Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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Mid-Afternoon Geek Post

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I’m actually kind of excited for the series opener of V tonight- I wonder how it will compare to the series from the 80’s. With Morena Baccarin, they have the hotness factor covered, that is for sure.

Also kind of excited about Dragon Age. Everything Bioware touches turns to gold (and I still think KOTOR is one of the greatest games ever made).

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    Max

    I wouldn’t get too attached to the show, I believe I read somewhere that they only made a couple episodes and aren’t sure if they are going to make more.

  3. 3.

    HernCo

    I used to write for xbox.com, and always managed to convince the editor that KotOR, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect needed more coverage just so I could play them over and over. One of my former colleagues who is still there tells me without hyperbole that Dragon Age may be the best thing BioWare has ever done–better than KotOR, he claims. Heading to the store this afternoon, so here’s hoping he’s right!

  4. 4.

    Zifnab

    Also kind of excited about Dragon Age. Everything Bioware touches turns to gold (and I still think KOTOR is one of the greatest games ever made).

    Check out http://www.dragonagejourneys.com if you’ve got too much time on your hands. It’s a little browser based mini game that gives you access to gear for your starting character.

  5. 5.

    Dreggas

    I have dragon age pre-loading now at home. Bought it pre-order through Steam. Cannot wait to get home to play it.

    Also been playing a lot of FPS games lately. Highly recommend Medal Of Honor Airborne (even though it’s been out a while) and just finshed COD Modern warfare, looking forward to COD Modern Warfare 2 which drops next week.

    Oh and this was amusing

  7. 7.

    Andrew

    I just hope they choose a more realistic reason than wanting our water. Even when I was a little kid, I understood that was dumb.

  13. 13.

    Dreggas

    @Andrew:

    well if they want our guns, money and god-fearing christian women along with a secret plan to make the men gay then we know it was written by a winger.

  14. 14.

    Crashman06

    Dragon Age, currently preloading via Steam back at home. I have been waiting for this one for a while. If it’s anything like Baldur’s Gate II, I will be immensely happy for weeks to come. Early reviews seem positive.

  15. 15.

    freelancer

    If you were a true geek, Cole, you would be waxing incessant about the awesomeness of The Venture Bros, and how Ocarina of Time is the best game ever made.

    (and yes, BioWare is gifted. I can’t wait for Mass Effect 2)

  18. 18.

    Crashman06

    @Dreggas: I just started using it recently. I had no idea how incredibly convenient it is; wish I had climbed on board sooner.

  19. 19.

    Erik Vanderhoff

    Dude, freelancer, I am so excited by the return of The Venture Bros.

    I’m with Cole on KOTOR beating out Ocarina of Time, though.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    I’m actually kind of excited for the series opener of V tonight- I wonder how it will compare to the series from the 80’s.

    Apparently, some tea baggers might take the new V to be a documentary, according to one review:

    The original “V” drew obvious connections between the Visitors and the Nazis, and much has been made over the possible anti-Obama sentiment of this “V.” The instant adoration, the attractiveness and rhetorical skills of Anna, the idea that the Visitors will woo us with universal healthcare and then destroy us all seem a right-wingish take on the president’s ascendancy.

  22. 22.

    Dreggas

    @Crashman06:

    The thing i love about it is the fact i have access to my games any time just need to download and run. Also love the prices which tend to be better than going to a store. Oh and of course the deals. Bought the Hitman trilogy for 19 bucks not long ago.

  23. 23.

    Morat20

    KOTOR2 had a better story, at least if you could drag parts of it out of the hacked-up mess that got released. I can’t really blame Obsidian for it, since LucasArts has a habit of releasing stuff before it’s ready, promising to ‘fix it later’, and then cutting the budget for such things to the bone.

    Having actually gotten the entirety of the story out (the game itself was pretty solid until the end, where the most cuts were made), it was a much darker and more complex story than KOTOR.

    Kreia was a very compelling character — a firm believer in free will and personal choice, who was also a Jedi Master who knew the very existance of the Force curtailed free will and choice.

    Plus, I rather like the way the backstory was done — so much information was encoded as dialogue options, so that the player wasn’t spoon fed information through pointless exposition (as your character had, you know, been there and knew that), but learned details through chosing among responses.

    I hated the bloody Disciple, though.

  24. 24.

    J.W. Hamner

    Yeah, I’m tapping my foot and looking anxiously at the clock as I wait to leave to catch the train home… Dragon Age is already pre-loaded onto my PC from Steam and the girlfriend is teaching tonight, so I hope to get in some quality gaming.

    The only one semi-negative review on Metacritic mainly complains about gratuitous blood and sex, so it sounds like a damn fine effort.

  25. 25.

    beltane

    Sorry to go OT, but in NY-23 they’ve had to call in the cops at polling stations on account of teabagger intimidation. I can’t believe this insanity is happening so close to me. Don’t these people respect the sanctity of deer season at least?

  26. 26.

    L. Ron Obama

    V aims at Obamamania

    We have found the elusive specimen who is both a closet birther and too young to realize this is a remake. Also, Obama is a space lizard.

    The comments are a cesspool, as usual for the Trib.

  27. 27.

    RobertB

    What Andrew said above: the original “V” wasn’t quite as stupid as, say, M. Night Shamalamadingdong’s _Signs_, but it was pretty dumb.

    Having said that, the new one will be a complete failure for me unless they have someone who does that Marc Singer steady-my-shooting-arm-by-holding-my-upper-arm thing.

  28. 28.

    JenJen

    I’m almost a bit embarrassed to admit that I’m a little giddy about the premier of “V” tonight, so glad to see a few of us will have a place to talk about it tonight. Also looking forward to watching “By the People”, the Obama campaign documentary from Ed Norton’s shop, but I’ll probably wait to watch that later this evening.

    Nancy Fluffernutter from the McCain/Palin campaign was just on MSNBC, spinning as poorly as she always has. Really, aren’t the Republicans trying to have it both ways in all this pre-game coverage? The NY-23, for example, is a traditional GOP seat that won’t be going GOP this year. And this is good news?

  31. 31.

    Dreggas

    @Morat20:

    I look forward to checking out the new star wars MMO that Bioware is working on. They have yet to let me down when it comes to games so it should be fantastic.

  32. 32.

    Comrade Jake

    Let me go out on a limb and suggest the reason many of us have fond memories of the original V series is because we were about twelve at the time.

    I mean, who can question the awesomeness of this clip?

    Anyway, the wiki page for the new series states that ABC plans to run four episodes in Nov. and then resume again in March, after the Olympics. Because we all know that figure skating views much better than sci-fi.

  33. 33.

    Royston Vasey

    Got the original mini-series on DVD ‘cos I remembered how cool it was back in the day.

    The effects were low-grade 80s cheese, but I still loved it.

    And yay for seeing Robert “Freddy” Englund as a ‘kind’ alien.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    @beltane:

    Sorry to go OT, but in NY-23 they’ve had to call in the cops at polling stations on account of teabagger intimidation.

    What? This is unpossible. Must be ACORN operatives dressed as teabaggers.

  35. 35.

    JenJen

    Hey, John…. just noticed SyFy Channel is showing the old 1985 V series, which I didn’t watch, but they’re also about to air the entire 1983 miniseries, which I loved. Of course, I’m already noticing that what looked really cool to me as a kid isn’t holding up too well, but the storyline was always fun; great reason for a remake.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    So… tonight’s television show about technologically superior, vastly overweaponed, rodent-munching lizard aliens does not involve George Steinbrenner’s Army of Evil?

  39. 39.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Dreggas: Second on The Witcher. Versioning is kind of weird with it though…the North American version is censored. Ish. I got it on Steam, played about halfway through before getting distracted, then came back one day to restart it and try to finish it up (which uh…still hasn’t happened), and all of a sudden, it was uncensored. I don’t know how it happened (compounded by the fact that a friend who also got the game off Steam didn’t have the same thing happen to him).

    Meanwhile, I know absolutely nothing about Dragon Age other than the fact that it’s Bioware. Still was enough for me to get around to Mass Effect, which I absolutely loved. But I’ll have to pass on Dragon Age for now because I just recently purchased Demon’s Souls, and I have to learn how to not suck at that game.

  40. 40.

    geg6

    I have no interest in V, even though I am a Star Trek geek. The first series, I though, wasn’t very interesting or good, so this is a big yawn for me.

    As for BioWare, that sounds like either some sort of H1N1 conspiracy theory or a computer game. In either case, again not interested.

    I plan to kick back with a bottle of champagne (the cheap stuff–M&R Asti Spumante–and not the Dom Perignon I had 1 year ago this evening), a big spliff of the green, and watch “We The People” on HBO. After all the craziness of the last year, it will be good to relive how absolutely wonderful working on that campaign was.

    Speaking of the film, has anyone else seen the promo HBO is running for it featuring the little boy phone banking? It’s priceless. You can view it here by clicking on the video “Young Campaigner.” Totally adorable:

    http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/bythepeople/video/index.html

  41. 41.

    Evinfuilt

    Baldurs Gate is without a doubt one of the best RPG’s of all time, but its engine made possible for the greatest, Planescape: Torment.

    That I belong to a WoW guild called Baldurwok may have something to do with my love of Baldur’s Gate.

  42. 42.

    beltane

    @Brachiator: Yes. They’re very clever. I’m still trying to figure out how they got all these young Black people to disguise themselves as fat, fifty year old white men. Do not underestimate the power of ACORN.

  44. 44.

    Dreggas

    @Evinfuilt:

    I second the planescape torment nomination though I never finished that game. It was, indeed, awesome.

    Also the easter eggs in Baldur’s gate were great as well. It was like they let loose one of my DM’s from my PnP days to make the game what with the gibberlings and that blue dude saying “Hi, I’m larry, this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl”.

  46. 46.

    Jason B at Work

    John Cole, I agree completely on KOTOR. The droid HK-47 is one of the best characters ever created in any storytelling medium, period.

    I played some five hours of Dragon Age last night, so I guess it must be pretty good considering I’m damned lucky to play one hour at a stretch these days. Honestly I wasn’t too impressed with the graphics at first but they do grow on you after a bit. Kind of a stylized realism that doesn’t do much for me, but boy does the voice-acting ever make up for it. The story so far is very standard D&D crap that I don’t really enjoy that much these days, but Bioware creates such good characters that I’ll probably continue playing just to see how they develop, and of course, the turn-based combat system is really great as well.

  47. 47.

    kindness

    Oh John! You’re just hot for Morena Baccarin because of the part she played as Adria in the new Star Gate series. You always fall for those goddess types…

  48. 48.

    soonergrunt

    Bioware is the best content developer for PC or Xbox today, hands down.
    I’ll look at the new V, but I doubt it’ll hold a candle to the old one, which I have on DVD.

  51. 51.

    freelancer

    @nitpicker:

    I’m about to win the geek thread: I took next Tuesday off in advance rather than pick it up Monday night at midnight, and call in sick tuesday morning because “dammit this game is too sick!”

  53. 53.

    Jason B at Work

    @nitpicker: That game is conspicuously missing from my pre-order list for various reasons. Infinity Ward is really pissing off the single-most important sector of gaming, the hardcore PC crowd. Yeah, I know, your fucking Xbox is just so cool and that’s okay! But all, ALL, ALL!!!! the modern gaming innovations that we expect today from interface to gameplay to graphics were created by PC game developers and since IW was originally solely developing for PC, the fact that they have been dropping features for PC for the last two games now is really starting to tick me off.

  54. 54.

    ruemara

    John Cole. You nerd.

    V is tonight? Not that I watched the entire series re-hash on scifi or anything, or I think the new lizard chick is scrawny but hotgo infor the sci fi genre. I may have a gander as I level my arms warriorwork on my novel.

  56. 56.

    Genine

    I’m really excited about V. I was about 8 years old when the original came out. I liked it then and I like it now. The special effects were great for it’s day and venue. Yeah, today their cheesy, but they were fun back then.

    Anyway, I watched it again on SyFy and I have to say I still love it. I’ll have to see what they do with the new one before I have any verdict. I’m approaching it with an open mind.

  58. 58.

    Osprey

    Paraphrasing a line from Knights (that was paraphrased from the Terminator movies…fittingly).

    “Master, can I vaporize him?”
    “…Maybe later.”
    “Hear that Meatbag! I will be back!”

    KoTOR was great, ME was a fabulous story (though the copy/paste worlds for the side quests were annoying).

    Here’s hoping Dragon Age comes close to its hype :-)

  59. 59.

    twiffer

    looking forward to picking up dragon age as well. however, the knock it will have for me (same as KOTOR and KOTOR II) is the turn-based combat. i hate that, which is why i find myself going back to oblivion, time and time again.

  60. 60.

    LoveMonkey

    I think you misspelled “Greek” in the thread title. I have no idea on earth what you people are talking about, after the first sentence of the top post. I don’t play computer games. I have more important (very important, also, moreover) things to do.

  61. 61.

    DMG

    @Jason B at Work:
    All they dropped was dedicated servers, right? I don’t get why that’s such a big deal. I mean, I get it in theory, but maybe the fact that I only play FPS on consoles keeps me from really getting it.

  62. 62.

    gg

    “I wonder how it will compare to the series from the 80’s.”

    For me, the clincher will be whether or not they (eventually) introduce a bad-ass resistance fighter comparable to Michael Ironside in “V: The Final Battle”.

  63. 63.

    elmo

    Twiffer: Oblivion is the shiznit, no question; I’ve probably put 400+ hours into that stupid game. But I’m salivating waiting for my copy of DragonAge to get here.

  64. 64.

    Jason B at Work

    @Dreggas: I counter your NOOOOOOO with a YAAAAAAY!

    I’m no FPS-hater by any means, either. Probably the only thing I don’t go for is RTS, and that’s only because I just dont have the time to invest in learning the hundreds of keyboard shortcuts for every new game.

  66. 66.

    0whole1

    I saw V ep 1 at ComicCon in San Diego this year — it was pretty good, especially the Alan Tudyk role. I’m not an original-series-V-head, so couldn’t prognosticate whether it’ll be a hit or not.

    Jeez, I liked Defying Gravity, Life on Mars, Terminator/Sarah Connor Chronicles, New Amsterdam, Jericho, and a lot of other recent SciFi offerings all the way back to Firefly and they all got canned, so what do I know?

  67. 67.

    Sentient Puddle

    @DMG: While there is a fair critique about the loss of dedicated servers, you also may have noticed that PC gamers tend to be incredibly self-righteous. As in, you’d have to replace the analog sticks on controllers with a D pad without an up button to get the same response from console gamers. That or point out that Wii Sports is the best selling game of all time.

    But seriously, if you got an extra $20, download Team Fortress 2 and give it a spin, even if you’ve already tried it for the 360/PS3. Even if you strip out all the updates Valve did since release, it’s night and day.

  68. 68.

    Lyle4

    I expect V to go pretty much the same as Flash Forward. Great pilot episode, then each one getting progressively more boring.

  69. 69.

    Boney Baloney

    Taking Galactica 2.0 as a pattern, I’m guessing… the Visitors arrive bearing gifts like the Salk vaccine and semiconductors. Their secret isn’t that they’re reptiles, it’s that they’re marsupials. And their long-range plan is to transport seawater from solid blue planets and pump it into Earth’s oceans.

    Also, someone will mention eating humans to a Fifth Columnist, and the latter will puke up his toenails.

    Just screwing around, but I bet a wooden nickel the hot alien babes don’t have a single molecule of blue eye shadow among the boiling of them. Sad. I mean, if you’re kickin’ it 80’s, kick it 80’s until it hurts.

  70. 70.

    JenJen

    @L. Ron Obama: Ugh. Even Gawker brings it up:

    V as an Alien Allegory Attack Against Barack Obama

    Their take doesn’t seem to be buying it, and they mention that they thought wingers preferred Jack Bauer head-bashing type stuff. Even when I watched it in the 80s I don’t remember getting a Cold War vibe from it; seemed like a movie about lizard alien people to me.

  71. 71.

    Erik Vanderhoff

    Jason B’s right; turn-based YAY! Though it probably says something that my favorite games of recent years have been the Penny Arcade: On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness episodes…

  73. 73.

    Jason B at Work

    @DMG: I can understand that.

    Reason #1: No dedicated support = High pings. Yes, PC gamers are spoiled in this regard and always have been, but you can hardly blame them for not volunteering to downgrade.

    Reason #2: People like me, who are really really really into PC vs any other platform, usually are so enthusiastic about it almost entirely because of the flexibility that PC provides for creative stuff. Modding and map-making, total conversions, etc is what I’m getting at. All of this will be sorely limited by dropping dedicated server support. A second problem is that LAN gaming won’t be possible, or any other kind of direct-IP-connect scenario. Now, it’s really not my scene, but there is also a pretty good argument that the clan scene is going to dry up and blow away since they won’t be able to host their own practice servers and play with a ruleset that they created themselves. I hope it’s left open enough so that someone can create a backend for it, as has been done with other games on PC.

    I totally don’t mean to be insulting or elitist, as I enjoy playing Mario Kart Wii online as much as the next guy, but playing online on consoles and playing on PC are really two entirely different experiences and there’s just an intensity in the PC scene that just isn’t present yet in any console system I have played.

  74. 74.

    WereBear

    C’mon! How can one be a pop-culture warrior without enjoying the low-rent effects, way-80’s acting, and billboard-sized allusions to history that was the original V?

    Note to Andrew @7: They said they wanted our water. But what they really wanted… OMG, it’s a cookbook!

    Since science fiction movies tend to be either very good or very bad*, I’m happy either way.

    Because it’s a very thin margin of error in science fiction on film.

  75. 75.

    inkadu

    @gg: Michael Ironside is seriously underrated as a bad ass. They could pull him out of retirement and he’d still be kicking ass.

    I remember the Ironside series as being a Reaganesque Red Dawn rehash. While the first one was actually rather thoughtful on the nature of totalatariansim (the aliens win the co-operation of the government). There’s a quite a bit of political commentary in there; all of which I missed as a 12 year old, of course.

    There was that one scene with the blond chick in the blowy-chamber getting mind raped by the Queen. That was rather memorable in an S&M way.

  76. 76.

    tripletee

    @nitpicker:

    No mention of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2?

    I’m a little disappointed that we haven’t had a winger freakout about the game – maybe they haven’t heard that you play one level as a terrorist shooting up an airport yet? (Actually you’re an undercover CIA agent, but it’s not like they ever pay any attention to context.)

    I have mixed feelings about V – I loved the original when I was a kid (though the weekly series in particular has not aged well), but I don’t want to get my hopes up for the new version. Mostly because if I end up liking it, it’s a given that it will be cancelled almost immediately.

  77. 77.

    Sasha

    m actually kind of excited for the series opener of V tonight- I wonder how it will compare to the series from the 80’s. With Morena Baccarin, they have the hotness factor covered, that is for sure.

    Looking forward to seeing it too.

    Not looking forward to the inevitable vapid pundit commentary hailing it as a critique of Obama. (If it’s a success, V will be “recognized” as a sure sign that mainstream America has turned it’s back on Obama and his policies; if it’s a bomb, then the liberal media quashed a dissenting voice.)

  78. 78.

    Sentient Puddle

    OK so question…so Dragon Age has turn-based battles. Is this turn-based in the Baldur’s Gate/KotOR sense, or closer to your standard JRPG? Because the latter is a liability for me, while the former is close enough to real-time for me to be happy.

  80. 80.

    Jay in Oregon

    @brokejumper:

    Of course, the original miniseries V was reportedly inspired by Sinclair Lewis’ book It Can’t Happen Here, about a fascist takeover of America.

    Apparently, the studio heads thought a story involving aliens would play better. io9 has a brief article about it here.

  84. 84.

    inkadu

    @Jason B at Work: I’m trying to figure out the economics of PC gaming…. I’ve only had second-hand computers, but a friend swears he can build me a PC (minus monitor & speakers, which I already have) for around 5-600 that will play any game that’s out there (not at the highest settings, but certainly playable). And after that initial investment, I can upgrade memory and video cards for a few years until I have to switch out the mother board / processor and start over again. But at that point I will have a nice case, power supply, etc., so upgrading will probably be minimal.

    So it seems like PC gaming is more expensive at the outset, and slightly more expensive over the long haul; and you get much better quality gaming. And you don’t have to wait for “the next generation.”

    And, well, I don’t even own a TV set, so I’d have to get another TV set, too… so I doubt the console route would even be less expensive…

  85. 85.

    gg

    inkadu wrote: “I remember the Ironside series as being a Reaganesque Red Dawn rehash. While the first one was actually rather thoughtful on the nature of totalatariansim…”

    Yeah, I don’t think I’d prefer “The Final Battle” to the original “V” these days, but when I was 12 years old, I was like, “Yay! Finally someone will solve this complicated alien problem by incredible amounts of violence!”

    Hmm… I suddenly feel like I’ve gained some insight into the mindset of teabaggers.

    And Michael Ironside definitely still kicks ass.

  87. 87.

    gg

    @Third Eye Open: I’m certainly not forgetting BioShock 2! Curiously, my wife is perhaps more excited about the game than I am, even though I was the only one who played the original! She really enjoyed seeing how the storyline developed, and like me just thought Rapture was beautiful.

  89. 89.

    inkadu

    @gg: That’s how I felt when I saw Chuck Norris’ carefully considered solution to the Middle East problem in Delta Force.

    When I saw “Top Gun” with a foreign friend, he said, “It was excellent propaganda.” I was furious with him at the time. But looking back at the 80’s, just about every violent action movie was bold and blatant right-wing propaganda. The best the left-wing could muster up was, “Reds,” which didn’t have a clear moral, and stupid comedies with polluters cast as villains (and lets not even mention ecology-centered super heroes).

  90. 90.

    Zifnab

    @inkadu:

    (and lets not even mention ecology-centered super heroes)

    Captain Planet was kick ass. You shut your god damn face.

  91. 91.

    Bob (Not B.o.B.)

    @brokejumper:

    … Now my cynical self wonders when ABC will announce the remake of Amerika to save the US from those godless commies!

    There is a remake of Red Dawn being shot in Michigan, so nothing would surprise me.

    As far as V goes, I just hope there isn’t just some rag-tag small rebel group fighting off the “visitors” I think the full scale war version like Independence Day is more “realistic”.

  92. 92.

    Sentient Puddle

    Pauseable is fine with me (hell, it should be more than fine with me by the time I’m done with Demon’s Souls…there is no concept of pausing whatsoever in that game). The thing(s) I just don’t like is battling through a series of menus, or having one character do their business while everyone else is standing sheepishly still. Those just kill the believability for me, and something that’s always irked me since the 8-bit days. If Link could swing his sword whenever I pressed A…

    @Third Eye Open: Delayed until next year, unfortunately. If we were seeing it drop this month, then yeah, I’d be more excited. But hell, look at the bright side…it gives the teabaggers more time to go Galt, and make the game seem that much more contemporary.

  93. 93.

    CaseyL

    There was that one scene with the blond chick in the blowy-chamber getting mind raped by the Queen. That was rather memorable in an S&M way.

    I was an adult when V was first on, and loved it totally.

    I think V was the first network prime-time series that had lesbianism and S&M as major plot points. I could be wrong, but IIRC that was part of its appeal to me – along with the many many women playing major roles as leaders, heroic and villainous. They drove the plot; they didn’t just sit back and wait for The Men to decide what to do.

    The original V dared to be really different – as a miniseries. The series was quite a different shuttle of saurians. Either it targeted the Really Stupid People market or the show’s producers inexplicably hired Really Stupid People as screenwriters.

    The 2 biggest betrayals (so huge I remember them to this day):

    1. Poor Martin. Having cornered Evil Diana, instead of just up and shooting her, proceeds to lecture her… giving her enough time to be rescued and escape (and, IIRC, kill Martin). Even 20 years ago, that was a Blatantly Transparent Plot Device/Dumbshit Plot Development.

    2. Robin’s half-alien daughter’s accelerated aging enables her to be a hottie teen while her Mom is still a hottie twenty-something, so they can compete for the same guy, who was himself the officially-designated Series Beefcake for young girls (and guys?). I hated this mostly because it signaled that the series was going to be at least as much soap opera as science fiction adventure.

    I hated it then, and I still hate it, when show runners inject badly written, insultingly dumb, “human interest” subplots just because they think that’s the only way they’ll get females to tune in. They’re wrong. I’m a female and I do NOT need romance in every damn thing I read and watch. God, I hate being patronized like that!

    Anyway, I too look forward to the new V. Unfortunately, I’ll be joining y’all in progress as I have math class tonight :(

  96. 96.

    EriktheRed

    I thought the original V was one of the best examples of a good idea ruined by making it go on waaaaaaay too long. I have no intention of watching this new one.

  97. 97.

    CaseyL

    CaseyL:

    IIRC that was part of its appeal to me –

    Um. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking lesbianism and S&M or their own sakes, but what I meant was that I saw V: The Miniseries as being subversive of network TV norms, and that’s one of the reasons I liked it so much.

  99. 99.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @gwangung:
    Hmmm—

    Morena Baccarin? Jane Badler? Morena? Jane?
     
    Decisions, decisions….

    Silly person, this is an easy one. Both. At the same time.

  101. 101.

    Gravenstone

    Been playing DA:O for the last 4 hours or so, running a Dalish rogue up to the start of the Grey Warden ceremony. So far, I love it. It’s vintage BioWare with the dialogue, the superb voice acting (particularly for Duncan, the Grey Warden mentor to your character). I love the graphics, the environment is approaching Oblivion for lushness, and the character graphics are insane. The combat mechanic is the same as KOTOR in that it is either pausible or it can be allowed to play out realtime. The character control mechanics are not terribly obtrusive (at least in the PC version) in that all you need do is 1)select the character 2) select the ability you want 3) click on the baddy you want to do in. Once unpaused, the selected ability is played out until either the target dies or another condition arises which takes precedence. You can also create menus which dictate the actions of your character as well as your cohorts, dependent upon a series of conditions. For example, you can instruct your character to automatically use a healing potion when their health drops below 25% (or use one on a teammate under like conditions).

    Between this and WoW, I shall surely have no life beyond work or my computer for the foreseeable future.

  102. 102.

    Shell

    And yay for seeing Robert “Freddy” Englund as a ‘kind’ alien.

    Yes! Have only caught a little of the repeats on Sci-Fi channel (too many shoulder pads and poufy ’80’s hair) but balked when I saw him. “Hey, isn’t that the…uh,,,, you know…that Nightmare on Elm street guy?”

  103. 103.

    Shell

    There is a remake of Red Dawn being shot in Michigan

    Oy, so much TV/cinematic angst to come. Red Dawn, the Re-Dawnering. A remake of ‘The Prisoner.” And , not content, with trashing the ‘Grinch Who Stole Christmas’, Drew Carrey seems hell-bent on ruining ‘A Christmas Carol.”

    Can’t these people be stopped?

  104. 104.

    Gravenstone

    @Shell:

    Drew Carrey seems hell-bent on ruining ‘A Christmas Carol.”

    Jim Carrey. Please blame the right moron.

  107. 107.

    Dreggas

    @Jason B at Work:

    I’m much calmer now that i see it’ll be like KOTOR. When i think turn based I think back to the final fantasy (ie 7 and before) combat system which, IMO, sucked ass.

  108. 108.

    Mouse Tolliver

    I used to watch V as a kid. Loved the miniseries. Hated the weekly TV show. Caught some episodes “V: The Godawful Series” this afternoon. I’d totally forgotten about Oswald, the gay Visitor. Oswald was responsible for the chintzy interior decoration. He’s probably also responsible for turning Diana into a drag queen with teased out hair and multi-colored eye shadow.

  111. 111.

    Mike in NC

    Google “space lizard” for the punchline. Wingers just walk into these things.

    I’m hoping the “V” remake will feature a Michelle Bachmann (or Malkin) lookalike who unhinges her jaw and stuffs a hamster down her throat.

  112. 112.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I missed the first V series. Probly stoned somewhere figuring out the meaning of life. But am looking forward to the new one. Hulu will be posting new episodes on Saturdays. Much better computer screen than me crt dinosaur teevee. And fewer commercials.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @Mike in NC:

    I’m hoping the “V” remake will feature a Michelle Bachmann (or Malkin) lookalike who unhinges her jaw and stuffs a hamster down her throat.

    No, that would be Ann Coulter. Clearly a reptilian alien creature in humanoid drag, leaking corrosive digestive bile.

  116. 116.

    Bostondreams

    @inkadu:

    Micheal Ironside is simply awesome. His voice acting as the evil New God, Darkseid, was simply incredible in the relatively recent JLA series, and in the Superman cartoon before that. He dripped pure evil and power.

    But Ham Tyler is still my second favorite character, after Mike Donovan, who I used to run around the playground pretending to be while in elementary school.

    And I still have the V scrapbook I created back then.

  118. 118.

    Gregory

    I saw a demo of Dragon Age at this year’s GenCon in Indianapolis. It looks nothing short of awesome (and i’m a big Neverwinter Nights fan).

  119. 119.

    Dreggas

    @Gregory:

    I used to work on a persistant world for NWN as a scripter. I still have the t-shirts we all had that the brains behind the place put together for when we had our get-together in vegas.

  120. 120.

    inkadu

    @CaseyL: Women apparently have no interest in plot development. Battlestar Galactica also suffered from soap-operazation. It’s a little hard to be too interested about who someone’s sleeping with when the fate of the human race hangs in the balance.

    Soap operas work because there’s usually not a helluva lot going on other than the emotional drama.

  121. 121.

    gg

    freelancer wrote: “prolly cause they saw the trailer where D.C.’s all fucked up and burning and they can’t stop fapping”

    Thanks — I read that a minute before going into class to lecture and ended up smirking like a moron for the first ten minutes.

    Zifnab wrote: “Captain Planet was kick ass. You shut your god damn face.”

    Thanks; now I’ve got something to make me smirk like a moron for the second half of class.

  122. 122.

    Cain

    @Deborah:

    The aliens want our gravel.

    Can’t we just give them glenn beck and michelle bachchman (that’s her crazy spelling) with her bowl of freedom turds?

    cain

  123. 123.

    Sentient Puddle

    Whelp, I’m now Steaming Dragon Age. I swear, I have no willpower when it comes to video games…

  124. 124.

    Arclite

    Yeah, Bioware has a storied history including one of the most original RPGs ever made: Planescape: Torment. And the Neverwinter Nights provided a toolset that spawned thousands of user created servers. And, yeah, KOTOR was an incredible game. I bought Mass Effect recently but haven’t gotten around to playing it.

    And if V approaches Firefly or BSG in quality and scope, that would great.

  125. 125.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Arclite:

    I bought Mass Effect recently but haven’t gotten around to playing it.

    Make sure to play the sub-plot parts as you go. I explored all available planets, that got a bit tedious by the end. Weaponry, etc is available in those plots that will make staying alive more likely.

  126. 126.

    Arclite

    @ John, are you playing on PC or console?

    @ Crashman, Dreggas. Steam is awesome, esp weekend sales. And the recent Direct2Drive $5 sales resulted in me having about a two year back log in games (meaning if I play an hour a day for the next two years).

    Also, the uncensored Witcher was on sale for $20 on Impulse this past weekend, but it’s gone back up. It’ll go on sale again. I’ll try to post.

    @ Hamner. Yeah, I was actually turned off by all the blood in the trailer. It just seemed unreasonably excessive to me (And the blood spash logo too). I was actually on the fence until I read a few reviews. I mean, c’mon, the average age of purchase for this game will be over 30, but they’re marketing it to teens.

    @ Brachiator. How soon folks forget the fawning worship conservatives had of W. Since V has been in production before Obama took office, I’m assuming Bush was the model.

    @ LoveMonkey. We computer game and SF watching geeks take umbrage at thine implication that Computer Gaming is Not Important. First, it shouldn’t matter how people spend their free time. Do you read? Watch TV? How is that more important that playing games? Unless your volunteering at soup kitchens every second of your free time, get off your high horse. Second, gaming has been shown in studies to have certain benefits (as well as detractions). It makes surgeons more accurate, and improves certain kinds of problem solving skills among other things.

    @ Third Eye Open. Last I heard Bioshock 2 was coming out Jan 2010.

    @ inkadu. PCs require a slightly higher initial investment, but game prices fall more quickly, if you’re willing to wait and get stuff on sale from Steam and Direct2Drive (I got Bioshock for $5 and Far Cry 2 for $10). Here’s a great PC game rig for under $700, put together by the pros:
    http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/dream_machine

  129. 129.

    ruemara

    @freelancer:

    We’re here. Waiting for V. & Bioshock 2, while watching our WOW screens load and writing scifi. There may not be a cool molecule in my body.

  130. 130.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Arclite:

    One other, when you set the character up, remember that the game is slanted toward hard core warrior types. The more subtle options are probably best left for another play through. As you progress you set experience points into a matrix, keep in mind what the character is when allocating those points. You will be a part of a team with varying specialties.

    I don’t think it matches Oblivion or Assasin’s Creed or Fallout3, but it is a lot of fun. I use Xbox360.

    Some others I like:
    Red Faction, Dead Space, Wolfenstein, Prototype

  131. 131.

    Arclite

    @ Chuck. I only have a pretty good 2 year old gaming PC (although tempted to get an xbox for Beatles Rockband), so that’s where I play. I tend to find most RPGs play easier when you go the warrior route. System Shock 2 & KOTOR did a good job of encouraging non warrior play, but you still had to put a lot more thought into your approach when playing the non-warrior classes.

  132. 132.

    john bobson

    Dragon Age is so good it’s scary. I’m only an hour or two in but if this level of quality keeps up throughout it’ll easily be the best thing Bioware has ever done. It’s relatively light on the resources too seeing as I’m able to max it out comfortably on an E8400/Geforce 8800 rig that wasn’t quite state-of-the-art when I built it in January of last year.

    Playing a mage and so far it looks like there are plenty of opportunities to succeed without having to bash heads in all the time. I’ve been able to talk my way outt’ve a couple fights already. Good stuff.

  133. 133.

    Aspasia

    “I wonder how it will compare to the series from the 80’s.”

    Now I can’t find the single post above that notices Marc Singer’s bodaciousness. Sorry. But more than one poster needs to speak up for what women like, other than power of course. Who can forget Singer in his Dar-undies in the original Beastmaster?

  134. 134.

    Obama Death Panel Chairman (formerly glocksman)

    Oh God, where to start?

    I considered myself to be ‘politically aware’ back in the 1980’s (of course I was a total Reagan Youth® pre-dittohead at the time), but the ‘political’ undertones that are so obvious today just flew right over my head.

    Though later on in that era, the political messages in They Live, combined with Carpenter’s skill in directing played a large part in planting the seeds of doubt that sprouted decades later.

    Next up, Jane Badler.

    Perhaps it’s just nostalgia (or hormonal memory :) ), but I prefer the original over her 2000’s counterpart.

    Then again even today I have a distinct preference for women with 80’s style ‘big hair’.

    God, I feel old. :)

  135. 135.

    tootiredoftheright

    @Sentient Puddle:

    They did that awhile back. You have to patch the game to get it uncensored.

    For awhile the only way to do it was replace certain files with their European counterparts.

    Since it is a patch it gets around the ESRB rating which would have given the AO if it had the nudity in. AO rating is a kiss of death since no brick and mortar store would carry it nor would most online stores.

  136. 136.

    tootiredoftheright

    @Arclite:

    “PCs require a slightly higher initial investment, but game prices fall more quickly, if you’re willing to wait and get stuff on sale from Steam and Direct2Drive (I got Bioshock for $5 and Far Cry 2 for $10). ”

    The thing is the vast majority of pc games don’t go to steam or direct2drive. Also the digital download versions sometimes will not have the option of having additional content such as expansion packs added to them unless you rebuy the game from those services.

    You can get pc games cheaply boxed retail if you know what stores to go to and where to look. Best Buy, target, have an aisle full of pc software that you can get for 19.99 that isn’t available on legal download sites or if it is the legal download site charges the same or charges higher then target or best buy would.

    you people should know about cheapassgamer.com which often tells when stores are having huge markdowns on games as well as when the stores have special offers such as buy two get one free deals.

  137. 137.

    tootiredoftheright

    @inkadu:

    As far I am aware Micheal Ironside is still working. He is pure b-movie chese but he occasionly gets into hollywood movies.

    Still does videogame work too usually voice acting but sometimes live action such as Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars.

    Ah Westwood/EA don’t let FMV gaming die it has a good chese factor.

  138. 138.

    gwangung

    Perhaps it’s just nostalgia (or hormonal memory :) ), but I prefer the original over her 2000’s counterpart.
    ___
    Then again even today I have a distinct preference for women with 80’s style ‘big hair’.

    Actually, I have a thing for both “big hair” and closed cropped short hair on women.

    Sigh.

  139. 139.

    Arclite

    @ tootiredoftheright
    Yeah, cheapassgamer is a good site. I haven’t been out there for a while. I visit Bluesnews everyday and he’s been running a sale section for a while.

    Yeah, not everything is available on Steam (& D2D, & Impulse, & EA Store, etc), but the list is growing. And I wouldn’t say the vast majority of games aren’t available (two years ago that was the case tho). These days most AAA games are there: Borderlands, L4D2, CoD:MW2, Aion, Dragon Age, Flashpoint, Arma2, GTA 4, Batman: AA, etc.

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