Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[K7P5V]

Huge development in the Dragonball Super manga.

spoilers:

Piccolo finally has a house.

end of spoilers

Totally Awesome! Piccolo's come a long way (IMHO):

[Sharpandpointies]

Compilations like this really highlight how AI can't really keep to a consistent character design between iterations of the same thing. You've got the same character with wildly different body modifications and designs put next to each other.

Somewhat related, I'm stoked to hear about GLAZE.

Someone shared a post from an AI art generator website where the poster was complaining about how awful GLAZE is because it 'poisons the well' by not only preventing the stealing, but teaching the algorithm something incorrect. And proceeding to complain 'why don't they just put a watermark on it saying not to use their art without permission?'

[Me] *reading comment* This is what someone who steals art for AI without asking for permission would say.

[Sharpandpointies]

IPCC just put out their final report for Ar6.

Does not look good. But this is not a surprise (partly because the final report is a compilation of the other reports for Ar6).

What is a surprise is so many people just humming away through life, not changing a thing. Still.

[Sharkerbob]

Somewhat related, I'm stoked to hear about GLAZE.

Someone shared a post from an AI art generator website where the poster was complaining about how awful GLAZE is because it 'poisons the well' by not only preventing the stealing, but teaching the algorithm something incorrect. And proceeding to complain 'why don't they just put a watermark on it saying not to use their art without permission?'

[Me] *reading comment* This is what someone who steals art for AI without asking for permission would say.

"I just want to take all this guy's furniture and sell it in a back alley! Why would he put an alarm system in his house, how dare he, it isn't fair!" -- My AI Artist Strawman :V

[Dark Soul # 7]

Hmm.

I feel like this kinda misses the point of Gollum. But I'm no Tolkien-expert so I'm not sure.

[Nik Hasta]

Hmm.

I feel like this kinda misses the point of Gollum. But I'm no Tolkien-expert so I'm not sure.

Very weird. I mean, I like some of the character designs. Entertainingly extra and out there and distinct from the Jackson aesthetic.

No idea why though, not sure this character has the depth to support a game in his own right?

[Sharpandpointies]

"I just want to take all this guy's furniture and sell it in a back alley! Why would he put an alarm system in his house, how dare he, it isn't fair!" -- My AI Artist Strawman :V

Yeah, some of that feel to it.

Hmm.

I feel like this kinda misses the point of Gollum. But I'm no Tolkien-expert so I'm not sure.

Very weird. I mean, I like some of the character designs. Entertainingly extra and out there and distinct from the Jackson aesthetic.

No idea why though, not sure this character has the depth to support a game in his own right?

I'm vaguely interested in how it turns out.

There is actually a period of time between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (like, decades) where Gollum finally heads out in search of the Ring (and Bagginssss), ends up in Mordor, has to deal with Shelob, gets caught, is interrogated by none other than Sauron himself, eventually gets set free (HE says he escaped, but nobody believes that) to maybe find the Ring himself, gets captured by Aragorn and Gandalf, then gets put into the hands of the Elves of Mirkwood for safekeeping. He escapes them (with some assistance of an orc-assault), which is why Legolas turns up at the Council of Elrond - he's there to inform everyone that Gollum is on the lam.

So there's some room in here for an exploration of the character that really isn't touched on in the movies and it's a good choice for a stealth-game.

And yeah, some of the designs are nice. Gandalf, though...dude is waaaaay too young-looking; he would have passed the dark hair look a thousand years ago, probably. Maybe the designers didn't consider how old Gandalf actually is when they set the game forty years before Lord of the Rings or whatever?

[Sharpandpointies]

I'm somewhat shocked there's been no attempt to make an Aragorn video game, as there is just. So. Much. They could do/explore with that; dude has been running around fighting under multiple identities all over the bloody world for literally decades by the time LotR rolls around. I know they were considering a movie.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Nik Hasta]

This fight in Dandadan continues to kick a whole bunch of ass.

I'm somewhat shocked there's been no attempt to make an Aragorn video game, as there is just. So. Much. They could do/explore with that; dude has been running around fighting under multiple identities all over the bloody world for literally decades by the time LotR rolls around. I know they were considering a movie.

To my mind, Aragorn just doesn't have that much cut-through in the general public and he's not really mechanically distinct enough to build a game around. Like, you had War In The North, which was actually really good fun, which had...

...

Hold on... I have to look him up.

... Eradan, who was a ranger and effectively a reskin of Aragorn (to the point that my friend and I referred to him as "Not!Aragorn" or just "Strider" while playing the game together) but he wasn't tied into the main plot of the real LotR so they could write him, a dwarf and an elven wizard going to the north and fighting a bunch of orcs and **** without worrying about big continuity issues.

Also, because Aragorn is kinda just "dude with sword," he's a little hard to build a whole game around. The games of Two Towers and Return of the King, which were also really fun, had you able to play as multiple members of the Fellowship, something like Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War which has like the Assassin's Creed style-parkour/stealth gameplay and the whole spiritual elf/undead powers thing which is a bit more involved than Aragorn. He's just a bit vanilla to my mind.

Could do something like the Witcher games perhaps; less seriously involved combat with a more story and exploration-centred focus on your core gameplay loop but then you're back to the issue that Aragorn isn't as big a name as he could be and you could just come up with your own thing in the LotR world which allows more creative flexibility.

[Sharpandpointies]

I get what you're saying.

I feel that there's stuff to be explored with Aragorn. He's not just a fighter, he's a ranger who has been taught lore by Elves. A lot of lore. He has quasi-supernatural abilities that are hinted at in LotR (hands of the King, etc), he's perfectly capable of doing stealth-stuff as well, there are all manner of different skills one could have him learn RPG style.

No explosions or 'fighter-wizard' stuff, but still - could go well-beyond just 'sword'. Even into stuff like Númenorean weapon-crafting and spelled weapons/gear, which is...okay, effectively lost lore as of LotR, but in a video game? Sure - it was still around in the third age, so there's some precedent.

Plus, there's the advantage of him actually being...everywhere. Dude has done stuff in Gondor, in the North, he was a member of the Rohirrim for a while, he has travelled to the Southlands incognito, he captured Gollum, trained with Elladan and Elrohir for years, meets Arwen and falls in love with her. There's a whole lot to see, lessons for him to learn in-game, etc.

Maybe it's just me, but there's room for a lot there. I figure the guy has at least as much to hang on him as Gollum, anyway, and we're seeing a Gollum game coming. ^_^

Mileage, etc.

[Jcogginsa]

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, I've been following Sindar Princeling (which is basically Dracula Daily for LOTR) and it's nearing the end game.

I'm still mainly delighted that Piccolo picks up Pan from kindergarden so often that nobody bats an eye at his presence.

Dude is a giant green slug man who was basically a super villain around 20-30 years ago in universe. Now everybody is just chill with him.

He's even on the first name basis with Pan's teacher

[Postmania]

Haven't done one of these review segments in a while

Thunivu (2023): Big Tollywood heist film, which in a fashion I'm growing more accustomed to marries action with a series of twists and the main one at the start is that once again our suave team of youngsters robbing a bank is roughly blindsided by a stocky middle aged man who takes over the movie from about 10 minutes in and seems to basically have arrived on the scene from another movie, i.e, if the starting gang is from Heat or something this guy is from like, a later Fast and Furious entry. It's wild fun and then also segues into a whole segment criticizing banks and predatory loan schemes, which I guess is also a trademark I'm finding with some of these films in that they're not afraid to just completely catapult a movie into social messaging regardless of impact or pacing.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A film I've always heard about but haven't seen. Headed out to the theater back in February when it was airing on the big screen again across the nation. I was mistaken about who actually directed it however. I thought it was by the guy who did Hero, but actually it was by Ang Lee. As a result I was trying to make connections which basically generally turned out to not be real directorial things lol. I still could see some similarities, probably because of the genre (doomed love, the flying fighting style) but overall I found it kind of disappointing tbh. There's so much spent on the romance/s but I was never really feeling it because the characters are so removed. Fun action scenes and nice shot but not much else for me. Nice to see some of these actors like Michelle Yeoh too.

The Heroic Trio (1993): Speaking of Michelle Yeoh, this Hong Kong action film about three superheroes is a fun time. Hard to really describe for me since it seems to be pulling from a tradition i'm not really familiar with but it's some fun fight scenes and has some silliness like one of the main characters headbutting the skeletal undead remains of the villain in a fight. A little too much time spent on things I'm not super into like the romance on this one again though, but this one moves at a better pace and is not as long so its not as bad.

An Action Hero (2022): Centers around a Bollywood action star who has to go on the run in the UK after accidentally killing someone. The UK location is fun but the attempts to pastiche action stars and provide meaningful twists are pretty shallow and the plot is ridiculous but not in a good or interesting way. The action is also kind of meh. Not very good.

Lost Bullet (2020): This one was surprisingly fun. A pretty simple plot of a car mechanic who goes to jail for stealing and then ends up having to provide his skills to the police force for better time but runs into trouble in the process. It's kind of like a French take on the older Fast and Furious films in how grounded it is, but it's better than the sum of it's parts as the movie takes time to establish the character and plot. Later on when things do kick off there is a chase scene where the car mechanic has to use ridiculous car stuff to get him out of a situation though so that's in there too but even that is way more grounded than anything in the recent F&F movies, to its benefit.

Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle (2009): A short and sweet Japanese revenge exploitation flick which is basically dripping with ridiculous characters who have dialogue like the Resident Evil games and takes place in locations that feel like Metal Gear Solid 1. A cyborg in a post apocalyptic deteriorating city. There's robot arms. The villain is either maximum camp or a homophobic stereotype or both. Ridiculous movie with fight scenes like this



But it is fun, and its barely over an hour. It establishes protagonist backstory in literally the first minute and the effects department was apparently so bad (or the director was having so much fun) they show gore in one case by literally showing chopped up steak instead of an actual body.

Something in the Dirt (2022): A recent faux-documentary about a strange pair of glowing, floating crystals in an apartment made by two dysfunctional men in an apartment as they try to uncover what is happening. The movie however, is more interested in the dysfunction aspect of the two as they eventually come to conflict and break apart. It's also about the spiralling, never-ending nature of conspiracy theories in the modern age as the two chase tangents that are only thinly related to anything about the crystals. I'm a fan of the directors' works but this movie didn't really do it for me because it really wasn't about the mystery and the message about the two was kind of obvious.

Psycho Goreman (2020): Basically taps into both the silly costumes and villains of Power Rangers and over the top gore of an exploitation film as two kids discover a terrible conquerer from beyond the stars with all sorts of cosmic powers buried in their backyard and free it, with a catch that they also stumble upon the one means to control this fiend and use it to do some silly hijinks, half of which is innocent and half of which results in horrifying consequences for all involved but are also framed as silly. Ultimately too tonally dumb for me to really get into and also the characters are charming at first but not able to stay that way without growing really grating after like 30 minutes for me.

Spectral (2016): A military detachment in a vague Eastern European country find out they are being killed off by ghost like apparitions, and they're only recourse is to bring the scientist/engineer who designed their new spectral vision goggles which is the only means they have of seeing these ghosts in order to try and figure out a solution. The opening is well-done imo, setting up everyone well, but then the movie basically intends to turn into Black Hawk Down but with ghosts, which fails because the premise is too silly and the actors/plot are just not up to the task for making it work. Also the action is just boring. But I do get to steal some things for Jane in Ruins sorta.

The Red Silk Gambler (1972): Whoa! They really don't make them like this anymore. A tale of a travelling gambler who meets other female warriors working for shady sources and encounters battle as she travels. The cool part of there being female protagonists doing some neat action scenes is kind of negated by the way the movie kind of centers all of them (and women in general) being assaulted in one way or another though. Fun shots, some cool action, and definitely a unique mood, but not something I need to see again.

Traffickers (2012): One of the earlier works from the director behind Project Wolf Hunting, which I liked a bunch despite being a mess. This one is more cohesive in it's twists and overall structure but is a lot more boring and has little of interest to say across its 2 hour runtime besides how human trafficking is bad. That and not very interesting protagonists who are also mostly inconsequential in comparison to the antagonists made this pretty boring over all.

[Len Ikari145]

[Postmania]

IPCC just put out their final report for Ar6.

Does not look good. But this is not a surprise (partly because the final report is a compilation of the other reports for Ar6).

What is a surprise is so many people just humming away through life, not changing a thing. Still.

It's sad, they keep releasing "final warnings" that are going nowhere.