Cliff Hanger

Cody said during his GM-for-a-day night that they were doing the Women's Breakout, Men's Breakout, and both Dusty Cups back to back so it follows that we will see that start next week and run thru the March special (whatever they call shows like Halloween Havoc that are regular Tuesday shows but have a name and a band and matches set up in advance and pushed like PLEs). Henley/Sinclair, Hail/Jayne, James/Izzi and Jackson/Legend seem like locks. Probably at least one main roster team and 3 more TBD. I know it's my fault for trying to keep up with WWE, AEW and NJPW all at once, but I'd be pretty happy not to see tournaments for a little while, especially on NXT where it feels like we've had one going at all times since the Heritage Classic.

So was Dijak's "office" by the same pull down door he smashed Ilja's guts with back at (I think) Spring Breakout?

Unsurprisingly, the new Like a Dragon is hitting all my buttons. I'm mildly annoyed that apparently NONE of the romance subplots from 7 are canon, but I'm having so much fun. I can't wait to get to the western side of town and find out if the gunsmith called Bullet Hell in English has that name in Japanese or is called Danmaku.

I am unreasonably annoyed at the lack of Heritage Cup and Iron Survivor in 2k24. We didn't need both an ambulance AND casket match more than those, one or the other would do.

I haven't seen a frame of TNA/Impact since Hogan and Bischoff came in back in the day, but I was an apologist for it here back in the Jarrett part of the Spike TV era, so I was pleasantly shocked to see how hard they put over Jordynne and the company. They made it seem like a big deal that she was there and made her look good even though she didn't make it to the end.

Read the first couple issues of Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent today. It's a pretty fun read, though ALL-NEW WOLVERINE remains my favorite Tom Taylor book. That said, if they're gonna give him the blue lightning powers I'd like them to shit or get off the pot, because it has been too long since Superman wore ski boots

SO glad that the Marvel tweet fit Hector in there--Marvel's first Latino superhero is an underappreciated part of Perez's legacy

He was easily the nicest pro I ever met. Charming and funny and he didn't remember my name (how could he? He met thousands of fans) but he recognized my cane, and every time I got to talk to him it was the highlight of my trip. Even if he hadn't been the best superhero artist of my lifetime this would be a shit day.

One of his caregivers posted this. We all knew it was coming but it still fucking sucks. https://twitter.com/SunshineCVE/status/1522984600640929799?t=uLGdavdEa6a8z025dK5Zmw&s=19

Because I'm exactly that kind of nerd, I did a 7 day trial on Amazon Luna. My take is that Stadia has better tech (less lag) but Amazon gives you way more for a subscription. Also interesting that Stadia games with controller diagrams had new diagrams but the Luna versions of Katamari Reroll and Under Night In Birth Something:Somethingsomething use Xbox pads in their tutorials. I can't imagine the service surviving if they continue on a model where you can subscribe to channels but you can't just buy a game, but they have risked millions of dollars on the idea that I'm wrong. But a Blue Sphere stage on Sonic Mania was basically unplayable for me because of the input lag and that's untenable

I've met a lot of pros in 25 years of going to cons, and I met maybe 2 in my life who were as kind, enthusiastic and charming as Perez. The way other pros are telling George Stories more than talking about his decades of amazing work makes it pretty clear that that isn't something he only turned on around fans.

I went to the Fathom showing of RAD. Most people I've been in a theater with in 2 years--8. I saw this movie probably 40 times between its VHS release and when I outgrew large slumber parties, and hadn't seen it since. Holy shit it's worse than I expected. The stunts are immaculate, as you'd expect from a Hal Needham joint, and so most of the bike segments are enthralling. (The bicycle "dance" bit was a weird mix of "whoa" and "I know that's incredibly hard to do but it still looks goofy and boring.") Bill Allen and Bart Conner both have all the acting talent of 1977 Mark Hamill but with less charisma. The plot makes no sense. Even usually competent actors like Talia Shire and Ray Walston give line readings like Larraine Newman's most deliberately fucked SNL fake commercial reads. The foul-mouthed little sister was excruciating. It was amazing and I'm glad I went.

The comedy bits of the LRG presentation were pretty bad, but the fact that we're getting (a) a River City Girls 2, (b) an enhanced port of Kuniotachi no Banka, a PS4 verion of the one good Bloodrayne game, AND a real, official Turboduo CD release of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (with all the classic TG16 branding, which has been absent for physical Genesis, Game Boy, etc. repro carts) blew my mind and my wallet. Also, I guess I'm finally getting SUPERHOT on Switch to go with the PC, PS4, Oculus and Stadia digital versions (all but the PS4 and Oculus were bought on super deep discount but it's legit my favorite indie game of the last 5 years)

Operation Tango looks really cool but I don't know how much I'll play a game that requires mic'd co op. Remaking VF5 from the ground up in an engine that has, other than Judgment, produced some sloppy and frustrating fighting doesn't sound great but I'll certainly give it a try. Squadrons is good but I have it

Per the official Japanese Twitter page, Berserk creator Kentaro Miura died on 5/6. RIP.

AT&T are spinning off most of WarnerMedia to merge with Discovery. Various games journos are reporting that WB Games will be split up, but not which pieces are going where. I hope they have the goddamn sense to (a) keep the whole classic Williams-Midway-Atari library together and (b) keep Netherrealm and Rocksteady together with DC, but I have no faith.

Man, even with the iffy facial emoting, the two montages at the end of Invincible were perfect. I need to look into Lighthouse and the Whaler. Again, this show is reminding me why it was my favorite comic for so long. Ed Asner for Brit in season 2 or bust.

So, um, I bought one of the last 15 Legend of the Galactic Heroes box sets off Sentai. (They didn't ship sequentially so I got #917 of 1000) I have spent 2 years working my way thru the series on Vrv, and knew I wanted to be able to revisit it when (15 years of streaming has taught me it isn't "if") it disappears from streaming. It sucks that the JP licensor demanded it ONLY be offered as a single complete package of 162 episodes and 3 movies, but the whole history of the property is weird enough that I am not surprised. All I can say is that I finally found something worth Paypal's endless nagging about opening a line of credit with no interest on the first buy.

Wow, this is bullshit. Back when I was more active, and prone to late night oversharing on the mental health threads, he was incredibly kind to me (as were many others) and he always seemed to know more about literally everything than anyone. His SF and horror recs, his horrifying stories of the Seattle punk scene of his youth, just talking weird comics. I didn't know him as well as a lot of people, but what a legend

I did not think I could get this emotional over the hobby of anime (as opposed to actual story content).

I think you're absolutely right. However, it feels REALLY weird to have the twist before Allen shows up. Now that I'm caught up, I have cooled on the animation. You are right about the faces; I think they did a really good job on the action but the character bits are lacking. If this show gets more than one season, I'll be interested to see how Rogen and Mantzoukis acquit themselves as their characters are asked to carry more drama.

Invincible pilot reminded me why I loved the comic so much up thru about the Dinosaurus story that ran thru #100. Small changes like William being out from his second line of dialog instead of figuring it out five years in make sense, the animation is good and the casting is excellent. They moved up the Really Huge Twist (issue 7 of the comic) and I don't love that decision but I definitely understand it. Will watch 2-3 tomorrow and report back.

The first two things I think of for George Segal are his excellent one-scene wonder in TO DIE FOR and Dr. Quest in the 1990s version of Jonny Quest. Neither of them is super important to his by then well-established career, and I've spent a hell of a lot more time with Just Shoot Me playing in the background than either of those. But those were where I just kind of stopped and went "oh, why isn't his voice in everything?" He was fantastic in VIRGINIA WOOLF, of course. My dad hated that movie more than any other he'd ever seen, mostly because he only went to see it because if it was attracting protests he thought it had to be exciting. I went in knowing what it was because I knew theater and loved it. It's funny, even though he'd been playing grandpas the entire 21st century, and even though I KNEW that WOOLF was over 50 years old, my first response was still "87? Really? I figured he was like 70"

I would like to point out that Rez Infinite and Thumper are both VR-optional games. Both have cool VR modes but neither requires the rig to play. And frankly, I really enjoyed both.

I beat Yakuza: Like A Dragon and that was one of the most perfectly bittersweet endings I've seen in 40 years of video gaming. And now, for the first time since I got into the series in 2017, I don't have another one to play next. It's a little weird; I have to decide what my next "big" game is now. (Leaning toward Tokyo Mirage Sessions, which I bought the day it came out for Switch but never even downloaded) Meanwhile, that NGPC ten-pack for Switch fucking rules, but it's also reminding me how painful bonus character unlocks were at the turn of the century. On the bright side, it's reminding me why I loved the NGPC Metal Slug games but never cared for the arcade series.