Link was pulled due to copyright claim by Paramount. Any signs of an official link yet?
I refuse to read anything into the Fortune Cookie/Magic 8-Ball hint stylings of Lindelof and Abrams. It could be like "Super 8" or M. Night Shammy's "Signs," where you get all hot and bothered about a mystery and "what does it all mean!" when in the end it's "Aliens are bad guys!" Woop-de-doo! It just wouldn't surprise me if these various bread crumb hints are simply red herrings.
I always wonder how I'd react in that type of situation, and hope I never find out. By all accounts, the principal and school psychologist (women in their 40s and 50s) rushed towards the sound of gunfire and were gunned down before they could reach the shooter. I recall at least one teacher at the Va. Tech shooting in 2007 reacted the same way (telling some students to stay in his upstairs office while he rushed towards the sounds).
Quote from: Teggy on December 14, 2012, 09:05:21 PM
Only the civilzed man eats his McDonald's on a plate.
(was the extra order of McNuggets really necessary there?)
Agreed, man. I love it though, thanks Ceekay. I assumed McNuggets were the appetizer.
The funny thing is, I had awesome Real baby back ribs for lunch Saturday, and it made me feel bad this morning. It's like my organs respond better to McDonalds and Wendy's I guess I need fast food detox....
The resilience of GTers to remember random threads from years and years ago never ceases to amaze me.
Actually, it's called "the power of the GT forum search engine."
No word on whether John McTiernan's going to digitally insert different junk food into Sgt. Al Powell's (Reginald VelJohnson's) hands in "Die Hard." Or for that matter, into Woody Harrelson's hands in Zombieland.
Quote from: Isgrimnur on December 14, 2012, 10:21:09 PM
So they've learned nothing from last time? Great.
From what I've read, JJ learned to tone down his lens flare fixation, and the engine room maybe looks less like a brewery or a septic plant. What more do you need, man???
State police said 26 people including 20 children were massacred in a bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning by a lone gunman.
The gunman is also dead, bringing the total dead at the school to 27, state police have confirmed. A second crime scene has been established at a Newtown home, where a body was found after the shooting.
There are conflicting reports on who the shooter was.
The Associated Press has identified the shooter as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
CNN originally identified the shooter as Adam Lanza's brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, a Hoboken, N.J. resident. The AP said Ryan Lanza is being questioned by police in the investigation.
A Facebook page belonging to Ryan Lanza, a former Newtown resident who lived in Hoboken, N.J. who studied at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, has been taken down. Before it was deleted, Ryan Lanza posted on the page and said he wasn't the shooter.
The reports seem to indicate the Lanza brothers' mother -- who was a teacher at the school -- was killed at their residence. So various reports site "sources say" the younger brother killed his mother first and then went to school to do his rampage. I won't speculate on what kind of thinking or mental illness drives someone to do any of that. It's just impossible to comprehend.
[Well, some reports say the mother was the first victim at the school itself. So it's not clear who the person killed at that residence is]
fwiw, the article also explains Conn. has some of the tougher gun control laws in the U.S., including an assault weapons ban:
Quote
Connecticut's gun laws are tougher than the national average. Consumers need permits to buy handguns. Assault-style weapons are banned as is the possession of bullet-proof vests. Another law, adopted about 10 years ago, lets neighbors who are suspicious of the activities of other neighbors to file police reports. Also, people with protective orders filed against them are prohibited from owning firearm
He could've gotten them at a gun show, or in N.J. where he had a residence, etc. Presumably they're tracking down that sort of background now.
Quote from: TiLT on December 13, 2012, 12:20:28 PM
I love Del Toro's movies, but this trailer really did nothing for me. I have no idea why. GlaDOS certainly didn't help.
While I remain hopeful, it basically looked like a Transformers movie to me. I assume that's what the studio hopes for, that the masses will sign up for this the way they did for Transformers et al, and not the way they didn't sign up for Battleship or, say, that dreadful Godzilla movie a few years back.
It certainly has a prime summer movie slot so I assume the studio has confidence in it. Of course, I'd have said that about Green Lantern.
The Jewel-Osco grocery store chain purchased the last shipment of 20,000 boxes of Hostess products and put them on sale in their stores throughout the Chicago area today. Hostess Brands Inc. shut down its baking operations and began liquidating assets last month after failing to negotiate a labor contract with Workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
Latest death count (again, varying by news site), appears to be 29 dead, including 22 children. Presumably doesn't include the shooter himself (suicide, I assume).
A law enforcement official says the attacker in the Connecticut school shootings is a 20-year-old man with ties to the school.
The official said that a gun used in the attacks is a .223-caliber rifle. The official also said that New Jersey state police are searching a location in that state in connection with the shootings, said by an official in Connecticut to have left 27 dead, including 18 children.
So, probably reporters are talking to sources with various agencies, and there'll be conflicting information for a while.
Isn't one of those assault rifles .223 caliber? AR-15, M-16, M-4 etc?
Updated at 1 p.m. ET: Twenty-six people were killed, including 18 children, when a gunman opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school Friday morning, a law enforcement official said.
The gunman, who is dead, was a 20-year-old from Connecticut, an official said. He was wearing all black and was carrying two 9mm handguns.
*Note: All the news sites are reporting different numbers, so like other incidents like that, that'll probably get updated throughout today and this weekend.
I can't really fathom or process anyone doing this kind of thing. Well I don't think any of us can ever fathom it regardless of situation, but at a elementary school? Just boggles the mind.
Quote from: Arclight on December 13, 2012, 08:59:59 PM
If I had a weight problem I would pin pictures up of the McRib everywhere I went. No better way to put me off food for a few hours. Disgusting, revolting, and I'm sure that its immoral in some degree or another.
Actually, while it's horrifying in the fat department, McRib is quite modest (relatively speaking, compared to say, a Quarter Pounder) in calories (500) and sodium (980 - not good, but most fast food is crazy on the salt, even classier places like Panera).
I wouldn't live on it, but you can enjoy it once in a while as a pork-like squiddish piece of goodness.
My first match involved me initially Zerg-rushing basic engineers to all the capture points. However, my foothold soon crumbled under the weight of Soviet sniper bullets.
It’s now worth mentioning two of the new features being implemented for the sequel; a new line-of-sight system (dubbed “TrueSight”) and the dynamic weather. Large objects in the world can now block your unit’s effective LOS until they move into a position where the object no longer obscures their view of a particular part of the terrain, opening up ambushing opportunities.
This, in combination with the random blizzards that now appear, was the saving grace of my veteran engineer unit when it came under fire from enemy snipers. The sudden snowstorm reduced the range of the snipers and I was able to retreat back to safety behind a bunch of trees to wait for reinforcements.
But if the bullets didn’t kill them, the cold definitely did. I found out the hard way that leaving infantry idling in a blizzard without basking them in the warmth of a building or fire is a reliable way to ensure their torturous virtual death.
I wonder if there's a "Meteorologist" unit that runs around yelling "Partly Cloudy! Cold front on the horizon! Wind coming in from the SE! Wintry mix!"
My admittedly jaded 2 cents is there are already too many sites doing those first 3 examples. In fact, there are so many, that now you have sites like Movieline contracting with Variety to run its reviews. And umpteen sites aggregating work done by other sites (as happens with many gaming news sites). And reviews online just tend to lead to comments threads of 100 screaming, ranting people angry that someone liked/didn't liked a movie. Although that's basically the Internet about anything.
fwiw, though, I tend to enjoy movie sites that focus on: -Interviews (doesn't have to be with stars -- I love reading interviews with cinematographers, screenwriters, 2nd unit directors, stunt coordinators, makeup FX guys, FX devs, etc. -- I far more enjoy reading interviews about the craft of film making, then another dopey interview with the celebrity of the week) -Columns about movies (for examples, see Roger Ebert's site's columns, which are to the right of his reviews). -Retrospectives on classic movies of any genre (there's never a shortage of material)
If you are going to run reviews, I'd try to be up front about what the goal is. Is the reviewer simply stating his own personal opinion of the movie (which is what most film critics do); or is the reviewer supposed to be some mind-reader who's supposed to pronounce approximately what % of the masses will enjoy a film (which is what a lot of folks online think a "film reviewer" is supposed to do -- i.e., read their mind and tell them if they'll enjoy something or not).
I enjoyed reviewing films for my college paper in 1986-1987. It was a blast to attend early screenings with our arts editor, and I got to review things like Aliens, Predator, Raising Arizona and Creepshow 2, among others. Would I do it now? Hell no. I don't want to deal with a thousand anonymous trolls calling me a dumbass for liking or not liking a movie. I love the Internet in a thousand ways but for the most part, I think it's made being a reviewer of anything a miserable experience unless you just decide to cordon yourself off from any online feedback.
Strolled to McDonald's for lunch, no spring in my step. When what do I see on the restaurant window? (took photo from inside later) I grin. And remember this thread.
Temptation!
Still too much sauce, imho (wish I could get it on the side)
Still tastes good imho. Just, there was a hard tiny bit in mine (thankfully I extracted it before hurting a tooth). Maybe ground up human tissue or hog snout?
I think maybe one slight change is using sort of "onion slivers" rather than diced onions. Or maybe it was always like that? I leave it up to the McRib experts here to get me up to speed on that.
An affected source tells us that the number of developers out of work today -- developers spanning several disciplines, including artists and designers -- numbers somewhere in the neighborhood of 40.
The company confirmed that there were layoffs today "in response to market conditions, product timelines and the natural evolution of our company," though refused to confirm either the number affected or whether it was the Rift team specifically.
I've started to say the only time you want to be working for an MMO dev not named Blizzard is just before launch. It's like a paper airplane. Exciting until launch, and then eventually a decay back to earth is inevitable...
Surprisingly Costner's answer to the young Clark sitting on the back of his pick up is one of the most interesting points of the trailer for me,we have all grown up knowing Pa Kent instilled good into Clark and taught him about Values etc,So Costner's Pa Kent saying that made me raise my eyebrows a little
Man of Steel looks like its going to have a lot of questions and a really interesting story
Agreed. I just don't want Snyder's Superman to be mopey, ya know? I think they can take this different tact without reducing him to a constantly sad, unhappy character in a movie with no sense of fun. imho the first couple Superman films had both a sense of seriousness and a sense of fun, and that's really not easy to balance. I hope Snyder can achieve that.
I can sort of see Nolan's involvement as far as wanting to ground - as much as possible - the story in the concept of "Well, if Superman really could exist, how would our governments and populace respond to it?" Would we embrace him and just welcome him, or would we automatically see him as a walking time-bomb and threat to civilization? Or as a 'weapon of mass destruction' that a government needed to control. And does that veer too far into X-Men territory?
We'll see if a summer movie audience can handle that kind of ambiguity vs., you know, obliterating masses of space aliens. I embrace both.
One major aspect of the visual style of this film is the much-debated 48 frames per second. I’ve heard some reviewers claim it looks like a cheap BBC televised production, but that’s utter nonsense. It looked glorious, a level of detail and clarity that enhanced the colors and texture and movements of every scene. It’s akin to the difference between watching a DVD on a regular television, and a Blu-ray on a flat screen HDTV. When the movie begins, for a couple of minutes the difference in fluidity of movement, the precision of details and depth, is striking. But very quickly your eyes adapt, and the effect is breathtaking.
A big advantage to the new frame rate is that action scenes, even very fast paced sequences full of quick edits and (in one scene) literally hundreds of characters going in every direction, are never hard to follow or blurred by movement. It’s so crisp and clear that you can take it all in and understand what’s going on despite the scale of some of these sequences. Likewise, this means the 3D effect never lacks clarity or blurs from movement, and the result is a 3D depth into the scenery that is perfect throughout. A moment to comment on that — The Hobbit is one of those films that uses 3D to create a sense of space and weight to scenes, delving into the screen rather than just trying to project items out at the audience. ... I’ll put it to you like this: If you saw the The Lord of the Rings trilogy in theaters and liked it, The Hobbit is faster paced, has more humor and wit, has better special effects and CGI, has more action, and is in a beautifully vivid 3D. That’s the basic truth of the comparison between the former trilogy and this new film. Now, you also need to realize that this film has a lighter overall tone, which can perhaps best be described as the difference between the tone of The Dark Knight Rises compared to The Avengers, although not *quite* as stark a contrast (but pretty close).
I remain eager to see it (at least once in the 48 fps version), even if I've never read The Hobbit, and I've not been terribly impressed with Jackson's post LOTR trilogy work (King Kong remake, and the - most would say - misguided adaptation of The Lovely Bones).
Reminding me, in wrong ways, of the dreadful Wild Wild West movie.
I'd only give it a chance because I'm sure the first Pirates trailers left people thinking, "WTF is that?" If there is something fun about LR or Depp's performance, the initial trailers don't seem to get it across well.
*putting my WW2 history buff hat on* Interesting stuff, guys. Esp. given that the Germans only had one operational bomber considered a long-range "heavy" bomber (though still just two engines), the Heinkel He 177: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_177 *That didn't enter service until 1942.
Now if you read German prototype and project plane lists, they had all sorts of heavy bomber plans that never made it to production.
In other words (as I understand it anyway), most of the Blitz were by bombers more equivalent to say, a medium U.S. B-25 Mitchell, rather than our B-17/B-24s or the British Lancasters of the 1940s. You can only imagine what sort of horror the Germans might've wreaked with, say, hordes of B-29-ish heavy bombers back in 1940 -- I venture something like that would've been tougher for British Spitfires/Hurricanes to down quickly -- but thankfully we didn't find out.
Quote from: Soulchilde on November 27, 2012, 11:19:11 AM
I logged in over the weekend... ran around the station and logged off. Deleted the game from my hard drive
Sad I was excited for this game... I'll stick with Guild Wars 2 for my MMO at the present
C'mon bud. I mean, you wouldn't cancel various MMOs because the first half hour was banging on rats and mice, right?
My memory is foggy but for me the sweet spot in SWTOR was probably somewheres around L10 to L35 or so. Once you get your class tree delineated into specialties, get a speeder, have enough places to go, there's some more variety in mission lines to follow etc.
What lost me later on is many of the later zones just didn't seem as interesting to me as Tatooine, Hoth and some earlier areas. I don't think it was an accident that the areas I remembered from various SW movies were the most fun, and later ones I never heard of just felt drab.
I loved playing as smuggler. Ultimately I just didn't really get into any of the other classes that much, and being a jedi just wasn't quite as much fun as I hoped. I still think a more interesting light saber "fighting mechanic," maybe akin to AoC's key combos, might've made using light sabers more fun.
And I think ultimately the whole ridiculous mmorpg gameplay mechanics that a server based game require -- i.e., a so-called AI that "responds" to you on proximity, chases you X distance, then goes back to its starting point -- over the years just grated on me.
I mean, it's 13 years past Everquest, most players have broadband now, yet the mmorpg gameplay mechanics are largely still "plop groups of 3 enemies here and there, and maybe an occasional group to 'patrol.'" And players either engage groups one by one, or try to sneak past them. That's about it.
Is it just not possible to change that up? That's why I'm out of mmorpgs.
Apparently both sides are actually pretty close but they're both acting like children and refusing to be the side that gives in.
Underlined hits it on the head imho.
I do feel Fehr spoke out of turn (he could've just said, "We're still talking, so that's good," etc.), but that's probably a negotiations tactic. To some extent I'm sure most of us would just prefer both sides shut up completely until they actually have a deal in place. Otherwise, it's two kids going "nyah, nyah!" and "He did it first!" and so forth. Fans probably don't want to keep having their hopes jerked around like this.
Most columnists/pundits seem to think if they don't have an agreement by early January, they'll scratch it altogether since they likely couldn't even play a 48-game type season.
Here in DC area at least got to enjoy a Hershey/Norfolk AHL game at Verizon Center. Reports said that while it was technically sold out, it looked only about 2/3-filled.
Very ponderous, with everyone looking like they're in a really sad perfume commercial. I just hope they don't forget to have a sense of fun, which was what I enjoyed most about the first film. Though I gather this trailer is mostly to establish Cumberbund... Batch... As vengeful bad ass.
Kotaku did a nice roundup of farewell events and efforts, which included raising $1,000 to treat the dev team to a fancy farewell dinner, and various videos, Tweets etc. of the final day.
I will retain my memories of my glory days there. I still have many screenshots. And of course my scrapper Blackjack lives on in name.
While I'm tempted to limit that to the glorious 6 months or so between COH's launch and WoW's launch in 2004 (many pals fled to WoW, never or not often to return), I really had a blast and was addicted through about the time of LOTRO's release in 2007. I tried re-visiting for a while in 2008, and did have some fun with the Mission Creator but eventually I trailed off into too many other mmorpgs, including some deceased ones (Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, etc.).
I just have no itch for mmorpgs at all anymore. My best memories will probably still be from City of Heroes and LOTRO, and perhaps the first few weeks of SWTOR. I don't even necessarily mean that in terms of the gameplay, I mean that in terms of the people I met and had fun playing with, including GT folks in SWTOR.
Quote from: hepcat on December 03, 2012, 08:53:52 PM
If it weren't for the presence of the military guards in that poster, I would have just assumed he was picked up for public urination or something.
We're all hoping the film answers the question of how does Superman take a leak while wearing that suit. Or does he even have to? Perhaps he can hold it... forever!
I vote they use the Star Trek into Darkness poster as the Man of Steel poster. Then they can doctor-in Cumberbatch into this poster and use it as the Star Trek into Darkness poster.
I know the remaining players want to make NCSoft out to be Darth Vader but they kept the game going for 8 years for crying out loud, probably at a loss in recent years. Sooo many mmorpgs have come and died since then, including many NCSoft titles. I still miss Tabula Rasa. If it had more time in the oven before launch, I think Auto Assault might've had a chance.
And what publisher in their right mind is going to spend (probably) millions on taking over an 8-year old mmorpg with a decaying (albeit enthusiastic/passionate) subscriber base? It wouldn't make sense in this global economic environment. If Cryptic/Perfect World wasn't still running Champions, I could've maybe seen Jack Emmert and Co. wanting to "save" their original baby, but it wouldn't make any sense now.
If WoW never existed (City of Heroes released in April 2004, WoW in November 2004), it would've been interesting to see how the mmorpg market panned out. It might've been more interesting for the category to have several strongly successful games rather than one 10 million ton gorilla and everyone else futilely chasing its tail and constantly being labeled a WoW-clone (at least, predating it, City of Heroes never had to deal with that label).
Then again, maybe without that gorilla to chase, the whole genre would've died out years ago.
I received Darksiders PC for free, I think with Space Marine. Lots of us had constant crashing problems (could never play more than 10 minutes or so without it crashing), and THQ never bothered to patch the PC version at all. So imho, do NOT buy the bundle for THAT. I'm just glad I didn't pay for that particular crap.
I guess it'll be interesting to see if other hardware makers come up with cheaper keyboards for Surface. $120-$130 keyboards for a $899 device. Does that make sense? You can certainly buy expensive keyboards for iPads but you can also get excellent keyboards or case/integrated keyboards for $50 or less.
The same could happen with Surface. It's just, MS is hawking their pricey keyboards so much in advertising, third party makers (Logitech etc.) might not see any point in offering something else.
fwiw, I did try a few Surface tablet models at a Microsoft store recently. I really want to like it and using Windows 8 on it. Instead, I felt confounded by the gestures system at every turn. On one tablet, the hardware Windows button (presumbly to return you too the main tiles hom screen) simply didn't seem to do anything, maybe it was broken. I'm sure with practice I could figure out simply how to get back to that screen once I'm in a running program, but it never felt intuitive to me. If there's a way to get a simple in-screen tutorial in Windows 8 on how to do things, that would probably help me and maybe others that feel lost when trying these.
The real question is.... is "Star Trek" a noun-phrase or a verb-phrase?
I guess at work I'll start saying, "I"m gonna Star Trek out for a sandwich!" and "I really need to Star Trek to the restroom!"
Which is my stupid way of saying I think the title is silly, but I hope the movie is entertaining, and at the very lease, it sounds like JJ might tone down the lenses flares a bit. You might not have to wear sunglasses in the theater this time.
On my own questions, director/FX guru Greg Nicotero clarified everything on "The Talking Dead" talk show at 11 p.m. -- and my "is this what it means?" speculation was correct. And what I (and people on the talk show) thought was one thing, was in fact something else. I agree it's not really spelled out.
I don't know if that's a complaint on my part per se -- I think that episode, if you can stomach it, sort of "rewards" a second viewing because you pay closer attention to certain things and then go "aaaaah, that's what that means." I just feel like, in a couple places, maybe the camera needed to zoom in a bit more so we the audience knew what ... the character had figured out. Rather than leaving us squinting, and going, "Huh? What's that thing?"
Damn, tonight's episode just FLEW by. I thought we were only at the 30-40 minute mark and suddenly the end credits start scrolling.
So... (including a question or two for those who watched tonight)
Spoiler for Hiden:
*Serious Michonne action, that was cool. *I hope Andrew Lincoln doesn't get paid by the word since he doesn't, afik, have a single word of dialogue in the episode. Cool. *At 10 p.m. I was bringing laundry back in and missed the pre-credits sequence. So I caught it at the 11 p.m. repeat time. When the governor's hair brush pulls up his walker daughter's skin, I think I might've vomited in my mouth a bit. Likewise when Rick starts stabbing that walker's bloated stomach.
*Speaking of which, is that bloated walker that Rick hacks up, is that maybe a walker that ate Laurie's corpse or something? I wasn't really clear on that. *Any idea what tiny thing Rick picks up? I assumed maybe Laurie's wedding ring, or a finger?
*Loved hearing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" song. Can you imagine contacting their record company to ask for permission? "Uh, there's this arena, and they fight with a bunch of zombies on chains on the perimeter." "Uh... SURE! We love your show!"
Quote from: leo8877 on November 12, 2012, 03:45:58 AM
Quote from: Blackjack on November 12, 2012, 03:44:57 AM
Took my mom to see it, and we can attest to its "cross-generational" appeal. I rarely see Bond movies in theaters more than once but I might make an exception. While all the action is fine and some stunt set pieces are imho truly spectacular/unique, I think it boils down to a fine screenplay and memorable characters who get some room to breathe.
For those who've sign it, I guess I missed something but is it ever explained exactly what "Skyfall" is? Have to move into spoiler code to ask anything more specific...
Spoiler for Hiden:
I know Skyfall comes up when the MI6 "tester" is asking Bond "word association" stuff, but I and my mom couldn't recall any other references in the movie to it. Did it have something to do with that island? Or maybe it's a code name for that list of MI6 agents embedded in terrorist groups to gather intelligence?
Spoiler for Hiden:
Skyfall was the name of his family estate, they showed a sign towards the end when they arrive there.
Aaaaaaah. Damn. Another reason for me to see it again. Thanks.
Took my mom to see it, and we can attest to its "cross-generational" appeal. I rarely see Bond movies in theaters more than once but I might make an exception. While all the action is fine and some stunt set pieces are imho truly spectacular/unique, I think it boils down to a fine screenplay and memorable characters who get some room to breathe between the requisite action scenes.
Who thought Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, Kate Winslet's ex-husband) was the ideal James Bond director? Not me. Should be a lesson to know it alls... like myself... who have Internet hissy fits when a non-action movie director is attached to something actiony. Maybe, if the screenplay's solid, that's exactly what you need sometimes.
For those who've sign it, I guess I missed something but is it ever explained exactly what "Skyfall" is? Have to move into spoiler code to ask anything more specific...
Spoiler for Hiden:
I know Skyfall comes up when the MI6 "tester" is asking Bond "word association" stuff, but I and my mom couldn't recall any other references in the movie to it. Did it have something to do with that island? Or maybe it's a code name for that list of MI6 agents embedded in terrorist groups to gather intelligence?
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It just wouldn't surprise me if these various bread crumb hints are simply red herrings.
Agreed, man. I love it though, thanks Ceekay. I assumed McNuggets were the appetizer. 
Would I do it now? Hell no. I don't want to deal with a thousand anonymous trolls calling me a dumbass 
for liking or not liking a movie. I love the Internet in a thousand ways but for the most part, I think it's made being a reviewer of anything a miserable experience unless you just decide to cordon yourself off from any online feedback.
(took photo from inside later) I grin. And remember this thread. 
I'm just glad I didn't pay for that particular crap.
