Cenobites and Werewolves

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Good Morning Friends! I hope you all had a most excellent weekend. This weekend was more dedicated to watching films than to playing much in the way of games. I kept up my daily Tower of Fantasy and New World activity and spent quite a bit more time in Night City but the key activities centered around three movies that I had been looking forward to watching. As a result, most of this post is going to be me trying to give my best spoiler-free impressions of each.

Hellraiser (2022) – Hulu

I have to admit that going into this movie I was deeply confused as to what it actually was. I thought it was a series and I thought it was intended to be a reboot of the franchise. In truth, it is neither of these things. Instead of a series, we are treated to a full-length movie, and honestly one of the better ones so far in the Hellraiser franchise. Essentially for me, the first three films in the original series are pretty good, with the third one being more a matter of taste than the first two. While I enjoyed Hellraiser Bloodlines because it felt like it book ended the story, it is also a deeply subjective thing and most people think it was the beginning of the end. Everything that came after was released directly to home video and can largely be skipped unless you are a glutton for punishment… but it might be more enjoyable to ACTUALLY summon the Cenobites than to watch those films.

This Hulu Hellraiser does a great job of walking a very narrow path between being completely new and unique… while still largely being complimentary to everything that came before it. Nothing in the movie outright contradicts the things that we already knew, and more than anything just fleshes out and expands the universe. The new designs for Pinhead and the other Cenobites are exquisite, and I am extremely obsessed with the one that is apparently being referred to as the Weeper. Jamie Clayton does an excellent job of playing Pinhead and they seem way more like “Dark Angels” than the original designs. If you were a big fan of the original, and especially the extended lore that surrounded them… then I think you will probably enjoy yourself as well.

Werewolf by Night (2022) – Disney Plus

I’ve been looking forward to this movie for so long and more than anything… the Werewolf by Night character joining the MCU. I think we are likely setting ourselves up for maybe a Dark Avengers at some point in the future. I loved these comics as a kid because like I talked about on Friday… the movie Lost Boys and my desire to find the comics in that film… led me down a rabbit hole of diving into all of the Marvel horror comics. The film itself is this delightful noir affair that harkens back to the “Universal Monsters” series of black-and-white films. It also has some pretty great comedic moments and introduces another of my favorite characters the monster that is being hunted.

I am really hesitant to go into much more detail because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I have a feeling that everyone is going to love Ted.

Day Shift (2022) – Netflix

To be completely honest, after the first two… Day Shift is a bit of a drop in quality. That is not to say it is not an extremely enjoyable movie, but it just hits differently. The Day Shift is essentially a buddy cop meets modern vampire hunter story. The positive is you get to see Snoop and Jamie Foxx as vampire hunters. The negative is the vampires themselves are not terribly interesting. There are elements of the film that feel like they have been borrowed from simply better stories. Again I am not bashing the film because I enjoyed it quite a bit, just trying to temper your expectations. The big takeaway from this film is that I really want to see Snoop in a Western as a gunslinger-type character. Jamie Foxx is a talented enough actor that he can make even the most milquetoast story entertaining to watch. Had this movie come out in the 90s, we would have loved it because it feels like a product of that cinematic generation.

Other than that I am winding my way down toward the end of this Cyberpunk playthrough. I am stalling out the main story so I can spend more time in each of the neighborhoods knocking out side quests. there is a ton of content that I never saw in my first playthrough, in part because I was hooked on the main narrative path and wanted to see it through to the conclusion. Now that I know the story and several of the alternate endings… I can take my time and spend more time just engaging with the streets and what they have to offer. There are quests that I have not found yet that I remember fondly, but cannot remember what triggered them. Essentially questing away in Night City has been a delightful diversion while waiting on the New World patch drop coming up on the 18th.

AggroChat #407 – Horror and Greed

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Featuring: Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Thalen

We talk about the controversy burning through the Magic the Gathering community of Wizards selling random boosters of unplayable proxies for $250 a pop.  We talk a bit about how this has triggered condemnation from players and the finance community.  From there Grace talks a bit about the Halloween event going on in Ooblets and the costumes you can earn by playing.  Kodra talks about how maybe Mario Odyssey is a bridge too far regarding control scheme complexity for speed run tactics.  We finally have a date for the New World Brimstone Sands patch release and we talk a bit about our plans, and how Amazon is seemingly bungling things again by not having the “Fresh Start” servers ready until November.  We talk a little bit about video game redemption stories and how the tales of FFXIV and No Man’s Sky are seemingly way more common than they used to be.  Finally, we dive into a discussion about Horror Films brought on by Bel’s recent series of top ten lists by sub-genre.

Topics Discussed

  • Magic the Gathering Money Grab
    • 30th Anniversary Proxy Set
    • $1000 for 60 cards
  • Ooblets Halloween Event
  • Mario Odyssey Control Scheme Complexity
  • New World Brimstone Sands on 10/18
    • Our reroll plans
    • Bungling Fresh Start Servers
  • Video Game Redemption Stories
  • An Ode to Horror Films
    • Bel’s Top Ten Lists
    • Science Fiction and Horror

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ten Favorite Vampire Films

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Good Morning Friends! This morning I am going to continue this “season of spoop” series where I dive into some of my favorite movies in horror subgenres. Earlier this week I gave you my rundown of zombie films, and today I am going to talk about the much sexier undead… Vampires. This list was shockingly hard to narrow down because I kept fiddling with one or two places swapping movies in and out of the list until I finally landed on the ten that I am happy with. Suffice it to say that vampires and vampire hunters are well-trodden ground when it comes to horror films. As someone who spent countless hours playing Vampire the Masquerade, this topic is very near and dear to my heart… so I hope you won’t ram a stake through it.

Again these are not necessarily in any particular order but I will be closing out the list with a few of my absolute favorites.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Much like a Zombie list has to include Night of the Living Dead, a Vampire list must pay homage to the original Bram Stoker tale that largely canonized the mythos for western society. There are many versions of this tale in cinema form, but it is highly unlikely there will ever be one quite so baroquely lavish as the 1992 rendition by Francis Ford Coppola. I have a feeling that this film was a bisexual awakening for many as it just exudes raw passion at times. If you ever have the chance you should totally check out the Mike Mignola comic adaptation from the short-lived Tops Comics imprint because it brings really plays with the over-the-top designs that this film brought forward.

John Carpenter’s Dracula

With Vampires comes the presence of hunters and hunter-focused movies. There are so many phenomenal ones, but one of my personal favorites has always been Vampires from 1998. Growing up Catholic, there has always been a certain amount of romance about thinking about the Vatican as a force that sanctions monster hunters. At its core, this is a prime John Carpenter film, and it has the same quirky irreverent flavor that his protagonists often do. I also have this thing for the whole concept of roaming packs of vampires preying on the outskirts of society.

Fright Night

I love this film, and honestly, I am surprised it does not get talked about more often. There was a not-amazing remake some years ago featuring Colin Farrell and the late Anton Yelchin, but for me, the best version is the 1985 rendition. Vampires in suburbia is another interesting trope, and this movie carries that out beautifully as bad things are happening under the nose of your average small-town folks. The special effects do not hold up to modern scrutiny… but it was a simpler time. I remember NOW Comics had a phenomenal run of Fright Night comics that originally retold the movie and then picked up continuing the tale from that point forward.

Underworld

I think the hardest part of the list was trying to determine which Underworld and Blade films I might include, and ultimately I landed on ONLY including the first Underworld film and unfortunately completely skipping Blade. For me, the film series will forever be connected because they are this latex-suit industrial-metal Matrix-infused Vampire action. While I enjoy all of the Underworld films collectively, I think the first one is still the best because it does not require you to watch the previous films to understand. As the series continued it felt more and more derivative, and while this was great for existing fans… the whole hierarchy of the Vampire and Lycan worlds and which period of time we happened to be in got a little fuzzy. Still a great series if you have never watched them, thought not exactly what I would consider a scary viewing experience.

Night Watch

I went back and forth on whether or not to include this film, because while Vampires absolutely play heavily into the unfinished trilogy, it is more akin to a Russian Nightbreed than anything else. Not knowing where else I might fit this movie however led me to slot it into the Vampire list. This is one of the most creative and lavish visions of the conflict between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. It very much comes across as a dark faerie tale as opposed to something clinging to the western Dracula tradition, and honestly… that makes it so much more compelling. As I said before this is part of an unfinished trilogy of movies but if you enjoy this I would highly suggest checking out Day Watch as well. Dusk Watch sadly seems to be completely dead in the water.

What We Do In The Shadows

Yes, this is a comedy, but it is also one of the best Vampire films ever created. There are a number of “funny” vampire films, but most of them are pure shit. This however is high art and has so many absolute genius performances. This has also turned into a series on FX that is in its fourth season. Taika Watiti is brilliant as always but my favorite will always be Matt Berry’s Laszlo Cravensworth. I am a huge fan of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace so I am just generally partial to Matt Berry characters. Definitely start with the movie and if you enjoy it, then consume the series posthaste.

Interview With The Vampire

I am a product of my age and this movie was released during my freshman year in college. I had read several of the Anne Rice books and was still deeply into Vampire the Masquerade, so you know this movie meant quite a lot to me. I still don’t exactly agree with Tom Cruise as Lestat but whatever… the movie was still enjoyable. I’ve not had a chance to watch any of the new series that retells the tale, but it is on my list of things to do over the “season of spoop”. Brad Pitt as Louis is still delectable. I used to roleplay as a vampire on Undernet IRC and I was deeply into the family dynamic of these stories, and wish I still was in contact with the folks who used to roleplay as my “childer”.

Innocent Blood

This film does not get near the attention it deserves. Another aspect of Vampires that I have always loved is the ones who only feed on those who deserve to die. This is a tale of mob violence told through the vignette of a huntress slowly taking down “the family”. There are aspects that do not hold up… like the special effects but this comes from the pedigree of being directed by John Landis. The movie also has a bit of a buddy cop meets rom-com vibe as our vampire joins forces with a cop to take down some accidental vampire mobsters. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is currently on any of the streaming services, and you will have to digitally rent it. It has been years since I have seen it so I might need to track down the DVD.

Lost Boys

This movie came out when I was eleven and I probably did not actually get to watch it until I was twelve or thirteen… but when I did it heavily influenced pretty much everything about me going forward. This is the film that made me completely hooked on Vampires. I was convinced as a kid that the comics shown in this movie were real, and went on a quest to try and find them… only to find out that they were simply props but that lots of other horror comics existed. This movie is VERY 80s, but I completely love the style of the vampires and the cool lair that they live in. This is probably the only movie that had “The Two Coreys” that still hold up today. I remember having a massive crush on Star… as did pretty much everyone. I think the Grandpa however will always be the best character. Phenomenal movie and maybe an even better soundtrack. Cry Little Sister is a truly iconic theme song.

Near Dark

This is the best vampire film you have ever seen… or at least very few have actually seen it. This film absolutely is in contention for my favorite vampire film. What if I were to tell you that there was a Vampire film that included the best actors from Aliens, and was set here in Oklahoma? This tale goes in a lot of interesting directions but largely follows the story of a fledgling being inducted into this little tribe. Instead of relying on fangs, these vampires have to use more conventional methods of feeding off their victims like slicing them open with a razor. Instead of staying in one place, they travel around the country in a blacked-out RV to protect themselves from sunlight. The feel of the movie is deeply compatible with a roaming band of Kindred and I’ve always thought something like this would work extremely well for a Vampire the Masquerade setting. I think Shudder now owns the streaming rights to the film and I consider this a must-watch for anyone interested in Vampires because it is such a unique feeling take on the genre.

More To Come

Like I said at the start this one was really hard to narrow down to ten. There are so many great vampire films out there, and I am sure I have missed many of your favorites. Feel free to contest my decisions in the comments below. I am not sure where I am going from here, but maybe slasher films are the next sub-genre I tackle. As I am piecing things together in my head, there is absolutely a category of horror films that defy categorization. Not sure what I will do with those if I decide to tackle them at all.

Brimstone Sands is Soon

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We have an official date for the New World Brimstone Sands update and with it, we have been sorting out our thoughts regarding the planned reroll. I thought I would update you fine folks that read my blog in case you also want to join along in this nonsense. Essentially Brimstone Sands includes an entire new endgame region of the map, the new Greatsword weapon, a brand new starter experience, and significant improvements to the questing, leveling, and crafting processes. I spent quite a bit of time on the PTR and got to around level 45 before backing off and deciding to wait for the patch to drop.

One of the things that I feel like you need to understand going into this is that I do not take my planned re-roll lightly. At present, I have 868.9 total hours of gameplay in New World with 767.3 on the live server and 101.6 on the PTR. I have three trade skills leveled all of the ways up to 200 and all of my harvesting and refining professions have gone past 200 and are into the aptitude cache levels. I have every strength-based weapon capped at level 20 and every piece of armor at 600 expertise or higher and every strength-based weapon at 600 expertise or higher. I’ve also crafted myself a full set of Heavy Void Bent armor and could pretty much tackle any content in the game. Essentially I will be walking away from a lot of work.

The new player experience for the game has improved so much, that I am actually giddy at the thought of walking away from all of that… and starting over from scratch. I had so much fun playing around on the PTR and experiencing the new quest lines and the flow of the content, that it really does present the game in a completely different light. I know my early focus is going to be getting my crafting up, specifically armoring and weapon crafting so I can start making end-game gear. Essentially it is a do-over because I now understand how a lot of the systems work and can be a bit more efficient in my processes. Additionally, there is the chance for all of us to finally end up on the same server… which was a huge reason why so many bounced at launch. The fragmentation of communities was awful.

There have been a staggering number of changes that have gone into the game since launch, and if you have not been playing through them… it honestly might be shocking just how much has changed. I am not going to cover them all, especially when one of my favorite New World creators has done an excellent job doing it for me. However the quality of life and flow of the game is much improved, and little things like dungeon keys or quests requiring you to run with a group of players on that step of the chain gating your process are a thing of the past. Additionally, storage and travel are largely not a problem either, meaning you can get out into the world and freely explore rather than feeling chained to either Everfall or Windsward.

Contemplating a return has caused me to put in a lot of thought regarding WHERE to return. You can only have one character on each World Set, and since a large number of us are now on Valhalla due to server mergers that lockout Arkadia Eta pending we don’t delete characters. While I am amped about a reroll, I don’t want to go so far as to delete my OG main. Additionally, there are new servers being created that don’t allow for transfers but given that there might be people who want to join in the fun later and transfer a character… I don’t want to lock out that possibility. This has me eyeing the Arkadia Zeta World Set and more specifically Themiscyra. It is currently the smallest in that world set, and as such, I am hoping will be able to survive relatively queueless any returning and new players looking for a home.

When mergers do happen it will also mean we will be collapsed more than likely into Eden, which is the largest server in that world set. I figure while leveling trades and such we would do better to be on a server with less competition. There isn’t going to be a lot that you can’t simply go out into the world and get for yourself, and given how prevalent reagents are these days and that you start collecting your endgame reagents at level 1… you should not need to hit the market boards too terribly hard. Since leveling no longer relies solely on the town board quests, that is less of an issue as well. Towns in general seem to be easier to upgrade and maintain so I feel by the time we need them, there will be plenty of Tier 5 crafting machines available and the cross-town storage will allow you to move wherever you need to for those combines.

So there you have it… on October 18th when the new patch drops I will be re-rolling on Themiscyra aka the Wonder Woman server… though DC spells the island name differently. If you want to join in the nonsense, hit me up and let me know. We have no aspirations of holding territory and largely plan on being entirely focused on the PVE game. I think the hardest-core shenanigans we will get up to are some dungeons, especially now that they don’t cost anything to run. Our biggest hope is just to be able to hang out and play with a group of people reliably on the same server. New World appears to be on a rebound trajectory and I am hoping that they can pull this off.