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Ronnie

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Posts posted by Ronnie

  7. Posted

    Those are some awesome photos @Julius, great stuff, especially that first one. Glad you had a great time, shame we didn't manage to meet up at some point. Hopefully in Japan?? I was 100% certain it was going to Florida but that was only based on the pattern up to this point. Bit of a shame that 2025 is only going to be three days though! The panel schedule will be packed. You've got Ahsoka (1 or 2 seasons of it?!), Skeleton Crew, The Acolyte, S4 of Mando by then, Visions v2 (and 3?), who knows what else, oh and a film potentially coming out 8 months later. Crazy. The two year gap will be tough but ultimately make it even more special I think. It was weird going from one Celebration to another in 10 or so months. Excited for Japan though. I hope TFA doesn't get lost in all the ROTS stuff. 

    Also, bit of a compromise in terms of streaming the big panels? They didn't stream the Showcase and Ahsoka, but the Sequel Villains, Kenobi and Bad Batch ones they did. So that was a big step in the right direction to be fair.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    The Showcase was magical, so, so, so many reveals, so many guests (!), so many awesome moments which really just made me feel I was walking on clouds from the very start of Celebration. The highlight for me was probably seeing Daisy come out and get some love (I have issues with the sequels and zero of them can be put on the actors) as well as the timeline and the announcement of Filoni getting a film! Nah who am I kidding, it was the namedrop in the 8 minute preview we got of Mando S3 E7 - I still get chills when I watch that moment back :p 

    Daisy getting a standing ovation when she came out was the highlight for me. Wonderful. Complete surprise too, even though she did tease it on Instagram a while back haha. I thought the Showcase was incredible. 10/10. We were properly spoiled. 2+ hours long too! I had a good time at the equivalent last year (tough to argue with John Williams and Harrison Ford on stage), but content wise, 2023 was MILES better. Makes sense obv, projects more far along but yeah, amazing. I thought Acolyte and Skeleton Crew looked great. Perfectly produced show, great to have Kathleen Kennedy on stage the whole time too, bit of a message that.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    but not before I came across a not-so-tall guy posing for photos with one or two people...my first thought was maybe a smaller YouTuber, but nope, it was the legend himself, Doug Chiang! Almost didn't recognise him with the moustache :laughing: he's been a hero of mine since I first started diving into the behind-the-scenes of Star Wars with the Making of Revenge of the Sith book I got from a carboot sale as a little kid, but I kind of blew it a little by taking too long to hype myself up enough for a photo - I was next to take a photo with him when he was whisked off by security as a small crowd had started to form. I didn't mind though (I'm really not one for being in photos, hence needing to hype myself up beforehand) - I got to see one of my heroes in the flesh, which was awesomeeeeeeee :D also made use of my Store reservation (all the tote bags were sold out immediately, and I really needed one because my bags were pretty full just on the journey into London; also spent a while trying to find the commemorative pins, and when it turned out they were at the tills, had a funny exchange with the cashier as I collected a small pile as she scanned my other items..."anything else?" "uh no I'm going to need to cut myself off there I think because I won't stop otherwise" :D)

    Glad you got to see Doug Chiang and as for a photo, that's your mission for 2025 I guess! He seems a great guy, he was wandering around the day before Celebration meeting fans too. I might try and get some of his artwork signed next time. Maybe that awesome Phantom Menace pod-racing shot.

    I had a reservation for the Store that first day too, got a couple of little bits. I really like the Union Jack X-wing stuff so got a mug and a patch to go with my Anaheim patch. Plus that badge art poster of course.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    After that, we beelined it over to the Celebration Stage queues for the 40 Years of Return of the Jedi panel, and made more friends while doing so. The panel itself, while exciting to see Doug Chiang and some other ILM folk as well as Ian McDiarmid and other big names, was a bit of a mess? Ming Na-Wen was hosting a panel for the first time and it showed, and it got really awkward when Billie Dee came out and would answer questions minutes after the fact or seemingly not answer questions at all - it was clear his age was getting to him (struggled to read notes from a piece of paper) and it was honestly kind of heartbreaking to watch :( we got a cool poster for the 40th anniversary and the announcement of the film returning to cinemas at the end of the month (which I'll be going to watch tomorrow!) so not all hope was lost. 

    I'm going through the livestream content at the moment and watched the ROTJ panel for the first time the other day, and yeah, bit of a mess. I love Ming Na Wen but, yeah. Did you catch Billy Dee's interview on the Live Stage shortly after that panel? He was 10x better thankfully, he was really great. 

    Awesome ROTJ poster, I managed to blag one even though I didn't make it to the panel haha. Nice to see a modern film poster that isn't just a bunch of floating heads (much as the TLJ poster is one of my favourites ever)

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    On Day 3, we made it to the Villains of the Sequel Trilogy panel with Ian McDiarmid, Andy Serkis (who got so much love after Andor - and rightly so! Even joked about his Kino Loy being Snoke :p) and Gwendoline Christie. This panel, hosted again by Amy who did another awesome job, was probably the surprise of the weekend for me - some funny digs at the sequels and politicians by Ian, and some great stories shared, as well as a couple Christopher Lee shoutouts! Was a bit unnerved by them not mentioning Adam Driver at all until the 53RD MINUTE of a 60 minute panel, but alas - there was also a fleeting moment where the room questioned for a split second if he was about to make an appearance, but it wasn't to be :( (geniunely think he'd get the greatest applause I would have heard all weekend)

    LOEVD this when I watched it on the livestream, I can still hear Gwendoline Christie's laugh when i close my eyes though. I wish I'd made more of an effort to try and get in but to be fair instead it meant I got to meet a Lucasfilm Art Director and got into the Visual Effects panel of Andor, a few rows from the front too, which was fantastic. Great energy from the crowd.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    Still no official confirmation of the second season, strangely, even though it was clear everyone on-stage definitely were up for it.

    Ewan seemed to suggest it and the crowd went nuts, then they realised oh he wasn't teasing an announcement lol. Kathleen Kennedy was doing lots of interviews around Celebration and fair play she was really open and honest. Big takeaways are that they'd like to do a Kenobi S2 but it's not in active development atm, also that Rogue Squadron is something they definitely still talk about, and that it might be pivoted to a series? PLEASE, just give us pilot fans something. It's a huge part of Star Wars that's been really lacking, at least on Disney+. The trench run and the Battle of Endor is pretty much what made me a Star Wars fan.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    The final day started with the panel for The Bad Batch, which was awesome with the announcement of a third season and a trailer that I think no-one in the room thought would be dropping. It was a great panel and I loved the energy in the room! Highlight was taking a seat before it was clear a bunch of Press and other folks hadn't turned up, so following orders, we swamped ther middle section and ended up in Press seats :D 

    Haha I did the same, and I also stole a Press reservation :D weird that they allocated that much space for the press. It was really weird being shown a teaser for S3 a week after S2 finished, but given how much S2 was delayed, I imagine it's been finished for a while. Hell, S3 might be finished and they're just waiting to release it. This last season of the Bad Batch has pretty much put it as top tier Star Wars for me, something I never thought would happen when it was first announced. The writing is immaculate. Jen Corbett and Brad Rau deserve a ton of praise so it was great to see them shown so much love in that panel.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    After that, it was a case of getting some food down before sneaking into the Marvel Comics panel ahead of Doug Chiang: Designing Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian, which was a real treat. Can see how the Inquisitor ended up looking the way he did in Kenobi (retrofitting his design to be based off a live-action character rather than realising they'd had a pau'an in live-action before, but alas!) even if I wasn't a fan, but overall, amazing panel - as expected. Beautiful art, Doug is always a joy to watch and listen to :D

    They usually do a question and answer session with Doug after his panel, but I think they were running short of time and had to get ready for the closing ceremony. Shame cause it's usually really interesting hearing his off the cuff insight.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    Haul

    Wow great job getting that timeline t-shirt, I didn't see that at all, gutted! I didn't go quite as crazy this year with merch, got 7 or 8 little bits but nothing massive, apart from well, this. I ordered a Wrecker and a Tech online after seeing them on the show floor

    SWCA22-Kotobukiya-35.jpg

    A few photos I took...

    b071.jpg

    b82.jpg

    76d3.jpg

    (will get to replying to the Mandoverse/Bad Batch storytelling post another time :laughing:)

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    1 minute ago, Julius said:

    It's been four hours and it's still installing :laughing:

    But yeah, will definitely share some thoughts! Hope I don't encounter too many hiccups (I'm pretty sensitive to framerate variation and they can give me headaches), but well, it can never be worse than Cyberpunk was at launch I guess :p

    Quality mode (30fps) seems to be the way to go then if you don't like framerate variation.

  17. Posted

    7 minutes ago, Julius said:

    That combined with dropping reviews on the same day as previews for Tears of the Kingdom has to be one of the biggest accidental self-inflicted burns we've seen in...around a year, now that I think about it :laughing:

    Absolutely! And literally what, 2 hours apart? 

    Similar to Horizon 1 releasing a week or so before BOTW and Horizon 2 releasing a week before Elden Ring. D'oh.

    EDIT: oh you made that exact point in the next sentence, that'll teach me to keep reading before replying. *facepalm*

    10 minutes ago, Julius said:

    power-hayden-christensen.gif

    I reckon I could Plat it before Tears of the Kingdom drops :p

    By all means!! Just don't want it to impact your enjoyment of Survivor.

  19. Posted

    On 21/04/2023 at 11:11 AM, Julius said:

    What's funny about that is that the fourth dot was there in the draft the entire time up until just before I submitted my reply, and then I removed it purely because it just didn't look right in the font on here :p

    Ok phew, I was wondering if I might have needed to revoke your Star Wars nerd card for that mistake.... 

    On 21/04/2023 at 11:11 AM, Julius said:

    I just think having all cloning roads leading either directly to the Emperor and the sequels or being destroyed is the most boring way to use that storytelling opportunity, because it is safe and significantly lowers the stakes if we know where everything is heading, but we'll need to wait and see. 

    Isn't "we know where everything is heading" a pretty staple story-telling method for a lot of Star Wars? The prequels, The Clone Wars etc... Obviously you know that, I'm just saying there's a balance to be struck between telling an interesting story in the here and now whilst also setting up ties to later eras. All the cloning storylines in Bad Batch and Mando definitely have their own unique payoffs, but they can still leave a trail of breadcrumbs to the sequels, like you've said.

    Tough to speculate on an endgame for The Bad Batch. Like you say I don't think it can end on the happiest of terms, hence the need for some kind of far-reaching victory that goes beyond just "rescue Omega/Crosshair". I don't think that would be enough. Possibly crippling the Empire's/Emperor's cloning plans and setting it back a couple of decades (until the time of Mando) would be enough, and by that point Tantiss is operational again. If anything that's probably an even bigger victory than what Rebels did with its finale, but both felt fitting and realistic to the story that those shows told. 

    On 21/04/2023 at 11:11 AM, Julius said:

    I don't think that there needs to be romance in every story, but, I will say that, if there is one, there is a bit of a natural route to follow it through with the Ezra and Sabine, and a history there that means it wouldn't need to be entirely introduced and then fleshed out in live-action – Rebels and how it ended, and the Ahsoka trailers, are set up in a way so that it could just as easily end up romantic as much as it could stay platonic. 

    Interesting, I hadn't really considered that. I'm open to it if it's done well, we'll see. Just the four months to wait though.:cry:

  20. Posted

    On 20/04/2023 at 4:40 PM, Julius said:

    It's more a case of me just questioning how the game has ended up that big when so many other substantially-sized games are substantially smaller in file size (again: RDR2 being 90-100 GB at launch and this being 150 GB is something I'm having a hard time reconciling in my head), but I'm sure playing the game itself might answer some of those questions...maybe? :p 

    Could be the variety of environments. The detail in RDR2 was incredible, but I imagine recreating Coruscant might be pretty resource heavy. Probably a combination of lots of planets with poor optimisation.

    On 20/04/2023 at 4:40 PM, Julius said:

    but I'll take extra care to use spoiler tags for your sake and just give more general thoughts on the game outside of them :peace:

    Thank you! I'm definitely waiting until after I finish with Tears of the Kingdom to play Survivor. Annoying, but oh well.

    On 20/04/2023 at 4:40 PM, Julius said:

    I do generally find myself planning what I play anyways, but it's funny when we come up to a window like this and suddenly my plans get thrown up in the air. I think I can get through and 100% Survivor before Tears of the Kingdom (or die trying haha)

    I've not actually read the reviews yet but it sounds like there's a lot of content/busiwork around the main campaign. Might be a case of doing main missions and side missions before Zelda and doing the equivalent of Favours when you get back to it.

    Still seems crazy to release two weeks before what'll probably be the biggest game of the year.

  21. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Excellent reviews, 8's and 9's. I'll take that!

    Alex from Star Wars Explained loving it should mean the storyline is great.

    Some choice quotes from Opencritic

    Quote

    If Respawn makes a third game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, it'll complete the best Star Wars trilogy in 30 years, hands down.

    Quote

    Star Wars Jedi: Survivor lovable unpretentiousness is what makes it such a blast - but a lack of true focus holds it back.

    Quote

    Jedi: Survivor sets itself up as a benchmark for what new Star Wars stories can look like

    Quote

    Respawn Entertainment clearly took a measured and thoughtful approach to analyze what worked and what didn’t in its last Star Wars game, and Jedi: Survivor feels like a worthy attempt at evolution. It captures the magic of Star Wars as well as anything in the current canon, and it’s a stellar adventure in its own right.

    Quote

    Star Wars Jedi: Survivor improves upon its predecessor's gameplay and storytelling to deliver an engrossing story of a Jedi grappling with morality.

    Quote

    Star Wars Jedi: Survivor almost swept me off my feet

    Quote

    Respawn’s Fallen Order sequel is a big, bombastic blockbuster but doesn’t forget what made the first one special

    Quote

    Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is an excellent sequel and a fun Star Wars story, but maybe wait for better performance.

     

  22. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Sounds like a preview session centred around the abilities gameplay demo from Aonuma. All sounding pretty incredible so far though from what I've read.

    The ability to summon builds you've Ultrahand-ed before sounds great. I imagine it'd get tedious to constantly build the same rafts or flying machines piece by piece so if they limit your actual build time to new builds? Great stuff.

  24. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Red Letter Media are nostalgia fanboys, averse to anything new and different, so they were always going to love S3.

    I finished it last night, I thought the last episode was stupidly over the top and silly in terms of the action but overall it was a fun season. All the fan service was a pretty cheap way to get fans onside but after the dreadful first couple of seasons, who can blame them really.

    But yeah I didn't need to see the ship turn into the Millennium Falcon. That whole sequence was cringeworthy. What I'd suggest to the writers in terms of the action is that less is more. All these new Trek shows seem obsessed with over the top spectacle, which usually manifests itself as big epic fleet shots with a million torpedoes and phasers everywhere. There's just no need. I love a good fleet shot but it's happened in Discovery S2, SNW S1, Picard S1, Picard S2 and now Picard S3, combined with the poor visual effects and it doesn't really land imo.

    Also less impressed with them walking back every decision the series has made up to now.

    Spoiler

    Data? Bring him back for a final, "proper" goodbye. Kill him. Then bring him back again.

    The Borg? We just had the Queen literally a season ago, so seeing her yet again kind of takes the shine off.

    Q? We make this big touching goodbye scene. Then bring him back again a season later.

    Enterprise-F? It's in one solitary shot, then casually forgotten about so we can have an Enterprise-G. WTF?

    My favourite part of the finale though...

    Spoiler

    Dubious necessity to bring the ship back in the first place aside, I thought the recreated Enterprise-D bridge was PERFECT. It looked incredible.

    In terms of the future of Trek, I think they really need some brand new original series like Discovery to avoid the franchise stagnating under the weight of legacy characters. The appeal of a series of brand new characters will diminish the more legacy characters become a thing imo.

  25. Posted

    7 hours ago, Julius said:

    Yeah okay so it'd be three paragraphs, too many things in all caps, and whatever, but I'm just excited :bouncy:

    You also missed a fourth dot at the end.... :D

    I wouldn't be so sure of Mount Tantiss figuring into the Thrawn storyline much, even if it played a big part in the books. The Bad Batch S3 needs a bit climactic victory, and a clone uprising destroying Tantiss in the series finale seems like a safe bet. It could come at a heavy cost so it's not a fully happy ending, but there definitely needs to be a win and sabotaging Palpatine's plans there I think would fit. Similar to how the Rebels last episode centred a victory on Lothal.

    Re: adapting new characters into the book versions, I imagine if this will all be building for another few years that's plenty of time to introduce a Mara Jade type into the story. But yeah, Ahsoka seems likely to take the Luke role, even though I'd be amazed if we don't see a deepfake Luke in the various series/film at some point. Not a huge role but he'll definitely play a part.

    Woke up in a great mood yesterday because I loved Mando S03E08 from the night before so much. It put a much better perspective on the whole season for me, a season that really seemed to sideline Din and Grogu, until then. I'm not sure Favreau is ever going to win any awards for his writing, but it was a lot of fun regardless.

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