Green Lantern: Earth One(V 1)

lantern earth 1

Sometimes I love long ass wait times on games to install. While doing just that I picked up a story I’ve been much anticipating, the Earth One version of Green Lantern. During my Man of Steel review I talked about how much the movie took from the first volume of Superman: Earth One. What makes the Earth One series unique is it is a more grounded re-imagining of our favorite DC heroes, so I was really curious how Lantern would turn out.

Hal Jordan was just another crew member on a mission to mine materials from a rock in space, escaping his past on Earth and wishing he wouldn’t have to return. During this mission, him and Volkov discover the remains of a destroyed vessel. Inside the wreckage they discover corpses, a metal skeleton, and a glowing green ring and what appears to be a battery. On there way back to the rest of the crew, Volkov places the ring on his finger and destroys there’s lander but in the mysterious artifacts keep Jordan alive in dead space. The metal corpse attacks him and almost instantly Jordan destroys it before blacking out. He awakes on another world with a alien named Killowag who explains these are the weapons of the long gone Green Lantern Corps that once protected the universe, before the mechanical Manhunters exterminated them, leaving relics and myth behind. It’s up to Hal and Killowag to cross the oceans of space to find more lanterns and answers while being hunted and survive with what little powers they have dying. Can the Green Lanterns resurface and destroy the machines?

I was in no way disappointed by this story and I can’t wait for volume 2, which we have some great teases at the end of book 1. I really like how much of the superhero pretext is stripped away and we get a dark sci-fi epic. I enjoy the changes to the characters and I enjoy how the story is layered to keep you guessing what really caused the Lantern’s downfall. The art is bleak with ques to scenery from the first Alien as well as Star trek (reboot) . My only real complaint is the action scenes can be a little confusing and there’s a rough story transition into the third act but otherwise it’s some of the best Lantern I’ve read in a while. I really recommend this story to fans and new comers alike. May the gaming gods bring you glory and beware Green Lantern’s light…

Why the IGN “Mistakes” Are A Big Deal

Recently in the gaming world, IGN has been talked about quite a lot. This is normal considering they are pretty much the biggest name in gaming news. And yes they have been the subject of many memes and jokes over the years such as the Pokemon too much water incident. For those that don’t know back in 2014 IGN reviewed Pokemon Omega and Saphire a game in a region known for having lots of water and gave it a 7.8 with only 2 main downsides. Too many HMs and too much water.

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And since the internet gives approximately 0 fucks about anything this set off a sandstorm of memes making fun of IGN.

Now obviously that is a bit minor compared to more recent mistakes, such as having to fire a reviewer for plagiarism after he stole a Dead Cells review from a much smaller Youtuber. You can read on that at Forbes.

And according to many sources, including oneangrygamer they used the default controls for Ace Combat 7 which give the game a more arcade feel, then complained about the game having an arcade feel to it. It, however, doesn’t end there. They also apparently only played half of Resident Evil 2 Remaster before releasing their original review. They later retracted large amounts of it and bumped up the score tho not by much. Check out more on that over at mainmenu.

Those are just some of the more popular or recent examples of issues over at IGN, and honestly, my title says “Mistakes” because I don’t believe these count as mistakes. A mistake implies you made a conscience misguided decision or didn’t know you were wrong and that doesn’t seem to be the case. Anyone that has ever written a paper in school knows plagiarism is wrong, and having played the original release of Resident Evil 2 they are quite clear about how to start a new game as a different character and even if they weren’t you are a professional reviewer, you have been around games enough you should know what you are doing.

I also can’t in good conscience give a pass on the  Ace Combat 7 incident because any reviewer should be playing games on multiple difficulties at the very least to see how they control. Now for smaller places mine or many of the others on WordPress that are run by one or 2 people chances are there is nobody to check over your work, but IGN has no excuse why two people aren’t playing each game, at least partly for a second person to make sure they aren’t totally dropping the ball.

The sad part of all this is, and I believe Dreamcast guy over on Twitter and many others have said this already, this is happening because they are in a rush to get content out and get their views and clicks and don’t actually care if the content is good, and that will eventually be the downfall of IGN. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 great Flash villains

flash running

Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick, whichever Scarlet Speedster you love, it’s only fair some in Central City may not like the guy despite his good nature. I could cop out here and just name the Rogues but I’m going to try to bring some variety. Before we begin, I’m giving a shout out to Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Heatwave, the Trickster, Pied Piper and Hunter Zolomon as great Flash villains too but these guys go a little farther, so let’s begin with…

weather wizard 1. Weather Wizard-

What if you had a baton that let you control the weather? Would you use it to melt snow on a cold day, clear the rain for a picnic, or drop a tornado on a bank and rob them blind? Wizard picks the later route of course. He was a good choice for the first villain for Flash in Flash, season 1 because while devastating, it’s fun watching him getting his parade rained out ( pun intended).

grodd 2. Gorilla Grodd-

The mighty ape is a fierce beast in natural, gentile and smart but will wreak your ass if you piss it off. Grodd is not gentile but a mad tyrant bent on enslaving his fellow ape and man who he views as inferior. Besides being able to speak and a damn good strategist as well as the strength and agility of a ape, he is also a powerful telepath and has psychic abilities. With an army of damn dirty apes at his command, Grodd is a force to be reckoned with.

captain cold 3. Captain Cold-

Leonard Snart and the Flash have a weird respect for each other. He isn’t out for blood or world domination; Cold is all about the money. He refrains from killing at nearly all costs. Armed with his cold guns and other cold tech, he’s a good mastermind and decent fighter which helps him as the leader of the Rogues and one of Flash’s greatest enemies.

future flash 4. Future Flash aka Blue Flash aka Savitar (on the show)-

Aren’t we all our own worst enemies? Future Barry lost it when Kid Flash was struck down and he watched enemy turned friend Cold die, with his connection to the Speed Force at it’s strongest and no restraint, he goes back through time to slay his greatest enemies and eventually face a younger, more naive him. Blue Flash is a badass and it’s pretty insane how much he has to hold back in order to be good..

rflash 5. Reverse Flash-

Eobard Thawne is the Flash’s greatest enemy for the sheer fact this yellow suited son of a bitch has proven time and time again he will stop at noting to hurt Barry Allen, whether it means murdering the ones he loves, destroying time and space even if it means killing himself in the process. Thawne is almost always two steps faster and prods Allen to reach new heights.

I hope everyone enjoyed my list. May the gaming gods grant you Speed Force.

 

 

Happenings In February

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on some of the stuff I will be doing this upcoming month. First and foremost I will be doing 2 events with https://geek-gizmos.com/ that is owned by a good friend and old boss of mine from my Gamestop days a long time ago. First, we will be at Winter Play in New York City on February 2nd. It an event sponsored by Microsoft and will have over 100 game developers so if you are there feel free to shoot me a message over on Twitter and maybe we can meet up and check out some games together.

After that, on February 16th and 17th we will be at Clarks Summit Festival Of Ice where you can hang out with us or go see the sights or meet former WWF star Tony Atlas or New York Ranger Chris Kotsopoulos. We will have a booth set up where you can come to see what we have going on, buy some stuff or in general just say hello. There may be more stuff added but if you are near either of those events swing by, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ghost Ship

ghost ship

This review goes out to my good friend Violet, who introduced me to this movie ages ago when we were kids. I’m sure there’s something poetic about time here but there is something about the importance of ducking and/ or the blessing of being short. Seriously, the opening to this movie made me pissed I’m over 6 foot tall…

Ghost Ship is about the tragic fate of the ocean liner SS Antonia Graza where everyone died and the ship was never found. Fifty years later a salvage team is presented with photos of a derelict adrift at sea. They hesitantly accept the offer, discovering the Graza. Deep inside, while scraping the ship they discover clues to what may have happened and mass amount of untraceable gold bars stowed away. With riches in there grasp, it quickly becomes clear something on the ship may not want them to leave, or let them..

The movie is simple to explain but better than I thought it’d be. I’m not a fan of most things from Dark Castle productions, the people who brought us  the Puppet Master series and the god awful House of Wax (05) but there is definitely some effort here. I really like a lot of the cinematography and I do like the setting both past and present. The opening death scene is insanely awesome as well as the flashback that extends on it. The story is simple but solid and the score is meh, though the music choices make it feel dated as shit ( I was in the 6th grade when Not Falling by Mudvayne came out. Damn I’m old). The use of jump scare noises annoyed the shit out of me and I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, in fact I really wanted the bad guy dead for most of it. In the end, it’s not a bad movie. Not great but not terrible by any means and it’s not a bad time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Smallville Season 6

Smallville Season 6 is kind of insane honestly. From the start when Clark is stuck in the Phantom Zone until the very end when Lana leaves Lex there is just a ton going on, and in between, we have Clark attempting to stop all the things he unleashed from the Phantom Zone when he escaped. There are a few things I dislike tho.

The first example would be the entire story arc with Zod ends far too quickly. Zod has always been one of Supermans greatest enemies and is also one of his oldest, yet in a few short episodes, we end the whole thing with Zod and move on. This to me was a huge missed opportunity, and while the season was great and entertaining there was no need to rush through Zod.

The set of for season 7 was even worse, not because it wasn’t awesome which it was, but because it sets up Bizarro Superman. How do we start with Zod and end with Bizzaro in one season when each of these could easily have been a season each.

That all aside it was rather nice seeing Green Arrow make his appearance and it is always fun to see Aquaman along with the other heroes that have shown up in the show. All in all, I enjoyed the season but you can see where the yare rushing through some things. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly evil and Vile trailer

A few months ago I was stunned a little at the The Haunting of Sharon Tate trailer and I have to say I’ve kind of stunned at this Ted Bundy movie. I don’t have a problem with Effron as the notorious killer, in fact I think he has what it takes to pull it off. What gets me is the tone of the trailer. Is it me or does the trailer kind of try to make Bundy look like a folk hero more than a serial killer? Other than that, I still think it looks interesting. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Demon Souls Remaster Up To Sony Says Miyazaki

Many people have been curious over the years and especially this year being the Demon Souls 10 year anniversary, are we looking at a remaster of the game that first introduced us to the way Miyazaki designed games that later would become Dark Souls and Bloodborne.  In recent interviews, however, Miyazaki has revealed that even if he wanted to, which the idea makes him nervous, it would, in the end, be up to Sony, not From Software since Sony holds the IP.

If it happens or not, I don’t know but it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing ever. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.