MCU RE-WATCH

I'm like a ping pong ball, bouncing back and forth from Marvel to VR... and it's a blast. Anyway, as long and storied as the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is, having a complete re-watch is almost occasionally necessary as the newer movies fill in some insight into the older films and give you a new way to view them (plus they are all (mostly) such great movies, any excuse to re-watch them is welcome.)

I started my current re-watch a week or so ago, as the hype-train for Captain Marvel keeps getting closer and closer (Next Weekend as a matter of fact!)

At first I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to watch them all, but there was a post on reddit somewhere that presented an interesting Viewing-Order, not totally chronological (although the MCU itself is a little wishy washy on timeframe details here and there.) but it combines more of the "Earth" movies together and the "Cosmic" movies together and keeps similar themes and ideals together to make a cohesive experience. It seems to be working nicely so far.

I have already gotten through (in this viewing order): Captain America - the First Avenger, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Avengers, Thor - the Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

I just started watching Iron Man 3 last night, and the conclusion of the watching order is: Captain America - the Winter Soldier, Avengers - Age of Ultron, Ant Man, Captain America - Civil War, Black Panther, Spider-Man - Homecoming, Ant Man & Wasp, Dr Strange, Thor - Ragnarok, and Avengers - Infinity War to finish it out.

Captain Marvel is due out next Friday and the final conclusion to (apparently) much of the MCU is right on the heels with Avengers - Endgame coming in late April, which means I may have to do another re-watch as soon as I am able to obtain those two films for my viewing pleasure.

One thing that has helped make watching these a (semi) new experience is my Oculus Go. The Go is an excellent VR device that is perfect for consuming media, and one of it's strengths is that you can watch 3D films without the need for expensive 3D TV's or 3D glasses of any kind. It is absolutely impressive and gives you much more depth in whatever you are watching. I was able to find 3D copies of most MCU movies, and am trying to make it a goal to complete this rewatch in only 3D.

OK... that is all.

Excelsior!

VRChat Adventures Pt 2

My Adventures in VRChat continued a bit over the weekend (not as much as I would have liked) and good times were had by... most.

At one point I found myself joining an animated FBI division, there were probably 4-6 of us running around The Pub, attempting to arrest various avatars. We managed to book a few individuals before something happened with the server and just like Thanos' snap, there were only 2 of us left.

I continued my adventures in the good old Open Mic Night, where you truly never know what you'll get, but I found a nice little bird backstage playing guitar, he wasn't bad, and we got the talking. A few other people joined in and this is where I got my first two friend requests. Good Times.

There seemed to be a trend of giant Loli girls taking over the bars for a while too this weekend, at one point there were three giant Loli girls all riding on each others heads. True Story.

At one point I was hanging out with various people in The Hub, which is kind of a open area with various games and introductory portals and such. I was threatened a few times by a little girl with a gun, and broke up a fight between some Anime dude and an insulting Ed from Ed, Edd, Eddy cartoon. After all that, we played a little yahtzee and attempted stacking blocks.

Nothing else too notable occurred, I just have a good time going into these worlds and either listening to people's conversations, jumping in with general quips and enjoying the community, as toxic as it may sometimes be. There really isn't any other experience quite like VRChat, where there are hundreds if not thousands of different worlds, there are games, experiences and every person can be the avatar of their dreams, pop figures, or whatever (at one point we were waxing philosophical with a giant can of protein shake mix)... copywrite be damned!

VR HIGHLIGHTS

Since I'm discussing my VR obsession, I might as well highlight some of the other experiences and games that have stood out for me thus far.


Robo Recall - The first game I tried after purchasing my Rift (it came free with the system.) This was a great experience and the intro alone is enough to suck you in (and scare you half to death.) This game involves 'dismantling' (by way of numerous weapons) swarms of robots who have gone rogue and deadly. Lots of fun, especially being able to grab a robot by the chest-plate and ripping his arms off then beating another robot with said arms.

AltspaceVR - This app is very similar to VRChat, but a lot safer and not as wild and crazy as VRChat tends to be. It features some user-content, but the avatars can only be created from a few presets. The social aspect and events are the shining star here, with Open Mic Nights, Movie Nights and Live Performances by semi-celebs (such as Reggie Watts (Comedy Bang Bang Heynongman!) and Drew Carrey.)

Bigscreen - There are a few good apps like this, but this one may be near the top of the list. Imagine throwing on your headset and then entering a virtual movie theater. You can access movies from your computer or wherever, and throw them on the big screen. Grab some friends to join and you have quite a fun time ahead of you.

Virtual Desktop - Along the lines of accessing things from your computer, the Virtual Desktop is one of the most useful apps that can be had in VR. This is pretty much what the title is, a Virtual Desktop that you can access. You can have multiple screens and place them wherever you want in a virtual space. It's very useful having a screen playing videos, another screen searching the internet and maybe a couple more screens with various other useful things on them. Or play a 2D game on a customizable size screen, or a dozen other things you can do.

Superhot - A fun, but short, shooter that has very intersting physics and dynamics. You jump into various scenarios where you are pretty much being attacked, but the twist is that the attackers (which are bright red polygon humanoid figures) only move when you move, it creates a bullet-time kind of effect and allows you to plan out your attacks (as long as you don't move) it's a lot of fun and I'm hopeful for a sequel soon.

Face Your Fears - More of an experience than a game, you are thrown into various scenarios that are meant to scare the sh*t out of you. Everything from a giant monster attacking a skyrise that you happen to be in to lying in bed as monsters move about your room, and a lot more.

Medium/Tilt Brush - These are two different apps, with similar functions (I should probably add Google Blocks in here as well.) All of these apps allow you to create 3D pictures. Medium is more a clay/sculpting simulator, Blocks is closer to Medium but you can create low rez, polygon (think minecraft) style creations and Tilt Brush is like painting with colors (and lights) in 3D. For the creative type, these are all a blast. As far as your Medium and Blocks creations, they can also be exported to be used in other 3D programs, or send them to a 3D printer if you have one.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew - This game puts you on the Bridge of the USS Enterprise (a few of them, actually) You can play as either Helmsmen, Weapons, Captain or engineering and it's sort of a social game, you play with other players in order to complete your objectives. Admittedly I haven't played this a lot because it's best to play with friends (which I don't have) and random match-ups can tend to be pretty wild. Regardless this game is extremely well polished and a lot of fun.

Skyrim VR - This (along with Fallout 4 VR) are the biggest games available in VR at the current time, and they are very well done. Of course they could be better if they were built from the ground-up for VR, but they are great games and translate fairly well to VR. Definitely give you a new way to experience a couple games you are probably already familiar with.

Angry Birds VR - The newest addition to my highlight reel, it is what you think it is... Angry Birds but in VR. You actually get to hold the slingshot in your hand, pull back and fire off various birds at those bastard Green Pigs and their fragile structures. There are a few welcome changes to the traditional Angry Bird formula, such as being able to change your location, move around, duck down, etc. It is another shorter game, but a lot of fun.


Well, that's about it, I have a bunch of games I still haven't had the time to try, and a bunch of games that I feel just aren't worthy for this list, but VR has happily taken over my gaming time. I haven't touched a PC "Pancake" game in a while thanks to my Rift, and at least for the foreseeable future, I don't see myself backtracking. I am already looking into expanding my VR obsession in the form of better equipment. (the new Oculus Quest is due out soon, which takes 6 DOF VR into the wireless realm... I plan on picking up a Quest as soon as I'm able, and I can't wait!)

VRChat is Way More than just Chat

A brief intro - I finally got an Oculus Rift around Christmas because of a price drop and have been absolutely obsessed by Virtual Reality since (well, in all fairness, I've been fascinated by VR since I was a kid, but now that the technology has caught up a bit and I have finally experienced it first-hand, I am obsessed!)

I could go on and on about VR in itself, but there's one thing I just want to rant about a bit, and it's a fun little free app called VRChat. It's a social platform where users can create their own avatars and worlds, and it's a bit of a freakshow at times, but that is what makes it great.

Picture going into a bar with Spider-Man in a wheelchair, the Iron-Giant, Peter Griffin, a baboon and more trap-loli "girls" and furries than you can shake a stick at, all while being insulted and hearing various racist ranting from a KKK member and a gang of Ugandian Knuckles. This is very typical.

It's not all crazy though, you can find more laid back, relaxing and slower paced rooms and worlds, or join up with friends in private worlds of your own creation if you see fit. It's a hodge podge of everything you'd ever want, and a lot you probably never thought about and definitely don't want. But that's kind of what makes it fun.

I couldn't even begin to go into the fullest depth of all you can do, but there are game worlds, role playing worlds, hang-out worlds and everything in between. The imagination is the only boundary, and as long as players can create their own content, the scope of this (game? app? experience?) is limitless.

Last night, for example, I ventured into VRChat to see what was going on. I spent a good while in an 'Open Mic Night' world and heard some talented people playing guitar and singing, but it eventually divulged into an almost riot-like enviornment when a rapper took the stage (in the form of a Goron from Zelda's Ocarina of Time) and spit some bars about his wildly explicit homosexual escapades. That experience ended up with a bunch of people using Shaders and blasting music and insulting Cookie Monster, who ended up crawling into the corner and not talking to anyone. Very sad.

After that I went into one of the main-stay locations in VRChat, The Pub, which is the bar I previously mentioned. There was a good time had when a red skeleton, a miniature Mario and an unnamed female anime character were tossing bottles and mugs back and forth trying to catch them. But this all ended up with a group of 4 or 5 shadow-men who ran around the bar harassing any 'white' avatar, calling them 'crackers' and shouting various other racist epitaphs. Fun times. I decided to leave around the time a 20 foot tall Loli in a bunny outfit started picking up random avatars and using them like puppets, shaking them around the room.

My next venture was into a "spooky" world, that was crafted like a haunted neighborhood of sorts. After showing off my Alien and Freddy Krueger avatars and talking about all things horror with a few people there, we somehow ended up all being dancing Raptors, riding on each others backs and flying through the sky on what we dubbed a Raptor Pyramid of maybe 5 people (dinosaurs). Around this point, it was already past midnight so I had to log off for the night.

These things sounds, perhaps a bit odd, but in VRChat this is the norm, and it is more fun than I can even explain. I can't wait to jump in tonight and see what wild adventures and experiences lie ahead.

DA MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done an amazing thing! It has done for movies what has been done for decades on TV. Finally! Each movie in the saga is like a new episode of the TV Show that is "The MCU." The next ‘Season Finale’ as it were, is coming in about 2 months with Avengers: End Game. These are very exciting times!

Let’s take a brief look back at how we got here and where we go from here.

How’d we get here?

Iron-Man

Where do we go from here?

I dunno

Thank you, and have a wonderful evening… oh wait, what?! You want more? Geez… Ok fine!

The concept for this ‘Universe’ of films was conceived a long time ago, in a galax… no wait, it was probably the early 2000s. Spider-Man was doing well at the box-office for Columbia Pictures, and Marvel (who foolishly sold away big chunks of their movie rights to various studios,) figured ‘hey, we should cash in on this whole ‘Superhero Movie’ business.’  Good thinking Marvel, DC has only been doing it since the 60s, way to play ketchup (catch-up ((catsup.))

But wait… there’s more. Marvel did intend on a few new variables and used their bread and butter for inspiration. No, not just their famous and infamous characters (that they still owned the rights of,) the entire concept of the comics themselves could be used in their films. Introduce Characters, Introduce more characters, get fans excited about characters, sprinkle characters from one movie into another movie, sprinkle a little more into the next movie and then BOOM, all out cross-over events and team-up movies! The concept was intriguing, potentially impossible, but intriguing.

Marvel figured, fuck it, and went about doing just this… they did Iron-Man and then Incredible Hulk, then they did Thor, then they did Captain America and to Cap it all off (get it??… Cap!?) they brought all these characters together in The Avengers. This first ‘phase’ was the test phase, and it worked. Audiences ate it up. The interconnectivity, the heroes themselves, the team-ups, the universe of it all. A winning formula was born and there was no stopping it now!

That was 2008 or 2009, and here we are 10 years later with more than 20 movies under the belt. It has been a mostly positive ride… mostly (Thor: Dark World, I’m looking at you!) 

and it has been a great service to fans who like the comics, fans who like Superheroes or just fans who like great movies in general.

We are now closing in on what is expected to be the ending of the first major chapter of the MCU, and the beginning of chapter 2. There are some characters that may not be returning, which will be disappointing, but I imagine that there are protocols in place that will alleviate the alienation of an entire fan base. Of course much of this is speculation, we don’t know for sure about anything and instead are forced to wait it out for another 2 months, desperately clinging to any kind of news and leaks we can find, all the while hoping for the best.

Avengers: Endgame, what kind of heartbreak do you plan on bringing us? What kind of joys and what kind of defeats? Are you going to kill off Tony Stark? (probably.) Are you going to sink and re-freeze Captain America? (something like that.) Will you be introducing the hard-to-tackle concept of time travel by way of the quantum realm in order to acquire past versions of infinity stones to counterattack the efforts of Thanos the Titan who’s only desire is to see the universe’s population balanced by eradication of half it’s lifeforms or introduce the even more complicated multiverse structure? (huh?)

We shall see. Here's the the MCU. Cheers!