azrael

Just a reminder that you are not paying Daddy Bezos enough.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/media/amazon-prime-video-ads/index.html

Quote

New York CNN  — 

Amazon is joining other streaming services and inserting ads into its programming.

Beginning next year, shows and movies on its Prime Video service will “include limited advertisements,” the company announced Friday. Amazon’s change brings it in line with its rivals, like Netflix and Max, adding ad-supported tiers as companies search for additional revenue.

FYI, in case anyone hasn't heard the news from the Xbox leaks in the FTC vs Microsoft case

https://www.wired.com/story/ftc-microsoft-leaks-xbox/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880165/xbox-leak-ftc-documents-new-xbox-series-x-controller-next-gen

https://www.resetera.com/threads/mid-gen-xbox-roadmap-hardware-leak-series-s-x-refreshes-digital-only-2tb-series-x-at-499-controller-with-haptics-and-quieter-buttons-at-69-99.765920/

There's a huge trove of news coming out of those documents from the Xbox roadmap, mid-generation hardware refreshes, in-development games, a wishful want to buyout Nintendo and Valve. 

My my...

How about not answering that. Calm down and sit down.

5 hours ago, Roy Focker said:

Is it too harsh to call Ahsoka a big budget fan fiction vanity project? Some stuff looks cool, but I can't see anyone in their right mind green lighting this show. Anyone beside Filoni would have told him, okay we can make this show, but the following changes are going be necessary for it to work for a wider audience.

I'll wait till the the season is over before commenting on that. And if it does go to a season 2, then that would color my opinion more. But we'll see when we get there.

5 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

I'm not a Rebels fan and am not particularly attached to Ahsoka, but the show is reasonably well done and entertaining. Is it just a Filoni vanity project? Maybe, and I'm not as high on his Star Wars work as others. But, it's not bad.

But, like you, I'm questioning where this is going with only three episodes left. A second season? The big movie Filoni is planning?

Yes. It's not bad. So far. But, just because something isn't bad doesn't mean it's good (So far.) It just hasn't hit the notes (yet, or yet to be seen).

47 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

If Disney wanted a strong female lead for their sequel trilogy they should've just used Ahsoka, she was right there, but nooooooo, we got Rey Skywalker....

Yeah. We've said that WAYYYYYYYYYY to many times.

16 minutes ago, tekering said:

...Or any of the sequel trilogy, for that matter?

Between Rian Johnson, JJ Abrams, and Kathleen Kennedy, almost every Disney Star Wars production could be painted with the same brush... 🤔

I would say a lot of people wished we could just write off the sequel trilogy altogether but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, SOME LADY ONE is keeping it in there.

Yeah...fan-service. 🤦‍♂️

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

Really liked those Clone Wars scenes....but can't imagine folks without even basic knowledge of Clone Wars or Rebels lore having any clue what is going on...lol

Those folks who didn't watch Clone Wars or Rebels; this episode is gonna fly over their heads with both the flashback retrospective and the ending. 😒

5 hours ago, Dangard Ace said:

I guess they kinda had a whale in Episode 1.   "I want a Fish!"

You know the Probe is in the opening credits? That whole clusterfrak with the Borg, Romulans, Packleds, Klingons, the Crystalline Entity (that spot in the opening gets more crowded each season...)

34 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Played a few mins of Starfield and got bored. Not sure what to think yet but the beginning feels like sky rim npc’s with a rip off of mass effect exploration and space combat from ps1 days of Colony Wars. 

Yeah, it's basically Skyrim... IN SPAAAAAAAACE.

23 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

This is what I was saying about the new update structure making it impossible to install only what you need to do what you want.  Updates are an all-or-nothing deal. 

What mikeszekely said.

33 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

You want to play the new games?  You're getting MS-branded adware on your desktop along with it.

You mean Location Services? Edge? Cortana? I turn that off, never use it and disabled Cortana. I only use Edge to download Firefox and Chrome. That's the first and last time I use it. Hell, I disable a lot of stuff to keep Windows from annoying me. It's one of the first things I do when installing Windows. 🤷‍♂️

27 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

*It seems like I'm in the minority, but I like Windows 11.

Once they give me back labels on the Taskbar, combine only when full, and the ability to resize it to small, I'll like Windows 11. When you have multiple windows of 1 app open, it makes it hard to know which one I'm clicking on when I have to use Peak to find out which one is which. 😡

10 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Bleh.. sad to say I went ahead and requested a refund on Steam for Starfield.  Just cannot get it to move past the "requirements not met" blockage, and it's not worth reformatting a stable computer just for one title. 

Sorry. Context. What are the specs on your PC?
And for context, here's Starfield's requirements: https://help.bethesda.net/#en/answer/60442

And if you needed a DirectX update, that would normally come packaged with the installer, no? And what version of Windows are you on?

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Because consoles don't require OS updates? 

Yeaaaaah. The only advantage consoles have is standardized hardware. Xbox, Playstation, Switch, Steam. They all release system updates and many times, you can't bypass them. Especially if you have that thing connected to the 'Net. 

I like that the "Crossfield" was a kit-bash. It does fit with the story.

The TMP-era Bird-of-Prey...interesting choice.

1 hour ago, Mog said:

  Hide contents

And can we finally put all those “Marrok is Ezra or some other character” rumors to death?

Once again, Inquisitors are only good for being main characters’ saber-fodder.

 

This one of those thing I find annoying amongst Star Wars fandom. As Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. For weeks, the speculation-mill has run rampant with thousands of theories. Hey dumbasses, how about the obvious answer? 🙄 There was no twist. Sit down. Shut up and watch the damn show. And put down the phone. Stop checking Twitter/X/whatever it wants to call itself this week, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube talking heads, etc, and just watch the damn show. 🙄

On 9/1/2023 at 9:38 AM, kalvasflam said:

May be it's time to reboot all of Star Wars again.

literally, start with a new Episode IV again, all new actors and actresses, except James Earl Jones of course.  But with a modern touch.

Go to Youtube. Search for "Star Wars directed by<insert director's name>". There are a bunch of AI generated videos to click on.

On 9/1/2023 at 1:22 PM, Roy Focker said:

find it interesting that they're willingly to use the new Mon Mothma but insist on using deep fake Luke. Episode IV is classic movie. Doesn't need a remake. That treatment is for movies that didn't work.

Silly as it is, Genevieve O'Reilly is around the same age now (46) as when Caroline Blakiston portrayed Mon Mothma back in 1983 (Ms. Blakiston was ~48). So having Ms. O'Reilly portray Mon Mothma, now, kinda works. It's easy to add more age to Ms. O'Reilly. Taking it away from Mark Hamill is not as easy. Good luck de-aging Caroline Blakiston today.

On 9/1/2023 at 1:22 PM, Roy Focker said:

Disney threw out the Expanded Universe for a good reason. It was bloated and would made limited their ability to tell new stories. That's now the same case with Disney's current canon.

I actually liked certain elements of the EU. Especially the part where there was no "The First Order". I was perfectly happy with the Empire Remanent. Then Disney and JJ gave us the JJ Abrams presents the Galactic Empire-lite.

3 hours ago, Big s said:

I keep forgetting this movie is coming out. If this little update here didn’t show I mnot have be aware. There seems to be very little advertising for it in comparison to the other mcu films. 

As of posting, the actors are still on strike and without the loudest members of the production out there promoting their shows and movies, advertising has been curtailed.

4 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

Well done episode. I like the pace of it. It's not in a rush.

Considering they spent it on a ship going from point A (episode 2) to point B (episode 4). Guess this was the "Let's save money by filming on a set instead of the giant location wall"-episode.  It was an OK episode.

44 minutes ago, Mog said:

Not that I have a vested interest in the Ghost appearing 😇:

https://hasbropulse.com/collections/haslab/products/star-wars-the-vintage-collection-the-ghost

1 hour ago, Graham said:

Unless auditions have already been done in secrecy.

Or.......they are going to break tradition and not have idol singer or band this time. Doubtful I know as the music usually sells really well.

Or, they are going to bring back existing an singer, so no need an audition. 

Or call in an established singer (likewise, no need to audition). ex. JUNNA, May'n, Yoshiki Fukuyama, Chie Kajiura

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... since I've put together a new gaming rig for the first time in quite a few years, how're you all handling cable management?

Good olde Ikea Signum and plenty of velcro.

15 hours ago, JB0 said:

By not looking under my desk or behind my computer.

That too. *compares office desk vs WFH desk* 🫣🫢

Over-the-ear definitely offers the best immersive experience for gaming. Unfortunately, the past couple of years allergies have not been kind to my facial skin so I’ve had to switch to earbuds to avoid suffocating and aggravating my skin. 
I used to have a 5.1 sound system but found it space-consuming and excessive for PC gaming. A good pair or 2.1 set provides equal or better immersion for gaming. Especially when gaming at night or when you want to reduce noise, you gravitate to a headset/earbuds anyways.

Edit: When I say good "pair", I mean ranging from something like the popular Kanto YU2 to the Logitech Z207 (yes a pair of $60 Logitech speakers can actually produce some decent sound).

6 hours ago, seti88 said:

Looking the amount of enemies on screen, plus all the specular lighting and what not effects, wondering more of an ultimate setup to run its maximum/ultra settings. 

Looks too good to run on just base/recommended.

Surprisingly, most games don't need THAT much horsepower and most systems made in the past 5-6 years are more than capable of doing what most games want to varying degrees.

20 hours ago, seti88 said:

I have stopped upgrading my PC ages back. But then i see this. And it makes me itch to get a PC sufficiently ready for it.

Cant even fathom the PC specs needed to run it..

and also a superb monitor and sound system to go with it...

Minimum specs:

Quote

    OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    Processor (AMD): AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or Equivalent
    Processor (Intel): Intel Core i7 8700 or Equivalent
    Memory: 12 GB
    Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or Equivalent
    Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or Equivalent
    DirectX: DX12 Compatible video card or equivalent
    Storage: 200GB

Recommended specs:

Quote

    OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    Processor (AMD): AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Equivalent
    Processor (Intel): Intel i5-10600K or Equivalent
    Memory: 16 GB
    Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Equivalent
    Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or Equivalent
    DirectX: DX12 Compatible video card or equivalent
    Storage: 200GB

Overall, not that bad. Basically any computer built in the past 5-6 years should run it with graphics being the pain point. If you can find a deal on any Nvidia RTX 3000-series or AMD RX 6000-series cards, those would last you. AMD graphics might be a better choice only because they give you more VRAM for the money. If you want DLSS or RT features, then you would go with Nvidia.

Monitor? Depends. Audio setup? You mean headphones aren't enough? Most people game on headphones anyways.

11 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

I'll be happy with that general timeline. 

Unfortunately, we don't have one.

Watch this space.

22 hours ago, R0P3-F15H said:

War in the Pocket and 08th MS team come to mind  as well as Iron Blooded Orphans wich was a refreshing take on mobile suits as a entity at all.

 

I’d probably prop Stardust memory up there to honestly, it hits some similar beats to me that Macross has sans idol culture.

Ya know...Anytime someone mentions War in the Pocket, 8th MS Team, or Stardust Memory in a thread about the next Macross series, I'm just going to post this:

On 7/17/2023 at 11:47 AM, azrael said:

"I want Macross but without all the Macross-y stuff"
"So you want Gundam?"
"No. I want Macross. But without the stuff that makes it Macross."
"So you want Gundam?"
....

🤦‍♂️ Every time we get a new Macross, this exact conversation comes up. Every. Damn. Time.

Cuz those are the exact same 3 shows that get mentioned. Every. Damn. Time.

Yeah slow episodes. But at the same time, if you watched Rebels, it's not really slow, cuz...

It's pretty much Rebels season 5. If you didn't watch the last few episodes of Rebels season 4, now would be a good time catch up till next week's episode since the story is essentially starting from that point.

Sabine needs her jetpack back...

The buzz I’m seeing also says getting caught up by watching Rebels will definitely help understand the backstory of what’s going on. So take that as you will.

34 minutes ago, treatment said:

Kawamori tweets...

Inspiration for the Ghost in the SDF-TV (QF-3000E Ghost ?) :

https://twitter.com/kawamoriexpo/status/1689969407236390912

https://twitter.com/kawamoriexpo/status/1689789393886916608

FYI
He went to the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

He's just talking about the X-24 in the 1st tweet (or whatever it's called now).

2nd tweet is, obviously, about the X-29.

If anyone was looking for Macross news-type stuff from the tweets, there's nothing. Just Kawamori being a tourist. 😝