TNL Game Club Month #2 - Blade Runner

You're led into a dimly-lit room, only slightly larger than a utility closet. Your escort brusquely relinquishes control of your arm, leaving the room with an audible grunt of disdain. As your eyes slowly adjust you can barely make out the silhouette of a man sitting opposite from you at a small card table.

"I'm going to outline a number of social situations," he says.

He gestures at you to have a seat. Out of options, you oblige.

"You are to express your reaction to each as quickly as possible," he says. "You will be timed, of course."

With a swift and practiced motion a small, circular diode is attached to your cheek. A pencil-width beam of light shines into your right eye. You are instructed to remain still.

"You are given a calf-skin wallet on your birthday..."

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1293473019

This is the world of Westwood's Blade Runner, an adventure game that takes place in the same city and around the same time as the 1982 film but is much more than a retelling of the same story. You take control of Blade Runner Ray McCoy as he hunts down replicants, investigates conspiracy and struggles with his own identity.

The game was released back in 1997, the same year as FF7. Even though it seems to have sold well (I myself purchased it at release) I haven't met very many people who have even played this, let along spent the time with the game that it deserves; multiple playthroughs are encouraged here.

There are around 13 different endings, most of which are variations of specific endings. Whether or not certain characters are replicants will be determined randomly at the start of a game. Your actions will dictate much of the rest, as well as Roy's final fate. What I'd like is for everyone to have a go through it once, sharing with us their story at the end of it all. Part of why I chose this game was it's malleability, which I think will lead to some good discussion. I won't give anything away regarding the story; it's best just to dive right in.

Now for the technical side of things. The original game used a 16-bit installer that will no longer function in the more recent OSs, including Vista and 7. There is a complete torrent easily found in the usual places that comes packaged with a rewritten installer which I have tested in both Vista and 7. The game installed flawlessly on my laptop in 7. My Vista install had trouble even opening the folder containing the files; a progress bar I never really noticed before right in the upper tab where the file location is shown would start to fill and never finish, locking up the computer. I restarted and managed to install easily in Safe Mode. I'm hoping this was a quirk with my personal Vista machine since the 7 install was so flawless.

Once you start the program the video will be fucked. Quickly alt-tabbing away and back will solve the problem until you exit from the program. I don't know why this would be, but it's true.

The one suggestion I will give before you start playing: go into the game options and look at the bottom. There will be a row of Roy heads, each representing a mood ranging from affable to rapist. These are preset personalities that will automatically make dialogue choices for you. I would suggest clicking on the (?) to the far right. That will leave the player in charge of dialogue choices.

Also, the Hogan's Alley shooting gallery in the Police Station is busted in an odd way. The targets that should start popping out moments after you enter will instead take about an hour to get going. People have had success using some programs to accelerate the process, but since it is a non-essential, for funsies part of the game I have ignored it.

super secret bonus extra game for matching service EX+ alpha

Interesting pick. I donated my copy away last year because I wasn't into the the game but since it's Game Club, I'll download it and give it one more try.

Shit. I have to find my copy. I am not even sure where to look. This one is a definite go though.

I'll actually play this.

I know how many days are in Decemeber, I just gave my game actaull time based on weeks.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Shit. I have to find my copy. I am not even sure where to look. This one is a definite go though.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

The original game used a 16-bit installer that will no longer function in the more recent OSs, including Vista and 7. There is a complete torrent easily found in the usual places that comes packaged with a rewritten installer which I have tested in both Vista and 7.

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I was gonna write up a whole thing but I whipped this up between packing. Maybe I'll add to it after I get home.

Trollin'.

I've wanted to play this, and now probably will. Good choice.

The screen shots I'm already seeing of this are very impressive, but I suppose that's to be expected from late 90's Westwood.

"You see the rear end of a female horse," he says. "You can't see the front, maybe she is standing halfway inside a barn or something. You find the rear end very attractive, but are completely unable to tell if it is a horse or a centaur. Would you have sex with it?"

PS - "It was a horse."

I can see calling Opaque a horse's ass, but a bitch on top of it is a bit harsh.

Installing now, I run 64bit Vista so I'll let you know how it works out.

I can't imagine that XP compatibility mode wouldn't fix any random problems I run into.

Are we devoting a month to this one, too? I'm just wondering because I tend to juggle playing several games and want to know how to manage the time.

Mzo was supposed to put an end date:

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Rules:
* Be sure to put a start day and end date in all new threads.

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He was too busy trying to be a smart ass about something he should have known since November 22nd:

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End Date: Sunday December 26th

Next Participant: Mzo's game will begin on December 27th

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So I've tried this booting normally, in XP compatibility and 95 compatibility. I've also done all three of those options using the Patched .exe found in the instal directory.

Mid conversation with the guy in the pet store my whole system crashes to hell. Every time, same conversation. On the bright side everything goes red and green, so it's very festive. I'll try my laptop I pulled out for The Space Bar.

Don't use the compatiblity modes. This game hates them. Like I mentioned, custom install, run it then tab out and back. Then it should be fine.

I set it for a month because I'm also juggling a ton over here. I'm not asking people to see every ending variation, but at least the three ending archetypes.

That also did not work.

This just isn't going to run on Vista 64.

I have a game going on my main Vista 64 PC.

What the fuck then?

Maybe it's dual screen? Fuck, I'm really sick of my computer crashing.

Reinstall.

I just said fuck all and got out the old laptop.

It runs fine on this 32bit XP machine. EDIT: and honestly, with no way to change video settings, it kind of looks better too. Fills the screen right and it feels kind of fun playing this on the old machine.

Another Month long timeframe? This needs to end.

I'm pretty happy about this pick, even if I haven't been in the mood for adventure games as much lately. This is definitely a game I've been meaning to play.

I'm not saying this is a bad pick, but for one thing it's only about 6 hours long at most, why exactly does it need a 1 month timeframe?

I grabbed this from a thrift not log ago. I will see about gettng it running on my laptop. Failing that, I have a windows 95 tower. It should run on that, right?

It runs on XP flawlessly, so if your laptop has that you should be fine anyway.

So I shot the cook guy, who ambushed me at my house after I lost him in the ally behind the Chinese cafe. I shot his ass dead and some random guy walks across the roof and tells me it's no big deal but I better not kill humans. Who the fuck was he and why/how was he there at just the right time?

I haven't played this in forever. All I really recall (aside from it looking pretty damn good) was being a terrible detective and screwing up a lot. I remember looking at a FAQ to try and get a good ending and still doing poorly, but that may have been due more to my concept of what a "good" ending was.

I'll dig out my copy and try this in a couple days, hopefully Win7 64 doesn't fuck me too hard here.

Laptop is vista. My old pc at work is XP though.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Another Month long timeframe? This needs to end.

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Like oNeoz said, I have a lot of games I'm playing. Not gonna drop everything and marathon one game for a week every week until we get through everyone, I'd rather fit it into my schedule. If someone picks a three hour game with one ending make it a week, but it's up to the individual.

No, this needs to be made into two weeks, even if you're busy at the moment 2 weeks is PLENTY of time to get through this short game. See our discussion in the main game club thread for reference.

It's a damn good game choice but the time given is pretty out of control, that's why we need to say 2 weeks is the max.

This is so stupid to argue over.
Rule 1: no picks that aren't easily accessable for members
Rule 2: no fucking RPGs

Bam. Now a two week schedule seems very reasonable.

Hence why this game should be for 2 weeks as it's not an RPG.

I'm gonna pick Earthbound just to anger people.

If you don't like it, there's the door.

But seriously, if enough people are completely done within two weeks I'll pass the buck. We'll see. I like having a month to enjoy shit.

maaan

What the hell is going on in this game. At first I thought that the characters were sprites that had, like, a million ugly little low res frames making them up. I see they're voxels, now, but I've never seen voxels look so... uneven.

Yeah the characters are made up of voxels in an attempt to bypass the need for 3D acceleration. They had to use really few voxels though, or else the processors at the time would have exploded.

I hope someone chooses WoW.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

If you don't like it, there's the door.

But seriously, if enough people are completely done within two weeks I'll pass the buck. We'll see. I like having a month to enjoy shit.

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You can continue to enjoy it for a month if you'd like, to those of us who play this shit seriously two weeks is more than ample and anything beyond that just keeps us from the next game.

Does that makes sense?

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Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

This is so stupid to argue over.
Rule 1: no picks that aren't easily accessable for members
Rule 2: no fucking RPGs

Bam. Now a two week schedule seems very reasonable.

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I second these rules.

You'd actually be proposing them, since SSJN isn't even in the club and therefor doesn't get to give us suggestions. He just trolls these threads, because, well I don't know why.

Also keep that shit to the main club thread. This thread is for Blade Runner.

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Originally Posted by Tain

maaan

What the hell is going on in this game. At first I thought that the characters were sprites that had, like, a million ugly little low res frames making them up. I see they're voxels, now, but I've never seen voxels look so... uneven.

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Every time I play this game it always amazes me how it can look so ugly and so good at the same time. It's a pixelly mess with dated pre-rendered crap but the atmosphere, lighting, and FMV environment shifting impress me.

It's very playable considering it's age and lack up emulation/up scaling.

Is there anyway to force better AA on this? I've really never tried to do that with a PC game before.

Not with something like this, no.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Every time I play this game it always amazes me how it can look so ugly and so good at the same time. It's a pixelly mess with dated pre-rendered crap but the atmosphere, lighting, and FMV environment shifting impress me.

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Yeah, after the initial surprise, it does wind up being pretty good-looking.

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Also keep that shit to the main club thread. This thread is for Blade Runner.

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Not possible since that thread is closed.

That's like the tenth fucking time.

Mzo, stop accidentally locking that thread.

Accidently, sure.

Accidentally or not, that thread should be locked. It's just you whining -- at great length -- about stupid shit nobody cares about.

Although by that logic most threads on TNL should be locked.

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Originally Posted by Compass

Accidentally or not, that thread should be locked.

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If it's locked I can't remind people when their time is and I can't update the main listing with new members and current members choices.

Everyone should really stop crying. Maybe if they read the last rule a few more times.

Fuck your mouth opaque. I said I'd leave that thread alone and I am. Also, that post wasn't a troll. Get over yourself. I didn't say HEY SIGN ME UP because I would have been so low on the list that it wouldn't matter, and even though I thought Xenogears was a ridiculous pick, I did throw it on my psp and give it a shot. I didn't like it when it was current and I don't like it now. But to save your precious little feelings and avoid stupid accusations like YOU'RE JUST TROLLING I went with the If you can't say anything nice rule.

That said, I am looking forward to finally trying Blade Runner out, and from here on, any posts I make in here will be about the game.

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Maybe it's dual screen?

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Nope, just installed on Win 7 64 and its running just finei

I think the timeframe should be at least 7 weeks to get through this game. I like to make sure I see every single dialogue option in a game before I stop playing it. I recommend that the next game start sometime around March 2nd

Why can't you faggots just have this be from Day 1 to end of month.

Because I'd prefer for it to run from December 28th until February 16th, followed by a four day break, and then continuing until March 9th

This is sound logic, Dave.

Yeah, there's no need for this to be a month. With Xenogears I understood, but there's no point to it for this.

You are allowed to continue to play the game past this point if you like, you know.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

Nope, just installed on Win 7 64 and its running just finei

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Why would you installing it on Win 7 have anything to do with my Vista machine?

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Originally Posted by Chux

Why can't you faggots just have this be from Day 1 to end of month.

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That is what I originally wanted, but gave in to stop the bitching.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Yeah, there's no need for this to be a month. With Xenogears I understood, but there's no point to it for this.

You are allowed to continue to play the game past this point if you like, you know.

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Like I said, if enough people want it changed it can be changed. I don't give even the tiniest of shits about this. I was all about a game a month from the start, I don't see what the fucking hurry for everyone to play your faggot pick is or the desire for every game listed to be a 5kb Odyssey ROM that you can beat in one sitting. I thought the whole point was to pick interesting and obscure games (which yes, will mean torrents and fiddling to get them to work at times, that is why there is an entire OTHER thread devoted to that shit) that would spark interesting discussion. I have a lot on my plate and the new WoW expansion has me scratching for spare time to dump into it. In two weeks I can see half the people here beating Blade Runner with one of the endings, posting something along the lines of "Finished it," and then it's on to the next game for the same sort of treatment. If that's what the majority wants, which from what I have read doesn't seem likely, then by all means start that shit up next month. I'll play the games at my leisure and comment in the appropriate thread when I see fit.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

or the desire for every game listed to be a 5k Odyssey ROM that you can beat in one sitting.

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You picked a fairly short game, one that is less than a quarter the length of the last pick. It stands to reason the length of time should in some way correlate to the length of the game, that's all. It can be a month, but there should be a reason other than "I don't care enough to be bothered to play any game unless I have a month to do so."

Even though I have the original disks, I went the way of d/l to make installation easier.
My laptop is Vista but it all installed seamlessly. I was a sad panda when I started the game and the graphics were all garbled, but I recalled your alt tab talk and then it worked fine. I can't wait to get home to try this out!

I just remembered why I grew frustrated with the game when I first bought it; it's very easy to miss a lot of information. I kind of hate missing out on stuff in video games. Running away from that bomb was just the worst action sequence of all time.

That friggin' bomb part drove me nuts. It took me more than 15 times to run away in time for some reason but at least I'm past it. I'm definitely liking the game much more before. I'm glad it was picked.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

That friggin' bomb part drove me nuts. It took me more than 15 times to run away in time for some reason but at least I'm past it. I'm definitely liking the game much more before. I'm glad it was picked.

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I can't seem to do it. Tried 5 times and then decided to try another day.

I wonder if that's a PC timing issue or if it was always miserable. You have to click south-southeast as fast as you can. Don't forget that you can run faster depending on how many times you click. I honestly think the trick is to be faster than the other guy so he takes the brunt of the explosion: dick move.

I outran the explosion plenty of times, the hard part was outrunning it AND getting the Indian dude to fall down next to you so you could get his last words down in your fucking KIA =3

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Originally Posted by Opaque

So I shot the cook guy, who ambushed me at my house after I lost him in the ally behind the Chinese cafe. I shot his ass dead and some random guy walks across the roof and tells me it's no big deal but I better not kill humans. Who the fuck was he and why/how was he there at just the right time?

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The cook stuff can go a lot of different ways. It's basically the first point in the story that can diverge, but it then quickly bottlenecks again and leaves everyone with the same information at the end. That dude you met on the roof is Gaff, he was also in the movie. I actually just read DADoES on my Kindle and just watched the theatrical cut on Netflix so all the references are pretty fresh in my mind, like all the David Holden name-dropping and whatnot. I also thought it was a nice touch to see Deckard's footprints here and there without ever actually meeting him or teaming up for some bullshit stupid action scene. Glad they resisted that temptation.

ALSO: Save before every major conversations, the one word descriptors sometimes are just a name or something and you might end up doing the super nice thing even if you're trying to be a bastard. It's because of the stupid preset personality system for conversation and it kind of sucks. For example, picking the word Crystal might trigger a conversation where you warn the filthy replicant scum about the other Blade Runner chasing them when in fact their asses were about to get retired something nasty.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

watched the theatrical cut on Netflix so all the references are pretty fresh in my mind.

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Is that instant watch?

If so I'm going to watch it today before I continue playing. I've never seen it. Somehow it just never came up.

Yes, and I really think you should.

Mac version?

You'd be lucky to get one now, let alone in 1997. Pretty sure there's a way to emulate Windows and pretend you have a real computer.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

Pretty sure there's a way to emulate Windows and pretend you have a real computer.

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Step 1: Return iPad.

Step 2: Take money and buy cheap laptop.

Step 3: Play this game on it.

Step 4: Cry over how stupid you are.

I wonder why the voice of the bartender is male in the game. I think they're using a model of the fat, one-eyed bartender lady from the movie but it's definitely a dude's voice.

The majority of the location shots are straight out of the movie, identical pans and everything.

I'm gonna watch it tonight then continue my play through. If I ever get out of the fucking explosion alive.

I don't get why people buy Macs and want to play PC games.

Holy shit that movie was terrible. Ford's character was some bad ass blade runner they wanted back but he just spent the whole movie getting his ass kicked.

It was neat to see all the locations from the game though. I'm excited to see what else I recognize as I go forward.

I bought a Mac because I don't give a rosy red fuck about PC games. Unfortunately, it appears that TNL Game Club does.

Also, because of Vista.

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Holy shit that movie was terrible.

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:td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td:

:icepick:

It's not my fault everyone kicked his ass and the bad guys were lame.

OH LOOK AT ME I'LL HOWL AT THE MOON AND CHASE YOU LIKE A LITTLE BITCH THEN AT THE END JUST DIE BECAUSE FUCK ME RIGHT

Yeah, it's a pretty bad movie. Boring more than anything.

I've said it before, on paper I should love that movie. But every time I try to watch it, I fall asleep. Its boring as all fuck. There are some very cool scenes peppered throughout, but overall= its just awful.

I suspect nearly everyone feels the same, but most are too terrified of the resulting pitch fork-carrying procession to voice it. Or have convinced themselves they like it to avoid the conflict altogether. (See many sacred cows across all media.)

I actually just rewatched the movie this month and nope, still awesome. I'm glad I don't have the attention span of a 7 year old.

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Holy shit that movie was terrible. Ford's character was some bad ass blade runner they wanted back but he just spent the whole movie getting his ass kicked.

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I thought they made a pretty big deal about the new Nexus 6 models being above and beyond the previous models.

I really don't think there's any justification to calling the movie terrible. I can understand people calling it boring but if you are saying it's poorly made I don't know what to tell you.

It is a pretty boring movie. It has cool concepts behind it but it's so plain I can't get through it in one sitting.

It's no Total Recall.

Total Recall was entertaining the entire way through. Blade Runner starts sweet, gets kinda meh, gets boring, get AWESOME in some parts, ends in a putter. I've watched it a few times already and I just don't get the hype.

Predictable haters hating

Oh look someone disagrees with what I find awesome that just can't be lemme type a salty response on the internet this shall not go unpunished

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Originally Posted by squall_vb

I bought a Mac because I don't give a rosy red fuck about PC games. Unfortunately, it appears that TNL Game Club does.

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It makes sense for Game Club. It's a club focused on older games and the PC is home to multiple generations of awesome games, many of which are exclusives. Hopefully you can get most of them emulated on Mac.

And I'm a fan of the movie (I first saw it around 1995) although I can see how the slow pace might turn people off. A lot of its praise comes from the fact that it set the tone for cyberpunk movies. It wasn't so cliche at the time.

Fuck off with the making allowances for not liking the movie because it's slow paced. I love noir film. Noir is slow paced. But there's a difference between slow paced and boring. No one is saying it's awful cause stuff wasn't 'sploding every two seconds.

As if slow pacing is never a factor in something being boring.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I thought they made a pretty big deal about the new Nexus 6 models being above and beyond the previous models.

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They did, but he honestly never stood a chance against any of them. The best Blade Runner and his shit never stops getting kicked in?

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I really don't think there's any justification to calling the movie terrible. I can understand people calling it boring but if you are saying it's poorly made I don't know what to tell you.

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Maybe it would be better to say it's a lot like the new Tron? Visually I was blown away with what they did for being a movie older than I am. The music and character design was also very good. Story though, what the fuck? The one chick loves him and she's known him for two days and that she's a replicant for one day? He basically rapes her? The new model replicants toy with him each time just so he or someone else can get lucky to save his life? The guy in charge of Tyrel gets close to the illegal replicant that has obviously been killing people to get to him and is a great threat, even though the Tyrel guy is some super genius and should have known better?

I don't know man, I could do this all day. Also yes, it's very boring. I bet if I watched this when I was a kid I'd fucking love it. Kind of like Goonies, pick that movie apart with your adult mind and you realize if you watched it for the first time now you might even hate it.

Best Blade Runner doesn't mean you're a combat super hero, it means you're the best at identifying and locating replicants and then hopefully shooting them really fast before they murder you.
But come on, Tyrell certainly wouldn't have some weirdo god-complex where he convinces himself that his beautiful creations won't harm their creator OR simply accepted his death as soon as Roy entered his penthouse?
And crazy chicks falling in love in two days with someone that brought about a revelation regarding their entire being, who would have guessed!

You're right about Deckard getting thrown around all day by Leon instead of just crushing his head right away, it stuck out to me when I rewatched for the first time since teenager earlier this year, but that shit happens in so many movies all the goddamn time that I kind of have to accept it even though I hate it.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

And crazy chicks falling in love in two days with someone that brought about a revelation regarding their entire being, who would have guessed!

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This is not how love works.

This is how Hollywood thinks love works. It's the same bullshit where someone who's never dated someone else in some romantic comedy is all "I love you, don't go with that guy" and a normal human being is thinking "you've never had sex, lived together, gone through turmoil or fuck, even had a date, how the shit do you know it's love and not horny?"

EDIT: Also, she's a fucking wack job replicant, like you said. They could be together for two decades and she could never develop an actual feeling of love. If she was going to have proper emotions, though, it would likely take her more than 24 hours after finding out her life is a fraud to develop them.

It's replicant love baby, shit's crazy.

While we're on the subject, which cut of the movie should I watch? I've only seen it on VHS many years ago, and from what I gather, there are a few versions out there that are very different.

Don't watch it at all. You'll thank me for it.

Final Cut unless you're really into voiceovers.

5 different versions and they only vary in length by 1 minute each.

That shit doesn't even make sense to me. I guess voice over changing and swapping like one scene for the dream is all that really happens?

I don't know about the intricate details between them all other than that the final cut is how Ridley Scott wanted the movie and that most of the Deckard is a replicant stuff isn't in the theatrical cut.