Tuesday, November 9, 2010

"The Big Picture"

And here we are. The innaugural episode is about "Halo."

12 comments:

Drake Sigar said...

Oh dear. Blue eyes indeed!

Well it's not quite the Halo bashfest we all expected, though I guess at this stage you'd just be repeating yourself. Twas an interesting first show, I'll keep following it.

Smashmatt202 said...

You certainly know how to get people's attention. :P

I haven't watched it yet, but at least now, we'll get more insight about your "hatred" or perhaps "indifference" on Halo.

Unknown said...

I must admit I was looking forward to this video and at first was worried this would just be you repeating yourself. Glad I was wrong.

I'm sad to say I do play these games, but I find no joy in the story. In fact, the Covenant are the only part I find interesting . . . also the jetpacks.

The Karligarchy said...

Very Good! Never thought of Halo that way but... good point... I did watch your FPS video right before The Big Picture and I think the mechanic of FPS requires interesting and diverse enemies because you actually see them while you only really see the protagonists hands.

There are interesting parallels in the realm of homogeneous vs. multiethnic societies regarding Halo that I will now share. The Covenant resembles, in its make up, old Islamic empires in so far as diverse peoples were conquered, tolerated and incorporated into the society assuming they converted to Islam. Interesting how that manifests itself with the current political back drop. Also it is stated (I think in the Halo 2 instruction manual) that the Covenant are on a religious Jihad against humanity.

I had some stuff to say about World War 2 and the Germans and the Japanese but, essentially towards the end of the war both sides dreamed of creating a super weapon that would, with its vastly superior quality, nullify the numerical superiority of the allies. For the Japanese the battleships Yamato and Musashi, for the Germans Tiger and King Tiger tanks are only a few examples. The eyes turning blue bit is pretty damning. The narrative of Halo Reach seems very similar to that of hopeful Axis powers in the final years of the war. Blue eyed super soldiers, only at the eleventh hour, are able to turn the tides on the vastly more numerous multiethnic hordes knocking on the homelands door.

Probably not at all the intent at Bungie but its just too easy to draw (and fun) to find these parallels.

Mortrialus said...

Very good. I have to compliment the lounge jazz music. Its a nice touch.

Unknown said...

Congrats on the new show. I hope this is a continuation of you becoming a full time professional Internet critic of sorts.

It's all good news for me since it all results in more content for me from one of my favorite Z-list Internet celebrities :)

Renan Greca said...

I think Halo would've been awesome in third person. It has such an interesting world that just seems limited because of the perspective. When I look at those Reach videos, I think "hey, that looks cool!", but then I remember you spend the whole game looking at a gun instead of all that diversity.

imsmart said...

Reminds me of how the black-haired Saiyans from DBZ unlock their greatest potential by turning blond and blue-eyed. I tend to defend it but deep down I'm fully aware it's a little screwy, though I love the story too much to meaningfully confront the issue. Maybe Halo Combat Evolved fans are the same.

Smashmatt202 said...

HOLY GOSH-DARN-GOSH, HOW COULD I NOT REALIZE THAT?!

...Then again, Dragon Ball is Japanese and we all know how messed up Japan is in the racial department.

Rusty said...

I didn't feel like making an Escapist Mag account just to comment on your vids so I thought I'd come back here to do so.

For a show entitled "The Big Picture" your two shows on the shuttle program and spidey x Mephisto seem terribly narrowminded and whiny.

"I know how incredibly wasteful and pointless the shuttle program is, but I want to stick around anyway, to keep my fantasies of living out scenes from TNG alive." Is basically what I got out of your vid. I'm not even on the "Would someone please think of the children" team, I just think its horrendously impractical for the national government to bear the weight, financially and time-wise, of this project that has beared so little in reward or potential conclusion.

The spidey vid doesn't seem as bad if I take it as an overall joke, but i think you're being serious in it. "Comics are just weird" as the *main reason why non-readers don't go and pick up trade is just too simplified for me to take seriously. You're point is that comics are too isolating, and I get that, but there are may more things involved in making comics an incestuous place than the story lines being weird: Marketing, no new characters and the homogenous look of the characters that are there, to be some i consider as important as the wtf storylines.

So yeah. Thats me on those two vids. I enjoyed the first one a lot though.

James Simpson said...
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