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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ MI3... Shadowrun?

Posted by: Shadow May 5 2006, 09:40 AM

I just got to see MI3 and it was awesome. I was watching it the entire time thinking, "this is Shadowrun".

Posted by: mfb May 5 2006, 09:54 AM

so, ruin it for me: was it a well-plotted surprisefest like the first one, or a vaguely silly actionfest like the second? if it's like the first one, i'll definitely agree that it's SRish.

Posted by: markusb May 5 2006, 10:59 AM

I have seen it yesterday, and yeah, it definitely had sr-ish elements

[ Spoiler ]

Though the move itself kinda sucked, awkward moments aplenty, especially when nothing was being blown up, not much on terms of twists (except the obligatory supposed-to-be-big one in the end), the entire plot just kinda snowballs with an air of inevitability, we always know what's gonna happen next

But such concerns aside, the first major action sequence was a fine example of a guns-blazing-after-bit-of-stealth kind of extraction, with a 'rigger' controlling sentry guns (set up around the building for distraction) from a van (and providing info on targets via the guns' sensors), judicious use of demolitions, vehicle combat with helicopters in the end. The introduction of the cranial (more like kink~, though) bomb. Oh, and they leave behind equipment worth a fortune.
(one of my favourite points of argument with my players is on whether IR sees through walls, well here it definitely does)

The second one was another extraction, this time done stealthily over a larger timeframe, but kinda cheesy at points. Think 'the italian job'-ish planning to a second and a millimeter (only for this crew it took like a couple of hours to set it up, never mind where they got such accurate maps on the deepest bowels of the Vatican), crawling around sewers and air ducts, disguises, blowing holes in walls and grates, beacons to find each other, scuba gear, etc.

The next one was my favourite, hands down. It involves Evil Prisoner in armored car being brought somewhere with heroes (and fellow good guys) following in suvs, on a long, low bridge. Out of the blue comes a Predator (or somesuch aerial drone) and promptly chucks half a dozen rockets in the bridge and the escorting good guys' suvs (only heroes live, of course), thus isolating them in between holes on said bridge. From below the bridge emerges a black helo with guys (in helmets, gasmasks, the whole stormtrooper getup) in black sitting on the sides, the riggerish guy controlling the predator among them. They make a few circles shooting up everything and dropping a couple of smoke grenades, and then rappel down to armored car, blow it open with some kind of weird foam, evac Evil Prisoner and fly away into the sunset, the single casualty being the drone whom Hero shot down with an LMG-ish thing.
And the nicest thing: they are speaking german! The whole scene just screamed S-K black ops to me, it was just so german-efficiently and german-ruthlessly done.

The following was a kinda half-assed, 'snatch the prototype' thing, showing only the hero's outlandish methods of entering (tarzanesque swinging on cable) and exiting (base jumping) (nothing on what he done on the inside, after we are told that Langley would be a piece of cake to infiltrate compared to this joint), and a solo gig, to boot, no sr-ish temwork on this one. Car chase attached. Oh, and there was some wdf-he-just-did shooting on the hero's part, think skill around 9, 10 rather. But that might be just me.

Final one is nothing much, solo shoot-em-up and beat-them-up on foot with gritty surroundings, escape artistry, hacker friend helping out with satellite mapping and GPS to find places, cranial bomb in hero-head added for extra intensity.

Posted by: Oracle May 5 2006, 12:13 PM

QUOTE (markusb @ May 5 2006, 12:59 PM)

And the nicest thing: they are speaking german! The whole scene just screamed S-K black ops to me, it was just so german-efficiently and german-ruthlessly done.

There haven't been a lot of countries invaded by German troops in the last 60 years. Actually not a single one if we do ignore Serbia, which was an air defence suppression mission only. So I don't see what kind of ruthlessnes you are talking about. I'm sorry, but sometimes I get annoyed by WWII references. Todays German weapon of choice is called diplomacy.

Posted by: markusb May 5 2006, 01:02 PM

I didn't even think of anything ww2 (or any war, come to think of it) related, chill out.

I meant german-ruthless as Saeder Krupp under Lofwyr's command is ruthless in Shadowrun

Posted by: SL James May 5 2006, 02:32 PM

...

*re-reads markusb's post*

...

Wow.

*makes a note to never see this movie*

This makes Alias seem plausible.

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 5 2006, 03:03 PM

QUOTE (Oracle)

Todays German weapon of choice is called diplomacy.

Are you kidding? Diplomacy is the most ruthless weapon of them all.

~J

Posted by: Grinder May 5 2006, 03:25 PM

Posted by: Kremlin KOA May 5 2006, 05:09 PM

QUOTE (Kagetenshi)

QUOTE (Oracle @ May 5 2006, 07:13 AM)

Todays German weapon of choice is called diplomacy.

Are you kidding? Diplomacy is the most ruthless weapon of them all.

~J

and Ruthlessly Efficient Diplomacy is what makes Germany King!

Posted by: bustedkarma May 5 2006, 05:26 PM

I thought it was the conception of the Euro?

Posted by: Grinder May 5 2006, 05:37 PM

Good joke - the € actually increased the price of nearly everything here in Germany (some products doubled in price). must be plan of the French then... bloody French...

Posted by: Kremlin KOA May 5 2006, 05:44 PM

which was created through???

Posted by: FanGirl May 5 2006, 06:07 PM

Yeah, a lot of French people don't really care for Germans, either: they're still a little mad about the whole "invasion" thing. I remember when I was in France as an exchange student, and my host family was going to take me to visit this couple they were friends with. The day before the visit, my host mother warned me, "You should know, Monsieur So-And-So doesn't really like German people." I thanked her for letting me know that, but couldn't see what it had to with me personally.

The next day we went to see the couple, and Madame So-And-So greeted us at the door. "This is the American?" she asked. "But you look so German!" When she said that, my first reaction was "I do?"--I knew that I have lots of German ancestry on both sides of my family, but had never thought of myself as looking like anything but a white Caucasian person. My next reaction was to freak out just a little bit; I was afraid that Monsieur So-And-So would assume that I was some kind of covert agent sent by the SS to scout out his home or something. Fortunately, he ended up being quite pleasant to me, although one of his fluffy cats was quite snotty towards me.

Posted by: Grinder May 5 2006, 06:42 PM

QUOTE (Kremlin KOA)

which was created through???

The devil hmself!

Posted by: James McMurray May 5 2006, 06:55 PM

So only the cat saw through your SS disguise? Good for him!

Posted by: hyzmarca May 5 2006, 09:38 PM

QUOTE (Oracle)

QUOTE (markusb @ May 5 2006, 12:59 PM)

And the nicest thing: they are speaking german! The whole scene just screamed S-K black ops to me, it was just so german-efficiently and german-ruthlessly done.

There is a perception, at least in the United States, that Germany today has some of the most kick-ass military and paramilitary anti-terrorist forces in the world, comparable in efficiency and ruthlessness to the israeli Mossad but not nearly as much of a loose-cannon.

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 5 2006, 09:54 PM

When did we get that impression?

~J

Posted by: mfb May 5 2006, 11:26 PM

we think that? i dunno, i actually don't pay much attention to worldwide badass specops teams. i know it's supposed to be a pretty nice place to spend a two-year tour, and that everything there is made of chocolate.

Posted by: Voran May 6 2006, 12:40 AM

I tend to think the Japanese are the best. Mostly cause I think they have ninjas and mechs.

Posted by: Deamon_Knight May 6 2006, 03:23 AM

Yea, Vicious Germans? Why would anyone have that misconception?

Posted by: hyzmarca May 6 2006, 03:41 AM

QUOTE (Kagetenshi @ May 5 2006, 04:54 PM)

When did we get that impression?

~J

Have you ever seen an American news program that criticizes German police or spec ops? I certainly haven't. Every time I see a news program that mentions German law enforcement (which is quite rarely) they are presented as mysterious, efficient, and badass.

Posted by: SL James May 6 2006, 04:54 AM

Well, using that rationale I can say that the Ethiopeans have the best program because I've never seen an American news program criticize their police or spec ops, either.

Actually, come to think of it, I've never heard them criticize the North Koreans' either. Their government, sure, but not for the quality of their cops or spec ops.

Posted by: ShadowDragon8685 May 6 2006, 05:17 AM

Rationale or not, I can say that I've always thought the GSG-9 were supposed to be some of the most bad-ass mother-fuckers on the planet, easily comparable with Navy SEALs or Special Operations commandos. Where I got that impression? Don't ask, I dunno.

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 6 2006, 07:32 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

Have you ever seen an American news program that criticizes German police or spec ops?

Very much so, though from the '70s so things could well have changed.

~J

Posted by: Grinder May 6 2006, 07:48 AM

QUOTE (mfb)

and that everything there is made of chocolate.

That's Switzerland

We are the beer nation.

About our police/ spec-op: you won't see much reports/ news about GSG-9 or KSK, but I heard that they're good trained.
Our regular police is mentioned more often, mostly in news reagarding strikes of them - they're underpaid, understaffed and overworked.

Posted by: SL James May 6 2006, 09:15 AM

For as much as I hate Ronald Reagan, I like that he got away with firing the air traffic controllers when they went on strike.

I'm not a big fan of strikes. Or unions. Or workers, really.

Posted by: Grinder May 6 2006, 09:20 AM

What's your profession? (out of curiosity)

Posted by: toturi May 6 2006, 02:59 PM

A former commander of mine was sent to the German mountain jaeger course or something like that (can't remember the exact term). But yeah, the elite in most NATO spec ops/forces are so similar they might as well have been twins at birth. America has some of the best spec forces soldiers in the world, why do you think that merc/security companies are hiring these people? Anyway, from what I understand Europeam spec forces are often subject to less public scrutiny due the home country's control of the media, which makes them seem mysterious and badassed.

Posted by: JongWK May 7 2006, 03:29 PM

I liked the movie. Cheesy and too compressed at times, but it was fun.

[ Spoiler ]

Posted by: Shanshu Freeman May 7 2006, 05:31 PM

QUOTE (SL James @ May 6 2006, 04:54 AM)

Ethiopeans lol, that's a good one

<3

Posted by: shadowfire May 7 2006, 09:22 PM

never been a real big fan of MI movies.
i also would point out that i hate tom cruise......even before the "tom cruise is crazy" thing came up.

Posted by: SL James May 8 2006, 03:13 AM

When wasn't he?

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 8 2006, 03:19 AM

Third grade. He hit his head really hard on a pole and was completely sane for a good half-hour.

~J

Posted by: Casazil May 8 2006, 03:55 AM

I liked the movie well enough it had it's entertaing parts. But what I really liked was when he threw the grenade? and cause it had what an electro magnet in it it flew to the nearest metal and stuck at least till it blew up. Hehe who needs a throwing skill if the grenade is just gonna home in on the nearest metal object sounds fun to play with for Shadowrun.

Posted by: SL James May 8 2006, 04:13 AM

Because if you time it incorrectly and have a cyberlimb, it'll home in on you (IOW, Rule of One).

Posted by: Kremlin KOA May 8 2006, 05:13 AM

he made at least one sane chooice
Marrying Kidman
too bad he made the stupid choice of leaving her

Posted by: BnF95 May 8 2006, 07:03 AM

I thought it was the other way around???

Kidman left him because both of them were interested in SS relationships.

Posted by: Casazil May 8 2006, 06:11 PM

QUOTE (SL James @ May 7 2006, 11:13 PM)

Because if you time it incorrectly and have a cyberlimb, it'll home in on you (IOW, Rule of One).

Hehe I always play magic characters SL James so cyber is a bad option for me.

Now as for those meat shields running with me........hehe well guess I might need to get some new help.

Posted by: SL James May 8 2006, 07:24 PM

Do they not teach grammar in Florida?

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 8 2006, 08:39 PM

It isn't so much grammatically incorrect as it is totally ungrammatical. The morphemes are in all the right places, but there's no syntax at all.

~J

Posted by: Casazil May 9 2006, 06:39 PM

well first off I apparently clicked the wrong quote button so I had your comment as the quote SL James and secondly I had just woke up sorry for not typing correct grammar.

Although I didn't know we stood on formality around here.

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 9 2006, 06:42 PM

It's greatly appreciated. What we really stand on, though, is intelligibility.

~J

Posted by: Casazil May 9 2006, 06:46 PM

QUOTE (Kagetenshi)

It's greatly appreciated. What we really stand on, though, is intelligibility.

~J

Well in that case Kagetenshi I cleaned it up hope it is more understandable as well as intelligent.

Posted by: Kagetenshi May 9 2006, 06:59 PM

Perfect, thanks.

~J