Episode 113 - Simulacrum - Angels and Demons, The Brothers Bloom, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, Tony Hawk's Ride, Tour of Dan's pad [Discussion]

[marilee]

The good and bad of Angels and Demons, Could The Brothers Bloom be the best movie of the year? Sacred 2 gets a second chance on 360. Tony Hawk's Ride comes with what now? And Dan's stuff, by Dan!

Watch or download now (http://revision3.com/trs/simulacrum)

[siraim]

Loved the intro.. the CPU discussion takes me back and the user vid was cleverly integrated.

Watched the Danny's pad segment while doing other things. It just didn't keep my attention. Would rather have had extra time between the three chatting away during a segment..

[dr-nix]

Wanted to watch Brothers Bloom ever since i saw the trailer (checked it out after i heard the latest slashfilmcast, the director Rian Johnson was on it).

Seems like an amazing movie, i'll have to wait until i get money though. The electronics in my house seems to know i'm on a shoestring budget atm because all of them seems to have sprung to life and their message to each other is very clear, "pssst! lets break on him"

[joeyrock]

Really want to see The brothers bloom now... it's not got a UK release date yet :( Though hopefully it will be in the cambridge film festival next month.

Liked Dans geek tour... I enjoy nosing around other people's stuff :P. Looking forward to Alex/Jeff's next week. Hopefully some forum members will do some too.

edit: The audio was clipping pretty bad this week.. Don't think it's on my end, I'm not hearing the same thing on other podcasts.

[fumesfumes]

seriously is that jeff's real sweat? haha

[cheech151337]

edit: The audio was clipping pretty bad this week.. Don't think it's on my end, I'm not hearing the same thing on other podcasts.Word.

[snoopmikey]

The audio was clipping pretty bad this week.. Don't think it's on my end, I'm not hearing the same thing on other podcasts.

Yeah sorry about the progressively bad audio - my bad. Didn't catch that the mixer's batteries were dying until we were done shooting the green screen stuff.
Surprisingly though the microphone on that tiny camera used for Dan's tour segment worked really well and sounded great. :)

[joeyrock]

Yeah sorry about the progressively bad audio - my bad. Didn't catch that the mixer's batteries were dying until we were done shooting the green screen stuff.
Surprisingly though the microphone on that tiny camera used for Dan's tour segment worked really well and sounded great. :)

Well okay... don't let it happen again :p

What little camera was it? My still camera does pretty good video but the audio sounds like it's been dropped in the toilet.

[snoopmikey]

What little camera was it? My still camera does pretty good video but the audio sounds like it's been dropped in the toilet.

It's the Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera

[dirtyhat]

It's the Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera

I have that same camera... for such a small cheap alternative camera it performs better than I expected....

I think If someone else could have held the camera, the Danny tour segment would have been better... that camera has such a narrow field of view and its so light that it was shaky.

[nick_dizzle85]

seriously is that jeff's real sweat? haha

Dude, I was just watching it and I was thinking the same thing. Hahaha. Kinda made me feel bad for Jeff. I guess they weren't kidding when they said it was hot.

[pfmbsantos]

The Totally Rad Show and CO-OP teaming up at E3? Niiice!

[dh_jin]

loved the dan's house segment!!! and poor jeff man… try wearing a inside shirt thing? to abosrb sweatage maybe?

and i would played runes of magic(? dan's wow alternative) if it was on a mac.

can't wait for E3!! first year i'm actually excited…

[jestempies]

Watched the Danny's pad segment while doing other things. It just didn't keep my attention. Would rather have had extra time between the three chatting away during a segment..

I think it should have been Danny + cameraman, would make it more watchable.

[jadles]

Good episode. I liked the idea of the house tours but I hope Alex and Jeff's aren't so detailed and showed a bit more of the place (not meant to sound like a stalker).

[dolson]

Sacred 2 is also out on PS3, not just 360.

Thought I'd throw that out there for people who are watching this and would have no idea since it was not mentioned whatsoever...

And I really like it. A lot. I am at13 hours in, level 17, 3.2% of the map explored, about 27 quests complete. On the PS3 version. It exists. For real. I have it.

[spinney]

I love the jeffs shirt changes it makes me smile, I feel bad for him but don't worry jeff we aren't judging you!

[kestasjk]

I liked seeing Danny's pad, but I think it could have been cut down (and made a little less show-offy)

The sound did bother me though, it sounds really tinny, and at first I thought something must be wrong with my amp (in "theater" sound-raping mode or something)

[kzap]

loved the dan's house segment!!! and poor jeff man… try wearing a inside shirt thing? to abosrb sweatage maybe?

and i would played runes of magic(? dan's wow alternative) if it was on a mac.
Get Darwine (http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/)! it's free and Runes of Magic has got a Platinum rating (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=16051) on it.

[xsorsburn]

Hey I think Dan definately needed a camera guy. because I could barely read the titles on 1/2 the books/dvds on the shelf in the tour segment.

not a big deal but... whats the point of talking about your fave books and DVDs BUT not telling me the titles because "I can read them from the video" but couldn't because it was just focused on the stack and the titles where obscured in blur

[lassolse]

hahaha, yay they used my background!!!

that made my day.

Dan even said my name right. Thanks guys:)

[jobee]

Intro was fun, it reminded me of how out of the tech loop I have become. But Jeff is right, just spend an afternoon on the interwebs and you can get up to speed.

I had Truespace back in the day. I thought I would make my own Toy Story, turns out...not so much :D But I did learn a lot about 3d animation with it.

[lassolse]

i liked the tour of dans house. cant wait to the others places. i actually wish they would show more of the place. haha. i dont kow, but im always curios how they generally have it. i liked the personality of it. bad sentence there..

[dreaded-gazebo]

Really glad to see you guys covered Sacred 2 this week. Just picked it up for the PS3 myself and it is great fun.

My wife and I were both fans of the original Sacred. She won't play many video games but we've discovered she is a complete sucker for dungeon crawlers. If it has really simple controls, ways to customize her character's looks and shops to browse she's all over it. As fun as the original Sacred was we only had one PC that could really run it so we could never play coop.

Sacred 2 fixes that since it is on a console. Coop is awesome, I've done some offline and online and both work great. Alex really nailed it with the satisfaction you get from watching not only yourself but your friends level up and get more powerful. The controls are nice and simple, too. I love how everything just maps to a face button and you get extra slots by holding a trigger. It's great because I can have all my slots filled up and have lots of skills available to me at once while my wife mostly just picks her four favorites and keeps them on the main face buttons so she doesn't have to mess around with the triggers. It has very simple point-and-press gameplay but getting loot, exploring and leveling up is really satisfying.

Jeff also hit upon what is one of the biggest draw for me in games like this: exploration. Give me a map with a "fog of war" effect where the map is revealed as I explore and it'll be near impossible for me to not want to explore every single pixel of that map. It's even better in a game like Sacred 2 where - like he said - you are rewarded for doing so. There are quests, caves and treasures hidden out in areas that you could completely miss if you didn't explore everything. Awesome stuff.

Yeah, it has some issues. There's a fair amount of screen tearing which will bother some people more than others. You can't trade in offline coop which I don't understand. Inventory management is a little tricky as there's no way to directly compare items against each other. In offline mode only one player can be in their menus at a time and online there's no indicator to show when you friends are looking at their menus.

Overall the game lacks the polish that other "AAA" games have but if you can deal with the average presentation you'll find a lot to love. I have three or four characters going at once right now and each one is fun to play. If you like dungeon crawlers or coop games you'll want to check out Sacred 2.

[dolson]

Really glad to see you guys covered Sacred 2 this week. Just picked it up for the PS3 myself and it is great fun.

My wife and I were both fans of the original Sacred. She won't play many video games but we've discovered she is a complete sucker for dungeon crawlers. If it has really simple controls, ways to customize her character's looks and shops to browse she's all over it. As fun as the original Sacred was we only had one PC that could really run it so we could never play coop.

Sacred 2 fixes that since it is on a console. Coop is awesome, I've done some offline and online and both work great. Alex really nailed it with the satisfaction you get from watching not only yourself but your friends level up and get more powerful. The controls are nice and simple, too. I love how everything just maps to a face button and you get extra slots by holding a trigger. It's great because I can have all my slots filled up and have lots of skills available to me at once while my wife mostly just picks her four favorites and keeps them on the main face buttons so she doesn't have to mess around with the triggers. It has very simple point-and-press gameplay but getting loot, exploring and leveling up is really satisfying.

Jeff also hit upon what is one of the biggest draw for me in games like this: exploration. Give me a map with a "fog of war" effect where the map is revealed as I explore and it'll be near impossible for me to not want to explore every single pixel of that map. It's even better in a game like Sacred 2 where - like he said - you are rewarded for doing so. There are quests, caves and treasures hidden out in areas that you could completely miss if you didn't explore everything. Awesome stuff.

Yeah, it has some issues. There's a fair amount of screen tearing which will bother some people more than others. You can't trade in offline coop which I don't understand. Inventory management is a little tricky as there's no way to directly compare items against each other. In offline mode only one player can be in their menus at a time and online there's no indicator to show when you friends are looking at their menus.

Overall the game lacks the polish that other "AAA" games have but if you can deal with the average presentation you'll find a lot to love. I have three or four characters going at once right now and each one is fun to play. If you like dungeon crawlers or coop games you'll want to check out Sacred 2.

They're supposed to be working on a fix for the offline trading, I think. If not, you should be able to utilize the Hero Chest to do the functional equivalent. Obviously that won't help if you're not near one, but.. It's an option.

Also, two local players going online together will be patched in, apparently. (360 version already supports it).

I've heard of saved game-corrupting bugs on the 360 version, so hopefully they patch that too, for the 360 owners out there.

I hope Blizzard is paying attention to this game, because they said a Diablo 3 console port was "theoretically possible" and Sacred 2 absolutely proves that theory.

One thing that kinda sucks is the game never pauses. So you will get attacked if you're in your menus, or running to the washroom or kitchen... Makes sense when online, but if you're offline, it should probably pause.. But not a big problem, really.

[trsjeff]

One thing that kinda sucks is the game never pauses. So you will get attacked if you're in your menus, or running to the washroom or kitchen... Makes sense when online, but if you're offline, it should probably pause.. But not a big problem, really.

I actually died once because my controller's batteries died. I was running around my house, looking for new batteries to pop in, while a lone rat just ticked away at my health. Quite frustrating, especially since there is an achievement for finishing the game without dying.

-Jeff

[dolson]

I actually died once because my controller's batteries died. I was running around my house, looking for new batteries to pop in, while a lone rat just ticked away at my health. Quite frustrating, especially since there is an achievement for finishing the game without dying.

-Jeff

Haha, that sucks.. I gave up on that achievement (actually, Trophy, as I am playing the mythical PS3 version ;)) very very early on.. I've now died 7 times so far, a couple not my fault (playing in Silver difficulty, mind you).

I found a big boss guy, the Kobold Chieftan, last night. No matter what I did, I could not get his health to go down more than a single tick before he regenerated it.. I guess I'm too low a level (17 after 13 hours), or need to go after him in co-op.

Really like the game, and glad you guys praised it like that, as I Ascaron are in financial trouble, and I think this game deserves some sales.

[diane]

Thank you Alex, thank you, thank you thank you.

Summer is coming and Anakin has a laundry list of things he wants to do and more importantly buy, including two MMO game subscriptions. I would really prefer he do something at least a little more productive this summer than hours of daily gaming when he is with his dad. I was hoping I might convince him to try some Clarke and Asimov this summer.

And then Alex mentioned a summer job programming and making enough money to buy a car. He is on his laptop researching program languages to learn as I type this. Along with his desire to learn Linux, I am not so worried.

I know, I know, its summer, I should let him play, and relax, but I have to actually make him pause video games to do things like eat. Even if he flirts with the concepts at least he is spreading his obsessive behavior across platforms.

[neato-torpedo]

I'd like to hear more about Sacred 2's multiplayer from people that have it. Do things get too easy when you're in a full group, or are there dungeons or areas that provide a greater challenge? Is it easy for people to jump in and drop out?

[daikun]

Why does Simulacrum sound familiar? Wasn't that used somewhere else on Rev3 before?

I could swear that word rings a bell...

[royterp]

It's funny that Dan mentioned his FPS-induced motion sickness during his tour, because I got motion sick watching the segment on my TV. I actually had to go off and do other stuff while I listened to it playing in the background. Now, I really liked the idea of getting a deeper glimpse into the lives of our rad hosts, but I really wished someone else were holding the camera.

Overall, though, great show. Oh, and I definitely remember that Circuit City commercial because the one thing that always bothered me about it was that the kid never says "Thank you"; it's like he starts to but then "That's it?!" comes out instead. Punk. ;)

[dulica]

I saw this over the weekend... it was pretty 'eh'. I liked the books, and was hoping this one would be more like the DaVinci Code....I would have enjoyed more of the art info, but that's just me. Sort of wished I'd waited for it on dvd.

[buzzbros2002]

I loved the geek tour, I just now hope that they will put all three geek tours onto the Totally Rad Show DVD!

[gearhead364]

Great ep however the sound issues have got to be fixed, anyway can't way for the E3 coverage.

[heyseuss]

Why does Simulacrum sound familiar? Wasn't that used somewhere else on Rev3 before?

I could swear that word rings a bell...

There was a TRS episode called Simulaid I believe. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.


Seeing a Robert B Parker book in Dan's collection (couldn't tell which one it is) gave my pants a tingle, then seeing it was appropriately placed next to GM_Wil's book made my pants tight. That's just good stuff right there.

Still sad about the 'lotion on the skin' intro TRS did where they most likely ruined a Robert B Parker book though.

Robert B Parker = fucken awesome. What other private eye/mystery series is there that spans 20 odd years of the main characters life ( about 25-30 years of real life) ?

[royterp]

I think Dan needs one of Gabe's shirts from the most recent Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/18/) :)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090518.jpg

[kjsatz]

An issue I've had with the show maybe ever since you went HD but have never brought up until now...watching it fullscreen, it looks nice, until it goes to a closeup of one of the hosts, when it appears to be cropped-and-blown-up. This is in contrast to when there's a closeup in Diggnation when it's a different camera more zoomed in, giving a nice HD picture. I know there are budgets to contend with, but I just wanted to put this out there...sometimes it's a little distracting to me. Thanks!

[brianatlarge]

An issue I've had with the show maybe ever since you went HD but have never brought up until now...watching it fullscreen, it looks nice, until it goes to a closeup of one of the hosts, when it appears to be cropped-and-blown-up. This is in contrast to when there's a closeup in Diggnation when it's a different camera more zoomed in, giving a nice HD picture. I know there are budgets to contend with, but I just wanted to put this out there...sometimes it's a little distracting to me. Thanks!

I've noticed that after Steve left the show, the zoomed in quality wasn't as sharp. I'm curious if the camera that they're using now is only shooting in 720p, the CCD on the camera is smaller, or if you're using an HDV camera instead of something like DVCPro HD.

Also, anyone have a link to the walkman commercial they mentioned? I've never seen it before.

[royterp]

Also, anyone have a link to the walkman commercial they mentioned? I've never seen it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epP3jETf8Og

[heyseuss]

I've noticed that after Steve left the show, the zoomed in quality wasn't as sharp. I'm curious if the camera that they're using now is only shooting in 720p, the CCD on the camera is smaller, or if you're using an HDV camera instead of something like DVCPro HD.

Yup, as has been mentioned several times since the Steve/Mikey switchover, in other threads that Kjsatz has missed.

[gm_wil]

I actually died once because my controller's batteries died. I was running around my house, looking for new batteries to pop in, while a lone rat just ticked away at my health. Quite frustrating, especially since there is an achievement for finishing the game without dying.

-Jeff

Holy shit Jeff . . . that has to be one of those "I wish it were on film" moments because that would have been hilarious to see . . . not your character dying of course, just you running around mumbling "Where are my f(bleep)'n batteries!" while drawers and cupboards are being opened and slammed . . . pausing just long enough to peak around the corner to see the rat give a squeak as it attacks . . . you clenching your teeth and giving the rat an "I outta" shake of the head . . . you telling yerself; "Jeffrey think! Where did you put them?" (At least that's what I saw in my head that made me laugh)

And Heyseuss, you managed to get a hearty laugh even when I'm almost asleep at the keyboard - thanks, now I gotta try to psych myself out to wind down again . . .

I guess I'm in the minority really liking Angels and Demons - I thought the DaVinci Code movie was "horse pucky" compared to it . . .

(totally off subject but my bro and I just watched the first disc plus an episode of the second of an anime called "Gunslinger Girl" which is turning out to be pretty good)

-

[heyseuss]

And Heyseuss, you managed to get a hearty laugh even when I'm almost asleep at the keyboard - thanks, now I gotta try to psych myself out to wind down again . . .

That was some good company to be in. I woulda been proud to see that shelf if I were you.

[gm_wil]

That was some good company to be in. I woulda been proud to see that shelf if I were you.

I'm pretty sure it's the nostalgia factor, and yeah, when I saw that I felt the deep down good this scene always brings out in me:

http://homepage.mac.com/wilknoble/planes.jpg

So Dan is the one in good company!

-

[jsc315]

I can't wait for E3 coverage. Looks like its going to be great this year.

[baldmonkey]

Oh, Mio in the Land of Faraway!
I thought only us Swedes knew about that movie.

[dolson]

I'd like to hear more about Sacred 2's multiplayer from people that have it. Do things get too easy when you're in a full group, or are there dungeons or areas that provide a greater challenge? Is it easy for people to jump in and drop out?

Hey,

The game automatically scales up the difficulty and/or number of enemies, loot, experience depending on how many characters are in your party.

When you play a single-player game, you can choose to play it offline, or online. If you choose online, you can play it privately or publicly. Private allows you to invite friends. Public allows anyone to join at will (you can also send invites in public games). Players can come and go as they please. Characters retain all experience, gold, items, etc. between all play sessions across all modes.

You can also play online in Freeworld or Freeworld PvP modes, where you just go around the world like normal, but only have sidequests available (no campaign quests).

This is how the PS3 version (which does exist!) works, anyhow. I'm sure 360 is similar, maybe a little different (not familiar with how Live really works, but I hear it's worth the money..).

[tishy19]

I really enjoyed the review of Sacred 2 and it actually swayed me in the direction of picking it up next payday. I love Fable 2 but having already beaten it a couple of times and the long wait for new DLC; Sacred 2 seems like it will do a fine job of wasting my time.

Also, I LOVED the geek tour of Dan's pad. I saw some movies and graphic novels I need to look into getting. I'm always on the hunt for good recommendations of unsung movies and gn's.

[doom]

Only thing I wanna say is that I --loved-- the geek tour thing handheld cam and all. I think one of the biggest things that I have always loved about TRS is the 'wow - these guys have lived my life' aspect of it and I'd get waaay closer than the handheld cam on every single one of those shelves when.. er, if I broke into Dan's place. :) I even rewound a few times to see a few titles that he didn't talk about... loved it.

Looking forward to the other tours!

[truebullfan]

I love that Dan had the tripod series by John Christopher. I remember reading "White Mountain" for school and in jenjoyed it so much I actually went to my local public library and read the last two books. That was a first.


Also Jeff mentioned Shutter Island which i read last summer. Love to hear what he has to say about it since Leo and Scorsese are making a film adaptation of it. I personally though it was good but very predictable.

[owlboy]

There's a Ruse omnibus (http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Ruse-Omnibus-TPB-Vol.-01___331507) coming out soon in case anyone wants to check that out; also Dan have you checked out Mark Waid's The Unknown? He's doing a detective story again and I think you'd enjoy it.

Here he is talking about it (http://markwaid.boom-studios.net/2009/04/15-minutes-with-waid-the-unknown/#respond)

[rabidbadger]

finally watching. Jeff loves House of Games. He's my New BFForeeeeevvvveerrrrrrr.

[rabidbadger]

I can NOT wait to see Brothers Bloom. Damn, never heard of it til now. Wow.

[rabidbadger]

I despise Ron Howard as a film maker. (nice guy in general) but Damn, the dude beats you over the head with symbolism so hard, you might as well just crawl up on the cross by yourself and wait for his nail when he shouts "Quiet on the set!"

[gm_wil]

I despise Ron Howard as a film maker.

The ones I've seen and loved:

Ransom
Apollo 13
Parenthood (2nd fav of his and a helluva movie)
Willow (one of my fav movies in general)
Gung Ho (just watched this again not too long ago - classic)
Cocoon (the butt of jokes, but a good movie)
Splash (tom hanks needs to get back to his roots like this one and the burbs)

-

[lik]

Dan has a nice pad. i organize my DVDs/Blu-rays/games/anime by genre as well. easier to find stuff for me. good segment! i love seeing people's setups.

[rabidbadger]

The ones I've seen and loved:

Ransom
Apollo 13
Parenthood (2nd fav of his and a helluva movie)
Willow (one of my fav movies in general)
Gung Ho (just watched this again not too long ago - classic)
Cocoon (the butt of jokes, but a good movie)
Splash (tom hanks needs to get back to his roots like this one and the burbs)

-

I saw Parenthood when it first came out in theaters, and it was what turned me off of him way back then. "oh, the misunderstood teen is emoting in front of a giant wall of glass shelves full of delicate china, that must mean the kid is FRAGILE and MIGHT BREAK. All sob now!"

I saw Ron's first movie "night shift" when it first came out, and I liked it. No pretention, just a fun script, good interplay with Keaton and Winkler. He had a simple budget, and made a nice simple movie. (though Keaton was awesome in it enough that any decent director could have made it and it would still be a fun romp).

I just think Ron just Tries To Hard (r) (tm)

[stubadub]

finally watching. Jeff loves House of Games. He's my New BFForeeeeevvvveerrrrrrr.

I also adore that movie. I had to pick up the Criterion version as soon as it came out. I was a little sad that Alex seemed to not care for Spanish Prisoner, and then when Jeff mentioned his love for House of Games I thought for a second that he might mention a love for Spanish Prisoner too, but it was not meant to be.

[gm_wil]

FYI - The Sacred 2 Demo is pretty long - still playing it . . .

[holbert]

The opening was pretty tight with the video in Dan's eye. Also nice background this week!! It totally brings out a different side of TRS. Have to go see Angels and Demons too. Any ways, great show as always guys.

[trunolimit]

So I guess Im the only person alive that hates the Davinci code movie and will not watch angles and demons because of how they butchered the first movie.

I had a great time reading the first book and couldn't wait to see the movie. Then I saw it and it was a snore fest. Not only that but they practically changed the whole story. And I'm sorry but tom hanks is the last person I pictured playing Robert Langdon . In the book he's a badass who rides a hog and is the outdoors man type but with a brain. Tom hanks is anything but a badass. He's got the brainy part down but that's it.

On the other hand I haven't read the next book so I really won't have any expectations. Maybe I should give it a chance.

[cucumberboy]

So I guess Im the only person alive that hates the Davinci code movie

Nope. Most people did. It has a 24% rating on rotten tomatoes :)

[gabeja]

Saw Brothers Bloom last night. Thanks guys, loved it.