The Orville Revisited

I reviewed this after the first episode or two and while it wasn’t perfect I enjoyed it. But how does it stand up nine episodes in? Really quite well. The show still isn’t perfect and if you don’t like Seth’s other work you or Star Trek in general you won’t much like this one.

That being said the episodes are pretty interesting, the jokes while childish and not always clever are good for a chuckle and the visuals are comparable to anything else on television.

Sadly the shows ratings are pretty hit and miss it seems especially in the 18-49 range https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-orville-season-one-ratings/

The real question is, will the show be cancelled or will it get a shot at a season 2? Well thankfully for me the answer is yes there will be a season 2.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/seth-macfarlanes-the-orville-1202605463/

With a season 2 in the works now is the perfect time to give it a shot, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory

5 great stories from DC new 52

jla

The new 52 comic run brought us some cool new ideas as well as introduced me to a lot of new characters I feel in love with and even helped reshaped the way we viewed some of them. Working my way to number 1, here’s my list of 5 favorite DC new 52 stories starting with…

new 52 shazam 5. Shazam (volume 1)- I’m not a magic fan but I do love Black Adam, who stole every panel he appeared in for me. Menacing, intelligent, and powerful, he was a great way to start Shazam’s origin. After reading this, Adam became a favorite of mine.

new 52 suicide squad 4. Suicide Squad: Kicked in the teeth (volume 1)- I borrowed the first 3 volumes of the new 52 a year before the movie came out and absolutely devoured them. I loved a story based primarily of villains kicking ass and spouting dark 1 liners. Also, King Shark rules!

new 52 flash 3. Flash: Gorilla Warfare (volume 3)- I love Grodd. I love the Rogues. This book boils down to Flash and the Rogues teaming up to stop Grodd and his ape army. It’s badass and ends with a awesome fight and a Easter egg I loved.

new 52 aquaman 2. Aquaman: The Trench (volume 1)- Like many people, I never thought into Aquaman much. To quote Batman, “Arthur Curry, I hear you can talk to fish.) But the gorgeous artwork and epic fight got me on board instantly. 1 superhero vs a army of mutated piranha people, what’s not to love?

new 52 batman 1 1. Batman: Court of Owls/ Night of the owls (volumes 1 and 2)- It’s not everyday a great Batman story comes out that has nothing to do with Joker. In fact, this story brings the history we thought we knew deeply into question and not only is Batman and the Bat-family at match by these creepy, damn near unstoppable assassins but they truly test what Batman stands for and that is the sign of a great story.

Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Kerbal On Consoles Finally Fixed?

Is Kerbal Space Program finally fixed? Well not quite, but news this week from their official update at http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/167097693084/ksp-weekly-expedition-1 reveals it will be by the end of January 2018.

Now I will admit, I am jaded. The game is fun even in its current and broken state. Waiting over a year for it to be fixed has been very frustrating to say the least, however recently seeing why the wait should be worth it.

http://blitworks.com/kerbal_space_program/

Blitworks was brought in to essentially rebuild the game on console from the ground up and the loud and clear update to it as well. The real question is will this be worth the wait, and will it finally be fixed? Hopefully we will see soon. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Scary Movie

Scary Movie

Ok, so once upon a time, before I became Torsten V I had a stick up my ass about horror. I didn’t think horror and comedy could blend together, like Fettuccine Alfredo and Rocky Road ice cream; separately great but together you get the worst kind of diarrhea the devil couldn’t imagine. When Scary Movie debuted, I was high on the Scream trilogy and was pretty pissed about having a movie satirizing it. Well, in school I heard how hilarious I was and really had nothing to rent from Blockbuster that weekend so there I went- and I loved it.

Essentially the movie is mash up of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, with jabs at such 90’s hits like The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense. Seventeen years later, some of the references as well the movies it is based on may feel dated but if you grew up around then, you’ll get a good laugh. The Comedy is crude but I don’t know what you were expecting walking into something like this. I had a lot of fun with it and it holds up well years later and multiple rewatches. Best wishes, may the gaming gods bring you glory, and WHATZ UP!

Is 4k that big of an upgrade?

The question I see often now that the new Xbox is out is simple. Is 4k that big of an upgrade? A few of my personal friends ask me this question because honestly I am one of the only ones that actually own a 4k t.v. in fact according to some estimates only 16% of American homes have one ( http://advanced-television.com/2017/05/26/16-us-households-own-a-4k-uhd-tv/ )

And the short answer is yes the difference between 1080 and 4k is obviously there. You can see it. But is it massive? My last television was a 32 inch 1080p and my new one is a 42 inch 4k HDR beautiful beast of a machine. And I will admit there is a substantial difference between the two. That being said when we jump from the old school tube sets to HD was huge. 1080 to 4k, not so much.

It looks great. I suggest everyone gets one but honestly don’t expect a massive upgrade. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: Arkham City

arkham city

The follow up to Arkham Asylum royally kicked the notches up when it came to scope and gameplay, but it ain’t perfect. I would say Asylum was a 10/10, Knight a 9.5/10, and City a 9/10. By no means horrendous, but still my least favorite of the three.

The begins with a bang, Bruce Wayne is arrested during a press conference protesting the formation of Arkham City: a huge, contained part of Gotham acting as a massive prison for all of Gotham’s criminals from the common thugs to the Super villains. The head of Arkham City, Hugo Strange, knows Wayne’s true identity as he tells him how he will make Gotham a better, safer place without Batman with the mysterious Protocol 10. So it’s up to Batman to face off against a city in the clutches of a three way gang between Two-Face, Penguin, and a dying Joker who requires Bats help, injecting him with his own tainted blood to ensure Batman’s help. It’s a race against time to save the good, the bad, and the insane from Strange and his dark benefactor lurking behind the scene.

I love the story as it first stood. Arkham City the best rogues gallery of any batman game I’ve ever played facing off against Two-Face, Penguin, Mr Freeze, Clayface, Rhas al Ghul, Solomon Grundy, and Deadshot to name a few. Mark Hamil and Kevin Conroy are amazing as always as Joker and Batman, with all around great voice acting. The combat is much more fluid this time around and being able to add gadgets into my combos was friggin sweet; I loved the gliding mechanics for getting around Arkham City. Then we come into some issues with the Riddler and Catwoman. shit. The Catwoman sections on there own aren’t bad but I hate how they were integrated into the game after the Game of the Year edition came out which kinda kills the flow of the game for me. And the Riddler stuff ranges from cool to flat out, blood boiling annoying and oh there is a shit ton of it. So if you don’t like collecting shit- oh well. Another pet peeve is that find things to complete the side missions are a major pain at times. You either have to wait a lot or randomly find things along to continue them, which thank god they fixed the mission for Hush because that drove me crazy. Overall Arkham City is a really sweet game with some drawbacks but a lot of fun. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Elite Dangerous Federation Ranks?

Lately I have been playing some Elite Dangerous and I decided I needed to see the Sol system. I knew the money grind was real and heard rumors the rank grind was pretty bad, but had no clue how bad it was. Also here is a pic of a random planet.

So I am in the Sothis system bouncing between there and Ceos. Its quite popular since its a short jump and they feed each other data delivery missions. It is pretty easy to stack 20 missions, many times without even board hopping. It is just so damn boring and it takes so many missions to reach a new rank. Also here is another photo.

Someone did the math and it takes around 1000 missions to reach the max rank and even if it goes perfectly it would take around 8-9 hours. Realistically tho it would take closer to 20. And of course that still leaves the empire which doubles that.

Granted you are in no way required to do both or even do either. You aren’t even required to do anything really. But it can be a huge pain in the ass. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox

flashpoint paradox

Another great comic I wanted to read and one of Flash’s greatest stories that inspired much of season 3 of the show as well as rumor has it is looking up to being the focus of DCEU’s solo Flash movie.

We join Flash, Barry Allen, as he goes about his normal life as the Scarlet Speedster. Fastest man alive. Life is ok, but could be better. Barry’s driving force is the death of his mom Nora, the death that put his dad away for a murder he never committed. A conflict with Flash’s greatest nemesis, Eobard Thawne- Reverse Flash, brings Barry the oppertunity to have his dreams comes true: Thawne gives Barry the chance to travel back and save his mom. He takes the chance and saves her, causing one huge bitch of a paradox. Barry wakes up one day and discovers himself powerless but happy, but the world around him a dark mirror of itself on the brink of WW3 between Themyscira and Atlantis, where Bruce Wayne was shot dead in Crime Alley as a kid and Thomas Wayne became a malevolent, cruel Batman, and Superman was found by the US government instead of the Kents and experimented and locked away. Barry is powerless and alone, realizing his dream meant the suffering of millions.

I have to say this was my favorite DC animated movie so far. Batman was my favorite part, twisted and sad. If you love Flash or are one of those people who think comic books or superheroes can’t tell great stories, I urge you to check this animated movie out on Netflix. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Guess Who (2005)

I picked this movie on a whim honestly and I must say, I forgot how much I missed Bernie Mac. The man played the perfect combination of funny and serious. And this movie has two very powerful messages to me. 1. That even in today’s world interracial couples face adversity from all sides (and they should not) and 2. Even a serious topic can be covered in a manner that can entertain and inform, and Ashton and Bernie knock this out of the park.

For those that somehow don’t know Bernie Mac plays a very successful black man. Great job, big house, beautiful family. His daughter brings home a man she loves dearly to meet the family for the first time. He is also successful, great credit report which Bernie mentions many times. There is one small catch. As we all know Ashton is a white man. While the family is ok with this Bernie seems less than thrilled. While he is never cruel to him he is openly distrustful and even semi hostile towards him.

I won’t spoil to much but there is a very powerful scene where Bernie basically urges Ashton to tell racist jokes at family dinner which they actually find quite funny at first until he takes it one step to far.

Now this is a comedy and of course at one point both of the men end up on the same team when their respective ladies get pissed at them after an argument in the yard where pretty much everyone comes off as an asshole and Ashton makes the mistake of referring to the people in the yard as “you people” and then defends himself by saying he has a black girlfriend.

Absolutely check this movie out, it will go down as one of Ashton and Bernie Macs best movies. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gotham by Gaslight trailer

gotham by gaslight

So it’s pretty safe to say DC’s first R rated animated film didn’t do so great despite Hamil and Conroy reprising there iconic voice roles as Joker and Batman. I’m seriously optimistic and pumped for Gotham by Gaslight. Gotham by Gaslight is a what if story about steampunk Batman tracking down the infamous Jack the Ripper. Already from the trailer we got, I love the scenery and art style. I always had a fondness and appreciation for Victorian era themes and scenery and to see Batman looking so down to earth and old fashioned is really cool. I’d love to read the graphic novel before the film comes. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.