Titans, season 2 trailer

well, I’ll give them this, it looks better than the first but that really wasn’t saying much. I like the bigger cast f characters including Superboy, Aqualad, Wonder-girl, and Krypto the super dog. Fans of the comics knew Deathstroke would pop up as the main villain sooner or later; I can’t tell what I think of his look yet. There are still some cringe worthy moments like Todd yelling ” Titans are back bitches!”. In the end, it looks like a improvement but not too great.

Angry Birds 2 (Mobile)

Angry Birds 2 is a lot like the first. You will be flinging at random structures to kill green pigs. Levels will inevitably get harder and harder and you will unlock new birds that do different things. Some will explode while others split into separate birds or fly fast to slam through targets.

The game is, in theory, simple and straight forward. Just chuck a bird through the structure and boom, stuff falls over and pig dies. Later on, however, it gets much harder. You will have to aim carefully to take out supports or push wheeled carts over and take things out that way. The game for me, however, failed to recreate the magic of the first one.

When the first released I remember being infatuated with it, playing for hours and draining my cell phones batter. This one looks better than ever and allows for plenty of customization but I just never had that strong desire to play. The game is fun of course and its good to kill a bit of time with, but for me, it just doesn’t do the same job. By all means, try it, it is fun, but it won’t likely be the nostalgia trip you were hoping for. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Howling – Fight Or Flight, Or Just Stand There — On The Subject of Horror

I kept having nightmares where Eddie Quist corners me in a room and turns into a werewolf. This scene plays over and over again and just like Karen White, I just stand there.

via The Howling – Fight Or Flight, Or Just Stand There — On The Subject of Horror

This is What you Want, This is What you Get

want get

First of all, I want to give a shout out to the author of this book, Jim Scheers, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at the Weird and Wired Bazaar in Scranton a couple of months ago. Thank you for the advice and reassurance.

It’s the 1980’s and the punk scene is alive and kicking with loud, wild shows. For  nineteen year old Nick Leblanche these shows keep him sane from a cold life in suburban hell with his boring, nagging parents and his tedious office job full of gossiping idiots and pressure to stay there and rot. The music gives him a soul. At one of these shows he meet a quiet, sad looking girl named Victoria and from the on things start changing as the scene itself; the shows begin turning out of control violent as more and more skinheads begin turning up, making mosh pits into full fledged riots. Can Nick find himself amongst the chaos of his new friends and the scene he loves?

I have to admit, I was surprised how much I found myself reflecting back to my own age 19 and relating to Nick, growing up in suburbia and loving neu-metal myself. There is a lot of great imagery in the book and was very easy to put myself in the story. The story flows really well for the most part but I found a couple times in the second act where it slowed a bit but to no damning extent. One of the only minor complaints I have is that I wished there was something more extreme to end the second act to give the story a little bit more of a impact. All in all, it’s a really cool look at the 80’s punk scene and a good book I’d recommend. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Angel (Season 3)

After getting through Angel (Season one) and Angel (Season 2) getting to season three was a bit odd because it starts the season off with Buffy having died over in her show, which is also where season two ended. Season 3 is one of the more wild seasons truth be told. Angel becomes a dad, Wesley betrays the group, a human from Angel’s past is trying to kill him and Darla. The whole thing is just pretty insane.

His son Connor is born when Darla Stakes herself to save her son when she realizes she can’t possibly give birth properly and even if she did the only reason she loves him now is because the baby is inside her.

This is just some of the crazy and weird stuff going on this season. It truly is enjoyable and weirdly the show doesn’t go downhill or lose anything up until this point. The characters have continued to grow and change like real people, including the bad guys from Wolfram and Hart aren’t the same as they started out. You can slowly see the cracks where they aren’t so much as evil as they are regular humans doing bad things for selfish reasons or simply for survival.

My only real complaint at this point is much of the story has gone away from Angel finding redemption and helping people. The reason for this makes sense but I still wish that was more of a thing. regardless, the show is still a great watch. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Time to Blame Games, Again.

It seems like every year this happens. We get a mass shooting and a politician blames video games. Ok, I live in America, we get a mass shooting every week or two. The blaming video games thing tho doesn’t quite happen every time. They break it out here and there like your mother breaks out the fine china to impress a house guest, usually right around election time. It makes things look better to the people they want to impress than they actually are. Most of them realize games don’t actually cause violence. There are dozens of studies that show it, here I will link a few.

University of Oxford

APA Review

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Now if you don’t want to bother reading all three of those links, which I understand, the general idea is simple. There might be some link between increased aggression similar to how watching a football or hockey game will increase aggression, causing trash-talking or yelling and maybe the occasional fight, but they aren’t causing large scale violence or criminal activity. Hell, we have all seen fights at the grocery store, does that mean buying waffles causes mass shootings or crime? No, clearly not. So why are so many people willing to accept games cause mass shootings but not accuse movies of doing it or football games creating NFL players? Well, honestly it is easy.

People desperately want an answer to why these things happen and want to know how we make it end, but they don’t want to risk sacrificing anything that affects them. So what better scapegoat than video games? Many older people don’t play them, most don’t understand them and see no benefit to them and they sure as hell don’t respect the people that play or create them.

It is easy to cling on to faulty research from decades ago or beliefs that didn’t pan out, but it is hard to abandon those for new information. Video games don’t cause mass shootings, guns in the hands of psychos do. Guns in the hands of fanatics do. I’m not just picking on guns, giving psychos and fanatics knives or air places would have the same results. Video games, however, are not a cause. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Boundary gameplay trailer

I have to give a shout out to my pal Speedy for the heads up on this one. While games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-sequel have a lot of space and futuristic stuff in them, Boundary looks to be like a standard FPS in the dead of space. Honestly this looks really cool and I see a lot of cool opportunities this game has for some insane Z-G gun fights and some cool multiplayer matches. I’m pretty pumped for it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Angel (Season 2)

As I continue to make my way through Angel, season 2 has a different tone than Angel (Season one)  We learn much about the past of Angel and how he became a vampire to begin with. We always knew he was pretty much one of the evilest vampires to ever live, but he and his creator Darla pretty much went through Europe and Asia killing men, women, and children until he was cursed by gypsies for killing one of their own.

This season will also introduce a new and loved character, Fred, she is a bit crazy and out of touch after spending 5 years in a hell dimension however who amongst us wouldn’t be?

Each episode does a great job of showcasing how the characters have changed since season one and continue to change during season 2. Lorne also really comes into his own with his club Caritas becoming a frequent place the crew will visit for much-needed advice and wisdom. Caritas is a karaoke bar and sanctuary where demons are incapable of violence. It is a really nice touch and a good way to explain how demons can interact without things going badly. It is also a nice addition to the show and worth checking out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Junkyard Tycoon Business Simulator (mobile)

This is one of those games that looked pretty cool if you like tycoon games, had decent enough reviews to be worth checking out, and turned out to be horrible.

The general idea is you buy an old car, strip it for parts, and then sell them when the price is high to make your money back. This sounds easy and it techncially is, but it can be very time consuming. Many times I would spend more time waiting to sell parts than it took to get the parts in the first place.

The game starts off sloq as you can only have one car at a time, but as you get more money you can buy more space and more cars. This doesn’t really get you money faster so to speak, you still spens most of your time waiting. The more expensive cars are worth more money obviously but the waiting still sucks.

As with many mobile games I review, this one is best avoided. There are just better games out there that are far more fun. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.