The Grand Tour Specials
- DB
- 14 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Well, some of them anyway...
Here's what I've watched and played over the last seven days...
MOVIES
Still no movies watched or re-watched recently, although that will hopefully change this coming weekend with the latest Mission: Impossible movie almost certain to be watched.
GAMES
It's amazing how much watching a lot of Star Wars stuff recently has made being a bad guy - or gal, in the case of my female drow character - easy, when normally it's quite difficult for me to choose the bad options.
Playing a villain as my view of the Sith - being power-hungry, quick to anger, selfish, arrogant - has made it so much easier and I'm genuinely having a great time playing as a Dark Urge who has very little reason to suppress their murderous tendencies.
I think I'm coming towards the end of my time with this game and even the potential addition of coach routes in the future isn't all that tempting for me.
I'm playing a modded version right now, blasting around Europe in a Mercedes to visit all the locations I haven't yet visited (just two left now) before I'll do one last mega haul before retiring.
I've re-installed this so I have something familiar that I don't have to worry about paying too much attention to while admiring how much better the graphics card is in my new PC compared to my old one.
I'll admit that the differences aren't huge because Hitman just isn't the kind of game to really show off anything visually, but the difference is still obvious and very enjoyable so far.
Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)
Similar to Hitman, I re-installed this to enjoy the better visuals of my new PC and had one of those 'wow' moments when a game just takes your breath away with its looks.
In this case, I was making a short trip and was flying through some light cloud making the screen hazy and leaving the ground just about visible several thousand feet below.
The wow moment came when I suddenly exited the cloud and found myself in clear air, with a setting on the horizon lighting up the screen and a layer of soft, fluffy white clouds below contributing.
It might not sound like much to read about, but it was genuinely an awe-inspiring sight for me
TV
The Grand Tour
Okay, this isn't all the specials - far from it, in fact - and they're not in release order either, because I added the below in the order I watched them.
I may get to the other specials in time, but there's no rush.
Sand Job (season 5, episode 3)
Among the better of the specials, feeling very much like a 'classic' from the Top Gear days.
There's plenty of laughs, some stunning views and Richard Hammond being constantly irritated - all good things for me! [8/10]
A Scandi Flick (season 5, episode 1)
This one is a little bit too disjointed for me to love, with each stop on the journey feeling a little too pre-planned to feel believable.
It's still entertaining though, and James May's two serious incidents of genuine misfortune definitely lift things by reminding the audience that it's not always plain sailing making these shows. [7/10]
Survival of the Fattest (season 3, episode 13)
Probably up there with the best specials the trio have done across both Top Gear and The Grand Tour, especially as sharing a vehicle means it's a lot more focused on the guys as a group rather than one being left behind or all three being spread out like in other specials.
It helps that Mongolia seems to have most types of environment in it and there are some truly stunning landscape shots which makes you wonder why more people don't live there. [10/10]
Seamen (season 4, episode 1)
Loses points for the group being split up for most of the episode with James May living up to his 'Captain Slow' nickname, which the special immediately earns back with a nausea-inducing final section.
Apparently, this is a special that Clarkson really wanted to do and had to talk the others into going along with him, and that does come across quite often - it could've been funny, but I think there are more than a few times when May and Hammond clearly wish they were doing something else. [6/10]
A Massive Hunt (season 4, episode 2)
The worst of the specials featured here, feeling very heavily scripted and coming across as a little dull as a result.
With all the talk about piracy and Libertalia, this one feels a lot like someone played Uncharted 4 and tried to make a car show out of it. [4/10]
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