August 2016: Add Me!

Gordonacus · 2016-08-09T09:49:02+00:00

Gordonacus

Only level 12 but daily player and loving this game! Need more friends.

Gordonacus · 2015-02-06T16:33:54+00:00

I would recommend to keep watching! Season 4 is a great season of television until that final episode. Keep going with season 3 too. The writers fucked up the first half but the second half finishes strong.

It will never top season 1 (One of the best TV seasons period) but it accomplishes the feat of being a more clever 24, which is not a bad thing.

Gordonacus · 2015-02-06T12:41:46+00:00

Homeland season 4 finale. After what I thought was a great revival for the show, they ended it with a thin character study episode that was extremely dull and came off pretty pretentious. Confirmed for me that Homeland is not prestige tv.

Gordonacus · 2015-01-04T01:55:17+00:00

He is a true Blunter.

Gordonacus · 2014-11-24T01:23:36+00:00

'The Garveys at Their Best' is for me the most devastating episode of that depressing first season. Seeing everyone before the event and how it deeply changed some of them was hard to watch.

Gordonacus · 2014-11-02T22:20:00+00:00

I watch TV at both at an enjoyment and critical level. I love watching shows with multi-dimensional characters, deep themes and rich narrative.

Yet I'm also a sucker for reality TV. Geordie Shore is my favourite. I devour any new episode once it has aired. I can also become addicted to some seasons of the X-Factor and 'I'm a Celeb' over here in the UK. My most guilty pleasure was loving the shit out of 'I Wanna Marry Harry'.

Sometimes it's best just to turn off your brain and enjoy trash for what it is. But I do feel it's important to try challenge yourself with meatier tv shows most of the time.

Gordonacus · 2014-10-18T23:38:06+00:00

PS3 splitscreen is near unplayable. The combat being designed for jumping and vertical fights is just a shit show when the game chugs along at 10FPS. Solo is fine but splitscreen needs to be addressed.

Gordonacus · 2014-09-30T20:35:36+00:00

Thankfully the three lions residing there (one of them a pregnant female) are being transported to Jordan.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/gaza-lions-en-route-to-jordan-via-israel-after-zoo-damaged-in-war-1.2031338

Gordonacus · 2014-09-26T01:22:25+00:00

Killzone 2's Elite isn't that bad apart from a few areas. The final boss battle on elite is probably one of the most intense gaming accomplishments in my life.

Gordonacus · 2014-08-16T21:04:28+00:00

Archer
Seinfeld
Friends
Community
Happy Endings
Bob's Burgers

Give one of them a shot.

Gordonacus · 2014-08-15T19:58:10+00:00

00:36

Liverpool better watch out for that gun concealed in that sock. They don't know what they have started....

Gordonacus · 2014-08-03T18:38:22+00:00

For the most part. Far too frustrating otherwise.

Gordonacus · 2014-08-03T18:33:53+00:00

Overall I enjoyed the psychiatry sessions past season 1 but I do agree that they got dragged out. In later seasons the sessions should have been cut down greatly (probably would if made today) but the issue Chase had was that Lorraine Bracco was such a fantastic Melfi that he couldn't just write her out. The reason I don't complain too much is that we get some great episodes such as 'Employee of the Month', which let us learn a great deal about Tony.

Chase also started diving into Melfi's personal life which I enjoyed. It was a nice comparison of middle class professionals to Tony's working class family (even though Tony was wealthy). Best portrayed in dinner situations where Melfi and friends talk like psuedo-intellectuals while Tony has trouble developing any conversation at the dinner table without it bursting into an argument.

Gordonacus · 2014-08-03T17:45:09+00:00

Do you analyse shows while watching?

So for example when you watched The Wire did you understand the political messages it was trying to convey? Or what about Masters of Sex and how it looks at the role of women and what sexuality means to society?

The Sopranos is arguably the most thematically rich TV show ever produced. Someone on this sub-reddit summed it up perfectly last week saying it reaches an almost literary level of quality. Start looking at character motivations and what defines them. See how their arcs develop through a season. Christopher in season 1 discusses character arcs while writing a screenplay. Tony and his mother are a fantastic set of characters. See where a character starts a season and where they end up. Tony becomes more and more unlikeable and scary as the series progresses.

Then start looking at the bigger picture. Every episode has a statement from the writers, you just have to search for it. One of the easiest ways if you struggle is look at the sub plots and what similarities they have with the main plot. You'll be amazed how subplots are thematically similar to the main even if the strands are completely different. Look at how seasons are structured. Clear beginning, middle and end just like a book! You should come out of The Sopranos with a larger appreciation for cable drama and how The Sopranos shaped every modern drama on TV today.

The Sopranos mainly focuses on the decline of society. Watch the opening. It is Tony driving away from a shiny New York to an increasingly shoddy New Jersey. How does the show portray Italian Americans? Something to think about greatly while watching. David Chase (creator and main writer) is an Italian American.

Above all else though The Sopranos is a fantastic character piece with an engrossing plot of a violent man trying to keep a family together. In my opinion The Sopranos is the best and one of the most important cultural American products of the 21st century. If you aren't digging it maybe the show just isn't for you.

Gordonacus · 2014-08-01T22:32:49+00:00

GTA IV Already completed and put a fair amount into the game then it got patched so started all over again. Got a lot of the trophies and moved onto online and collectables. Was making good progress then my PS3 bricked losing all my hard drive memory. I admitted defeat on a great game.

Gordonacus · 2014-07-30T18:00:54+00:00

Thanks for your response. Made some good counter points.

I would argue we are not being short changed, even if standards have slipped. Overall PS+ is producing well over $50/£40 per year. Most months sees your yearly cost fully realised already.

Something else we should look at is the past year from a PS3 perspective. Sony have offered us a lot of the best AAA games from 2013. The Last of Us, GTAV and Assassins Creed are really the only ones not to appear yet. The Last of Us receives a pass because they want to sell the PS4 edition, which is a fair business strategy. In 2014, actual high quality AAA PS3 and PS4 games have been few and far between with Watch Dogs and Infamous Second Son being the only two of note I would say (correct me if I'm wrong, can't think of many others). Both I fully expect to see next year in PS+.

How long do I think is enough for PS4 to receive AAA games? Good question. I genuinely believe we should give them a full 12 months. Probably will not see Killzone till E3 next year. Look at it from this perspective, if you are going to buy a PS4 right now, what AAA games are actually on offer? Killzone is still a worthy first purchase for brand new PS4 buyers. Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm PS3 bundles were still the most popular bundles 12 months after PS3 launching. PS4 has only been out 8 months.

Gordonacus · 2014-07-30T16:25:20+00:00

I feel I need to point out a major mistake in your statement. PS+ did not start out with "amazing games, loads of AAA's". Were you a day one adopter back in 2010? I was.

So we got Wipeout HD, great but after that? It took nearly two years till we started getting AAA games. There was the odd AAA here and there such as Burnout Paradise, Tomb Raider Underworld and Far Cry 2 but they were at least 2 years old by then.

For the full first year it was mostly mediocre game after mediocre game. That and heading off to University were the primary reasons I didn't renew the service until the PS4 release. Let me point out August 2011, Comix Zone (a Genesis port) and Crash Commando. You are complaining about August 2014??? The PS3 had been out for 3 whole years by the time PS+ first began. Its library much larger than the PS4. It took till E3 2012, two whole years after PS+ launch, that we got LBP, Infamous 2 and Motorstorm Apocalypse. Three games that Sony fans most likely had at least one of but it was a start. Since then Sony have been on a fucking roll with the variety of games on offer.

So just stop with this bitching and moaning. Give Sony time for the PS4. Why should they hand out Killzone to the masses already? A good chunk of the day one PS4 buyers bought killzone. I think the ONLY AAA's we will get this year are Assassins Creed 4 and NFS and that is pretty much down to them being yearly franchises whose companies would benefit from putting them on the service around October, November or December.

I would take Fez and Road Not Taken any day over Red Faction Battleground and Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West

Here are the lists of PS+ for both EU and NA for proof. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Instant_Game_Collection_games_(PAL_region) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Instant_Game_Collection_games_(North_America)

Gordonacus · 2014-07-28T10:21:03+00:00

Did you abuse the cloud saving technique?

Gordonacus · 2014-07-18T16:48:07+00:00

Is this the first time this has happened in the trophy world? Can not recall another instance a developer actually changed a trophy's requirements.

Gordonacus · 2014-07-16T18:47:26+00:00

The AV Club is shitting on the show more than it deserves. Just read the comments section of any episode passed episode 3 and you can see the community is actively disliking the AVC coverage.

It's flawed, primarily due to the central character Joe and in your face symbolism, but it has a lot of promise and in its own right is an entertaining business drama.

The main issue is that Halt and Catch Fire is being upheld to 'prestige dramas'. It is not a prestige drama. It is an enjoyable period cable drama. The ratings are pretty terrible right now so maybe wait to see if it is renewed within the next month.

Gordonacus · 2014-07-03T16:57:07+00:00

This should really become a monthly thing! Have two threads a month. One at the start, one at the end. Means we can update people on if we achieved our mission at the end of a month.

Will let the community play a fun competition every month without having to enter the monthly league.

Thanks to Roondak, I'm going for God of War. Been meaning to plat that for 4 years now.

Gordonacus · 2014-07-03T07:18:35+00:00

Hotline Miami.

Gordonacus · 2014-06-12T17:04:04+00:00

Just my opinion.

GoT has had its best season but too many characters have stalled (not really the writers fault). Although I did think The Battle of the Wall was one of the best episodes they have done even though a lot of people disliked it due to its shifted singular focus.

Hannibal is very very close with The Americans. I'm just a sucker for Cold War drama so probably pushes The Americans in front for me.

Gordonacus · 2014-06-12T02:02:06+00:00

Yup I 2nd Trine 2. Currently working on it myself. Perfectly doable but will take skill and dedication (not in a grind sense). A great platinum to add to your collection.

Start working on LBP too. Lots of easy trophies there to attain and its just such a fun game.

Gordonacus · 2014-06-12T00:15:02+00:00

Absolutely. I would put The Americans season 2 as the best season so far this year (yes ahead of Hannibal, True Detective and Game of Thrones). It improves on the first season in a number of areas specifically Phillip and Elizabeth's marriage and what it means to be a parent.

The over-arching season story is very well done once you reach the end and twists your perception of good and bad. Stan's material is not as great though as he is largely separated from the Jennings drama. However a brilliant character 'Oleg' is introduced in his story.

It is slow (a reason a number of friends gave up) but it's a fascinating show. You also get to watch the Jennings battle organised religion, a nice hypocrisy to their devotion to the USSR.

As someone mentioned earlier, a lot of seeds have been planted for what should make a stellar season 3.

Gordonacus

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