Artists That Keep Putting Out Solid Work?

[Dr.Susse]

I was introduced to this last year when someone posted the entire thing so far (at the time) to Imgur.

It is, without any shadow of a doubt in my mind, the best web comic I've had the pleasure of reading and one of only two I religiously pursue updates for.

Wow thanks for posting this.
Never heard of it before and 67 pages in I'm enjoying it.
Art's great, World's interesting and the story has hooked me already I think.

 

[RedRockRun]

Death Grips! Not one weak album in their entire discography.

 

[Silvanus]

Hayao Miyazaki hasn't made a bad film. He hasn't even made a mediocre film. They're all brilliant.

 

[Trunkage]

Spells are useless in most RPG, but this made them useful

Bro, do you even Neverwinter Nights?

No I haven't. It's one I've wanted to play, but never found the time

 

[RanD00M]

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Boris
Blackhandpath, even though they only have 2 releases out at the moment they're on the verge of releasing a third album
Brockhampton
Deafheaven have yet to drop a weak release

Death Grips! Not one weak album in their entire discography.

Fashion Week.

 

[TheFinish]

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Does that mean Baulder's Gate gets point taken off? I actually like PoE combat more than Baulder's Gate but BG has bad combat so its not saying much.

I've never actually played Balder's Gate. If it's anything like Pillars of Eternity, it's probably for the best I haven't played it. That said, it's also like 15 years old, so I'm willing to forgive bad UI design in old games, but Obsidian had no excuse with Pillars. They needed to look no further than Dragon Age for their UI design.

Oh, and the story was uninteresting beyond words. Even Dragon Age: Origins had a more interesting plot and DA:O was basically A Song of Fire and Ice meets Mass Effect.

Look I'd agree, but then I cannot point out anything that really stands out as a good main quest. Baulder's Gate 1 was just quest you'd see as a side quest in any other RPG. Everyone know the Elder Scrolls main quest problem. Maybe seperate bits like Witcher 3 - some of that main quest was awesome (Botchling) and some was god-aweful (Skelliege... all of it)

To be totally fair to Pillars of Eternity, I've yet to find a fantasy plot that wasn't some variation on The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. Some do it better than others. Writing convincing stories is hard, especially when there is an expectation that magic be involved.

What's saddest is that if the plot or the gameplay had been good, I'd have happily put up with the other. Sadly, the middling gameplay was further marred by the savagely bad UI and the plot was completely forgettable.

But, in the end, all of that is moot because of two words: Dead Money. Dead Money is, easily, my favorite part of any game, ever. It's tense and oppressive, you have to manage your resources and your exposure to the Cloud. Inside the casino is little better, with the holograms that you couldn't just kill. I still replay New Vegas occasionally just for Dead Money.

Old World Blues was it for me. Fun (unlike most of NV) and subvertive.

I liked Old World Blues, it was extremely Fallout. A little campy, a little wacky, a little dark. Definitely a quality DLC. I still prefer Dead Money, but I tend to go in for the survival aspects of New Vegas, so much so that I will impose artificial limits on the number of weapons and health items that I will carry. Really, the only thing that actively disappointed me about New Vegas was The Lonesome Road.

RE: The UI: PoE looks the way it looks precisely because it's a throwback to old Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), so if you didn't like PoE you won't like those.

RE: The Story: Please give me something of what you were smoking that you think PoE is in any way a variation of The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. I understand not liking the story, but a statement like this just tells me you either didn't pay attention to anything, or you just didn't finish the game.

On Topic: I think Supergiant Games has always hit home runs with their games (Bastion/Transistor/Pyre) and especially their Soundtracks. Darren Korb is the man. So is Austin Wintory, while we're at it. And Ari Pulkkinen.

 

[RedRockRun]

Fashion Week.

What's wrong with Fashion Week?

 

[the December King]

I've never not liked a VNV album.

I also have enjoyed every Amon Amarth album since I started listening to them.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

The Coen Brothers. Their filmography ranges from pretty good to great. I think they're physically incapable of writing and directing something less than decent.

 

[Ironman126]

RE: The UI: PoE looks the way it looks precisely because it's a throwback to old Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), so if you didn't like PoE you won't like those.

That's stupid. There are better ways to capitalize on nostalgia than by deliberately making a game less playable.

RE: The Story: Please give me something of what you were smoking that you think PoE is in any way a variation of The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. I understand not liking the story, but a statement like this just tells me you either didn't pay attention to anything, or you just didn't finish the game.

Allow me to clarify a few points.

1) I was not comparing Pillar's plot to either novel. I was stating that many of the fantasy stories I have encountered are extremely derivative and tend to copy the low-hanging fruit (I. E. Tolkien and Martin). But I generally avoid fantasy as, besides being derivative, it is also usually verbose nonsense.

2)I don't remember anything about Pillar's plot except that it struck me as cliched and forgettable. I'm sure it's also derivative, but, as I stated before, I don't read fantasy.

3) You're correct in claiming that I didn't finish Pillars. It was not at all fun to play and the story was not interesting. In fact, I got a full refund and bought Divinity: Original Sin, which is a lot of fun to play, even though the story is also nonsense.

Yeah, its worse. The graze system was added so you didn't spend a lot of time missing each other. Like, in BG, you could go a minute without anyone hitting each other. They added a repeatable mage skills in PoE so you could use low level spells every battle. Its not great.

EDIT: They added that multiple range thing with the spells, that was cool. If you aim right you can fit your opponents and not yourself in the midst of melee. Spells are useless in most RPG, but this made them useful

Cantrips from D&D 3.5, D&D's irritating combat system, D&D's weird magic. It's like the only thing they didn't copy was the use of turns! If I recall, Pillars even had a weapon speed system, which is very AD&D. D&D has ludicrously over-powered magic, though.

 

[Saelune]

Spells are useless in most RPG, but this made them useful

Bro, do you even Neverwinter Nights?

No I haven't. It's one I've wanted to play, but never found the time

Beamdog is giving NWN the Enhanced Edition treatment and bringing it to Steam (and GoG, but the original is there too).

Dunno when its coming out, but I recommend it. They seem to intend to fix a bunch of stuff too.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Jim Butcher. Never read anything of his I didn't like. Even Aeronaut's Windlass was an interesting world even if I didn't find it quite as engaging as Dresden or Alera

 

[Chewster]

I've always thought that Danny Boyle has been one of the more consistent directors working today. The Beach wasn't great but every other film he's directed has been pretty good and some even incredible. I just watched 127 Hours for the first time the other day and I have to say I've not had a film stick with me like that one has for quite some time.

Same with Irvine Welsh, or at least what I've read of his. Wasn't a massive fan of Crime but that was because I wasn't especially interested in the setting. I'd be loathe to actually say it's a bad book.

 

[retsupurae yahtsee]

Nintendo: Has made many of the best games of the last couple of generations, like Metroid Prime Trilogy, Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Splatoon 1 and 2, Arms, Mario versus Rabbids, Zelda: A Link between Worlds, 3D Mario World.

David Lynch: The new Twin peaks was great, almost as fun and creative as the old show.


Laika Studios: Paranorman, Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings were excellent and very creative.

CW superhero shows: I hate Arrow, but the other shows--Supergirl, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow--are excellent. I have high hopes for the Black Lightning show, John Constantine's role on Legends of Tomorrow and the likely appearance of Woman Woman, as Themyscira was shown in Legends of Tomorrow. Wonder Woman is going to be as wonderful as a Jack Kirby compared to Batman versus Superman 2: Wonder Woman the movie.

Cinema Snob: Still making hilarious commentaries and giving good suggestions for new movies to watch.

James Gunn: Made Slither and Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2, all excellent and creative movies.

Rob Guillory: Chew was amazing, beginning to end. It was like an insane 1960s comic if the Comics Code never happened.

Thinking Inside the Box: An excellent website about R.P.G.s without the obsessiveness, pretention or arrogance of The CRPG Addict.

Hideo Kojima: All of the Metal Gear Solid games are fascinating and surreal, and the plot holds together and is comprehensible despite all the weirdness. Death Stranding also looks great.

Atlus: Shin Megami Tensei 4, Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE and Persona 5 may have been lighter in tone than the early games, but they were still great fun and challenging.

Yako Taro: His games are definitely flawed, but he has a distinct style and expresses his hate of video games in a creative way instead of demanding they all be censored, and I respect him.

Edmund Macmullen: Time Fuck, The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy were excellent and I heard great things about The End is Nigh.

Devolver: A lot of awesome and unique games, like Hotline Miami 1 and 2, Not a Hero, Dropsy, Mark Eco's Getting up, Broforce.

Dave Barry: I expected his work to age poorly, but I was incredibly wrong! He is as hilarious now as ever, and I love reading him.

Aspiritech: Kind of an advertisement because I am affiliated with this organization, but it is doing quite well at helping socially-awkward guys get jobs and finding bugs.

Whoisthisgit: Creative and hilarious commentary on the weirdness of video games.

 

[Kyrian007]

I've never disliked a Phillip K. Dick story. Which is true about a couple of authors but where Dick stands apart is I've never even disliked a movie adapted from a Phillip K. Dick story. That isn't true of any other author.

There aren't many out there (and that's a tragedy) but I've never thought that any movie that Richard Kelly was involved with is anything less than utterly brilliant.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

The Fratellis.

They're my favourite band and from all their albums I honestly can't think of a song that I legitimately dislike. They're just always fucking brilliant. I can, and indeed do, have a Spotify playlist that is just all of their albums (and Jon's solo album) and if I put it on shuffle I will never get the urge to frantically skip a song to avoid hearing it.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Thrice. Every album is an evolution of their style, which ranges from punk, to post-hardcore, to stripped back acoustic folk, and every album is a winner. While the genre of music may change from album to album (not as much as Ulver, who are also excellent) the heartfelt lyrics, musicality and nuance are of a consistently high quality throughout.