Basara

So i didn't play a lot of new games for the majority of last year. I had every intention of eventually getting a PS4 so i shied away from a few games that i would have probably purchased in favor of waiting to get them on a new system. I can count on one hand how many titles i purchased and even less that i finished. Thinking back, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS might be the only 2 i played through to the end. Anyways, thanks to the UK continuing its adoption of Black Friday (and thank god i got out of retail a few years before it became a thing here!) i picked up a PS4 and a whole bunch of games at the end of November. Enough to see me well into 2015 with only a couple more titles i plan on purchasing along the way. First up was getting up to date with Call of Duty so i started with Ghosts. I've been playing this franchise since the first Modern Warfare and there are no surprises here. Its your typical somewhat short but still entertaining single player campaign. I've not played it online yet, i sunk way to many hours into the PS3 titles over the course of 3 or 4 years, but i'll probably jump straight to Advance Warfare for online play to see if I've still got the skill/patience for these in multiplayer. Next was Shadow of Mordor. While i said i hadn't played much last year, so its lacking in competition, this was easily my game of the year. I managed to clock up about 26 hours over the course of 2 weeks and it never really felt like it got repetitive, a problem i find with these open world games. The ending was a bit of a let down but other than that it was so much fun just getting into fights with wave after wave of Orcs and hunting down captains in revenge. I've only done about 65% of it and still jump back in for a quick play to do a couple of side missions. Even if there is no direct sequel storyline wise i'd love to play another LotR game in this style. With those 2 largely out the way I've got 2 games i'm currently working my way through. The first is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I've only played the first 3 missions but its a step in the right direction for the franchise. There are only so many games you can set in previous wars and present time before it gets a little repetitive so i'm enjoying all the new weapons and gadgets. I fully expect the solo campaign to be far to short and over in a few hours but with it being the current game in the franchise i'll give it a play online once i'm done to see if it grabs me as much as the first 2 MW games did. Destiny is the other title i'm playing, working my way through it online with a friend of mine. Gotta say i'm a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, its a good game, it looks great and plays great but for something that was supposed to be this epic title with hours upon hours of playtime it sure does feel like it will be over quickly. Its not bad, just not what i was expecting. I can see my self losing a lot of hours to the PS4 over the next few months as i play through this backlog, more time than I've spent on games in the past few years.

Good to know. I'm not out for a 4K TV, just something to replace the one i have that's slowly dying on me. Had a quick look the other day, its been a while since i looked at TV prices, and it seems you no longer have to spend the earth to get a decent set.

Fair enough, appreciate the quick response! Just something else i'll have to look out for when i decide to take the plunge on a new TV.

There always seems to be some technically minded people here ready to dispense some good advice so hopefully someone can help me with a problem i'm having with my PS4. I got myself a shiny new PS4 about a month ago and the first few days i had it the TV would have problems finding a signal when i first turn it on. The TV would go from black to blue like it was searching for it and eventually it would be up and running fine. Sometimes it was a matter of a couple of seconds, other times it might do it for a minute or so. I quick search online and it seems its a problem with some older TVs (mostly Toshiba as far as i can tell, of which mine is). Apparently its something to do with a HDMI handshake (didn't even know that was a thing before i looked into the problem!) and the solution is to turn off HDCP in the settings menu. Did this, problem solved, happy gaming. However. I've just tried to watch a blu-ray on it and it requires the HDCP to be turned back on to play the movie. Which causes the signal problem and i have to sit there for a few minutes of blue flashing screens until the disc menu finally appears on my TV. Not exactly a world shattering problem i know but its still rather annoying. Never had this problem with any other HDMI devices on my TV (cable, PS3, XBox 360) just the PS4. Are there any other solutions to this or something simple I've missed? anyone else having the same problem as me? I did plan on getting a new TV sometime this year anyway, which does seem to be the answer, just not any time soon. Like i said, its more of an annoyance than anything but if i can get it fixed, all the better!

Fair enough, might start with Black Flag first then. I see that's gone down to £25 too and £20 on the PSN store (though i prefer physical copies). Will hold off for a bit, hopefully the new prices stick, got a big backlog to work through now I've finally taken the PS4 plunge!

This seems like the best place to ask this. I'm tempted to pick up Assassins Creed: Unity while it's still cheap (currently £22 here) except I haven't played the last 5 years worth of AC games. Played and loved the first, got 10hrs+ into the second before my PS3 died on me. Didn't want to sink all that time back into it straight away and never ended up going back. Will I be completely lost just jumping straight into the PS4 generation of these games or do they stand up well enough on their own?

I just saw your other post. All of Brandon Sanderson's novels are available to purchase on his website, all signed, and several are still first editions. Sadly they are out of first editions for the Mistborn trilogy but you can request first editions for a lot of his other novels if you enjoy Mistborn and want to add to your collection. I've never read Wheel of Time so i cant tell you how the 3 books Sanderson wrote in the series compare to Robert Jordan or his own work. If you like Mistborn i'd definitely recommend The Stormlight Archive. I enjoyed the 2 volumes so far more than Mistborn, but i can certainly see a planned 10 book series where only 2 are out to be a turn off. On the plus side, he doesn't seem to waist time, and while there was a big gap between book 1 and 2 he released several novels from other series during that period, including finishing off The Wheel of Time.

The Stormlight Archive is set for 10 books, split into 2 5 book arcs. As for Mistborn, the first trilogy is complete. It was originally set for 2 more trilogies, each further in the future (the 2nd is to be around the present time and the 3rd in space) But after releasing a shorter standalone novel set a few 100 years after the originals that now has 2 more books planned. So yeah, 12 books total. But its not like you're hanging on for an ending. The first 3 books tell a complete story. I've not read any Patrick Rothfuss. Between Stormlight and Mistborn i'd definitely go for Mistborn. Its finished and a lot shorter. There are only 2 books out for Stormlight so far and each is a hefty 1000 or so pages. If you're looking for something reasonably sized to read you cant go wrong with Mistborn.

n/m double post

I came here to post Joe Abercrombie's First Law and Branondon Sanderson's Mistborn too but seem to have been beaten too it. I asked the exact same question a couple of years ago when i finished the Thrones books and they were the first 2 series i read. Each of the books in The First Law trilogy are shorter than any of the books in ASOIF so you don't have to worry about it taking a long time to finish. And if you do enjoy them there are 3 other stand alone novels set in the same world. As for Brandon Sanderson. You can be one and done with the Mistbon trilogy. Or if its something you like, the majority of Sandersons work takes place in the same universe just on different planets. None of the books have anything directly to do with each other but there are small hints in the different novels linking to a bigger story going on in the background. Perfect if you want something 'epic' but don't want to commit to years of waiting for a conclusion.

The problem with 2Fast, Tokyo Drift and F&F4 is they all introduce characters important to part 5 and 6 without being anywhere near as entertaining. 4 is the most important to 5 and 6 and Tokyo Drift looks like it will be important to 7 but you could probably start watching at Fast Five and not really lose much that isn't explained along the way. Id say suck it up and watch 4-6 then go back and watch 2Fast 2Furious and Tokyo Drift after you finish 6 if you really think you need too.

I'm curious where they go after Phase 3. Have they said that its the end of the series? Assuming these films are still bringing in 600 million+ worldwide in 5 years time that seems like an awful lot of money to leave on the table to not run the franchise into the ground. But 21 films and 7 TV series is a hell of a run. Would people be OK with re-casting the characters if it comes down to it or has anyone else been Iron Man, Captain America etc in the comics that they could pass the role onto? Or do they try and come to some agreement with Fox and Sony, get even more ambitious, and reboot the whole thing.

If you only take the DC films released since the MCU series started i think it might be a little more competitive. The only DC film i can think that bombed during that time was Green Lantern unless i'm forgetting something

Super Mario World is definitely my favorite Mario game ever, hell it might be my favorite game ever. But that's probably nostalgia talking. I get that 90% of the Mario games have the same straight line map layout but i would be lying if i didn't say i was a little disappointed every time i play a new Mario game and the world map isn't like SMW. I think i spent more time playing that game as a kid than i did any other. I liked SM3DL even if it was a little easy. I cant complain though since i got it free when i brought my 3DS. (an offer at the time, if you brought a 3DS with Mario kart between certain dates you got a download code for SM3DL for free, a happy coincidence) I'm also currently playing New Super Mario Bros 2 that i got a couple of weeks back. again a little easy like 3D Land was but that seems to be the trend with Mario games now? you can accumulate 100s of lives without really trying. In my day they made you work for it! P.S i don't fuck corpses

I thought i read somewhere, maybe even in the thread here, that the Blade rights had gone back to Marvel?

I get that, but the tone wasn't really 'fun summer super hero movie' even if that's what Superman fans wanted. I can understand if people didn't like the film but it fitted with the tone of it. People throw it out there as an argument against the film but if anything its handled better than the destruction in both Avengers and Guardians. Just a note, im not turning this into DC/Marvel, i liked Avengers and Guardians more than MoS, it just seems a strange argument to me.

The people that complain about the damage in MoS are aware that in both Avengers and Guardians entire cities are destroyed right? At least superman looked a little depressed about it.

So whats some required reading on this Thanos chap then? I was never really into Marvel as a kid, aside from a little X-Men, and despite being the big bad behind 2 films worth of enemies they haven't really done much with him yet. Is he Marvels equivalent of Darkseid, just without a Superman to throw down with, or am i off the mark here?

Someone with more knowledge than me will be able to correct me but isn't that similar to the current new 52 version of Batman? that hes already an established crime fighter/urban legend by the time all these super powered people start popping up?

As much as i like the majority of these comic book movies they may really be pushing their luck here. After a quick Google search it seems there are 30 Marvel/DC films planned over the next 6 years! 9 of them in 2017 and that's before Marvel have really announced anything for 2019/2020. Marvel struck gold with Guardians, they took a bunch of characters no one had ever heard of and hit a home run. You have to give that credit to the Marvel name value and marketing to get people to see it on opening day. It wasn't anything i was looking forward to, the trailers were good but it wasn't 'must see' for me. We really only went to see it based on word of mouth and the fact that there was nothing else on. Don't get me wrong, i loved it, but what if it went the other way? They release a stinker with a bunch of D listers and it bombs? People are going to see Iron Man, Avengers, Spider-man and Batman movies regardless of quality, and probably Thor, Captain America and Superman too but they have to get it right every single time now with these unknowns or its back to nothing but established characters. Looking at the next 2 years Batman/Superman, Avengers 2 and X-Men are a given, i'll go watch those regardless. I didn't like the first Captain America movie but loved the second so if it looks good i'll see that one too. But honestly? I've still not even watched the last Spider-Man movie, that and Fantastic 4 do nothing for me, and as for Antman and Dr Strange? They best break out the Guardians hype machine again.

I've never bothered with all the dick measuring of how much money a movie makes, as long as i enjoy it. Have Marvel had more hits than DC in the past decade of film? easily, but they have also released probably 3 times as many movies. If they had released Batman/Superman and Captain America 3 on the same day like originally planned i would have seen Batman/Superman on opening day and Captain America 3 a week or 2 later when i had time. Now i can watch them both when they are released if i want to. I've never been a big Cap fan, despite The Winter Soldier being on of the best movies this year. And i'm more of a Batman fan than i am purely a comic book fan. I guess sign me up for the DC side as i am already looking forward to more big screen Batman than i am Captain America.

Went to see it last night. I went in with no expectations and have absolutely no knowledge of the characters and thought it was pretty damn entertaining. Its not my favorite comic book movie ever but it is one of the most enjoyable. Add me to the list of people who thought it would pull average at best numbers but is pleasantly surprised. In the past 2 movies Marvel have taken characters i didn't really care for (Captain America) and ones I've never even heard of (Guardians) and turned out 2 of their best films. I love a good list, and i'll adopt the tier system too since there's so many of these damn films now. The Great: 1. Avengers Assemble 2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3. Guardians of the Galaxy The Good: 4. Iron Man The Decent: 5. Thor: The Dark World 6. Thor 7. The Incredible Hulk 8. Iron Man 2 The Bad: 9. Captain America: The First Avenger 10. Iron Man 3

On the one hand it sucks that we have to wait longer for the conclusion of the series but the plus side is i can go another few months without having to buy a PS4

I say spin offs, are there any other X characters, aside from Wolverine, that could really carry a film by themselves? I see they are doing an X-Force film, something i'm not too familiar with, but a quick wiki check looks like it could include any number of characters. Doing present day stuff with new characters could work.

Watched Days of Future Past last week and really enjoyed it. Its no Dark Knight or Avengers but its my favorite X-Men movie and would put it up there with some of the top comic book movies (maybe a step below the other 2 Nolan Batman films and Winter Soldier). I think the team up aspect would have seemed like a bigger deal if they had had more than more film to establish the First Class characters but that's only a minor complaint. Crazy to think they have been running with the same set of characters now for 14 years. Whats the deal with future films? are the main films taking place in the 70s/80s and the spin offs like Wolverine taking place in the current time? i think that's a good way to go, they can probably get a film out yearly now alternating between the 2 time periods without stepping on each others toes or feel like they are miking it. At least until Jackman calls it quits.