Games played in 2013, part 2

Continuing from part 1...

Shogun 2 Total War (PC)
A few months ago I went Total War crazy, and played this game almost non-stop for a week. I love the Total War series as a whole (though I could never get into Empire), with Rome as my favourite. I’ve played them all, starting with Shogun Total War when it first came out! Anyway, I bought this game on a Steam sale but had ignored it up until that point. It took me a little while to get into, but I ended up loving it. My first campaign game was all about getting a good trade income (by ruling the seas!) to fund my army. At some point I also captured the Black Ship (super-powerful) which made things even easier. Like most Total War games, in the end it's just you and 1 or 2 quite powerful factions. Here it was basically east versus west. I won. Result:

I was so rich by the end of the game I could just set taxes to "low" and still have an income so high I didn't even know what to do with it.
The game I'm playing now is slightly more difficult as I'm a somewhat bad starting position, I need to destroy the Hattori clan first, and three other clans are trying to invade me. Fools can't see that I'm going to be the next shogun. They will bow their heads, or it shall be separated from their body!!! Or something like that.

Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3)
I’ve only been playing this in single player so the gem system hasn’t really been bothering me that much, but I certainly could’ve done without it. Other than that I am enjoying this. Can't agree with Capcom's decision to have all the characters on disc but making you pay for an unlock key though. Especially since some of my favourite characters were "DLC" like Dudley, Elena and Blanka.

Skullgirls (PS3)
It’s a pretty good 2D fighter, I quite like the style of the game and some of the character design. The battle system feels like a mix between Guilty Gear and the vs. Capcom games. Can’t say I played it much though.

The Sims 3 (PC)
Just like with the previous two, I played this intensely for a day or two, then lost interest. Good thing I got this practically free then.

Dark Souls (X360)

I think I'm only about 1/5th through, and I really need to go back to it. I can honestly understand people saying this is their favourite game from the X360/PS3 generation, it's an extremely well-designed game with a great atmosphere.

Tales of Vesperia (X360)

Again, an RPG I abandonned before even getting halfway. I quite liked it and I still plan to go back to it when I'm in a proper RPG mood.

Dead or Alive 5 (PS3)
Apart from the second game, I’ve never been that big a fan of the DoA series (vastly prefer Virtua Fighter, SoulCalibur and even Tekken). This one is pretty good I suppose. I haven’t played it that much and most of the time I’ve been playing the story mode.

Dirt 3 (X360)
I love rally games, so the Dirt series is pretty much my only option. I liked 2, this one is alright when it sticks to actual rally stuff but anything else can DIAF. I have Dirt Showdown on steam and I’m dreading to think what that will be like. 

One good thing about the game is that you can upload your replays (or at least a short bit) on youtube. I've done that a few times, but this one is my favourite.

Zeus: Master of Olympus (PC)
From time to time I feel like playing a city building game from Impressions Games. My most played is probably Caesar III, but I’ve played most of what they released. All of their games are very similar, just set in a different part of the world or time period. This one differs from Caesar because it has quite a bit of supernatural stuff, you have to build temples to the gods to summon them. It has some improvements over Caesar gameplay-wise, but in general I still prefer Caesar III.

Metroid Prime (Wii)

I talked about this in a separate entry.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

I should've done a seperate entry about this as well, but you know. Lazy. I wanted to play this to see if it still holds up, and also because Link Between Worlds (set in the same world) was coming out later. Well, it still holds up, and it reconfirmed its status as my favourite Zelda game.

Hitman Absolution (PS3)

I... didn't like this much at first. It didn't really feel like a Hitman game to me. Maybe I should give it another chance. Maybe.

Catherine (PS3)

Another game I still need to finish. I like Vince and I like the symbolism in his dreams, but the block puzzle thing... it's not something I'm into. I do plan to get back to it though, I want to see at least one ending.

Sleeping Dogs (X360)
I finished the game when it came out, but this year I played the DLC. They’re all okay, I loved the island tournament one until that bit with the falling spike ceiling -_- 

I have to say though, Sleeping Dogs is one of my favourite open world games. Love the atmosphere and the combat. And some of the characters. Salty Crab is my kind of guy.

Puzzle Quest 2 (X360)
I can’t believe I already spent 30 hours playing this… the main game really is far too long. And to be honest, I guess I liked the first one more. 

Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
Eh, mixed feelings about this one. I still hate the on-foot controls muchly, I have such a hard time understanding people calling this the best 3DS game when it clearly has control issues. And I know it's not just me. Anyway, otherwise this is pretty enjoyable. There is a LOT of dialogue in this game though, sometimes it feels like Pitt and...that woman are constantly talking throughout the levels. I can see how that can annoy people. I tolerate it, but could have done without it. It does some things right (flying sections, weapon customisation) but it's far from a perfect game in my opinion.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (X360)

I've been playing this off and on since I got this in 2012, I also bought the Da Vince DLC and still need to finish that, otherwise the game is done. I'm still vaguely interested in Revelations, but I hear it's not that good anyway. Also have Ass Creed 3 waiting. I want to find out how bad that one is! 

Ridge Racer Unbounded (X360)
It’s Split/Second, just rebranded as a Ridge Racer for no real reason. I can’t say I enjoyed it that much to be honest (but then I don’t consider Split/Second a good game either - I'm a Blur kind of guy). Maybe I’m playing it wrong, but the fairly high difficulty was one of the things that bothered me. Anyway, didn’t have the patience to get really good at the game, I moved on to more satisfying experiences.

The Darkness (X360)
I’ve been interested in this series for a while (also bought the sequel, but haven’t played it yet). It’s a good game, I enjoyed it, especially the superpowers, and using a WWI battlefield as a representation of hell. Couldn’t care less about the mafia storyline though. Last mission was cool.

Darkstalkers Resurrection (X360)
I’ve never owned a Darkstalkers game, but I did play the third one in an arcade at some point. I liked the character design and atmosphere of the game, so I didn’t hesitate to pick up this collection. The first game hasn’t aged that well, but I still like the third one. If you need an incentive to get this, it’s basically Street Fighter with mummies, zombies, vampires and Bigfoot.

Samurai Shodown Sen (X360)
It’s a bad, bad game, but I love everything Samurai Shodown, so from time to time I go back to this. It’s still cool to cut off your opponent’s hand :D

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (X360)
This is actually a really, really great sports sim. The gameplay at least - when it comes to content this is pretty bare bones. If you haven't played it and have even a vague interest in table tennis, you should pick this up. 

Pandora's Tower (Wii)

Played this at the start of the year, but quickly abandoned it for other games :( Really need to go back to it, it quite liked some of the mechanics (some of it has a very Castlevania-like feel) and it's really not a bad game.

Fable III (PC)
This game seems to get a lot of hate, but I had some fun with it. It's inferior to 1 and 2, it hardly has any difficulty, and it's pretty linear experience. But c'mon, it has Stephen Fry and John Cleese!!! ...Not enough? Fine. Well I for one didn't think it was as bad as the reputation it got.

Galaga Legions DX (PS3)
This is a pretty fun game, I played the DS version but I prefer this one. It's not like classic Galaga at all, but I like it.

Sonic The Fighters (X360)
Lol.

Fighting Vipers (X360)
See this was a game I loved in the arcades, though mostly because you could smash people's face in with a guitar, and I loved doing that final hard attack that sends them through the stage enclosure. So I'm happy they released it again. Gameplay is basic of course, and the AI is pretty hard, but I still had some fun with it. 

That's about it I think. Later this week: GOTY 2013!

Games played in 2013: part one

I've played around 50 games in 2013, and I wanted to write a word about every one of them. Well, I ended up writing more than just a word, so I'll have to do this in two parts to prevent endless scrolling. I'll also do a separate entry for games released in 2013 (a sort of GOTY post) in a week or so. For now, these are the games I've been playing in the past year...

Okami HD (PS3)

I wanted to do this one first because it might just be my favourite game I played in 2013. I played it on the PS2 when it came out, but I gave up towards the end (this happens a lot to me when playing long adventures or RPGs). Firstly, the bad stuff: the game is overly long, in the sense that people name it the “Okami Trilogy”. The game is basically cut up in three parts and definitely offers value for money if that’s what you’re after. However, a fair bit of your time will be spent on unskippable walls of text.

For me though, the good outweighs the bad by far. It has to be said, the game looked great on PS2 and absolutely stunning in HD. It brings out the world, art and characters even more (though admittedly it does show its PS2 origins in some places). It's just so damned charming, how they use Japanese mythology in the game, the interactions between Issun and Amaterasu, the flowers that bloom when Amaterasu is running... it's a lot of little things that make me really love this game.

I really like the battle system as well, combat never felt like a chore to me. Gotta love fighting with rosaries.

Anyway, I fell in love with game and just had to see and do everything there is to see and do in this game. In the end, the only thing I still had to do was catch some fish to get my Platinum trophy, so I did that. And it only took me about 50 hours to get absolutely everything in the game.
Also, this game is a perfect fit for the WiiU gamepad. Why hasn't this happened yet :(

Borderlands 2 (PS3)

Been playing this for a couple of hours and I’m up to chapter 6. I quite liked the first Borderlands, but played it so much that by the time Borderlands 2 came out, I had no interest in it. But now that it’s on PS+, I had to give it a go. I still like the gameplay and especially the game world, but some parts already feel like a drag. I’m playing as Zer0, and so far it’s a pretty boring class. I should’ve gone with the Siren-like girl for single player...

Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed (360)

This is -such- a good kart racer, really. The online is pretty smooth, and there’s plenty of single player content. It offers a good challenge as well, especially if you want to unlock everything.

Faerie Solitaire (PC)

I’ve played this for over 14 hours now and I still haven’t decided if it’s a good game. It is addicting though...

Top Spin 4 (360)

I’ve been playing this off and on since it came out, and it really is the best tennis sim ever. I’ve had so many good and even epic matches, and it’s still a joy to play. Nowadays I just play “real” matches (best of 5 sets, 6 games), on hard (medium is piss easy). Last three matches I played were Djokovic-Nadal at Roland Garros (won 6-1, 6-0, 6-4!!), Murray-Djokovic at Aus Open (lost in 4 sets) and Nadal-Djokovic at Aus open (close first set, 2 other sets were easily won). I guess I should try very hard next but from what I remember it’s almost impossible to win. It’s a good thing that even on hard, the AI makes (fairly) realistic mistakes, like double faulting, or overcharging a shot so it goes out. There even seems to be such a thing as momentum swings in the game.

My new favourite thing in this game is luring baseliners like Nadal to the net with a well-placed drop shot, then do a nice lob that makes them run backwards but can't return. It’s hard to pull off but It’s beautiful (...and somewhat humiliating, hah) when it happens. For this reason I hope you can record matches, or at least replays of certain shots in the next gen version. Though I doubt there will be one :(

Forza Horizon (360)

Got this in a sale, I was somewhat interested when it came out, but having not played any Forza games I was hesitant to jump in. I’m happy I did, it’s easily one of the best racers in recent years. Beautiful game as well. Finished the game in single player and had fun. Tried some multiplayer, with mixed results, as I really don’t have the patience to get good at it.

I bought the Rally expansion recently, which was really pretty good (do I sound too surprised? heh), but a bit short.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360)

Recently bought on sale, I already have MvC3 on PS3 so I was waiting for a price drop on Ultimate. I haven’t been playing with the new characters that much, so far Ghost Rider seems to be pretty good. I also love the Galactus mode, for me that is actually the best addition! I also got Jill and Shuma-Gorath, Jill’s pretty good but I’m loving Shuma-Gorath…but then I’ve always loved the character in the vs. games. Oh and let’s not forget Amaterasu is in this as well :)

Mortal Kombat (PS3)

I bought the game on Xbox 360 when it came out, but now I have it on PS3 through PS+. I went through the story mode again recently and loved it. It gets pretty crazy/stupid at the end, but otherwise I really liked it. I’d say that overall this game is the best fighter on Xbox360/PS3 when it comes to single player content. Story mode, Mission mode, tag team mode… only thing it doesn’t have is a kart racer, amirite?

Euro Truck Simulator 2 (PC)

I’ve been interested in this ever since I saw it appearing on Steam. It’s quite a weird game, in that it can be hyper-realistic (parking your truck in reverse is a bitch) but also has stuff that puts you out of the illusion of being real (that’s not how motorways look in France and Belgium!). I haven’t played it that much, I still need to start up my own company, right now I’m just doing random assignments to get some cash. I’ll definitely get back to this at some point.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3)

Again one of those games I already own on X360, but thanks to PS+ I got this on PS3 as well. I recently played it for a couple of hours, I still quite like it, but not enough to go through the entire game. I’ll probably go back to it at some point… in a way it definitely scratches an itch I didn’t know I had!

Poker Night 2 (PS3)

I’m happy I’m not the only one complaining how janky this game is. I seem to have a slow hard drive or something, the game saves after each round, and sometimes the game freezes for about 5 - 10 seconds. It’s rather awful. Otherwise I have no complaints on the game (other than the fact that it’s pretty hard for a poker noob like me).

Age of Empires II HD (PC)

I pre-ordered this on Steam, but like many I was pretty disappointed with it overall. It was very buggy at first, it’s better now but overall I’m really not impressed. At least it’s steamworks so some of the things they removed (mostly small graphics thingies, but still) can be brought back through mods.

Orcs Must Die 2 (PC)

One of many games in my steam backlog, I gave it a go a couple of months ago. I like these “trap” games but they can never really hold my attention for long.

Hotline Miami (PS3)

A re-play since I own it on steam and it was one of my favourite games of 2013. The love has kind of cooled down though - the best thing about the game isn’t the gameplay but the soundtrack.

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa (PS3)

My country was doing great in the qualifications for the 2014 World Cup, so I felt like playing a football game. And this is the only one I own… If the new World Cup game is a separate release, I’ll probably buy it again.

...Part 2 soon!

Pokémon X/Y

The last Pokémon game I bought was Black 2 - and I gave up playing it after about 8 hours. I tried going back to it shortly before X/Y released, but still it didn't click with me. Don't really know why. I guess the Pokémon available in the early part of the game weren't my thing. Then I went back to Pokémon HeartGold (the game I bought before Black 2) and somehow I ended up playing that for another 2 or 3 hours. Whenever I feel like playing Pokémon I'll probably go back to HeartGold, I'm only halfway in that one.

Anyway. X/Y. Even though I didn't feel Black 2, I was still super-hyped for X/Y. And, for once, the hype was justified. I'd say this is my favourite Pokémon game, for a lot of reasons. A great selection of Pokémon, good online features, nice art style, the music (seriously...so good), and a lot of little reasons that all add up to the experience (I loved the France-inspired setting for example).
As for the bad things: there are frequent frame drops and slowdown throughout the game, in and out of battles. Putting on 3D makes it even worse. Gamefreak have never been technical wizards, and performance-wise this really could be a lot better. I like the graphics because of the artstyle, but technically, this game is a little undercooked.
Other than that, at times the menus and text feel very slow and old-fashioned, it's a minor issue for me, but I think things can be a lot more intuitive.

As for my team/play style: I picked Froakie as starter, and Charmander as second starter. My pre-Xerneas team consisted of Pancham, Gardevoir and Tyrunt. Towards the end of the game, Xerneas was my main, Greninja and Charizard as back up (I honestly overlevelled all three of them, making the game too easy), and I had a decent Doublade/Aegislash. That's the team I beat the Elite Four and Champion with.
This game has too many Pokémon I like. I wanted Mawile on my team, and did that damn glittering cave at least 40 times before I could catch one, but then realised I don't really need a steel/fairy type. Also, there are too many good water Pokémon. When available I always have Gyarados on my team, but now I didn't need him at all. I love Psyduck as well - again, not needed. I love the Clauncher/Clawitzer design, one of my favourite new Pokémon. Do I need him? No. I still went fishing for Claunchers and put them on Wonder Trade, heh. And, not a water Pokémon, but I evolved Fletchling into Talonflame and loved the design, but I really couldn't have 2 fire/flying 'mon on my team... seriously, too many good Pokémon. Bring back the crappy Pokémon from Black 2! (okay not really)

I mentioned Wonder Trade in passing, but really, I love that feature. Okay, a lot of times I got a Fletchling or Pikachu or Weedle, all level 5 or under, but I got some good stuff as well. And lots of Charmanders for some reason, hmm. But it's one of my favourite new features, it's very addicting.

I've played the game for about 85 hours in a little over two weeks - my 3DS stats tell me I played the game for about 10 hours in one day, so, uhh, yeah. I might have had a minor addiction. But I really had fun with it, even with the silly minigames. It's also the first Pokémon game I finish (I'm pretty horrible at finishing RPGs), so yeah. You can understand why I'd call this my favourite Pokémon game. And it's probably my game of the year as well.

Anyway, I only wanted to write a small review - I failed at that but I still want to share some pics and comment on them:

Awesome product placement.

Best Starter.

Best second starter. Called him Doomfire. One of two pokémons I actually gave a name (the other one was my Onix who I named Nixon)

"another think"? 

I wasn't too sure about picking X over Y, but once Xerneas became part of my team, he became my main guy -- uh, thing. Awesome design and moveset. 

How about this huh? All six starters (and a Bulbasaur with an indentity crisis - thanks wonder trade!)

As with every game, it has random creepy/funny comments from NPCs. I also loved the guy who was obsessed with shorts. 

Right, that's all for now!

Grand Theft Auto V - pics and impressions

I'm about 30 hours into GTA V, enjoying most of my time, but having a few issues with it.
Biggest issue, by far, is that it mostly still plays like GTAIV. Or if I want to be really mean, GTA III. Rockstar have done a great job at making a big, (mostly) believable world, with some great characters and dialogue, but the actual gameplay has changed very little since the first 3D GTA. About the only innovation is the 3 main characters, and most times that really works and is a great addition. What else is new? Umm...let's see...

I'm not saying every single instalment of the GTA series should be a completely new experience, but, for me at least, this formula is getting old. I hope that for a next gen GTA, the Rockstar guys really think long and hard on what they want to do next, and build everything from the ground up.
For me, it's hard to understand how many people say "GTA IV was crap, but GTA V is great!" Like I said, the only big change is the 3 main characters, and the setting. That's it. The same issues I had with GTA IV are still in GTA V. Crappy shooting, boring driving, crappy mission structures (at least there's a decent checkpoint system), "random events" that are the same from previous games, and more. Right now I'd say GTA V is the better game, but it's not like it's an immensely huge improvement.

Since GTA IV, I've played Just Cause 2, Saint's Row the 3rd and Sleeping Dogs, and they all did things better than GTA IV and now GTA V. I have to agree with this Kotaku article about "the minimap game" and how the games I mentioned handle this much better. Actually, in general, I still prefer Sleeping Dogs, mostly because of the combat and how your character didn't move/feel so sluggish like in all of the GTA games. And c'mon, what is this "tap A/X to run" crap? That is PS2 level gameplay in 2013, I'm surprised so few people call the game out on outdated gameplay concepts like this.

Anyway, I know I'm complaining a lot, but it's because I care! Or something. I am enjoying myself, and it's impressive how much Rockstar squeezed out of ageing hardware, but I can't see this being my personal game of the year.

One of the fun things you can do is take pics in the game that automatically get uploaded on the Rockstar Social Club website. I'll share a few here:

My Franklin, modelled after Benjamin Sisko, posing in front of his crib.

This is how my Trevor looks (more or less based on a pic of his voice actor).

Glitch dog. Very disturbing as it was flopping all over itself. It untangled itself when his owner crossed the street though. 

Paparazzi shot. 

Franklin enjoying the great outdoors.

Michael taking a selfie with his favourite Republican Space Ranger.

Aghr, zombies!

"I can lengthen your penice"

Top GROSSing. 

More to follow. Maybe.

Metroid Prime

I bought Metroid Prime Trilogy for Wii some years ago (really cheap in fact), but never played the games. So last week I decided to give it a go, and do a replay of Metroid Prime.

I had to get used to playing with the Wiimote and nunchuk, and even at the end of the game I kept confusing the visor and weapon buttons (plus and minus on the Wiimote). It was simpler on the Gamecube, you could change visor with the d-pad and weapons were on the c-stick I think. Anyway, overall it's not something that took away any enjoyment of the game.

And what a game it is. It's always been in my top 10 of best games ever, and I thought that playing through it again would change my perception of it a little bit... after all, it's 10 years old, and a lot of 3D games generally don't age that well... But this is Metroid Prime. The gameplay is still great, the graphics are good, though showing their age in certain aspects (mud and water textures, not a lot of detail on enemies). The gameplay is still fairly unique, you can't really compare it to a "normal" FPS with how the (sort of) open world works, the morph ball puzzles, etc. It really is its own breed. I think Retro did an awesome job of transferring the Super Metroid feel to 3D.

No game is perfect though. The Phazon Mines section at the end of the game is easily the worst area of the game. There is some backtracking to be done - which in the worst case is a cheap way of prolonging the game, but at least going through the world again is not too bad since you have new abilities and can go hunting for energy tanks and missile expansions before taking on the last bosses. I started looking for the artifacts very early, but you can only get all of them once you have the power bomb, grapple beam and X-ray visor.

But I consider those only minor criticisms, the game is beautiful, the game is well-designed and really clever in places, the music is great (my personal favourite tracks are the 2 Phendrana Drifts songs and the Drowned Frigate), and the atmosphere, something I'm very sensitive to in a game, is amazing.

I finished the game in 13h23, with 79% of the items. If I remember correctly, that included 190 missiles, 12 energy tanks, and 5 power bombs. That's what I found without using any help from Gamefaqs or the like. I could've made more of an effort I guess, but towards the end of the game I really wanted to take on the final bosses. The Meta Ridley boss fight was great, and quite difficult. The end boss (not going to say who/what it is, spoilers! Which is funny because it's in the titl... nevermind!) was much easier, and a little less fun to beat maybe. Still, there are no bad bosses in this game.

So after this playthrough, 10 years after my first, my feelings for this game haven't changed that much. If anything, I love it even more, it stood the test of time much better than I thought. Who said this again; a great game is a great game forever? Well, Metroid Prime was a great game 10 years ago and it still is today. It's easily one of my favourite games of all time.


As for my history with the Metroid Prime franchise: I actually bought my Gamecube when Metroid Prime came out here in Europe, I got this bundle (and got Eternal Darkness for free - which I also loved). And yes, it included this "name plate" - as you can see both my Gamecube and the name plate are still intact:

I bought that exactly ten and a half years ago...!

And over the years, my Metroid Prime collection grew...

I still haven't finished 2 by the way. From the start I never liked it as much as 1, and I think there was some frustrating/difficult boss in the game, I just gave up and moved on to other games... I'll start over with the Trilogy version some time later this year. I liked Corruption more than 2, I'll play that one as well to see if I still like it.

About the Metroid Prime Trilogy "collector's edition": it has a neat little booklet with the Metroid Prime story (all three games, how they start and how the end) and some cool art work:

That's all for now! I did a replay of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past earlier this month so I might do a short review of that as well soon.

Normal updating will resume shortly

Seems like I scared off everyone reading this blog once I started talking about Lego, but don't fear! I'll do more videogame talk in the coming months, and I have a seperate Lego blog if anyone here is interested: toomuchlegodude.blogspot.com 

Rocky Horror Picture Show at the cinema!!

"Tell us about it Janet!" 

There's this film festival in my home town, Ostend. It's not that special, and in the past 5 years, I might have gone to three shows - and one (2 eps of a Battlestar Galactica season I think) got cancelled, so yeah. In fact, the first year was probably their best year as they had a lot more variety than they do now.
Anyway - a few days ago I randomly discovered they're showing Rocky Horror Picture Show. Later I found out the reason; Peter Suschitzky, who was the director of photography on this, is one of the guests this year.

There wasn't much info on the site, so I wasn't sure if this was going to be a 'special' showing where they encourage audience interaction, or a normal one. Being in Belgium, and in a boring seaside town, I had my money on a normal showing, with hardly anyone showing up, and -maybe- some people dressing up. Also, the show was at 5.15PM, on a weekday, so it wouldn't really attract a lot of out-of-towners.

But whatever. I put on the fanciest clothes I could find (going for the narrator look, but not quite succeeding) and off I go. Choosing the fanciest mode of transportation - the coastal tram! Got my ticket. Got into the room 10 minutes before the start. Near empty, so I take a spot somewhere in the middle. More people come in, far more than expected. Lots of young girls for some reason? A lot of them sit right behind me, boo. Also... a group of people dressed up! Well... most of them were just wearing cheap colourful carnival wigs and whatnot over their regular clothes. Well it's the thought that counts, and I was curious if they would be using any props. They were sitting in the back row, so I turned my head during the wedding scene, and yup! They were throwing rice! They did the usual stuff as far as I could see/hear. I think it might have annoyed the more serious people - I mean if you're new to RHPC it might just seem like a few drunk people causing a ruckus, and randomly shining flashlights at the screen! (of course it's not random, but if this is the first time seeing the film you might not get all the links!)

As for me, probably to the shock and amusement of the schoolgirls behind me, I sang - badly of course - along with a few songs, laughed at a lot of the little things that amuse me (and those are plentiful), and had a great time, even on my lonesome. I noticed a few details I hadn't noticed on previous viewings; the bigger screen certainly helped. The "nipslips" (surely this movie invented them?) are far more noticeable on a large screen as well heh.

They stopped the projection during the credits because they had a "surprise" - the director of photography was actually there!! We could ask him questions - this being Boring Belgium, no-one had a question of course. I had a lame back-up question but was too embarrassed to ask, and of course on my way home I think up a good one, that's typically Tem. ...I've forgotten it already though. And that's just old age.

Anyway - one of the guys at the back, who I'm pretty sure was the guy who laughed at basically everything, but especially Frank seducing Brad and Janet separately but in the exact same way - said he already did a show like this in Germany, which had a lot more people participating - well duh, I doubt that one was on a Wednesday afternoon in a little town. I've also learned that the girls sitting behind me were high school girls accompanied by their teacher!!! Funny. One of the girls complained that this isn't the sort of movie their teacher should take them to. She has a point in a way, but then again not - even if you don't "get" it overall, it has quite a few themes that can make a good class discussion. As for being inappropriate, in high school I saw Trainspotting (English class) and A Clockwork Orange (Ethics) which probably also aren't movies you should see as a teen. Then again, maybe you should, as I got older I got to see both of those in a different light, learned how to 'read between the lines' and actually get them.
And both are now two of my favourite movies of all time.

They might not have been if there wasn't some sort of learning process involved. I'm going quite off-topic with this but there was a discussion on my favourite/most hated (it's both) forum on the internet, NeoGAF, about Fight Club. Someone said it's a different movie when you watch it as a teen and then watch it again in your twenties or later. I have to agree with this. When I was a teen I liked A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club because of the violence, yo dude violence is cool hur hur. But then later I started appreciating movies in different ways, and I started to get the messages I missed as a teen. Nowadays, I can both enjoy the gratuitous violence in these movies (I am still a boy after all), AND understand the underlying (or actually super-obvious) themes.
It probably also helps that all four of the movies I mentioned here are coming-of-age stories, which I quite like in general. Coming-of-age stories in a very twisted way, maybe, but think about it. (actually a lot of my favourite movies seem to have coming-of-age elements in them - Amélie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Let the Right One in, just to name three more)

Back on topic - I had a great time and I'm happy I went even if I couldn't find any friends to go with. My friends in London are also fans and want to take me along to something like this, complete with dressing up, participating and everything. The hardest part is finding a date that suits all of us. It will happen though. Eventually. Don't dream it...