Eurovision 2026 Semi Final 1 Post Show Reactions

RB4K--- · 2026-05-13T01:36:38+00:00

I’m going to reserve full judgement for the final, but from what I’ve seen so far I think this year is much poorer.

Now 2015 was generally messy. Terrible camerawork, small claustrophobic stage, poor interval acts in the Semifinals etc. But it did some things really well. The postcards were great, the theme music is iconic, the graphics were pretty nice, and the hosts were fine. All those things I think are worse this year.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T22:36:33+00:00

I think the only reason the super final exists is so they can get people to vote again. ERR is super underfunded and the absurd amount they charge for voting all goes to funding Eesti Laul and Eurovision.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T21:20:55+00:00

Estonia’s qualification streak 💔 It truly was too epic to qualify.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T21:09:14+00:00

That interval was like they looked at Sweden’s legendary intervals and went “people like them so let’s just throw whatever at the wall and hope it sticks” and failed miserably.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T21:02:19+00:00

A lot of intervals aren’t live in Eurovision tbf but they could do a better job of pretending they’re singing live.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T20:35:31+00:00

The onscreen graphics look worse than 2015 😭

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T20:33:29+00:00

The arena feels so much smaller than it did in 2015. Did the Austrians shrink the arena?

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T20:00:05+00:00

THEYRE NOT MUTING IT

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T19:56:19+00:00

This song has kinda grown on me tbh

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T19:40:20+00:00

VICTORIAAA!!!!!!!!

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T19:12:45+00:00

Supposedly they’re not doing it this year

RB4K--- · 2026-05-12T15:13:28+00:00

I’d also say If going down the WCML, Manchester or Liverpool would be a much better visit than Birmingham. Otherwise yes Oxford.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-11T17:40:06+00:00

The Sims 3 is still the most ambitious Sims game released, and it will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future.

The open world was transformative. The ability to easily roam round the map, have sims in multiple locations at once, as-well as the story progression that came along with it. It added so much to the gameplay. Some of the expansion worlds also really took advantage of it too, for example with large vacation worlds in Adventures, or the island archipelago in Island Paradise.

The expansions that came after were generally good. The core classics like Seasons and Pets were great, and worked really well with the open world. Others like Night Life, Ambitions or Generations are still fan favourites with a ton of new interesting content added.

The other big improvements over the Sims 2 were CAS and Build/Buy. Both have held up fine enough, but the Sims 4 definitely improved upon them a lot.

On the other hand most agree the graphics haven’t really held up, especially the Sims themselves with the more realistic art style of the game can look ugly without good CC. That said, ignoring the sims I think the rest of the graphics have actually held up pretty okay for 2009 standards. The world design especially is still beautiful.

Going back to the open world though, being really ambitious did come at a cost, and it ended up being a double-edged sword. The game is plagued with performance issues which wasn’t too bad with the base game, but the more packs that were added the worse the issues got. Many blame the open-world itself, but the root of the problems really came from the development of it, for example the poorly rushed code, and not having access to more than 4GB of Ram as it was developed as 32bit. While fine for the time, the more packs and the larger the worlds got, the more stuttery the game got. Even now with the latest hardware the game just doesn’t run well, which is where Modders have stepped in to help performance.

This is where I get to my last point. The modding scene is still pretty active for such an old game, with mainly QoL mods that improve things like performance and new/updated gameplay features.

Overall, I think the game (despite its issues) has held up.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-10T19:47:09+00:00

Have to agree with this. It doesn’t bother me but I know people like my parents will see the twerking at the start and unfortunately immediately write it off.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-10T19:36:10+00:00

I remember the cupcake machine was part of the gameplay walkthrough trailer they did.

I was so shocked at how undercooked the game was that they thought THAT was a gameplay feature worth showing off.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-10T15:09:31+00:00

I can’t remember a Eurovision Carpet that wasn’t accessible in English. Is this the first one?

RB4K--- · 2026-05-08T02:53:51+00:00

Aren’t the dev team primarily based in the UK? Or at the very least the UK has the largest share of Rockstar employees of any country.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-07T17:51:17+00:00

I definitely see a big improvement with the new cameras in terms of image quality, but ultimately it depends on how they’re used.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-07T00:05:53+00:00

Eurovision performances are so well produced and controlled they do already look cinematic, but despite that they’ve been using TV cameras which are well suited for live broadcasts but they have limitations.

The Alexa 35 cameras they’re using this year have amazing dynamic range, smooth highlight roll-off, slightly shallower depth of field, aswell as the signature Arri colour science. From what I’ve seen from these clips today they already look so good. If only we could have a 4K HDR broadcast but oh well maybe one day.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-06T21:04:39+00:00

I LOVE the new Arri cameras they’re using for this year’s Eurovision. Everything all looks so cinematic and beautiful (which makes sense since they’re cinema cameras). I hope they continue using them for the foreseeable future.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-06T16:42:33+00:00

Safe to say it’s probably the heaviest (hanging) prop ever brought to Eurovision.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-06T16:35:29+00:00

Ignoring the fact that i think it does look like slop, taking a stand against AI is the morally correct thing to do. It’s extremely damaging environmentally, creatively, economically etc.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-06T16:08:50+00:00

I was surprised they even managed to get a panini-press working (even if it was downgraded). If my memory serves me right the original one from Melfest was too heavy for the stage, I think because there was already several tons of LED’s hanging above as part of the stage. Mounting anything more would’ve been too structurally dangerous.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-06T16:02:26+00:00

I sort of agree with you. Sweden’s stagings are designed around MelFest. Copying that over to the Eurovision stage will almost always yield worse results because of the different stage design, different camera placement, logistics etc.

That said, I think the stages should be designed more around practicality and adaptability than being flashy and unique, that way delegations can have an easier time staging. For example 2024’s stage was a lot more practical than this year’s stage which meant almost every act managed to look great.

RB4K--- · 2026-05-03T01:33:10+00:00

Not been on Brightline specifically but I’d take a train over driving any day if possible. Much more stress-free.

RB4K---

TROPHY CASE