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SoT is currently down for maintenance (presumably while they're loading Legend's assets into the servers) but we have a start-game screen in the meantime with some new details! (And a new version of the main theme!) Yeah, what a great deep dive! A ton of love and passion obviously went into creating the expansion and it confirms some awesome things that I was hoping for! Love what they've done with the "iMuse" like effects in the Scumm Bar too. If Monkey 1 had been made a year later with more music capability, it would've probably done something like that.

Finally a new DREAMM beta: https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/beta New in 2.1b9 ============ * Added support for updaters, just drag the EXE to install; currently supported for: * Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1.2 updater) * Grim Fandango (1.01 updater) * Escape from Monkey Island (1.1 updater) * (note you may need to reinstall the 1.0 versions for some updaters to work) * Revamped game launch screen UI, now uses tabbed groups for management/configuration * Replaced DREAMM options menu with new options screen * Added ability to Reverify installs of individual/unrecognized/all games * Automatically suggest reverification on a version change if unrecognized games found * Fixed crash on exit in some cases running Yoda Stories * Fixed crash when scanning for games on some systems * More fixes for texture locking failures * Improved Windows teardown to hopefully alleviate sporadic crashes on exit

Suggestion: we create a separate spoiler thread for those playing the game.

It is multiplayer but not massively multiplayer. You are put on server instances with a number of other people.

Also nice to see Dominic tightly involved

I've read it a few times, and probably due a re-read (I like to read it on the flight to the USA when I'm going to somewhere with a Disney park and PotC to ride.) Let me refresh myself with where we are at Chapter 10 and I'm in.

Its now live

Someone should record that and put it on YouTube.

Monkey Island Heardle #302 🔊🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ #MonkeyIslandHeardle I really love this game, but it’s also pretty easy if you listen to the soundtracks very often. Maybe it could spice things up to have the music bits not only from the beginning but also from anywhere in the tracks (if that’s possible). As for ReMI: As the soundtrack I made, cuts the different music suites in individual tracks, I think it would make sense to put some together (e. g. put LeShip in as a whole track, also Scumm Bar or Voodoo Shop). I could take a look at it probably next week and upload new tracks for this game.

I don’t think so. Not sure why but that didn’t seem to be the case with the pirates of the caribbean expansion (i just checked it out on yt) and in every video they’ve shown so far melee island seems appropriately sparse.

👕 I beat #MojoleXtreme #485 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 5/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 🖤🖤💛💚💚🖤 💛🖤🖤💚💚🖤 💚💚🖤🖤💛💛 💚💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Yeah, it’s definitely interesting watching with the balance of time. It’s almost a really good movie. And watching the extras I get why they added aliens, too: By the 1950s the serials of the time had shifted to aliens. It actually made a lot of sense… except they couldn’t let go of the 40s. Even the poster could have been made to look more like a 50s b-movie and help the audience make the mental shift. Except the film still would have failed because they got so much wrong. Sigh. Oh, and the extras reminded me that Spielberg never would have directed Dial while there was Nazis in it.

I agree with Thunderpeel. I recently re-watched KotCS in preparation for DoD and it pretty much confirms what I said about it earlier, the first half isn't that bad. It kind of starts to waver at the burial ground, and from the Russian camp on, it's just bland. The set-up with Mutt is pretty good, but the characters get no chance to come to terms with each other after they find out that they're father and son. It's set up like Ford and Connory, but there's no real payoff. I agree with the part about Marion too, she argues with Indy in the back of the truck, then he says "They weren't you, honey", and after that they don't really share any emotional scenes together until they get married. No wonder... The first half is pretty well setup. The only flaws I think come from the "tell, don't show" script they're acting from. It's riddled with anecdotes that don't really add anything to the story, "you rode with Pancho Villa?", "Indy served his country during the war", and the worst offender of that is Mac. How are we ever supposed to connect with a character who instantly betrays Indy and then, after the fact, get's a line like "but we we're on so many adventures together". It just doesn't work that way, and the writers, Spielberg, and everybody on set should've known better.

Ok, well damnit, let's do this: I'm throwing my fedora into the ring and declaring that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull IS NOT THAT BAD. I've just re-watched it for the first time in 15 years, and well, fuck. It didn't bother me nearly half as much as the first time I watched it. And the things that did bother me, weren't the same things as in 2008. Gophers? Didn't give a fuck. Monkeys? Didn't give a fuck. Ants? Didn't give a fuck. Been caught in a test site (and yes, they really did make a model street filled with houses and dummies and blew it up just to see what the US family unit would look like after a nuclear megaton was dropped on them). It was tense! They even telegraphed that aliens were real in this story in the first scene, so I don't know why I was so surprised at the end, the first time around. None of that bothered me at all. Watching Dial of Destiny (which I also enjoyed) the one thing I really missed was this (Spielberg's beautiful direction). And the first half of Skull has a ton of Spielbergian flair. He knows how to let the quiet moments breathe, and still be interesting. He knows how to make the camera be a funny participant in the storytelling. The guy truly is a master (the older I get, the more I appreciate him). The bad parts of Skull this time around? Well the second half of the movie is quite dull. The CGI smothers the world and makes it feel less exciting. Although Dial was riddled with CGI, too, there's something about Skull's world that just feels... dull. It might not even be the CGI. It just feels as though we move from one sound stage to another. And if the world isn't interesting, then the inter-character drama had better be... but it isn't. Despite there being the opportunity for some fantastic Connery/Ford style banter, it falls flat. Harrison Ford is the only person truly in the movie. And, I have to say, Shia LaBouf, too. Whatever you think LaBouf as a person, he easily gave the second best performance in Crystal Skull. He fully commits to every scene, and makes it work... unlike (astonishingly) John Hurt, Ray Winston and Karen Allen. The three of them all look like they're on a film set. It's so weird (although Hurt improves). Ray Winston's character, "Mac", is unbelievably uninteresting. He is such a lazy writing device for why Indy is in Location A and then Location B. "Cor blimey, I'm a traitorous scamp!" then "Just kidding, let me give you a reason to go over here instead" then "Nah, I really was! Tee hee!". Easily the worst character in the film. Karen Allen's Marion is just... off, too. She doesn't seem like the angry, strong-willed woman we all know and love. She should be looking out for her son, and angry with Jones for the fact that he abandoned her. But she looks like Karen Allen, happy to be working on an Indiana Jones movie again. She's having far too much fun. Watch the scene where Mutt finally sees the fractured mental state of Oxley. He can't believe how much his father-figure has lost his mind. Watch Marion... she just looks lost in the background. As if it's the first day on set and Karen Allen hasn't figured out who Marion is yet. Shouldn't she be comforting her son?? (One of the reasons why I loved the final scene in Dial was that Karen Allen knocked it out of the park -- Marion was truly back. Even in that tiny moment, she was there again. It was glorious.) And Cate Blanchett is utterly wasted... no threat, no charm, no sex. Her character an accent in a wig. The secondary characters seem like they're in a cartoon. Ford must have noticed it! Why was it allowed to continue? When Karen Allen was working on Raiders, she talks about how she did her best to ensure Marion was real in every scene. Not just a helpless damsel in the background. She suggested things to Spielberg and he went with them. The best example of this is the fact that, in the original Raiders script there's no scene in the tent with Marion and Belloq. She's just captured. Belloq says a line or two, she puts on a dress, and Toht turns up. Allen didn't think it felt real -- and why did she put on the dress? Her co-star, Paul Freeman, agreed. So they both went off and wrote a scene together. They gave it to Spielberg, he loved it and added it. It's one of my favourite scenes in the film. Everyone (except Ford and LaBouf) on Skull seems like they just turned up to work and expected Lucas and Spielberg to have figured everything out. Like they're not invested and phoning it in. Or maybe there was behind the scenes problems that I don't know about. Either way, the difference is stark. And the ending... sigh. Ok, so the ending isn't shit because there's a UFO in it. The ending is shit because I didn't care about any of it. I didn't care about the MacGuffin. I didn't care about the aliens. I didn't care what happened to Mac or Oxley. I didn't care what happened to Cate Blandchette. I barely cared about what happened to Marion and Mutt. It was boring as fuck. So rant, over. Yes, Skull isn't great, but... it's also not terrible. The first hour is actually pretty good. The major problems only really rear their head in the second half. And it's still fairly enjoyable until the damn ending. Oh, and one final thought: Unlike in 2008, Harrison Ford looks young in Crystal Skull now 😅 For any nerdy Indy scholars, here's the original tent scene from Raiders as scripted -- what a difference Allen and Freeman made! INT. MARION’S TENT Belloq has been talking to the still-bound Marion. He has removed her gag. He is impatient, angry, uncomfortable. Caught between two forces. BELLOQ Believe me, you made a mistake. If you would just give me something to placate them. Some bit of information. MARION I swear to you, I know nothing more. I have no loyalty to Jones. He’s brought me only trouble. He wants to believe her. BELLOQ I cannot control them. Marion’s frightened look shifts suddenly to the entrance of the tent. There are a few new arrivals there -- Shliemann, Govler and Belzig. Belzig carries a black leather case. He steps forward and smiles at Marion. BELZIG We meet again, Fraulein.

But if the de-aging technology is unconvincing, doesn't that only underline that idea? Man, this movie's got a lot of layers... 😉