An idea - GTA Online Batmobile

Image courtesy of www.GTA5-Mods.com

DISCLAIMER: This article is very reliant on you lot knowing about GTA Online. If you don't but are so kind enough to read it anyway, I'm grateful but you don't have to, but just know going in that to understand this article more, you may need to be a GTA fanatic.

Hello you. The name is Luca but you can call me Luca, and I have to apologise for not getting an article out sooner, there was a new update on GTA focused around Bikers, and I have been enjoying that hugely. You know me by now, I am a huge GTA fanatic, and Rockstar (Who make the game) have encouraged a lot of us fans to submit ideas, so here is one that I have been wanting to propose and I thought, I'll write it up on here. Who knows? Maybe those big GTA YouTubers may use it to make 10 minute videos and gain some monehs. I have to say, if you're going to, don't be scum and mislead fans into believing this is '100% LEGIT CONFIRMED WTFFFF'. This for those of you who don't know what I am on about, is a conversation for another time.

Anyway, as you will have noticed, I would like to see a Batmobile in GTA Online, but I am keeping my feet on the ground regarding the concept because there has to be some element of realism, even if it is GTA. The Batmobile I am specifically talking about is the Tumbler, the one that was used in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy films; Batman Begins from 2005, The Dark Knight from 2008 and The Dark Knight Rises from 2012.

We have seen many iterations of the Batmobile throughout the years, such examples being the one from the Adam West era, Michael Keaton's iconic machine and even the most recent one in the DC Extended Universe in which Ben Affleck is Batman. The Tumbler exists with Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, and why do I like it? The Tumbler is very unique in that, it was both intended to be a Batmobile and wasn't, allow me to explain.

So how was it intended to be a Batmobile? Well most movie cars and as far as I'm aware, all past iterations of the Batmobile, are all premade cars with a new body attached. The Tumbler is unique because it was designed from the ground up for Warner Brothers, and something even more interesting about it, WB had approached many car companies in the US and every single one saw the initial design and said "Nah, can't be done" with the inverse front axle and such, so the Tumbler was actually made in Britain.

What about the other part of my statement? The Tumbler in terms of the context of the films, was a highly sought-after prototype tank vehicle that was designed by Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division for usage by the military. Morgan Freeman's character Lucius Fox meets with Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne when Wayne notices the Tumbler in Fox's workshop, and Fox explains the Tumbler's military background, and the fact that it was used to leap across a river during combat with towing cables in order to get other vehicles across.

I love that. I love the fact that the Tumbler in the context of the films, had a purpose before the Dark Knight got a hold of it. It just looks like it would be used in today's world, and it has a much more workhouse look to it over all the other Batmobile incarnations both before and after, which all look sleek and automobile like. So how does this feed into Grand Theft Auto Online?

I've had many ideas for GTA Online, some of which include a single seater on the level of a Formula One and a quad bike/jet ski cross, but this one is one of my main ideas. A tank prototype based on the Tumbler, and what follows are ideas I have had for the in-game equivalent of the Tumbler, you will have to be a GTA fanatic to know a few of the things that I'm on about. So as follows, my idea for the in-game equivalent of the Tumbler.

For those who are unaware, Rockstar are unable to just copy cars into their games since they don't have the same licence as the people behind games like Test Drive, Gran Turismo, Assetto Corsa, Need For Speed, Forza, Project CARS etc. so they have to come up with parodies. For example, if you remember my article talking about my top five favourite vehicles in GTA Online (Link: https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/my-top-five-favourite-vehicles-in-gta.html), the cars are all based on real life equivalents with different design elements and completely different make and model names. For example; Grotti is Ferrari in GTA, Progen is McLaren, Pfister is Porsche, you get the idea.

So the Tumbler equivalent in GTA will need a new name and a manufacturer to be placed under, so here's my idea for the name; the HVY Stealth. The make HVY are behind popular vehicles in GTA such as the Insurgent and the Brickade (Though that later became an MTL), and the Stealth part I got for being a word associated with combat and the fact that I just love the word. Back on Gran Turismo 5, I was given Stealth models of the McLaren F1 and Mazda 787B, which were exclusive and quicker variants of the regular McLaren F1 and Mazda 787B.

So what about vehicle stats, performance, design, cost, weapons etc.? Well the party piece of the HVY Stealth, it has the same engine that is in the Rhino tank, a gas turbine engine developing 1,500 horsepower and something that will be very popular, an afterburner. If you've been on GTA Online for any amount of time, I can guarantee that at some point, you have had a friend in a jet and you either run off of the back of it or you jump behind it, in turn sending you flying.

On a minor side note, I have been trying to find out how much a gas turbine weighs, if anyone out there would happen to know how heavy a tank's motor is, could you let me know? Thank you.

Weapons wise, I've had this down for some time. The Savage helicopter has a cannon on it which is very powerful and sounds amazing when you run it across the ground, so along with a missile launcher with a heads up display the same as the Hydra and Savage, that can lock onto vehicles within the peripherals of the front of the Stealth. Those would be the weapons of the HVY Stealth and I know it'll be a proper beast when used in competitive and free mode events.

The Stealth is heavily armoured, but to what degree? If you look at the quicker and non-weaponised vehicles in GTA, you either have something that is fully bulletproof but will blow up on the first sticky bomb or RPG directed its way. On the other end of the spectrum you have something which will get destroyed after four explosions but will be just as resistant to bullets as the average car, and the middle we have vehicles that are partially resistant to bullets and will survive two explosions. The Stealth will be able to take up to four explosions and is completely bulletproof like the Rhino Tank, and now I know what you are thinking.

"But Luca? That sounds properly over-powered. It is bad enough with Hydra and Tank noobs, the Stealth will be much worse". Well allow me to illustrate in what areas the Stealth will be nerfed, because like I said, I only put the missile and cannon launcher at the front, the Stealth may be agile but not to an amazing degree.

If you look at the Tumbler design, it is relatively high off of the ground and when it corners at speed - if you saw particularly the chase in the middle of Batman Begins - it will lean at an angle and rely on whichever tyre is on the other side of the car. It does turn quite quickly but because of its big and burly body, it won't be incredibly agile so unlike a Hydra or a Tank, you can't just swivel round and combat an enemy from behind, they have to be in front of the Stealth to kill them.

The Stealth will have six wheels, two smaller ones at the front and the four massive rear tyres (Just like its 'real life' counterpart) and I am thinking that along with the Stealth leaning into corners, maybe have the power be moved around all the tyres depending on which way the driver is turning. With more power going to the left if turning left and vice versa.

As for design, well the Stealth will keep its invert front wheel design and massive rear tyres like the Tumbler does, but I also have an idea for the flaps that you see on the back of the Tumbler that I could rework for the Stealth. One of my favourite cars in GTA is the Grotti X80 Proto, that was a part of the continuation of the June 2016 Further Adventures in Finance and Felony update, and is based off of the fictitious Ferrari F80 concept.

The X80 Proto looks amazing (It should do if you're going to pay $2.7M in GTA to pay for it), and one of its most prominent features are two flaps at the back that move depending on what the car is doing. If you're driving the X80 and turning left, the flap on the left goes upwards and the flap on the right goes downwards, with the other way round happening when turning right, and both go up when braking and therefore act as an airbrake. The Tumbler has a group of flaps above the rear wheels that I know could carry over to the Stealth, so that's something else I'd like to see.

Final thing about design, I'd love to see a canopy like door that opens forward like on the jets, and the interior could even have a heads up display like the one you see in a Progen Tyrus, with a green and early age digital number counter.

This is basically a wish list, I have a lot of this written out right next to me on a lined piece of A4 paper. Another one would be having it only available in camo, but I fear a lot of you will want it in black, though I would argue with it being a military vehicle that camo would make more sense, like the Tumbler was before Bruce Wayne requested for his to be made available in black.

But the main thing, the Stealth should do rampless jumps like the Tumbler does. Forgive me if you're a keyboard user or use an Xbox One controller but I am referring to a PS4 controller to talk about what buttons could be used to make the Stealth do rampless jumps. If you push the L3 analog stick up then quickly press down, the car could lower its nose and then push it back up again and the Stealth would then jump.

Finally, how much money will we have to cough up for this wonderful piece of machinery? The HVY Stealth will be on Warstock Cache and Carry and my guess since R* will price heavily since their aim is to develop Shark Card sales, I reckon at a bare minimum $3M and at a maximum $5M. I even have a description for the site that will allude to the Tumbler.

"Built as a bridging vehicle to help transport heavy machinery across rivers and canyons, the Stealth is the brainchild of HVY's British combat and weaponry division, and has been the most highly sought after military vehicle for the past few years. Now retired, the Stealth is the perfect toy for the billionaire play boy to indulge in the fortune his parents left behind".

As for vehicle class, definitely the Military class it only makes sense, but maybe have it be able to be used in Off-Road races? Maybe not considering if you turn GTA mode on in races, this thing will annihilate everyone.

If Rockstar run with this, I'd love to see this introduced in a military style update. Military style vehicles, weapons and clothing are very popular anyway in GTA.

That will be all from me. Thank you for taking the time to read this, maybe even tweet it at Rockstar to see if they will listen.

If you're a GTA YouTuber and want to run with this, feel free. Get your 10 minutes worth of advertisement revenue with a clickbait scummy title saying 'BATMOBILE IN GTA ONLINE GAMEPLAY!!! PLUS GTA 6, PS4, XBOX ONE, SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 AND MEGLODON SHARK CARD GIVEAWAY TO EVERYONE WHO LIKES THE VIDEO AND COMMENTS "I WANT MONEY, DADDY!!!" FEATURING PEWDIEPIE AND VANOSS' with red arrows and circles in the thumbnail pointing at a girl's ass. Don't actually do that to such a whoring degree.

I know if you do decide to cover this, you'll cherry pick so nobody sees that bit. Heck you probably won't credit me but that's alright, all I hope is that Rockstar see this and consider turning the HVY Stealth from a dream to an actuality.

Anyway if you guys want to be notified of my next blog post, follow me by email if you're on desktop by entering your email into the top right. Or you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat. On a side note, I am thinking of changing my Twitter name, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to send some my way.

Alright! That is it from me, so until we meet again.
Luca.

Why I love Kingsman

Image courtesy of www.filmfutter.com

Hello you! The name is Luca but you can call me Luca and welcome back to Red's One-Shot. The blog where I decide to write whatever on earth I like, and have the audacity to expect you all to read it. But feel free to click away and watch a Minecraft Let's Play on YouTube, or be seriously emotionally hurt and want to tell Tumblr. If you do not have the desire to read this, don't worry boo, I understand. It does feel painful, but I get you.

 

So today, we are going to be talking about a movie that is very personal to me. 2015's sleeper hit, Kingsman: The Secret Service, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine and newcomer, Taron Egerton. Kingsman was released in late January 2015 here in the UK (A time in the cinematic cycle where mostly trash is released alongside all the Oscar and award bait that gets wider release in January) and nobody really knew about it.

I only recognised it as the film that Matthew Vaughn had opted out of directing X-Men: Days of Future Past in order to direct Kingsman, as he had directed the previous instalment in the franchise, X-Men: First Class. That was all that I had heard at that point, then I saw Jeremy Jahns' review of Kingsman and it did intrigue me, so I went to watch it, and I was blown the absolute fuck away.

Holy shit this film never stopped, nobody expected Kingsman to be as good as it was and it was a huge sleeper success, mostly because of the little amount of people that went to see Kingsman then told the unfortunate soul that went to see 50 Shades Of Grey (Since that was released around the same time as Kingsman), that they missed out big time. This certainly was the case for me, a load of people who know me can definitely vouch for me constantly singing Kingsman's praises to the point where they become borderline sick of me.

So what is this Kingsman movie that I am speaking of? As in, what is it about? So you have Colin Firth portraying Kingsman secret agent Harry Hart/Galahad, and an opportunity is presented to him to propose a candidate to fill a vacated role. Alongside this, we have Gary "Eggsy" Unwin who is a young man living with his mother, his infant half-sister and abusive stepfather on a London council estate. Living the life of a typical chav (That by the way for you Americans, in terms of social status is probably Britain's equivalent of hood people), despite being highly intelligent and capable.

Their paths collide when Eggsy is thrown in jail and calls a number that was given to him on a medal of valour that Harry had presented him after Eggsy's father saved Harry's life and was subsequently killed in action. After meeting Eggsy, Harry decides to offer him a chance of becoming a Kingsman agent, so Eggsy accepts and trains to become a Kingsman along with a group of possible candidates, and all in the mean time, Harry is tasked with finding out what Samuel L. Jackson's villainous Richmond Valentine is up to.

So why do I love Kingsman so much? Overall, it is just plain and simple fun. This is something that we as consumers of film and media should be more lenient towards, since we have this idea that all films have to be the following words, gritty and dark, not in that particular order. I get that some characters and stories need to be portrayed in that way but don't make everything super serious, don't have everything follow the success of The Dark Knight despite how brilliant it really is.

I can't really conjure up one reason yet I am unable to think of them all, but one definite factor in me taking such a liking to Kingsman. I guess where we can start is the story, of how a young kid who is definitely the odd one out when it comes to social status, respectfully earns his right to be there by using actual values over his disadvantage of being not of higher class. It should reflect in real life, that nobody should be judged on their class but more their values, which ties into a quote that Ernest Hemingway said that Harry repeats in the film, "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.", and I love that quote.

The lore behind Kingsman as well is amazing. Incase you didn't know, Kingsman is actually based on an original line of comics by Mark Millar, who is also responsible for the Kick-Ass comics and the original novel that Captain America: Civil War is based on. In the original comics for Kingsman - which were just titled The Secret Service - the secret service itself was actually not an independent organisation like in the comics, but actually MI6. Not faulting Millar here but the film did this so much better.

So in the film, Kingsman tailors were founded in 1849 (Just like their real world counterpart Huntsman) by some really powerful men who by 1919, lost many of their heirs to World War One so their fortunes would go un-inherited. So these powerful men decided to put all of their money into funding an independent international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, without any the politics to undermine the bureaucracy of government ran spy organisations. It just seems like Matthew Vaughn really put some time to think of everything, as he apparently came up with the idea when getting a suit fitting at the Huntsman tailors.

With all this rich and unexplored background in the Kingsman universe, no surprise that many people saw this as having franchise potential and why next June, we are having Kingsman: The Golden Circle and I cannot contain myself to see where they go with these amazing characters in this incredible world. I think that's something I loved also, the fact that this property has such potential to be so much bigger than what it already is right now, the possibilities are endless.

For example, I'd love to see a series of video games made based on Kingsman, in the same vein as the what the Arkham games are for the Batman franchise, I even have ideas for who could voice some of the characters. Another thing I'd love to see, an animated series like how DC and Marvel have their own animated series, though I would refrain from doing that if it meant that there would be an interest developing regarding Kingsman among the younger demographic, which I'll speak about now.

Kingsman shares more in common with films like Kick Ass and Deadpool when it comes to sexual references, profanity and bloody violence with its hard R rating, and that last part could not be more emphasised. It's not overly gory but it's bloody and brutal, it may be very over the top but it never becomes almost parody like, it's always riding that ledge to an incredible extent.

Speaking of parody, not that this is one but Kingsman is heavily inspired by the Bond films of old, primarily the Connery and Moore era. That era of Bond is very abundant in this film, with all the fancy gadgets that are very much missed in the modern Bond films, the over the top and absurd nature that the older Bond films were known for, it's a passing of the torch now between Bond and Kingsman. The films with Craig as 007 were a departure from that type of Bond and put it in more of a vein of the Bourne franchise, which isn't a bad thing but this void of funny and campy spy films was very much felt, so Kingsman filling this gap is more than okay with me and I hope it stays that way.

So now the stars of the film, and I am not just talking about the people on screen, I'm also talking about those off camera. First of all, director and writer Matthew Vaughn who in my opinion (Which is fact by the way, I will have you know!) the best at what he does, and has made some amazing movies which include; his directorial debut with Layer Cake, which many consider to be the film that got Daniel Craig the role of Bond, and others include such amazing movies as Stardust, Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class.

Vaughn's main strength as a director is his ability to film very fluid action scenes, which you'll see in Kingsman with abundance in two scenes in particular. There is a plague in action movies today where you will have the director move the camera like he has grease all over his palms, shaking it to such a degree that you cannot follow the action. Vaughn is the master of being able to film an action scene in such a rapid way that you can follow the action, he insists that his actors do most of their own stunts so he doesn't have any limitations when editing shots in one action scene.

Speaking of actors doing their own stunts, can we give a hand to Colin Firth? He apparently did over 90% of his own stunts, which is even more impressive considering we have not seen him be much of an action hero type of person. Infact seeing Mr. Darcy himself fight some thugs in such an aggressive manner does make you take a step back and be like, "Oh wow!". Same thing with Samuel L. Jackson's villainous Richmond Valentine, you see him and know that Jackson is known for keeping his cool when killing people on screen but then you notice how quirky his character is and it's absolutely amazing to see him wince at the sight of blood or violence.

That is something that Matthew Vaughn is known for as well, casting someone for a role that is a complete contradiction of what they are best known for. Other examples of this stroke of genius include seeing Hollywood tough man Robert De Niro portray a pirate captain in Stardust that loved to dress up as a woman, and also when a barely 13-year old Chloë Grace Moretz was in Kick Ass and you expected her to act all sweet and innocent but she would stab you with a spear and call you a cunt. I can see many examples of actors portraying themselves as their polar opposite in future Matthew Vaughn movies.

Now for our main actor, Taron Egerton who portrayed Gary "Eggsy" Unwin. His charisma and how easy he made this role seem, I remember watching Kingsman and he reminded me so much of young Leonardo DiCaprio, he will be around for a long time and if many of you have been following my blog for a while, will know I'm hoping he gets an Oscar in not too long at all.

It's made all that much more unbelievable when you find out that Kingsman was actually his first feature-length movie, when normally most actors would appear in a small low-budget indie film. He's such a versatile actor, because fast forward a year later and he is playing Eddie the Eagle in the titular biopic alongside Hugh Jackman.

Overall there is so much that can be said about how great Kingsman is, but what I love the most about it? I reiterate and emphasise how fun it really is, and I implore and stress that all of you should go watch it as soon as possible and you will get me.

So I thank you all for your patience. This took so much writing, I had to start over when I read out my first draft but if I have made you intrigued to see this movie, then I have done my job. Watch it and enjoy it you people.

Alright! That will do. Again, I apologise for how long it has taken for me to make this, and I even had to create my last post in an attempt to salvage something for you lot, not that I had no intention of making it regardless because I did. Next post, I'll make sure I can get it out as soon as possible. I have an idea, and I hope you stay tuned for it, so if you want to be notified of when I post next, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or if you're on a computer, look for the 'Follow By Email' option in the top right of your screen.

That will do for now. So until we meet again,
Luca.

My experience with Twitch

Image courtesy of www.cardschat.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. Now I know what you are thinking if you have been following this blog (No clue why you would, it's a gigantic waste of your time) and you read my last post, I said I would be making a blog post about why I love the movie Kingsman. Now unfortunately, I have decided to delay it because I am not at all happy with what I have wrote so far but I will continue to work on it until I am 100% satisfied. I have a few other reasons, of which I'll explain at the end of this post.

So keep your shirts on, and I thought I would write an in-the-moment article on Twitch and why it as a whole, had surprised me more than I can imagine.

I cannot remember when Twitch was announced or when I heard about it, but what I do know is how I felt having just heard the concept, and unfortunately for me it was dumbed down to, "Watch other people play games". Now I have observed the online gaming content scene for a while now so I heard the concept and it seemed lazy, and as ever, I'll attempt (and probably fail miserably) to explain to you lot, why I had these thoughts.

First of all, and as simple as it sounded, watching someone play a video game isn't just the basis of what makes the idea lazy, because the art of making entertaining content based around playing a video game isn't impossible. Having just stated that I have observed the online gaming content scene for some time, and it was a time when heavily edited videos with clips that were not just reliant on the gameplay but more on graphics and personality.

A friend of mine was starting out on YouTube in the gaming genre, and back then I felt the only way to become recognised was to have a brand and something to identify yourself as. I wasn't wrong, I am still not wrong in that sense as we have seen huge YouTube channels such as VanossGaming (Nearly 19 million subscribers on YouTube) become recognisable because of his association with his owl based character, which was popularised thanks to his most prominent success with GTA 5.

However for the one Vanoss who does edit his videos to a top notch quality and adds graphics and illustrative and audial features to enhance the comedic effect of the moment, you have so many others who follow in the path of a JackSepticEye, where they just play the game and rely on themselves to bring the comedy. I hate that I have gone into so much depth about this and it has taken me so long to get to the main point.

The main aspect of how to make a video entertaining in any field was never in the moment of making the video, it is how you edit it afterwards, because even someone who leans more towards a JackSepticEye over a Vanoss also has to edit the video in a way that makes it entertaining, and that is where my main concern came with Twitch.

Twitch is a streaming site, where you broadcast live gameplay to your audience and of course, emphasis in this case is being put on live. That was always a concern for me, because I pictured a load of boring old fucks just playing a game and letting everything happen, but I could not have been more wrong.

The first time I engaged with Twitch was watching one of only two streamers I regularly get on the site to watch, and that is Broughy1322. I've mentioned him before but Broughy is primarily known for going very in depth with racing within Grand Theft Auto, and he is the go to person if you want to know about any vehicle performance wise in the whole game, as he laps every car around his custom test track to give a pointer as to how the car behaves and their characteristics so you know how quick they are, as well as topping out every vehicle to find their top speed.

For a short time, I would go to Broughy's Twitch channel from his YouTube videos where he would announce his stream was happening, but I did not create an account until much further down the line. Before I created my account, I saw Broughy interacting with a lot of his fans and that element was what made the streams, he was able to communicate with his audience. Having created my account, the first thing I ever wrote in the Twitch chat to Broughy was me poking a hole in his logic when referring to an in-game freemode event, and ever since then, being able to have fun by interacting with whoever is streaming is always great but what is even better, is interacting with others.

In my time on Twitch, I have become friends with so many wonderful people who I probably would not have thought to be friends with. It is a genuine joy to get into a stream and speak with these people, speak about current events and have whoever we are watching play a prominent part as well, and one major bonus of having gameplay in the background, something is always happening so we have stuff to bounce back on.

You saw how I said I watch two streamers on a regular basis and that one is Broughy1322? The other one is called Zearxy (18k followers on Twitch), who I discovered through Broughy when I was watching a duel stream between them on Rocket League. I remember that I had put in Broughy's chat about how I was infuriated by the fact that my username was coloured in pink, and Zearxy (Whose actual name is Liz, and I will refer to her as that for the rest of this article) told me that pink was a great colour. So we had a bit of banter back and forth with this mystery Scandinavian feminine sounding voice, before I become curious and was like "Who is this person?".

So I started to follow Liz (No, I am not a stalker) and been watching her streams, and they are honestly really enjoyable. She is extremely lovely, she follows me on Twitter so occasionally we talk via direct messaging and we agreed that Twitch has always been a community place. A point proven further by a YouTube stream from the other day by a friend of Vanoss from earlier named Mini Ladd (3.5 million YouTube subscribers), when his chat was moving so quickly that you honestly could not get a word in without some numpty using multi-coloured squares to spell out 'DAB' 100 times every five seconds.

I should clarify that the fact that I could not follow Mini Ladd's chat was nothing to do with the fact that he's using YouTube over Twitch, it's because he has such a large following compared to Broughy and Zearxy. I expect that if Mini was streaming on Twitch, we would get the exact same results in terms of how quick his chat would be going.

Both Broughy and Liz's streams are very small, and it gives them a relative tight knit feel to them where their streams feel quite personal, this being despite the fact that Broughy is fast approaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and quality wise, is at a level that far surpasses the typical crap on YouTube. I have a feeling that one day, with the eventual rewarding of actual quality, these two will garner a following so big that it will eventually be a case of not being able to properly communicate with them directly and the chat will move quicker than an RE-7B around the track (Broughy fans will get this reference).

My friend Matthew streamed recently and all it was in the chat was all his friends that would peak at around 15 viewers and stagnate to at the very least around eight or nine viewers, but in the chat the banter was amazing. The experience of kicking back with your mates and having an easy going and enjoyable time, just with the bonus of sharing it with others who will joke around as well and offer more things to laugh at.

I always enjoy gaming, and it may actually be better if I did decide to stream on Twitch. I realise having now been watching Zearxy's streams especially that you don't need to be a professional and have everything look extremely fancy, that it can be low key and reliant on fan interaction. Not that Zearxy's isn't fancy, let's go with high budget, or whatever that puts forward my point, that anyone can stream on Twitch, as long as you have fun.

So to end this, I want to thank Liz especially for helping out (Even if she didn't purposefully mean to do so) and if by the small chance you haven't checked out their stuff, go subscribe to Broughy1322 on YouTube, follow his Twitch and follow Zearxy on Twitch as well.

I have considered starting streaming on Twitch, I would do so if I could start racing in Broughy's crew Nonchalant Dominance, it has been my dream to race in the NoDo GTA Online Multi Class Endurance Championship and maybe I would stream just so Broughy could use my point of view in a video of his covering the event. I am still sitting on the idea though, I would be playing GTA and Rocket League mostly at least for now, I have a lot to think about, it isn't something I want to just do, I am considering a load of other factors of course. I know I said it should be a simple decision so I am contradicting myself, but I suggest you lot go for it, for the BANTZ!

Alright! Thank you for checking this article out, now this is normally where I'd tell you lot where to go if you want to continue following my blog, and I will but I want to let you guys in on something.

So one of my favourite movies is The Martian, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Now for those of you who don't know, Andy Weir actually wrote out his novel on his blog for free and also because his novel was based on science fact over fiction, he had people submit scientific corrections for him to put into his story. He began writing it in 2009, he had the finished version on his blog by 2011, he had it properly published by 2014 and of course, the rest is history.

I have decided that I want to publish stories for you lot. I have two stories imprinted into the back of my mind, one I am giving more time to than the other at the moment, and whilst writing is a hobby, I would love to become an author so I have decided that if at some point, I finish my first novel, I will share it on here for free.

My plan is to finish all the chapters, then write up an introduction before publishing a chapter on successive days. I want to hear everyone's thoughts on reading my stories, it will be really amazing to hear how everyone feels after reading them. So if you that is something you lot would like me to do, then let me know.

How can you do that? Well comment below here if you like, or tweet me @TheLucaFormat. You can also follow me there if you want to know when I publish, as well as typing in your email address in the Follow By Email bar.

That will be all from me today so until we meet again,
Luca.

The perfect F1 game (For Codemasters)

Image is my own from F1 2016 (Codemasters).

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. So I have been playing the F1 games for many years and it has been a major part of my life, even before I was interested in cars.
My first game was F1 04 and I played that game so much when I was a kid, mostly driving as Michael Schumacher because I was a sheep back then and just followed whoever was considered the best (Not that I think anyone who likes Schumie is like that, I still like him now. On another note, keep fighting Schumie, hope you're recovering).

I have had quite the history with the F1 games and so many other racing games, so I consider myself very well versed in illustrating my point for what should be done to create the best F1 game possible. As ever, I wish to present them to you in a non-shit manner, and I had hoped to get this done much earlier like I had promised but it's only getting done now because I'm one lazy piece of crap! So let's get started.

For me, my personal experiences with many racing games have been very differing, however a personal peak for me was a game that whilst it did was it is supposed to do and be an effective driving game, it also did something I had never experienced before and immersed me. F1 2010 was the game, and I have so many fond memories when playing F1 2010.

The reason why I say immersed is because when you opened up the game, you were immediately in the paddock of whatever Grand Prix you were up to in career mode. You had David Croft near your team garage ready to interview you after a race, your team mate nearby looking at some information with some team personnel, and you could jump into your motorhome where you had your agent and if you were lucky enough, the drivers world champion trophy. Adding onto that, you could go into the press conference room if you finished in the top three.

Teamed with such incredibly detailed lighting and incredibly soothing music, F1 2010 is such a an amazing game to experience and it honestly set the bar so high that when F1 2011 rolled around, it was a huge disappointment. The graphics were a bit naff, the driving felt quite digital compared to F1 2010's pure analogue feel, it honestly felt like all the worst possible combination of ponderous handling with no feel through the wheel, teamed with the graphics that it had.

2012 rolled around and it felt like a back to basics in terms of the handling model, as like F1 2010, the cars handled wonderfully and you could tell exactly what they were doing. Though my one disappointment is that the paddock surroundings were replaced by a simple wind tunnel, and the same with F1 2013 the following year, though that made up for it by having something else.

In 2013, Codemasters introduced classic cars into the game. This was something the community was overjoyed about, and they went above and beyond the call of duty with what they implemented with the classic cars, because many of us were expecting to just have the cars available to us to drive around the 2013 circuits and maybe some classic tracks for the older cars, but this was not just the case.

We could race the classic cars on both the 2013 and classic circuits, we could even race the 2013 cars around the classic circuits and we had drivers in the old classic cars that were affiliated to some extent to the team which fielded the car, even if they didn't race the car back in the day. For example, Alain Prost (F1 champion 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993) won his fourth championship with Williams, however you could race as him driving the car that won the 1980 F1 championship with Alan Jones.

You had a choice of either racing in 80's or 90's era F1 cars and even the 2013 cars around older configurations of Britain's Brands Hatch, Portugal's Estoril, Spain's Jerez and Italy's Imola, and because 2013 was the year that the F1 movie Rush was released, you could go to Time Trial and drive Niki Lauda's 1976 Ferrari. This was something that the community absolutely adored Codemasters for, as it was quite a ballsy move considering us being able to drive these cars at all to the extent you could on F1 04 and F1 Championship Edition in just the time trails would have been more than enough.

So you're probably wondering what I thought of F1 2014? Well, I didn't pick up the game. I believe I was going to, then it was announced that the retro cars and tracks would not be returning so I decided to not do so. I believe this was when I was mainly just into GTA so don't feel sorry for me.

Fast forward to F1 2015 and now F1 2016, right now I'm struggling on F1 2016 in the same way I did on F1 2015. These two newer F1 games are on the next generation of consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) as appose to all the other games being on the last generation (PS3 and Xbox 360), and as a result of this, the newer games have a higher frame rate, that being 60 FPS as appose to 30 (I believe, I may be wrong).

Something I find to be such a plaguing issue is when I go into corners, the cars are going so much faster that the steering feels heavy and the car doesn't want to get going as the steering wheel just drags as I accelerate. I use a controller by the way, I plan on seeing what will happen once I get my PS4 wheel, but right now, I am struggling and willing to take any advice on.

I will commend F1 2016 for this though, I love the manual starts and the slowing down before entering pitlane as well. I'm also more than happy with the fact that we now get to pick race numbers and customise helmets, though I feel perhaps the helmet customisation should be worked on for the next game. Which seems like a perfect transition to the whole point of this article, an amalgamation of all the best from these F1 games to make the perfect one, that hopefully Codemasters will listen to.

Back on F1 Championship Edition, I loved the pit stops you could perform on there by pressing buttons in order to get your pit crew to perform certain actions and I miss that. Though that was back in the day that pit stops took about 10 seconds and there was refuelling, so with the fact that a bad pit stop is just under five seconds due to refuelling having been banned, maybe it could be very difficult to nail a pit stop if you're pressing buttons in this new era. I'd love to see that.

Character customisation is another thing I want to see expanded. On F1 2016, we have a choice of selecting a few pre-made faces for our driver, and I would much prefer to see a system implemented where we can customise them completely like on GTA, so we could have anything from white, black, Asian, or even an option for either a man or woman driver. Then afterwards, we could decide what hair style, hair colour, eye colour, the size and position of the nose etc. whatever possible to personalise our characters even more than before.

Helmet personalisation was an incredibly surprising and welcome feature for this year's game however I do have a few details that I want to propose with the customisation. Every team in F1 has a template for all their helmets, with Ferrari for example having their logo on the forehead area of the helmet above the visor, as well as a ring around the top with one of the team's sponsors. So what I reckon they should do here is whilst designing the helmet, see what the helmets would look like with any team's sponsors and designs before finishing the helmet off.

Another helmet design feature would be a system similar to that of the old Forza games where we can pick shapes, colours, country flags etc. and even our own custom design for a race number that we pick. So for me, I would have my number 56 coloured in red for the five and yellow for the six, with the British and Italian flags on top as well just beneath them. The rest I'll figure out in time, but that's what I have for now.

Next up, I would like to see podium finishes make a return along with the national anthems of the winning driver. I remember on F1 Championship Edition, I would create a new profile with a different nationality and set the difficulty mode for the AI on easy so I'd hear a new national anthem, rather than do what the average idiot would do and go listen to it on YouTube.

In 2012 and 2013, there was a young driver test at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi and I really liked the system that they had where you drove a Red Bull, Ferrari or McLaren and performed various tasks in order to learn. You could obviously choose not to do it but I found it very beneficial when I did it, and not only that it was also a very authentic experience as there are young driver tests for drivers who have competed in two Grands Prix or less.

I'd love to see the young driver test make a return, maybe either at Yas Marina again or like in recent years, Silverstone. Though that being said, ever since Silverstone held in-season tests, that seemed to expand into including regular drivers as well.

Could we have in-race commentary back too? I know we have Anthony Davidson and David Croft giving commentary before and after the race, but why not inbetween? I loved that with James Allen and Martin Brundle in F1 Championship Edition where they recite the order or talk about a retirement. Plus in F1 CE, they break the fourth of wall and refer to the person playing the game when in career mode as "You" and not "The (Insert team you drive for) driver" like in F1 2016.

Final two things I want to see back, the paddock atmosphere similar to that of F1 2010. Immersing yourself in the F1 world again after the most recent games having such a bog standard menu especially in the same way it worked on F1 2010 again, would be something I would be overjoyed with.

The other thing? Yep, classic cars and classic circuits once again. Implemented the exact same way it was in F1 2013 where you go into 'Retro mode' or whatever it was called, and you are inside a garage with a classic car.

Oh and before I forget, before the British Grand Prix in 2012, an F1 track in London was created by Santander, McLaren and Sky Sports. I have been wanting to drive that track for so many years, asking Polyphony to ditch that fucking awful excuse of a London street race in favour of the one created here.

It started on the Mall, went pass Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, alongside the Embankment on the River Thames and underneath Admiralty Arch. I would be elated to find out there was a Grand Prix held there in a few years, and even more happy to find out it was put on Gran Turismo or Project CARS. So I'm thinking as a trophy, unlocking the London Grand Prix track would be great prize.

Of course though, the F1 games should do one thing really and that is be a great F1 game and for the most part, Codemasters have always been knocking it out of the park, some more than others. This is basically a wish list for minor details, but I think the main thing is for the F1 games to allow for both people on the controller and people on the wheel to be able to drive the cars quickly and for us to be able to know what the cars are doing.

Last time I was able to drive the cars like that was F1 2013, and it peaked in F1 2012 so I hope I can get better on F1 2016 at the very least.

Codemasters, hope you consider a lot I have to list here. That's if you're reading this at least, and if you are, please consider making a follow up to F1 Race Stars as well. Anyone who isn't an F1 fan, play that, it's so fun.

Alright! That'll do for today, thank you all for taking the time to read this. I see that I have written a lot of motorsport orientated posts as of late, next blog post will not be the case, infact it will be one I have been promising myself to make for a while. Infact my friend Morgan that I mentioned in my Pokémon live action movie post (Link here - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/live-action-pokemon-movie-thoughts.html) asked me to make my first blog post the one that I will be working on next, well it has been way too long!

My next blog post ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who know me so well, will be... (Insert unnecessary dramatic music), Why I love Kingsman. Barring anything that may pop up beforehand but I promise, as far as things are going now, that will be my next blog post.

So if you're looking forward to that or just want to see more of my posts in general, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or if you're on desktop, type your email address into 'Follow by email' if you have not already.

So until we meet again,
Luca.

An idea - F3 EuroCup

Image courtesy of www.paddockscout.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. So in my last blog post, I spoke at length about how I have all these ideas and concepts but I don't have the power to make them happen, but it has never stopped me from at least trying. This is one of the many reasons I began this blog, so maybe someone with power could read it and be all like "This looks alright, maybe I'll try and make it happen". Oh and a little side note, I feel like if you read my last post and took a shot of strong alcoholic drink every time I said "Make it happen", you would have blacked out.

 

Anyway, back to the main topic here. So as I have already mentioned, I am a huge motorsport fan and it ranges from anything such as GT racing to junior formulae, and from cars to motorcycles. I consider myself incredibly invested in many major details of these racing championships to make a case for this concept I am going to be telling you about, as it has been a brainchild of mine for a couple of years.

 

So if any of you read my 'What is a voice with no power Part 1 (FIA F3 Europe)' (Link here: https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/what-is-voice-with-no-power-part-1-fia.html), I had been trying to make a case for the FIA European Formula Three championship to try and focus on it being a proper junior formulae for those heading to F1, and not a by-product of the German DTM championship.

 

But because I'm just some kid who has no significance, this never happened and European Formula Three is still trapped in the cycle of shitty tracks and clinging to DTM's hand like a man-child who cannot man up and move out of his mother's basement and get a job.

 

It won't stop me trying of course, and it never stopped me back then. This tale I have for you may actually be quite the amusing one, so sit back with your comedy popcorn and let us get started!

 

Back in 2013, the British Formula Three championship had downsized its schedule to include just four rounds, of which only 50% were actually in Britain. For many years proceeding the 2013 'mini' championship, British F3 whilst it was still a strong force, it was trying to be a European series, and that had been rather working for them, until the FIA took over the F3 Euro Series to become FIA European F3 in 2012. This being the period when I tried pointing European F3 in the direction to distance itself from DTM to an extent, but I've already spoken about that.

 

The FIA-led Euro F3 had become so affordable and accessible to younger drivers, that a lot of them were making the step up immediately to this tier of racing after racing in a lower tier national championship. Even Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen leaped up to FIA European F3 from Karts in 2014 and then the following year, made his F1 race debut, seemingly an exception to the rule of how drivers develop in the lower formulae.

 

Anyway, so I tried all I could to get in touch with the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, who are responsible for the Blancpain GT championships, British GT and at the time, British F3. The most I ever got was through the British GT Twitter account, and during the period that the 2013 smaller scale British F3 series was taking place, I tried to convince them that the way forward for British F3 was to go back to basics, with a schedule that mainly consisted of British tracks and only one round outside of Britain.

 

I tried to help but they must have seen me as an annoyance, because British GT blocked me on Twitter. However the idea of the schedule mainly consisting of British circuits must have struck a chord with them and they did do this for the following year, much to my delight but it didn't work out, as less than 10 drivers competed throughout the whole championship and after many successful years, British F3 in that guise was forced to fold.

 

Not trying to push the blame onto something else, but whilst I feel partly responsible, it was because of European F3's rise to now being a complete monopoly. We do have British F3 back under a new guise and without the cars to match that of European F3, and with a mostly British schedule to suit that of drivers looking to make a natural progression and with the sponsorship they have so it has worked out well in that regards.

 

However, I don't think SRO are best pleased to have lost control of a major junior formulae so that is why I have not only emailed them with this idea, I want to get it across to you lot in hopes I may be able to convince SRO the benefits of such a proposed series. So I give you everyone, the Formula Three EuroCup championship.

 

Remember how I spoke briefly about how in 2013, British F3 was watered down in terms of its calendar with only four rounds? Well I have to commend SRO for the concept, it just should never have been utilised for British F3 at all. However for what I have in mind, four rounds is perfect.

 

Looking back on how the 2013 British F3 championship played out, it consisted of drivers who were already competing in many major racing championships and were using it as a "bit on the side". The three main players when it came to competing to win the British F3 title, they were Jordan King, Antonio Giovinazzi and William Buller, all three of whom were competing in the European F3 as well.

 

Same for many of the other drivers, such as Nicholas Latifi, Jann Mardenborough, Sean Gelael and Tatiana Calderon. All of them were competing in European F3 that year, and it didn't stop there, as we also had 2012 British F3 vice-champion Jazeman Jaafar return for one round so he could qualify for the F3 Macau Grand Prix, since he had been competing in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013.

 

For those out there who don't follow motorsport, the unfortunate truth is that money is what makes the world go round. I don't mean that as in wages for drivers, because car upgrades and repairing costs money, drivers need to have sponsorship behind them, and unfortunately, talent isn't the only thing that sponsors like. We have seen it in recent years that drivers make it to F1 on pure money alone, or at least where the money outweighs talent.

 

It is bad enough in the highly publicised championships such as F1, but you look further down the single seater ladder and it is even worse. I know for a fact that so many drivers particularly from Australia and New Zealand have it very difficult, since sponsors of theirs from their native countries find it difficult to sell in a market such as Europe.

 

I can also safely say it isn't isolated to just drivers from outside of Europe, we have so many drivers deserving of a shot in major racing championships, and can't get the chance due to the money involved. That is where this F3 EuroCup comes in, as I have been inspired by many other championships that use the EuroCup name, like the Renault Clio series and also Formula Ford from a few years ago.

 

There's a driver called Scott Malvern, he is one of the major victims of money dictating his career. I believe Scott could have been a very successful driver had he gone further, as he won the 2011 British Formula Ford championship, the Formula Ford EuroCup that same year and the 2012 Formula Renault BARC.

 

That aside, the Formula Ford EuroCup that he won in 2011 alongside his British FFord championship was a four round mini championship. This being the main source of inspiration I am taking with the F3 championship, because the EuroCup being a smaller scale series allowed Malvern to commit to it as well as his British FFord campaign.

So applying this idea to a higher tier format of racing such as F3, you could have drivers from so many disciplines compete either at one round or throughout the whole EuroCup. It would be very accessible for drivers who don't have a full season budget and may want to try and impress whilst competing with drivers who are using the EuroCup as a side campaign or competing in order to qualify at Macau, maybe sponsors will sit up and take note?

I know for a fact that I sound naïve as fuck, but when this format was tested for British F3 in 2013, it worked out exactly like so and I see this concept of a small scale and small budget F3 series being only more beneficial for drivers in a variety of different junior series.

So the F3 EuroCup, this is what I have proposed to the Stéphane Ratel Organisation. Back in 2013 with British F3, we had the four rounds with three races each at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, Brands Hatch and Nürburgring, and for the F3 EuroCup I have pretty much the same tracks except Monza in Brands Hatch's place.

All rounds support the Blancpain Endurance Series, in their 3 hour races and their annual 24 hour race at Spa. Three races each weekend, using FIA grade F3 chassis that are left over probably from when the SRO's British F3 went down the pipe.

"So Luca, why are you writing this? What is the point of this?", well random person who doesn't actually exist and I only conjured up for the purpose of asking that question but probably nobody else gives a shit to answer, okay maybe some of you actually do.. I am proposing the SRO to create the F3 EuroCup because it is a perfect compromise.

You'll remember I said that the British GT Twitter account blocked me, so I made some enemies back then. I don't regret anything, I still think that British F3 was not meant for this four round and watered down concept, but the concept is genius and maybe SRO could take advantage of this hole in the market.

I do want to apologise to SRO for being a slight annoyance but I only ever did anything with good intentions. This small scale F3 championship will be very beneficial for many young drivers and I reckon you guys will have really large grids at every race meeting, I sent an email to Emily from your London base with the contacts on the SRO Motorsports Group website, and I go into a little more detail regarding a few other things such as how race start line-ups are dictated. Hopefully you see what I am trying to propose.

Because hey! I may have been one of the catalysts that led to you losing British F3 so why wouldn't you listen to a scrub like me? I know I sound like I have my head so far up my own arse that I am.. okay I won't go there but my point is, I am not. Heck if I was unreasonable, I could have the nerve to ask my parents for a Ferrari 458 Spider and tell them that if they didn't, I would not love them in the slightest, however my feet are firmly on the ground here.

I see the benefits of the F3 EuroCup, and I hope you lot see where I am coming from. Hope to hear from you lot soon, and again, sorry for the inconveniences way back when. Oh and you don't have to get the British GT Twitter account person to unblock me, the Renault F1 team blocked me because they have signed a disgrace to the cause of getting a woman driver to compete in F1, and so many of the junior formulae drivers agree with me. (This by the way, I will come to it and some point in the future, I want a talented and competitive woman to represent female athletes in F1, and the one I am referring to here, is not. She, is just, NOT!)

Alright! Got off topic there, as for the rest of you, thank you for reading my article. If you're new here, follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat to get notified of when I post, or you can Follow By Email if you are on the desktop version.

So until we meet again.
Luca.

Unattainable dreams?

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. Now many of you may remember my post 'What is a voice with no power? (Part 2: Curious Incident movie)' which I shall link here if you have not already read it - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/what-is-voice-with-no-power-part-2.html.

When I posted that, it was something that I really wanted to avoid because I had been keen to keep these requests between me and the right people, and releasing anything like that for you all to see may at first have been more of something that would work against me as appose to in my favour. I say that because if I made it public, the big people involved would not take me seriously and see me as just some random fan boy who would be just a minor inconvenience and not take me seriously.

The reason I made all that I did public is because I would constantly get either no response, or a response from the email address I did send one particular email to and only get told "Sorry, this is not the correct email address" and never get whatever the correct one was. So I am forever cutting wrong wires in an attempt to diffuse the bomb that is getting a Curious Incident movie with Taron Egerton to happen.

What prompted me to write this was that a few days ago (Well, only yesterday from when I wrote this), I fell asleep and had an unsettling dream about a plane crashing, which was bad enough since I am a tad unnerved by the idea of flying anyway. However - because I am a scrub who thinks all dreams have meaning - I looked up on Google what a dream of such a thing means, and I found the following exurb from www.dreammoods.com:

To dream that a plane crashes signifies that you have set overly high and unrealistic goals for yourself. You are in danger of having those goals come crashing down. Alternatively, the crashing airplane represents your lack of confidence, self-defeating attitude and self-doubt.

 

Now you lot can believe whatever the fuck you like, I mean I believe dreams are a suppressed thought so that's why I look up things like this. So when I read that (Or something along those lines, I got a different exurb on my phone), it spoke so much volumes to me as it really is me in a nutshell. I have absolutely no confidence in myself, and for so long, I try and never think any bit about myself in a positive light in fear of seeming arrogant.

 

I was getting my hair cut recently and my hairdresser Michelle says that I am too down about myself, and since I never listen to myself because I could easily be like "Oh I am great, I'm the dog's bollocks", having heard those words from someone other than me obviously made me think. The fact that Michelle said that was because she wanted to know why I did not take pride in the fact that I am able to name every single Formula One world champion that there has ever been.

 

The reason why I don't "Own that shit" is because why should I if it's not useful? It's not as if I can make money off of knowing every one of the F1 champions since 1950, maybe in that ITV list show or Mastermind but that would only ever be good for the one time. It isn't just exclusive to that particular thing though, I put myself down in many other regards too.

 

Whilst speaking with Michelle, I was referring to a lady I really like (In my 'Change: From an autistic person' article - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/change-from-autistic-person.html - I allude to this same person) and Michelle kept hearing me tell myself that I wasn't outgoing like this same person, that my days consist of the same very basic things and I wasn't interesting or appealing. I don't consider myself depressed, I always just put all this down to being grounded and realistic.

 

An array of other things lead me to being the way I am, I never want to rate myself too highly in regards to anything, and that has led to me wanting to be positive but not seeing any line between optimism and arrogance in myself. Which is what leads onto again, my ambitions to make a Curious Incident movie.

 

So this all began around October last year when I made a friend in one of the major personnel of the Huntsman tailors in London, and I will refrain from telling anyone who this person is. She promised me that she would pass on any ideas I had to Matthew Vaughn for movies, and these movies are; Curious Incident as you lot may know, also a movie adaptation of the musical Memphis and I also wanted to propose some ideas for the third Kingsman film, as well as a few other things that I won't mention just yet.

 

I was absolutely elated with this, but this did not come without any self doubt. I mean, I'm just some guy who has now left college and chosen to not continue his education, and sits in his room for the most part playing video games and telling some random people on the internet some words that honestly, should not hold any more significance to their own. Why would - in my opinion (WHICH IS FACT, especially here) - the most talented action writer and director have any reason to pay any attention to me and not the next person?

 

It never just stemmed to Matthew Vaughn, it's the whole film industry in general. Why would these studios listen to me? It has been an uphill battle, and every day I would ask myself, what progress am I making whilst I am stuck here in my room?

 

By publishing my post, I thought I could generate some attention within the community of Taron Egerton fans among other communities, and the response was absolutely immense! I am forever grateful to every single one of you for spreading it, and I was hoping it could get to a greater level by using a similar method that led to Deadpool's rise to becoming a movie. I wasn't deluded to the fact that it wasn't going to succeed to an immense level, but I thought maybe just maybe, if there was someone who read this who knew the right people are had a greater following, this could happen.

 

That's the main thing here, I want to see this happen. Not because I want a movie made for me, I think there is mass interest for these movies to be made and I would not be pushing for it if I felt there would be no major interest in any of it happening. How many of you would watch a Curious Incident movie with Taron Egerton as Christopher? I know it can be great but I'm simply just one insignificant cog in the world that is a machine.

 

But if the movie Hugo taught me anything, it's that if you're any small part in any machine, you're there for a reason and whatever you do has any sort of consequence. Yes, I am very much aware I sound like some guy who posts an image on his Facebook of himself trying to look very spiritual and there's a choice of either inspirational quote, or lyrics from a trending song... All I'm saying is, I keep going with this, no matter how ridiculous I may seem in hopes that eventually, there is still the chance that it will happen.

At what cost though? I feel like I'll be laughed at and referred to as ridiculous for pushing for this. I'm also aware that I could be completely unreasonable with all this, but why would I have a right?

So all these self doubts, stem from the fact that I am forever trying to push for this to happen and I'm just sat in my room, hoping by some miracle, I have someone message me giving me hope or guaranteeing that Curious Incident will get made with Taron Egerton.

I don't want pity, I don't want any unfair advantage and when this is over, I would like to return to my life of obscurity. I'm going to continue thinking of ways to get noticed, I hope you liked what I had to say here, and don't forget to dream for yourself, okay?

Until we meet again,
Luca.



Live action Pokémon movie thoughts

Image courtesy of www.scifiaddicts.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. So I'm a Pokémon fan, I think most people are these days, and to any of you who are all like "Oh, this grown man likes Pokémon? How childish", how many Snapchat pictures do you have with the dog filter and sticking your tongue out? Because a mature adult does that, surely. (Joke credit to GradeAUnderA)

The rise of Pokémon Go in the past few months has been a major surprise to everyone, myself included. I think the concept was genius, but I have not been getting myself stuck into it, as I never downloaded the app myself. Before anyone says anything though, I just never had the interest to play it, my decision was not swayed by the idea of being 'different', no way did it play a part at all.

I did however go on a few Pokémon Go walks with my friend Matthew and it was awesome, seeing people play the game and even talking to a mother and son, considering we would not have made eye contact with them if we weren't playing the game. Moving around our town with the particular gyms and Poké-stops, it was a rather surreal thing but very enjoyable.

So my personal history with Pokémon began with Diamond, and really I only stuck at the games for Generation Four, and personal favourite Pokémon of mine including Lucario, Blaziken, Absol, Milotic, Togekiss and most of all, Eevee and all of its evolutions. I've played it all, from Mystery Dungeon to Ranger, Battle Revolution to XD, even Sapphire and Fire Red.

The show in its many forms, I still continue to this day to enjoy. Seeing Ash Ketchum somehow remain 10 years old eternally as he travelled Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos with his loyal and trustworthy Pikachu remain at his side among his many travelling partners, it still remains strong with its cult following and fanbase that transcends generations. All of this now, having been on the run for 20 years this year, now seems like the perfect time for a live action movie.

Now before we get into the nitty-gritty, I think it is going to be a foregone conclusion that these two points are raised, so allow me to answer them in as small a paragraph as possible. Firstly, yes traditional anime/manga has not transcended well to the big screen in the form of big budget Hollywood movies (Such as Dragonball and Airbender), but I think if any can, Pokémon will if they take some liberties. Second point, no doubt will the majority of the cast be 'Not-Asian', it's a topic I am not willing to discuss at length but I do think there is a prejudice in Hollywood against Asians, though not every circumstance is the same.

Basically, big budget Hollywood movies need a recognisable name, that's simple. But other circumstances are plain shameless, like the movie 'The Vow' with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams when it was and I quote "Inspired by true events" when what took place in the story happened to - if I am not mistaken - a Chinese couple, at least that was what I read. So whenever I see that on a film, I see it as a nice way of saying "This happened but to people who were Asian, if they were white then we would have had their actual names but since they're Asian, we won't because that won't appeal to a mass audience okay bye!".

Anyway, I got side-racked there. Back to the Pokémon live action movie!

Recently, Legendary Pictures were in negotiations to buy the rights to a Pokémon movie after Pokémon Go blew up, and I began speculating. All the possibilities that would stem from who would be the people portraying the characters? How would they develop the CGI to create the Pokémon? How would the story flow and what would it focus on?

As far as the question "Will they focus on Ash for a new character?", my answer is that they would for sure since we have come to know Pokémon as Ash and his Pikachu so it would make commercial sense to stick to basics and not take a risk. More on that now...

But nope! The Pokémon company said they intended to only sell the rights to one of their particular properties, and that property in question? None other than Detective Pikachu.

Image courtesy of www.ludomedia.it

Yes you heard that right, the definitive first ever live action Pokémon movie will be Detective fucking Pikachu... This is incredibly shit to the tenth degree and I am very disappointed with the Pokémon company.

Now let me get this out of the way immediately, I have no problem with the Detective Pikachu concept at all, it seems completely and utterly harmless. It is on the same level as all the other spin-off properties of Pokémon such as Ranger and Mystery Dungeon, but I would be just as furious with the idea of the first live action Pokémon movie being based on any of those.

Here's a challenge for you all, go to someone who isn't necessarily a massive Pokémon fanatic and ask them to explain for a summary of what Pokémon as a franchise is, and I guarantee you they're most likely to say something along the lines of it being centred on a trainer and his Pokémon. My point here being, this is not a traditional Pokémon movie and I think the Pokémon company have shot themselves in the foot.

If you're going to give the rights to a live action Pokémon movie, let it be a proper Pokémon story and not a spin-off of any kind, you either do that or you do not do it at all. What they've done is the equivalent of having DC kick off their movie universe with a movie centring on Plastic Man and not Superman or Batman.

This situation really winds me up because I saw a lot of potential in a Pokémon movie to be great if it was handled by the right people.

Recently, screenwriter Max Landis (Responsible for writing Chronicle, Me Him Her, Victor Frankenstein, American Ultra and Mr. Right) was proposing a Pokémon screenplay and whilst some of the minor details I reckon should have been changed, overall though it sounded absolutely incredible. Landis spoke at length that he wanted to make a Pokémon movie that was very true to the spirit of the source material, with him describing it as "A cute, happy, fun, sweet story" and had no asterisks, nothing to detract from what makes Pokémon what it is.

His screenplay centred on the character Red (The in game equivalent of Ash), a female friend of his who was rather tomboy like, Red's rival Blue (The in game equivalent of Gary), Red's mother who used to be a Pokémon trainer, her aged up Graveler who used to be a champion, Red's father who spends too much time in the city and a Koffing that he catches in the woods. All of this by the way was taken from an interview with Landis by Collider, which I will link here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unreFv-rQiM).

Landis went on to compare this pitch to the Harry Potter and Rocky franchise, with it being a coming of age story and it sounds absolutely incredible. I say this because one of my all time favourite movies was last year's Creed, the Rocky spin-off, and I adore that film for its coming of age story and how it is a true testament to being great, these major beats are perfect for Pokémon.

It is fair to say that as much as we love the show, it is cheesy and kid like, I mean I do not to fault it for that, but for the live action movie, we can't be doing with its cheesiness. That being said, it's easy to read that and think we need it to be "Dark", and "Gritty".. No way will we be having that at all, we live in a society now where we live for the glorifying of the cynical nature.

I despise how everything has to be dark and gritty, those words have lost all meaning. I guess since all of this was prompted by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, cheers Chris! You made some amazing movies with Batman but now everyone thinks it is the only way to go.. heck even next year's Power Rangers movie is following that same path, and the old Power Rangers shows were so cheesy, they could have been a pizza!

My favourite franchise-esque movie of recent times has been Kingsman, and that does not take itself so seriously at all. I'll always remember how much fun I had with that film, it hit the nail on the head of being purely entertaining and not just brooding nothing-ness, like Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice was.

That being said, it's also easy to detract from the movie quality and story just to make it light and that was an extreme that Avengers: Age Of Ultron demonstrated in not what to do. There can be a fine line between enjoyment, story quality and fun, and with the oversaturation of the D word and the G word being thrown around when describing movies, Pokémon should break that chain.

But of course, this can't happen, because Detective Pikachu is running the show. So let's forget that this bullshit is happening and think about a proper Pokémon movie, because it should happen.

First of all, it should focus on Ash and Pikachu since that is what we have come to know as Pokémon. I mean, if everything was dictated by me, we would not have Pikachu since I think it is one overrated and oversaturated Pokémon, but Pikachu is by far the most famous so it would make commercial sense as he and Ash are the faces of Pokémon.

One worry would be if people would understand that the live action movie would be a different timeline as to not be limited by what the show has done already, it would be a back to basis thing with the live action Pokémon movie. Ash meeting Pikachu and going on his journey.

Whilst we are on that very subject, let's talk about the story. Now all the traditional Pokémon games have all the same major beats; trainer is given their starter Pokémon, they then challenge all the gyms whilst simultaneously take on an organisation who seek to use the power of whatever legendary Pokémon is on the front of the game box in most circumstances, the trainer then goes to the Pokémon League and will take on the Elite Four and the Champion.

That seems like a hefty task for a movie with a run time of about two hours, and I would ensure it would be all resolved in a two hour run time due to the shit tonne of movies these days that are there just to set up movies that set up other movies. So what would we need to do in order to get it down to about a two hour run time?

I'm no screenwriter, so I'll leave that up to the people who know what they're doing and who are passionate about it. That being the polite way of saying, not someone who just shits out a boring action script to pull in the money as quickly as possible.

The thing that movies need to start having resolutions at the end of the film, not the trilogy or whatever 19th film they make however long down the line. So by having a traditional plot structure from a Pokémon game in one movie based narrative, we may have to cut a lot out and not detract from the major beats of the movie.

When it comes to casting, I haven't come up with anyone to play any of the major characters. My dear friend Morgan gets a shout out here, she and I are both Kingsman fans and she said that Taron Egerton as Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin in that movie reminded her of Ash so she suggested him. I am a big Taron Egerton fan but I'm unsure how I'd feel about that.

It is probably casting-wise, a stroke of genius but there are so many things to think about there, I will leave it all up to you.

One thing I am sure about, what other Pokémon I'd love for Ash to have. In the Gold, Silver and Crystal games, you battle Ash's in-game equivalent Red and along with a Pikachu, he has a Venasaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Snorlax and Espeon (Replaced by a Lapras in HeartGold and SoulSilver), so I'd like to see Ash with this team and see them grow.

His Pikachu as a starter, then catching a Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle since they're the Kanto starters, an Eevee as well and maybe Snorlax already in its final form. We could see all of these Pokémon climb the ladder with Ash, and see them grow with him in the ways that Max Landis said would, just like in Rocky and Harry Potter.

Oh and before we end this, I would have liked to have helped out with special effects. I say this because whenever I watch the anime, all I ever see with colliding attacks are the same explosions and sparkly residue, and for the movie, I would have insisted on helping out in storyboarding and post production special effects in terms of how the moves used would work.

Anyway! I know this has been a ramble, and fairly unstructured and it was basically me blabbering but only because I see so much potential in a Pokémon movie being great and done right. But the Pokémon company insist on Detective Pikachu being able to solve this horrendous crime against the fans, so best of luck you lunatics!

So what do you think? Anyone out there willing to bring up other ideas, or fill in some blanks I left? I highly encourage you to leave a comment below.

But overall, I hope you like what I had to say. I am really hoping that the Pokémon company sees sense and let's us have a proper by-the-book Pokémon movie, rather than that stupid Detective Pikachu concept.

Alright! If you enjoyed this article, make sure to continue following me either via Twitter @TheLucaFormat or by email if you're on desktop, look to the top of the page and on the right hand side of the screen. Hope to see you back here soon.

Before I end this, I was writing an article on the F1 games but I'm not happy with it, so I decided to write this. I'll get back onto that as soon as possible.

That will be all everyone, so until we meet again.

Luca