Support NeoGAF

[joeygreco1985]

By the way, thanks for the Warfighter spoilers Brad. I'm about 3 quarters through the campaign when I heard you talk about

Spoiler

the raid on bin laden's compound and killing the lights so you can go in with NVGs, and meeting up with bearded guy from the first game

.

 

[jyoung188]

+1 for Whopper Couch

 

[Anatoli Bacharach]

By the way, thanks for the Warfighter spoilers Brad. I'm about 3 quarters through the campaign when I heard you talk about

Spoiler

the raid on bin laden's compound and killing the lights so you can go in with NVGs, and meeting up with bearded guy from the first game

.

Yeah i also thought he said too much. I'm not even going to play the game, but it sucks for those who are.

 

[LiK]

COPS, GOTTA GO!

 

[joeygreco1985]

Yeah i also thought he said too much. I'm not even going to play the game, but it sucks for those who are.

Yeah it does suck. I mean fine I don't mind listening to the complaints he had about the game, a lot of people are tired of the military shooter thing so its expected. But then BAM he slips in spoilers too? What the hell, man.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah it does suck. I mean fine I don't mind listening to the complaints he had about the game, a lot of people are tired of the military shooter thing so its expected. But then BAM he slips in spoilers too? What the hell, man.

Spoilermaker strikes again.

 

[Anth0ny]

That's the first thing I thought of, as is those pics that EmCeeGramr posted. That looks like a great print of New Hope. But I wonder if there are other prints in the wild of that quality for Empire and Jedi?

Renowned film restorationist Robert Harris--the man who had hand-restored LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, SPARTACUS, THE SEARCHERS and GODFATHER--went on record saying he knew for a fact that there were pristine master 35mm elements available and that he would fully restore the original films! Lucasfilm did not respond to his offer.

http://savestarwars.com/faq.html#1

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I don't buy it. They had to scan the negative in at some insane resolution before they could do all that Special Edition work, right? There has to be an archive of the films prior to the additions. Not preserving the original footage would just be insane.

I can totally believe it. I've been in IT since the late 80s.

You have to remember, back when they were working on the special editions, hard drives hadn't hit a gigabyte yet and everything was backed up to tape. Hard drive storage was around $1500 per gigabyte and a 4k scan of a 2 hour film was around 800 gigbytes. Tape storage was at best 1.6 gigabytes at $300. Assuming they could find them. In the mid 90s I was responsible for a 300 gig database, I remember enterprise level backup tapes being back ordered by 3M globally for months. If they had the 500+ tapes and 800+ 1 gigabyte drives, one working copy of the movie and a backup would cost around 1.3 million dollars. Very expensive, even for Lucasfilms. That isn't even talking about all the space needed to generate the cgi effects. So it is very likely as they created the SE, they deleted the original to make room for the new version.

Lets say they did in fact save the scans of the original. If it was on a hard drive, some of them have long since failed. If it was on tape, tape was rated for 20 years in storage but realistically 7 years is pushing it even in perfect conditions.

The only thing that can be done is every 2-4 years or so, the archive is duplicated on the best newest media available.

I think the best case would be a new restoration project to start gathering the best possible sources (like the fan edits out there). Or they used CGI to put the SE effects in, they can use CGI to take them out as well.

 

[HamPster PamPster]

I'm surprised (well not really) they completely skipped over MOH's multiplayer. I bought the first one for $20 and enjoyed the multi. It had some problems but even then there was still a community playing, I never had trouble finding a game, and had some fun

I'm curious how it turned out. I never played the beta

 

[Lombax]

I think the best case would be a new restoration project to start gathering the best possible sources (like the fan edits out there). Or they used CGI to put the SE effects in, they can use CGI to take them out as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443921

 

[Baron_Calamity]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443921

That's what I was referring to when I wrote "fan edits." They are good but I believe better could be done.

 

[HoodWinked]

the serious talk about games journalism was fucking fascinating.

mock reviews and other filthy secrets.

 

[Typographenia]

The Beard Father stuff, oh my goodness, haha

 

[LiK]

whenever there's a serious discussion, Jeff is at his best. Always interesting to hear his side.

 

[StuBurns]

the serious talk about games journalism was fucking fascinating.

mock reviews and other filthy secrets.

It's neither a secret, or filthy.

 

[MiniBossBattle]

Haha, the screencap setup is almost the same when I started working in development. I literally had an intern at my work sit on the floor and tell him to take pictures for me while I moved around the level. We talked about just putting up a digital camera in a dark room with a tv and an intern and yell at them to take the shot.

Now I do a crazy contortion of right clicking to get the menu up, playing the game over the shoulder and capturing both the tv and screencapping my computer to get the coordinates of areas that need to be addressed visually or technically.

 

[FStop7]

If Vinny likes Ezio as a character he really should finish Revelations.

Seriously. Revelations was a lot of filler but the last 20 minutes were about as emotional as a video game can be. I was genuinely touched by Ezio's coda.

 

[Typographenia]

Jeff is going to play Walking Dead?! YES YES YES

I really hope you enjoy it, sir.

 

[Yaboosh]

I don't understand why mock reviews are considered questionable. It seems to me they want a mock reviewer to be as unbiased as possible or they will fire you.

 

[StuBurns]

Jeff is going to play Walking Dead?! YES YES YES

I really hope you enjoy it, sir.

It'll be interesting, I seem to remember he thought highly of aspects of Heavy Rain, and Walking Dead is basically that same direction, but amazing.

 

[joeygreco1985]

I don't understand why mock reviews are considered questionable. It seems to me they want a mock reviewer to be as unbiased as possible or they will fire you.

I think its because you're essentially doing business with that publisher now. So in the future, can you really be unbiased towards their products when they've paid you in the past? (bite the hand that feeds you, etc.)

 

[FStop7]

What, exactly, is a "mock reviewer"?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I understand Patrick's reasoning for not playing 999, but man, he's going to have a tough time enjoying VLR without that context.

Kind of makes me sad because I'm pretty sure they'll just write it off as anime bullshit without it.

 

[antitrop]

What, exactly, is a "mock reviewer"?

A freelance games writer who is hired by a game publisher to play a product before being sent to the public games press to write a private review to give the publisher a good idea of where their game is at and what they can expect when the "real" reviews hit.

 

[slightconfuse]

What, exactly, is a "mock reviewer"?

Someone hired by a company to write a review before a game is sent to reviewers. To get an idea I how it will score

 

[Felix Lighter]

Isn't that what N'gai Croal's company is doing?

 

[MiniBossBattle]

Isn't that what N'gai Croal's company is doing?

Kinda. They get stuff earlier than what most journalist would see like in E3 and less of a vertical slice. They then write more constructive feedback and stuff they liked/disliked. If they did give something a score, I was insulated from it.

 

[Proc]

I said: "drop a bomb on it," out loud this episode. One of the best episodes I listened to in recent memory.

 

[Jintor]

I understand Patrick's reasoning for not playing 999, but man, he's going to have a tough time enjoying VLR without that context.

Kind of makes me sad because I'm pretty sure they'll just write it off as anime bullshit without it.

Seriously. These games are fucking timesinks.

I just got one "To Be Continued" in VLR and, if this was my first exposure to the franchise, I would have chucked my Vita into the wall because it kind of just happens midway through an event for no readily apparent reason. You really have to come into these games with the specific mindset that you're going to read it a bunch before you understand everything that's happening.

Thankfully it's more explicit about this in VLR than in 999, but I think it's still going to frustrate.

 

[FStop7]

A freelance games writer who is hired by a game publisher to play a product before being sent to the public games press to write a private review to give the publisher a good idea of where their game is at and what they can expect when the "real" reviews hit.

Someone hired by a company to write a review before a game is sent to reviewers. To get an idea I how it will score

Oh, gross. I thought it was a term to describe people who don't write for "credible" outlets, like small/independent blogs and stuff. Yeah, "mock reviews" sound shady.

 

[Grisby]

Seriously. Revelations was a lot of filler but the last 20 minutes were about as emotional as a video game can be. I was genuinely touched by Ezio's coda.

This. Hell of an ending and I actually came to like Altair a lot more too. I also remember one or two decent tombs like that lighthouse rain one.

 

[LuchaShaq]

I can't believe people are honestly giving 2 shits about MOH spoilers.

I could have told you an hour after Laden got killed that was going to be their last level just with names changed.

BEARDFATHER

 

[Rapstah]

I can't believe people are honestly giving 2 shits about MOH spoilers.

There are people out there who can't believe people are honestly giving two shits about video game spoilers or can't believe people are honestly giving two shits about movie spoilers in general and much like you their only real argument is "who gives a shit". You don't have to give a shit about people giving a shit either.

 

[newjeruse]

Didn't they all take free XBox's at the Microsoft PC two years ago? Brad seemed pretty stoked about that at the time.

 

[Jintor]

This. Hell of an ending and I actually came to like Altair a lot more too. I also remember one or two decent tombs like that lighthouse rain one.

Also, you got to have a fistfight in mid-air. That was fucking baller.

I did not like a lot of Revalations (although perhaps uniquely I quite enjoyed the bomb-making) but it had some good moments.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

There are people out there who can't believe people are honestly giving two shits about video game spoilers or can't believe people are honestly giving two shits about movie spoilers in general and much like you their only real argument is "who gives a shit". You don't have to give a shit about people giving a shit either.

No but really though, this is random dudebro game #1432, who cares?

 

[Hot Coldman]

Also, you got to have a fistfight in mid-air. That was fucking baller.

Is it with Bobby Kotick?

 

[Rapstah]

No but really though, this is random dudebro game #1432, who cares?

Evidently at least two people in this thread? Should those who don't care decide when a game isn't worth trying not to spoil?

 

[chogidogs]

Didn't they all take free XBox's at the Microsoft PC two years ago? Brad seemed pretty stoked about that at the time.

They said way back that those went to the office. So those are probably at Tested right now.

 

[newjeruse]

They said way back that those went to the office. So those are probably at Tested right now.

...so?

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Evidently at least two people in this thread? Should those who don't care decide when a game isn't worth trying not to spoil?

This is random dudebro shooter #1432, not Zero Escape or 999. I feel comfortable saying nobody should get too worked up about hearing that there's a Bin Laden analogue.

 

[nckillthegrimace]

Is it with Bobby Kotick?

I don't understand.

Spoiler

I JUST OWN A BASEBALL TEAM

 

[chogidogs]

...so?

You tell me. I was just answering your question.

 

[WrenchNinja]

I understand Patrick's reasoning for not playing 999, but man, he's going to have a tough time enjoying VLR without that context.

Kind of makes me sad because I'm pretty sure they'll just write it off as anime bullshit without it.

I don't think he'll do that after he pleaded for people to play Dust.

 

[newjeruse]

You tell me. I was just answering your question.

Whether it's unethical of the institution or the individual, it's still unethical. Taking those XBox's isn't as egregious as the people tweeting to win PS3's, but it's still indefensible. The fact that the individuals didn't take them home is immaterial.

 

[shadyspace]

Where did Patrick say he wasn't going to play 999? Formspring and whatnot says otherwise.

 

[Jintor]

Is it with Bobby Kotick?

Nah, it's with the manager of some baseball team

 

[Jintor]

Where did Patrick say he wasn't going to play 999? Formspring and whatnot says otherwise.

He probably can't get through it in time before they put a VLR quicklook up in a timely fashion.

 

[shadyspace]

He probably can't get through it in time before they put a VLR quicklook up in a timely fashion.

Eh, getting a bit into the game enough for a quicklook is fine without having played 999. I'm like 8 hours in and I've yet to see anything that stands out as a "holy shit a 999 reference" moment besides tertiary stuff like

Spoiler

Clover and Alice being there

 

[newjeruse]

I also don't see a huge conflict of interest with doing mock reviews for a publisher. Not nearly as big a conflict as coming from a PR gig. A good mock reviewer is completely uninvested in a company's success.