Well, the clip I was working on didn’t quite work out. I may go back to it and try and get it how I want, but in the meantime I’ve put two separate tribute videos up on Youtube.
The first is the one shown here earlier, only with the Harriet Jones voiceover removed (as it had been intended as part of the bridge between the two tributes).
The second is the rough cut of the classic series tribute I’d thrown together to see if it was going to work or not.
Kind of a follow up post this. Since I’d ranted about the grief I had installing the Oblivion mod, it seemed only fair to mention how it played.
The mod in qestion was the Fighter’s Stronghold mod available from Oblivion Downloads. Filling in an obvious gap in their player housing mods, this one introduces Castle Battlehorn, a player-owned castle aimed at (you guessed it) Fighter-based characters.
I’m not a big fan of the huge houses. While they look impressive, personally I tend to find them a bit impractical. I prefer somewhere I can duck into, rest and stash my equipment, without having to wander through 5 different rooms first. Small wonder then that my houses of choice tend to be the Imperial City shack and the Bruma house.
The castle itself is impressive. There’s loads of rooms, with player quarters and a grand dining hall. However, my only complaint was the ease at which the castle is aquired. Once you have the quest, its a simple matter of defeating four enemies (with help from the guards) and its yours. There is apparently another quest that can be unlocked, but I’ve not played that one yet, and I was a bit dissappointed by the lack of a proper quest to own the house.
If your very own castle floats your boat, then I’m more inclined to recommend the Castle Ravenpride mod. Available freely, you are presented with an incredibly satisfying quest before you are given lordship of the castle. The mod is probably the best player-created quest I’ve played, with several hours playtime needed, full voice acting, and some nice scripted bits (the bridge to the castle is visually stunning when you first see it, and provides a great backdrop to one of your fights).
Check out the trailer for the mod:
Ironically this was sent to my FunWall 
I’m still onboard with the Facebook thing, but its definitely slowing down now, with people getting tired of some of the Applications. I’ve noticed quite a few of my friends aren’t on it as much as they were, but for the odd go of Petrol Head, and for sharing photos its still fun.
Well, last night was the much anticipated (by me anyway) premier of the new Knight Rider movie/backdoor pilot.
In a nutshell, I liked it.
Like most pilots though, there were a good few rough edges. The first hour or so, the creators stuck with what everyone was tuning in for. KITT was very much centre stage, and there was an awful lot of beauty shots of the car. Which is good. This is Knight Rider, and ultimately we’re all there for the cool car.
The movie ultimately relied a lot on car chase sequences, with few big stunts or gizmos from KITT thrown in (no turbo boost here). However I felt the movie still did a good job of showcasing the Knight 3000′s abilities, with its camoflage, and constant hacking of security systems to aid Mike and Sarah, even when KITT wasn’t physically with them.
Kilmer’s voice clicked well as KITT, although at times I did find the odd line a bit flat, and, given the trailer footage, did find myself wondering what seeing Will Arnett’s take for the full pilot would’ve been like.
But, as I said, it had some rough edges. While the writer’s (wisely) cited last year’s Transformers as an influence, with its relationship between Sam and Bumblebee, this missed the mark in the pilot. Mike is left as a background figure a bit too long, and doesn’t really get much chance to build a relationship with KITT. Instead, Sarah is given far more focus for the first half hour or so, which was understandable for the setup, but still, it was to the detriment of Mike’s character.
The big issue for me though, was that after having centre stage for the first hour, KITT then vanishes for the final 20 minutes after his system is hacked, only cropping up again at the very end. Sadly, the plot had had an awful lot of KITT, Sarah and Mike driving through the mountains for the first hour, and so the supercar had to be shoved out of the way to make room for some rapid characterisation in the final 20 minutes.
This was also done to add a sense of danger, and make the car vunerable, but I can’t help but feel this could’ve still been accomplished while still having KITT as a prescence in the final scenes. It was established that his system had been hacked, so it would’ve been an easy explanation that this had affected his self-regeneration properties.
However, on balance I still enjoyed it. Pilots invariably have rough edges, and there’s definitely scope for this to have some legs if it makes it to a full series. The scene with Michael Knight at the end promises a return for the character, and the final scene sets us up with a more classic Knight Rider feel: the support crew (this time on a plane instead of a semi), and Mike and KITT, driving out solo. Mike’s best friend being present screams “dodgy comedy sidekick” though, and is something they should be wary of should this get picked up for a full season. Likewise, they need to bring the humour out a bit more. Some funny lines and scenes were there, but they could do with being more prominent.
I leave you with the new opening credits with the new theme. A nice touch, as most pilots don’t bother making up a proper set of opening credits.
Unsurprisingly, with the run up to next Sunday, I suspect I’m going to end up posting links to quite a few Knight Rider trailers 
Surprisingly for the slogan “KITT is Back”, he doesn’t actually feature much in this one. Still, another good look at his talking light. Its more of a soundwave, like in KR2000. Pity, I’d have liked to have seen an update of the classic 3 bars.
We’re slowly getting to hear more of the theme as well. Seems like quite a nice updating of the original. Especially since a lot of remakes would’ve just made something new, and invariably not as good.
