Comparing All Four Versions Of A Star Is Born

There are four movies called A Star is Born, all roughly following the same plot (here be spoilers):

An aging, alcoholic, male entertainer is just beginning to exceed the tolerance people allow him for his talent with the ridicule and distress he engenders with his destructive, obnoxious antics. Just at this time, he hears or sees a young woman with talent languishing in a small-time position and takes it upon himself to short-list her into fame and fortune. She initially resists, but falls for him and takes the opportunity. She becomes absorbed into the soulless hit-making factory of Hollywood and becomes wildly successful,, while the world turns away from him. They marry and move in together. He runs out of opportunities and people call him a has-been, in so many words; he even ends up taking phone calls or interview requests for her from people who don't even know him. She wins an award (Oscar or Grammy) and he shows up late to the ceremony and interrupts her speech with some kind of drunken scandalous antic. She asks her manager to give him some pity opportunities; he turns them down. She resolves (more or less) to quit the business in order to live a smaller life with him, since she realizes that he can't handle the situation as is (with her being successful and him not), but he discovers this and decides to kill himself in order to prevent this. She spends some time in self-pity. In the end, she publicly performs or says something to acknowledge his importance to her.

1937: Leads are Esther Victoria Blodgett aka Vivki Lester (Janet Gaynor) and Norman Maine (Fredric March). This is a fine film, although very much a period piece of the time it was made, so there are some rushed dialog, odd pauses, harsh sound, and bad lighting. The plot is well-paced and scripted. The actors are both likeable. The main actors recite some of their speeches woodenly but passionately at the camera (or just off to the left) and there are some hysterics. Everyone else talks like a 1930s gangster.

In this version, the main characters are actors. Esther starts on a farm and travels to Hollywood but meets rejection. Norman gets her into his pictures when he sees her waitressing. Someone directly and quite rudely tells Norman that he is washed up. Norman punches him, so Vicki has to bail Norman out of the police station. Norman overhears Vicki planning to give up her career, so Norman walks into the ocean  Vicki ends the movie by looking at the camera and calling herself Mrs. Norman Maine.

This is a fine and memorable movie, worthy of being redone.

1954: 17 years later. Esther Blodgett aka Vicki Lester (Judy Garland) and Norman Maine (James Mason). In this version, the main characters are actors / vaudeville performers singes and dancers. Norman finds Esther singing in a nightclub. The movie is punctuated with several musical performances that, I suppose, were entertaining to audiences of the 1950s. Anyway, they look a lot like bad musicals from that era, like the Road movies and so forth.

I have a hard time conveying the contempt I have for this film. It's mostly in two parts.

Firstly, the acting is always fairly terrible, but sometimes it rises to the level of horrifically terrible. The actors stare at the screen in horror with long pauses, bite their knuckles, fling themselves onto furniture, and weep or shout like idiots.

But mostly, James Mason's Norman grabs, yanks, hurls, pushes, interrupts, orders, and otherwise abuses Judy Garland's Esther throughout the whole movie, yet the movie conveys this as rough but charming. It's sickening. By the time she falls in love with Norman, he has done nothing but pull her through doors, push her into cars and rooms, and otherwise abuse her, but all she can think of is how he takes her breath away (duh, by never letting her think or talk). Most of the abuse comes from Norman, but some of it comes from other people, too. She is a rag doll. It's jaw-droppingly painful to watch. The very little agency she has in the film is to sing and dance, or to wail and cry over how sad it is that she can't do anything for Norman ("She can't! She can't! She can't! Ohhhhh aaahhhh aaahhhh!")

Norman overhears the fateful conversation and is (overacting) horrified and drowns himself. After getting yelled out and yanked by a few more people, Vicki ends the movie by looking at the camera and calling herself Mrs. Norman Maine. And then ...

1976: 22 years later. Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streisand) and John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson). This movie is thankfully a step up from the previous one. It's diverges a bit from the others as to how it fills in the plot scenes. The main characters are now singers. The movie starts with a big crowd and drunken stage performance.

They took the main outline of the plot and decided that everyone already knows it, so the movie is about 50% plot and 50% Barbra and Kris being playful and making love. It's very 1970s, not only the hair styles and crowd scenes, motorcycle and car driving, but with the casual flashes of nudity and almost relaxed attitude toward infidelity (it's an insult, but apparently an easily forgivable one). And now we have cocaine, not just alcohol.

The result is somewhat loosely plotted and kind of boring. We skip all the scenes of how she turns into a star (she just does, in a 2 minute montage), we skip her changing her name (she pooh-poohs that idea after being asked by a reporter), we skip the courtroom bailout scene, and we skip most of the conversation that is supposed to lead to his death. She yells at him once for sleeping around, saying that she doesn't want him to drag her down, and he races off into the desert and dies (whether by accident or deliberately is left a bit vague). She ends the movie by singling another song, no name assertion.

It's not only that neither of the main characters are likeable. It's that they don't have much in the way of character to like or to not like. John is kind of sympathetic. Esther is kind of ... well, she's just Barbra Streisand.

But Barbra can sing, and she sings fine. So fine that you kind of wonder how it is that she was languishing in obscurity to begin with.

This is not worth watching, but the soundtrack is lovely. And then ...

2018: 38 years later. Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper). The main characters are singers. The movie starts pretty similarly to the 1973 one (with better camera-work and sound), but the alcoholism is more subtle.

This one is, by far, the best one, with incredible performances, scripting, directing, and shooting. The music is amazing, and Lady Gaga is a great singer (okay, Barbra was better, but that's a given for just about anyone). Possibly the only issue I have is the rushed scenes leading up to his decision to kill himself. Ally only half-heartedly tries to throw Jackson some pity-bones (she says one quick sentence about not go on tour without him). The scene that struck me as most wrong was that someone flat out says to Jackson that he is a drag on her career and should disappear, rather than him overhearing it (like he does in the first two movies). It's not that this couldn't or wouldn't happen, it's just a less sympathetic way to depict it happening.

Jackson hangs himself instead of drowning. And Ally ends by introducing herself as Ally Maine, and then she sings a final song while she looks directly into the camera.

Bradley and Lady, as well as everyone else, do a great job of pacing and acting. They are likeable and tragic. The songs are pretty great, too. And the story is, apparently, timeless.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey | Review, Trailer, Gameplay | Pro-GamersArena

Quick Facts :

• Initial release date: 5 October 2018
• Series: Assassin's Creed
• Developer: Ubisoft Quebec
• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
• Genres: Action role-playing game, Stealth game.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is just about to release. The game trailer has a great deal of constructive responses from individuals. What's more, such a couple of days from the arrival of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Ubisoft has discharged the official dispatch trailer for the activity RPG. For past trailers, Ubisoft either made two varieties to feature the amusement's two heroes - like the Gamescom realistic trailer or included the two characters in a single video. In any case, this time it's unique. 

For the release trailer, Ubisoft generally centered around Alexios and his development from a youthful youngster into an unbelievable Spartan warrior. The trailer flashes through the conceivable arrangements that you'll have the capacity to use to determine the contentions you'll look in Odyssey, for example, utilizing a bolt storm against moving toward watchmen or indicating sympathy towards somebody who's sincerely battling.

Like Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey dives into the most punctual clashes between the people that would in the end move both the Templar Order and Assassin Brotherhood. Be that as it may, without precedent for the establishment, you have the decision between two characters to play as, Alexios and Kassandra. Regardless of who you pick, you'll be given a similar generally story, exchange decisions, sentimental choices, and side journeys. 

What About The Gameplay?

Following a short cutscene you will be promptly requested to pick between two characters: Kassandra or Alexios, relatives of the scandalous Leonidas. Once your decision is made, you'll be dropped into 431 BCE. 

Here's the place your first taste of battle comes in. The center segments are to a great extent unaltered from Origins as you bolt onto foes and perform assaults utilizing the shoulder catches. Battle is available and genuinely lenient, albeit larger amount adversaries won't be reluctant to squander you in two or three hits (Not for my situation, 😜😜). 

The majority of encounters can be outperformed effortlessly. That is, insofar as you aren't imprudent. One of the principal moves you're educated is the repel. Accomplished by squeezing RB+LB, when utilized at the opportune time it leaves foes powerless against assault. I discovered this basic when managing which enemies whose watch wasn't effectively broken, which means I'd need to consider unheard of options to get a few slices in (where i mostly fail, 😝).

Avoiding is additionally vital, and doing as such seconds previously an assault results in a couple of valuable seconds of moderate movement, giving the ideal chance to strike. Everything feels astounding, regardless of whether early gear leaves a great deal to be wanted, doesn't make a difference around then. 

Dialogues are now a pervasive piece of Assassin's Creed, advising how you'll approach missions and connections all through Ancient Greece. This additionally stretches out to connections, with both Kassandra and Alexios ready to handbag sentimental undertakings of any gender. I worship this portrayal in such a blockbuster title, giving players a chance to be spoken to in a medium that is yet to really grasp inclusivity. 

It isn't nosy either, surfacing as discretionary discourse alternatives all through my few hours with Odyssey up until now. It's as yet vague to what expand picked exchange will affect the general plot or on the off chance that it'll just have a say in side missions, however even without this present it's as yet a long ways from the conventional structure past games received. Voice acting is tragically a blended pack outside of the primary cast, in spite of the fact that this could enhance sometime later. 

Ancient Greece is absurdly colossal. Comprised of many islands of changing sizes, you'll investigate the universe of Assassin's Creed by foot, steed and vessel. The last will be utilized to swap between island.

Trailer Impression :

I'll let you to decide this. Here's the trailer below, you can watch it and tell me in the comment box, what you think of it?

About Pre-Order :

You can pre-order Assassin's Creed Odyssey at best price from here. Just click on the Buy button.

Idle Meeples Are The Devil'S Tool

There are a ridiculous number of worker placement games out there, so it's unusual when one comes along that has something innovative about it.

Most worker placement games follow the same basic pattern: players are given a number of workers (usually four or five) and take turns placing them on spots on the board that give the player game advantages or resources. Once every player has placed all their workers, the board is cleared, the workers are reclaimed, and a new round of placement begins.

Architects of the West Kingdom, designed by Shem Phillips (of Raiders of the North Sea fame) does things a little differently. While unmistakably a worker placement game, with a lot of the same game elements (placing workers to achieve game effects), Architects does away with the round structure, instead making reclaiming workers one of the available actions in the game.

It may seem like a small thing, but its a huge shift in the way worker placement games are played. In addition to the normal concerns of gathering resources and spending them to put building cards into play, players must now look at their available pool of workers, and when it's the best time to either reclaim their workers from the board, or from the prison space where they can sometimes end up.

The prison space helps the players cultivate a sense of urgency. Various game effects will send your workers to prison, and at certain points during the game, whoever has the most imprisoned workers has to take a debt card, which causes point loss if it isn't paid off by the end of the game.

This brings us to the other interesting thing about Architects: the idea of virtue. The game board includes a virtue track that players will move up and down on, depending on their actions during the game. Being low on the virtue track has certain advantages (such as not having to pay taxes, which makes a lot of the in-game purchases cheaper), but also causes a loss of points at the end of the game. So manipulating your position on the track to your best advantages adds another strategic layer of the game.

It's a terrific game with a lot going on in spite of the relatively simple rules, with several different paths to victory and quite a bit more interaction between players than you normally see in games of this type.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) Shem Phillips knocks it out of the park again. Anyone who likes worker placement games should love this one.

• Architects of the West Kingdom official website
• Architects of the West Kingdom on BoardGameGeek

UCLan’s cJAM Media Event, Friday 22 November

The games design course was excited to take part in cJAM: Media last week!
The event that enables our talented students to meet face-to-face with senior industry professionals, to share ideas, make connections and pitch for opportunities.
cJAM events are hosted by the Faculty of Culture and the Creative Industries and the objective is to give our students the opportunity to win placements that will help launch their careers.

The day included:
FREE breakfast and lunch

Giant speed pitching session

Chance to win industry placements

Industry guest speakers

Industry Q&A panel

Networking throughout.

We were so proud to welcome our Alumni, Saija Wintersun, now Senior Environment Artist at Rebellion, Oxford.
Saija spent much of the day reviewing student portfolios and offering her expert advice.

The Creative Innovation Zone in UCLan's Media Factory was buzzing with conversation as hundreds of students queued for 'speed dating' style interviews with their industry heroes and mentors.

See details of the programme HERE.

Tania Callagher, UCLan Resources Co-ordinator and Richard Albiston, Creative Producer of The Great Northern Creative Expo, must be given utmost credit for arranging this inspiring and exhuberent event which led to 88 placements being awarded to Media students.

The End Of Familiarity (Tradecraft)

When you walk into my store and look to the right, the designated direction Americans gaze when entering a store, you'll find a plethora of familiar game titles. Monopoly, Yahtzee, Scrabble, all the usual suspects. This is what is known as a "merchandising expense," games I stock that I would rather not, that indicate to the uninitiated that I am a safe place with things they are familiar with. This is a game store with games, you know, game games, as one customer recently described it. This practice is now coming to an end.

Here's how that works. First, hobby games have penetrated the mass market and they've been there now for a good, long time. Unless you're living under a rock, if you've been to Target and WalMart in the last decade and care even an inkling about games, enough to roll your red or blue cart past them, you've seen Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and other former hobby game store exclusive titles.

These titles have declined for us significantly since their introduction in mass market, with the promise they are gateways to good times for us later. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not, but board games are booming. These titles are now familiar to consumers. They've become evergreens on the shelf of mass market stores. This means hobby game stores don't need to work as hard with our garbage merchandising expenses to show familiarity. Chess sets and Hasborg products can be dropped, if you feel your community have these touchstones in their lives. And what community doesn't?

Second, even if I don't have this market penetration that breeds familiarity, there are now enough regular folks who play hobby games to where I need the space taken up by oversized merchandising inventory. I may lose the completely out of touch customer, but my overall base is so much larger than a decade ago, I can afford it. What I can't afford to do is stock quaint product for muggles when I've got educated consumers flocking to my business and demanding games now. They will just as easily, and without a moment of regret, buy it online, so it better be there now.

In general, if you don't know or are frightened by products like Dungeons & Dragons, Ticket to Ride, Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering, you are simply not worth any of my time whatsoever. Through mass market stores and the Internet, the public has been converted from suspects to prospects. In fact, it has turned many from prospects to customers, bypassing hobby game stores completely. I am at the tail end of this equation, taking in what I can of a cultural shift, in which a hurricane of customers have been created and I'm trying to fill up a thimble, arm outstretched into the clouds, while dying of thirst. As with all revolutions, you never know exactly your place in it until shots are fired.

Games in my parents guest room. One of these things is not like the other.

Three High-Quality 1080P Game Boy "Consolizing" Solutions Compared

For some reasons, probably strange, many people like to play Game Boy or Game Boy Color games outside their portable confines.  One reason is that the games are good but the original screens for these devices are terrible to look at by modern standards.  Nintendo has on certain occasions tried to satisfy the need to play portable games as though they were home console games, but those solutions are old.  Pure software emulation can easily take the GB to 1080p and beyond, but software is wholly divorced from original hardware.  There are software emulators with dumping cartridge slots like the RetroN 5 and Retro Freak, but they are only 720p solutions.  A promising new mod called the GBA Consolizer is an FPGA-based upscaling solution for the Game Boy Advance but is limited to 720p output.  There was a mod called the HDMYBoy a few years ago but it never got beyond a few prototype units.  For this blog article, I will focus on hardware-based solutions which I have some ability to experience personally and can deliver a 1080p experience.

Read more »

You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

DE: A Different Take On Wyches

I mean sure, why not?  Let's give these girls another try.

Maybe I have been going after this all wrong.  I've been thinking to myself for a while now:  How do I get Wyches into my army while still being effective.  Well, maybe with Succubi down to 54 points with an Agonizer, it's time to start bringing more HQs, in general, to make up for this loss?  What about Wyches?  Should I go big or go small with them?  If I go big with them, they certainly take advantage of their Obsession bonuses and Combat Drugs more, but they lose out on their ability to be easily transported by Raiders.  I feel that's a big loss because you need something that can reposition them when they need to around the battlefield without exposing them to enemy fire.

The more I think about it, the more I want to try MSU Wyches instead of running larger units of them.  My reasoning is this:

• What do they really gain after they pass their min units really?  There's definitely more bodies to soak up during Overwatch, but that's about it.  It's only when they get to 10 do they get to take additional Wych weapons.  However, if you take 10, you can't really fit more in the Raider now, can you?
• If you keep them in min units, not only do you fill out your Troop choices easier, but you can take more Agonizers and Blast Pistols in a squad.  For example, you can run 2x5 and get double the amount of Agonizers and Blast Pistols.  The only downside is that your drugs are going to be more dispersed.
• For smaller units, it's really the HQs that do the most heavy lifting.  I guess you should start asking yourself what are you really using Wyches for?  IMO, the more competitive lists can kill MEQ just fine by shooting them to death, so what are you doing with them?  At this stage, I think we're just styling.

I think that kinda settles it:  I don't think Wych units are all that competitive, but they're not terrible either.  Reavers are some of the best units in the codex I think, but the Wyches themselves are decent at best.  Regardless, I think you can take a setup that is cheap enough, especially from an HQ perspective, that you can afford to take a Battalion for them if you're planning to use them in the first place.

Quick note:  I think Strife and Red Grief are the best for this.  They both have really nice Warlord Traits.  Strife gives you Blood Dancer and the 9-attack Succubus build with the Whip, whereas the Blood Glaive is just a fantastic weapon to have.  In general, I see +1A is very useful all around, especially with Agonizers because Strength doesn't matter for it and neither do Blast Pistols.  As always, I think anything that can Advance and Charge and re-roll the results of both after T2+ is just amazing.  I am definitely more inclined to take these two cults over Cursed Blade.

This is what I mean:

1990 // 10 CP
Black Heart Battalion +3 CP

HQ:
Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91
Warlord Trait: Cunning

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91

TROOP:
10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

10x Warriors, 2x Blaster, Dark Lance = 114
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
199

PARTY BUS:
Raider, Dark Lance = 85
Raider, Dark Lance = 85

+++

Black Heart Spearhead +1 CP

HQ:
Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91

FLYER:
Razorwing, 2x Dark Lance = 145
Razorwing, 2x Dark Lance = 145

HEAVY:
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125
Ravager, 3x Dinsintegrators = 125

+++

Strife Battalion +3 CP

HQ:
Succubus, Adrenalight, Whip = 54
Warlord Trait: Blood Dancer

Succubus, Painbringer, Agonizer = 54

TROOP:
5x Wyches, Agonizer, BP, Shardnet = 59
5x Wyches, Agonizer, BP, Shardnet = 59
5x Wyches, Agonizer, BP, Shardnet = 59

>>>

Firepower:
12 Dark Lances at BS3+
9 Disintegrators at BS3+
6 Blasters at BS3+
3 Blasters at BS2+
3 Blast Pistols at BS3+
2 Razorwing Missiles at BS3+
25 Splinter Rifles at BS3+

Face it:  There's nothing that this list can do that the pure Kabal list can't do from a pure damage perspective.  Killing things at range is satisfying for sure, but killing them in close combat with some of the most ridiculous melee heroes in the game so far might be very worthwhile as well.

So what does deployment actually look like?  Well, the 2x5 unit of Wyches goes into a single Raider while all the Archons and Succubus pile into another Raider with the rest of the Wyches.  Yes, 3 Archons and 2 Succubus go into a Raider:  The beginning of every dirty film.

From there, you just treat the 2x5 unit as a single Raider unit while remembering that you will probably get murdered if you try assaulting before you Raider gets a chance to get in there first.  You charge in with the Raider, tie up whatever was trying to shoot your ass, and then run your naked girls in for some good damage with Agonizers.  Don't forget to bring you super killy Succubus along for the ride too.  The Archons can come if they want, but most of the time they will be running around the rest of the Kabal spreading good stuff 6" bubbles while totting Blaster fire down on your opponents.  However, always remember that they're not shy to getting their feet wet, so if you need them to take on a big unit of MEQ for whatever reason, hook them up with some Huskblades and throw them into the fray.

I'm just going to leave this list right here and let it marinate for a while.  This is just a theory list and I think it can do pretty decent.  One thing's for damn sure:  10 CP sure makes me happy.

Brave Browser voted the best privacy-focused product of 2020

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

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