"state something completely random time!"

[QuickSciFi]

Huh, I did not get that at all. I played the shit out of the Lego Star Wars games and loved them. I found it to be an almost flawless combination of two seemingly disparate franchises, with clever gameplay that was light enough for younger gamers, and engaging enough for the more experienced ones. And the fact that it did an excellent job balancing being both a send-up and an homage to the movies was just icing on the cake.

Of course, I like the Mario games for many of the same reasons, so no accounting for taste.

Edit: Oh, and Beowulf was awful. I don't like any of that guy's animated movies.

I'll admit they have great gameplay. I'd actually written that as part of my original post, but edited it out for the sake of sticking to one position. I also played them on the Wii and I was surprised the graphics looked so crisp, almost HD. But I'm sticking with my views that I don't personally root for the whole lego-meets-*insert-franchise* presentation. I'd take the real deal anyday.

To use a better analogy, take Baten Kaitos on the Game Cube, for instance. It looks beautiful and it plays beautifully; but I'd rather play a conventional turn-based RPG than a trading card game RPG (if you haven't played it, it follows the trading card formula during battle mode).

I'm actually one for the mixing of genres. I love it when I see different engines at play in games; moving from a beat'em up to a shmup level (Death and Return of Superman) or from a Fighting RPG to a shmup level (Revengers of Vengeance), etc. I guess what I don't like is "real world + game" mashups; like trading cards + RPG game, or Lego + adventure game. To be more specific, what these sort of unions do for me is that they tend to disassociate me from the intended genres (i.e.- Star Wars, Batman; or a beatiful RPG storyline, in the case of Baten Kaitos). For me, it's like watching a really engaging movie, but something suddenly jerks you back to reality.

At any rate, I feel now like I used the wrong analogy originally, because I actually did like Beowulf. In fact, I had just finished watching it for a fourth time before I wrote that post. Like I said, the story is great, even though I still think they could've gone the live-action route with all the resources spent.

I liked Beowulf, but I didn't really care for how it was written. Neil Gaiman is overrated IMO (although I did like Coraline). I didn't like Grendel's design either. I always envisioned him to be kind of a brutish lizard man, not a giant deformed emo. If you want a good Beowulf that isn't really Beowulf then check out Outlander.

I loved Outlander, just like The 13th Warrior. I like just about everything Beowulf-related (which is probably why my favorite writer is Tolkien). The only exception for me is probably Neil Gaiman (e.g.- American Gods). Present day re-enactments are so overplayed. I prefer my time pieces as such, thank you very much (and I don't mean time pieces involving the present, like Timeline or Just Visiting, which I loved).

I'm about 50-50 with Neil Gaiman, myself. I tend to like about half his stories and about half the content of his stories. The thing is, he reads like a Paulo Coelho meets Michael Crichton (contemporary ultra-realistic fantasy meets borderline vulgar SciFi). I'm not sure if you get what I'm saying.

[MrMatthews]

Well, I still strongly disliked Beowulf. It was ugly and creepy, just like all of his movies now (who is that? Zemeckis?)

To me it's like that director back in the 80's who tried to be ground-breaking by animating over live action. It's just... wrong.

[Jesse813]

Just got back from vacation in Ocean City, MD. ate lots of crab, walked around the boardwalk, layed on the beach, played some mini golf and took the boat out a few times.

[QuickSciFi]

^Sounds like an awesome vacation.

[Jesse813]

yes except for chipmunk movies being watched everyday by my niece & nephew

[QuickSciFi]

Lol. How many people went with you?

[Jesse813]

me and my wife, my brother and his wife and my niece & nephew

[QuickSciFi]

Sounds like a great family outing.

[Jesse813]

lots of fun

[MrMatthews]

Just got back from vacation in Ocean City, MD. ate lots of crab, walked around the boardwalk, layed on the beach, played some mini golf and took the boat out a few times.

This is the longest post from Jesse I've ever seen.

I'm envious of all the crab you ate and sympathize about the Chipmunk movies. Welcome back.

[Jesse813]

i posted a few other long post a while back in the heydays of the Sega-16 Politics thread

[The Jackal]

[DarkDragon]

[The Jackal]

[DarkDragon]