Chinac Zodiese

It's been a while since Jackie Chan was around so... why not this movie?

The Chinese Zodiac has been commemorated in the past by having the twelve animal heads cast in bronze. In the current times, several of them have been auctioned off to private individuals, but many are missing. Enter JC (yes, Jackie is known as JC in this movie) and his team that go after the heads, and other items, and retrieve them for EvilCorp to resell. Usually in some wacky set of events that involve lots of physical action. Oh, and there's some other personal notes about trying to get families back together, but that's tacked on, and those plot threads are wrapped up for everyone in about two minutes. There's also a line about trying to get treasures back to the governments that originally created them... but...

A few threads are a bit of a mess. Mainly I'm not sure why various events meant the good guys won. It might just be a translation thing. But just because it came from a particular country doesn't mean the current government has any right to it either. But aside from that, which is only really a minor point, this is a fun movie centered around lots of physical comedy moments that JC is famed for (and this was written by JC and directed by him too). There's a lot of varied set pieces, with the island one being one of the stranger ones where this movie goes. Maybe too many? Meh, I liked them.

JC is good as ever, although there's no major romance plot to see his fully acting side. Oliver Platt makes a cameo, but most of the cast I've never heard from before. But it's a good range of international peoples, with international languages (I'm not sure what would happened for a plain American release, you can't expect people in a movie theatre to sit around reading subtitles! You don't go to the movies for anything other than mindless entertainment! You shouldn't have to read! That's too hard!).

I liked this movie, but can understand how it isn't rating highly.

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Updating is Bad

People like DRM. And by people, I mean companies, because none of us do. DRM = 'oh my god, people might be able to use a company's product without giving them every dollar in their bank account... FREAK!' And for BluRay this is particularly annoying as discs come out with new keys every now and then so BluRay players need to be updated with the new keys.

Fortunately, if you are hooked up to the internet, the player can go and get the update. All you need to do it tell it to update. Or it will bug you. Constantly. Continuously. (And yes, I'm mainly thinking Windows here.) That little balloon pops up again and again and again to see 'hey, update me already! Or you might not be able to play the BluRays you have... even through you don't have anything that uses the new keys, update anyway! Update! Update! Update!'

Fine, I did that... and what happened? My player stopped working, and didn't play any BluRay at all. Nice one. Thanks for that. Once again we clearly see a stable Windows-based product, able to handle any situation.

Annoyingly, trying to un-update the software is not an option. There is no rollback function... and no repair either! I tried downloading the update from their website and applying that... but my software wasn't the right base or something (I presume the update was looking for the un-updated software, but who knows? Clearly it wasn't interested in making sure the actual software was working properly).

My solution... uninstall it, and install the base player again... and hey presto, I can play my BluRays! Problem solved! Except...

'Update! Update! Update! Update! Update! Update! Update! Update!'

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Minecraft

Minecraft seems to be a big deal. Winner of all sorts of awards. Mojang is big enough now that they don't consider themselves to be indie anymore. However... I'm not interested in the playing of it. I get that people like it. It's got survival, it's got exploration, it's got hours upon years of gameplay... and yet, I just have intention of ever installing it.

Which doesn't stop me from watching a movie about it. This is the story of Mojang, with relating the history of Minecraft, attending with Notch to various conventions, and lots of interviews with other people as they say how much they like the game and various videos of it.

And... while decent enough... not being involved with Minecraft itself does make me not engage with this movie fully. I like a good documentary, but this seemed to be more 'hey, you like Minecraft then watch this movie' rather than 'want to find out about Minecraft? Then watch this movie!' And I've seen lots of great reviews of this from people who do like that game, so I know it works for them.

I guess this is a different perspective. For me, it didn't entirely work. I'm getting used to 2 Player Productions due to their work with Double Fine, so I know they do good work from a more objective view. And yet, from a subjective view... nope.

Worth checking out, but consider your own Minecraft feelings before thinking about what to get out of it.

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Must See "TV"

I've definitely using the "" for TV there, as it isn't TV I'm talking about the interwebs. How often have you decided to pack it in for the night, and decided to do one last sweep through your common websites before switching off the computer... then finding out there's a new episode of Spoiler Warning. And of course Extra Credits came out. They look shortish, so maybe just watch them before powering down...

This is quite insidious. We all know we should get decent night sleeps, and yet we want to watch just one more thing. And it can even get more annoying when for some of us it's extremely late, where as were the show is posted (which, let's face it, is probably America) it might be a far more reasonable time. So if you leave it to the morning then everyone else has a chance to get a leap on your and talk about all the good stuff before you even have a chance to experience it for yourself. (You know, like what happens with movies.)

Fortunately there is one call to rationality. Internet loading times. Ah, there you go. You'll just watch this... but then see the loading process bar creep along... maybe I don't need to watch it right this minute... (But will you remember to watch it the next day?)

So, what do you try to squeeze in when it's too late at night?

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DarkStryder

[Remember that game of Star Wars I was talking about a month ago? No? Well, we barely did either. Anyways, we finally had our first session.]

The Far Star was hardly in orbit for any time at all when it received a distress signal from a not too far planet, a mere four days away. We left quickly. While in route, Scoryn took the opportunity to get the crew used to the ship with the aid of drills, not to their enjoyment. The doctor got medical supplies at the ready. Lofryyn dealt with a strange power quirk of the ship (I'm sure it was nothing), and Jesse argued for setting the X-Wings down early. While she didn't get her way, we went in cautiously... and met TIE Fighters... that wanted to escort us in.

On the planet's surface we found the extent of the damage. The main city of the planet had been hit by TIE Bombers, and nearly eradicated. Medical personnel went to help, some of us sorted out food provisioning, and Jesse went looking for the incoming help from other cities... to no avail.

One far off camp of survivors needed food, so Scoryn (me) and some red shirts (other PCs) were tasked with delivering it. One small issue was a bomb in the way, which we left. Oh, and looters. Scoryn shot one, and got rid of that group. Ben shot another and dispersed another group. Gunther and Mel took longer to beat the last group off, but soon there were four dead looters and no other people stepping up. Certainly our troubles were past us...

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The Possessissossn

This is a nice family movie. When they start with the dad and mom divorced and with two kids in the balance, you just know that by the end of the movie the parents will have reconciled because of the kids, and they'll all be one big happy family.

Oh, and there's an evil ghost thing that takes over the littlest girl, and it's all a bad rip off of Exorcist. It so wants to be Exorcist. But it just isn't very good. You can see exactly where it's going as soon as... you see the poster. Actually look at this poster. Then this poster. Similar? And Sam Raimi was involved...

Acting wise, none of them are putting in any real effort. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (I recognised him from Supernatural more quickly now as he has been in other things) is in generic dad mode. And I think it's supposed to be shocking that kids are involved, but since we are already getting the Exorcist vibe, so...

Nothing spectacular to see here...

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All the Hidden Objects

Over my holidays, I played a fair few Hidden Object games... and so will talk about them now.

But first... Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy is not a hidden object but it is terrible! Broken and crashes and... argh! Don't play it!

Anyway, what I like in a Hidden Object game is being able to take my time, not being penalised by mis-clicking, and knowing what the object looks like (which considering the games set in other times can get really hard).

Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena is a fun game. Not hard, but hits good points from above.

Samantha Swift and the Golden Torch, the sequel, is also fun, but too easy. You have like a 'radar' that can find objects so hints were not needed.

The Clockwork Man actively says that you can click anywhere without penalty, so click fest away! Still needed hints as I had no idea what some objects were. Oh, and terrible accents.

The Clockwork Man: The Hidden World had more puzzles a little more complex. Still needed hints for some bizarre items.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles (which is faithful to the novel, with Sherlock Holmes there from the beginning and there's time travel and pocket dimensions) is more puzzle than hidden objects. While there isn't penalty per se, there are badges. And an Easy and Hard mode. The story is weird, but I might be back for getting more badges.

A decent collection of hidden object games, some far better than others (I want more Samantha Swift!). And for those of you who want one for free, here's a music based one.

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