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Steerpike
Subtropical Southeastern Michigan
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August 1, 2017 - 9:23 am
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It would have been wrong to leave Persona 5 out entirely, given how much of my time it has dominated in the past three months. Looking at the banner now, there are a couple others that should be pretty obvious if you happen to be familiar with the game in question, but there are also a few that don't really give any clues. I've already forgotten what #1 and #9 are, and I'm too lazy to open the Illustrator file to check.

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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Dix
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August 1, 2017 - 10:34 am
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#3 is Shadow of War, I assume, or if not Shadow of Mordor

#4 is Thomas Was Alone, I think.

#5 is Persona 5

#6 is...one of those zombie games. Let me just guess, like, H1Z1.

#9 Friday the 13th

#10 Democracy or...is there a Democracy 4? I dunno. Democracy series.

"Home is not a place.  It is wherever your passion takes you."

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geggis
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August 15, 2017 - 6:15 am
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  1. It's not Tower of Guns but: Tower of Guns?
  2. STALKER?
  3. Shadow of Mordor 2
  4. Thomas Was Alone
  5. Persona 5
  6. 7 Days to Die
  7. Scanner Sombre
  8. David.?
  9. Until Dawn?
  10. No idea.
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xtal
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August 15, 2017 - 12:24 pm
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Steerpike said
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    1. Black Mirror (episode "White Bear," which others liked but I thought was meh)

  

 

[I'm going to vaguely spoil the twist of the Black Mirror episode White Bear here, and I guess most of the season 1 episodes - be warned]

 

I want to like Black Mirror. I definitely get it. It just might be the most cynical tv show I've watched, and I don't need extra cynicism these days. Every episode has frustrated me to some degree, White Bear the most. After the twist at the end I got into a huge fight with the person I was watching with. I declared repeatedly that I don't want to live in a world where we theme-park torture criminals, no matter their crime. I also argued that I refuse to believe most people would accept such a thing to exist. After Charlottesville this past weekend, maybe I was wrong.

Because I'm me, I'll now level my complaints at the other episodes I've seen:

The pig fucking - come on, would we really let the prime minister do that? Like, I get the shock value of the episode. "Oooh, a new form of terror, I can't believe it." But really? As a people that's when we rally around and say no sir, you don't have to fuck a pig to save a person's life (which didn't even need to happen ooh twist zzzz) - we should find ANOTHER WAY

Our eyes are recorders world - WHO THINKS THIS IS A GOOD IDEA OR A WORLD ANYONE WANTS TO LIVE IN? This episode was 100 per cent insane and I really couldn't believe people would live in this world. The couple in it were insufferable.

Bathtub boyfriend reborn - this episode is just creepy and no, no, no, no, no, nononononononono

The singing competition Brave New World world - probably the least offensive episode I've seen so far; I still found it hard to believe the population at large just accepts this is life now - life is a grind, a literal treadmill, to get you to a singing competition and win your freedom to live among the giant assholes who run this shit world. Again, incredibly unbelievable. This episode does have the one likeable character I've found in any episode, that being the main fellow, who is also the star of Get Out, a great movie!

 

Maybe every episode is just a cool metaphor and I'm not cool enough, and I take the show too seriously or something, in which case, good job Black Mirror writers. Metaphors are definitely underused and fresh!

 

I guess it's obvious to see my major complaint with the show is how it explores terrifying sci-fi possibilities but posits that no good people are left (or ever were?) and everything is bad and the future is just a horrible and shitty expansion of the already-destructive class divides. As someone who thinks the Twilight Zone is really thoughtful and fascinating, I wretch slightly at the constant comparisons; and the present we live in, all it takes is one person to say one thing one time, and then it's true forever. So despite my protest and disagreement, the world at large views Black Mirror as the new Twilight Zone. I'm resigned to disagree.

If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever

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Steerpike
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August 19, 2017 - 11:56 am
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I love Black Mirror. Your issues with it are fair, xtal, though those issues are part of what make me like it so much. The cynicism maybe is over the top in ways, but to my eyes the show is chiefly about how horrible we are to ourselves, as much as to each other. The Christmas Episode with Jon Hamm and Natalia Tena was particularly shocking for this.

The first episode, the one with the pig fucking, struck me as the perfect access point to the series because it serves up a THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT message. A friend of mine had recommended the show so I sat down to watch it, and spent about 45 minutes thinking "this is pretty clever but obviously he's not going to fuck a piOHMYGOD he's going to fuck a pig." It prepared me for future bleakness. Ironically it's one of the happier endings of a Black Mirror episode, too... a ruined marriage and likely lifetime of psychological problems, but a satisfied pig and a blooming political career. Er.

Interestingly the only episode that I really disliked, not because there was anything wrong with it but because I found it too over the top, was the cartoon-character-runs-for-office one at the end of the first season. And then of course a cartoon character ran for office in the real world, and won, and I concluded that maybe the horror of Black Mirror is that the future it shows really will be like that, as surprising as some elements may seem. As speculative as it can be, it's chilling because even some of the most outrageous-seeming speculation somehow rings true.

Should the world ever become a bunch of exercise bikes, first person shooters, and reality talent shows, I would be in better shape and maybe better at shooters. So silver lining I guess.

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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geggis
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August 22, 2017 - 11:11 am
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I never watched Twilight Zone so I've got no point of comparison! My love of Black Mirror stems mostly from the fact that I love the kind of crazy extremes that the show explores. Yeah, some of those extremes are daft but, like most sci-fi, they're simply a means of exploring deeper aspects of the human condition. Black Mirror swirls around the possibilities of screen technology or 'black mirrors'.

Spoilers liberally sprinkled henceforth!

The pig fucking thing is pretty funny because some time after The National Anthem aired, it transpired that our PM, David Cameron, may very well have stuck his chap into a pig's head in the past as part of some initiation ritual for the elite Bullingdon Club. That's fun to Google.

http://www.nme.com/news/tv/cha.....-ca-880298

The twist in this episode for me was not so much that the PM did fuck a pig to release the princess, but that she was released early and nobody realised because they were all inside watching the PM fuck a pig. Tune in and tune out.

Some of the other episodes hit surprisingly close to home, whether it's the gamification of our lives in Nosedive or a facile cartoon character being elected in The Waldo Moment. There are certainly parallels but they're not exactly prophetic. I loved The Entire History of You from season 1 though.

My favourite episode from the latest season is Shut Up and Dance. It's quintessential Black Mirror while San Junipero was totally different but still wonderful. Some of the other episodes were shite though, particularly Men Against Fire. Hated in the Nation I found weak too.

We watched Get Out over the weekend and enjoyed it although I found it predictable once it started to reveal its hand. It reminded me of an extended Black Mirror episode, not just because of the lead but because it explored racism with an ultimately silly idea. I appreciated the blasts of humour from the TSA guy.

Max, have you seen It Follows? Watch It Follows.

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Synonamess Botch
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August 23, 2017 - 8:55 am
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I would be shocked if the current or former PM, or the last 10 US presidents for that matter, hadn't dipped their wicks where they didn't belong.  Oh and that Canadian PM What's-his-face.  That guy looks about as sleazy as they come (sorry Max).  Anyway that's all I've got to contribute.  Bye now!

Rule #2: Double-tap

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Dix
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August 23, 2017 - 10:33 am
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As someone who doesn't usually care for horror movies much, I really like It Follows. Not that anybody asked.

As someone who usually exists mainly in sci-fi, I also really like Black Mirror, though of course my likingness of it does vary depending on the episode given the nature of anthology shows.

"Home is not a place.  It is wherever your passion takes you."

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xtal
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August 23, 2017 - 12:23 pm
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I'm still going to watch the show because I'm waiting for a switch to flip, or just an episode I find more pleasing. Christmas episode is next.

Certainly I see why many people like Black Mirror so much. It successfully feels modern in smart, non-cheap ways, and being a British show it's of course just a little bit better than other things by default; but I follow my heart, and Black Mirror makes my heart sad. I think I'm just too much a softie. I've absorbed so much sci-fi, so much dystopia and post-apocalypse in my life, that the full-blown assault of the nightmare worlds the show presents are too much.

What I'm ready for is the clever artists who take a shot at depicting something more utopic. (I guess a new Star Trek is coming, right?) Guys, my favourite television show ever is Firefly. A show about people who mostly do right by each other, and usually try to do the right thing. I'm a lover, see.

You know what British show I really enjoy right now? Catastrophe. Catastrophe doesn't make me 1/100th as bummed out as Black Mirror does and it's a lot funnier.

If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever

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Dix
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August 23, 2017 - 12:39 pm
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xtal said
What I'm ready for is the clever artists who take a shot at depicting something more utopic. (I guess a new Star Trek is coming, right?)

Yep, and it's looking...pretty okay. I have my misgivings about Akiva Goldsman's involvement, but there are a lot of good signs too.

"Home is not a place.  It is wherever your passion takes you."

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geggis
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August 23, 2017 - 1:51 pm
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xtal said
I'm still going to watch the show because I'm waiting for a switch to flip, or just an episode I find more pleasing. Christmas episode is next.

What I'm ready for is the clever artists who take a shot at depicting something more utopic [...] I'm a lover, see.

Definitely stick with it for this very reason!

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Steerpike
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February 13, 2018 - 9:41 pm
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Previous banner...

  1. Fortnite (I'm still figuring this game out. Piñatas!)
  2. STALKER Lost Alpha (they FINALLY finished it)
  3. Shadow of Mordor
  4. Thomas was Alone
  5. Persona 5 (I have two minutes left in this amazing game)
  6. 7 Days to Die
  7. Scanner Sombre (this game from Introversion is interesting, but sold few copies. Sad panda)
  8. Chess (classic Tim Rice musical from the eighties)
  9. Until Dawn
  10. Democracy 3

Sorry this one was up so long, I got kinda sidetracked. Enjoy!

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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geggis
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February 14, 2018 - 4:36 am
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  1. Northgard
  2. Subnautica
  3. Shadow of the Colossus
  4. Hot Butt: In Flames
  5. ??
  6. ??
  7. ??
  8. No Man's Sky
  9. Scorched Earth, no wait, ShellShock Live (or simply 'Tanks' as we call it. Armand, Luke and I love this game.)
  10. ??

Tough one this time Steerpike!

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Steerpike
Subtropical Southeastern Michigan
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April 8, 2019 - 1:18 pm
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Wow! It's been shamefully long since I updated the banner. Paying the server bill this morning must have lit a fire under me. Here goes!

  1. Civilization VI
  2. Subnautica
  3. Shadow of the Colossus
  4. Gravity Rush 2 (though I liked Gregg's suggestion. That's a game I'd buy)
  5. Space Hulk: Deathwing
  6. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (I didn't really care for this novel, partly because it's set in post-global-warming Thailand and everything is hot and sticky and humid, which is my personal hell.)
  7. Loreena McKennitt's Ancient Muse (I must have been feeling folksy or celtic when I made this banner.)
  8. House of the Dying Sun
  9. Shellshock Live
  10. Locke and Key by Joe Hill / Illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (brilliant graphic novel series from Stephen King's son. Well worth your time even if comics aren't your thing.)

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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geggis
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April 9, 2020 - 3:05 pm
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Did you play much of Deathwing Matt? Always looked pretty cool!

  1. Doom Eternal
  2. Pathologic 2?
  3. Mount & Blade 2 or... Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
  4. The Light Keeps Us Safe?
  5. ?
  6. ?
  7. Covid 19 so, uh, Plague Inc. or Pandemic?
  8. Star Wars, erm, one of them. Jedi: Fallen Order?
  9. Oh, this looks familiar. The colour palette and style makes me think of The Settlers 7, which I haven't played. Actually, I haven't played one since the first game on Amiga!
  10. Risk of Rain 2, of course! A great time with friends. It was only omitted on my games of the year(s) list because it's Early Access.

Your co-op buddies should check out Dungeon of the Endless four player co-op. That's an excellent team game. Lots of debating, planning and tense survival and discovery with tower defence elements. Super satisfying too. The ugly duckling of the Endless series, but my favourite for sure!

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