chambersjad

It really could have been pretty good. 7 or 8 tier acting. Very good setting, mood, casting... it was all going pretty well. And then, mistake after mistake after mistake. Culminating in one of the worst miniseries finales I have ever seen. Without spoilers, a minor character we have no reason to like is suddenly featured prominently while the main characters are suddenly just missing from the story. And it just so happens, the actor playing that character is one of the (FAR too many) listed Executive Producers. So obviously so, and he's credited so much higher than everyone else in the cast... that it comes off as just a vanity piece for him alone. Then cut back to the main characters for the final 2 minutes to wrap it up with an ending that sets everything back to square one, resolves nothing, robs all meaning from the previous 9 episodes, and shows the true colors of the miniseries. Just a backdoor pilot for someone's (probably multiply pitched and rejected) TV series pitch. There's no plan, no ending written, just the hope of getting picked up. Thanks for making me hopeful this could be good... I hope it fails, don't bother with this one.

This is a great movie. Easily the best movie I saw in 2018. Without any doubt the best western released in this decade, and probably since 2000. It is actually my new favorite Cohen Bros movie. The haters seem to think it started good and then got worse and worse. Actually it started brilliant, but kind of lightly sardonically dark and then got more ponderous and serious and continually more and more darkly humorous. And MORE interesting, unless all you wanted was a stereotypical "yee haw, cowboy movie." For any TRUE fan of dark comedy, this might end up being your favorite western of all time. A great (but for the most part understated) cast, fantastic score, flawless and beautiful cinematography, I can't think of a single flaw. Some have criticized its pacing, but any fan of the genre realizes that anthology films are just paced differently than other films. Some pieces do drag on a little, but the payoff is always worth the wait. In other words, they EARN every second of run time. A new Western classic and proof that the Cohens still "have it."

I enjoyed Watch Dogs. It wasn't without its issues, but overall I had lots of fun. I'll start with the bad. I didn't find it to be a compelling story. The characters don't develop or go anywhere. There isn't much in the way of payoff at the end, and there is a moral choice at the end that doesn't change the ending much either way. And the "moral choice" comes out of nowhere as no choices anywhere prior to the very end (even after the boss fight) has any influence on the ending. It's like someone set out to write William Gibson and wound up with Lifetime Movie of the Week. Still, not a big loss. This is a video game, I'm not expecting Hemingway. And there's so much to do and so little story, that the main quest is only about a quarter of the game anyway.

Glitches. I've run into several mission restarting glitches on the PC port. And there is a report of a game ending glitch that ruins whole savegames (I'm lucky I missed that one.) Ubi needs to realize that playtesting can prevent problems like this and this is bush league developer stuff.

And I'm not finding much re-playability. I got many hours of enjoyment out of Watch Dogs, but now that I'm done with the story and most of the cheevos... there isn't much else. The multiplayer isn't meaty enough to carry much replayability. But then again I'm not much into online multiplayer, if someone is their opinion might be different.

But the good far outweighs the bad. Plenty of great gameplay outside the main story. Lots of content and contracts and games. I've heard complaints about the driving... but I prefer it to Rockstar's Euphoria engine driving (GTA.) I really think a lot of the bellyaching is coming from folks who aren't very GOOD at the driving.

Mechanically, the engine is good, the stealth works, the driving is good, the game engine does everything asked. And the controls are smooth and easy to master. Again any problems with the controls has more to do with personal ham-fistedness than actual difficulty. And I'm not a guy that cares about graphics. I'll never take away points for bad graphics. Gameplay and story matter much more. But if a game has particularly good graphics, or displays something particularly well... I may add a point. And I have done so with Watch Dogs. The graphics aren't the greatest (looking like the E3 display settings are still on disc, but were nerfed for PC to drag it back down to console level) but they are plenty good enough. And the Chicago of Watch Dogs... feels more alive than any other sandbox city ever has. Partially due to the "profiling" mechanic, but it's just better than the average cityscape with a handful of non-reacting npcs sprinkled on it.