Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by Roderick

  1. Who's Buying the Switch Lite?

  2. Something True 2.4: Okaasan

    Ooooh, I liked this one quite a bit, since I adore Japanese history. I'm more than usually confused now at how accurate these stories are, though. Are they complete fiction or humorously adapted retellings of true events? (Sorry if this is utterly clear to everyone else at this point)
  3. I'm through with Polygon. Anyone else feel that way? It used to be that Kotaku was the kinda trashy place for video game gossips 'n stuff, and Polygon this ambitious place for proper journalism. But these last few years I've seen a stunning reversal happening there. Polygon started going nuts whenever a big Pop Culture Show Or Movie Event happened. You can set your watch to it: whenever there'd be a new Marvel film or Game of Thrones episode, the front page would suddenly be awash with thinkpieces and clickbaity articles and spoiler discussions. To the point where it felt the entire editorial board must've assembled to flood the site with them. Some of these pieces were fine. Others were shit. Then there's whatever the hell Ben Kuchera would do. It kept bugging me, but I put up with it because there would also occasionally be these beautiful long-form interview-documentaries about the making of Final Fantasy VII or what have you, and that's the stuff I was there for. Also Brian David Gilbert. At the same time, Kotaku got better and better. There's hard-hitting journalism there now, exposing working conditions in the games industry and calling out stupid moves and people. Alongside the K-pop pick of the day. And I've been binging the Tim Rogers E3 videos, and they're just so delicious. Long story short, I am having a better time on Kotaku than on Polygon nowadays. By a mile. Sure, there's still a big difference in what they do. Whenever Polygon manages to be serious and devoted to doing quality stuff, I like them just fine. But I also just deleted them from my bookmarks, because I simply can't stand the desperate clickbait reporting on Marvel movies &c anymore. The breaking point came yesterday. I'd just seen the Spider-Man film (which was awesome), and then I casually visited Polygon and saw an article that said "SPOILER" in the accompanying graphic, but proceeded to spoil the very thing in the clickbaity headline. If I'd seen that shit before watching the movie, I would've been ticked off. That is some stupid bullshit, and it's a direct consequence of their insistence on milking pop culture events for clicks. So fuck 'em. I'll catch Brian on YouTube.
  4. Marvel movies

  5. Filmmaking

    Luckily, there are professional trailer makers on this forum. (Though they might cost you.)
  6. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    I like it! Please do. I am sure to miss just about anything good otherwise.
  7. Filmmaking

    Filmmaking is tough, but it's own reward. Hopefully the festival will accept your work, would be sweet!
  8. Life

    Good job, Gormongous! Now you can finally spend a significant amount of time on anime again!
  9. Marvel movies

    Did not know that, since I've only seen the second Andrew Garfield one. Which... wasn't particularly good in my opinion! I like Jamie Foxx just fine, but yikes. To be fair I remember very little of the movie, it was way too messy.
  10. Marvel movies

    Oh, it's totally smart. And Far From Home once again features a father figure for Peter,
  11. Marvel movies

    Yeah, I liked J. B. Smoove too. Had a rather puzzling conversation with someone who was disappointed and/or vexed with Far From Home. She hadn't kept up with any of the other Marvel or Avengers films, so she was confused about what had happened and considered it a spoiler, even. Iron Man suddenly dead, where did Spider-Man get a nano suit, the Blip, etc. Initially, and mostly still, my reaction was that you couldn't blame the movie that you hadn't been following the whole MCU. Spider-Man has appeared in no less than five movies at this point, and especially the Avengers movies will always be watershed moments that drastically shake things up. This is something that's uniquely peculiar to the MCU, and in keeping with the way (Marvel) comics are written - with lots of crossovers. So, that's the deal, that's what you sign up for. But then I also feel she's right in feeling left out. In no other case would it fly to have a direct sequel leave such a gaping hole in the series. (This was true, though somewhat less so, for Civil War as well, which hinged primarily on the Sokovia stuff in Age of Ultron). It's clear the MCU is shaking up how we perceive and experience movies, but is it unfair to expect traditional storytelling cues and then be disappointed, going from Spider-Man 1 to Spider-Man 2?
  12. Such an adventurous and slap-dash attitude to life is anathema to my very existence.
  13. Movie/TV recommendations

    One thing I learned today that I thought was pretty wild, was that in Into The Spider-Verse they animate Miles at 12 fps at first, as he learns to handle his powers. As he becomes more confident, they start animating him in 24 fps to give a better sense of his newfound grace and power. Such neat animation storytelling!
  14. Plug your shit

    Oh boy, oh boy! Thank you! I hope you (or whoever's going to receive it) will love it!
  15. Pitching in to say I really like this new cast, keep it up! It's a worthwhile topic, despite me also generally avoiding trailers and/or being grumpy about them telling me too much about the movie. I like trailers as an artform, but they're generally not meant for me.
  16. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    Fair points. Isn't there at least one outlet that covers the bigger angles? WAYPOINT, you're on this!
  17. Plug your shit

    Last year I helped create and published a fantastic hardcover hobby book with tutorials and techniques to create BEAUTIFUL CAKE TOPPERS. You know, to decorate cakes with. Featuring super adorable animals. And... it's ON SALE now at Amazon, for a limited time!
  18. Marvel movies

    Oops, super sorry about that! I wrote in a bit of a hurry and then didn't check. I'll be more careful next time!
  19. Marvel movies

  20. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    I'm not alone! I'm deffo not burned out on games journalism, I enjoy reading up on stuff. Nintendo Life is a regular visit for me, just to keep tabs on literally every tiny thing Nintendo does. It also helps me in my own line of editorial work, so there's that added bonus.
  21. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    I really like Waypoint's tone and writing, but I wish half of their articles weren't actually podcasts. I get that it's so much easier to discuss stuff in a spoken medium, but it makes me less inclined to visit their site. I can't count the times I've visited the site and saw a super interesting looking headline, only to find it's another podcast which I don't want to listen to. (I only listen to podcasts in my car and don't have the patience to put one on while I'm behind my PC or phone.)
  22. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    (I used to rely solely on Idle Thumbs for my gaming news.) (I didn't.)
  23. Clickbait Games Journalism: Polygon vs Kotaku

    I get that it's also my perception of the thing: I wouldn't be as annoyed by Kotaku doing the same clickbait stuff, because my expectations are very different. Yet, the very reason it's so jarring for Polygon is ironically because I hold them to higher - their own - standards.