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Messages - Robert Frazer

#31
Games / Re: Sniper Elite 3
07 April, 2013, 06:05:33 AM
Quote from: James Stacey on 18 March, 2013, 05:23:15 PM

A sniper game has to be perfectly suited for the wii u pad, surely

You could make a more authentic experience with two-man sniper teams - the player with the joypad is the shooter, while the player with the Wii-U screen is his spotter, getting the environmental information (distance, windage etc.) and relaying that to the other player so that he can line up his shot.
#32
Film Discussion / Re: Dredd (2012)
07 April, 2013, 05:59:50 AM
Do we have any idea how the DVD/BD sales are breaking down? When the film was on release we were obsessively counting over every single pound spent and were on tenterhooks as it painfully inched towards (and fell short of...) the magical "made back budget" figure, so the extra augment to this from home sales will be important in judging Dredd's final success.
#33
Prog / Re: Prog 2013
08 February, 2013, 03:33:44 AM
What didn't quite sit right with me in Ack-Ack Macque was his wingman's thought bubble "you don't know how they're using you...!"

You're a smart cigar-chomping chimp fighting techno-Nazis. Of course you're "being used". Where do you think you came from, under a mulberry bush? I appreciate the full intricacies of plot can't be conveyed in five pages, but as conspiracies go it seemed pretty lame.
#34
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
08 February, 2013, 03:20:49 AM
You know, Conservatives introduced to politics the first non-Christian PM (D'Israeli*), the first non-British PM (Law), the first unmarried-and-maybe-gay PM (Heath) and the first female PM (Thatcher) - indeed, the very first female MP to sit in the Commons (Viscountess Astor) was a Tory, as was the first Jewish MP (Sir Lopes).

Labour did get the first Muslim MP (Sarwar) - eventually, in 1997 - but your Bingo card is looking awfully bare in comparison.

*Yeah, he converted, but don't imagine that the stigmas magically evaporated - and he succeeded anyway.
#35
Other Reviews / Re: JUDGE DREDD: IDW #1
01 December, 2012, 10:58:18 PM
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even notice the Stallone-style uniform in the B-strip - and Dredd's role is small enough in that story anyway for it not to be so great a drama. Maybe his uniform was at the dry-cleaners after "Ripe" and the local Sector House that he reported to to change didn't have anything in his size other than a set of 2095s.
#36
Prog / Re: Prog 1812 Trifecta
01 December, 2012, 10:53:02 PM
I think that the "Cold Deck" GN would have to be printed as-published - you couldn't run each full story in series because as we've seen over the past few weeks developments have happened alongside each other and one instalment has informed the others (for instance, last week, Dredd's "Bullet to King Four" line was quoted in Low Life). You'd have to print it part-by-part to convey the necessary synchornicity of story development.
#37
Film Discussion / Re: Dredd (2012)
28 November, 2012, 10:55:20 PM
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 28 November, 2012, 10:37:47 PM
So why didn't they ask them this time round?

Probably because "obscure-to-the-only-country-that-matters British comic geek who has a surname like a Nazi" doesn't have as much cachet with the cinemagoing public as "THAT GUY WHO WROTE THE FAST-ZOMBIE MOVIE!"
#38
Prog / Re: Prog 1811 Moonshot!
28 November, 2012, 10:47:19 PM
Whenever Dredd's taken a bad knock in previous adventures I have to confess that I've always been pretty cynically disdainful about it - "oh, he's top billing, there's no way they'd kill him off.", that sort of thing.

But this time... chaps, things really and honestly look dicey for him here. It's going to take more than a spin in the speedheal to fix this...!

QuoteHershey buys it and Dredd feels like he has to take on the job.

You know, that's actually quite credible, particularly when we remember Hershey giving Dredd an Interview Without Coffee a couple of weeks ago which could easily construe some foreshadowing. For over fifty years Dredd has been a latter-day Praetorian ensuring the sanctity of the Law when its practitioners go astray - but when he is, finally, after several near-misses, finally installed in the Chief Judge's seat, he is put to the ultimate test, one far more dangerous than any gunfight or face-off with Judge Death... is Joseph I-Am-The-Law Dredd truly incorruptible? Or has he just never been tempted before?
#39
Other Reviews / Re: JUDGE DREDD: IDW #1
27 November, 2012, 02:03:20 AM
Have any US reviews started to appear yet? A Google search offers up a few positive posts from some Stateside bloggers, but I haven't seen anything from the important outlets yet. Ultimately we're irrelevant - their opinion matters far more in ensuring IDW's comic will be a success.
#40
Film & TV / Re: Skyfall (2012)
27 November, 2012, 01:55:23 AM
Quote from: Fisticuffs on 26 November, 2012, 03:11:58 PM
Yeah but the Jack White/Alicia Keys theme was absolute tripe. Quite like the Chris Cornell one though.

I agree, "You Know My Name" is underrated. I have to admit, when I first watched Casino Royale in the cinema, I hated the theme - I thought that it was just noise. However, since then it's grown on me immensely and it's probably my favourite of the whole set.

I thought I'd also take some time to address Ancient Otter's complaints from the last page:

Quote[1}Why did Silva hire Patrice* to kill that guy in China? Sévérine and her bodyguards work for him, they could have done it for him unless the whole incident was bait to lure 007 to him but....

Plausible deniability. It could be compromising to have your very public courtesan and her well-known minders sully their hands. Subcontracting a third party distances accusations from you.

Quote[2]Why bother getting captured by MI6? If he knew where M would exactly be so he could assassinate her, he could have just walked in off the street and wasted her without anyone knowing he was coming.

Where would be the triumph in that, though? "Think on your sins". Silva didn't just want to kill M, he wanted to humiliate her.

Quote[3]A bomb blows up a subway tunnel, MI6 tell M to leave the Inquiry - they don't bother to tell anyone to halt the Inquiry or to evacuate the other politicians or intelligence personnel?

If there was still a chance of halting Silva before he reached the inquiry, you wouldn't want to cause a public scandal/embarrassment unnecessarily (the Tube crash could probably be hushed up as a freak accident in old dilapidated tunnels). Also, this is smallminded Whitehall bureaucracy we're talking about - there was probably some weed in a back-office moaning how cancelling the inquiry would disrupt the schedule.

Quote[3]The list of Nato agents is still out there - how do they know Silva wouldn't have a failsafe to release it if he got killed?

As it is, letting him live isn't keeping it all that secure either! It's a calculated risk.

Quote[5] M get dragged up to a enquiry over the loss of the list and Nato agents killed - yet Bond "kidnaps" M, gets her killed in the countryside in Scotland, and he gets his job back?

Bond didn't rack up too shabby a score when conducting his impromptu mashup of The Thirty-Nine Steps and Home Alone, that must count for something... and hey, maybe the new M saw it as payment for services rendered?

Quote*Why would an international assassin use depleted uranium bullets if it would make him so easy for authorities to track him down?

International assassins like to leave calling cards, it's part of the fun. It's reassuring for the client as well... knowing that your contractor uses a gold pistol adds a certain level of class that makes the million a shot he charges more palatable. Good value-add.
#41
Books & Comics / Re: IDW Dredd, available in UK?
23 November, 2012, 04:54:51 AM
I feel a little ambivalent about the first issue. I do welcome the fact that both stories didn't forget the quirkier and more light-hearted side of Mega-City life, but the stories were not the best exhibit of Dredd himself. He's often a bystander which allows us to observe MC1, that's true, but in "Ripe" he wasn't just standing aside, he was completely ineffectual. There needed to be a more focused tale of Dredd as the hero.
#42
QuoteAnd that last panel, well - unless Dredd is Mr invincible...

The shots are on the right side of his body, which means that his heart is intact - he'll pull through. Alas, my cynicism deadens me to drama - sorry, Tharg.  :( 

If nothing else, Dred'll be around long enough to tell Hershey "I told you so!" at least.
#43
Games / Re: COD: Black Ops 2
22 November, 2012, 04:41:28 AM
QuoteThe FPS genre had definitely gone stale. Perhaps when COD has finally outstayed its welcome (which it pretty much has) and every other FPS stops trying to be the new COD, maybe then we will get some innovation and a bit of new life breathed into the genre.

Call of Duty isn't really a FPS, though. It's a genre unto itself - its closest competitor isn't Medal of Honor but FIFA Soccer. The game won't ever become stale because what people want from each annual update, like the squad rosters for the season, are new maps, Captain Price's cavalry whiskers, point-streaks, some gravelly voiceovers and maybe another AC-130 shoot-'em-up mission (always great fun). Call of Duty reliably and capably provides. It knows what we love and we love what it knows.
#44
QuoteSimping Detective - Hmm. Love this strip, but it always staggers a bit when Demarco's in it. Her declaration of love rings a bit insincerely given that the two characters have shared very little actual panel time together in this or previous adventures. I can see why Jack would fall for her, but why would she be so head over heels for him? That aside it's good stuff, and Coleby continues to play a blinder. Been great to have Jack back after too long away.

As you say, though, it's been a few years since the last Simping Detective Thrill, and it's not a stretch to think that their relationship advanced in the interim. Just like how Dredd doesn't only clock in to fight crime on Wednesdays, Point and DeMarco have probably had off-panel adventures.

DeMarco has shown a remarkable propensity to rush into really bad relationship decisions, too. After all, she's sidled up alongside:

1 - a corrupt Judge who tried to kill her.
2 - Dredd.
3 - recalling the Simping Detective text story, "a guy who goes 'flibble' on orgasm".

Hopefully some kind soul can introduce her to Halequin novels before she becomes enchanted with Otto Sump!
#45
Games / Re: Elite could be returning to a PC near you.
14 November, 2012, 11:56:29 PM
Elite was before my time and I never really got deeply into the 4x genre myself. I was quite enthusiastic about Star Control 2 for a while but I gave it up in disgust when it springs upon you, three-quarters of the way into the adventure, "oh, by the way? I hope you were doing all the main plot bits in double-quick time because we're killing the galaxy in six game-months! What, you thought this game was about exploration? Hahah, sorry chum, the big star map was a red herring! Funny, eh? Better reload and start again, lots of extra playtime!"  >:(