Band of Brothers: a TV "drama" (I don't want to associate it with any of the bad things "dramas" generally exhibit) war thing about Easy Company of the US military in WWII. I'm gonna keep this brief, because frankly you should just go watch it.
Acting's pretty terrific, quite simply. Cinematography is sharp, without any ostentatious, stupid flourishes that take away from what's goin' on. Written by Tom Hanks and Erik Jendresen, using interviews with members of Easy Company for reference. Produced/developed by Tom Hanks, that Erik kid, and Steven Spielberg; take note, Hanks and Spielberg were the ones heading Saving Private Ryan. That said, you can guess it's pretty awesome. It's got that WWII-movie color scheme (ya know, brown/green/gray-blue/black, and just about nothing else), but it isn't too overbearing compared to most productions suffering the same effect, and frankly, it works. Also, every episode's accompanied by interviews of Easy Comp's members. It's just... Just really cool. And educational (check this out: it's TV, but IT'S HISTORICALLY ACCURATE!)
Yeah. Band of Brothers. Watch it.
http://www.hbo.com/band-of-brothers#/
Monday, May 26, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Film Review #34: Prison Break (TV show)
NOTE: these are my FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
So. When I first see this, I'm like, OK, this might be almost OK. Basically, it's about a guy who sends himself to prison so he can jailbreak his supposedly innocent brother, and there's also some conspiracy or something.
Now, why it sucks (because it does):
The acting is just awful, and the show takes itself SO SERIOUSLY, ALL THE TIME. Film makers, take note:
YOU DON'T NEED GODDAMN SUPER-SERIOUS SPY MUSIC FOR EVERY GODDAMN SECOND OF YOUR FILM, ESPECIALLY WHEN MOST OF THE GODDAMN FILM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME GODDAMN SUPER-INTENSE CONSPIRACY OR SOME SHIT.
Sorry, but I've had enough of these people. Just cool off and realize that a film can't maintain a consistent mood and still be good. People may change the on-screen events, but if they don't change the music to correspond, it turns awkward, disengaging, and just bad. Who gave you the goddamn budget?
Also, main character has the annoying super-serious-white-guy-who's-two-steps-ahead look on his face, ALL THE TIME. It legitimately doesn't change.
This was just the pilot, so I can't speak for the rest of the show, but hey, FIRST IMPRESSIONS. The basic plot stands a fighting chance, almost. Nonetheless: it's not very good. Be warned.
So. When I first see this, I'm like, OK, this might be almost OK. Basically, it's about a guy who sends himself to prison so he can jailbreak his supposedly innocent brother, and there's also some conspiracy or something.
Now, why it sucks (because it does):
The acting is just awful, and the show takes itself SO SERIOUSLY, ALL THE TIME. Film makers, take note:
YOU DON'T NEED GODDAMN SUPER-SERIOUS SPY MUSIC FOR EVERY GODDAMN SECOND OF YOUR FILM, ESPECIALLY WHEN MOST OF THE GODDAMN FILM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME GODDAMN SUPER-INTENSE CONSPIRACY OR SOME SHIT.
Sorry, but I've had enough of these people. Just cool off and realize that a film can't maintain a consistent mood and still be good. People may change the on-screen events, but if they don't change the music to correspond, it turns awkward, disengaging, and just bad. Who gave you the goddamn budget?
Also, main character has the annoying super-serious-white-guy-who's-two-steps-ahead look on his face, ALL THE TIME. It legitimately doesn't change.
This was just the pilot, so I can't speak for the rest of the show, but hey, FIRST IMPRESSIONS. The basic plot stands a fighting chance, almost. Nonetheless: it's not very good. Be warned.
Film Review #33: Gang Beasts (game)
Gang Beasts is simply the greatest game of all time.
I mean, almost. Sub Rosa's neck-n-neck, probably winning, but Gang Beasts, man... I dunno... it's close. Only time will tell.
So. Gang Beasts is a shared-screen-multiplayer melee game. Brawl. Whatever. Basically, up to 4 players on the same computer (using separate controllers, keys, etc.; controls are customizable, you see) go and duke it out as four colorful little bean-bag people (maybe potato-sack, maybe jello ... it's personal perception) who beat the living shit out of one another and try to throw eachother off the map (or truck, or gondola, or train platform). It's a free-for-all, simply batshit insane.
COMBAT:
One key element to this game's wonderful, glorious flow is its simplicity. There aren't power-ups, unlocks, or any of that crap. Movement is basically walking in different directions, jumping, "crouching" (I'll rave about that later), punching/grabbing, and raising your arms to lift stuff up. Plus "gesturing", which is just sticking your arms in the air in a demonstration of your awesomeness (generally after KOing someone off a Ferris Wheel, or something like that).
In terms of HUD, there is:
-the numbers in different colors representing the number of lives for each player on the current map
(top of the screen)
- the health (green) and grip (blue) bars for each player
(above the corresponding character's head).
About these: they recharge. The health bar is... well... the health bar. The grip bar (as I call it, anyway) is the strength of one's grip on whatever one is holding. It decreases as a grab is maintained on something; as it gets lower the grab is more susceptible to breaking due to jolts, weight, etc.
Basically, the process of defeating someone goes like this:
1. KO them. Solid headshots can knock people briefly (a couple seconds) unconscious (basically they can't do anything until they wake up), while getting someone's health all the way down by punching them, making them REALLY fall on their head, etc. will KO them for longer (30 seconds? I dunno).
2. Pick them up. The grab buttons are just the attack buttons for each of the hands, held down. So, if you hold down your left attack key, your left arm will grab the next thing it comes in contact with/near. Anyway, ya go up to the unconscious target, hold down your grab keys so your guy grabs the target, and then hit the lift key. Thus, YOU LIFT THEM UP!
3. THROW 'EM OUT. Yep. Just run to the edge of whatever death-distributing abyss the map presents you with, and let 'em fall. Swinging them around, etc. helps. You're done! :D CONGRATULATIONS, you've just THROWN SOMEONE IN FRONT OF A TRAIN! YAAAY
I'm gonna stop going into detail and just say the game is a ton of fun with a few good friends. The characters are all physics-based, the maps are dynamic and diverse, and the music corresponds to the maps. There are also some levels with NPCs if you feel like teaming up on some helpless but angry purple people, plus a pink behemoth. If you have extra computer-viable controllers lying around, get the game. It's FREE for ALL COMPUTER PLATFORMS (I think; YOU can check that)! IT'S SO GREAT! Get it NOOOOWWWW.
some BEA-UUUUUUtiful gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7S2VShmyFI
I mean, almost. Sub Rosa's neck-n-neck, probably winning, but Gang Beasts, man... I dunno... it's close. Only time will tell.
So. Gang Beasts is a shared-screen-multiplayer melee game. Brawl. Whatever. Basically, up to 4 players on the same computer (using separate controllers, keys, etc.; controls are customizable, you see) go and duke it out as four colorful little bean-bag people (maybe potato-sack, maybe jello ... it's personal perception) who beat the living shit out of one another and try to throw eachother off the map (or truck, or gondola, or train platform). It's a free-for-all, simply batshit insane.
COMBAT:
One key element to this game's wonderful, glorious flow is its simplicity. There aren't power-ups, unlocks, or any of that crap. Movement is basically walking in different directions, jumping, "crouching" (I'll rave about that later), punching/grabbing, and raising your arms to lift stuff up. Plus "gesturing", which is just sticking your arms in the air in a demonstration of your awesomeness (generally after KOing someone off a Ferris Wheel, or something like that).
In terms of HUD, there is:
-the numbers in different colors representing the number of lives for each player on the current map
(top of the screen)
- the health (green) and grip (blue) bars for each player
(above the corresponding character's head).
About these: they recharge. The health bar is... well... the health bar. The grip bar (as I call it, anyway) is the strength of one's grip on whatever one is holding. It decreases as a grab is maintained on something; as it gets lower the grab is more susceptible to breaking due to jolts, weight, etc.
Basically, the process of defeating someone goes like this:
1. KO them. Solid headshots can knock people briefly (a couple seconds) unconscious (basically they can't do anything until they wake up), while getting someone's health all the way down by punching them, making them REALLY fall on their head, etc. will KO them for longer (30 seconds? I dunno).
2. Pick them up. The grab buttons are just the attack buttons for each of the hands, held down. So, if you hold down your left attack key, your left arm will grab the next thing it comes in contact with/near. Anyway, ya go up to the unconscious target, hold down your grab keys so your guy grabs the target, and then hit the lift key. Thus, YOU LIFT THEM UP!
3. THROW 'EM OUT. Yep. Just run to the edge of whatever death-distributing abyss the map presents you with, and let 'em fall. Swinging them around, etc. helps. You're done! :D CONGRATULATIONS, you've just THROWN SOMEONE IN FRONT OF A TRAIN! YAAAY
I'm gonna stop going into detail and just say the game is a ton of fun with a few good friends. The characters are all physics-based, the maps are dynamic and diverse, and the music corresponds to the maps. There are also some levels with NPCs if you feel like teaming up on some helpless but angry purple people, plus a pink behemoth. If you have extra computer-viable controllers lying around, get the game. It's FREE for ALL COMPUTER PLATFORMS (I think; YOU can check that)! IT'S SO GREAT! Get it NOOOOWWWW.
some BEA-UUUUUUtiful gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7S2VShmyFI
Saturday, May 10, 2014
time for an UPDATE!
So, what has been done over the past week:
in the FIRST-WORLD-PROBLEMS game (now called "Amature"):
-Complete rework of vehicle control/physics for optimization
-Complete rework of police AI
-Heli physics fixed
-Fire improved
-Car added, textured, etc., destruction WIP
-AI can now judge if it needs a vehicle to reach its target, and can enter/use/exit vehicles
-Vehicles have different seats that AI will enter; when occupancy is full nobody can enter
-Vehicle/AI death synced (if vehicle dies, occupants die; if driver dies, vehicle goes "off")
-Yolo (I forgot what else)
OTHER STUFF:
-making a rigged Alpaca (dynamic hair, armature rigging, some nice textures/materials, etc)
As for the FILM:
I figure I'll make a semi-trailer-esque/story-thing for the game. Ya know, just a weird little thing with a primitive story, probably following the one discussed in the previous post about this stuff. I want to put the Alpaca in there too; no, it's not going to be very sane.
Now, GAME SCREENSHOTS! :D
in the FIRST-WORLD-PROBLEMS game (now called "Amature"):
-Complete rework of vehicle control/physics for optimization
-Complete rework of police AI
-Heli physics fixed
-Fire improved
-Car added, textured, etc., destruction WIP
-AI can now judge if it needs a vehicle to reach its target, and can enter/use/exit vehicles
-Vehicles have different seats that AI will enter; when occupancy is full nobody can enter
-Vehicle/AI death synced (if vehicle dies, occupants die; if driver dies, vehicle goes "off")
-Yolo (I forgot what else)
OTHER STUFF:
-making a rigged Alpaca (dynamic hair, armature rigging, some nice textures/materials, etc)
I figure I'll make a semi-trailer-esque/story-thing for the game. Ya know, just a weird little thing with a primitive story, probably following the one discussed in the previous post about this stuff. I want to put the Alpaca in there too; no, it's not going to be very sane.
Now, GAME SCREENSHOTS! :D
Monday, May 5, 2014
Movie project!
Welp. I got 2 ideas.
1. Childhood
a pretty short, psychedelic/arsty-fied tale of a certain kids, from birth to early childhood to early death around 17, doing something really stupid. Super-stylized, fast-paced, diverse color scheme, darker, contrasted lighting. Song would be something like the first part of the song Never/Ever by the Black Angels, up to about the middle of the absolutely chaotic part.
2. Fajitas (I don't know. WORKING TITLE.)
a slightly-less-short-but-still-really-short film about an attempted and horrendously failed robbery by inexperienced, desperate people. Animated, again, w/ minimal dialogue, though far less stylized; just CG-looking/stylized. They rob something (a store, or a bank; I dunno) and make a getaway, but the cops are faster. Turns into a really ugly car chase; one of the two robbers is bent on not getting caught to a dangerous degree. This means some attempts to take out cops. At one point, while he's driving, they, I dunno, run over a police officer; the other robber is having second thoughts about his partner-in-crime. Ends with the questionable death of one or both.
1. Childhood
a pretty short, psychedelic/arsty-fied tale of a certain kids, from birth to early childhood to early death around 17, doing something really stupid. Super-stylized, fast-paced, diverse color scheme, darker, contrasted lighting. Song would be something like the first part of the song Never/Ever by the Black Angels, up to about the middle of the absolutely chaotic part.
2. Fajitas (I don't know. WORKING TITLE.)
a slightly-less-short-but-still-really-short film about an attempted and horrendously failed robbery by inexperienced, desperate people. Animated, again, w/ minimal dialogue, though far less stylized; just CG-looking/stylized. They rob something (a store, or a bank; I dunno) and make a getaway, but the cops are faster. Turns into a really ugly car chase; one of the two robbers is bent on not getting caught to a dangerous degree. This means some attempts to take out cops. At one point, while he's driving, they, I dunno, run over a police officer; the other robber is having second thoughts about his partner-in-crime. Ends with the questionable death of one or both.
First World Problems: the game
This is probably a working title. Anyway, game about stealing things not-so-stealthily, and then running like hell. WIP.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
UPDATE: other projects
I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been pretty occupied. Over the last ~two weeks I've:
-made about twenty poster iterations for the Learning Center
-made the Okland's Got Talent intro vid, now on its YouTube site
-made some OGT animated sparkly-star-things
-made a procedural generator for increasingly insane textures for the Yearbook (not in use, though; not note-booky enough)
-began building/expanding my online portfolio, and looking for internships
(a wee bit here: http://troglodytic-productions.blogspot.com/ (mostly placeholder, just to get stuff up quick))
Also, I've been working on GAMES! YAAAAY! So:
I Gave Idiots Swords: continued work on improved spawning; not much else
new game, First World Problems: about robbing stores and getting away with it, though it seems the country has determined you a domestic threat for whatever reason, so, no, it's not gonna be easy.
FEATURES:
-Massive world generation, including elevation/hills, cities, and interconnecting highways (still very WIP)
-Large array of vehicles (as of now, a small heli, a Bell UH1 Huey, a BMW 507, a 1970 Chevy Camaro, a 1957 Maserati 450s Bazooka, and more to come. Note, all are custom modeled to extremely low-poly but accurate forms, as these are, in fact, real cars. Yes, even the Bazooka.)
-Vehicle PHYSICS-- accurate joystick control for helis, nice traction for cars, etc.
-Pretty much all of Hella Jank's features, as I used the character setup from said game as a template
There's more, and a helluva lot more to come, but accurate road generation, in short, is a very messy business. Lots of ugly math.
A note on the simplicity of it: I'm keeping it minimal because I want anyone to be able to run it. This shouldn't be a high-performance game; if you want more particles, nicer graphics, etc., it's doable, but there should always be the option for people without supercomputers. The meshes are all low-poly; the textures are all low-res and often recycled; the code is efficient. The map generator itself can run on repeat every frame without breaking 60fps, simply because it's not necessary. I might amp up the hill detail on the maps, but right now there are some problems with hill navigation for roads, so that's gonna need to be worked out first.
PHOTOS! (from First World Problems)
-made about twenty poster iterations for the Learning Center
-made the Okland's Got Talent intro vid, now on its YouTube site
-made some OGT animated sparkly-star-things
-made a procedural generator for increasingly insane textures for the Yearbook (not in use, though; not note-booky enough)
-began building/expanding my online portfolio, and looking for internships
(a wee bit here: http://troglodytic-productions.blogspot.com/ (mostly placeholder, just to get stuff up quick))
Also, I've been working on GAMES! YAAAAY! So:
I Gave Idiots Swords: continued work on improved spawning; not much else
new game, First World Problems: about robbing stores and getting away with it, though it seems the country has determined you a domestic threat for whatever reason, so, no, it's not gonna be easy.
FEATURES:
-Massive world generation, including elevation/hills, cities, and interconnecting highways (still very WIP)
-Large array of vehicles (as of now, a small heli, a Bell UH1 Huey, a BMW 507, a 1970 Chevy Camaro, a 1957 Maserati 450s Bazooka, and more to come. Note, all are custom modeled to extremely low-poly but accurate forms, as these are, in fact, real cars. Yes, even the Bazooka.)
-Vehicle PHYSICS-- accurate joystick control for helis, nice traction for cars, etc.
-Pretty much all of Hella Jank's features, as I used the character setup from said game as a template
There's more, and a helluva lot more to come, but accurate road generation, in short, is a very messy business. Lots of ugly math.
A note on the simplicity of it: I'm keeping it minimal because I want anyone to be able to run it. This shouldn't be a high-performance game; if you want more particles, nicer graphics, etc., it's doable, but there should always be the option for people without supercomputers. The meshes are all low-poly; the textures are all low-res and often recycled; the code is efficient. The map generator itself can run on repeat every frame without breaking 60fps, simply because it's not necessary. I might amp up the hill detail on the maps, but right now there are some problems with hill navigation for roads, so that's gonna need to be worked out first.
PHOTOS! (from First World Problems)
As I said, very, VERY work in progress.
BMW 507, Maserati Bazooka, 1970 Camaro, Bell UH1 Huey. Untextured here.
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