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LEGO has been about kit-based-building for almost its entire life, and free-build pile-o-brick sets are still available. I do not feel that there is an issue with LEGO there. I do wonder however how the increasing complexity and increasing specific role of parts has influenced the ability for children to build with their LEGO collection. Dare I suspect that building and creating has become more difficult and more frustrating for kids, with the wacky technic and SNOT techniques that LEGO has been implementing in all of its sets, with the insane array of unique bricks that are now available?

From reading the above comments - Lego's humour has a place and I find it funny - but I also agree it seems to be just too overdone. I'd also like to say that what I played from Lego LoTR and Lego The Hobbit, the gameplay was bad. Okay, the spazzing was down to a terrible machine and it vaguely runs on my upgraded (well, hah, "upgraded") machine. The gameplay was repetitive. And to me the point of a game is largely the gameplay. Plot and humour are the... side dishes. It's great if it has both - but if it's got perfectly good gameplay, I'll go with it. Take Age Of Empires II (not the HD edition, that's a buggy mess). Absolutely no plot - Koreans and Britons fighting in Africa - and absolutely no humour (the Wololo was only in AOE1), yet it's the gameplay that brings me back. Terraria too - no plot, almost a complete lack of humour. Yet it's the gameplay. Plot and humour are important (to me at least), but they're not the main goal. And I know Ben/Jobless/[[Insert pseudonym here]] will doubtless have something to say about how terribly wrong I am, and that's I suspect largely due to the fact that aforementioned pseudonym has spent a long time working with game design, whereby I am limited to fiddling with Scratch and just playing games, not making them. *Shrugs* We're all different and we all have different opinions. I don't think any of us are expecting this to soar-through-the-charts in terms of sales. Oh, and can I add something extra? Lego The Hobbit was released after the second Hobbit movie came out, probably to coincide with the sets as much as anything else. So there's the third movie to be covered No Battle of Five Armies content. No DLC, no update, all we have is a non-TT person poking around the internet and posting their announcement to not do anything about BoFA on the Steam discussion. (And Steam is the only platform to my knowledge - I got the disk version & still had to install Steam anyway).

MASTER FISH OF THE FISH. lol that framerate

sometimes you just gotta appreciate a simple MOC.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/05/03/ben-fogle-modern-lego-is-harming-childrens-development/

I was looking at this web page: http://www.richardwellsmusic.com/sound-feature/lego-island-2 I thought that I should archive the audio for preservation, just in case... So here you go: http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/347

Stand up and shout! We won't be there for you! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Let's go!

yeah ive been hiding this one for a long time but you know that unforggetable jammester terrev video where he throws fish around for like a minute and a half well i'm in that i bet you cant find me

About the question, if specialized pieces are useless you can find counter examples like this one: http://thebrickblogger.com/2016/01/using-large-specialized-lego-elements/ I am not exactly sure though, how good of an counter example it is, because you apparently still need to be a good LEGO builder and even then you can discuss, if you like MOCs based on those pieces. Personally I take whatever brick I deem useful to make a MOC, which means, that I use a range of bricks (basic - obscure) from sets, that I bought previously or already had for while (years - decades). AdditionaI stuff: I remember a blog (I found it via brickset), that dealt with the question, if there are more specialized pieces nowadays*. I don't know, how well it answers the question (and as usual the comments can provide additional help), but it shows early 2000s sets, that only consisted out of a few specialized pieces, which means, that there were really good examples for the oddly-specific-brick-plague in the past: http://bigsalsbrickblog.blogspot.de/2014/08/it-was-all-basic-bricks-in-my-day-part.html http://bigsalsbrickblog.blogspot.de/2014/08/it-was-all-basic-bricks-in-my-day-part_20.html *I also recall blogs, threads etc., that dealt with "Did lego bricks become more expensive?" and the conclusion, that the brick price stayed relatively constant. To make things more complicated: in those discussions also came up the question, how much the weight per brick ratio may have changed (a.k.a. "today you just have a ton of tiny pieces").

.... I'm still confused as to what Lego was thinking when they thought up this theme. Evidently they must have been thinking: What do kids like? lasers flying things dragons wizards/spells/sorcery/mysterious relics giant big tank thingies gatling guns swords and then some wisecrack must have said "Why not all of them at once!" .... and Nexo Knights came out of that

PEGI 7, E10+ and PG 15. So what? Does that mean it should be bereft of depth or seriousness? It's a lazy argument. Meanwhile, one medium across, Pixar has been targeting the same age bracket for decades and releasing films that have broader appeal. That's a bit presumptuous. Source inaccuracy does not preclude consistent ambiance and immersion, and you incorrectly suggest I demand the original ambiance of the source material. As it is, these games waver dramatically in tone to try and tick boxes with respect to source material while integrating lowest common denominator humor. I actually am complaining about both. Tt use cheap jokes and gags in tandem with (bowdlerized) popular IPs to keep people buying and playing instead of making fundamentally fun, original and replayable games (this doesn't mean these are mutually exclusive). It's why their games don't have great replay value when played solo; they're shallow, and only original once. This is a fundamental flaw in their formula, and thus their games. The obvious rebuttal to all this is that I'm just not part of the target market as an adult and therefore relevant. I disagree, based on marketing choices made by Tt. By taking adult-oriented source IPs (Batman, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, etc..) and turning them into games, it's practically false advertising as to what the consumer can reasonably expect without prior experience with Tt titles (Lego is aimed at a diverse range of ages). Incidentally, I just re-watched the Steam Store trailer for Lego J.W. and there are only two big gags in 1:30 of content, which otherwise sets a serious tone (promising chases and action, interspersed with recreated famous scenes from the films). I'd consider this quite a different promise from what the game actually is. And sure, you can argue that this boils down to poor research on the buyer's behalf, but I think I'd be forgiven for judging a (non-AAA) game based on its release trailer, and let's not forget that impulse buying remains a serious market force rooted in cover designs and screenshots. Regardless, this isn't a compelling reason for why Tt shouldn't do better when it comes to game depth anyway.

No, I don't. I'm the last person to defend Tt Games/Tt Fusion but...what? Do you understand who the target market is at all and why they throw in these exaggerated jokes? Tt doesn't use cutscenes to stick close the source media, it uses them to reward the player for completing a portion of gameplay (or to annoyingly point out an element of gameplay I can already f****ing see thanks Tt). Children love the exaggerated stuff (hell, I thought a lot of LEGO Jurassic World was hilarious as well), but they're not old enough to understand subtext or themes (which Tt chops out anyway since they can't show the entire films in their games). If you don't understand why people die in Jurassic Park, then all you have is a movie about a lot of people getting eaten, and that's not fun for the kids (Hint: Jurassic Park is about survival fittest, chaos theory, the human need for control and so forth, ideas way above the kiddies). If you're coming to a Tt Game to enjoy the "ambiance" of the original story, you're in the wrong place. These games are NOT designed to cover the source material accurately. It's formula-designed entertainment for 5 year olds, but they use licensed material to both give the games credibility and give them content ideas. Yeah, it is just you. Again, the target market don't understand the themes or context. Hell, they probably understood the stories better when there was no dialogue and all the motions were even more exaggerated. The kids are focused on the PLAYER STORY rather than the CONTEXTUAL STORY; they care more about the cool things they did in the gameplay and what they're learning (I remember a specific instance where my cousin couldn't stop shouting at me about some unique character interaction in one of the Batman DS games that he loved). The cutscenes are there to give them a break, as otherwise they might burn out and stop playing because they're tired. "Tonal Dissonance" is not the problem with Tt Games' Design department; that's a side effect of applying a "popular" formula on top of different movies. I got a great laugh out of this one. Your average Tt Episode should last at least 1 and a Half times as long as the original movie, if you're quick player. Kids are going to take hours. They need to be rewarded for retention. Just keep that all in mind. You're not complaining about the gameplay. You're complaining about their representation of source material through the cutscene gags. It's an entirely different area of the design and Tt Games keep them clearly separated. There's nothing wrong with their story side; Tt Game's design department is just absolute s*** at designing engaging gameplay loops for children.

Chapter 2 - Typhonus "Typhonus's Study" I think the title's pretty self-explanatory for this one. Impeccably preserved. The globe is circumscribed by a Belville bucket handle. There's a stud at both ends of every shelf. Each "book" is a 2x2 plate, with a 1x2 slope at the end; 1x2 brown panels span the gaps. Gallifreyan display panels? Typhonus must be a Time Lord, and the Venture Koi is his TARDIS. Good evening.

Oh no, it wasn't disregarded at all, it's just that just about every camera frame has some cheap gag going on in it. You see it in the trailers above, too. Not a serious moment. It's just kind of sickly sweet, you know? I don't mind a well placed moment of levity using slapstick or visual comedy to get a laugh out of a moment, but Tt's handling of jokes is so blatant, crude (as in cudgel, not puerile) and over the top that I really can't enjoy the overall ambiance of a game properly. There's a larger discussion to be had here about tonal dissonance in game-play (with the player destroying everything and building crazy devices out of scrap) interspersed between scenes of a largely serious nature, and on that, I don't think forfeiting any sense of risk or seriousness is the way to go, to be honest (particularly with such well-loved franchises). That's just me though. I personally think that children are robust enough emotionally to be able to accommodate and appreciate a good plot (with comic relief if required; I think the first Avengers film serves as a great example of highly successful plot/humor ratio in media, leading to broad age appeal). In games, good, varied and engaging game-play will make it memorable and keep them playing (to be blunt, I am implying that Tt games are shallow, and abuse third party licenses and cheap gags to keep kids playing instead of evolving better game-play, but perhaps I preach to the choir).

I have a use for them.. Anyway. Finished this overdesigned useless thing. Old one's on the previous page if you want to compare.

Looks like the humor is completely overcooked (as it was in Lego Jurassic World) and the gameplay is largely unchanged. Sigh. At least Tt's license to make this formulaic stuff expires soon.

Definitely, but I'd bet it also has something to do with Lego's present reputation as a unequivocal good in the world. Only us wacko fans actually think they're worth finding any sort of fault with. Us and a few radical activists.

Thanks to my research in this thread I've uncovered the secret to possessing our minifigs, and looking through their eyes. It's not the smoothest experience (as one may expect), but it's a neat little proof of concept, I think. //stick_length 2.2 //stick_height 0.3 //stick_sphere_radius 0.06 //lookat_offsety 0.05 stick_length 0 //Def: 1.95 Good alt: 3.50 stick_height 0.15 //Def: 0.25 Good alt: 1.50 stick_sphere_radius 0.06 //Def: 0.06 lookat_offsety 0.035 //Def: 0.035 //stick_length 1.7 //stick_height 0.2 //stick_sphere_radius 0.06 //lookat_offsety 0.02 lookat_offsetz 0.0 pan_auto_stationary_time 0.0 pan_auto_rotate_speed 0.0 pan_auto_zoom_speed 1.0 pan_user_rotate_speed 1.75 //Def: 1.25 pan_user_zoom_speed 1.5 //Def: 1.5 smooth_position 0.65 //Def: 0.7 smooth_lookat 0.9 //Def: 0.9 sock_blend_in_time 2.0 //Def: 2.0 sock_blend_out_time 1.0 //Def: 1.0 los_look_ahead 1.0 //Def: 0.75 los_width 0.4 //Def: 0.4 los_height 0.75 //Def: 0.3 Affects camera position on-screen. screen_top 0.75 //Def: 0.3 screen_bottom 0.33 //Def: 0.33 focal_region 0.55 //Def: 0.55 focal_bias 0.0 //Def: 0.0 pos_seek_scale 1.0 //Def: 1.0 ang_seek_scale 1.0 //Def: 1.0 priority 0.0 //Def: 0.0 nearclip 0.40 //Def: 0.1 farclip 153.0 //Def: 153.0 upper_angle_limit 100 //Def: 90 lower_angle_limit -100 //Def: -85 elevation_correction_strength 0.0 //Def: 0.2? avoid_water_strength 0.0 // Don't avoid water avoidance_weight 0.0 // 0.0 == Do not avoid terrain (except pulling in for obstructions) The essential lines above are: stick_length stick_height smooth_position los_height screen_top nearclip avoidance_weight These must be changed to possess your minifig. Variation from these values may cause possession rejection as your minifig will toss you out to watch them run free without you in their head, albeit you might find yourself still faintly attached, and back in possession as they stop running. In action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHw8TRiI5rA All you need to know for your video: 640x480 resolution (Suggested) .avi filetype Reasonable bitrate (Suggested) 15-60fps (Suggested) All details in the video! Link to converter: http://online-convert.com -KevinVG