People Behind The Meeples - Episode 212: Kennedy Goodkey

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Kennedy Goodkey
Location:	Vancouver
Day Job:	I used to work in film. Nowadays I do data analysis for a major Canadian telecom.
Designing:	One to two years.
Blog:	I do but its not game relevant at this time
BGG:	HobbyistsorDabblers
Facebook:	Hobbyists or Dabblers
Twitter:	@hobdab
YouTube:	I do but its not game relevant at this time oh wait... how about a film I produced that is now available for free on YouTube? https://youtu.be/whW57js2XjA
Find my games at:	Best to reach out on Facebook and I can direct people to appropriate PnP or TTS locations (the picking are pretty slim right now)

Today's Interview is with:

Kennedy Goodkey
Interviewed on: 8/26/2019

This week's interview is with Kennedy Goodkey, an independent film director and screenwriter turned game designer. In addition to his involvement with several movies, Kennedy has been designing games for the past few years. Read on to learn more about Kennedy and his current projects!

Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.

How long have you been designing tabletop games?
One to two years.

Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I did it in my teens and 20s. Got busy for a few decades (the film industry is a time-intensive life), then got back to gaming as a Dad (and having left film)... and the bug struck again - in part because my daughter started getting into games with me, but also because I had a creative hole in my life where film once was.

What game or games are you currently working on?
I've got about 4 that are getting regular attention from me right now...

"The Queen Must Die" - a reversed dungeon crawl where the players are the Kobolds working together to save their warren and queen... except that whoever is "winning" at any given time wants the Queen to die, so they can rule.

"Drive" - a tile-laying race-game in the spirit of awesome/terrible films like The Cannonball Run and Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

"Drop-Stix" - A dexterity game that turns the classic Pick-up-Sticks on it's head.

"Bishop, Baylies & the Baron" - A fast paced card game of aerial dog-fighting in WWI.

Have you designed any games that have been published?
Nope. But I have a good track record at design jams.

What is your day job?
As noted above, I used to work in film. Nowadays I do data analysis for a major Canadian telecom.

Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.

Where do you prefer to play games?
Anywhere there is a game. I get anxious when I leave the house without a deck of cards (I also do card magic) "just in case."

Who do you normally game with?
#1 - my daughter. I have 2 small groups of "the guys" who I play with at least once a month each. And I attend several open gaming nights - with various 'regulars' - sometimes with my daughter, and sometimes not.

If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
My #1 for close to a year now has been Root. I do like getting my games to the table too. The rest rotates based on whims that last weeks at a time.

And what snacks would you eat?
My daughter and I usually go out for "muffins and coffee" and games at least one morning per weekend. And "beer" is probably the most reliable staple of the other events.

Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
I do. I'm pretty open to whatever - my tastes musically speaking are pretty broad. But... "the guys" ...we are collectively getting long ion the tooth - and there is a lot of "I can't hear clearly with too much background noise" ...so music is normally only pre/post game. :-(

What's your favorite FLGS?
RainCity Games in Vancouver. That's where everybody knows my name. And it's a block away from home.

What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Fave... Well, Root. ...but Point Salad is making a hard play for that position over these past few weeks. Least favourite that I still enjoy... Pandemic is probably my all-time fave, but I've played-it-out. I do still like "playing" it... but that really means I sit and watch others play - 'cause I can't open my mouth without having an Alpha opinion about the situation. Worst game... I've probably deliberately forgotten. However, this past weekend my daughter and I took a game off the shelf of shame - Barcelona - and confirmed that our year-long resistance to playing it was WELL founded.

What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
Being VERY specific - the way the infection deck is handled in Pandemic - adding a new card from the bottom and then reshuffling all that has already appeared together and putting it on top to go through again... it seems so pedestrian now all these years later, but DAMN - it's a simple piece of genius. Being considerably less specific... I'm a sucker for legacy games. Least favourite... well any of the 54(?) mechanics singled out on BGG have a place and time... but dice rolling really needs to earn it on my game table.

What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
I could probably say "Root" again, 'cause it doesn't get to the table anywhere near as often - or with as many players as I'd like. But... I'm going to cheat this question in another way... Dune. I owned an AH copy of it in the 80s and played it until it was hardly usable. I traded it, in all it's literally broken (yet complete) glory for a nearly mint copy of Supremacy with ALL expansions. That trade says all you need to know about either game, no? I'd been considering hand crafting a bespoke version [of Dune] for quite some time... but I'm glad that I won't have to... geez, almost any time now.

What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, RPG Games, Video Games

Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games

OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
No

You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.

When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
Theme MOSTLY comes first. But there are exceptions.

Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
Yes. I've entered a few. The only ones I've won have been design jams though.

Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
I could go top 3... in no particular order: Garfield, Daviau, Leacock. All for very different reasons... and the connection between Daviau and Leacock I will staunchly deny has anything to do with their partnership of note.

Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
Tough to say. "The Queen Must Die" began life as a screenplay that I couldn't finish. Years later it popped into my mind and I thought - THATS A GAME! "Bishop, Baylies & the Baron" - I'd wanted to design a dogfighting game for quite some time (I've always been fascinated by the arithmancy of Ace of Aces) and at a game jam, it fit the constraints we were given, so a game was born.

How do you go about playtesting your games?
I go regularly to a design night at my FLGS. But I'll also post on Facebook or elsewhere that I'm looking for players when I want to go deep. I'll solo or play with my daughter too - for as much as that is worth. And I've uploaded "The Queen Must Die" to Tabletop Simulator, but haven't yet tried the on-line play test... but will soon.

Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
Yes. I really love the autonomy of working alone. I like trying my hand at all aspects - though I'm not really good enough at art or graphic design to do those at a level that could sell. I'm also not the greatest businessman. I have designed two games - probably two of my taughtest - with others, but even so I have a habit of running head of the pack at the slightest hint of foot-dragging. I'd love to have a dream-team partnership with a better artist and graphic designer than me, and someone with a better grasp of business.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
... I feel like I'm answering these questions ahead of when they are being asked! The business. Yeah, I co-produced a movie that sold to broadcast, theatrical and DVD (oddly in that order), but I hated every single step of the business part. I resist it and let my contempt for it get in the way of doing it efficiently at every step.

If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
I saw Star Wars on my 7th birthday. I left the theatre and said "I want to do THAT" - meaning making films. I did - though not Star Wars. So perhaps there is a Star Wars game in the future with my name on the box.

What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
Don't stop. Keep doing it in the vacuum - a renaissance is coming.

What advice would you like to share about designing games?
(Again this comes from film (and theatre).) Never toss an idea away entirely. No matter how dumb it seems, or how much it doesn't work in the current situation, you never know when it will be the key to something good. Don't dismiss something because it's impractical - it may seem weird and counter-intuitive, but in the right context it may be exactly what you need. Both those ideas are adjacent to one another. I have personal examples of both.

Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have: Nothing as of yet.
Games that will soon be published are: Ditto.
This is what I have currently crowdfunding: See above re my taste for business.
Currently looking for a publisher I have: The Queen Must Die; Bishop, Baylies & the Baron Both are ready. I have plans to pitch both in October [2019].
I'm planning to crowdfund: :-)
Games I feel are in the final development and tweaking stage are: Pixie Dust; Drop-Stix
Games that I'm playtesting are: Drive; Pirates v. Robots v. Ninjas v. Zombies v. Lemmings
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Legacy version of a major license that I will NEVER get and that should probably never actually get a legacy treatment - but was fun to dev anyway. (It's a game about real-estate - yeah, that one.)
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Un-named Palace Intrigue - Hidden Identity game that I'd call "Love Letter" except...

Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Yes, each of those and many others - Board Game Design Lab springs to mind

And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!

Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Wars, but only if I had to pick; Coke; VHS

What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
We love music in our house. I still get the occasional call for help on film... for fun. And (largely due to having a wife with loads of insider experience) a lot of world travel.

What is something you learned in the last week?
The connection between Depeche Mode, Erasure and Yazoo. ...and here I THOUGHT I knew my 80s music trivia.

Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
Punk / Post-Punk, Space (not specifically sci-fi - but at least as much about real world space exploration and astro-physics). Obviously Star Wars... but I really enjoy Nordic Noir too.

What was the last book you read?
Game Tek by Geoff Englestein

Do you play any musical instruments?
Yes.

Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
I paid for most of my university by touring Canada in a comedy troupe.

Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
I paid for most of my university by touring Canada in a comedy troupe.

Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
... no doubt I have one... it's just not springing to mind.

Who is your idol?
Joe Strummer, The Edge, David Brin, Trevor Linden

What would you do if you had a time machine?
I'd call my friend Keith five minutes earlier than I did on the day he died... so he wouldn't have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Are you an extrovert or introvert?
I am an awful lot of both and not much of the middle.

If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
The Flash has always been my favourite, so it'd probably be wrong to say Batman.

Have any pets?
A fish. (Sigh, apartment life.)

When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
As much as I have all manner of utopian ideals of what I wish the world was like, I kinda feel like people suck and so long as we are around, the worst aspects of human kind will always be there to be fought - so... nice idea, but I just don't kid myself anymore. I sure hope people keep playing hockey and curling. The ice age should about that.

If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
Hey Keith! Hope you're doing well. Miss the hell out of you still. Can you believe I'm older than you ever were?

Just a Bit More
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions! Is there anything else you'd like to tell my readers?

Geez... this is a lot of questions.

Curling. Once upon a time my Dad was one of the top 100 curlers in Canada. At that time, being one of the top 100 curlers in Canada pretty much meant you were one of the top 100 curlers in the world.

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Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html

Did you like this interview?  Please show your support: Support me on Patreon! Or click the heart at Board Game Links , like GJJ Games on Facebook , or follow on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

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Alumni Sian Knight Begins Job With Fat Kraken Studios.

Congratulations to our Alumni, Siân Knight for landing a job as an environment artist with Fat Kraken Studios!

Sian said,
'I am absolutely pleased Alumni Sian Knight begins job with Fat Kraken Studios and honoured to announce that I will be working as an Environment Artist at Fat Kraken Studios, who are working alongside Oddworld Inhabitants to create their latest upcoming title - Oddworld: SoulStorm!! 😱
I would like to thank all of the people who have given me opportunities along the way ever since the start of this year - I've almost given up several times... but you've gotta' be vigilant! Never give up!'

That's great advice.

Go Girl!

Planet X3 - Review Of A New Real Time Strategy Game For The IBM PC

Title Screen VGA

Retro video game homebrew is an ever maturing market.  Talented coders spend a ton of hours getting their games into a playable state and bugfixed, small teams combine their talents to handle differing workloads (graphics, sound, programming) and the result is hopefully a video game that will sell enough copies to make it worth all the effort.  Homebrew software has become popular with console platforms like the NES, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision and Sega Genesis.  Homebrew software for personal computers has not quite taken off as the more popular consoles.  Nonetheless there are talented individuals making homebrew software for the IBM PC compatible  MS-DOS platform.  Today I am going to review the latest homebrew game for the IBM PC and compatibles, 8-bit Guy's Planet X3, identify its strengths and weaknesses, determine how well it met its design goals and postulate on its role in the evolution of PC homebrew.

Read more »

You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

Here and There in London by J. Ewing Ritchie

Some Work From Zach

A collection of Zach's works

The Great White Ape of Barsoom

He did a good job on the white fur

Woola, the Calot

I forget which Barsoomian critter this is... 

A Chaos Warrior

Also, the flank of a Banth (Barsoomian lion)

 Chaos Beastman Army Centaur Banner

Another Chaos Beastman. Zach has an entire army of these fellows

Movie Reviews: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi (Spoilers), Battle Of The Sexes, Wonder, Coco

See all of my movie reviews.

Battle of the Sexes: It feels like forever since I've seen a movie with real, engaging three-dimensional characters, instead of the one or zero dimensional characters you get in Disney and Marvel movies.

The story starts with some background on Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. Riggs is an older former champion tennis player, a sexist but talented socialite, who is having difficulty with his family and looking for a new challenge. King is young and at or near the top in women's tennis, but disgusted that, while women's tennis draws the same ticket sales, the athletes get paid 1/8 what the men do, "because". So she starts her own league. Riggs challenges King to a battle of the sexes.

The trailers for this movie made it seem like Steve Carrell's Bobby Riggs was going to be a caricature of the real Riggs (who was certainly flamboyant). Thank goodness, Carrell, and his screenwriter and director, do a fantastic job in giving us a fully-fledged person that we can care about, even as he is, essentially, the bad guy. So, sucky trailer. Emma Stone does an equally fantastic job as Billie Jean King, as do several of the accessory and side characters, who are fleshed out in full glory (or at least as much as their screen-time allows).

The story lingered perhaps a little too long here and there on some scenes, like the initial haircut scene where she falls for her hairdresser (Carol did a better job with its similar love at first meeting scene). And maybe a little more time could have been added to the story to make it feel like a real epic. But never mind. This was a fun, fine, and satisfying movie to watch.

Wonder: From the trailer I wasn't expecting much for this movie, and in fact wasn't planning to see it at all. It seemed like a straightforward movie about a disfigured boy (Jacob Tremblay) being bullied in school, making and losing friends, and ultimately triumphing. Ho hum. So, once again, sucky, sucky trailer.

That story is, indeed, the backbone of the movie, taking up around 50% of the screen-time; if it was all there was to the movie, the movie would be as expected: not bad, but ultimately nothing special and predictable. But the movie spends the other 50% of its screen-time telling other people's stories, sometimes rolling back the same scene multiple times to view it from different points of view. We spend a lot of time with the sister, but also the mother, the sister's friend, the sister's boyfriend, and two other kids in the boy's class. And all of those stories are better and more original than the main storyline, making the movie so much more than just a story about a bulled boy.

The story is screenwritten by Steve Chbotsky (based on a book by RJ Palacio), the same screenwriter and author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I saw and loved that movie and wanted to read the book afterwards. The same thing happened with this movie: the movie is good, but you can see the left-out parts of the book peeking about here and there, and you really want to get more into depth with the characters.

Yes, the story is still a bit of a tearjerker, sentimental and emotional, but it is also narratively creative with some interesting, less predictable characters and story arcs. The main, predictable arc (basically told in the trailer) is raised up by being interwoven with the other stories, although it, too should have been better. Well worth a see, especially for kids and teens. Note: Chewbacca is in the movie, which makes it a candidate as an entry in the Star Wars canon, in my opinion.

Coco: Coco follows in the tradition of Moana, Brave, and Mulan in presenting not only a story of a hero's journey but a journey that is kickstarted, guided, and resolved in consonance with the literalization of a non-American cultural mythology. And I don't know how I feel about that.

A Mexican boy's (Manuel) family refuses to have anything to do with music because the great-grandfather ran off to become a musician, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves. Naturally, Manuel wants to be a musician. It is the Day of the Dead, where everyone puts up pictures to the dead in order for the dead spirits to be able to (spiritually) visit, but of course a) there is no picture of the great-grandfather and b) Manuel doesn't want to have anything to do with his family. Manuel's idol is a famous musician, and Manuel learns, by accident, that this famous musician was, in fact, his great-grandfather. To compete in a music contest, Manuel steals a guitar from this musician's shrine and finds himself cursed into the land of the dead. Who are happily visiting the relatives who have posted pictures for them. The ones whose families have not posted pictures of them are unhappy. Manuel needs his dead family's blessing to get back to the real world, but they won't give it to him unless he promises not to pursue music. So he runs off to find the spirit of his great-grandfather.

Many of the themes, including the central theme, are reminiscent of the ones in the other movies I mentioned, and the movie also borrows some narrative elements from Up. It has a lot of "learning moments", which are familiar, and a few nice musical scenes. It leans heavy on appreciating your cultural heritage, by turning mythological aspects into real ones.

Which I find kind of bothersome. When mythology becomes fact, it is no longer a question of faith or practice or choice. While in real life there is no easy answer as to whether choosing to honor or not your dead ancestors makes you a good or bad person, movies like this imply that you have no choice not to believe in your family's traditional stories: If you don't, you are murdering or causing tremendous pain to actual beings who walk, talk, and feel exactly like any other living beings do. I'm not comfortable with that message. A mature individual recognizes that what we do to honor the dead and our traditions has nothing to do with the dead, but is about ourselves, our families, and our communities. Coco is aimed at children, sure, and this is just a children's story. But I thought that this movie was supposed to be sensitive to the cultures it was representing, not trivializing to them. You can't really have it both ways.

There are no glaring flaws with the movie, although a Mexican family rejecting all music for several generations seems a bit of a stretch. The movie is filled with pretty art, colors, and architecture which I presume represent both historical and modern Mexican culture. I'm not sure that modern children will appreciate the music, except the few numbers that are obviously meant to appeal to them. I'm not sure in what time period the movie is supposed to be; it must be modern, but no one has cellphones or computers. Is that normal for a modern, large Mexican town? Anyway, I liked it more than I did Moana, which I found derivative and boring. I'm sure that kids will enjoy it.

Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi: Star Wars once had something that was different from other sci-fi movies and worlds, something precious and important. Unfortunately, the makers of the current movies don't see that. Instead of making Star Wars movies, they are making modern sci-fi movies indistinguishable from other modern sci fi movies, with the iconography of Star Wars. Which is very painful to me. Chris Bateman bemoaned something similar after watching the Star Trek reboot, and I didn't get it, then. I think I get it now.

Update: see the end for thoughts after a second viewing.

The new Star Trek movies, the X-Men movies, the Marvel movies, the Ghost in the Shell remake, the Blade Runner movie, Looper, Valerian, Avatar, DC's movies, and many other sci-fi movies in the last 10 or 15 years  have a vast similarity to each other, in much the same way that all modern Disney, Pixar, and other American animated children's movie have vast similarities to each other. They may have different writers, directors, and casts, but they are all, essentially, dumbed down. The creators of these movies avoid complex messages, plots, and themes, throw in snarky slapstick between action sequences, fill the screen with copious action sequences at nearly the same points in the movie, present emotions and dialog that is one-dimensional and transparently representative of the characters, and hammer you with neat and simplistic moral messages in their denouements that are understandable and suitable for a 4 year old. Family is good. Be brave. Be true to yourself. Be loving to creatures, the natives, and the environment.

Star Wars 4-6 and 1-3 were not like that, at all. Well, okay, they often had one-dimensional emotions and dialog, but otherwise. Star Wars did not have tons of snarky dialog, except for Leia, and hers was not slapstick snark but a very specific kind of frustration snark. A Star Wars movie took itself seriously, because the movie was about space opera and adventure, not about instant entertainment. The message about choosing the good side of the force was given, not saved as a discovery for the end of the movie. The dark side of the force and the light side of the force were about our moral choices: people could contain both of these powers, but choosing light meant - by definition - choosing good, while choosing dark meant choosing to be selfish, and therefore evil. People could be ambiguous, but there were clear moral choices. Heroism was heroism: choose good and act on it. Every movie felt like it was part of a world that extended well before and after the movie: what you were seeing was a small part of a great epic, because the movie took time to show and make you feel time passing: Luke's daily routine on the farm represented years, his efforts on Dagobah months. The force presented an exploration of mysticism, not just firepower or "lifting rocks". The movies were NOT just sci fi movies with cool weapons and critters; they were NOT Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a close movie in structure, but just as far in feel as all the others.

The came The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens struck an iffy balance between Star Wars ala Lucas and modern sci fi movies. It felt, at times, too much like a Marvel movie. It was missing a lot of the feel of the Star Wars epic and the mysticism, it felt less like an epic and more like a sequence of events. But the characters, especially Rey, were compelling and the structure was well done, so I had hope it might move in the right direction after the makers received feedback from the fans.

Here be some spoilers, but nothing major.

This movie felt like a Star Trek movie with bits of Star Wars thrown onto it. For the first 25 minutes of the movie, I was in pain, holding my head in my hands aghast at the vast empty, non-Star Wars feel to the movie. Then we got to Rey and Luke, and it was filled with snarky scenes that were supposed to be funny, and I felt my stomach drop. It was supposed to be funny that Luke casually tossed the light saber over his shoulder? Really? It wasn't funny AT ALL, not only because it wasn't funny, but because it wasn't what Luke would do, even if he were disgusted by the force and everything it stood for. He would throw it away in disgust, perhaps, or at least show some emotional acknowledgement that this was his saber he had lost. Or ask some questions of Rey. Anything! The scene was a disaster, and I began to get a headache.

The main part of the movie is dull, with an hour long chase scene where nothing of consequence happens. Poe and Finn basically accomplish nothing in the entire movie. Instead, the entire enterprise of heroism is called into question, because, as one character puts it, we don't kill what we hate, we save what we love? What??? So heroes aren't heroes? It is implied not only that people can have both dark and light in them, but that dark isn't maybe so evil and light ins't maybe so good! What??? That destroys the entire freakin' metaphor! I don't want another vague morality movie that tells me that morality is relative. I don't want a treatise on how heroes aren't heroes, because they should follow orders. And I don't need a new lecture on how both sides are just as bad, and another on how we shouldn't treat animals badly (seriously, the movie took about twenty minutes of run time to tell us this).

The scene on the casino was a phenomenal waste of time; maybe it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't, and it wasn't Star Wars funny. Even the pod race in TPM made more sense and had more meaning than this. And then we have a scene with Ren gratuitously without his shirt, a callback to the underwear scene in Star Trek Into Darkness. The whole movie takes place over what? Three days? So no story development. Please repeat after me: a character learning something isn't character development. It's just learning. Marvel characters learn things, too, but that doesn't make them less cartoonish. Development takes introspection, depth, complexity, time, and sensitivity.

So yeah, I had problems. Not only in the first 25 minutes, but many times after.

However .... admittedly after the first 25 minutes, some of the scenes were really great, and even really Star Wars great. The Rey-before-Snope and the lightsaber battle afterwards were beautiful, because of the shifting nature of the alliance and the confusion that the characters felt in the process. And the battle over the salt fields with the red plumes were a beautiful thing to see. I liked the dynamic between Ren and Rey, and the Luke and Ren scene, too. I liked Rose, but I didn't like most of the scenes she was in. I hated the multiple BB-ex-machina scenes, even more than I disliked the C3PO nuisance scenes in ESB.

Seen from the non-Star War perspective, the movie dragged in several scenes in the middle, but it was at least as entertaining as any other modern sci fi movie, and better because of the interesting characters of Rey and Ren. But I despair about the future of the franchise. With the exception of certain threads and scenes, these are not Star Wars movies, and for that I mourn. I like these threads and scenes; I want them to be in better, far different movies.

Also ... more spoilers ...

Callbacks: So many scenes were callbacks to TESB and TRotJ: training the Jedi, including entering the "dark side" cave, Rey giving herself up to Ren to be taken before the emperor and snatching up the lightsaber, and others. The resistance flying head on into the marching first order elephant things. And, admittedly, ESB spent mosy of its time simply chasing after the Millennium Falcon.

Things I didn't have a problem with that others might: The above callbacks. The changes in the force, such as the mindlink and the projection. Yes, it's odd that previous generations of Jedi never did these things, but they seem like the kinds of things that they would do, and I'm cool with that. This includes the water actually traveling through the mindlink and that Luke projected an image was of his younger self.

Other minor problems: If this takes place only days after the last movie, how could the republic and/or first order be in any kind of different state than it was in the last one? What happened to the galaxy? Why do they keep calling them rebels, instead of the resistance? Pick one. Since when do bombs fall in space when you release them? Fall which direction? What happened to Snoke insisting on training Ren? Or Rey? What the hell was Snoke? He shows up larger than life, he seems to be stronger than the emperor, and then he just dies? Why didn't the new admiral Holdo just tell Poe what the plan was, instead of waiting until the evacuation? Why did she wait until nearly everyone was dead before light-speeding her ship into the enemy? If that's a thing, can't you rig a bunch of ships to do that and decimate your enemies more frequently

Update: Having now seen the movie a second time, my thoughts are adjusting a bit. The parts that I disliked the first time I dislike now even more: in particular the comedy and the BB8 scenes, which are as annoying as Jar Jar but take up even more screen time. There is a difference between conversational humor, which I can enjoy, and slapstick humor directed at the audience, which I don't. I'm further down on the arrangement of scenes and the pacing. I don't like any scenes with Hux. I don't like the plot about, or even the idea that, spaceships run out of fuel in this universe. I still don't like how the director taunts the audience by not paying off stories about Rey's parents, Snoke, the R2D2 map, Chewbacca's grief, and other things.

The parts that I liked before I like even more, which is also what happened to me with TFA. However, after the second viewing,  I'm feeling a bit better about the neutral parts of the story. I don't LIKE the story - both the good and the bad guys throw away the past, Finn and Poe are reigned in as heroes instead of being heroic - but I'm okay with that being the story.

Untitled Goose Game, A Short Hike Winners In Last Night'S GDC And IGF Virtual Awards Ceremony - Eurogamer

Untitled Goose Game, A Short Hike winners in last night's GDC and IGF virtual awards ceremony

Need For Speed Games Part 4: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Need For Speed: Underground

Today on Super Adventures, I've reached the end of the first decade of the Need for Speed games. We're in the EA GAMES TRAX era now, where every time a new song comes on, the TRAX box slides onto the screen to let you know who you're listening to. Even on the title screen.

This also means we're in the licenced soundtrack era, and the sixth gen console era! And Underground brings us to the era of perpetual twilight, where daytime is banned. Unless it's literally set underground, I don't think they ever say.

Anyway this is it, the last part. After this you won't be reading about any racing games here for a long long time, so enjoy it while it lasts (or endure it for just a little longer). Earlier parts are here, here and here.

(If I don't mention what system a screenshot came from, it's from the PC version.)

Read on »

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PUBG VS FORTNITE! Which One Is Better?

PUBG VS FORTNITE has been a trending topic nowadays. To find out the winner click the 'Read more' option.

PUBG and FORTNITE both are online shooter games. Many arguments are arising among players choosing the better game among both.  So here we created a difference between them. We hope you enjoy it : 

1. WEAPONS :

         In PUBG there is a high variety of weapons and items(including clothes etc.) available in PUBG crates.  For each ammo type of a weapon class, you just have to cross your fingers that your gun has a decent scope.

         In Fortnite, the weapons are very different and much more accessible than that of PUBG. Fortnite has a color indicated rarity system in their guns as grey, green, blue, purple, and orange standing for common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary respectively. 

           Combining both we can say that if you are new to shooters then Fortnite game might be the better one to try first.
   

PUBG vs Fortnite guns

2.GRAPHICS :

                         These two games have totally different graphical style. Fortnite is better looking and more animated while Player Unknown's Battleground looks more realistic. Also, the color in Fortnite is more vivid and clear than its counterpart. Fortnite might look more appealing but who wins out in the war of Fortnite and PUBG graphics stakes really depend on personal judgement.
    
  

         

Pubg vs fortnite graphics

Pubg vs fortnite graphics

 3.MAPS :

                                 The maps in PUBG are more in number in Fortnite. And players in PUBG need to use vehicles to move through the islands. Fortnite has also decided to expand and improve its existing map. Fortnite's developers have said that more maps will be added to the game in the future. But for now, we can arrive at the decision that maps of PUBG are better than that of Fortnite.

 

Pubg vs fortnite map

4. PLATFORMS :

PUBG can be enjoyed in the following platforms-
          Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Android, iOS & PlayStation

Whereas Fortnite can be played in-
           Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS & Android.

    

Pubg vs fortnite platforms

N.B - The above data has been taken from WIKIPEDIA.
(PUBG, Fortnite)


It is a time-wasting topic to decide which game is better. Some like PUBG whereas some like Fortnite. We should stop arguing and enjoy both games.

Well, it is my opinion. If your opinion is different or you agree with my opinion please let me know in the comments section below.

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Amiga Para Siempre: FS-UAE Amiga Emulator Hits Version 3.0

FS-UAE is one of the newest Commodore Amiga emulators on the scene, and perhaps the only true multiplatform emulation project for the system still in development. It has had astounding progress since it was originally released in 2011, and last week it announced the release of version 3.0.

The changes in the newest release are many and varied, so feel free to check the full changelog available here. FS-UAE has garnered a very good reputation for being a quality emulator focusing on ease of use and multiplatform support. The developer also maintains the OpenRetro Database, where users can submit information and configuration files to help running the games easier.

The FS-UAE launcher tool

The Amiga is one of the home computers originally developed by Commodore back in the 1980s. During its heyday it was considered to be a revolutionary platform, notorious for its user friendliness and the quality of its sound chipset. Its game library, although found to be meager by some nowadays, has maintained a solid fanbase over the years. Games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Sensible Soccer, and Lemmings, were all originally developed on the Amiga, and many other titles for the platform have ever since attained cult status among gaming communities.

All the code for FS-UAE is, of course, Free Software, and its main repository can be found on Github here.

Code license: GPLv2


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This post was retrieved from freegamer.blogspot.com.