Just wanted to say thanks to the guys that keep updating the frontpage with news on a daily basis since the kickstarter launched, you're doing a great job! Can't really miss anything, since you're covering everything there is, which is awesome. Keep going!

^ You're probably right, might be for reasons like these. Might have gotten in some additional chinese backers though, so it's kind of a pity. Otherwise, wasting money on chinese subtitles when that won't really lead to sales in China wouldn't make sense either, so yeah. I guess it all makes sense the way it is.


Sorry, but this looks stupid, stretch goals should be gameplay related, and not shots at other games lol

They're not really taking shots there, just trying to keep the fanbase motivated. We're all very passionate about Shenmue, so a "stretch goal" like beating Bloodstained (and getting all of the exposition and positive headlines that come with that) does mean quite a lot to us. So I think it makes sense. They didn't really announce them as a stretch goal, and they're another colour so you don't confuse them for one.. nothing to worry about here! :)

Guys, we ARE getting there. We'll most likely get more than 300,000 or even 350,000 on the final day if it continues like this. Maybe even more. Let's just hope there are not too many trolls among the pledgers..

Great man, thanks for the text. I'll copy, paste and spam tomorrow.

What about Sony's Gio Corsi though? Maybe the twitter people should focus on him as well?

Does that 2nd article seriously say Ryo is trying to penetrate the underbelly of Iwao?

Haha I believe it does...I didn't really understand that particular sentance when I read it myself o0

"Iwao (the company that had a hand in his father's murder" - how can you fuck up this badly while doing your research? :|

Capcom is actually asking fans on Facebook for their opinion on this fan project and an RE2 remake in general: https://m.facebook.com/residentevil/posts/1011658972188323

Here's the text from Capcom's Resident Evil Facebook page:

Hello Resident Evil fans!
This is Capcom R&D Division 1!

First off, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to all Resident Evil fans, for your passion, enthusiasm and continued support for the Resident Evil brand.

Enthusiasm for a Resident Evil 2 Remake is something we've been hearing from you over the years, and has drawn some recent attention in the media.

However, as the team owns the RE brand, we're not certain how we feel about this approach, and would like to ask your honest and frank opinion about the “Resident Evil 2 Remake” and what the brand identity is supposed to be about?

So SEGA and China are funding it now, that's great. Plus, another thing I noticed: 'Shenmue III'... 'III'? 'III'=3! Half-Life 3 confirmed!

Not tried that stuff^, but this is by far the best Polish drink I've ever tried;

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r12/Craig_on_Display/debowa-oak-vodka-1299811500_2.jpg

Doesn't taste that nice, but gives an unusual but amazing kind of high, different from any other alcohol I've tried!


If you mix it with cloudy apple juice it tastes like apple pie! :)

No need to hate on this guy. There's certainly more money to be made off Rise of the Tomb Raider than off Shenmue III. If it's only about the money, investing in Shenmue doesn't seem like the most worthwile or clever thing to do.

I don't think Sony made that deal with Suzuki for money. They're investing in their image, strengthening their brand. Shenmue III is videogame history. Now Sony is connected with that. They want to be seen as the company that does it all 'for the gamers', or 'for the players', something like that. They've been supporting indy games for years now, with Microsoft still trying to catch up on that. The 'building the list' campaign, bringing Yakuza 5 to western markets, bringing The Last Guardian back, unveiling the Final Fantasy VII remake, presenting Shenmue III. Games like No Man's Sky or Media Molecule's Dreams.. that's all 'for the gamers', the hardcore audience. Some of these titles will also appeal to the masses of course, Final Fantasy VII is a guaranteed hit, no doubt. No Man's Sky and The Last Guardian will probably sell well, too.. but those games aren't exactly for the Call of Duty and Fifa crowd.

Sony's on top right now. They're selling a lot of consoles, they can afford to make risky games and do deals that help their image more than their wallet. Microsoft are of course still Microsoft and rich as ever, I guess, but still, they're not in the same position as Sony momentarily and quite likely won't be anywhere near it in the near future. So I get where Spencer is coming from.

Thief wrote:

south carmain wrote:

"As of next week it is now"

That bothers me way more than it should.

Haha, me too. Makes me wonder if that tweet is even real..?

PS4 version




I'm not really into simulators, but I couldn't resist the thought of experiencing the actual daily struggles and shenanigans of a goat.

^ Oh well.. we're still getting a pretty Conan-like Aquaman at least!

'Predestination':
Pretty great. If you're into time travel movies, you'll love it. Not in the least as packed with logical flaws as most other movies of this kind.

'What we do in the Shadows':
Funniest movie I've seen in years, absolute recommendation.

http://www.njutafilms.com/wp-content/uploads/p-wwdits-blu.jpg

'Sinister':
Cliché-ridden and ultra-cheap piece of generic "horror"-garbage that'll bore you to tears.

'Ant-Man':
Pretty good, almost 'Iron Man' level. The weakest of the strongest Marvel movies I'd say.

'Whiplash':
Brilliant. Please watch it.

http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/covers/whiplash-dvd-cover-42.jpg

'American Sniper':
A little too american.

'Chappie':
A little too lame.

And as some of you mentioned 'Jurassic World' : I didn't like it. Totally mediocre at best. The final fight was nice, but couldn't save it for me, since everything I had to endure before it was so weak.

Haha. What I meant to say is 'here's more evidence for the game coming pretty soon(ish)' :p

Quote from the Shenmue Dojo Facebook page:

According to Shenmue 3 Co-producer Cedric Biscay we'll get an update about PayPal in September.

https://twitter.com/TeamYu/status/631910693630005252

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11863282_1708176602751749_2832800018208396778_n.png?oh=888c90f948c4559c664964b9bfca893f&oe=563F62C5

What I'm finding curious about this is the fact that Shenmue Dojo Facebook only speaks of Paypal news, while Team Yu only speaks of Shenmue III news:

News on #Shenmue3 coming in September

https://twitter.com/TeamYu/status/631910693630005252


The twitter user clearly asks about three things: Shenmue III, Paypal and "the HDs", obviously meaning Shenmue I&II HD. So if Cedric Biscay understood all parts of the question correctly, this might (!) mean we'll get an update on Shenmue HD next month. Which would by far be the biggest of those three possible updates. Unless the update is "No update on that one yet, sorry!".

Maybe some of the tweeters among you can ask Biscay for clarification?

I actually mailed them a little more than a week ago, asking for details on the 'Choubou Inn Guestbook' reward and when we'll get more info and the surveys and stuff. Here's what the one and only Joel & The Shenmue 3 Team had to say:

Hello Chris,

Thank you very much for your message.

A survey will be send out to gather all of your contact information and reward details. The surveys themselves may not go out for some time yet, but at that time you receive the necessary information.

We have just begun, and hope we can count on your continued support. Thank you again for Saving Shenmue!

Joel &
The Shenmue 3 Team

Awesome!

Resident Evil 2 Fan Remake Shut Down By Capcom
[...]
It might not be all bad news for creator Invader Games, though, who took to Facebook yesterday to announce that although they have to can their own remake, Capcom has invited them to meet on official terms.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/08/18/resident-evil-2-fan-remake-shut-down-by-capcom

^ There you go, "later this year" it is according to the PS Blog! :P

Says IGN:

Yakuza 5 to Launch in the West With all Japanese DLC
Includes sub-plots for all characters.
by: Luke Karmali
August 25, 2015

Yakuza 5 is due to launch in the West later this year on PS3 and, when it does, it'll come with all the DLC currently available in Japan.

A post on the PS Blog confirms the additional content coming with the Western release, which includes "Another Drama" - a series of sub-plots that focus on each of the five protagonists.

It's also been confirmed amid the other minigames on offer, you'll be able to take on your PSN friends in a round of Virtua Fighter 2 by venturing into the Club Sega arcade.

When we got a chance to go hands-on with the game's bear-wrestling, battle-dancing and city-hopping we were pretty enamored.

Official price for Europe is £29.99 / €39.99:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/08/26/yakuza-5-launching-in-europe-with-a-limited-time-discount

SEGA has opened a teaser website for the Tokyo Game Show 2015 lineups of SEGA, Sega Networks and Atlus. The lineups will be unveiled on September 10, TGS starts on September 17.

http://tgs.sega.jp/

Kiske wrote:To be honest, I mostly care about Sony and third-party Japanese developers conference because of my crazy hopes in some Shenmue related annoucement...

Same here! That's actually the only reason I've been keeping an eye on this SEGA lineup crap.

Yakuza 1 remake coming to PS4 and PS3 in January 2016:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/15/tgs-2015-yakuza-remake-announced

Yakuza 6 coming to PS4 in Fall 2016:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/15/tgs-2015-yakuza-6-announced

http://www.clipular.com/c/5645119108677632.png?k=tx8GbvEToPNLDKDAIC4I-vx6g4c

^ I could imagine them remaking Yakuza 2 as well and at least offering Yakuza 3-5 via PS Now on PS4.

Here's the trailer for Yakuza Kiwami (the remake):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HMw_E_s4Y74&feature=youtu.be

Edit: If only Shenmue could get such a treatment!

Slacker backer is a commonly used term for additional crowdfunding, nothing insulting about it.

Well yes, the guy's reaction pretty much confirms that they're working on a second Last of Us game. It's not an actual, official confirmation of course, but a (n accidental) confirmation nonetheless.

I don't really agree about the cliffhanger, it always felt like a legit ending to me. I could see them doing more Joel and Ellie stuff, but I don't think it's necessary and I'd also be fine with all new characters.

Kenny wrote:Even though I don't like Heat and Bad Lieutenant was just random shit with Nick Cage, at least those aforementioned examples are interesting case studies of people.

I liked the Nicolas Cage version a lot, but I think OL was talking about the original. Just saying.

It might only be my perception, but I feel that not enough people on these boards are giving Sony the credit they deserve. Sony actually saved Shenmue. They're much more than a valued partner here, they were the driving force behind all of this. If it wasn't for them, Shenmue III would not be happening.

They listened to fans demanding Shenmue III and Yakuza 5 during their "Building the List" campaign, first announcing a western release of Yakuza 5 at PlayStation Experience in 2014, which was then followed by the most unlikely thing: The Shenmue III Kickstarter at E3 2015.

Many of you still seem to be looking to SEGA for further Shenmue stuff. The thing is, without Sony's involvement, they won't lift a finger. They didn't support Shenmue during the past decade (you'd have to be quite the fanboy to claim otherwise, and I know some of you do and thus probably are), and they won't be starting to do so anytime soon. If you want Shenmue I&II HD, Sony are the ones to ask. Maybe we'll hear something about it at Sony's Paris Games Week conference in about a month. If you're glad about Shenmue III, which is most likely the case, Sony are the ones to thank.

Concerning SEGA's involvement, if it can be called that: Yes, they gave Yu the license. But why shouldn't they. All they had to do was say "Alright. Part of the profits in late 2017 to this bank account please: ...". They had no plans to do anything with it. Now they're allowing Yu to do something with it, which is as passive as it gets, while (most likely) still making a (small?) profit off it. I doubt that license came totally free.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure if an HD collection gets announced, it will be on one of Sony's stages. Sony's motivation behind all of this is obvious, of course. Shining as the most gamer/fan/consumer-friendly console manufacturer out there. Having much desired stuff for the hardcore audience on their system. And it works for me. The stuff they support is great. And it's more than great that they brought Shenmue III to life after all these years. They deserve our praise for it. So do Cedric Biscay and Shibuya Productions of course. So does Yu Suzuki. So do the guys at Neilo. But they are getting their praise on these boards, they are getting lots and lots of it. I feel Sony doesn't, even though they deserve it arguably the most for making it all possible. So let me conclude by saying:

THANK YOU SONY. :heart:
FOR MAKING SHENMUE III REALITY.

I don't see it as that big of an issue, tbh. I didn't max out my credit card, but I gave what I was willing to give and what I could afford. Now that might be $100 for one person and $10,000 for another. As long as you are able to repay the spendings on your credit card, I guess it's fine.

I had made plans to buy a new phone in September which is not gonna happen now because of Shenmue 3 and I'll have to put off my new phone plans for the time being. But that's fine with me. It was worth it to me. So if others want to max out their credit cards or bank accounts I don't think it's "stupid" to do so. It's their own money and it's not an emotional decision imho. Those people had an entire month to think their Kickstarter contribution over and could have bailed out at any time.

Also, I do agree with you on the fact that it's "sad", Yu has to ask the fans for money to fund S3, but "wrong"? No, I don't think so. Shenmue 3 has been put on halt for 14 years, Sega don't want to finance it which is understandable. Now Yu has been trying fo find an outside investor for many years, which was not successful, so I guess Kickstarter and Paypal was the only way it could have been done.

So this is exactly what i'm talking about...i don't know how much you donated personally but i'm not sure how you can say maxing out credit cards or donating $1000's isn't an emotional decision when it isn't exactly an investment that you can expect any return on...you are literally giving away money because you/we are desperate to see the continuation of our favorite game series...and for that YU doesn't deserve our =D>

I'm not against the entire idea of kickstarter or having pseudo pre-order's to guarantee demand for a title before they spend millions and years developing something,but Yu knows that the shenmue fan base is relativity small and having stretch goals that reach $11+ million is a total P*** take,higher than any other kick starter and stating the game will not stretch his complete vision unless we pony up such funds... :shock:

I'm kind of with you there. I donated $600, which might not seem a lot to some of the more extreme backers (or the complete nutjobs :D), but it's already an amount that my friends and family are having a hard time comprehending/relating to. I'm a student, living off a 12-hours-a-week job, paying study fees, (shared) flat, health insurance, phone, food, you name it. If that decision wasn't emotional, than I don't know what is. :lol: At the beginning I only planned to donate $100, which already raised some eyebrows. In hindsight I've got to say the following about this:

It's 100% an emotional decision. Some of the motivating factors behind this were mentioned in Gamespot's "How Did Shenmue 3 Raise $6.3 Million?" video, like "the fear of missing out", stuff like that. The effect of a one month Kickstarter campaign is not that people are having more time to think stuff over. It's a lot of time to donate even more, to let the hype grow. The closer the closing date gets, the more people will feel urged to raise the contribution they already made. It's only this one chance after all, so it's got to be all or nothing. That's how it feels, and it's also partly true.
While watching the Kickstarter for "Red Ash", having a look at the comments section every now and then, I noticed one thing: They all acted and sounded 1:1 like us, it was exactly the same kind of thing happening all over again. A relatively small group of people going totally nuts about something that no-one else really cares about or can relate to. "Why would they be this hyped for a dubious campaign for some crap-looking game like that?" I asked myself, realizing the next moment that I was looking at us , from an outside view, concluding that we're all idiots. :lol: I'm half joking here of course.

But I especially agree with one thing you wrote:

but Yu knows that the shenmue fan base is relativity small and having stretch goals that reach $11+ million is a total P*** take,higher than any other kick starter and stating the game will not stretch his complete vision unless we pony up such funds... :shock:

This is once again Yu floating somewhere out of this world and reality, this is part of what killed the old SEGA. It's too much. It might be his dream, but it's not really fair towards us fans or anyone. What if we would have reached those $11.000.000? You can always improve a product by investing even more, so why should it have stopped there? Initially it was $10.000.000 for a "true open world game".

That said, I'm really, really, really glad Shenmue III is happening, there's no game or other entertainment product I'm looking forward to with more joy (allthough Warner's DC Cinematic Universe comes quite close) - but I'm absolutely done funding it. I'm still feeling the financial consequences of my $600 donation and will still be feeling them for more than another month. If I could travel back, would I donate the $600 again? I'm not quite sure. Probably yes, maybe no. The $100 definitely, absolutely. But there's really no reason to do more and to obsess so much about stuff like this. It's time to enjoy the wait for the game I've (and you guys have) always wished for the most.

I watched the video Thief posted today and felt a little stupid for having pointed something out that had already been posted :lol:
Yeah well, I'm not exactly amazed by the whole thing either, but I think that's how it's meant and I'm pretty cool with it I guess. The whole game is totally gameplay over story after all, so it's fitting in a way. But I also really like what it does to the timeline and overall story, agreed.

Really a great read with lots of interesting facts. Nice to see it from your point of view, too. Love the "shark needs to swim" quote. Thanks for that, Amir!

[...] But y'know... Yu Suzuki is nearly 60 years old, and is very, very out of touch with current industry trends and thinking (by his own admission, so that's not me disrespecting him.)

This is demonstrated by his description of the "A.I. fighting" system which, really, is just industry standard fare. Context sensitive attacks. Hardly revolutionary, but from his point of view it seems groundbreaking and different. I don't think we can or should really expect progressive thinking from the guy. [...]

Yeah, I've been thinking that, too. Him not playing games or keeping track of industry trends and developments comes with pros and cons, the latter of which you're describing one of the bigger ones. You can ignore the industry and develop an idea on your own, but somebody else might have had that idea years before without you even knowing.

Concerning the sexy girls though, Yu doesn't mention anything like that in the interview if I'm not mistaken. That's made up by DualShockers*, so the problem there is not Yu's potentially-not-so-progressive thinking, but bad journalism.

What trend ? To clickbait ? [...]

That would be gaming journalism trends. Anonymous was talking about game development trends, whole other topic.


EDIT: *Didn't pay attention and confused DualShockers and MCVUK. Sorry DualShockers. :heart:

Meh, I don't think there's much there that hasn't already been said here or in the net.

Stuff like that can still be a great read. Just think of Amir's recent article. It can be lots of fun to read a detailed overview from a certain point of view that might actually even offer small bits of information that you might have missed out on before.

Started playing "Dante's Inferno" on my PS3. It rips off God of War even worse than I expected - combat, camera angles, theme, gameplay, everything. China style. I'd feel ashamed for having developed or published it.
That said, it's still quite a lot of fun so far, which is exactly because it's so much like God of War, and I haven't played a God of War game since Ascension came out. The graphics are much less impressive and the gameplay is not as finely tuned as in the GoW series, but still - it was an attempt at cloning God of War and while they didn't totally succeed, as it lacks quality, it's still a pretty good effort. From what I can tell.

I lol'd at "You now have the power of Beatrice's holy cross. Press [circle] for Holy Blast."

^ They're remaking 2. They do it. No word on 3 yet (it's a little early for that, I guess), but if 2 sells well, who knows?

Oh well. Gravity Rush 2 looked fantastic. I also liked Wild, Detroit and Horizon. I don't really get how exactly Dreams works, but it sure looks interesting and has a great art style.

Yeah, very pleased. I think it looks gorgeous so far.

And I think it's rediculous how nitpicky some people are about it. It's an indy title with a relatively small budget, and it's a miracle we're getting it at all.

Yeah, I think there used to be a common issue with bitten and chewed on Shenmue II game discs on Ebay in the early 2000s. Rumour has it that most of these discs were previously owned by LanDC, who had only just started his modding career and didn't really know how to properly extract data from the discs yet, so he tried that way. Don't know how much of that is true though.

PSA: I helped proof read the article. Still agree with it pretty much from top to bottom though, and it's worth reading.

I'm sorry to point that out, but the article is riddled with typos. And while I like the point it's attempting to make, I don't think it's particularly well written to be honest. On the contrary.

I have edited the post and it's now typo free! Could you tell me exactly how it isn't well written? I could always use constructive criticism.

Hey! I didn't expect you to reply on here and having to stand up for my possibly somewhat harsh remarks. I'll try to be more fair this time and make some contructive suggestions. In general I didn't like the structuring of your sentences in a couple of places. Use of commas, wording, stuff like that. Mostly minor things, but I'm picky when reading. Please take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt though, I'm not a native speaker.

First off, you really seem to have fixed many of the typos, nice job. :) I'm sitting at work right now, reading through your article again. Still found some typo leftovers and other things that irritated me:

a previously 47 million budget for both games
This seemed kinda weird to me. Don't know.

that bogs down the games pace
the game's pace

I now recoil when I’m now forced to
'now' twice

An example for comma problems: For my taste there's a comma too much in here...
So while in Skyrim, you’re the leader of multiple guilds
...which could have been placed here, after 'scrub', instead.
every soldier in every city is going to treat you like a nobody scrub sarcastically asking about a sweet roll

Another example of a minor irritation would be stuff like
Nathan Drake has a kill count of a small country at this point.
I would have written "the kill count of a small country".. but I might become too nitpicky here.

Some more typos/errors/stuff I found questionable or didn't like:

Unfortunately, many player’s expectations is to kick ass first
players' and expectation or expectations are?

You could possibly see that lack of complete openness a deterrent from the open-world
'as a deterrent'?

that allows Shenmue and others games like it
other games

Shenmue also has a far larger focus on story than other games in the genre by far.
'far' twice

does his stuff, comes home by a set curfew, and repeat
Is 'repeat' supposed to be imperative form here? I guess so. Not sure about this one.

Ryo doesn’t would wake up and start hauling ass immediately after the opening cutscene.
misplaced 'would'

Shenmue’s world are affirmed more than anything else, by relatable human emotions
world is?

he’s still a good kid you could still trust
'still' twice

represents the open-world genre - and gaming’s - obsession with power
I'd write 'represents the open-world genre's - and gaming's - obession' instead

Shenmue III, as a sequel to Shenmue II has a lot of potential
Again, nitpickyness. But I would have put a comma after 'Shenmue II'.

while still allowing the player to feel like they’re actually in his shoes
Not sure about this one. 'players' instead of 'player' or 'he's' instead if 'they're'?

he wakes up every day near the crack of dawn to travel to the harbor and work that forklift, which you drive, and have a quota to meet from 9 to 5
'have a quota' seems odd to me. You have or Ryo has?

the games are deliberate in their attempt to replicating normal human life
'attempt to replicate' or 'attempt of replicating'?

Since as game player’s, we’re used to game structure
players

taking certain levels of power out of player’s hands
'the player's' or players'

A genre now famous for holding player’s hands
same as above

they can’t release a game without telling player’s what to do
players

In contrast with the Sega’s epic, if there’s a door in the Shenmue franchise, it’s likely you can go inside
In contrast with Sega's epic

Some of Shenmue’s critics use this as a talking point that it’s boring and not very fun to play.
I don't like "use this as a talking point that", but maybe that's just me. I think I'd write "use as a talking point".

it’s something that grows on you and appreciate the more spend time with it.
Seems weird to me.

you have to go to class, meet deadlines, and like Shenmue, have a specific limitation
like in Shenmue?

Also like Shenmue, it was rated very highly. It’s also clearly inspired by some of the more minute element of Shenmue.
Here I would restructure everything, to evade using "also" twice and just to formulate that whole "was rated very highly" thing differently.

There’s an equally a valid approach to smaller
equally valid?

more densely detail open worlds
densely detailed?

Shenmue III’s developers fully understand the limitations that they placed on previous game gave it its signature panache
previous games

We need more games like it. Sometimes, maybe bigger really doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I found this to be a weak conclusion or final statement. It's the final sentence, it needs to have more punch, or more cleverness. Somehow. Sorry. :p

As I said, I'm not a native speaker, so some of my corrections might be bullshit. Everything else I'd criticize would probably be a matter of personal taste in writing styles, but I think some sentences or even whole parts would have to be rewritten to a degree before your article could be published as an opinion piece on some bigger site.

Please note: Neither am I in any way trying to discourage you, nor do I totally dislike what you've written. You're making very good points, both about Shenmue and open-world games in general. I remember feeling that dissonance while playing GTA IV and GTA IV: The Lost and Damned and totally agree with your point about tiring "checklist gaming". All in all it's a good effort, it's a nice text, just with some hickups. Maybe you can build on it, iron some stuff out, add some polish, you know?

IGN occasionally has "community blogs" or whatever they call it, where articles like yours are featured on the main page.. I don't know how that works, but maybe you could look into it.

Edit: That would be for the videogame fans mostly of course.

Oh. Slight bummer. So that's why "Chronicles" is missing in the title. Still excited for the Remaster though, haven't played the original yet and would really love to. Please come to the West!

SEGA just officially announced "Valkyria: Azure Revolution" and "Valkyria Chronicles Remaster" for PS4 via the latest issue of Famitsu magazine. No real details yet, release date TBA. Source: http://www.gamefront.de

http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Valkyria-Azure-Rev-Ann_001.jpg

Yeah, no, I get it, too. It was time to move on at least one post ago, so let's just do that now.

Well, I like your optimism, guys. We'll see. I'd love for you to be right with those predictions.

^ I'm totally with everything you said, except that I like what we've seen from Suicide Squad so far. I also grew up as a DC kid and always preferred that universe to most Marvel stuff. The Marvel movies are still solid and entertaining, but I can't get hyped for them. I'm extremely hyped for that DC universe coming to life though. Snyder is the best man they could hire in order to get the visuals right.. let's just hope they won't let him do too much writing. And yes, I also believe that Affleck will be the best live action Batman we've had so far. I loved that casting decision from the beginning. Heath Ledger. Anne Hathaway. Ben Affleck. Seems like the internet will never learn to just shut the hell up when it doesn't know what it's talking about.
I love that we're getting this darker tone, which is much more true to the source material than the disneyfication Marvel has been and still is doing (not trying to talk Marvel movies down, I really enjoy those as well).
Man, the thought that we're getting a Snyder directed Justice League movie in 2017, with this cast, this tone, these visuals, is blowing my mind.

Edit: That means Justice League, Star Wars: Episode VIII and Shenmue III in the same year. Amongst other awesome stuff. Holy shit.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/nnte8m.jpg


That was such a b-list Justice League back then :lol:

It's a dream sequence, or some kind of "worst case scenario" thing going on in Batman's head. It's imaginary. That's why it looks all post-apocalyptic, and Superman has soldiers bowing down to him; this is what Batman thinks Superman could eventually bring about.

That's what I'm thinking, too. I suppose that's gonna be pretty early in the movie, maybe it'll even start with a shot of that wasteland, Batman fighting a horde of infinitely spawning Superman minions, then being overwhelmed and captured. Especially the scared look on his face while Supes is walking towards him makes me think it's a dream. Not that it's not reasonable to be scared of Superman, it just doesn't really suit Batman to show it like that. And in your dreams anything can evoke a deep fear within you.
The reason for this scene is probably to make viewers relate to and connect with Bruce's emotions and fears concerning Superman, to show that he's not simply being a jerk towards Supes, but that he's actually being haunted by the thought of the almighty alien doing great harm to humanity, which he's been trying to protect ever since his parents were killed.

Ethan Hawke