Mild-mannered gaming & comic geek🦸🏼 by day. Casual trophy hunter by night. Standing up for truth, justice, and better gaming takes IG & TikTok: Johnnybaz85
London, England
Joined August 2013
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Does your setup go through revisions? Here's mine through the years -- still chasing that Perfect Space X Perfect Setup.
#Setup #GamingSetup #PhysicalMedia
Bars
IGN China scored Phantom Blade 0 a perfect 10/10 and provided a scathing commentary on the Western game industry
"In the foreseeable future, when Western game creators are stuck in a creative rut, held hostage by political correctness, and bound by highly industrialized commercial logic, producing one mass-produced, industrial garbage game after another , then let Chinese game creators teach them a lesson and make them relearn what a high-quality, content-rich AAA game should look like."
It's kinda hard to argue when you look at the state of the games industry. Asian games and developers look to be thriving whilst Western studios are either facing layoffs or being shut down.
#PhantomBladeZero #PS5 #PS5Pro
Junaid Syal retweeted
Just one day left on the Kickstarter for issues 9 & 10 of RPM - The Unofficial Retro PlayStation Magazine.
If you miss the days of physical print magazines, then please check out the Kickstarter.
The Vitriol, hatred & campaign against anything Zack does has now reached fever pitch.
From the discussions saying they did not like his work, vision or style to now blatant targeted buzz words to discredit and malign him as mysognist, sexist, homophobe it's clear - agenda – at Southall, London
One thing I’ve noticed at festivals, and especially with #TheLastPhotograph, is that a lot of "critics" seem less interested in actually watching and enjoying movies than they are in being seen watching them.
I was at the premiere and saw people on their phones, scrolling Instagram and Twitter, texting etc for a good portion of the movie. Then the movie ends and within a minute some of them have a full page review posted. A review that would take most people at least 10 minutes to even type.
At a certain point you have to wonder how much of it is actually about watching and engaging with cinema and how much is about being able to say “I saw this before you did” or “I spoke to this director” or “I was at this premiere.” The festival becomes as much of a social status and low level posturing thing as it is about movies.
And I think that has created a weird culture where certain critics seem to think they should be the ones dictating what movies get made, what kind of movies are acceptable and what direction cinema should go in.
You see it constantly in reviews. They’ll talk about the director, the writers, the producers, the actors, the studio, the cinematography, the editing etc. They’ll actually engage with the people involved in making the movie.
But when it comes to Zack Snyder, it very often just becomes “Zack Snyder is a fascist,” “Zack Snyder is a misogynist,” “Zack Snyder is a homophobe” and increasingly just outright personal hatred toward the man.
Snyder literally just talked about people telling him they want to kill him. He talked about people calling him a fascist and a homophobe and even people saying these things about a movie they haven’t actually seen.
That isn’t normal criticism anymore. You can hate The Last Photograph. You can think the violence is excessive. You can think the movie is misogynistic or transphobic or whatever. Make the argument. That’s what criticism is for.
But when you’re wishing death on a filmmaker, attacking his family and deciding a movie is terrible before you’ve even watched it, it’s hard to pretend this is just normal film criticism.
And something else I find really strange is how Deborah Snyder is basically ignored in all of this.
She is his producing partner. She has produced his movies for years and is obviously involved in the filmmaking process and the decisions surrounding these movies.
Yet somehow when people accuse Zack of making misogynistic or homophobic movies, Deborah is never treated as though she has any agency in the process.
If Zack is personally responsible for every supposed moral failing in these movies, then what exactly do you think Deborah is doing as the producer?
It’s funny how people suddenly stop treating a woman like an autonomous adult when acknowledging her agency would complicate the narrative they’ve built around Zack Snyder.
You don’t have to like the guy. You don’t have to like his movies. You can think his entire approach to filmmaking is terrible.
But there’s a pretty big difference between criticizing a movie and becoming obsessed with hating the person who made it.
At some point, when you’re attacking someone personally, dragging his deceased daughter into it and wishing him dead over a fucking movie, maybe the problem isn’t Zack Snyder. Maybe it’s the "critic" culture that has formed around hating him.
They’ll accuse Snyder fans of being delusional, of making his movies their entire personality and of being incapable of handling criticism, while completely ignoring the irony that they’ve done the exact same thing in reverse. At some point, if you’re still talking about Zack Snyder years later, obsessively posting about everything he & his fans do and making hating the guy part of your identity, you’re just as invested in him as the fans you’re mocking.
Talking about something you’re passionate about for years is completely normal. Talking about something you supposedly fucking hate for years is a different story.
Junaid Syal retweeted
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier details why #PlayStation parted ways with #Kojima on #Physint, while giving the perspectives of all sides involved.
PlayStation perspective:
Neither Death Stranding 1 or 2 lived up to PS's sales expectations. DS1 sold better than DS1, but a bulk of its sales were discounted (less revenue) and on PC, which PS didn't publish.
As timed exclusives they also didn't drive console sales the way a permanent exclusive might.
A lot of the folk Kojima was closest with at PlayStation, are also no longer at the company, which was also a factor.
They signed on to make Physint, but during early production over the last few years "it has been missing milestones, it has been late on deadlines, it has been over budget, and it has not been living up to PlayStation's expectations", per multiple sources at PlayStation.
There was also uncertainty about the games development, and Kojima was also asking for a lot of money fot it; in the hundreds of millions.
These things coupled with difficult discussions about exclusivity windows (PS don't do PC releases for SP any more), ultimately led to PS cancelling.
The other thing is that with increasing AI shortage prices and PS not expecting to sell as many future consoles, they are now trying to maximise profitability and revenue per user, in other words, less risk averse.
Post Concord, PlayStation also has much more rigorous process with production milestones and development assessment, hence are much more privy to cancellations if targets aren't met, unlike previously where they may have let things run.
Kojima perspective:
Kojima feels games are near enough always late and over budget, especially if you want award winning, prestige building, critically acclaimed or stand out games. Jason even concurs with this notion.
The previous regime at PlayStation was more open to Kojima and this type of project flexibility, whereas the new regime is tightening the purse and wanting stricter controls.
The new PS regimes personalities also clash more with Kojima.
Xbox perspective:
For Xbox, this is a play for more of the Asian market, both Japan and China.
They also see potenial benefit in the movie and film production side of things, and want more exposure to that sector with Kojima.
Unlike PlayStation, they are also happy to publish on PC, hence push the PC platform and take any royalties that come with it, even if Steam takes a lionshare.
Jason does mention some at Xbox, especially the ones recently laid off or studios divested, may feel negatively about this bolder investment into Kojima, which is ultimately expensive and risky at a time they've been heavily cutting costs.
---
He ends with mentioning that Physint is essentially a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid, not some niche delivery genre, hence understandable there's been much stronger reactions from players.
Edited video summary attached.
Full link below:
youtu.be/aOWwGl6d0Iw?is=YLo_…
Issues 9&10 of Retro PlayStation Magazine Kickstarter is live. Get yours now
#RPM – at Southall, London
Massive respect and kudos to this initiative and endeavor – at Sri Lanka
We've been getting a lot of questions lately about how the Internet Archive digitizes books.
The short answer: page by page, by hand.
You may remember our viral 2021 video of Eliza Zhang scanning a book. That's still how we do it.
Meet Eliza, and learn how we scan books: blog.archive.org/2021/02/09/…
Junaid Syal retweeted
It's a miracle, it's a miracle!!!
More malingering from the best & brightest.
DFW Airport wheelchair service: the modern miracle.
Sudden cure rate: 100%.
I'm late for sharing this but I'm pretty happy to be on this list! I directed 3 and storyboarded on 2 for a total of 5 of my projects that made the 10 best list! 😁
slashfilm.com/2199850/best-b…
Junaid Syal retweeted
Marvel's Wolverine comes out next month. The game is £69.99 digitally on the PlayStation Store and I got it for £54.99 on Amazon with release day delivery.
Why anyone would pay an extra £15 to have a version they can't trade, sell or lend is insane to me.
Congrats @ZubairAbdu31256
Absolutely dominant performance and nerves of steel! What a story! – at Southall, London
