It also took me a while to finally check out the new Vice series on HBO, and after having watched the first 3 episodes, I’m in, just like I’ve long been a fan of the VBS.tv stuff. Sure, it’s easy to criticize them by saying that they’re doing stunt reporting, but the stuff you see here is not being shown anywhere, and it’s stuff that everyone should be seeing. Not all of the reports are gold, but the ones that are can’t be missed.
Took me a while to finally check out this series, and after watching the first episode, I’m glad I did. Of course, it’s too early to tell if the series will be great or not, but that first episode shows a lot of promise, with some interesting characters, a cool setting — I do like period shows — and some intrigue thrown in. I’ll certainly give it a few more episodes.
I’m a huge fan of anything Luis C.K. is involved in. From his comedy specials, the show Louie, hell, even the old Lucky Louie sitcom he did for HBO years back, I love it all (yes, even Pootie Tang). But I must say that I didn’t really get into Oh My God until the second half — around the part where he starts on his riff about tits. From then on it was gold, but I still didn’t find myself laughing like I usually do. Doesn’t change that I can’t wait for the next season of Louie.
For a movie in which I could barely understand what was going on, I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed Upstream Color. Despite the incredibly abstract storytelling on display, I was still sucked in thanks to the brilliant cinematography, music, and general atmosphere. I didn’t mind hazily following these characters, maybe realizing what they were going through, but not quite sure. A second viewing is probably in order. I should probably mention that this is by the same person behind Primer.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this. I’ve grown quite tired of the puzzle platform genre, and the screenshots I had seen were far from interesting, but since so many people were saying good things about it I decided to pick it up — it was cheap through PlayStation Plus — and I’m glad I did. It looks much better in motion, and I love the narration that goes with it, making you “feel” something about these shapes you’re moving around. It’s a cross-buy game, but so far I’ve only played it on Vita, and it’s a lot of fun.
I’ve just played a tiny bit of this — you’ll remember it as one of the first big Kickstarter successes — but it’s looking good so far. To me it feels like a lighter version of FTL, but a friend who has played much more says that it does feel different. Nice aesthetics too. I just hope that the micro-management of the crew doesn’t become a pain.
Talisman is one of my favorite board games of all time — it’s not the best game, but it’s a classic — and I was pretty excited at the prospect of being able to play it on iOS (it’s been released on PC too). They’re calling this version — available for $5 — “Prologue,” and what that means is that it doesn’t include multiplayer yet. You’d think this would suck, but I really love how they’ve made it fun to play this solo — you are given quests to achieve, while playing the game normally. It’s tons of fun, and I just wish it would sync between the iPhone and iPad version (you unlock new quests and new characters as you play).
I sure am having a good time playing this. Sure, it doesn’t include that incredible catchy Erasure tune from the first one, but this is a much better game, with cool customization options, including a few music upgrades (one of them is Cory Hart’s “Never Surrender”). But to be honest, I’ve taken a liking to the song that comes with the game, it really grows on you. It’s also great that it syncs between your iPhone and iPad automatically, so whichever device you are playing on, you have all the upgrades you unlocked. All universal games really need to be doing this.
Continuing with the new anime shows I’ve been checking out, I’ve also watched the first two episodes of Suisei no Garugantia (Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet). At first I wasn’t digging the character designs — a bit too cutesy for my taste — but I was in the mood to watch something that is sci-fi opera-ish, and I like the setting for this. Humans thought Earth was no longer habitable, but someone uncovers by accident that there is civilization there again, albeit living on barges over the ocean. I’ll give it a few more episodes. Production I.G is behind this, as well as Attack on Titan, although both shows have very different looks.
As I wrote the other day, I’ve been sampling a few new anime series, and have watched the first two episodes of Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). I’m really liking this so far, mostly because of the mesmerizing sight of giants who invade human cities (previously protected by towering walls, the giants have found ways to get through). So far we’re just thrust into this world and don’t really know who these giants are and why they invade and eat humans, but I want to know more. And I’m digging the equipment they carry around to fight the giants — it’s just been teased in the opening of the first episode, and looked really exciting.
