One Good Point (Show) - The Acolyte, Season 1

I'm a massive fan of pretty much anything Star Wars. I love the original trilogy, I enjoyed the prequel trilogy more than most, and... well, we won't talk about the sequel trilogy, but that didn't stop me from continuing to watch The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book of Boba Fett, or Ahsoka. And it would never stop me from playing a number of Star-Wars-based video games, as well as turning off the standard music for Starfield and putting on a curated collection of Star Wars music instead. I love me some Star Wars.

Even so, I did my best to avoid any sort of spoilers or trailers coming into The Acolyte, and I did such a good job that I had no idea who any of the cast was when I finally arrived. I think ultimately that's a good thing, though I did spend a few minutes here and there during/between episodes looking up various actors to figure out where I saw them before. Which, by the way, was Squid Game (for Lee Jung-jae) and The Good Place (for Manny Jacinto).

Okay, let's get to this actual show!

(Spoiler alert: I'll try to avoid anything momentous, but there will be some details you can't get around)

The Acolyte is a Disney+ series in the Star Wars universe that takes place about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. It was originally billed as a mystery show, but like Ahsoka before it, it kind of abandons the whole mystery premise a couple episodes in. But unlike Ahsoka, this show probably benefits from the gearshift (I absolutely loooooved the first two episodes of Ahsoka, but found the back half less appealing as the show effectively became a sequel to the Clone Wars animated series).

The first couple episodes of The Acolyte are a bit over-acted at times, and there were a lot of situations that felt like kind of forced drama, where you knew the moment was supposed to be tense, but the dialogue or performances didn't carry that tension. Two of the main characters are a pair of twins, which is one of those classic television tropes that I have trouble getting behind, similar to time travel. Also, the characters are supposed to be about 20 years old, but they carry themselves like teenagers, and are largely treated like adolescents as well. This makes it difficult to really respect the decisions they make as adult decisions. By comparison, Cassian Andor is supposed to be 21 in Andor.

One thing the show does well though is embrace its essence: it is a Star Wars show. There are dangerous creatures, countless aliens, various space vessels, good and evil, lightsaber battles, and an ongoing question in your mind about who might be secretly a Sith lord. While it starts a bit slow and doesn't elevate to Andor levels of quality (a largely unfair comparison, because Andor is so freaking good), The Acolyte ends up telling a pretty good story, and leaves you with enough questions to make you want to see more.

One last comment I'll offer: this show was edited terribly when it comes to episode splits. I'm not sure if there was some last-minute corporate demand to extend/shorten the show, but the ending moments of some of the episodes in the back half of the show are jarring. For this reason, I strongly recommend a binge-watch. Plan on watching the whole thing over a weekend and I think you'll have a pretty good time.

Click here to check out JustWatch and see where you can watch The Acolyte today!

Top 5 Movie Monsters

I find that some of my favorite movies are the really great monster movies. In general I'm not a huge fan of the horror genre, but there's something about a meticulously constructed, high-budget, well-written monster movie that makes me smile. I grew up watching and enjoying the Star Wars movies and Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad, so I've grown to have an appreciation for aliens, bizarre creatures, and the unknown.

I like coming up with Top 5s, but I always have trouble ranking them after I come up with them. I toyed with the idea of going the High Fidelity route, where you name a Top 5, but there's no order.

1. Tyrannosaurus Rex - There's no beast in movies that makes me as excited as the T-Rex. While dinosaurs from subsequent Jurassic Park movies were plenty frightening, the Tyrannosaurus was always the dinosaur growing up. And even though I've read articles that suggest that its roars are almost certainly a figment of Hollywood's imagination, the roar from Jurassic Park is what movie monsters are all about. He's truly the king of the monsters.
   
2. Jaws - Jaws is one of my favorite movies, despite the fact that seeing it makes me never want to go in the ocean again. The actual shark is perfectly created in the movie. It's not a "villain" per se, though obviously the body count makes you see it as such. The truth is that Jaws is simply a force of nature, which makes it delightfully unpredictable and unforgiving.
3. Alien - Growing up, I was always more of a Predator fan than an Alien fan. And if I ever see any of the Alien vs. Predator movies, I imagine I'll still root for Predator. And maybe that's further evidence of how Aliens are such a perfect monster. They can be silent, but they're massive and powerful and ruthless. I didn't actually watch Alien or Aliens until I was 30 years old, but even at that age, I could appreciate the elegant terror of the Alien.
4. King Kong - The giant ape is one of the original movie monsters, maybe the original. I've caught parts of the original version, but the truth is it's very difficult to buy in to those older films with their technologically inferior effects. The newer one, while excruciatingly long, had high-level effects that helped to convey the awesome size and power of Kong. My favorite scene (naturally) was when he battled the Tyrannosaurs.
   
5. Velociraptor - While the general public is aware of plenty of different dinosaurs, the velociraptor was one that Jurassic Park brought to the forefront of American culture. An expansion NBA team was even named the Toronto Raptors. While the actual science of the raptor is decidedly less frightening (new information says they had feathers, and the movie versions were more modeled after the larger deinonychus than velociraptor), the movie version is plenty scary. The one thing I'd say is a little less appealing for me personally is that the movies made raptors out to be as smart as humans; I want my monsters illogical and uncontrollable. Still, terrifying.

The Predator was an awesome creature, but it was humanoid and relied on technology, and generally doesn't strike me as a "monster" any more than do Klingons or Hutts. I liked the variety of monsters in The Mist, but we didn't really get to live with any of them individually, and they were all pretty different (tentacles, mantises, weird bat things, etc). I generally prefer individual monsters over groups, so things like zombies (Zombieland), infected humans (28 Days Later), and giant spiders (Eight-Legged Freaks) don't make my list. I liked the Rancor and the Sarlacc, but they weren't relevant enough to the story of Star Wars to really warrant inclusion.

The Buggy Old Republic

Overall, I've been fine with the game quality of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It does definitely seem to be a little laggy at times; sometimes an ability will finish channeling on the server well before it shows on my end, or I'll miss an interrupt that it doesn't look like I should've missed. But all told, while it's not as crisp as World of Warcraft, the combat is fairly stable.

The video rendering can be a little twisty, though. Here are a few screenshots from my time in The Old Republic that I found pretty funny. None of them created a quest issue for me, so I could appreciate them as simple video quirks.

I've got one more image for you. It's not an issue with the video loading slowly or improperly, though. It's just a funny little design choice that I appreciate...even though I'm not a big fan of Johnnie Walker:

Apparently folks on Tattooine enjoy their scotch.

Unsubscribing from Star Wars

So I recently allowed my subscription to lapse for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It wasn't a mistake; I had subscribed for a month and enjoyed it, but I knew going in that I'd be headed back to a free-to-play status. Well, not exactly that; SW:TOR has a middle tier called "preferred" players, giving a few extra bonuses for players who have spent any money in the Cartel Market, or have ever been subscribers. The middle tier has a few more character slots, quickbars (which really shouldn't be limited on any tier; they're part of gameplay), auction slots, etc. It's also got a credit limit of 350,000 credits for each character, and this factor has had an effect that I couldn't have anticipated:

I'm playing the game again.

While I was a subscriber, I spent the majority of my time trying to make money. I was going to say "a good portion," but the truth is it was a majority of my time in the game. I would log in, send my crew on missions to pick up crafting materials, then peruse the auction house for this or that, then Alt+Tab to work on whatever else I had going on, or just watch Orange Is the New Black.

Sometimes I'd swap into another character while I was waiting for my crew to get back, so that I could send another companion on another crew mission. I was literally grinding out a job on days I had off from my real job. And not even with a goal in mind; there isn't really anything credit-wise I was saving up for. I was just acquiring credits so that I had them.

But now, with the 350,000 credit limit, there's no reason for me to wildly accumulate. As a result, instead of wallowing on the Imperial Fleet, I'm pushing forward with my class missions. I'm a bit over-leveled because I have a habit of doing every single mission I get, so I only get experience on like half of the missions, but the story is moving along, and I'm enjoying that.

Additionally, I'm less concerned about spending money on the Galactic Trade Network (I called it the auction house earlier, but GTN is the official name). The one thing I'd spent money on before was mounts, but I was always reticent to shell out the cash, because I didn't know if I was getting a good deal. Now I don't care much; I have a credit limit, so if I don't spend the money, it gets locked away in "escrow" until I pay to have it transferred or re-subscribe. So if I see a mount I don't already have, I buy it. No researching the prices, no wondering if it was for sale somewhere from a vendor, just nom nom nom.

I still send my guys on crew missions, of course. I'm not going to change who I am at my core. But the credit limit has helped to change my play habits, I think for the better. I'm getting a lot closer to that "experiential gaming" I mentioned in a post last week.

And I am pleased.

Experiential Gaming

I was at a friends' house a couple weeks ago, and we were watching some random Twitch streams. He's got an Xbox One, so we were able to browse Twitch from the comfort of his living room couch. Anyways, the stream that we settled on was a guy playing the recently released Alien: Isolation on his PS4. He was very animated, and he did a great job of ramping up the tension in the stream. He was clearly nervous and scared (of the outcome of the game, not of streaming; he seemed perfectly comfortable sharing his gaming experience, and I wish I remembered his name). He was truly "experiencing" this game.

As I watched, I realized that this guy's gaming experience is almost completely opposite my own recent experience, and his experience is what I wish I was getting out of gaming.

I've been playing the following games of late:

PAYDAY 2

Payday 2 has a number of different heists, usually with both a stealth and "loud" approach. Each mission holds several different challenges, and some are multi-day affairs that change based on your actions on the first day. The game also offers a wide variety of moddable weapons and customizable masks, both of which are consistently supplemented through DLC (some of which I've bought, some I've not bought).

But I've really done everything I wanted to do in Payday 2. There are some achievements I don't have, some guns I haven't bought, and some missions I haven't completed on the highest difficulties, but I don't feel compelled to satisfy any of those "incomplete" aspects of the game. I've completed all I feel compelled to complete from this game, though I keep playing, because "levels" and "unlocks" I guess.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

About two months ago, I decided to finally check out the Star Wars MMO. I was a huge fan of Knights of the Old Republic, and I had actually played a little bit of the beta for SW:TOR. It was fun enough, and story-heavy, which is a nice change of pace from some of the other MMOs I've played. So I've been playing for a while now, and while the stories are interesting (and unique for each class!), I find that most of my time "playing" the game is simply spent on crafting while I do some other task outside of the game, like watch a TV show or work on a Magic deck. It's like I'm only seeking the regular validation of a successful crew mission, not actually caring about the time spent.

Pattern?

Counter-Strike:Global Offensive

I go through spurts of playing CS:GO a lot or very little. The game recently began a new "Operation," which involves a few new maps, some new weapon skins, and a revival of the mission system that was present in the last operation. The missions require you to complete some task in the game (get 20 kills in deathmatch, win a match on a particular map, etc), and after completing the mission, you receive a reward of some in-game item. These items can be worth anywhere from $0.03 (most often) up to a hundred dollars or more (pretty rare, obviously). So, naturally, I grind out some games here and there to feel like I'm "accomplishing" something.

What the shit, right?

Remember the old days of playing games just because you hadn't beaten them? Or damn, I mean, I've played Mega Man 2 a thousand times, and probably 900 of those times were after I'd beaten the game. I keep playing because the gameplay itself is fun. I don't get any achievements or register any points when I play. I just play.

So much of my gaming these days is in pursuit of small, artificial, unsatisfying goals. I'm not saying I don't like getting achievements; I'm saying I want to want to play the game, not solely want to pursue the achievements.

I have managed to get back to playing "the game" of Star Wars; I'm actually scheduled to regress from "subscriber" to "preferred user" in the next day or so, so actually I'll have fewer options with regards to crew skills and auction houses anyways. It's possible that this artificial barrier, designed to encourage users to re-subscribe, might actually help me play the game I want to play it again.

I have 846 games just on Steam. I've got a dozen more on Origin, maybe 40 on GOG.com, and probably another 30-40 on Xbox 360 (my one console that's set up). There's literally zero chance that there isn't a game in here that will get my blood pumping again. I just have to A) find it, and B) feel like I'm okay with adding a new game to my "rotation." I should feel that way, since as I said, my gaming isn't satisfying me in its current state. But I'm a complicated guy, so you never know.

Balmorra World Boss Destroys My Hard Drive

My brother bought me Star Wars: The Old Republic (obligatory referral link if you're interested, or if you're already a subscriber and you've never designated anyone as a referral) when it came out a couple years ago, and I finally redeemed the code a week ago. It gave me a free month and some other bonuses, so I've been playing it on the regular. It's been pretty good so far; the storyline and quest interaction is miles better than other MMOs I've played, and it's Star Wars, so there's a lot of familiarity between the aliens, the music, the planets, etc. Plus, the space missions have been a lot of fun, and a great change of pace from the rest of the game.

But that's not what this post is about.

So, each world has a "World Boss" roaming somewhere in it. These World Bosses are gigantic creatures (at least they have been in my limited experience). They appear to be engorged versions of creatures that exist on the planet. Well, the other night, I saw in General chat that someone wanted to get a big group together and try to take down that world's boss. I was, of course, totally in on it. I found out later that the group had level 55 guys while I was level 25, so I probably didn't have too much of an impact on the battle, but it was a fun little experience all the same.

Anyways, I knew I had FRAPS running on my computer, and I said to myself, "This might be a fun thing to record." So I hit my little hotkey to start recording just before the battle, and away we went. For posterity, the video of the battle is below:



(Side note: holy crap, my microphone is loud as a mother. Do you guys have to deal with that when I'm streaming? This explains why everyone seemed to leave my streams after five minutes of watching.)

Not crazy exciting, but getting that little achievement pop-up is always a nice feeling. I went back to my side missions to wrap up the planet, and at the end of the night, hit the hay and shut down.

The next afternoon, I logged in to do a little resource gathering, but my machine was running noticeably slower than usual. I had a few Firefox windows open, so I assumed that was the trouble, but it continued to be jittery even after I closed them down. I sent my crew members on long missions and exited the game, then went to take a shower. When I got back into my room, I saw a little notification bubble on the screen. It said, "Low disk space." I checked and sure enough, I was down to a measly 33 MB of free space on my main hard drive. I thought that was odd, but I had recently installed a few games to get their card drops, and hadn't yet uninstalled them, so I assumed that was the trouble. I uninstalled a couple of other games I never play (Planetside 2 and Warframe), and had plenty of hard drive space.
 
Then I remembered the FRAPS video I'd made the night before, and I realized why I had so little disk space. I had never shut off the video recording after the battle. So, FRAPS just kept FRAPSing, recording as much content as it could until it ran out of room on my hard drive. I checked my videos directory, and sure enough, there were 76 gigs of videos there from the night before.

I'll go through them soon enough to check out what might be waiting for me. I assume it's more loud keyboards and boring gameplay, but you never know.