Yeah, I feel like I’ve had good conversations with people here, by and large, and gotten some good recommendations for books/movies/podcasts from various comments. Its too easy sometimes for a reviewer to like or hate a thing, and sometimes you just need to see why the other side loves or hates a thing.

I saw 3 with a great, excited crowd. I remember after they fled to the grandmother’s house, and you heard a car door shut outside the house, someone shouted “Oh SHIT, Toby drove over!”

What I liked about these videos was that just pronouncing the names for me made it a lot easier to get into, especially since some of the historical figures go through several name changes throughout the period, and its a pretty involved political landscape.

I’ve been enjoying them... especially since they’ve done some good sections on periods of world history I’m not super familiar, like the Zulus, the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 1500s, and so on. The authors are historians, and they’re pretty up front about it, but for someone that just wants a taste, it felt a…

I recently stumbled across the youtube channel Extra History, and they had a fun 6 part series on the Warring States period, which included some surprisingly loyal ninjas. You really get what you pay for with those guys.

The Europeans looked really European though... I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many chubby or balding characters in an anime before, when you have Caucasian characters usually identified by a spare line of dialogue so that we know for sure.

The anime Monster had the most realistic looking people that I think I’ve seen in a long running show... I could kind of see the idea to have a stylized looking person where you can easily show an exaggerated expression. Pixar characters and Disney characters are the same way. But I never thought the faces in Monster…

I’ve been wondering the same thing for a while now... I consistently find anime that looks amazing in some weird and wonderful way, but every CGI flick I’ve seen out of Japan is shot through the ugliest filter possible.

I’d also say that even if a lot of games aren’t terribly original, the act of putting you, the audience, directly into the action gives a huge amount of vibrancy to the sort of plots that would seem warmed over and basic in a book or movie. The story of Alien Isolation wasn’t that different from that of the original…

So that’s how Slenderman got his start.

My first thought was “It has never been a less awkward time to be a Star Wars fan”. Because never has it been more socially acceptable to love the shit out of some Star Wars. There are blow up stormtroopers in my freaking grocery store. There is a cardboard wookie at the entrance to target that makes wookie noises as…

I think for that sort of movie in particular, I need to feel like the protagonists actually have a shot at survival for me to be invested, and for the ‘and then they all get killed’ ending to have an impact. But horror is very subjective too, of course ;)

I’m glad to see Rec get on there, it was a pretty fun zombie movie. I’d also recommend some other Spanish horror movies, like Devil’s Backbone, The Orphanage, and Shiver. All of them were fairly psychological and spooky, and also nicely shot movies too.

I didn’t care for The Strangers. Their masks were spooky, but when your antagonists are just normal people, I think you need to see them slip up or creep around a little more. The way the Strangers were always right behind everyone or suddenly on the other side of the house was just a little too convenient.

Its also a difference in perspective... in American horror stories, usually ghosts are not the worst thing you encounter. They normally are just trying to accomplish some particular goal or finish some task that is something the protagonists can accomplish. Compared to a vampire, zombie, or other monster, they’re more…

Eh, I’d go with House of the Devil rather than Innkeepers... I liked the protagonist in Innkeepers, but good lord, there were just long stretches of nothing happening, and the ghost just looked too much like someone with face paint and contacts to scare me.

I quit before Cataclysm, but I had my fair share of good and bad hunters back then... I think part of it was that hunters back then could

Exactly... I knocked out Arkham Origins in like... 5-6 hours, and probably should have done it in even less time since a lot of the side missions were just “find and blow up these 6 things” which didn’t end up with any pay off.

I buy most of my games on Steam these days, so it doesn’t really bother me to have about 30 games waiting to be played. I’ll play one till its done, or till I decide that I don’t like it, and move on to the next.