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I agree that journalism is often used as a PR stunt or as a way to propell various issues into the limelight, but I think in this case, the initial story has spiralled and captured people's imaginations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1952867/British-Government-releases-UFO-files.html

Over 20 years worth of UFO sightings are now available to view, and some articles I have seen reporting this even include "if you have any UFO sightings YOU'D like to report, please send them in!" at the end. I think this is just media fuelled by media.

It's like how Michael Jackson was in the forefront of the media for like a year after that documentary about him only...y'know...with aliens.

I don't think they would risk knowingly publishing lies (that can be disproven) to promote a film I guess? I just typed sentence and realised that yeah, it is highly possible and I wouldn't put it past them, but I'm not enough of a conspiracy theorist to see it actually happening.

I bid on something! Yaaaaay!

I was tempted to bid on something else, but didn't.

...yet?

My flatmate works at the cinema, so a bunch of us were lucky enough to go to a special screening of Grindhouse as it was intended.

Very fun stuff, we were all laughing all the way through. Both fantastic movies, and would work well individually anyway. I wanted to get some kind of "Grindhouse" double film DVD set, btu it appears no such thing exists Oh well, I saved the trailers to my hard drive anyway.

I heard that a longer feature is in production consisting of just trailers done in this style. Not sure how that will work, or if it will be worth sitting through for however long, but may be something to keep an eye on.

I've been told that Penny Arcade is reportedly not just amazingly awesome-great, but the most bestestestestestestestestest web comic of all time ever made ever. So I've heard.

Whoever told you this is wrong. And I'm a man who reads a lot of webcomics.

Penny Arcade's not bad, probably the best of the videogamey comics (apart from Powerup Comics obviously.) And I totally respect what they do outside of the comic itself - this game doesn't look too bad, for example, and I'm gonna check it out.

It's not too bad, just not my cup 'o' tea I guess? Don't get me started on Ctrl-Alt-Del though...

Some of those are a stretch.

I agree that some of them are a bit of a stretch, but Lucas has said that he tried to follow this structure for the OT.

And of course not all successful stories follow this, but you'd be suprised at how many do. Not every step is taken literally of course, but "fighting the dragon" is a common step in most films, albeit in a different format.

I admit I haven't looked extensively into it, but from what I could see in my Scriptwriting class there are common threads - Star Wars being an example that frequently popped up.

Witness is awesome.

Also, I think that one of the main reasons Star Wars (the original trilogy) was so successful was it's parallels to traditional mythology, most notably Lucas's deliberate use of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey. This produced a instantly recognisable and enjoyable story, which is why so many hold it as a classic - it does use classic structure after all.

Don't believe me? Check it out.

The newer films didn't follow this as much, instead being caught up in their own universe and mythology. And without decent structure or traditional elements, Lucas falls flat. Unless of course he has his amazing, realistic and non-wooden dialogue to fall back on!

Oh wait.

I tend to be quite a podcast junkie - although most of the stuff I listen to is of personal interest to me rather than entertainment value to anyone else (some Lost stuff, some music stuff, some comic book stuff...)

THAT SAID I also highly recommend the Ricky Gervais podcast - although you have to pay for it I think? There are some free ones, but most of them are just short videos of Ricky acting like a prat. The really entertaining ones are the longer ones (usually half an hour or so) where he talks with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Great stuff.

ALSO, I think they are discontinued now (as the feeds haven't updated in about a jillion years) but the Secret Pants and Dutch West podcasts brought me much amusement. Secret Pants was just sketch comedy, but Dutch West did some entertaining audio ones.

I will try out some of the ones in this thread, cheers all who recommended things!

Also do put into consideration that NIN put their (his rather) album for free, but not all of it. Only 10 tracks of the whole album (which is around 20 I think?). Radioheads album is right now on sale, from a normal label on stores, and prince stoped releasing his album for free.

Just for the record, NIN released Volume I of their "Ghosts I - IV" album for free online, which consisted 9 of the 36 tracks. From there, people could choose to pay $5 for a download of all 4 volumes, $10 for CDs of them all, and various other packages up to a limited edition $300 vinyl set with garageband tracks included. Not a shabby deal I think!

But perhaps more importantly, they* released another album - "The Slip" - for free last Monday. Completely free, with no option to buy. This is a proper album also, not just some instrumental thing like "Ghosts." There will be a "conventional" release in stores in the future (sometime in Summer I believe) but the way it has been initially released is very relevant to what is going on in the music industry currently.

It's nice to see other high profile bands continuing what Radiohead have essentially started here.

Another interesting release from recent times was The Raconteurs second album - they announced its release literally a week before it was in shops, bypassing any pre-release promotional stuff that bands usually have to do before an album. They got their music from the studio to the shops in the shortest possible time it could take to maufacture. From what I can tell, the band are very keen on traditional media formats for their work (they recommended listening to it on vinyl) but were not afraid to release it in a new and interesting way, letting their music do the talking rather than their all important "first week sales" or whatever.

The point I'm making here is that the power of the music is being put back into the hands of the artists directly more now than ever. Bands can choose to interact with their fans on any level they wish, and many have used the internet as a way of getting themselves heard in new and exciting ways.

So my question to the hypothetical masses is: what you got against record companies, dawg?

With the exception of Radiohead, who were between labels when they released In Rainbows online, most artists have had to use record companies to do these things. The record companies fund them in the studio, promote their material, and get the music out in the shops.

Generally I hear the word "greedy" used in conjunction with "record company." And perhaps some of the higher-ups in these companies are making more than they should. But there are lots of other people in that company, working on promoting and selling their artists - do they not deserve a wage for their efforts?

If you, for example, designed an album cover for a band, would you not be a bit pissed if no one bought the album and you didn't get paid?

Personally, I attempt to buy music (most often physical copies) wherever I can. I have been known to download music - most often to check a band out and get a feel for them as a "try before you buy" approach - but I make no attempt to justify it. It's stealing. Often stealing from people who deserve the money (most notably the band.)

* - I don't know why I always refer to Nine Inch Nails as "they," it's clearly just one man.

I never buy albums online, I much prefer the physical releases.

HOWEVER I have been known to pay to download a single song or two in iTunes - usually rare b-sides or whatever. I could download them for free, sure, but I feel warm and tingly inside for having contributed to the artist. This is especially true of new, indie or up and coming bands who probably need the support.

However, after that I see no moral or ethical problem with removing any DRMy type protection for my own use.

Now come on SSH, you're missing the bigger picture here.

We all know one of the most evil men of all time came from Austria. You know who I mean. He ruled over a lot of people and has caused much pain.

You know the one of whom I speak:

Sam and Max: Hit the road
I laughed a lot with this one ^^

I may get pummeled to custard for this, but nonetheless:

Is that what the voices sounded like? For realsies? I never played it with sound and thus only know the voices from the newer games. Max seems so much more......human? than I would expect. It's odd.

Good intro though.

GUYS. Grim Fandango?

ALSO: not really the same as it has no cut-scenes or movies or the like, but the first 10 mins or so of Half Life 2 are good. Especially when you get out of the station and into the town squarey type bit. Epic.

Touché, Jones. However, you kinda disproved my point so I am jumping on the SSH/ManicMatt/Domino bandwagon:

I think that's what they use as a joke, but I think a mate of theirs actually makes the games. It's still not really a company, but not the normal two brothers.

WARNING: The above text may be innaccurate. I am not sure.

But there is one thing Im slightly peeved about and that is They removed PLANES there is still choppers but no planes. They took them out because its NYC and they were afraid of offending people due to 9/11. If that isnt the biggest load of bollocks Ive ever heard I dont know what is!

The reason there are no planes is because it's all located in one city - not a huge state area like SA - so flying planes around would be silly.

Anyhoo, I'm not too excited for this. I will play it (as my flatmate has a PS3!) but I don't see how they can revolutionise the gameplay that much. It will probably just be "more of the same" only with fancier schmancier graphics as far as I can tell? Unless it is something truly cinematic and special, I can't see myself being too excited about it.

I like all the other 3D GTAs, but towards the end I was getting a little bored of the format. Large free roaming environments aren't that big news anymore.

Grundi (accidentally or otherwise) raises a good point.

The person with the lowest post frequency in this thread (thus far) has had the most productive AGS career (I think he did some kind of thing about a ghost hunter or something? There's like 6 of them, they're moderately popular.)

In conclusion: this is scientific proof that your post count is inversely proportional to your productivity. See, science!:



What, you think that is bogus science and that I did no research to prove this? Well then look at this: FURTHER PROOF:



And if you're still not convinced:



Science solves everything except religion and dangerous minorities.

I like! Almost looks like they were done with a vertor program, what with the obvious shapes and splits between light and dark.

Some people may say to make the outlines thinner or even remove them altogether. To them I say: p'tosh! I would highly recommend keeping them if you are going for a cartoony style. I would even suggest making the outlines thicker for objects in the foreground.

The simple shading is very effective - make sure you keep a solid split line between light and dark. The main criticism I would have here though is on the shadine on your trees (especially the second one) - here it looks like obvious "brushstrokes" as opposed to just shapes. Try to make a single line down the split, like you have done with the leafy areas in the last image.

Very nice though! The sky colour is very effective in setting the mood of the bgs/ Good work!

I didn't do it all at once, but maybe about an afternoonish length of time? 'twas an actual assignment for my animation class, so I had to storyboard it and plan it. A bit less spontaneous than yours sadly.

He's a capitalist. And as we know, all Russians hate capitalists. WATCH OUT CHRIS. YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SHARING YOUR ONION RINGS WITH THE STATE.

In Soviet Russia, CJ bombs you! Or something.

PS I have no idea what is going on in this thread at all -_-

VWG's top tip of the day: use references by the bucketload!

If you want a TV, google image search for "TV" and take note of what is there. Then draw it as closely as you can.

If you decide to do a sprite, google for a human and follow the basic anatomy as best you can. Obviously you can exaggerate and change things, but to start it may be best to follow them closely. Once you have the basics of what your object "is" then you can expand and make it your own.

But you know, walk before you can run and all that.