Monthly Archives: December 2020

Video Games

Cyberpunk 2077, Released Too Soon Or…

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…perhaps it was underdeveloped to begin with?

By now, most people out there who are into video games know about Cyberpunk 2077.

The game is easily one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2020, both for the “cyberpunk” concept and the fact that the studio which made it, Projekt Red, were also behind the magnificent (IMHO!) Witcher III game.

At least my thinking went like this: If they do even half as good a job as bringing to life a dystopian future like they did with the fantasy world of the Witcher, then this game has to be a home run, no?

…well…

The game’s release was announced but then delays set in. Finally, the title was released last week…

And then the trouble started.

The game’s graphics turned out to be in some cases quite poor depending on the system used, expending older system’s graphic capabilities and, in some cases, causing crashes. So many complaints were lodged that the studio quickly announced they would release a patch right after the game’s release and were working hard on subsequent patches to fix the game.

This is disheartening stuff, that a studio would release a game in such demand without doing proper quality control to make sure it actually worked well with all systems it was meant to work on!

Sadly, it seems to get worse.

As bad as releasing a game without proper quality control over how it plays on various systems is, this can be fixed with time and with various patches.

What is more concerning are people’s reactions to the story presented within the game.

There were players who noted that, while the game allows you to pick and choose between various different character “types” to play as your Avatar, after the first 20 minutes or so of gameplay these various Avatars prove to have no real impact on the story told… basically, you wind up playing the same game after 20 minutes regardless of your Avatar.

Or, to put it even more bluntly: Your Avatar doesn’t matter.

So why bother giving players the option of creating a unique Avatar?

Worse still, the game that follows has all kinds of glitches on its own, bad A.I. (again, according to several players) and an underwhelming overall story.

If the players are right, these things won’t be easily fixed with a patch.

I can’t help but wonder if with Cyberpunk 2077 history is kinda/sorta repeating itself.

Bear with me here…

When Game of Thrones, the HBO series, first came out, it was an incredible hit. The show benefitted, for at least four or five seasons, from being able to adapt the books of G. R. R. Martin. However, when the producers ran out of Mr. Martin’s books and the stories within them (the final two novels are yet to be released), the show took a sudden downturn, eventually ending in a way many fans of the show found terrible.

With Witcher III, Projekt Red were able to adapt the stories and novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. However, with Cyberpunk 2077, these same people didn’t have the benefit of adapting any previously written stories. In fact, with Cyberpunk 2077, as was the case with the later seasons of Game of Thrones, they were creating something “new” and, perhaps in both cases, it proved to be too much for them.

I hope not.

I pre-purchased Cyberpunk 2077 solely on how much I loved Witcher III but I have to admit, these early reviews have me concerned.

I’ll eventually play it, when I have the free time.

Though I really hope the critics are proven wrong, I very much fear they may be right.

POSTSCRIPT (12/15/20):

I’ve been looking around some more on various commentary posts and, I’ve noted, there are many people who are pushing back against those who are labeling Cyberpunk 2077 a bust.

The pushback falls into two areas: 1) There are those who say they have older systems and have not experienced problems with the play of the game, that the graphics may have minor glitches -if that- but the gameplay is good. 2) There are also those who say the complaints against the game itself are exaggerated as well, that the game is fun -though there are those in this camp who also note that maybe it isn’t quite as ambitious as it could have been- but that the complaints are exaggerated.

Again: I have the game, I’ve already loaded it into my XBox system and, soon enough, I’ll give it a try.

Frankly, these later comments -and pushback- encourages me.

Perhaps the game was a victim of too high expectations and isn’t quite the disaster many have posted to them it is.

Music

Sad Story…

Over on theguardian.com Alexis Petridis offers a look at Bee Gee Barry Gibb, 74 years old and the last remaining Gibb brother…

The Bee Gee’s Barry Gibb: “There’s fame and there’s ultra-fame – It can destroy you.”

As someone who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, I was all too familiar with the meteoric rise of The Bee Gees, mostly on the wave of Disco and the film Saturday Night Fever…

Here’s the thing: As monster a hit as the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was, as popular as Disco was, there was an incredible backlash that happened only a couple of years after its zenith.

I recall a professor in High School or College mused that the death of Disco was inevitable the moment the parents (the older generation) showed up at the Discos and the younger crowds decided they no longer wanted any part of it. But there were other issues as well, and some feel they might have related to homophobia or perhaps the too “out there” styles of that time.

I don’t know.

As I said, I grew up in that era but I was too young to go to Discos and by the time I could go to clubs, Disco was long gone.

But, as with all things, there comes a re-evaluation over time and I suspect people hold the Disco era in far better/nicer terms than they did in the later 1970’s and into the 1980’s, when there was a sense it should not only be buried, but incinerated before burying.

Which brings us to the above article. Barry Gibb, as I noted, is the last remaining Gibb brother. Maurice and Robin, the two brothers who along with Barry made up the Bee Gees, and younger brother Andy Gibb, are gone. Andy Gibb, who had at least one big hit with the song Shadow Dancing…

…was a cocaine addict and would die at the too young age of 30.

Brothers Maurice and Robin would die years later, and they too had problems with addiction.

What’s saddest regarding this article is that not only does Barry Gibb still feel the hurt of how people turned against their music (the author notes he is surprised people like the music now) but how his relationship with his brothers in turn soured as their success grew.

Barry Gibb notes that he was essentially not talking to his brothers when they passed away, and I can’t imagine the pain that must cause in him.

Once someone’s gone, whatever chance at closure is gone as well.

Still, the music remains and, one must note, it is still remembered and, in many parts, cherished.

A sad article, certainly, but at least there’s that.

General

Weird Stuff…!

Sometimes you stumble upon an article and it just… wow.

Over at i09.gizmodo.com, we have this article by Beth Elderkin:

The Mystery of Illinois’ Short-Lived Cookie Monster Mural

The mural in question:

An Artist Received A Lucrative Commission To Paint A Soviet Mural Of Cookie Monster. The Patron Wasn't The Building Owner. - The Handbuilt City

Basically, what we have here is a joke mural, showing the Cookie Monster as being some kind of hero to the Soviet Union. A funny, pretty well done mural…

…but…

Read the article, I implore you! I’ll spoil a little of it below but truly you should read the article to get the full story.

Anyway, someone who claimed to own the building the mural was painted on contacted an artist and commissioned this mural. The artist was paid but told to paint the mural quickly which, after they planned it out, they did. This was NOT an easy task. The mural was large and required three people to paint it.

Thing is, once the mural was done, the REAL owner of the building contacted the artist, furious that he had painted on his building and threatening to sue, or worse, call the police for vandalism!

The artist explained what happened and offered to paint over the mural for free, but the owner of the building, apparently not wanting any more to do with the artist, did so himself.

The mural is gone, but clearly this was some very elaborate-and expensive!- practical joke done on the owner of the building.

As for who actually hired the artist, and why choose this particular theme/picture, I hope one day we find out!

Movies

The Hunted (2003) a (very) Belated Review

Weird how things work out, no? A few days ago I reviewed a film called The Hunt (you can read it here) and yesterday I catch the William Friedkin directed, Tommy Lee Jones, Benecio Del Toro, and Connie Nielsen starring 2003 film The Hunted.

Other than the fact that we do have a person “hunting” -and being hunted!- by another person, these films have very little else in common. Here’s the movie’s trailer:

Those familiar with director William Friedkin no doubt are familiar with his two best known films, The Exorcist and The French Connection. Those who are really familiar with him know he made two other pretty damn good films beyond those, Sorcerer and To Live and Die In L.A.

But, like just about any creative soul out there, there are hits and there are misses and Mr. Friedkin has certainly had a few films that are simply not up to the caliber of those I mention above.

I would put The Hunted on that list but would quickly add that just because it doesn’t quite reach the level of “prime” William Friedkin doesn’t mean the film is bad.

In fact, I mostly enjoyed The Hunted for what it was, a for the most part straightforward action film which pits Mr. Jones and Mr. Del Toro’s characters against each other.

The plot goes like this: Aaron Hallman (Benecio Del Toro) was trained along with many other U.S. military men by L. T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) to be a merciless, shadowy killer. He does his job only too well but in the hellish conditions of the Serbian war, he cracks.

Stateside, he brutally kills two hunters and the F.B.I., including agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen), contact the now retired Bonham to help them hunt and capture the man responsible for these killings. They don’t know it, but Bonham recognizes the characteristics of the kill and suspects the person responsible is one of his trainees.

Bonham is an interesting character. He claims to have never fired a weapon (and, indeed, in the movie he never does) and while he trained people in how to kill, he himself claims to have never actually done so. Further, he now lives in a remote mountain cabin and appears uninterested in harming anyone or any animal (he helps one early on) despite the fact that he possesses the knowledge and skills to do so.

Though reluctant to join the F.B.I., Bonham does so and soon confirms the killer is one of “his”. He tells the F.B.I. to stand back and goes on the hunt for the killer, soon coming face to face with him.

I don’t want to get into spoilers here, so I won’t discuss more of the plot but it is very straightforward as I said above. Unlike some of the better Friedkin works, this one doesn’t have layers of meaning below the surface. The movie essentially plays out like a variation of the first Rambo film, First Blood, only the “bad” guy in this case is the one with the PTSD.

The action is for the most part well done but toward the film’s climax things got a little wonky. It seemed like there were scenes missing here and there. For example, one sequence has Bonham jumping on a train and in the background you can clearly see the police with drawn guns moving toward the train, yet at no point before that moment are they behind the train! Further, when Bonham heads out for the final confrontation between himself and Hallman, there are odd sequences interspersed, of the F.B.I. flying around the general area (it seems very unlikely these two wouldn’t notice helicopters near them) and the way Bonham tracks Hellman also seems a little disjointed. Further, it strains credulity that both Bonham and Hellman have the time -and are not bothered!- while they create weapons to fight each other. This is particularly silly in the case of Hellman’s weapon… I’ll say no more!

Still, as I said before, the film is for the most part an entertaining if not extraordinary action film which benefits from the charisma of the leads.

Not spectacular, but recommended nonetheless.

Movies

Hellboy (2019) a (Mildly) Belated Review

The latest iteration of Hellboy, featuring director Neil Marshall taking over for Guillermo Del Toro (who I suspect at this point does whatever film he wants to do) and David Harbour taking over for Ron Perlman in the lead role, had me interested in its first few minutes.

Understand, I’m a pretty big fan of the Mike Mignola Hellboy comics. Further, I felt once Harbour showed up as Hellboy he did a pretty good job with the character, though I would note rather quickly that he seemed to be following in Perlman’s footsteps.

Still, he was pretty good.

But then…

I’ll get to the movie in a moment but first, here’s the Red Band trailer for Hellboy…

Anyway, we start in the past, with witches being put down, including the head witch Nimue, the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich). Then we’re up to the “present” and introduced to Hellboy, who is in Mexico seeking out a fellow agent in the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, the organization that goes after evil creatures and which Hellboy belongs to, at least in the early going of the comic books). He finds the agent in a “lucha” ring, ie a wrestling arena, and all hell breaks loose.

So far, so good.

…but then…

Two words: Information dump.

In many ways this new Hellboy feature reminded me of Ryan Reynold’s favorite movie role punching bag: the 2011 film Green Lantern.

How so?

Well, because both films were overfilled with references to so many different characters and stories and individual comic books that it became something of a mess.

Both Green Lantern and Hellboy were betrayed by scripts that couldn’t focus and hit us with so much …stuff… that after a while one begs for simplicity and clarity and focus, which are simply not to be found.

As I mentioned, we have the Blood Queen. We then go to the Mexican luchador sequence (and vampires), then we side step to the Wild Hunt, then Baba Yaga and her bizarre house, then… ugh.

I mean, I could understand many of the references because I’m familiar with the books they’re based on, but could you imagine a James Bond film gets released and it features Bond first going up against Dr. No, then Blofeld, then Pussy Galore shows up, then Bond finds the love of his life and marries her only to have her killed, then he goes up into space to thwart a megalomaniac trying to poison humanity and comes down to a Voodoo plantation to deal with drug runners and in the meantime avoids an assassin with a Golden Gun…

I mean, if you’re a James Bond fan you know what I’m referencing, but if all those elements were pushed together in one film, the ultimate results would have been an overload and that’s what’s happened here.

I suppose one also has to acknowledge the fact that there are many -myself not included, alas, and you can read more about that below- who love the two Guillermo Del Toro directed Hellboy films and had a tough time with him leaving that franchise.

Add to that some strange/wild behind the scenes stories regarding director Neil Marshall (you can read about that here and here), and even some pointed statements by David Harbour about the film’s reception and production (there are rumors he didn’t get along with director Neil Marshall and the film had some 16 producers through its making and further rumors are that they did not agree often. You can read about that here) and you have issues.

It just seemed like too many things were going against the work to begin with. Too much ambition in showing all these interesting comic book elements when they didn’t need to. Too many “cooks in the kitchen”, so to speak, and a script that needed paring down rather than being so overstuffed.

Yet the film looks pretty sharp, I must say, and the action is good. Still, the film winds up being like Green Lantern, an overstuffed work that ultimately just isn’t all that good.

POSTSCRIPT: Regarding the two Guillermo Del Toro Hellboy films: I can’t say I’m a huge fan of those two films either, though I would say of the three Hellboy features, they are better than the most recent.

While they both looked terrific and boasted incredible special effects, the first film felt a little underwhelming to me, fizzling toward its end. The second, I felt, was like this new Hellboy in that there was too much going on and it felt like there were climaxes after climaxes to the point where I was exhausted.

All this, of course, is IMHO!

General

First Appearance of Covid-19 in US… December of 2019?

Over at The Wall Street Journal, Betsy McKay offers this intriguing article:

Covid-19 Likely in U.S. in Mid-December 2019, CDC Scientists Report

The bottom line of the article is that examination of blood samples collected from December of 2019 show that the virus was already in the U.S. a few weeks before China identified the disease and about a month before the first “official” case was found in our country.

Way, way back in late March of 2020, when the lockdowns were first starting and everyone was shutting down, I wrote about how I thought maybe I, and several people around me, might have contracted the Coronavirus in early/mid January and into early February. (You can read my entry about that here)

Mind you, there was no thought at that time the Covid-19 was in the U.S., yet as I noted in my post above, our family business was very busy at the time and we were in contact with people from quite literally all over the world. There was also a little thing called the Super Bowl which happened on February 2nd in Miami, and which caused our area to fill up with many people… also from all parts of the world.

So back then, my father and several people we knew around us got quite sick and the illness lasted a long time, some two weeks or more, before they kicked it out of their systems. In later January and into early February I too caught something and I wasn’t sure what. I had my flu shots in October of 2019 and it seemed unlikely I caught the flu.

However, I caught something. I felt incredibly weak/exhausted at the end of workdays and, especially, work weeks. I literally felt I needed to collapse in bed and rest.

Luckily, my wife didn’t catch it and, eventually, whatever I had left my system.

Afterwards, I couldn’t help but think maybe those around me and I caught the Coronavirus in the very early -and for many unknown- days of its spread. Given the Wall Street Journal article, it certainly is possible.

It’s scary to think we may have had a potentially fatal disease at a time when no one thought it was spreading in the U.S. and, had any of us gotten really sick, in those very early days of the virus treatment would have been far from well thought out.

If indeed it was COVID-19 we had, we were lucky and made it through. Happily, everyone who caught whatever it was is back to normal.

Still, the idea the people around me and I could have been exposed to Coronavirus before it became known is a chilling thought indeed.