mrk

I wasn't sure if this was relevant (I also posted in Off-Topic), but it looks like the gaming industry is taking a stab at film-making again. What do you think?

Gametrailers.com - Dead Space: Downfall - Feature Film Trailer

Talking about game trailers. ID Software's post apocalyptic game " Rage" looks mighty impressive.

Rage Extended Trailer - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

Although not weapons tables, there's some very real interesting weapon based sparing video over on youtube. I specially like the shield's these guys are using.

Nightshade , I don't mean to insult you, but it doesn't seems you follow too much of what goes on inside the film industry. As I already pointed out, You thought adding the Sentinels to XM3 would "bloat" the film budget, even though the Studio easly put in $200+ million dollars into it ( probably through a loan from a major Bank or even a Hege Fund company as major studios NEVER put their own money into a project). Mind you, all the things 'I've talked about aren't "inside secrets" known to only a select few, but have been mentioned both in the press and websites focused on the happenings of the film industry. You could of easly looked up and seen just how much final the budget actually cost at boxofficemojo.com then just "imagining" it was more then Transformers because that movie had bigger effects and tons of CGI work.

But besides all that, I do have to say the idea that you've been a fan of the X-Men for 40 years and believe the suits might be to "garish" does question your validity of how much of a true fan your really are or were you looking for more "canon fodder" for our little debate?

Anyway and I do mean this honestly, I'm glad you liked the X-Men films as it keep me employed when I'm hired to do some industry related work. Thanks for your support! :thumb:

And as I said, I didn't have a bit of a problem with the costumes, and didn't find the Danger Room in joke with the Sentinel head more than an in-joke and as such, inconsequential. Its not like the uniforms were appreciably different than some incarnations of the group have worn from time to time.

Some joke. More like a slap in the face to everyone who wrote to 20'th Century Fox pleading to put the Sentinles in one of the films. It's also well known Tom Rothman( the CEO of Fox ) hated the original costums of the X -Men and believed nobody would go see the film if any of the actors wore them. In fact, he dislikes the franchise period. That sort of reasoning is just as bad as when the ex head of New Line Cinema, Robert Shaye, thought it would be stupid to show Iron Man flying on screen when it was in development at his studio. Nice to know thease are some of the people in control of many of the comic books we love so much...

I fail to see any practical difference between a skill listed at 0 % and a skill not listed at all. But we do not have to agree on this, everyone as he likes.

That's because just it's more then a skill, it's a basic function of being a human being. Just like jumping, walking, seeing, hearing and anything else you physically can do on your own.

On at least the first two films, I think they did. That's rather my point. I'm not going to deny there were real problems with the third one, but I'm simply not able to see too much to dislike about the first two, other than the bad choice of casting involving Halle Berry (and I don't know I'd have predicted that would be a bad idea; if there was any mistake made in the second film it was not cutting her loose, but reportedly she claimed she was going to try much harder to get the character the second time around).

You know, a lot of people liked the fist Batman movie back in 89'. I even did to some degree. Now it it's hardly watchable and thats' even before the new Batman films came out and blew it out of the water.Now just imagine how much better those X-Men films could possibly have been of John Favreau or Chris Nolan were invovled. Eventually, they will be remade and if whom ever owns the righs in 15-20 years can find someone with half the tallent of those guys, maybe will be lucky to see a REAL X Men film and not some bastardization version made by people who never cared much for the material to begin with. Sorry, but unisexual outfits and big rolling Indiana Jones style Sentinel heads don't make for a good X- Men film in my book.

Well, I would not put it on a character sheet designed for the desert nomad setting mentioned above. None of the characters would ever have a chance to learn and use it, so why keep it ?.

I mean unless your PC's are living on Dune, there's alway a chance they may encounter a large body of water at somepoint. What if they come across a lake and take a swim? Or cross an ocean and get tossed from the boat? Like I said, it's the one basic skill that can't be coverd by any other stat and should be listed. Even if it's just 0%

This is almost impossible to answer, because it depends on the setting used.

For example, while a character on my Pharos IV world really needs Pilot and

Swim, a desert nomad in an Arabian Nights setting could well do without it.

Swiming is one skill that can't be coverd by anything else and should be listed on a character sheet. Don't matter how strong or fast you are, if you can't swim your gonna drown.

Glad to see I'm not coverd in tomato paste .

Although this might be a little to soon, what do you guys feel if you boiled it all down, would be the "core" skills a PC would apsolutely need. So far maybe you could possibly combine bargin and persuade together ( maybe as negotiate?). Another thing I'm thinking about is putting together a new character sheet that allows more room for things that do need a good amount of space like item lists, discriptions, background history and possibly arranging the hit points, san, fatigue and power point boxes just like how the regular stats are listed.

Ok..time to go hide behind my shield again :innocent:

BTW, I just want to say I still very much think Jason and Sam really did a dam good job of putting this thing together. Of course,some things I wish they added, but in all honesty I'm pretty happy with the book and hope the next BRP book will cover running high fantasy type worlds.

NOTES- I've changed my mind about the dodge skill as it seems to be a necessary part of the combat system. However, there is a difference between dodging a giant rolling bolder compared to doging a vikings' axe blade. Maybe an "agility"roll would be in effect?

Not to be controversial or stir the pot. But for the few last day as I've been reading the book the thought has popped into my mind a few times: do we need so many skills?

Now, now, before anyone here starts lobbing flaming tomatoes at me :shocked:I'm not saying things have to be changed and we now need to include " levels" or "experience points". But it has dawn on me some things might not be needed when already something else in place that works pretty much the same or is even better. Afterall, if you already have an "agility" stat, do you really need a "dodge" skill as well? Or do you need a skill to "bargain" when "pursuade" pretty much works the same way?

Either way, I look foward to your kind:innocent: and honest:thumb: opinions ( as I hide behind my shield :eek:: )

About that, has anyone heard about the big hoo-hah about RE5? Many are accusing it of being a racist game. Is anyone else's eyebrow quirked about this? I don't wish to start a flamewar. I'll only say I would really like the world to not take itself so very seriously.

Actually, I was thinking a little bit about that when I was watching the trailer. Might be wise if they have an African American PC that you can play in the game to help ( or try to) balance it out. I still like the effects

But you know what, I'm willing to hazard that this was a deliberate move by their marketing department to stir the pot and to get people talking about it.

It's hard to say. If the game was originally created in Japan, they may not of even thought (or cared) how some Americans would feel about the connotations regarding race is being depicted in the game. Then again look at Grand Theft Auto, it was labeled racist as well, and yet it made $500 million dollars the first week it hit the stores!

Resident Evil 5 looks like a lot of fun as well. Be a great idea to set a modern day BRP game in Haiti overrun by zombies.

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=931

From looking at the video,It looks like it's only really efective if you impale someone with it and then wait for your next action to trigger the gas. Be interesting to see just how effective it would be if you stabbed something with a little more density, like a slab of beef.

Jeeze! It's like something out of a William Gibson novel! It's only a matter of time before we see monofilament-edge weapons on the street. Here's a link to what it can do on youtube:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5309687936845855915&q=wasp+knife&ei=VzCFSK2UGpnWrgOvmp3CAw&hl=en

When it comes to looking for inspiration and ideas, critics are the last people I pay attention too. Yeah, it's worth renting, especially if your a gamer!

Talking about inspiration; I just found a clip for Capcoms' Dead Space and it might be the I closest thing to Cthulhu set in far future I've seen in a video game. The end of which I found quite enjoyable

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=927

The Incredibles is a lot of fun. But for live action Iron Man is my top comic book film at the moment. I thought it had the perfect blend of action and comedy and I never seen a better camero for Stan Lee ever!..I'm afraid, I've never been a big fan of Conan movies ( I do very much enjoy the soundtrack!) and am hoping the new films will be closer to the tales. One movie that I thought did a pretty good job of capturing the style of Frank Frazetta artwork is "Pathfinder" and has quite a bit of good FRPG ideas throughout the film

I'm not necessary saying it should look like Seven, just I think the style would of been in the right direction for Watchmen in the same way Seven derived it's photographic asthetics from the early 70's thriller "Klute"...Sure, I can understand why Alan Moore disliked all his adaptations. I mean, they've been pretty shallow compared to his original work. I hoping though, he might take the jump into TV or films as he said recently in a interview he thinks the " The Wire" is the best TV series he's seen to date and would like to do something in that medium. The Wire is indeed great, but I wounder if he's ever watched " Breaking Bad?". Now that might be the best TV show ever!

The challenge is presenting the alt-1980s vibe. I am have having a hard time visualizing Se7en for superheroes. What aspect of that would you like to see? Alan Moore's art has always been hard to get across, though visually the costume design of the Swamp Thing from the 1980s got closest--the rest of the movie didn't make me happy. "V for Vendetta" as a movie (which I liked) seems to split the fanbase. Of course, Alan Moore hates all of the films based on his work...but he's a curmudgeon and I think enjoys the attention.

Yeah, I always thought the way to go with Watchmen was to make less in hyperreality and more in reality, like how "Seven" was made. Anyway, I think Apple has a better trailer for Watchmen in their trailer section.

Actually there's a lot of filtering going on from the footage, I can tell it was heavly modified in the DI process. It's too bad, because I really did like those 6x4.5 stills of the characters from a few months ago and thought he might of nailed it...Now I'm not too sure. Ah well, it's too late now.

I really must've ceased to care at that point! (Looking at watch probably.)

Yes, 300 had a certain painterly epic quality to it. DotD remade had ferocious energy (though not as good as the original). The look of the heroes in the new Watchmen movie seems strangely flat. I was hoping for some filtering so they wouldn't look like a bunch of guys standing around in costume in front of Hollywood and Highland entertaining tourists. Still, I'm sure he's getting an earful from the fans, so I'm sure somebody got the memo. Don't give up hope.

I'm not arguing with you if the film series is bad or not. I'm just disputing what you said about the budget. They had $200 million dollars to make just about any type of film they wanted and they came up with THAT. Fine, so be it. Only I and many other fans wish those who were invovled making those films cared enough about the characters and the material like the people who made the Spiderman series and Iron Man.

Then you don't. I still don't think it was a particularly bad movie, especially given the chaos around its production and filming, nor did it do that bad a job with the franchise in my opinion. Other people are welcome to disagree, but since some of them didn't like any of the three films, I can only shrug; people who disliked the second one I can't see liking any X-Men movie that would be at all likely to actually get made.

I was looking forward to the Watchmen, but now I'm starting to have my doubts after viewing the trailer. I like Zack Snyders' commercial work and his remake to Dawn of the Dead, but I wish he would of taken a different cinematic approach to making the Watchmen from what I've seen so far. Hopefully it will be great and will do justice to the Graphic Novels.

I'm afraid that's still no excuses . Both films were made only a year apart of one another so the value of the dollar was still the same. They even had the actors locked down to a contract to do the sequels which would make it harder for them to demand some over the top rate( which is how Keanu Reeves was able to cut a $600 million back end deal to finish the Matrix series because he didn't sign to do anymore after the first film). None the less, Transformers cost $150 million and had much more CGI and action sequences then all the X men films put together. With that extra $60 mill you think they could of easly added a few giant size robots distroying some cities. Don't you think?

Probably the most perfect example of a Disintegrator is the Star Trek phaser; Basically one shot and your dead!..BTW, Does anyone remember someone ever surviving againt one? (except ofcourse on the stun setting).

$10 bucks a month means they have a continuous stream of content to justify someone paying every 30 days-- Could Chaosium could even keep up the demand? Now maybe a yearly membership would work were everyone is up to date with new changes and some additional content but I think that's about it. Besides, I one don't really want another bill biting at my wallet at the end of every month.

Big Budget Bloater? The Budget was over $200 million dollars already! X-Men 3 cost $60 million more then Iron Man which had much better special effects from ILM and the late great Stan Winston and if they added another $25 million, I don't think it would of hurt it's $450 + worldwide theatrical take. Even Cloverfield which cost only $25 mill did a pretty good job of making you believe a monster was attacking NYC.

Eh, it was just a visual bit. Though I'd have liked to had a full Sentinal movie, I can see that it would have been a big budget bloater. As I said, I thought that while the third was the weakest of the three, on reflection it wasn't that bad. And I think as a set they did a perfectly good job of presenting a decent representation of what the characters and book are about; barring Halle Berry's very lukewarm depiction of Storm, all the characters were well realized by their actors, and if some of them were slightly different than their traditional comic depictions (Mystique) that didn't really bother me; characters often change somewhat when hopping media, and on the whole, these weren't extreme changes.