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 On 08/03/2017 at 03:41 PM by Super Step See More From This User » |
I started typing about my adventures in NOLA (first time going for me) in celebration of our friend Shawna's birthday, but realized it would be better with pictures/video, and I'm not in the mood to get it all off my phone right now. Since we weren't allowed to take pictures in there anyway, I'll just mention a metal bar called The Dungeon was one of my favorite places. Mainly because I liked the music and it was a quiet enough place to sit on Bourbon Street at 3 a.m.
Anyway, I played through every character's arcade mode on Mortal Kombat XL recently while listening to every Slipknot record and three Stone Sour records via Playstation Spotify. I think Iowa, Volume 3, and Chapter 5 are my favorites from Slipknot, with the self-titled not quite realizing the tight songwriting potential realized on Iowa, and All Hope is Gone having some great singles, but also a bit incoherent when it comes to album structure.
As for Stone Sour, the self-titled has some good singles like "Bother" and "Inhale," but it's a bit of a grungy slog for me. Come What (Ever) May was a big improvement in terms of hooks imo, and Audio Secrecy is easily my favorite so far, because it fully embraces the melodic side of Stone Sour. I'm wondering if it wasn't written when Corey Taylor was falling in love? "Say You'll Haunt Me" is still probably my favorite Stone Sour song. I've still been playing Hydrograd non-stop in my car, so it's just House of Gold and Bones Parts I & II left. What towers should I play while I listen to those?
I've also been playing Yakuza Zero from GameFly. I think I'll end my subscription this week, since I have to start lesson planning soon, and it's distracting me from finishing games I already own. However, I am really digging Yakuza Zero. I like that my character has a moral backbone of some kind, despite yakuza not being the most savory characters. I really like all the extra minigames like bowling and pool, and am trying to start friendships with Emile and Mino. I was joking on Facebook I'd make a terrible ex-yakuza detective, cause I'd be too distracted by dance-offs!
I do enjoy the combat and main storyline a lot though. The sidequests and main story both have zany, Japanese humor (included some pot shots at "yankis") mixed with serious crime drama, and I'm eager to learn some of the new combat styles, even if it is a bit repetitive.
If I'm not mistaken, this game was reworked from a PS2 title, or at least kinda looks like it was, given the character models. Then again, Sega always uses these blocky, somewhat textureless character models for humans in-game, so who knows. The cinematics look pretty good at least, and it's serviceable as a least a PS3 game in-game, plus it's fun. Heck, I could just spend all my time in the game playing OutRun and Space Harrier.
Finally, here's a ranked list of summer movies 2017 from me, personally. I'm seeing Atomic Blonde this weekend along with War for the Planet of the Apes at some point, so I'll let you know how that goes.
1. Wonder Woman (June)
2. Baby Driver (Late June; July for me)
3. GotG 2 (May)
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming (July)
5. Dunkirk (July)
That's actually fewer movies than I thought I saw this summer.
Anyway, Wonder Woman was just such a breath of fresh air for the DCEU and such a fun movie. My favorite Marvel standalones tend to be Captain America movies, and while WW had its own unique style and storytelling, it reminded me most of those. Plus, I loved the message of how there's not really one specific bad guy, we're all to blame, and the last third actually worked for me, personally. As did everything about Gal Gadot.
Baby Driver was a breath of fresh air by way of being a new IP. I'm not the biggest Edgar Wright fan, or at least not as much of one as my friends. I love Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim has a cool look, but I think Shaun of the Dead and At World's End are kinda meh. But while it's not an original story by any stretch, I dug the characters, soundtrack, and especially the action and stun choreography that let me feel the scenes a lot more than cheap shaky-cam would have. I liked some of the character twists at the end to boot.
GotG 2 for me was actually a bit better than the first in some ways, though I still prefer the soundtrack to the first. I was less bothered the second time I saw it (with family on July 4) by how obvious they were with trying to sell Groot toys, and some of the songs kind of grew on me. It's not as big a surprise as the original, and it probably couldn't match that magic, but I actually enjoyed the character building and dug the villain. The two movies are about equal for me, really.
Homecoming was ok. I really liked the actors, especially Keaton as ... well, I actually preferred him as Keaton to any scene he had the Vulture armor, but I liked the motivation they gave him. But I have some big issues with the movie as well. As someone who didn't hate the first two movie interpretations (in fact Amazing 2 is my favorite BECAUSE of how stupid it is, plus the romance; sue me, I like the romance element in these movies and some goofiness in my Spidey), I was honestly kind of annoyed at how it felt less like a Spider-Man movie and more like an Iron Man and friends featuring Peter Parker movie with as many times as they shoehorned Tony Stark in. I also felt the Tony Stark suit made it less of a Spider-Man movie, since way too much of the movie revolves around the suit.
It was fun and I had a good time, but the more I think about it, the more it bothers me it wasn't REALLY a standalone Spider-Man movie, at least not to me.
Dunkirk is a technical masterpiece, but I just couldn't get into the characters outside of the rescue boat to really latch on to anything emotionally. I'm sure it's different for English viewers for whom this is akin to our D-Day/Normandy Beach cinema, but while I never felt "bored," per se, it just lacked any real emotional oomph for me. I'm glad I saw it though. Some scenes were rightfully intense, and I at least admired everyone on screen.
As for TV, I'm going to try to finish The Flash and GLOW before the weekend is up. Well, GLOW anyway.
How has your summer been, Pixlbits? Ready for fall? I'm an educator, so I'm not! 
P.S.
I read Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut not long ago, and still intend to finish It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.
Wonder Woman was probably my favorite movie I saw this summer, too.
I played a little bit of Yakuza Zero with my brothers. Well, actually the only thing I did was go to the arcade, play Space Harrier, unlock Fantasy Zone, and talk with the cute flirty arcade lady a lot. That's all I cared to do.
I played more of the minigames and substory stuff as well. Mostly pool, bowling and karaoke/dance.
Slaughter House Five is a pretty impressive novel.
I spent so much time playing Out Run and Space Harrier. I was one of the few kids with a Sega Master system back in the day. Kind of a crappy system, but I played it nonetheless.
Seemed like it was alright. Not that I'd know.
I did like how I never felt lost despite the time travel.
Breakfast of Champions is good too.
I'd like to hear about Atomic Blonde. I wanted to see it, but I just didn't get to it.
I'll let you know how it is. I'm seeing it later today with an old friend.
Did you guys get to roam around the city or just French Quarter?
I'm not a big Slipknot fan but I like a couple of their songs. I've actually been thinking about getting Spotify. It would be a fun service to have to just discover new music. I'm still debating.
Good thing you mention that the recent Yakuza game is a remake of the PS2 game because that's the game I played for a bit, got stuck and never finished. Actually I might have lost interest and never finished. I'll add that on the game I should play again.
I haven't been to the movies this summer but the five you mentioned are the ones I do want to see. At this point I might as well wait for them to come out on video (again I have no idea what the current gen term is. Blu-Ray? Digitial?)
I still haven't cheked out GLOW. I do remember the old series, I like wrestling, and I like Alison Brie. You would think I would be all over this show.
Mostly stuck to French Quarter and Bourbon St.
If you have PS4, can just dl the free ap from PSN.
Actually, I think it's a prequel. I thought it was a remake cause presentation and style felt very PS2 to me. But I don't think it's the same game you played. The 4 chapters I played were either Kiryu trying to leave the yakuza and clear his adopted father's name by catching whoever the real killer is in a murder he (Kiryu) was framed in, or Majima trying to get back into the yakuza to ... Avenge something or other ... His brother killed like 18 yakuza or something and Majima was tortured by ... Forget name.
I think home video still works. Otherwise, everything seems to come out on Blu Ray DVD and digital in the same package now.
I have never seen the original show and heads up, it has wrestling but focuses way more on comedy and characters. All they've done as far as an actual wrestling show 6-7 eps in is a test audience in a ratty gym. It's not as good as OitNB for me, but it's decent.
It's been so long since I've played Yakuza that even if it was a remaster of the PS2 game it would still feel new to me.
The Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital packs are the movies I look for when looking through the baragain bin at Walmart. I just add the digital copy to my iTunes and then it lives on my laptop, while the physical version goes in a cabinet.
I'm the opposite when it comes to Dunkirk and Baby Driver. Dunkirk was intense for me start to finish (thanks to Hans Zimmer's score) and I really felt for some of the characters despite how little screen time they had.
Baby Driver was just okay for me. While I like some of the comedy and the soundtrack, the story seemed kind of cliche and the ending felt like they were really trying to force you to root for the main character (despite the fact that he downright killed a guy and, in turn, was kind of at fault for that one girl's death).
Baby Driver was a very cliche story done well, in my opinion. I agree he wasn't exactly a hero, but I was ok to go along with the movie's perspective, since the minute you're rooting for him, you're just rooting for a lesser evil character anyway, even before he kills anyone.
Dunkirk just really didn't work for me on that level, because while I connected with the people on the boat (the movie really should have just been about them, in my opinion), I only thought the Tom Hardy plane stuff was "kind of cool sometimes," and the captain (or general or whatever) on the beach was the only real heart seen there, with everyone else doing the stiff upper lip thing a bit too well for me to connect to them.
I think Dunkirk is a great movie, for sure. It just didn't work for me personally because of some of the decisions it made.
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