Planetside 2. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.
Majora's mask is my go to favorite game of all time; it's just the best. However, if it weren't for that one, I'd easily say my favorite game of all time is Planetside 2, and that's one very unpopular opinion.
The game is dead, but don't get me wrong, you can still play it. There are still people to play with, you won't have trouble finding battles in-game, but the game is dead. How so? Well when does a game really die? Is it when the plug is finally pulled on the servers, or is it really when all hope of any life being injected back into or flourishing naturally within the game fades? I believe it's the latter.
That's where Planetside 2 is today; there's no hope for it's future. If it isn't already dead, it's at least undead.
It's too bad. Planetside 2 is a great game that's a ton of fun to play. Why didn't it catch on? I think the answer is actually really complicated, but it more or less boils down to the fact that, whereas playing most multiplayer shooters is like dancing, playing Planetside 2 is like surfing.
When you're surfing, you've got to wait for sets, the periods of time where a bunch of larger waves roll in, and in between sets there are lulls, where there really aren't any good waves. Also there are rogue waves sometimes that are just ridiculous, come out of nowhere, and are huge. Maybe Planetside also has those? Whatever, rogue waves are really neat though.
Does this image have anything to do with Planetside? Hmmm... you decide (hint: no)
Planetside 2 is exactly the same. Unlike a game like Battlefield 1 that's even still a combined arms multiplayer shooter, you don't play matches. There is a beginning and end to fights, but it's naturally dictated when either of those points are by the actions of the players. Battles rage and multiple fronts are pushed across the map (there are 4 large maps). From the player's perspective, this plays out as a fight rolling into a washing over a base like a set of waves. For anywhere from five minutes to maybe even an hour, a battle can go on in one place until one side gets enough of the upper hand to push it elsewhere. Once that happens, there's a lull, again just like surfing, where fights die down, players regroup, and some people move on to the next battlefield. It's an open-world Battlefield game, doesn't that sound fun? Doesn't that sound immersive?
Well it is, and that's the problem. With that immersion comes the responsibility to handle these extra systems lest they handle you, unlike other games where they are handled for you. Again, just like surfing, Planetside 2 requires a certain mindset to really be fun. Most shooters these days are designed to give you a straight up dopamine release. You kill a man, a sound plays (think the ching! noise you hear whenever you get a kill in Battlefield 1), and your brain, which has been taught through Pavlovian conditioning to value that sound, floods with dopamine. It's easy, but it's also really sick (and not in the surfer lingo way) but that's just how it works.
Surfing certainly isn't that easy. If you have ever surfed I'm sure you immediately understand. In reality the experience of surfing isn't like how it's portrayed in Lilo and Stitch or Point Break. It's not some immediately, constantly, and consistently fulfilling spiritual experience, it's only that way once two things happen: you git gud, and you get you philosophy sorted out. It's the same way in Planetside. Without the tightly structured and arbitrarily designed battles made to make you feel happy, you're left on your own to get something out of the experience of fighting as one soldier. Often the game won't help you with that, especially when you're losing. A lot of players will be stuck on the losing side and they'll just be depressed about it. They're running into the front over and over again dying to the same dudes and getting nothing done. The thing is, these noob players don't understand that this is Planetside, you don't have to keep your mind in "run to fight, kill man, repeat" mode all the time. You can switch to an infiltrator and flank the enemy, switch to a light assault and blow up their spawn point, or even just leave for another battle.
neat!
Because it's so much more of an immersive experience, gameplay-wise, Planetside leaves a lot of higher concepts up to you that aren't even a thing in other games like determining whether or not you should stay fighting in a losing battle, figuring out where a front is moving, and deciding what kind of soldier you want to play as. All of this is made a lot harder when you suck at the game, and there's really no cure for that aside from gitting gud.
So again, like surfing, it's not going to be a fun time unless you're in the right mind and can actually catch any waves, and sometimes the waves will even just suck.
Well that's not going to get anyone hyped about Planetside.
But I've rattled on long enough. If you've read all this and it sounds like a really interesting game, it's because it is. Planetside's the Metal Gear Solid V (open-world, lots or freedom to choose how you do battle, but also lots of responsibility to choose how you do battle) to multiplayer shooters' Metal Gear Solid IV (linear, way less freedom to choose, almost no responsibility to choose how you do battle). I hope you've at least got a better understanding of why it's often not really Planetside's fault when players find that they don't enjoy playing it. It's really their own fault, just like in surfing, and that's hard to take. But also just like surfing, playing Planetside 2 is an experience that's really rewarding in a really unique way.
And here's that old Planetside 2 trailer. The game is almost nothing like this, but it's a great trailer! (also it makes me yearn for a true successor to Planetside 2, which probably won't be Planetside 3 at this point)
Let me paint a picture for you. On one side of my screen I've got this window open and I'm writing this blog post. On the other side of my screen I've got the MCU Wikipedia page open and we're gonna go through it.
Settle in.
I'm a big fan of the Marvel movies and I think it's crazy where the MCU is now. Back in 2007, Iron Man was definitely one of the most important Marvel characters, definitely not undoubtedly THE most important Marvel character, and certainly not the sort of character off of which a small movie studio (soon to be acquired by Disney) could launch a ten year, twenty movie, over $12 billion franchise.
But now, the Marvel movies kind of dominate the world of entertainment, rightfully so, and we're all just so lucky that this even happened. So to celebrate this craziness, here's my list of the Marvel movies from worst to best.
Behold! The ugliest Hulk ever!
The Incredible Hulk - Unequivocally the worst MCU movie. It's bad all on its own and while most MCU films weave together to form a cinematic tapestry the likes of which has never been created in ANY medium, The Incredible Hulk's minuscule contributions to the greater MCU story can be counted on basically one hand and they all suck.
A poster that's better than the movie! And not even a great poster...
Thor: The Dark World - To put into perspective how bad Thor: The Dark World is, the director of the movie, Alan Taylor, went on to direct Terminator Genisys. This movie is a pain to watch, and it really doesn't make any sense. The world ending scale of the events in the plot do not match up with the scale of the action that actually goes down (small) or the level of investment the audience feels with anything happening on screen (none).
Why did I choose this picture? That goofy-ass face.
Thor - To put into perspective how GOOD the MCU is in general, with just two movies out of the way, we're into the movies that are good. Thor is good. I really like the Frost Giant stuff is really neat, and Thor's interactions with Odin and Loki are really great. Notable Shakespearean actor/director, Kenneth Branagh, directed this one and I think it really shows in the scenes that are, well Shakespearean (those ones where Thor, Loki, and Odin are hamming it up).
I was really looking forward to this one...
Black Panther - So, there was a version of this blurb that went into a lot more detail on this one. Instead, in my opinion, it's an overrated entry whose reviews were really skewed by social factors that had nothing to do with the actual film. It's got a lot of plot problems, at least to the same degree as Thor: The Dark World. What Dark World doesn't have though is a crazy social meta-narrative like the one with Black Panther, and that honestly does add a lot to the film as a whole. Taken as a film on just its own merits though, while it's good, It's not as good as Iron Man 2, for example.
It was really cool to see so many Iron Man suits at the time.
Iron Man 2 - Often cited as one of the worst MCU films, Iron Man 2 is in fact one of the worst MCU films. Might seem like I wrote that sentence wrong, but I didn't. Iron Man 2 is technically one of the worst MCU films, but only because there are so many others that are really good. The part where people are wrong is in implying that Iron Man 2 is a bad film in general. It's actually another really fun entry in the universe and it sets up a lot of neat stuff, like Black Widow, War Machine, more Avengers stuff, and it even has a cameo from everyone's favorite messiah, Elon Musk.
Not as good as you remember.
Guardians of the Galaxy - This one is usually ranked a lot higher on other people's lists. I've rewatched Guardians of the Galaxy recently though and it doesn't really hold up to the "OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING" levels of hype it debuted to. I do like the color and tone of the film though. It's easy to take it for granted now that there have been at least five other films like it, all bright, saturated, and funny, but that all really got kicked off by Guardians. I think the movie is at its best when Star Lord is doing his thing, it could really just be a Star Lord movie, because a lot of the other characters kind of drag it down, at least compared to Star Lord.
Pictured: dirt, and Ant-Man.
Ant-Man - I really liked Ant-Man, what can I say? It was definitely the funniest MCU movie until Ragnarok came out and blew everything else away. Now? Well now it's just a fun self-contained story that fits in really well with the rest of the entire MCU as filler, more or less, but really good filler.
Better than you remember.
Captain America: The First Avenger - This one is often cited as the most underrated MCU film. If it's said to be underrated that often though, is it really that underrated? I'll say that it's just pretty damn good. Captain America: The First Avenger stands apart from the rest of the MCU films in a lot of ways. It isn't like the other Captain America films. It isn't at all like the Thor, Guardians, or Iron Man films. It's unique, and in a good way.
I always thought Black widow looked ridiculous in this poster. I mean she looks good, but damn.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - This one's overrated, BUT it's also really good. That right there is a tough concept with no good word or phrase in English; overrated, but actually good. Like Interstellar, but not like The Dark Knight, which is overrated, but even BETTER than people think it is. Anyways, The Winter Soldier was a much needed grounding of the MCU. It's pretty well paced, and yet it manages to tell a whole lot of small character stories and drop a MASSIVE MCU story twist in the middle of what should just be a side story. It's a good example of an MCU film that tells its own story while really enhancing the rest of the universe.
Asgardians of the Galaxy...
Thor: Ragnarok - I have no idea where to put this one, that's why I slapped it between The Winter Soldier and Homecoming. It belongs around here on the list, but several good cases could be made that it deserves to be in a couple different spots up or down from here. What can in arguably be stated about Ragnarok is that it's hilarious. Is the plot any good? It's good, but only okay good. Really the humor and general flawless presentation of Ragnarok buoys it up to this section of the list. It's not director Taika Waititi's best work (that'd be Hunt for the Wilderpeople), but it is the best Thor movie.
Spider-Man: Homecoming - I'm not really sure if Spider-Man: Homecoming is better than the Winter Soldier; it probably isn't, to be honest. However, I really enjoyed it and I think it tells a great story. It's the third first Spider-Man movie, and yet it tells a story where you really can't go ahead and know from ten minutes in where everything is headed. Of course, that's probably because it has SIX different writers, but that's probably because Marvel is probably trying very hard to set up Spider-Man to lead the MCU going into the future, probably. Heck, I'm on board!
This is an action figure! Or is it a figurine? Is there a difference? Is it just a model?
Doctor Strange - I've got this ranked this high because of the Dormammu I've come to bargain scene. Everyone loves that scene. What everyone forgets is that the rest of the movie is really good too, in fact it's REALLY good. Doctor Strange does what Ant-Man does just slightly better I think, that being the self-contained Marvel story within the MCU. I'm really excited to see what else is done with Doctor Strange in the MCU. This is definitely one of the films I've placed in the wrong location on the list, but heck, some of these have to be controversial!
I remember being so hyped for all the pieces of this poster to be revealed at Comic-Con
Avengers: Age of Ultron - Oh no, not this controversial! (Lets be honest though, placing Black Panther essentially on the bottom was the most controversial thing I did) Age of Ultron gets a bad rap. Sure, it isn't as good as Avengers 1, but it's still a really fun Avengers movie. All your favorite characters are in it doing their things and while the plot may be a bit all over the place, the nature of the movie kind of allows that to be forgiven. We already know all the characters, we already know they're flying all over the world, we already expect that they'll argue a bit but come together in the end to defeat the bad guy. This is a good movie and a GREAT MCU film.
A good background, but I'm pretty sure you don't see anything like this in the movie
Iron Man 3 - Here's yet another one people routinely underrate. Maybe I should have just listed these all in the generally accepted order and then just made my case for whether they are over or underrated instead of writing these blurbs. Anyways, Shane Black's Iron Man 3 has some of the best character work in the MCU. Tony Stark is great in it, and so are all the other characters (except the kid, keep the kids of the screen please). There's a lot to say about Iron Man 3, but I think the most important thing to say is just go see it again, you probably haven't in a while, and I think you'd like it.
TANK MISSILE!
Iron Man - Do I need to justify having this here, near the top of the list? Not at all. Iron Man is a modern classic. Nuff said.
Definitely one of the best posters ever made.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Here's one that's really grown on me. Sequels in the MCU are kind of hit or miss (guess that's why they've really backed off making straight sequels) but this is undoubtedly a home run. Everything you love from Guardians of the Galaxy is back, but better, and there's a whole slew of side stories and new or greatly expanded characters that make this one of the greatest comic book movies ever made, and just great time in general.
Just a great movie!
Marvel's The Avengers - This one's legendary. Beyond that, it's fantastic (oh god, I just remembered Fan4stic, let's just move on!). When I left the theater after first seeing Avengers, I thought to myself, "If I could have known, before seeing this movie, how jazzed I would be about having seen it, as I am now that I have seen it, I would have gladly paid 100 bucks to see it." (now there's a grammatically complex sentence!) In other words, it was a movie-watching experience worth ten times the price of admission. Today, not so much, only because I've seen it so many times since. But every time I catch a piece of it on TV I end up watching a big ol' chunk, same goes for those clips you can find on YouTube. I find myself watching most of the good parts of this dang movie in pieces on YouTube every few months because it's just that good.
A REALLY great movie!
Captain America: Civil War - The best MCU film. There is no other choice. No other film has a villain as great, a plot as cool, characters as deep. The Russo brothers really knocked this one out of the park and I CANNOT WAIT for Infinity War because if it's half as good as Civil War, it'll at least be as good as The Winter Soldier. Civil War isn't just the best MCU film though, it's a great film all on it's own. I hesitate to say that it's the best film on it's own of all the MCU films, that might be Iron Man or Guardians 2, but it's absolutely the best the MCU has to offer, if that makes any sense.
Well that's it for the MCU films as of March, 2018. Did you agree with the list? Do you think I really am just a secret racist for not jerking off Black Panther? What about Doctor Strange? I put that one above Winter Soldier, how could that be right? Well there is no right or wrong here, just opinions. Leave your opinion in the comments below and here's a trailer for Infinity War to get you pumped for the future of the MCU (if you're reading this after Infinity War, or even later, I'm jealous).
English professors like to try to spruce up their classes with junk like video projects. I don't know why, English is a cool enough thing in and of itself. In fact, if I were a college professor, I think I'd like to be an English professor. Heck, I already have all sorts of wack pet theories about how the English language accumulates the wisdom of its users and that this trove of knowledge can be accessed by interpreting the origin and use of words; that's a thesis paper topic right there. That's the sort of stuff I'd like to be discussing in English class (though maybe that stuff would be in a linguistics class, if that's a thing). What I don't want to be learning in English class is how to make a video presentation in iMovie, for the fourth time.
Pictured: Me, in a metaphorical sense, learning the basics of iMovie for the fourth time in an English class
You might know that I have a YouTube channel. It's nothing too special, but I'm at least proud of a handful of the videos I've put there. How do I have a YouTube channel? Well, they're free. But, how can I make the videos that I put there? Well, I'm pretty damn good at making videos and editing them up in Adobe Premiere. I've been doing that for like 10 years at this point. Obviously, I'm no pro, but I'm definitely not so much of a newbie that an introductory 2 hour class on iMovie will teach me anything I don't already know!!
I'm probably beating around the bush too much; let me tell you what the situation is literally right now as I type this blog post in class. For the past two class periods in this English class, a man from the library has given us a tutorial on how to put together a baby's first video sort of project in iMovie. This would be no big deal if you're the average student who has probably only ever mooched off of a friend like me to edit their Spanish video project (what's up with language classes and video projects?). But for me, the friend who DOES know how to edit video, these kinds of class periods are torture.
When I tell people this, I usually get the same response: "Eric, you're great at making movies, that class sounds like fun!" Oh yeah, Mom, well how fun would it be for Michelangelo to be subjected to a beginners sculpture tutorial? How fun would it be for Elon Musk to have to sit through a 4 hour presentation on the basics of rocketry? It sounds like NOT fun. I'm neither Elon Musk nor Michelangelo when it comes to editing video content, but I'll tell you what, I'm getting about the same value out of theses iMovie classes as those guys would get out of those other beginner classes, which is to say NO VALUE.
I've taken an actual cinematography class. I've taken a video art class. I've taken an animation class. I made video projects for English, Spanish, and science classes before college. I've got this damn YouTube channel that I've been running for two years with like 150 videos on it. I've taught myself Premiere, had now literally FOUR classes teach me how to make junk in iMovie, and I even had to learn Avid and After Affects at one point. I've got a lot of experience with this video editing stuff man, I don't need this fourth walkthrough on how to import media to iMovie.
Luckily, it's now 4:51, this class ends in only like 30 minutes, and I can probably even reasonably leave a few minutes before that. My torture will end soon enough. I guess I still haven't really answered why I wouldn't just get started on the video now. It may be torture to sit through the tutorial, but this lab time to work on the actual video should at least be productive, right? Well... the professor has—for some unknown reason—scheduled this iMovie tutorial and lab time two weeks before the paper we're actually making a presentation for is even due. I don't think anyone in the class, certainly not me, has even started on the thing, so how are we supposed to make a video presenting it now? It's madness!
UPDATE: Between the last paragraph and this one I've wasted 20 minutes, it's now 5:11 and just about time to go home! Woohoo!
Well anyways, here's a video I made a couple months ago about God Hand, which is a great game made by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) and the now defunct Clover Studio (Viewtiful Joe, Okami, they basically were reborn as PlatinumGames):
