Chronicler06

So the new movie (My Little Pony: A New Generation) was released on Netflix last week. I watched and I certainly enjoyed it (always fun to see a new setting with new characters and new locations), and based on many comments I've read elsewhere, it seems quite popular amongst both newcomers and longtime fans. (Some have even argued that it's significantly better than the 2017 movie.) For those of you who still remain interested in MLP, I would absolutely recommend watching this new movie.

I didn't find this episode particular interesting at all. Not only have I never even heard of this game, but from what I've heard about it in this episode, it seems a little too complicated and I'm never really interested in multiplayer games, not to mention that it's available exclusively on Apple Arcade. Quite honestly, I literally just finished listening to it and already I can't remember much else of interest to talk about, so I'll just end my comment here and look forward to next week's episode.

I can't believe there's still no news page about the most recent episode, so I guess I'll just post a link to the video here along with my comment on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghpdAE_3dAA It's amazing how much of a huge impact the Batman franchise had on not just TT Games but practically all Lego games. The first Batman game is actually what convinced Warner Bros to acquire TT Games, which as a result put production on hold so Lego Indiana Jones could be finished first. Not to mention, Lego Batman was also the very first game made by TT Games that featured a completely original story that the developers had to come up with. The second Batman game also had a major impact on the development of Lego games, especially with the huge debate on whether to give voices to all the characters for the first time. After that, the third Batman game was really the culmination of all that innovation that was done over the years. Perhaps most significant of all was the fact that Batman now has the most Lego games of all licensed themes (second only to Star Wars). Seriously, everyone, this episode is one that you absolutely must listen to if you want to know how TT Games went from its initial success to the incredibly huge and detailed games they've made in recent years.

I don't have time tonight to listen to this week's new episode, but I did quickly check YouTube to see that it's about the Lego Batman games, so that should be interesting to listen to, once I get an opportunity to do so.

Although I got a Bricklink account a few months ago for a failed attempt at getting that Bionicle set, I think I'll refrain from making any attempted orders on any of the rest of these models. However, I will say the ones that interest me the most are Science Adventures and Modular LEGO Store. I think it'll be fun to watch from the sidelines when orders will start being accepted and seeing which five of these nine will make it. Which ones do you think will likely achieve minimum support before the others?

I was already well aware of the "big bang themes" being Bionicle, followed by Ninjago, Chima, and finally Nexo Knights, so what really interested me was how the last two didn't quite have the same staying power as the first two. As far as I could tell from what this episode explained, they seemed to make all the right moves (especially the success of tying together so many different mediums, like Bionicle did), but ultimately, trying to surpass Ninjago was just being too ambitious, despite the rather modest success it was able to hold onto by the third and final year. It does make me wonder what could be the next potential "big bang theme", though considering the more recent efforts didn't quite last as long as the earlier ones, it might be a while before we next see a new theme receive such a huge marketing push. As for Nexo Knights itself, while the game seems like too much effort for me to get into (not to mention that it's no longer even available anyway), I am interested in checking out the TV series if I ever manage to find enough time for it.

Just like the previous season, the season finale build is 24 hours to build anything they want, but this time with the requirement to add some lighting effects that will make the completed models stand out in the dark. Another feature from the previous season finale (a visit by family members) was understandably done a little differently this time for obvious reasons, but was definitely worth it for the remaining builders. As an added bonus, the winning build will be displayed at Legoland in Florida (I know the previous season's final build was to be displayed in the new Legoland New York park, so I guess they wanted to have future models displayed in as many different places across the country). Overall, the final three builds were very impressive, and it was an excellent way to end the season.

Despite needing to essentially relearn how to get through various kinds of obstacles, this week's stream went pretty well. Too bad that the next stream won't be for another three weeks, but on the plus side, now that Lego Masters has finished, perhaps you might now return to the regular schedule of 7:30 to 8:30 with no hard time limit. Anyway, in case if you were wondering about the story content that was shown in the Rexcelsior world, it's basically what Rex and his crew of raptors were up to just after he had recruited the raptors and just before Rex rescued Emmet from the asteroid field. At least, that's what I'm convinced those story quests portray, based on all of those training missions that were being asked for in those quests. When it comes to completing Lego Movie 2 Videogame, I would advise saving the Syspocalypstar world for last, since it's the only world where you can place those large builds, and it would be better to wait until you've unlocked every possible large build from all the other worlds so that you can get through all of them in a single session (especially since building them provides all of the master bricks to be found on that world). There's also that special world that won't be unlocked until you've collected all but the last ten master bricks, which will be found on that world (not counting the DLC worlds, so you will probably unlock it before a few other worlds have been completed).

I somehow never heard anything about Life of George while it was out (probably because I never had any interest in social media sites like Facebook, and I still don't to this day), so it was interesting to hear about what the full experience would've been like back then. It was also interesting that the game's developers were planning three more games based on the same concept, only for all of them to suddenly get canceled. And in the end, Life of George was essentially replaced by Lego Fusion, which itself apparently didn't last long either. I guess it's fair to say that I missed out on quite a lot of things simply because I never owned a smartphone prior to 2017.

This week's challenge featured the always popular theme of Castle with the unique twist of trying to build a castle literally outward from the side of a (brick-built) cliff with only ten very small points of attachment. As an added bonus, the team that built the furthest outward would automatically advance to next week's finale. Definitely some interesting building techniques to create such large structures hanging precariously outward off the side of a cliff with very little to hold it all up.

Now that I got to rewatch the last few minutes I missed, I can say this was another good run through a level of Lego Dimensions. The use of capturing ghosts was certainly an interesting game mechanic, and will absolutely come in handy to get past such obstacles in other areas. And with that, only one more Level Pack left to go among the Year 1 content, then it'll be time to start really exploring some of the other hub worlds. Definitely looking forward to moving on to Lego Movie 2 Videogame, next week. If I remember correctly, your progress after completing story mode was completing the story quests on all but one of the "Rexplorer System" worlds (the one exception was the Unikitty world) and you also managed to collect all the bricks to be found in the Middle Zealand world. Since you mention that you have the DLC worlds, I would recommend visiting those three worlds first, since they feature story content not seen in the movie (played out as a series of quests, like all the other worlds in this game).

I don't really have much to say about this episode, as the majority of it is apparently about the concept of playtesting from a production standpoint, which didn't really catch my attention very much. At least it was interesting to learn that the version of Lego Builder's Journey that I recently played on Steam actually has a little more content than the original version on Apple Arcade (I may have to search for videos of the Apple Arcade version and compare it to the PC version just to see what exactly was added in the more recent release).

The theme of this week's build challenge was home renovation (to the extreme) by rebuilding a rather basic model house into something really extraordinary, complete with lots of movement. There was even an added twist of utilizing NPU (Nice Parts Usage) with a bulk shipment of a surprise Lego element for each team halfway through the build. I have to say, all of those builds definitely went way outside the box with their creativity.

Glad to see you complete Lego Builder's Journey this week, just in time for next week's return to Lego Dimensions, followed by moving on to Lego Movie 2 Videogame the following week. In other words, I'm just glad progress on such a short game like Lego Builder's Journey won't be seemingly interrupted by the monthly Lego Dimensions stream (and especially that my experience was able to help prevent you from getting stuck on certain levels for too long). Anyway, I hope you found the second half of the game as fun as the first, particularly with how much creative freedom there was in the levels that utilized small bricks that combined together into larger bricks, because I sure liked that aspect. As for my vote in the poll, I'm still going by the ones with Level Packs in the order of release, and since the most recent one was Doctor Who from Wave 2, my vote this month was for the only Level Pack from Wave 3, which is Ghostbusters. I have a feeling you might enjoy that level, and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing you play through that level. (To tell you the truth, I never saw Ghostbusters, so be sure to point out if anything in the level is portrayed differently than in the movie.)

This was definitely interesting to listen to, as I've been interested in trying this game for quite a while. In fact, it's one of the three Lego mobile games I had downloaded on my new iPad when I got it a few months ago (the other two are Lego Tower and Ninjago Shadow of Ronin), but I've just been too busy with other hobbies to really get around to trying any of those games. Anyway, it was interesting to not only learn a bit about how the game actually works, but also it was really neat just how much effort the developers went through to include all of those various minifigures across several decades of Lego history (especially how some of the older sets and minifigures were actually sold by collectors directly back to the Lego Group to be used by the game developers). I don't know when I'll get around to actually trying this game, but from what I've heard here, I'm definitely looking forward to it.

A new trailer for this game was apparently released only a few hours ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVOo5DwHDvU

Now that was an interesting challenge for this week's episode. First (courtesy of the antics of "Evil Will"), the teams had to split up and work individually on opposite sides of a wall to build either a land creature or a sea creature, then in the second part of the challenge, the teams were bought back together to combine their two different creations into a single mash-up creature. Working individually in the first challenge and then suddenly having to combine the two models (in some cases at quite different scales) definitely challenged the teams in unexpected ways, but at least some of the final results were pretty impressive.

That sure was fun to watch. Definitely a lot of unique kinds of puzzles to solve throughout the numerous levels. Not to mention, now that you've earned some achievements on a Steam game, now you know what I got to see when I had played all of these Lego games over the last few years. And of course, thanks to my recent experience playing this game, I was able to occasionally provide some helpful hints (certainly less time-consuming than when I played and had to look up YouTube videos for advice). Unfortunately, I lost count of how many levels were completed (maybe later, I'll rewatch the recording and edit this post to specify which level you left off at), so all I know for sure is that there's a total of 65 levels (based on simply counting the level select options I had checked after completing the game). Hopefully, you'll just barely manage to finish the game next week (if not, then definitely the week after the next Lego Dimensions stream).

Although I remember playing quite a few of the web games on Lego.com back in the 2000s (especially all of the Bionicle games), somehow Junkbot was not one of them, probably because it just didn't catch my interest like some of the other games did. Looking back, I certainly would be interested in trying out the game, if it's possible to even play it in some form these days. Anyway, this week's episode was interesting to listen to, especially the fact that Mata Nui Online Game was practically the very first web game ever on Lego.com (somehow, I had always assumed there had been at least a few others prior to that game), and that its success actually inspired the Lego Group to develop several more web games, with Junkbot being the first and ultimately one of the most popular of all, so to learn about that timeline of online game development for Lego.com was really fascinating for me. It was also fun the hear about how the various game mechanics were created (because as I said, I never got to play the game, so I was never familiar with how it worked, and now that I do, I now actually am interested in trying it out for myself, if it's still possible to somehow play it in some form these days). Overall, another excellent episode in this podcast series, and I look forward to what else will be coming up.

Quite a rather entertaining episode this week, with the challenge being to build a puppet and have it perform in a puppet show, with the added difficulty of working with another team to have their two puppets perform together. Some puppets were more impressive than others, but what I found especially funny was the banter between Will Arnet and his puppet doppelganger Will "Billy" Puppet.

Good to see the final area was cleared without any significant problems, and with some time to spare before Lego Masters is on. And with that, the Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame is now fully completed, so congrats for that accomplishment. As for the next game to stream, since you mentioned Lego Builder's Journey as an option, I'd actually like to see that. Like I said in the chat, it took me only three hours to fully complete that game, so that might be doable for you over the next two weeks prior to the monthly swap to Lego Dimensions. I counted a total of 65 levels, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find a reasonable stopping point between such short levels. I will admit there were a few moments where I was confused on what to do next and had to search for YouTube videos to help me figure out what needed to be done. Let's just hope that if you also struggle at times, it won't take too long to figure it out. Either way, I'll look forward to seeing what you think of the game as you play along. (By the way, even though I wasn't particularly interested in watching any of the Bionicle Day streams last Tuesday, I felt like I wanted to do something significant for that particular day, so I decided to try playing Lego Builder's Journey, especially since some of the reviews I had read mentioned that it took only a few hours to fully complete. In fact, I had decided to do something that I believe would be very rare for games on Steam: I had purchased, installed, and played the game while unlocking all of the achievements, all in just a single afternoon, and I managed to accomplish that.) EDIT: I forgot to mention, if Lego Builder's Journey does not turn out to be an option, I'll be okay with seeing the Lego Movie 2 Videogame, especially if you decide to play through the three DLC areas.

I don't know if anyone around here is still interested in MLP, but I figured I should at least share the big news revealed earlier today. Seeing my last post here, I did mention there was a new movie planned for September 24 of this year that would be the start of a G5 series. Although it won't be out in theaters as originally planned (blame the pandemic for that), it will be available on Netflix on that scheduled date, so that should make it easier for us to watch it once it's released. Anyway, the big news for today is that the first trailer for that movie has finally been revealed. For those of you who are interested, here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2I5HtYlwrQ

Season 2 seems to have no shortage of incredibly epic challenges, and this week's episode was another good example of that, with the challenge of building a windmill that can withstand wind from a giant fan up to 60 mph. Quite a lot of interesting designs, and it was awesome to see just how durable a lot of those models turned out to be.

I spent today playing Lego Builder's Journey, not the original version on Apple Arcade, but the recently released version on Steam. It was interesting with a few challenging puzzles, but since I got it fully completed after just three hours, I would recommend waiting a few months for a possible sale rather than pay up the full $20 (I had my own reasons for my willingness to spend that much on a single game).

Looks like you decided to follow my suggestion for this week's stream, so thank you. Glad that I was able to help you get that last canister, try (and fail) to help you with that Vahki bonus level, and point out how to watch the Piraka Playground cutscenes. Did you really say that this was the first time you actually saw any of those Piraka Playground cutscenes? Either way, too bad that your version of the game somehow had them not display any facial expressions like I remember from the version I played (I'm sure someone probably uploaded those cutscenes on YouTube somewhere, so it might be worth searching for). I'm certainly looking forward to next week's stream, which will very likely be the last one for the Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame before you reach 100% completion in that game. Checking the calendar, looks like that'll be followed by two weeks of the Lego Movie 2 Videogame before finally trying the next part of Lego Dimensions.