Escapist Podcast: 077: J.J. Abrams and The End of THQ

[The Escapist Staff]

077: J.J. Abrams and The End of THQ

This week, The Escapist crew braves an incoming ice storm to bring you a thought-provoking discussion on J.J. Abrams helming the brand new Star Wars film. We also discuss the end of THQ, Tomb Raider and our favorite game mechanics!

Watch Video

 

[Chrono212]

Love that opening *sigh*

Also how many streaming services are there in the US?
There's a minority of people that use something like Netfix or HBO Go use it so heavily that they're a loss leader.

How do those recommendation things work anyway.

Even if North Carolina was wiped from the map, the Escapist Bunker would be fine, right? Right??

Doesn't Disney 'own' the whole multi-story-one-universe series of movie concept? Just sayin'...

 

[Migs]

Woot! thanks for the podcast guys!

 

[bdcjacko]

Love that opening *sigh*

I know, that is how you know the podcast is going to be good. Susan being pissed = ratings.

 

[WMDogma]

Even if North Carolina was wiped from the map, the Escapist Bunker would be fine, right? Right??

Might depend on the catastrophic event in question - I think most of us in the Escapist Bunker have lived long enough time in colder climates to handle anything snow-related, and we are in a mostly secure underground location to boot

 

[bdcjacko]

The podcast is now where I get my weather updates. I was thinking about going to the Raleigh area tomorrow, now I wont.

 

[Chrono212]

Love that opening *sigh*

I know, that is how you know the podcast is going to be good. Susan being pissed = ratings.

Dat Tomb Raider rant? It was like a right wing talk show!
Not that I'm glorifying anger or anything...

Even if North Carolina was wiped from the map, the Escapist Bunker would be fine, right? Right??

Might depend on the catastrophic event in question - I think most of us in the Escapist Bunker have lived long enough time in colder climates to handle anything snow-related, and we are in a mostly secure underground location to boot

Well, as long as you've drawn up a order of succession/order of who to eat first then I'm sure you'll all be fine.

 

[WMDogma]

Well, as long as you've drawn up a order of succession/order of who to eat first then I'm sure you'll all be fine.

I... actually don't think we have one of those.

Oh dear.

 

[Chrono212]

Well, as long as you've drawn up a order of succession/order of who to eat first then I'm sure you'll all be fine.

I... actually don't think we have one of those.

Oh dear.

Welp. Looks like you're all doomed.

We'll just have to start our own Escapist! With blackjack and hookers!

 

[Imp_Emissary]

In Wisconsin, and yes. We are ready.
Hope you all don't turn into popsicles. If you do though, you would be the COOLEST popsicles!
(I apologize for nothing.)

Also, I didn't think about it that way before, but the fact that we don't see women getting hurt as much as men (at least when we are playing as the women) may be why we are affected more when we see them get hurt.

Like you all said we see/have seen men beaten to a pulp so often, and for so long that we have gotten use to it. I hope the new Tomb Raider is good, because I haven't yet played one of the games, and this one sounds like it would be a good place to start.

 

[Full]

When Susan was reading off that guys message I decided to put my face shield down. I think I was right to do so.

Great show, guys!

 

[Lieju]

About Tomb Raider...

I think a lot of people have doubts of whether these issues are going to be handled well.
I hope so, but it's way too common for writers to throw rape in to get sex in, and because it's lazy writing.

If the rape-threat scenes are not treated as 'sexy', but as violence, maybe it will be okay, but it's a gut-reaction for me to just go 'no, don't put rape in unless you know what you're doing' in cases like this.

BTW, if the main-character was a man, sure, he'd get hurt, but he wouldn't be written in a situation where he is in danger of being raped.

But, we'll see how it's handled.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Set in.. Canadia? Ah.. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ahem. Sorry, it had to be done.

 

[bdcjacko]

I am going on record to saying mellow mushroom pizza isn't that good.

 

[Airon]

Great podcast.

The sound has seen an improvement in the dynamic range compression department.

You've still got problems with noise. The 60Hz hum is easy to notch out as is its first harmonic at 120 Hz. The compression itself is pumping a little and that was pretty hard to work around for the soft remix I'm doing this time. Try to be a little more cautious with that compresspr you're using.

Most of what I did concerns the noise and use of an EQ. The hum is notched, the whole show is slightly denoised to be a bit more quiet around the edges, there's a little soft compression of the top levels, but most importantly I cut quite a bit at 2kHz and 4.5 kHz to soften the whole show up.

Will upload tomorrow morning(my timezone is GMT+1).

-edit/
And here it is : https://soundcloud.com/airon-extv/escapist-podcast-20130125-077

To the person handling the mix of the podcast, here is a shot of the EQ settings I used, as well as the compressor action inbetween. Not totally necessary, but since there's still room for improvement there, this is what I did on that front, which wasn't much this time. For denoising I employed Izotope RX2. It's also deessed a little. Hope that helps.

http://stash.reaper.fm/15306/Escapist-Podcast-077-EQ_Compressor_EQ-settingsq75.jpg
/edit-


Hope JJ does a good job. Zack Snyder is my preference too. Argo is on my must-watch list, because I totally enjoyed Affleck's "Town".

 

[shiajun]

Great podcast guys! I think the more constant breaks keep the rambling from going on too long and then into dark places. You know you've gone there.

I really hope the new Tomb Raider works. I've been a fan of the series since its beginning, and I understand why the formula was getting...dull. I still love Anniversary (except their freaking pint-sized Atlantis), Legend was kind of OK but not very tomb-y, and Underworld could have gone somewhere interesting if it didn't have to make sense with the whole stupid parents' arc. Let's not mention Chronicles. Lara is a great character, way more than the whole sexualized image has pidgeoned her into, and I'd love to see more interesting traits surface throughout this game. That said, I hope they handle the whole brutal violence well, because it could easily tread into Saw territory of excess.

On JJ. Well, I still give him some faith because of Felicity (don't ask why, I just loved that series). You might excuse him for the last half of Lost, but you can't excuse him for Alias. That show also went bonkers, and it was all his baby. I'm not entirely sure he can't turn Star Wars, with an already expansive and complicated lore, into some dismal mess of things. Also, I know it's clichè, but I really do hate Abrams' flare aesthetic. It's getting worse with each movie, and with light sabers added to mix I might just have to bring sunglasses to the showing.

Captcha: Eat your vitamins
Darn it, these are getting kinda bossy now, too, aren't they? The other day I got "Mend Fences"

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Look, we manage to survive the snow in England every year and we also only have one snowplow in the whole country and have to use salt from the supermarket, despite the fact that it happens almost every fucking year. We are the epitome of unprepared, and also somehow surprised that it happens. You'll be fine guys.

Captcha: slippery slope ...yes captcha, the slopes will be slippery.

Also, I still call them computer games.

 

[Daniel Laeben-Rosen]

As an aside before I go on to saying how much I loved the podcast(because I did), I just feel like saying this because the topic never comes up somewhere I can say my piece.
My personal problem with the Tomb Raider reboot was(note, WAS) mostly related to the whole PR-guy going "We're doing this so the player will feel the urge to protect her"-thing. That sentence irked me in an intangiable way I can't really describe. That and general uncertainty how it was gonna be handled.
That was about it. But then I did some more research into who's writing it and so on, finding out Rihanna Pratchett's involved and, she's a writer I really trust, having come across her work in other games and really dug it.
And as more info and trailers came out, I put the above into my "Just PR-guy jibberish"-folder and ignored it.
Because that was seriously the only thing that really irked me for... some reason.
So now I'm actually looking forward to the game and, haven't even been curious for a Tomb Raider-game since like... Tomb Raider 2 or so. It's a weird feeling.
Here's just hoping the game itself is good too. And that it lacks the annoying camera from the previous titles. Of all the things I just really wish is NOT in the game, that's it. Don't have that camera which constantly annoyed me in the entire series and I will probably like it.

I'm rambling, sorry. Too much coffee(or possibly, not enough, not sure yet)...

But in conclusion, I wasn't so much worried about the "What" as the "how" but doing some more research put me more at ease. Execution is everything after all.

 

[Dastardly]

077: J.J. Abrams and The End of THQ

This week, The Escapist crew braves an incoming ice storm to bring you a thought-provoking discussion on J.J. Abrams helming the brand new Star Wars film. We also discuss the end of THQ, Tomb Raider and our favorite game mechanics!

Watch Video

Happening upon "used porn" in that way stirs the same kind of uncomfortable mix of feelings as when you sit down on a public toilet and it's warm. Part of you thinks, "Well, at least it's not cold," but then you think a bit more about it and wonder if this is actually better.

On Star Wars, I'm totally on board with Susan. Abrams is not right for this flavor of sci-fi. Star Trek has always been far, far more about the toys than the people (though the reboot helped this a bit), and it's always been very clean.

Star Wars, especially the original trilogy, was just as much about the smuggler as it was the Jedi. The Force was a recurring theme, but it was not the central idea. (It was the second trilogy that was extremely one-note -- glowbat fiesta!} The central idea was good triumphing despite insurmountable odds at the hands of reluctant heroes.

I don't want Abrams to be all of my sci-fi. I wouldn't even want Joss Whedon to do it (we've already had his perfect Han Solo via Mal Reynolds). This is the time for a new voice.

- New actors - no established names with firmly established expectations.
- New settings - the universe seems tiny if we're always coming back to Tatooine.
- New character archetypes - we've explored the duty-bound-Jedi, the Smuggler-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the secretly-kickass-Politician. It's a bit too Tank/Healer/DPS at the moment.
- That includes villains, too. Enough mustache-twirling. Let's have some believable motivations, and maybe an "evil" leader who isn't a Sith.
- New director - Lucas's success in the first trilogy was that he wasn't so bloody aware that he was "making Star Wars." Let's have someone who isn't bound by all the baggage, or caught in all the old habits.

 

[klown]

Speaking of Netflix, they really do make really strange categories. One of mine today is "Raunchy Black Comedy".

It's sad to see THQ go, but I'm happy all the games franchisees I liked have been bought.