Adam Tyner

Especially when the SNES controller was only $29.99! I can’t wrap my head around it. Well, that’s not true; Nintendo just knows people will pay. But that’s disgusting. And not even the 6 button version that changed my life as a kid. I admittedly have barely touched my Switch this year, so I guess I forgot what Switch games look like. As excited as I was in theory to see Bayonetta 3, I felt like I was watching a trailer from 2009 or something.

I’m in the same boat: your company also gave me $100 in recognition of your work. No, but this was one of my most eagerly anticipated games of the year, yet for whatever reason, my enthusiasm has cooled off. It’s not that I’ve seen or read anything that turned me off so much as the absence of really enthused reactions that I’d have expected to hear by now. I know there was that post on the PS blog, but otherwise, everything seems to have gotten awfully quiet leading up to launch, as if they unplugged the hype machine on Labor Day and forgot to plug it back in. If Kena gets really spectacular reviews or terrific word of mouth, I’m sure I’ll have it ordered before the week’s out, but I lost my itch to preorder. And I’ll admit to being a little annoyed at the lack of a physical release (at least for now) too. I’m hoping everything shakes out okay because it’s visually to die for, and its reported length of 8-10 hours is exactly what I’m in the mood for right now.

I finally arrived at a point where I only want to buy movies I’m excited about. Blood for Dracula? Terminal Island? That Scanner Cop double feature? If they were coming out this time last year, I’m sure I would’ve grabbed them without thinking twice, but I just don’t feel motivated now. Even something like Wolf of Wall St., Inglourious Basterds, or I Spit on Your Grave — all movies I’ve watched and enjoyed, although “enjoy” isn’t exactly the right word for ISoYG — I just don’t feel an itch to upgrade. The Shawshank Redemption might be there too…not sure right now. Universal Classic Monsters will depend on reviews. Labyrinth and Almost Famous, sure. Deep Red, without question. Criterion’s opening UHD salvo. Even Scream Factory’s onslaught of Halloween sequels, yeah, those are movies that mean a lot to me. Okay, not 5, but I can’t break myself of completionism that quickly! I knew my “I’ll buy anything a boutique label puts out in UHD to show my support!” had a shelf life, and I guess it’s in the rear view mirror now. And part of it is that, after nearly four years in our current place, I finally have permanent, proper movie storage. The idea is that this big bank of shelves is all I’m allotted for Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, and when it’s full, I can’t get anything new without getting rid of something else. And it was overflowing immediately, so I’ve had to cull hundreds and hundreds of movies. (I think the capacity is around 2,700 BDs.) I was already at a point where my interest in buying things out of a sense of obligation or just blindly buying anything that looked compellingly weird was diminishing, but it’s really gone now. Of titles that’ve been announced, I think Black Widow, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, From Dusk Till Dawn, Scream, The Suicide Squad, the four Criterions, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are my essential UHD pickups. (Although I’m sure there’ll be more, since the windows between announcement and release are almost non-existent anymore.) On the Blu-ray side of things, I’m looking at The Naked Spur, The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Onibaba, Trick or Treats, High Sierra, the complete Superman: TAS, Josie and the Pussycats, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, Phantom of the Mall, the huge Shawscope collection…it’s a more eclectic list than the relatively safe UHD list, but those are all titles I feel really good about wanting to have in my collection and stand a good chance of being watched more than once. I’ve fallen off gaming to a point. I think more than anything, I’m just not in a place where I want to commit 30-150 hours to any one thing right now. I’ve been sitting on FF7 Intergrade and Tokyo Mirage Sessions for months but can’t feel motivated to get started. I keep looking at P5R and AC: Valhalla on sale but the timesink just makes my stomach turn. I’m sure that’ll change at some point (since I have months’ worth of interesting games coming out in March alone!), but 2021 will not go down as one of my favorite years for gaming.

Yes, there was price parity for both of those games. Sackboy launched at $59.99 on the PS4 and $59.99 on the PS5. Miles Morales was $49.99 on the PS4 and $49.99 on the PS5 (although the Ultimate Edition was pricier).

So I guess the $64,000 question — or, errr, the $10 question — is will there be price parity between the PS4 and PS5 versions? As I write this: $59.99 - gets you the PS4 edition of H:FW with a free PS5 upgrade $69.99 - gets you the PS5 version of H:FW So unless you’re buying a physical copy and really like that white stripe on the box, what do you get for the $10 premium of buying the native PS5 version?

Good news for Sony's future cross-gen releases (although free would be better!):

Sony backtracks. Hurray!

Scream Factory is releasing Krampus, and in a never-before-seen cut!

No word yet. These announcements on Twitter rarely consist of more than the title and original poster art.

And it is indeed Some Like It Hot!

The biggest reason I think it may be Some Like It Hot is because Kino Lorber have picked up so many other Billy Wilder films (that we know there’s a 4K master sure doesn’t hurt either), but I’d be thrilled with any of the three you’ve mentioned.

KL Studio Classics just announced that In Bruges is coming to UHD BD. They're announcing a late '50s title from MGM tomorrow (Some Like It Hot?).

Thrill to 19 whole seconds worth! I was kind of a latecomer to this franchise (unless you count the boring demo on the 360), only really getting into it with III, but...geez, did I fall in love with that game. I even ponied up for the ridiculous collector's edition of IV with the Dubstep Gun replica and all that stuff. Heck, I even platinum'ed Agents of Mayhem! I'm super, super excited about this.

Okay, I knocked it out without too much trouble. 2 attempts (maybe 3?) to get through the tower-ish defense sequence, and I got through Klaw and company on my first try. The biggest things that helped for me: Familiarizing myself with the revised/terrible UI so I could choose my teammates. Although I could've sworn that I picked Kamala to double as a wrecking ball and a healer, but Cap showed up instead (along with Iron Man, per Dave's suggestion, and Hawkeye as another healer and for range attacks). I'd like to think this wasn't user error, but... It didn't really matter in the end since I was managing my health better Remembering that I could trigger that Quell effect with the Tactigon major artifact I ran through one of the HARM rooms something like 8 times to get some skill points, allocating them towards my specials (with a focus on duration/healing) The final mission went by so quickly that I do feel incredibly dumb that I just banged my head against a wall for hours on Saturday night, but whatever. Although that endless replaying did put me in a better position to just tear through it.