Ghost of Tsushima (2020)

[Cult Icon]

On 8/1/2020 at 5:24 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

I guess it depends on the manga. They have very different style. If you take the most famous ones: "One piece" has a kind of psychedelic and childlikestyle, "Attack on Titans" is more brutal, but still has teenage vibes, Berserk's style is crude and brutal, etc.

 

I don't like all of their styles, but at least the stories are always very creative as you say.

 

French and Belgian comics have always been good and they are still really good today. We don't have superhero themes, but there's a wide spectrum, I'm sure you can find some you'll like.

 

Japanese graphic novels have some exceptional standouts.  Almost all manga however have the "quantity over quality" feel to them and were drawn by poor artists.  The most popular US comics are superhero comics and I find most of them crap except for some stuff like Batman, Punisher, Superman.  Marvel is terrible IMHO.

 

I check out French and Italian comics from time to time,  they have the best trained artists and best production quality but are lacking in innovation compared to japanese/US IMHO.  There are a lot of historical fiction I find.  A certain conservatism.  I like "Eagles of Rome", that was a terrific series.  

[Enrico_sw]

17 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

The poems are in many locations of the game and most give some sort of upgrade.  Some of them are death notes.

 

did you manage to find the game?

 

In honor of GoT I put hagakure on my audiobook queue and got Miyamoto's discouses and five rings audiobooks..

 

I managed to find a copy, but I don't know if I'll have much time to start playing it in the next couple of weeks.

[Enrico_sw]

34 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

 

Actually US comics don't really have much "woke" in them, except for the superhero genre and the mainstream stuff.  There are a lot of indie companies that produce really innovative stuff with the medium that sadly appears and disappears.    The creativity and artwork are better than the Japanese manga industry but they can't match the sheer scale.

 

I don't know the indie company much,  but I know the two market leaders: Marvel and DC, and they've gone completely crazy. Both of them. There are many examples, but the biggest ones are the New "New Warriors", Gotham High and in general Marvel writers are complete nutjobs (a lot of them are former journalists and they biggest loonie of them all is probably Dana Schwartz). They face some backlash (mostly the new warriors), but (at least before covid) the oligopoly didn't seem to care about it.

 

The creativity of Marvel/DC has plummeted. Mangakas are much more creative than them IMO.

 

38 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

The Manga industry is massive and dwarfs the US comics industry if I'm not mistaken.  However I rarely find a manga that is readable.  With anime/manga I prefer the old school stuff eg. pre 2000, miyazaki etc.  The recent artforms I find them to be very poor.

 

Which ones have you read? There are also lesser known mangas (I guess you could call them Indies). Some of the new ones are very original. Manga is a fierce market with a real meritocracy behind it. Some mangaka literally started in their basement and got promoted thanks to their readers. Some of them started on the internet with webcomics.

 

My understanding of the comic industry is that the market leaders strongly influence the market.

 

41 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

Check out this site for US comics.  It seems to have been not updated since May 1st though:  https://view-comic.com/

 

I'll have a look.

[Enrico_sw]

41 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

I check out French and Italian comics from time to time,  they have the best trained artists and best production quality but are lacking in innovation compared to japanese/US IMHO.  There are a lot of historical fiction I find.  A certain conservatism.  I like "Eagles of Rome", that was a terrific series.  

 

There are lots of historical fiction in the French comics (I guess that's what the readers like - maybe some form of nostalgia), but there's also sci-fi, humour, fantasy, fantastic, zombies, etc. It depends what you mean by "conservatism" (Nostalgia? Maybe. Graphic conservatism? It depends on the book).

 

What I dislike is when they try to mix the wrong kind of humour with certain genre.

 

Here are two examples of quality French comics, that you might like:

https://www.lelombard.com/bd/nietzsche/nietzsche

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21469096-last-man => this one also had an animated serie associated with it:

Spoiler

 

 

[Cult Icon]

On 8/12/2020 at 5:22 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

I managed to find a copy, but I don't know if I'll have much time to start playing it in the next couple of weeks.

 

are you going to play it on hard or lethal?  There is big gameplay difference between the two.  The consensus is that hard is not hard, it's like a "normal" difficulty.   Lethal turns everybody into glass cannons 

 

 

[Enrico_sw]

17 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

are you going to play it on hard or lethal?  There is big gameplay difference between the two.  The consensus is that hard is not hard, it's like a "normal" difficulty.   Lethal turns everybody into glass cannons 

 

 

I like to play on hard difficulties. It's better to play a game that's a challenge IMO.

 

Sekiro was quite the challenge (I liked it, but it was one of the hardest games I've played). Jedi fallen order on the highest difficulty was a b** too.

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homage to 13 Assassins from GOT

 

 

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21 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

I like to play on hard difficulties. It's better to play a game that's a challenge IMO.

 

Sekiro was quite the challenge (I liked it, but it was one of the hardest games I've played). Jedi fallen order on the highest difficulty was a b** too.

 

I think you will prefer lethal difficulty.  Sekiro and the Dark Souls games follow From software's "hard but fair " design philosophy

[Cult Icon]

On 8/12/2020 at 5:33 PM, Enrico_sw said:

The creativity of Marvel/DC has plummeted. Mangakas are much more creative than them IMO.

 

 

Which ones have you read? There are also lesser known mangas (I guess you could call them Indies). Some of the new ones are very original. Manga is a fierce market with a real meritocracy behind it. Some mangaka literally started in their basement and got promoted thanks to their readers. Some of them started on the internet with webcomics.

 

My understanding of the comic industry is that the market leaders strongly influence the market.

 

Marvel was always bad imho- their comics have no real story outside of some limited runs eg. Garth Ennis, Punisher.  DC is better quality than Marvel and has some good books but most of it is pretty bad too.

 

The market leaders don't really influence the indie comic scene all that much.  US  Indie comics have a lot of abstract and experimental concepts and sometimes ultraviolence.  They usually have unique stories and are of considerable length.

 

With Manga I have often given them a chance but I rarely have been able to finish any.  An example of good manga is Vagabond but mangas with this sort of quality are rare.  Junji Ito's horror series are amazing,  among the best horror comics I've ever read.  Battle Royle manga was great.  There was one about the atom bomb over Hiroshima that scarred me as a kid.  Also, GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) was another favorite.  Ghost in the Shell was good.  There is also a manga artist that does extremely well researched WW2 topics that is great. :

 

 

what manga do you like?

 

 

[Cult Icon]

On 8/12/2020 at 5:47 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

There are lots of historical fiction in the French comics (I guess that's what the readers like - maybe some form of nostalgia), but there's also sci-fi, humour, fantasy, fantastic, zombies, etc. It depends what you mean by "conservatism" (Nostalgia? Maybe. Graphic conservatism? It depends on the book).

 

What I dislike is when they try to mix the wrong kind of humour with certain genre.

 

Here are two examples of quality French comics, that you might like:

https://www.lelombard.com/bd/nietzsche/nietzsche

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21469096-last-man => this one also had an animated serie associated with it:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

conservatism- I find Italian and French comics to be more in the area of illustration/realism rather than abstract art.  The art tends to be professionally done, like all the artists went to art school.  Also there is some much historical fiction which is a traditional topic.  IIRC I did look at the Nietzsche book

 

This is one of my favorite books, it was also made into a movie:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Foire_aux_immortels

 

With the Last Man, I thought you were referring to this acclaimed series which is also influenced by existentialism.  Vertigo is a good comics firm:

 

 

This is Eagles of Rome:

 

https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/The-Eagles-of-Rome

 

I will look at the Last Man comic

 

https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Last-Man

 

what books of Nietzsche have you read?  

 

I plan on reading 6 of his books in September via audiobook

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multiplayer mode coming out:

 

 

[Enrico_sw]

On 8/16/2020 at 9:16 PM, Cult Icon said:

what books of Nietzsche have you read? 

 

I've read most of them. My favorite are the "twilight of the idols" and "Human, all too Human". I like the way he writes (he doesn't write like the typical German philosopher, except maybe in his first book "the birth of tragedy") and his aphorisms.

 

On 8/16/2020 at 9:03 PM, Cult Icon said:

what manga do you like?

 

One punch man, Attack on titans, Death note, Fullmetal alchemist, One piece, Gangsta, etc. I want to read Fist of the North Star, I've seen anime episodes, but I'd like to read it.

[Enrico_sw]

It's one of the most beautiful games I've played. Probably the most beautiful one so far.

[Enrico_sw]

@Matt! Have you  played it?

[Matt!]

19 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

@Matt! Have you  played it?

 

I have not, but I've watched others play it on Youtube 

[Enrico_sw]

5 hours ago, Matt! said:

 

I have not, but I've watched others play it on Youtube 

 

That game is good. It's not perfect (no game are), but it's really good. The graphics are probably the best I've seen, the landscapes of Tsushima are magnificent and the game is very realistic. The characters are pretty good. The storyline is not very complex (it's not the Witcher, far from it), but it's still enjoyable.

 

The gameplay is a bit too easy for my taste (I like real challenges, like Sekiro) - e.g. the timings of parry or dodges is quite forgiving, unlike Sekiro. In Sekiro, if you're one millisecond late in a 5 minutes fight, you're already half dead. In GoT, you're rewarded for being on time, but you don't suffer any penalties if you're a bit late.

 

All in all, it was worth my money and time.

[Enrico_sw]

I love this game. One of the best I've played in years.

 

Great vibes, great memories.

[Enrico_sw]

This game is one of the most beautiful game I've ever played. Possibly the most beautiful.

 

Let's see how the next gen games will handle things. Technology is a thing, but without good artwork it's nothing

[Enrico_sw]

Playing this game makes me so zen. The ambiance is beautiful and I love the culture. The graphics are obviously current gen, but they are already awesome. Better than I could've ever imagined. The leaves on the ground look so real.

 

They don't have ray tracing, but the lights are beautiful. In fact, I think it would be less beautiful with ray tracing (more realistic, sure, but less beautiful).

[Enrico_sw]

That would be so cool to see a GoT 2!

https://www.gameblog.fr/news/93321-ghost-of-tsushima-2-deja-prevu-une-offre-d-emploi-le-laisse-