What are you watching or playing? 3/27/2018

[CF DolFan]

It was only OK. Maybe it just needs a couple episodes to get going. There were glimpses of the old Roseanne but much of it was forced in my humble opinion.

The first was like bam, bam, bam. It seemed like they tried to get in a lot in a quick time to let people know where the characters are today. I thought the second show was more typical of Roseanne and revolved around their gender fluid dressing grandson. they drew very high numbers for the night. I know a lot of the conservative crowd liked it but it is far from a conservative show ... which I think fits in perfectly with society today. People are all over the place in real life. Well ... except for the news channels. They seem to pick a side.

[Pappy13]

What's Everspace like? I loved the Privateer series of space games (not Wing Commander, though). The X-series was okay, but never really grabbed me the way Privateer did. I did like Freelancer quite a bit. I also liked (like) Elite: Dangerous, although I haven't had the time needed to play it for a long, long time. I also have No Man's Sky "unopened" somewhere (purchased, but not downloaded on PS4, I think), which I haven't found the time to try out.

Get it. You'll love it. It's not as open world as those games are, you are confined to relatively small "jump" zones, however the mechanics of the game work really well and you will enjoy the time you do get out of the game. Don't expect to play the game for 2 years, but it's great for 150 hours or so of really good fun. The ship controls are tight and easy to figure out (there aren't that many of them), the visuals are clean and fast, the combat is quick and accessible but still varied enough to keep it entertaining. There are so many little "feautures" of this game that don't immediately come to light but are introduced slowly over time that the learning curve is terrific. There is no tutorial because it doesn't need one, you will learn as you go and that's part of the appeal in my opinion. One word of advice and that is to start playing the game on easy. I know people don't like to do that but it works well in this game because of the way game plays. Your ship will gradually become stronger as you play, but in the beginning its not very durable and if you die, you start back at the beginning to make another pass. Each pass you get to spend any credits you have earned so if you don't make much progress you won't have much to spend on your ship and you will end up starting over a lot. I've seen many complaints about it being too repetitive and I feel that's because those people were starting out on Normal or even Hard and having to replay the beginning area over and over. I took the approach of starting on easy and made good progress from the very first run. Starting over was very infrequent. Once I got to the point where I could make it all the way to the last sector regularly, then I moved to Normal and found it again difficult to make it that far. The difficulty levels here are more akin to the difficulty levels in Diablo 2 where you first have to kill Diablo on Normal to go to Nightmare and then on to Hell. That's how you should approach this game in my opinion. It's a little old school, but it works. Yes you will be playing through the "jumps" again but each is randomly generated and changes with the difficulty so playing through on Normal or Hard is different than playing through on Easy. There will be more dangers not just harder ones for example. It's different fighting 4 or 5 mobs at once as opposed to just 1 or 2 on easy. You start to realize that the amount of energy your weapons, shields etc use are NOT insignificant attributes for example. If you run out of energy, you might be dead. That's the kind of subtlety to the gameplay that I don't think many people really appreciate.

[Pappy13]

The first was like bam, bam, bam. It seemed like they tried to get in a lot in a quick time to let people know where the characters are today. I thought the second show was more typical of Roseanne and revolved around their gender fluid dressing grandson. they drew very high numbers for the night. I know a lot of the conservative crowd liked it but it is far from a conservative show ... which I think fits in perfectly with society today. People are all over the place in real life. Well ... except for the news channels. They seem to pick a side.

Agreed. The second episode was a little more the way I remember Roseanne and you're right, I did think that some of the first episode was the way it was to get everything introduced quickly.

[DaLittle B]

I thought Roseanne was ok,back in the day (the original show)..I remember watching it every once in a while.
but...
It came to either Metv,or Lafftv OTA,and it's on nightly like back to back (to back maybe) episodes,when I'm waiting for Carson to come on.The topper was last year when My Mom was in the hospital,her roommate for the last week apparently loved the show (caught a marathon? being added to one of the local retro stations),like 6 days of crappy hospital cable,to local to watch nothing but Roseanne reruns. I've hated even 10 seconds of the show since.

I have ZEROooooooooooo interest in watching the reboot.

Started season 3 of the 100....Ugghh..shitshow bad...I'm done...
No new Izombie this week,but I did enjoy the Penn & Teller Fool us April fools show (in the Izombie spot).

I'm currently a drift on what to watch next...

[Sunstroke]

OK, I think I have to chime in on a new show I just started watching. In the past, I have been fairly vocal up here about not really liking most of the sitcoms that have come out in the last 15-20 years. Well, after being told to watch it by a good friend, I finally started watching...

The Santa Clarita Diet

Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, and a comedy dark enough to touch my heart. I zipped through the first season (10 eps) this week, and am starting on season 2 now. Lots of blood, lots of gore, and extremely intelligent comedy are the recipe...and it is delicious.

No spoilers...just watch one episode. If it's for you, you'll know it fairly quickly.

[DaLittle B]

^ I had a little bit before the Cubs game started....I just finished the pilot,based on this,and it's pretty good so far  (and I HATE DREW BARRYMORE!  )

[Thundergod]

Rocket League, absolutely obsessed with the game.

Also; Alice: Madness Returns,  Bloodborne

[Sunstroke]

^ I had a little bit before the Cubs game started....I just finished the pilot,based on this,and it's pretty good so far  (and I HATE DREW BARRYMORE!  )

That's why I didn't try watching it when it first came out...I really don't like Drew Barrymore. No matter what role she plays, she always comes across a little plastic to me.  However, in this new role, that plasticness (plasticity?) actually works really well.

[DaLittle B]

^ That was me...My favorite Drew Barrymore movie (as an adult,she was annoying but fine in ET, ) is actually Scream 1 when she got killed in the opening scene...

P.S. About...half way through the 1st episode....It was kinda Ehh,ok...I get it...Boring...Then....The 1 scene,I about fell off my couch laughing so hard at it....

[CF DolFan]

I started watching Santa Clarita on Saturday and just finished season 2. Great show if you have a dark a dark sense of humor. Thanks for the heads up!

[Sunstroke]

I started watching Santa Clarita on Saturday and just finished season 2. Great show if you have a dark a dark sense of humor. Thanks for the heads up!

That's pretty much how I've been describing it to folks...a really dark comedy with extremely intelligent dialogue.

I've got 3 more episodes remaining in season 2...can't wait to wrap things up tonight.

[CF DolFan]

Has anyone watched Vikings on the History channel? We started watching this after Santa Clarita and it's hard to walk away from. We just started season 4.

[Sunstroke]

Has anyone watched Vikings on the History channel? We started watching this after Santa Clarita and it's hard to walk away from. We just started season 4.

Vikings is on my list...too many great reviews from people I trust for that sort of thing.

I just wrapped up season 1 of Lost in Space, and it was pretty damned good. Almost wrapped on the first season of Marco Polo, and that one is pretty solid as well, though having lots of hot naked Asian women running around having sex definitely helps.

[Tenshot13]

I've seen every episode of Vikings.  It's an awesome show...some seasons get slow, but it picks back up.  Really good, down to historical accuracy of their garb and way of life, but they take liberties with the main Viking..some of the stuff he does, other vikings actually did in history.

[DaLittle B]

I finished San Clarita diet (loved it!),and I'm finishing up season 3 of Bosch currently,squeezing in episodes around the Cubs games...