JsARCLIGHT

For those who wonder, the custom member titles are traditionally handed out by the staff to people who say really, really stupid things. You generally do not get a custom member title you want. You can say "I want the member title 'Macross World's Cool Dude" and we won't give it to you... but if we see you say something like "yeah, shemales rock" in a thread we'll label you "Shemale Rocker!". In other words a custom member title is indicative that the staff are paying extra attention to everything you type, looking for some way to make you look like an idiot. As for the default board member titles, they are legion... and they change based on your post count. When exactly they change is a matter of speculation (and part of the whole "mystery of the board"). It's fun to have fun.

Actually I've been thinking about this and I think I've figure out what bugs me about modern CG in movies... the "fake" cameras. Old school model movies used very restrictive camera motions in which you really only saw the models doing very simple things in very reserved, staid paths. This was more or less a limitation of the technology but it "balanced" the effects shots with the practical shots. You'd cut from a conventional camera shot with the actors to a conventional camera shot of the effect. Today CG has enabled directors to create their own worlds and scenes but it has also allowed directors to "take the camera off the dolly" and make some really outlandish shots. Many directors keep their "fake" cameras on a nice leash but some directors take it too far. They envision these totally freaked out camera paths and motions that they could not achieve practically and to a degree it's that element that really makes me step back and say "wow, this looks totally fake". There are just some CG shots in today's movies that would "sell" so much better had they had a more traditional camera move... but instead they have some crazy sweeping camera shot that just screams "this is an effects shot". Usually those shots are the 100% effect, zero practical ones... whereas the shots that are comped, that feature prominent real scale elements and actors, IMHO turn out the best. A movie that exemplifies this in my mind is Peter Jackson's King Kong... some shots that are obviously CG'ed / effects out the ass / exist only in a Mac G5 and look very good and others just look corny. Most of the time the effects shots that look corny to me are the ones that seem like the director said something like "wouldn't it be cool if we could like... take the camera and start it upside down, then move it to a top down shot, then track the hero along the edge, then move to a super low angle...". Yes it's "dynamic" and all, but a shot like that just hammers home the "fake" so much more to me.

When you think about it, comic book / cartoon Snake Eyes pretty much wears a form fitting black unitard with a balaclava... both fabric. Seeing his mouth was "believable" because his mask was more or less a soft form-fitting fabric... but when hollywood gets ahold of something like that it instantly becomes rubberized batman plastic. Because fabric isn't "cool looking" enough and the actors aren't nearly "buff" enough to get the muscular look wearing simple fabric. Hence movie Snake Eyes looks like Batman, sans bat ears. Except he has molded lips and Batman had molded nipples.

Large scale models are still used in the movie business, they just do a lot of post production and CG tweaking to them that people no longer can tell what is a physical model and what is CG these days. The LOTR movies used a lot of CG enhanced physical models as the base for their large sweeping building/scenery shots. One thing to keep in mind is that it' all about the "evil pyramid". The evil production pyramid is: You can have something be two of the three... cheap, fast or good. When it comes to effects shots, most of the time they have minimal time to perform them in. Which means they then either get by doing them cheap... or doing them good (and expensive). The expensive shots look... well, expensive. They look like someone spent a ton of time and money making the best possible shot they could make. But a lot of the time, especially in the television market, effects shots are not quite as polished or as produced as they are for multi hundred million dollar movies. To a good degree that is possibly where your complaint stems from: Budget. CG can and does match physical models in all areas... provided it is done to a good enough quality level. Just like a physical model, if you "rush" CG it looks like crap. It clashes and just looks "wrong" against your shot footage. At the same time if you rush building a miniature or model then it "looks like a model" and people will complain about "seeing the strings". I think the "fault" of CG is not that it is overused, but that people think they instantly "know" what is a CG effects shot, focus on it and then pick it apart. Some of the best CG effects shots in movies today go completely unnoticed. People really only pick up on the overt, the in your face pink dinosaur driving a cadillac effects shot. They hem and haw about how the dinosaur looks plasticy, how the cadillac looks like a toy and how it moves like a puppet on strings... the whole time they miss the fact that the entire city behind the car driving dinosaur is CG as well. And so is the sky... and that big patch of trees. Then again when you are talking about "realism" in CG you run the risk of entering the "uncanny valley", the place where something artificial looks so real yet it is missing that certain intangible, indescribable thing that would give it that final push into reality. I think that once the CG world figures out how to property push through the uncanny valley we will reach a point where CG and reality are completely indistinguishable... then again folks will always complain that they can "see the wires" no matter how good you make something.

Molotov Cocktease seems a little out of place amongst the Monarch and his henchmen... if she was part of their group she should have gone as Dr. Girlfriend instead... or one of them should have dressed up as Brock just to tie it all together better. It's kind of like everyone going as stormtroopers but one guy dresses up as Bib Fortuna. Admittedly the show is not really "girl cosplay friendly" but it's a totally obvious setup for the butterfly crew to have a Dr. Girlfriend. I myself prefer this becostumed duo:

Yes, that would be "Dr. Wife" sporting a new "Queen Monarch" suit. You also briefly see The Monarch in what appears to be his first costume sans cowl or crown (and he has Dean hair) as well as what appears to be Hamilton G. Fantamos getting zapped into Phantom Limb... I myself was stoked to see more Colonel Hunter Gatherers. Then again I'm a Hunter S Thompson nut.

For some reason I read it as "premiere". I've already seen the preview that had the OSI GI Joe send-up on it, I just thought he actually saw the whole episode somewhere.

Season 3 has had it's premiere already? All I've seen is the season three teaser and the season three convention clip reel.

I'm not so sure about that. GTA4 IMHO has had some pretty epic shoot outs. The whole Heat-esque "bank heist" mission was frantic from the word go. I will admit that the game has a level of "repetition" to the intermediate missions, but the "set piece" missions are usually quite unique and presented you with different game play choices. This is the first GTA game I've played that I've felt I was actively participating in the missions rather than being a step and fetch boy. I'm not a big fan of the super easy "go here, do this, done" mission strategy... I like it when the game throws you a curve ball every once in a while and makes you feel "smart" for "thinking outside of the box" to complete a mission.

In the "rules" of the show a clone only knows what it was programmed to know. The boys can be repeatedly cloned with minimal side effects because they routinely sleep in their "teaching beds" which read their minds every night and record all their memories. In order to be able to clone Jonas, he would have had to have recorded all his memories, which it is unclear and unlikely that he did... otherwise Dr. Venture would have found some way to cash in on it. As for the show being "not so complex as all that", I feel that it is. That is kind of why the show "works" on so many levels is that there is this dense underlying narrative to it all. Hammer and Public have shown they posess pretty good storytelling skills and they seem to enjoy planting the seeds of plot elements several episodes ahead of when they come to fruition. The show is rife with double entenre and hidden meanings. It's one of the few cartoons on the air right now that you can go back and re-watch a season and say to yourself "ooooooh, so THAT is what they meant by that" after seeing later episodes.

Wow... that was... wow... And there are actually times I wonder why I don't watch network TV anymore... then I see something like that. Wow... it makes me feel sad for them.

That's the allure of the Venture Brothers storytelling to me... what's "real"? What isn't? Is the boys supposed mother Myra, aka Powercat, actually their mother?... or is she just totally batshit crazy? As for the cloning angle, the story supports that Jonas Venture was working on cloning before he died and he told Mr. Brisby about it (hence his knowledge when he asks Dr. Venture to clone him). Dr. Venture's evasiveness about the cloning was probably in regard to his boys and not wanting the world to know he was a terrible father who killed his boys time and again. I have always assumed that Dr. Venture (then calling himself TS) found out about the cloning machine when he left college early to assume control of Venture Industries from his dead father. My guess is that Jonas actually got the cloning machine to work, but he never used it due to some moral dilemma (which Jonas has shown in the past with the loss of the TVC15 space ship, he left it down at the sea floor out of respect for Major Tom). TS, not having his father's ethics, probably rolled out the cloning machines when his kids got killed for the first time.

I have long believed that Dr. Venture was not cloned, mostly because that would kind of invalidate the underlying "theme" of the show, which is "failure". Dr. Venture's father Jonas is really the only character in the show who has had a resounding "success" in the things he did, albeit they came at a high cost. Jonas' "failure" was that he put his boy through so many traumatic events that he turned out warped, a pill popping manic hysterical who can't escape his father's shadow. It is also shown that Dr. Venture's main weakness is that he cuts corners a lot. I have always seen his cloning of the boys as the ultimate "corner cut". He doesn't have to be responsible or as skilled as his father Jonas was... if the boys die, they die... he just microwaves a new set and moves on like nothing happened. Which raises the question of why he keeps making clones? Dr. Venture obviously hates his own kids and seems to have little patience for them. Why doesn't he just let them "die"? I think it is because that would be yet another failure on his long and ever growing list that he is not willing to add. To acknowledge that his father was better than he was at everything is probably more than he can handle.

Welcome to HD... now you have inherited the same curse we all have. You will be tweaking and tweaking the settings on that thing until the end of time.

I finally got through the mission. It was more or less luck that I got through (hit the pay n' spray right when I lost my tails). I'm still having an incredibly hard time with the cover controls. I think it's because I'm trying to "do too much at once". I'm trying to move, aim, shoot and leave cover... or move and look while leaving cover.

The Doctor Girlfriend cliffhanger could be one of several things. They eluded to a multitude of possible issues she might be. Current internet speculation says that her declairation to The Monarch is going to be one of the following: I'm... - Pregnant. (The Monarch himself asked her earlier in Cremation Creek part 1 if "Phantom Limb left a little surprise in her oven") - A Man. (Brock goes on and on about it to both Phantom Limb and The Monarch in multiple episodes questioning her sexuality, as well as Billy Quizboy) - Starting her own Supervillain Setup. (She propositions Triana's Friend Kim to be her accomplice in the womens room during Victor Echo November and is shown in Fallen Arches to be actively trying to become an independent supervillain with her "Murderous Moppets", who make multiple appearances with her) - In love with Doctor Venture (a long shot but given her actions during Midlife Chrysalis and Dr. Venture's advances in Cremation Creek it could be possible) My money is on her being pregnant. That option sets them up for the most potential comedy story lines. Her being a man is too obvious and too "easy". She already has her own supervillan angle with her "Lady Au Pair" thing and the whole "I Love Doctor Venture" is just a bit too "out there" to follow through. Given how they handled the "cliffhanger" from season 1 to season 2 (using a little bit of every possible idea folks had about how things were going to "be") I kind of expect the same treatment.

The ancient statue's dialog was priceless in that scene. "Oooooooooohhhhh my arm came off!" (while getting beat in the groin with his own hand by Brock) "Ooooooooohhhhh! I'm sorry!"

Speaking of voice actors, the Venture Brothers rumor mill has it that Stephen Colbert will not be reprising his role as Professor Richard Impossible in the foreseeable future... so I guess they will either avoid any more stories with him, recast him with a different actor or a little from column A and column B. Then again there was another rumor that James Urbaniak (the voice of Dr. Venture) was leaving the show, which turned out to be false. If you listen to the commentaries on the two season DVD sets, as wandering and off-topic (and funny as hell) as they are, you actually get an insight into which characters might be featured heavily in seasons three and four based on which ones Doc Hammer and Jackson Public "like to write for". Then again they claim on the commentary for "escape to the house of mummies" that there is indeed a part one and it is an easter egg on the season two DVD set... but lord love a duck if I can't find it. They also bleep a ton of stuff in some of the commentaries. I'm not sure what they are bleeping however as they cuss up a storm and none of it is bleeped... which makes me think they are either mentioning future plot arcs that they don't want revealed or they are mentioning other things or shows that Adult Swim/Williams Street/Turner DVD doesn't want them talking about.

I thought the first season of the Boondocks was great... "Return of the King" was it's high point though IMHO. The second season has not been as good as the first... it almost feels as if they lost their "edge"... like they either got new writers or someone at the network said "quit it with the overt racial / political stuff, just make the characters into goofball slapstick kung-fu shells of their former selves". Every character I liked from the first season seemed to become a hollow shell of their former self... a caricature of a caricature.

Once again, that is my problem. I'm trying to run... but my guy gets hung up on the walls of the hospital. It's the same problem I kept having with the Undressed to Kill mission. Once I go "into cover" with my guy in an indoors level getting him "out" of cover is a nightmare for me. He'll either jump from side to side on a doorway or come out of cover only to go right back in. What makes matters worse is that camera bobbles all over the place and looks where you don't want it to look and gets "hung up" only looking one way when you are trying to get your guy off of cover and look the other way where someone is shooting at you from. The "cover system" works wonders for me on the big, expansive outdoor areas but when I'm in a cramped indoor area I just can't seem to get "out" of cover fast and effectively. Niko just hops from side to side on door frames, or goes into cover on the actual door frame itself, or even worse he goes into cover on a wall and trying to get him off that wall puts him into cover on another nearby wall. I sit there struggling with the controls for that few precious seconds it takes for the cops (or bad guys) to roll right up on me. Then I inevitably have to gun them down (it's a "them or me" situation) which gives me a higher wanted level at which point I get swarmed. It's not so much how "hard" the game is, it's how hard of a time I'm having controlling it.

The show has had several mentions of David Bowie in it, aside from all the song quotes and nods they stuck in. I really enjoy all the little musical nods they fit into the show. I about gagged on my own tongue laughing when Myra started quoting Spandau Ballet. The whole Myra episode (I know why the caged bird kills) is another one of my favorites, it's just rife with perfect dialog. Orpheus: Isn't a little early for a costume party? Myra: Look who's talking, Dracula. Number 21: Semper... Fidelis... Tyrannosaurus! Killinger: You mean Sic Semper Tyrannis... You said "Always Faithful Terrible Lizard"

That is the heart of my problem: getting out of there fast enough. I just can't seem to. I get hung up on the walls and doors and it takes me time to "un-screw up" my guy. It's like he pops into cover then won't come out no matter what I do, he only hops from cover to cover and eventually a cop or two just walk right up on me. The furthest I've made it in that mission was to get into the truck and drive off but I had practically no health and a four star wanted level... needless to say I was shot and killed at the wheel easily.

Yeah those were the past dealbreakers for me. I'm usually pretty darn good at the "shootout" levels but the ones in GTA4 that are "indoors" just play havoc with my ability to control my guy.

Undressed to Kill was an absolute nightmare for me. It took me literally ten some tries to beat it. Now I'm on Snow Storm and no matter how hard I fight or what routes I try I inevitably get a 4 star wanted level trying to escape and get mown down by the cops. I've tried just about everything... it's the goddamned level... that hospital with all the corridors and doorways. I get into cover and just can't get out, and when I'm trying to get out of cover some dipshit cop comes around the corner with a shotgun and hits me two or three times (effectively taking out my armor and half my health) before I can even get a bead on him.

Well, I've hit the "GTA Wall" that I always hit with these games. The game for me is easy, easy, easy, easy and then all of a sudden it throws a chain of (to me at least) nearly impossible missions. It's like the difficulty level goes from simple to incredibly hard in the scope of one or two missions. I can always tell when a game has completely pissed me off when I nearly throw the controller in frustration. And the frustrating levels are always the same for me... tons of people with guns shooting at you that you either can't see or can't aim at in time because the controls are too sluggish slash awkward slash herky jerky. And the impossible levels are always indoors it seems... this game and walls and corridors... you try to "get cover" but when you get into cover getting "out" of cover when some unseen guy is shooting you is just so darned frustrating. In other words I have gone from loving this game to hating it with a passion. The controls work very well when they work, but when they don't work you are more or less hammering random buttons in frustration trying to not get shot and killed. It is not something I like when a game makes you feel like it is "cheating" you.