Discussin the new Star Wars [SPOILERS: DON'T CLICK IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT]

OKAY SO

All in all I liked it. I liked Rey, I liked Finn, Kylo Ren is... Interesting, I liked BB-8, I liked the movie. But it diiiid feel a lot like episode 4... I hope the others won't just be reskins of the original trilogy :p

Kylo Ren was no Vader though. He had a face in more ways than one, lol

WHATCHU GUYS THINK? HUH?

Kylo Ren didn't have the presence of Vader but he did have a "This guy is crazy, and who knows what he'll do next." vibe.

I believe the idea was to deviate from the kind of storytelling the prequels had, and of course, a good way to make a good story, is to emulate its predecessors. I think part of it also has much to do with drawing parallels in the beginning, and then splintering off into it's own trilogy. You know, as their way of saying "hey, this is a Star Wars movie, you won't be disappointed".

Lucas had too much freedom in the prequels.

Kylo Ren's tantrums were scary before he took off the mask. After he took off the mask, they weren't quite as scary (I don't think), but they gave it a new meaning. While he might not be as scary or threatening as a villain, I think he's going to be a very interesting character with a lot of backstory and consideration. I think he'll be built more in-depth and complicated than Vader was before the prequels.

Yeah, he's set up for some good backstory. What about Rey's parents though? Think it's Luke and... I dunno, someone else, and they abandoned her cause Luke was going into hiding?

That'd make for a nice reveal. :P Instead of "I am your father," it's "Rey, I am your... COUSIN!"

I like Kylo Ren. In the sense that he is a villain who is clearly misguided. Misguided villains are scary. Because to some extent you can believe they can be redeemed, but that doesn't stop them from stabbing you and throwing yuou into the pit of your deathstar wannabe

Yeah, and the idea that he's as committed to his cause as much as you are to yours, and he'd do anything to see it through just like you would.

Well, that's alright, so long as Jar Jar Binks turns out to be Snoke after all.

Mostly unrelated, but it got me into writing an Old Republic era fic of all things, so that's something I guess?

You mean like, KOTOR? o:

Sorta, it's just set after 2, and I'm ignoring the MMO.

Aaaaah yes, the MMO that I've just barely heard about xP

I think a couple of those games are on Steam, I've thought about picking them up on a sale or something. My friend had a lot of them and Jedi Academy looked reeeeally fun. Especially the movement and combat... I wouldn't've expected a game that old to have combat that was just so freakin FUN :P It's weird that you don't really see a game like that nowadays. Or maybe I'm just not looking closely enough, lol

For those who are curious, I've made a convenient summary of what to expect early on in the story...



As far as Force Awakens goes, I'm going to need to see it again, which will be when the blu-ray release is, before I can really establish an opinion.

I spent an entire weekend of winter break on the mobile port of KotOR 1, just to confirm that everyone's philosophy in that game (barring Jolee and Yuthura - also Carth, but his sense of accusatory timing is terrible) is poorly-motivated or blind-faith rubbish. That includes the player character.

Swordplay games? There's certainly a less endless number than of certain other genres.

Hm. Thousands of young Jedi implies that, assuming the Sith Triumvirate was indeed thorough, the Exile's apprentices were very busy. Could be an interesting story in and of itself.

Nice video Sadie :D It's lost on me but if I ever get in to those games I'll be coming back...

And true, I guess I don't play neeearly enough games to make judgements about what is and isn't on the market. xP

Szemetlada wrote:

Aaaaah yes, the MMO that I've just barely heard about xP

I think a couple of those games are on Steam, I've thought about picking them up on a sale or something. My friend had a lot of them and Jedi Academy looked reeeeally fun. Especially the movement and combat... I wouldn't've expected a game that old to have combat that was just so freakin FUN :P It's weird that you don't really see a game like that nowadays. Or maybe I'm just not looking closely enough, lol

You should totally play Jedi Academy. Aside from some parts, like jumping puzzles, that haven't aged well, there's a level where you get to go lightsabering people whilst on a speederbike chase.

Honestly, I didn't much like the new movie, it felt a bit too much like a redo.

I can see where it has merit, of course, but I'm the type to riff on a movie whilst it is watched, with the assumption that anything I don't mention was fine.

I wasn't hyped, which helped, because if I was I would be disappointed. It wasn't a bad movie by any means, I just felt it was merely "good".

As far as spoilers, I suppose I can say things like "I feel like the unceremoniously dumped Captain Phasma into the trash compactor, and that was lame", essentially making her the Boba Fett of the new set of movies. Unless she somhow just like, escapes this, decides to flee the planet despite not knowing it was going to explode, and somehow meets back up with Kylo "everyone says he looks like me with longer hair" Ren.

I really didn't like Snoke, he looked like Smegol, but 15 feet tall, that being a hologram, I assume he is actually just Smegol.

I really don't get why the Republic is entirely unwilling to even fight the First Order (Which is a strange name, as the Empire was The New Order, but.), nor why the Resistance's "Fleet" consists of 10 X-wings, and nary a bomber to their name, whilst the First Order still has the resources to build a planet sized superweapon.

Again, I have more rants I could spin off on than good things to say, it's not that it wasn't good, just that the good parts aren't what my brain opts to remember, because nothing was spectacular.

Current Steam sale includes most of the franchise games. Jedi Academy, Republic Commando, and each KotOR are $3. Empire at War and the LEGO games are each $6. (Incidentally, TT is already at work on LEGO The Force Awakens. Maybe they'll successfully extend the content instead of simply padding it. Pretty PBR, though.)

GOG, while not running a sale presently, has most of these, minus Lego and the more poorly-regarded newer releases. Their screenies are more representative of gameplay, at least for the KotORs. No Workshop integration for KotOR 2 TSLRCM, if you care.

I still haven't seen the movie. Even so (consequently?), my favorite crack!theory is that Snoke was invented by Leia, reprising Palpatine. Hence the Republic's incompetent response, Luke's flight, Phasma taking a fall, and an 'I am your mother' setup. Too bad familial relations are so thick on the ground that the last bit doesn't give this theory any advantage. Also, women in refrigerator points if this'd get Leia a (tragic) write-off, which planet-killing tends to merit.

Even funnier would be to reconcile this with the theory which goes, if the dark won the PT and the light won the OT, then the ST will result in finding a middle way. Like, well, Legends!Luke's Jedi Academy did, pre-LotF. Which is, er, classical philosophy across cultures, apparently. But in Star Wars, it's still only (film-)canon dependent on interpretation of subtext.

I've still got my eye on the Jedi Knight games, but this sale I had a little over $2 in my steam wallet and picked up Psychonauts and a Yume Nikki inspired deal so maybe next sale xP

Also I've heard about GOG; is it any good?

Haha, fair.

Yes, it delivers digital games just as straightforwardly. You get a standalone installer if you want, so you can run the games without GOG's client. This is a plus for futureproofing (in case your internet goes / the DRM servers go under) and a minus for convenience, unless you happen to enjoy bookkeeping.

Come to think of it, I already have three digital download services installed. Why not add another.

I haven't messed with either service's support, though Steam's is notoriously difficult to get a non-automated reply out of. Steam also does much less work to ensure the compatibility of its hosted games with modern OSes, which is relevant if the game's publisher gives up.

Both take the same 30% distributor's cut. Compare to Humble Store and IndieGameStand's 25% cut (the former takes 15% for itself and 10% for charity), Humble Widget's 5% cut, and itch.io's PWYW cut.

I know for a fact that the KotOR games have issues running when bought from Steam, but GoG actually goes to the effort of making sure their games have been updated to be compatible.

I have KotOR through steam, and it's worked well for me, but that may be atypical. GOG tends to have more obscure old titles in usable (if perhaps imperfect) condition; Dark Forces doesn't run at all through Steam, but I think it does via GoG. If you want to get games that were originally from the DOS era, GOG is easily the way to go.

Promising Knights of Ren theory holds that they're actually crusaders. (Also, Kylo echoes Shiva. I can't ship Rey and Kylo while I still think of them as Jaina and Jacen expies, though...) Perhaps I can have a little faith there's an actual plan for Snoke et. al., besides just shoehorning in the underdog angle.