene. </div><div> </div><div>They took the airplane picnic basket scene out of the middle of the book, where it works, and put it on the end of the movie which makes very little sense, but had a kind of quiet charm. </div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=558687" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:557548Saw A BUNCH OF STUFF during the incredibly long flights to- and from-USA recently2017-08-17T00:05:08Z2017-08-17T00:05:08Zpublic0<div><strong>Guardians of the Galaxy</strong> — I'm not sure what you guys liked about this. I liked the first one better; the action seemed more human-level, while 2's CG felt like it dominated the entirety of the movie. I'll watch it again at some time that is not 2AM on a fucking long flight. I really wanted to like this more; maybe the second time's a charm?</div><div> </div><div><strong>F8 of the Furious</strong> is the cinematic version of what I visualized when playing with Hot Wheels and action figures in my youth, plus the realistic family drama of a Mexican telenovela. Adolescent humor, girls in hotpants, and plenty of destruction to go alongside the vroom-vroom races. It's fun, but nothing else. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Ghost in the Shell</strong> was MUCH better than I'd expected. The visuals are better than the writing, a pretty common occurrence lately, but I was surprised how much of GitS comic style, attitude and basic theory they managed to put into this new work, while deftly avoiding Shirow's tendency toward UTTERLY FUCKING OPAQUE political subtext. I'll probably buy this just to watch the purdy pictures.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Unlocked</strong> stars Noomi Rapace, one of my current favorite actors, alongside a surprising appearance by Orlando Bloom. I had no idea this movie existed, so was completely open for whatever it delivered. It's a good, possibly overly convoluted spy movie, where Rapace plays an interrogation specialist for the CIA (they do some hand-waving about her birth and accent) who is on psychological leave of absence, but is called in for an emergency job. Things get hairy quickly. It was good, not great. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Kong: Skull Island</strong> is a fun action movie with just the right amount of social/ecological commentary. I enjoyed that they placed it in an earlier era, and against the backdrop of a war which we more clearly lost. They could have put it up against our successful but lackluster Desert Storm, or the ill-advised GW Bush follow-up, but by putting it in the era of Viet Nam, it was clear what kind of dilemma the military had been facing, and why they might long for a black-and-white struggle against which to pit themselves. </div><div> </div><div>Also saw <strong>Jeepers Creepers</strong> with my family, and was pleasantly surprised. I'd heard it was a good movie, full of surprises. It has snappy dialog, good twists, and reinforces my belief that no-one should ever visit rural Florida. Ha ha, Justin Long.</div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=557548" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:556809quasi-zombie themed2017-06-26T05:40:07Z2017-06-26T05:40:07Zpublic0<strong>The Girl with All the Gifts</strong> — This film had me enrapt from start to finish. This is a sterling, fresh and fascinating take on the zombie genre. If anything, this is an altered perspective on the statement made in the novelette, <em>I Am Legend</em>. I was never sure which way the story would go, and in the end I was fascinated with the varied and complex emotions it instilled in me. There are a couple of odd continuity problems in the story, but nothing ruinous. The girl who played the lead is going to be huge.<br /><br /><strong>Swiss Army Man</strong> — The Daniels, as they credit their shared writers/directors effort, do a passable Michel Gondry imitation, including sweded films, makeshift scenery, and the volume of fully three films' worth of twee intimacy. Along the way they leap gleefully past every limitation of good taste to indulge in fart, shit, vomit, and boner jokes, as Hank (living but emotionally dead) and Manny (dead but emotionally alive) collaborate to rescue each other from their predicament, finding the meaning of love or at least true compassion along the way. It's never clear if we're actually dealing with a man who was stranded on a deserted island, or if it's simply a figurative one. The ending is fantastic, but does nothing to clarify the so-called reality of the film's preceding scenes. <br type="_moz" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=556809" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:556040GTA2017-06-05T22:36:52Z2017-06-05T22:36:52Zpublic0Re-playing STILL more GTA5 singleplayer on PS4. I've realized that many of the things I didn't see in my 360 playthrough were probably broken at game launch. Franklin's cab company purchase and its associated "special fare" mission were broken, that's well documented. Calls to Trevor from Martin's elderly wife didn't happen, but her emails arrived, I think. There are lots of small notes that add to the overall story experience. <br /><br />It's also gorgeous. As much as I raved about Watchdogs 2, GTA5 does a better job of representing the southern california environment than WD2 does of San Francisco. Something about the sky, the air quality and the depth of visibility, how colors and saturation shift in the distance, and the depiction of mountains, hills, rocks… well, Rockstar nails it perfectly. No knock on the WD2 effort, which probably didn't cost $200M to develop. <br /><br />HOWEVER, jesus, speaking of Ubisofting, Trevor's submarine mission to get all the toxic waste, and AGAIN with Michael and a dinghy to search for sunken submarine pieces, this is just a tremendous amount of time-wasting, un-fun, exasperating tedium. I remember thinking "NEVER AGAIN" when I did the 360 version, and I should have kept to that; instead, I'm kinda looking at that Platinum Trophy and thinking, I like this game well enough that I want a full-completion, and that little OCD demon is sitting on my shoulder, nodding.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=556040" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:555842anime2017-05-24T23:42:55Z2017-05-24T23:42:55Zpublic0I have a soft spot for '70s-'90s anime, and love the character/mecha designs and such, but anime seems to have increasingly crawled up its own ass in an ouroboros-like attempt to appeal to its already-overserved core audience. <br /><br />Urusei Yatsura or Ranma appeal to EVERYONE. Crayon Shinchan is funny to everyone. But girls whose legs turn into battleships, or an academy for lesbian witches begins from an intent which itself is highly suspect.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=555842" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:555668Weekend in Kyoto2017-05-21T23:43:45Z2017-05-21T23:57:52ZBeautiful World - Devopublic0 Beautiful World by Devo just came on, and I felt compelled to post in that LJ way, which is now the Dreamwidth way, and that's way good. <br /><br />"Makes me want to say, 'It's a beautiful world!' for you, for you, for you! It's not for me!"<br /><br />Had a fantastic weekend out with a friend who is leaving for Tokyo soon, and another who lives in Tokyo but came down for BitSummit 5. So many inspiring people and experiences there. Stayed at 9 Hours again, for the win. It wasn't as cheap as previous times, but still a clean and relaxed environment to crash at. <br /><br />Here's an answer I recently posted on Quora about working in Japan:<br /><p>It’s rough. I worked in US game development for 8 years at five companies, and then over 10 more years in Japan at one company, before returning to US game development. From nearly every angle, developing in America is more rewarding than in Japan.</p><p>The salary is lower in Japan. I took at 15% pay cut from my US Art Director salary to take a corporate Director position. Some friends have taken closer to 50% pay cuts when joining a Japanese developer.</p><p>The hours are consistently longer in Japan. In 20 years, I’ve worked crunchtime in a number of companies; Japan demands more. A non-crunch workweek was ~50 hours but, prior to delivering builds, 60–65 hours was common, and we would be in 70~80 hours a week across 7-day-weeks for the last several months of any project.</p><p>Consideration from the company for the individual is largely unheard of in Japanese dev. It is culturally normal to see one’s efforts as part of the group’s, and this mentality of course carries into the workplace. It is critical to get tacit approval from superiors, because one is making a decision for the company as a whole, not just on one’s own responsibility.</p><p>On the positive side, my Japanese teammates were consistently hard working, diligent, faithful, and consistent. They would deliver on promises consistently, and largely communicated well when things were not going as planned. As a manager, I never felt left in the lurch. </p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=555668" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-11:3028098:554934sad about HPL's mistreated legacy2017-04-25T23:47:29Z2017-04-25T23:47:29Zpublic2I have rarely been more disappointed in a movie than Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom. I learned afterwards that it is based on a comic book, which has a significantly different art style. The movie clearly wants to be similar to a Laika film in its character depiction. The designs are very similarly proportioned, the shots' framing are sometimes similar, and the general tone is clearly aping Laika. However, I've seen Laika films, I know Laika films, and this is no Laika film. The entire movie looks like it is made from the pre-viz work that would go into a real movie. The lighting, textures, pacing, editing, etc. are all waiting for an editor to have their way with them before being passed to the people who will film the actual content. <br /><br />My first thought was that it was older. We've all gone back and watched the original Toy Story and been shocked at the image quality – how it seemed amazing at the time, and now it's just weak sauce. So I figured this Frozen Kingdom maybe had been made in 2010 or 2005 – that might have explained it. – Nope, it's a 2016 film. Or at least that's when it was released… maybe the initial work was done much earlier, and it was shelved while waiting for a release?<br /><br />It just feels like I got suckered in. The cast has Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, and Jane Curtain. It seemed like it would be a legitimate production! <br /><br />It was not.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chronovore&ditemid=554934" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments