maian1

I'm leaning towards 0. Even the people who have been mixed-to-positive about the game haven't really talked about it in GOTY terms, especially since the general arc of the reception for that game seems to be that people like it less and less the further they get in, so even people who may have said it was okay at the time seem to have turned on it since. I would be surprised if it crept into anyone's top ten considering the competition.

I’ve been playing on Switch but only have a few friends who are playing it, so here’s my friend code

SW-4209-8151-7425

I kind of assumed that Grubb would be coming on board when he announced he was leaving Games Beat and was really excited at that prospect, but adding in Dan, Tam and Lucy is extremely cool. I'm nervous and excited to see where the site goes from here, especially with this smart, funny crew. It obviously won't be the same without Gerstmann, but here's hoping it becomes an exciting new thing.

Anyone else checked in with the game after the recent update? I played a bit over the weekend after having not touched it since probably March and was really impressed with what they've added - lots of new characters and weapons, a bunch of new levels with different enemies, a card based arcana system, and a merchant that you can unlock so that he appears in all the levels and sells you items.

They haven't done anything to massively overhaul the basic mechanics of the game, but rather augment them, which seems the right choice considering how solid and fun that basic loop has been from the beginning.

The only change that feels like a negative to me is that they have over-corrected by making it so that all hidden items on each level have arrows pointing to them from the beginning. Whereas the previous approach of telling the player nothing was probably too obtuse, and the middle ground of giving you a map indicating where things are felt like the right balance, now it feels like you get way too much information. That might just be me and my preference for wandering around and stumbling on things rather than having a constant waypoint, though.

The Rock

Despite growing up in the '90s and watching most of the big Bruckheimer-produced movies that came out during that time, mostly on TV because I was too young to watch them in the cinema, I'd somehow never seen this one, arguably the best film to come out of that run. I think it hits the sweet spot for Michael Bay since he's got enough of a budget to make the film feel truly big and sweeping, but not so big that his style can go to the excesses that it would from Armageddon onwards. It's restrained, relatively speaking, and it takes its time setting things up before Connery and Cage get to the titular Rock, but Bay's style really shines through in his expressive camera moves and broad sense of humour. As such it feels very much in keeping with the kind of tight, action-thrillers of the era while also being distinctive and brash in a way that sets it apart. You can easily see why Bay would go on to, for better or worse, redefine Hollywood action for the next decade. Also, wow, one hell of cast! So many great character actors in small but memorable roles. (4/5)

Trivia and Seagull Cinema are my favourite minigames in Like a Dragon, the former because I like getting to learn esoteric things like what agencies in Japan are in charge of gas stations, the latter because of the rapid fire nature of the rhythm game element combined with the sheer weirdness of the idea.

I caught up on a few notable recent movies over the weekend:

Everything Everywhere All at Once

For the first hour or so I was enjoying this but felt like it was all very slight. Inventive, absolutely, and very funny, but it seemed to be glancing at deeper themes without really engaging with them. Then it really steered hard into exploring them in the second half and everything clicked for me. I really loved how Daniels handled the set-up/pay-off structure of taking things which seemed like throwaway gags in the first half and then imbuing them with a real emotionality and warmth in the second, ultimately making for a film which is extremely entertaining throughout and ultimately very cathartic. (4.5/5)

Ambulance

A pretty distilled version of Michael Bay since the need for constant movement prevents it from getting bogged down in anything other than action and the central dynamic between the characters in the ambulance. The way that drones are used in this movie is really exhilarating and inventive, closer to the kind of personality-filled camerawork of Sam Raimi than just a quotidian replacement for helicopters. It is probably a touch too long for the story being told so it runs out of energy in the second half (basically any time the characters get out of the ambulance) but it's a ton of fun. (4/5)

The Northman

Greatly appreciated the scope and ambition, this is magnitudes bigger than anything Eggers has done before and it's cool that he didn't lose his focus on small details, since all the rituals and customs he deploys in this lend an air of authenticity and specificity to the world. That being said, it is a mythic tale and so it's a little hard to engage emotionally with anything the characters do, with the only really human moment coming towards the end when Skarsgard's character has to choose between two possible actions. Lots to admire, and the middle section of the film when Skarsgard is slowly unfurling his revenge against Claes Bang is fun, but not as engaging overall as I hoped. (3/5)

I started playing it a few days ago and have really been loving it so far. I felt like I had to post about the funniest case of "oh, that's what that is for" that I've had so far, which is that I got to the very end of the Quarry before realizing that I had the gas mask and so could have avoided all the life-sapping effects. Fighting through most of the level with basically 0 health made for a pretty tough time, but I couldn't help but laugh at the end when I figured out how much harder I had made that section of the game for myself.

Revolver: I've been morbidly curious about this Guy Ritchie film for years, largely because it was torn to shreds upon release and (along with Swept Away) seemed like it would kill his career, but also because I've got several friends who really, really liked it at the time and I was excited to see if I would agree with them on it versus the critical consensus.

Well, I didn't. This film is pretty terrible. Superficially similar to the kinetic crime dramas that made Ritchie's name, it's shot through with heady musings on the nature of ego and numerology, drawing heavily on his interest in Kabbalah at the time, giving the film a pseudo-intellectual sheen that never really amounts to anything. The action is mostly pretty bad and some of the casting is bizarre (Ray Liotta plays a crime lord but his dialogue was clearly written for an English actor, so there's little turns of phrase that sound totally wrong coming from him), though the worst thing about it is the sense of ponderous seriousness applied to a story which is pretty straightforward. It really feels like Ritchie is straining to be taken seriously and demonstrating at every turn that he's not deep or talented enough to carry it off.

That all being said, it's probably the most fascinating film of his career. The film is a spectacular misfire on every level, but compared to pretty much everything else he's made, it's really ambitious and strange. Even if that ambition is wildly misguided and misplaced, it's hard not to be impressed at how big of a gamble he took with the film. Plus, it's got some solid performances from Jason Statham, Andre 3000 and Mark Strong which are almost worth it. Not quite, but almost. (2/5)

Started Yakuza: Like a Dragon after playing through the other games in the series and the two Judgment games and I’m having a blast. The switch to turn-based RPG combat works really well and does feel like a breath of fresh air for the series. Not that I hated the combat in the other games, but after nine games that are variations and refinements on the same mechanics it feels so good to get something different.

I also really like Ichiban, who’s such a lovable goof and tremendously endearing. I’m still relatively early in proceedings (around five hours) but I’m so excited to see where the story ends up.