Culture consumed in quarantine

[peanutbutter]

Started watching Over the Garden Wall a couple of days ago, treating myself to an episode each night. There's something a bit weird about how it's balancing its influences (primarily an assortment of European mid-20th century and earlier stuff, with a dash of Miyazaki?) as done by a CN person, but on the whole its very endearing and has been nice to have something to look forward to.

Haven't been able to listen to music at all the last while.


Thinking of putting aside a day to watch Near Death by Wiseman, feel like I could do with a bit of staring into the abyss like that.

[mr. logic]

I honestly nearly gave up on the whole thing after that, had to leave it 3 weeks before I could continue, how could anything carry on.

Funny, you say that. I've watched a few more since, but I'm beginning to stall, like I'm still a bit hungover after it or something. I really enjoyed the wedding soon after that though with the still surprising but less horrifying conclusion

[Blue Jam]

Today we continued our Sunday lockdown tradition of roast dinner + Bond film with a big piece of pork and Octopussy. Innuendo ahoy.

[Pingers]

Today we continued our Sunday lockdown tradition of roast dinner + Bond film with a big piece of pork and Octopussy. Innuendo ahoy.

Bond films are something that my kids are aware of but which I assume (from my own vague memory) are arse-clenchingly seedy and misogynistic and shouldn't be shown to impressionable children. AIBU?

[Blue Jam]

Bond films are something that my kids are aware of but which I assume (from my own vague memory) are arse-clenchingly seedy and misogynistic and shouldn't be shown to impressionable children. AIBU?

Daniel Craig's Bond films are a bit more woke- he feels bad about killing people, gets called out on his drinking and reckless behaviour etc. The Pierce Brosnan ones are still a bit seedy and not suitable for kids even if theres no smoking in the later ones (iirc). The Roger Moore ones are full of innuendo, and the Sean Connery ones are alarmingly rapey in places.

Start with the Craig ones then, and maybe by the time you do get to the earlier ones make sure your kids are old enough to understand that they're a product of their time and raping Pussy Galore in a barn is not on?

They're not for kids really tbh... maybe start them off with Charlie Higson and Steve Cole's Young Bond books? I've not read them but I assume they're child-friendly:

https://www.youngbond.com/books/

[MinnieTimperley]

Funny, you say that. I've watched a few more since, but I'm beginning to stall, like I'm still a bit hungover after it or something. I really enjoyed the wedding soon after that though with the still surprising but less horrifying conclusion

Fantastic telly, season finale a bit rushed mind

[MinnieTimperley]

Anyone ever seen The Missouri Breaks, made in 1976 I think it was just after The Godfather first one. Marlon Brando as a regulator to Jack Nicholson's horse thief. You HAVE to see it for Brandos extraordinary self indulgent, cringeworthy performance. Was cocaine involved, looks like a slow train crash. Spellbinding

[Pingers]

Daniel Craig's Bond films are a bit more woke- he feels bad about killing people, gets called out on his drinking and reckless behaviour etc. The Pierce Brosnan ones are still a bit seedy and not suitable for kids even if theres no smoking in the later ones (iirc). The Roger Moore ones are full of innuendo, and the Sean Connery ones are alarmingly rapey in places.

Start with the Craig ones then, and maybe by the time you do get to the earlier ones make sure your kids are old enough to understand that they're a product of their time and raping Pussy Galore in a barn is not on?

They're not for kids really tbh... maybe start them off with Charlie Higson and Steve Cole's Young Bond books? I've not read them but I assume they're child-friendly:

https://www.youngbond.com/books/

Nice one, cheers

[Blue Jam]

Not been on the Xbox much of late. Finally got round to Star Wars Battlefront 2 this week. Annoying save system but it's so gorgeous and so much fun I can forgive that.

[Ferris]

Not been on the Xbox much of late. Finally got round to Star Wars Battlefront 2 this week. Annoying save system but it's so gorgeous and so much fun I can forgive that.

Are these decent games? They look like fun but the one I played was toilets (and annoyingly difficult toilets as well, and I've been playing FPS games since the Duke Nukem was a thing).

[Blue Jam]

Not played the original Battlefront, which was online multiplayer only. This one has a campaign and arcade-type modes and is more my thing. Also you can twat about in a TIE fighter.

Haven't bothered with any other Star Wars games, sorry. Actually not a massive Star Wars fan but BF2 sounded fun.

[Ferris]

Not played the original Battlefront, which was online multiplayer only. This one has a campaign and arcade-type modes and is more my thing. Also you can twat about in a TIE fighter.

Haven't bothered with any other Star Wars games, sorry. Actually not a massive Star Wars fan but BF2 sounded fun.

Guess what's free on the PlayStation streaming service thing? BF2 and a newish Call of Duty WW2 thing!

...Call of Duty was fucking horrible. Mawkish, and violent, and flimsy to play. Deleted it after 20 minutes (and 10 of those were gung-ho unskippable cutscenes). Do not recommend. A terrible, terrible piece of gaming from all aspects.

BF2 is downloading now but the fucker is 112GB so won't be ready until tomorrow.

[Blue Jam]

I've never played any of the CoD series but I've seen criticism of them as supposedly mindless shooters and wondered if something like that would actually be right up my street, something to unwind with after work, but I've just watched a bit of the WW2 walkthrough on YouTube and Christ, you're not wrong about "mawkish" and "gung-ho". 'violent" I have less of a problem with but lengthy unskippable cutscenes can get to fuck, especially when they're meant to be poignant but actually make me cringe. Who wrote them? Ricky Gervais? ;)

Good to hear PS+ is still decent, Games With Gold has gone to shit since Game Pass was launched, to the point that it isn't worth bothering with and you may as well get the more expensive Game Pass. Sneaky.

Fittingly, Battlefield 1 was on Games With Gold in November 2019. I think you might enjoy that one more than CoD WW2, Ferris. Beautiful game that, it manages not to get mawkish and it's a very nice shooter. It's violent but not as much gratuitously bloody.

[Glitch King]

Glitch King!

[The Culture Bunker]

Guess what's free on the PlayStation streaming service thing? BF2 and a newish Call of Duty WW2 thing!

...Call of Duty was fucking horrible. Mawkish, and violent, and flimsy to play. Deleted it after 20 minutes (and 10 of those were gung-ho unskippable cutscenes). Do not recommend. A terrible, terrible piece of gaming from all aspects.

BF2 is downloading now but the fucker is 112GB so won't be ready until tomorrow.

I tried that Call of Duty yesterday and mostly found it a bit of nothing. I didn't dislike it to any great degree... just not bothered. I'm not sure if the main point of them is the multiplayer anyways, which I have zero interest in. I'll probably cruise through the campaign on easy mode just to see how many cliches the story throws in.

First person shooters don't hold much appeal for me anyways, so not sure after this whether I'll bother with the Star Wars antics.

[Ferris]

I've never played any of the CoD series but I've seen criticism of them as supposedly mindless shooters and wondered if something like that would actually be right up my street, something to unwind with after work, but I've just watched a bit of the WW2 walkthrough on YouTube and Christ, you're not wrong about "mawkish" and "gung-ho". 'violent" I have less of a problem with but lengthy unskippable cutscenes can get to fuck, especially when they're meant to be poignant but actually make me cringe. Who wrote them? Ricky Gervais? ;)

Good to hear PS+ is still decent, Games With Gold has gone to shit since Game Pass was launched, to the point that it isn't worth bothering with and you may as well get the more expensive Game Pass. Sneaky.

Fittingly, Battlefield 1 was on Games With Gold in November 2019. I think you might enjoy that one more than CoD WW2, Ferris. Beautiful game that, it manages not to get mawkish and it's a very nice shooter. It's violent but not as much gratuitously bloody.

I only bothered with it because it was free and much smaller than BF2 so it would download faster. I love a mindless FPS every now and then, the Far Cry series are a particular favourite - they don't pretend to be anything that they aren't, and they have a bit of a laugh with it. That CoD though... ugh. Awful shit, and it takes itself so seriously. I can even forgive all that if it plays well, but it doesn't.

I have Battlefield 1 actually, I remember it being alright but largely geared towards online play which I don't have the time to get good at so it becomes a bit of a miserable experience. I think I'm just too old for FPS games :(

I tried that Call of Duty yesterday and mostly found it a bit of nothing. I didn't dislike it to any great degree... just not bothered. I'm not sure if the main point of them is the multiplayer anyways, which I have zero interest in. I'll probably cruise through the campaign on easy mode just to see how many cliches the story throws in.

First person shooters don't hold much appeal for me anyways, so not sure after this whether I'll bother with the Star Wars antics.

Yeah exactly - there is the odd FPS series that is worth a crack (Far Cry 5 is a laugh and plays really well), but the online stuff holds no appeal to me. What was wrong with a nice old bot deathmatch?

Will report back on BF2, I have vague memories of the first one being a laugh and with all the nice old Star Wars sounds so maybe it'll be alright.

[The Culture Bunker]

As it was going cheap the other week (about £6 for all five episodes) on Playstation Store, I did have a go at "The Council", which I just finished last night. Pretty much your usual episodic story game in the "Life is Strange" mould, except set in 1792 with George Washington and Napoleon dossing around the place.

It started interestingly, and I thought it was going to end up a murder mystery whodunit affair. Then it got so increasingly silly that I wondered if that David Cage bod had been involved.

There's also a pile of DVD/blu-rays (inc Paterson and the last few series of Silicon Valley) that I had stocked up for when my other half returned (should have been last month), but I feel like I'm going to have to break into them before long. Though I did realise that while I've not had any face-to-face conversations in 11 weeks now, I've watched zero television either, which makes me think I really need to get round to cancelling my Sky subscription.

[Blue Jam]

One good thing about lockdown is that I have managed to make a serious dent in my games backlog and am now in need of new stuff to play. Far Cry 5 sounds fun and it's currently on the Xbox store for £13.74, down from £54.99. That'll do nicely. Cheers Ferris!

[Blue Jam]

Is this basically RDR2 minus Rockstar's godawful mission design?

[Ferris]

As it was going cheap the other week (about £6 for all five episodes) on Playstation Store, I did have a go at "The Council", which I just finished last night. Pretty much your usual episodic story game in the "Life is Strange" mould, except set in 1792 with George Washington and Napoleon dossing around the place.

It started interestingly, and I thought it was going to end up a murder mystery whodunit affair. Then it got so increasingly silly that I wondered if that David Cage bod had been involved.

I gave up on the Council pretty quick, the intro annoyed me and the lady's tits were absurd and I thought it wouldn't be worth putting any more time into. Concede I may have been wrong.

One good thing about lockdown is that I have managed to make a serious dent in my games backlog and am now in need of new stuff to play. Far Cry 5 sounds fun and it's currently on the Xbox store for £13.74, down from £54.99. That'll do nicely. Cheers Ferris!

Yeah it's mindless fun and very atmospheric, story is quite wacky though. It has an arcade mode which is really good, you have access to a mapmaker + bots (fun), and you can publish them and play other people's. It's a neat system, and some of the stuff people have built is amazing and better than some of the game environments

[The Culture Bunker]

I gave up on the Council pretty quick, the intro annoyed me and the lady's tits were absurd and I thought it wouldn't be worth putting any more time into. Concede I may have been wrong.

To be honest, the gravity-defying chest was the least of the silliness in the last two chapters. For what I paid, it was a decent enough distraction for a few evenings, but I'm glad I didn't pay proper money for it.

Something about so many video games where the writer(s) too often can't help thinking "now let's REALLY blow the player's mind!" but instead leave me, for one, thinking "well that's just stupid". At least with Train Sim World, you don't have to worry about entering the tunnel between Stalybridge and Huddersfield and instead exiting it INTO HELL DIMENSION! (Depending on your thoughts of West Yorkshire, of course)

[flotemysost]

Started watching The Night Of on NowTV - enjoying it so far and Riz Ahmed is good, but I keep watching it while I'm eating and forgetting about the gratuitous close-ups of John Turturro's crusty old feet.

[Blue Jam]

I love Meadow Soprano.

[bgmnts]

I love her too.

[mr. logic]

I always thought Meadow was brattish and hypocritical, especially as she got older.

[chveik]

she's no better than the rest.

[Blue Jam]

I always thought Meadow was brattish and hypocritical, especially as she got older.

I'm only on season 3 so who knows, maybe I'll hate her by season 6.

Just watched the one where

Spoiler alert

Dr Melfi is raped

[close]

, fucking hell that was a bleak one.

[bgmnts]

I always thought Meadow was brattish and hypocritical, especially as she got older.

She is but she is fit as fuck.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The best Meadow bits are when she brings back melt boyfriends that Tony does a bad job of hiding his contempt for.

[flotemysost]

Just watched the one where

Spoiler alert

Dr Melfi is raped

[close]

, fucking hell that was a bleak one.

Jesus, yeah, could have done with a tad more specific trigger warning from NowTV before that one -

Spoiler alert

something about 'sexual violence' would have sufficed

[close]

- 'scenes some viewers may find disturbing' could mean anything in the usual roster of stuff you'd expect from a show about a Mafia family ffs.