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Old 12-14-2013, 07:47 PM   #26
Talon87
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I meant the book, right. I realize I could read the book now ... but since I still haven't, I figured it'd be more fun to watch the three movies once they're all out.

You're sure there's nothing near the beginning when Butters is telling the guys about what he saw? I paused it right there.
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Old 12-14-2013, 07:52 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
I meant the book, right. I realize I could read the book now ... but since I still haven't, I figured it'd be more fun to watch the three movies once they're all out.

You're sure there's nothing near the beginning when Butters is telling the guys about what he saw? I paused it right there.
This is kind of off topic for the thread, but I'd really recommend reading the book first. Peter Jackson has bastardized The Hobbit in his new movies, and if you watch them you may not want to go back and read the book. I say this as someone who loved his Lord of the Rings movies (despite the discrepancies and omissions).

Can you tell me how many minutes in you paused? Butter talks a lot at the beginning of the episode.
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Old 12-14-2013, 08:05 PM   #28
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There are zero spoilers about the Hobbit movies/books beyond how a hobbit looks.
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Old 12-14-2013, 08:10 PM   #29
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When South Park first came out, I hated it. Many years later though I happened to see a bunch of newer episodes and thought they were SUPER good! Some of these gems included: Cartmanland, Scott Tenorman Must Die, and Make Love, Not Warcraft (even though I'm not a WoW player myself). I'll name these three as the best I've seen, but I am definitely no expert on South Park as I haven't come close to watching every episode.
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Old 12-14-2013, 09:12 PM   #30
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Oh god Fish Sticks is brilliant.

Gonna watch the Hobbit tomorrow. Watched Taming Strange this morning, this season is great.
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Old 12-14-2013, 10:38 PM   #31
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Just watched "The Hobbit" episode.

Spoiler: show
That was one of the best ones ever, for sure.

Though the ending was really disappointing. Good that they showed Wendy only doing it because she felt she had been left no other choice (and not showing her being the least bit brainwashed or happy about it), but disappointing that it happened at all. I was hoping that we were going to get to a part where Cartman photoshopped himself to look like a sexy stud and then all of the people of South Park were going to realize, "Holy shit, yeah: maybe PhotoShop has gone too far " and agree with Wendy that it needs to be banned else people wind up bedding people like Cartman thinking they've somehow bagged Brad Pitt.

Also, there was something I didn't quite understand: while Wendy has in previous episodes assumed roles which lend her this image of being the school's resident feminist, isn't she the very same Wendy who got breast implants? So what's all that about? How come she's okay with getting a boob job but PhotoShop she's up in arms over?
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Old 12-14-2013, 11:35 PM   #32
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Watched the first two episodes of Season 17. Both entertaining, but the one I especially liked was the violent video games parody.
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Old 12-15-2013, 06:15 AM   #33
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I kind of feel like watching the films is not a spoiler for the book and vice versa.
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Old 12-19-2013, 11:10 PM   #34
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In an uncanny collision of the PhotoShop episode and the Hobbit episode they were the same episode, Forgetful Jackson , we get this Imgur upload and the following Imgur comments:

Spoiler: show
Quote:
"Bitch, how you not Santa again?"
Quote:
So she is not Santa because she doesn't fly on a sleigh; she drives on my motorcycle which is SLIGHTLY above ground and happens to have reindeer escorts that ensure our path is safe. SO BOOM. MY BITCH AIN'T NO SANTA.
Quote:
Gay fish.
Quote:
Recovering gay fish.*
Quote:
Iunderstoodthatreference.gif
Quote:
Seriously bitch, if you Santa you better tell me right now

You gotta love it.

Last edited by Talon87; 12-19-2013 at 11:38 PM. Reason: Forgetful Jackson
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Old 12-19-2013, 11:50 PM   #35
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Yes, it spoils events of a novel from eighty years ago.
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Old 12-20-2013, 01:19 AM   #36
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I think the spoiler is for the episode of South Park (and also the multiple quotes), not The Hobbit.
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Old 12-20-2013, 03:22 AM   #37
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That was more about the talking about whether or not the episode spoils the book or not.
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Old 02-17-2014, 01:37 AM   #38
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Someone mentioned S10E07 "Tsst" in a conversation. I hadn't seen the episode before but it sounded entertaining so I decided to check it out. The basic premise is that Mrs. Cartman is trying to discipline Eric but nothing seems to work. Then she recruits the services of a dog trainer, and ...

The next episode in the queue, much to my surprise, was none other than "Make Love, Not Warcraft". I can't believe it's been eight years since this episode first aired. I remember when this episode was brand new! One of the very first South Park episodes I ever saw. In fact, possibly the very first one I saw from start to finish. Even though WoW's peak has long since come and gone, the episode still holds up as one of the greatest South Park episodes in my book.
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Old 03-15-2014, 08:39 PM   #39
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Amras, have you played South Park: The Stick of Truth? If you own a compatible machine for it, I highly recommend it to you and to anyone else who considers themselves a huge fan of South Park.

If you want to watch a Let's Player play it, I would recommend the videos of Jesse Cox's on YouTube. Explanation after the break.

Spoiler: show
I was introduced to this game by a friend who is a fan of the Game Grumps. I've watched a number of Game Grumps videos in my life but I really can't stand their obnoxiousness and unrivaled poor gameplay sometimes. And both of these negatives were present in full force for their Let's Play of this game. From the Grumps I bounced over to the Internet's favorite Let's Player, Pewdiepie. I saw some videos of his in the distant past and greatly despised them, swearing off Pewdiepie for good; but I figured I'd give him another chance, what with it having been so long that I couldn't even remember specifically why I hated his videos so much. To my pleasant surprise, he wasn't nearly as bad as I had remembered. But like the Grumps, Pewdiepie's knack for the gameplay of South Park: The Stick of Truth was pretty bad. Also, one thing I really disliked about his videos in particular was how he allowed vanity to get in the way of providing viewers with a full Let's Play experience. Pewdiepie edits his videos heavily. If he does something he doesn't want players to see, unapologetically there is a merged fade out / fade in from the previous bit of footage into the next bit of footage. This in itself isn't that awful of a thing ... except that he amputates a lot of never-again-seen gameplay footage with it. I only knew this because I'd watched the Game Grumps play through the same portions that Pewdiepie was playing through. Because of that, I could tell that Pewdiepie was omitting entire chunks of dialogue or building exploration just for the sake of presenting a wholesome image of his playthru. Well, I didn't much care for that, so I decided to try one last stop I had heard of: Jesse Cox.

Someone in the comments section for one of the Game Grumps videos had namedropped Jesse Cox, saying that he played through this game the other day and:
  1. had already beaten it
  2. had done a hell of a lot better job than the Grumps were doing
So I decided to give ol' Jesse a try. Never heard of him before then.

I have to say, I'm glad I did. I don't think I'll be subscribing to his YouTube channel or anything, but:
  1. he's a hell of a lot less obnoxious than the Game Grumps and less obnoxious than Pewdiepie too
  2. he's a much better player than any of them
  3. like the Grumps and unlike Pewdiepie, Jesse shows players ~100% of his experiences. Of the over ten hours of footage I've seen, he's only done one omission (he got lost in the sewers) and zero fast forwards.
  4. unlike either the Game Grumps or Pewdiepie, Jesse shuts the fuck up when the characters are talking. This allows you to appreciate the story, the voice acting, and all of the jokes.
  5. unlike the Game Grumps, none of the material is spoiled in advance. Because Jesse is playing for the very first time, he's as in the dark as his viewers are. The Game Grumps' sidekick Ross kept spoiling the game, and while I didn't think I would care at the time, now that I've enjoyed watching Jesse play as much of the game as I have I regret allowing the Game Grumps to spoil me on so much
So for all these reasons, Jesse Cox's playthrough is one I would recommend. You may not like him or find him tolerable -- everyone's got different pet peeves and different thresholds for awkward traits -- but I have watched the past twenty episodes of his and I feel like, through him, I've gotten as close to playing this game as is possible for someone who doesn't own a compatible machine. You can find the first episode of his playthru here.

The reason I would recommend this video game to anyone who loves South Park and can play the game for themselves is that it is essentially an interactive episode. You are playing a 10-hour episode of South Park. In much the same way that The Simpsons Movie was intended as an ode to the Simpsons franchise, I see South Park: The Stick of Truth as an ode to the South Park franchise. I don't know if Matt and Trey see it that way, but to me it definitely feels like South Park: The Simpsons Movie, if that makes any sense. (Or I guess South Park: The Simpsons Movie 2 seeing as the first South Park movie was already this.) It is just chock full of references to the characters and episodes you know and love from the show.

The game itself is a pretty standard JRPG. You control two characters at a time and will fight anywhere from one to five enemy characters at a time. Combat is turn-based and you have a huge library of items, spells, physical specials, and special summons at your disposal. You also have standard melee and long-ranged weapon actions. If JRPGs aren't your thing, I would at least recommend renting the game or borrowing it from a friend who owns it. And even if you do like JRPGs, I would warn that since the offerings here are pretty standard -- it is not an especially special JRPG as far as its gameplay is concerned -- you still might not want to purchase it if you're worried about only playing it once and then never again. But if that's not an issue for you, then you should totally, totally buy it. You can easily think of it as being no different than buying a season of South Park on DVD.
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Old 03-16-2014, 01:16 AM   #40
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Talon: Yes, I have played South Park: The Stick of Truth, and actually just beat it with a friend of mine who is visiting. I have also watched a bunch of speedruns of it, which are now sub 1:30, and it is absolutely amazing. Really enjoyed the game.
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Old 03-16-2014, 06:39 AM   #41
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Apparently they were actually involved with the creation of this game as opposed to previous instalments. I think it shows.
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Old 03-16-2014, 01:59 PM   #42
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Finished the game. (Or rather, Jesse Cox's Let's Play of it.) It was a fun experience. As a casual fan of South Park, I'm glad I got to experience the game like this: missing out on it altogether would have been a shame but I don't think I would have been too thrilled with the game given its length and plot after having spent $60 on it. For bigger fans of South Park who will either play the game more than once or who will have derived a heck of a lot more satisfaction from it than I did, I can see the $60 price of admission being worth it.

Now that I've seen the game through to the end (and, I believe, seen all of the side quests), I can weigh in on the absences that disappointed me.

Spoiler: show
The sea otters from the future. I was really hoping for them to make an appearance. Even if they didn't, any of the various atheist factions from the future or Richard Dawkins would've been fine. And I'm surprised that they never had Cartman bring up the Wii! Maybe they couldn't for legal reasons? But they could've still had the otters make an appearance ...

Kanye West. Not only did he prominently feature in one of the most popular episodes of the series but he made a popular second appearance in a recent episode. I was surprised that Khloe Kardashian got a mention but neither Kim nor Kanye did.

Randy's coworkers at the geology lab. The map seemed to have just about every single building in South Park ... so where the hell was Randy's workplace!? Even Sharon's workplace was shown -- and I didn't even know she had a job before seeing it in this game!

James Cameron would have been pretty cool although I'll admit that I don't think his omission is as great as other characters'.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of these characters were dealt with by the boys' closets' and drawers' contents. That seemed to be the developers' way of acknowledging that many of the episodes which didn't get to make an appearance in the game still rocked. Eric's Faith Plus One CD, the Awesome-O costume, Butters' picture of the girl he had a crush on who worked at Raisins, etc. But I still feel like the characters mentioned in the spoiler box above deserved more than a mention by way of memento.

Dances with Smurfs (S13E13): Just watched this for the first time. It was a pretty decent satire on Fox News programs like O'Reilly's and Beck's. I think what I most appreciated about it was the fact that:

Spoiler: show
For all of his McCarthyist ranting and raving, Eric Cartman celebrated the most Communist children's cartoon of them all: the Smurfs.

I wouldn't call it one of the great ones but it wasn't bad either.
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Old 03-17-2014, 12:15 PM   #43
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Kush: Yeah, they did work on it, and were substantially involved with the writing and naturally voice acting, etc., and yes, it does show. It has that same sort of "meta" feel that South Park has had for quite a while now, and video games are ripe for that sort of storytelling.

Talon: I noticed the omissions too, and I think that's mostly because this game had a troubled development in general and it simply does so much that to pack more in might be ridiculous. The characters that you mentioned seem to me to deserve actual quests rather than throwaway jokes like a lot of the other references (which are mostly done in the flavor text you see on junk items). There were a couple one-time South Park locations missing, but again, understandable.

Also, a note about the mechanics: I actually really enjoyed the Paper Mario style turnbased combat. My friend and I played through the first time as a Thief, and it was awesome, and then immediately started a second playthrough as a Jew, which is also awesome. These two characters forced us to use more strategy than is usually necessary, which was really cool.
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Old 03-17-2014, 12:30 PM   #44
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It came to my attention yesterday that the Game of Thrones trilogy that aired late last year was pretty much a precursor to this video game. All of the characters show up there in their video game garb and roles. Cartman even refers to "the lands of Zaron." I'm not sure how I missed these episodes last year but I imagine it was a combination of three factors:
  1. concern about Game of Thrones spoilers
  2. inability to view them while they were offline for the three-week or so period that the episodes stay offline because of legal agreements with Comedy Central
  3. distractions leading to forgetting all about them
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. That when I played the game watched someone else play the game, I didn't realize that these characters were lifted straight out of the latest season. I thought they were largely inspired by the Lord of the Rings episode and any episodes since then (but prior to the latest season) where we saw the boys don their fantasy costumes.
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Old 03-17-2014, 12:56 PM   #45
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The costumes are inspired by the LOTR episode - the three Black Friday episodes use those costumes with some changes and expand upon that premise. They definitely set the stage for the game, though not in a plot way. There are a lot of references to really recent show events in the game, which is pretty fascinating considering how slow and plodding video game development is - they must have been working with Trey Parker very closely indeed.
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Old 11-03-2014, 03:53 PM   #46
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I don't remember this line from the medicinal marijuana episode. Is it from there? Or is it from another episode that tackled the topic of marijuana?
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Old 09-29-2016, 11:11 AM   #47
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So, I hadn't watched any new South Park since the last time I posted in this thread. Then the other day some goings-on in the latest season were brought to my attention and piqued my curiosity. One fan commented, "You should start from Season 19 Episode 01. You don't need to start any earlier than that, but you'll want to watch everything going forward from there."

I've watched the first three episodes so far. I can see why people are talking. The first episode was a hilarious ribbing of social justice warriors and the general politically correct climate on sites like Tumblr. But it also makes some pretty big changes to some of the major characters of the cast. The second episode doesn't let off the gas -- it's a direct sequel to the first episode, and continues to explore one classic character's new role in South Park. But the third episode is a direct sequel to that, and while it introduces some novel plot elements (making fun of both gentrification and the live-there-dine-there mini-malls that are sweeping upper class suburbia) it too is a direct continuation from where we left off. From what I understand, the whole of Season 19 is one giant story. That's pretty wild coming from South Park. They've had story arcs before, but I can't recall a single season which from start to finish was all the same story. And so far it's working very well. Three episodes in and I'm not only not bored, I'm hungry to watch more. I don't know if the suspense can last. And I don't know how to feel about the artistically low-brow concept of keeping a show from getting stagnant by introducing lots of big changes. (It honestly feels like the very sort of thing that Matt and Trey would be expected to make fun of.) But I can't sit here, either, and argue that no change should happen or that, indeed, some degree of change isn't even necessary to keep a show from getting stale after eighteen seasons. And it's not like South Park is a stranger to change. Chef leaving the show, Kenny not getting killed all the time anymore, background kids becoming major staples of the show ...

So far, it's been very enjoyable That's really all there is to it. If you like South Park, and you haven't seen Season 19 yet, I think you should check it out. I'll keep you posted.
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Old 09-29-2016, 07:24 PM   #48
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It is a great season, South Park has taken more of a shift to this style of built theme/story over the course of the season for a few seasons now. Season 18 consisted mostly of small callbacks to previous episodes in the season. Season 19 is amazing, South Park has moved past just being crude humor, now being crude humor with a purpose haha. The current season, season 20, is pretty much targeting the American Election. It is also looking at identity and reliance on social media.

Personally I'm hoping they do a call back to Chinpokomon, the Pokemon rip off they did in one of the early seasons. With Pokemon GO being as popular as it is/was, I doubt South Park would over look the opportunity to tear it to shreds haha.
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Old 09-30-2016, 09:23 AM   #49
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"Sponsored Content", the eighth episode of Season 19, is one of the best episodes they've made to date, tackling a personal pet peeve I have with the ultra-PC community: rebranding the word "retarded" as a hate speech word.

Related, this comedian sums up the case against people pushing for calling it "the R word" more succinctly than I could.

But yeah ... bless Matt and Trey for tackling this one head on. Rick and Morty did it, and now South Park has done it. It's nice to know I'm not the only liberal bothered by the ultra-left wing's overly politically correct practices. There's politeness and respect, and then there's douchebaggery masquerading as such.

Aside, the scene with ...

Spoiler: show
Jimmy and Leslie in the interrogation room was really great. South Park has this crazy knack for being able to do the dramatic really, really well, even if it seems like it should be their bread and butter to lampoon such drama. It was a brilliant decision to have this plot point feature Jimmy in the driver's seat rather than any one of the four main boys or any of the other supporting characters from South Park. Jimmy is uniquely equipped to bring this scene to life. Just really great foresight, a really great (if obvious) understanding that Matt and Trey have of their own characters. Not everyone has this.
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Old 09-30-2016, 10:56 AM   #50
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@ WHERE SIR

@ WHERE
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