The Surlaw Reviews - 7/1/21 - 2021 Mid-Year Update

Meatballsub · Post by **Meatballsub** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:37 pm

Jack wrote:
Meatballsub wrote:I enjoyed the review man. I've been considering picking this up on PC but I heard that the control scheme in DS1 was atrocious on the computer. I'm hoping that DS2 might be a bit better, because everything I hear about this game leads me to believe that I would love it.

By the way, just noticed that you have a link to my website on your blog. You are a gentleman, sir.
The mouse control for DS1 is completely borked, but if you have a controller it's exactly like on consoles. There are some other video based issues, but they're easily fixed with a third-party patch. They never really planned on releasing DS1 for computer, as they don't actually have much experience with it, hence the bugs. DS2, however, has been planned for PC from the beginning, and I think they built their new engine with that in mind.

That's good news about DS2, I hope you are right. I will probably try and pick up DS1 when it's on sale in Steam and play through it with the controller.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:37 am

Infamous: Second Son

This game ruled.

Next review: Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

Fenrir-Lunaris · Post by **Fenrir-Lunaris** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:07 am

Can we make review requests too? If so, I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on Kerbal Space Program.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:25 am

You can! But I haven't played it and there's very little chance my computer could run it. It doesn't really do much above OHR specs.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:23 pm

A brief rant about Star War. This one's short enough for everyone here to read maybe! Probably not. http://bobsurlaw.blogspot.com/2014/04/b ... anded.html

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:40 pm

And then we get star wars episode 0, skyward....lightsaber, which tries to combine the next movies with the book series in a split timeline and thus make everything even worse off than we were before.

But still, in the end, I'm going to probably wait till it's on dvd before I go to see one of those new movies. partially because I can't afford $20 popcorn, and 3 bucks for a rental and this same bag of popping corn I've had since I moved here are a lot more affordable.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:02 pm

I'm with you 100%, I've never understood the people who complain when they don't even try to squeeze 80 years of backstory into a 2 hour comic book movie and these angry Star Wars fans are even worse. It's gonna be hard enough to make satisfying Chapters 7-8-9 that are consistent with the original trilogy, let alone the prequels. Trying to factor in Luke having a family with Spiderman's girlfriend and all of the other goofy stuff that happens in the EU while staying true to the existing 6 movies would be impossible.

When it comes to over-explanation, the real culprit is the video games. As I understand, until now the video games, cartoons, comic books were all considered the same level of canon. Out of necessity, the video games would have mechanics like "Force blocking squids" or "Cortosis-weave Battle Armor" that light sabers can't block, to keep the player from having too easy a time. That's not a problem if you can say "It's only a video game!" but when Kyle Katarn shows up in your book, people wonder why he left his morph ball, super missiles and magic squid at home. Thus, explanations.

And people want to do the stuff they saw in the movies, so they all need rules. Lightsaber combat gets broken down into six sets of animation, and pretty soon we've got "The Forms", turning everything anyone ever did with a lightsaber into an established martial art. Luke refusing to fight Vader was a technique. Vader's Force Choke is now a specific power that all Dark Jedi have, and not just Darth Vader being a really bad guy. You want to fly an X-Wing, so they make games where X-Wings are really the Super Mario of the starfighter universe, hardly a snubfighter at all. It categorizes everything and cheapens it so you can experience it for yourself in a game. Then because it's the same level of canon as comic books or whatever else, it cheapens it for them too.

Not that I hate the Expanded Universe or anything, I loved the Rogue Squadron series and the way they looked more at the logistics and psychology of fighter pilots in a universe like the one we saw in Star Wars. But they weren't really Star Wars novels, they were War novels. The original trilogy never stopped to worry about bacta supply lines any more than King Arthur stopped to worry about trenchfoot, and that's the way it oughta be.

You brought up one of the worst parts of the prequels, Qui Gonn doing the blood test on Anakin in Episode 1, and I think the perfect counterpoint to that scene is in Episode IV, when Darth Vader is chasing Luke down the trench and he says "The Force is strong with this one". Vader's not Vegeta scouting power levels, Luke's not Neo hacking the Matrix, there's no "I've never seen a pilot this good!", it's just this natural thing he can feel, like faith or love. It tells us something about Luke in a subtle way and we can read into it whatever want, no science required.

What I'm trying to say, is that I hope they're tearing down the Expanded Universe continuity so that they have creative freedom to tell a Star Wars kind of story without having to make a million wink and nods to 40 years worth of back material, and not so they have creative freedom to create their own Mary Jane and their own World Devastator, Sun Crusher, Galaxy Bomb arms race of stupidity. If they're gonna do that, they might as well stick with what's already been written and rob the nerds for all they're worth.

It is kinda sad though, 'cause they cloned the Emperor like 6 times in the Expanded Universe and it'd be hilarious to see him be reborn and die twice in each new movie.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:39 am

I think my favorite EU thing is taking Boba Fett and turning him from a jerk who goes out like a chump to a romantic hero who's totally stronger and purer and better than anyone else ever guys and he can't POSSIBLY die in a shameful way. He's never the God of War that fans built him up to be, he had a clever plan and got his gun slapped down by Vader and then he fell into a hole. He just had some really awesome looking armor.

I think Abrhams is more suited to Star Wars than Star Trek so I'm excited to see what he brings to the franchise.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 2:43 am

I'm happy to nerd out about Star Wars and what it does right and wrong forever if we want to keep talking about that, but here's a new review:

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

If you've got a PS4 or a computer that can run it, this one's a must play. One of my favorites in a long time.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:12 am

I'm not familliar with Abrams work outside of Star Trek and what little bit I heard about Lost. I liked the new Star Treks, but at the same time I think 30 years from now we're gonna look back and say "That's so 2010", which is a feeling I'd hate to see in Star Wars.

Boba Fett is the logic the entire EU runs on. You take a guy who was in a few scenes, who was visually distinct (because why would he be boring?) and pretty soon you've got a master race of warriors, 1000 years of being the best of the best of the best. Why couldn't they talk more about that werewolf guy in Mos Eisley? I always wanted to know more about him.

I don't mind some stuff like that, it's nice to know that Luke and Darth Vader aren't the only two guys in the galaxy with fake hands and they couldn't show that in the movies without losing some of the father-son symbolism. It was cool that the books gave them a place to get into all the nuts-and-bolts without slowing down the actual storytelling. Boba Fett, the Mandalorians, all that crap was just kids arguing whether or not the Klingons could beat Superman and I never liked it.

I'd never read any decent explanation of Octodad before. Everyone else always made it sound like a half-assed Katamari Damacy, where you're an octopus running into people and messing stuff up. Seems surprisingly deep, I guess I misjudged.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:36 am

Gizmog wrote:Why couldn't they talk more about that werewolf guy in Mos Eisley? I always wanted to know more about him.

Because he's a wanted man. In thwee galaxies! Or something. I somehow doubt he's really wanted in any galaxy, and is, instead, just a mentally unstable ugly guy who wanted attention. That, or he wanted to ask luke for change and didn't know the language, so some jerk told him that's what you have to say to people on that planet if you wanted change, and most people wuss out and throw their money at him and run, and it was working well up until the point when he and zoidberg went into the bar...

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:55 am

Gizmog wrote:I'm not familliar with Abrams work outside of Star Trek and what little bit I heard about Lost.

Super 8's got some dumb moments but it's pretty good overall.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:21 am

The Wobbler wrote:
Gizmog wrote:I'm not familliar with Abrams work outside of Star Trek and what little bit I heard about Lost.
Super 8's got some dumb moments but it's pretty good overall.

Hold on a tick, the lens flare happy star trek guy is doing star wars too now? Oh gosh, this can't end well.....

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 2:58 am

Meowskivich wrote:
Gizmog wrote:Why couldn't they talk more about that werewolf guy in Mos Eisley? I always wanted to know more about him.
Because he's a wanted man. In thwee galaxies! Or something. I somehow doubt he's really wanted in any galaxy, and is, instead, just a mentally unstable ugly guy who wanted attention. That, or he wanted to ask luke for change and didn't know the language, so some jerk told him that's what you have to say to people on that planet if you wanted change, and most people wuss out and throw their money at him and run, and it was working well up until the point when he and zoidberg went into the bar...

Nah, you're thinking of This dude. The guy I was thinking of is This other dude. I regret asking about his other adventures, it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:21 am

Meowskivich wrote:Hold on a tick, the lens flare happy star trek guy is doing star wars too now? Oh gosh, this can't end well.....

He made two Star Trek movies that are well above the average for the series and his style, especially his space combat scenes, is way more appropriate for Star Wars than Trek. It can't end badly. Or it least it can't end worse than the prequels. There's literally nowhere to go but up.

Also the lens flares in Trek 09/Into Darkness are fine and fit the whole "shiny utopian space world" theme.

Gizmog wrote:Nah, you're thinking of This dude. The guy I was thinking of is This other dude. I regret asking about his other adventures, it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

This right here's why I'm all good with them dumping the EU.

Also this: