HIATUS NOTICE

Starting from today (April 22 2018) and until further notice many of this blog's regular features will be on a hiatus.

This is being done for two reasons.

One: A lot of personal stuff is happening right now and I need a clear headspace to manage it.

Two: I have been feeling burnt out on writing for the blog lately and feel that I need a break to rekindle the passion I had for writing it in the first place.

I have a Star Wars Wednesday prepared for this coming week and hopefully this will all have blown over by the time the next one rolls around, but I may have to bump the May the 4th special back a week.

I will also try my best to continue my Timeless review series if only because I love the show and want to spread the word of it as much as I can. They may be restricted to tweets only, but I'll see what I can do.

The Crossing reviews and Behind the Screens didn't turn out the way I was hoping, so those won't be returning. I'm also iffy on Shield reviews returning, but we'll see.

Gaming editorials will likely return at a later date when there is less going on in my life and I have fresh new ideas on what to talk about.

I also want reviews for God of War and Avengers: Infinity War up A.S.A.P, so I'll try to squeeze those in sometime during my break.

Sorry for any inconvenience and I hope to see you soon.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “All Roads Lead…”

All roads lead to a better show (I hope)

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I miss looking forward to S.H.I.E.L.D. Honestly. I miss eagerly anticipating Tuesday nights, counting down the days, predicting where the season would go next only to be blindsided by an amazing twist, and getting a little nugget of the MCU from the comfort of my home weekly.

          Nowadays I’m only still watching the show out of obligation, and if they do get cancelled I want to be able to say I was there from premiere to finale. This season has been a bad one, at least for me. But judging by the fact that no one aside from the Coulson/May pairing fans and tweenage fangirls only here for Dove Cameron (“She deserves an Emmy for playing Ruby!” said one intrepid fan. I respectfully disagree.) seems to be tweeting about the show, I think S.H.I.E.L.D will be joining Agent Carter and (let’s be honest here) Inhumans in the graveyard of fallen MCU TV properties when the season is through.

          So…where to begin?

          Fitz and Simmons are finishing up work on the super soldier pod for Ruby, all the while she “torments” and “threatens” them for working too slowly. I put those in quotations because honestly her threats came across as ways that would impede their progress even more than something actually worrying.

          Besides, Fitz and Simmons are apparently invincible, so I have no reason to care.

          Meanwhile, Daisy is finally stepping up as leader, taking May on a mission to infiltrate the HYDRA base and…do…a thing. I’m actually not sure what they were trying to accomplish by doing that.

          But they manage to run off with Hale and are led to where Ruby and Strucker are keeping Fitz and Simmons.

          And while all that is happening, Coulson, Mack and Deke spend their day discussing women and lemons. Also Talbot is insane and tried to kidnap Robin. So that was fun.

          The good news is that this episode has a great ending: Ruby is dead! Praise the lord! She was honestly some of, if not the worst characters this show has ever seen. At no point watching the first four seasons did I think “This is good, but you know what it needs? A whiny tweenage bad girl straight out of some kid’s fanfiction who spouts lines like ‘I wanted to be you, but now I want to beat you’ or ‘I ship it’. I think that’d really improve it.” Especially after this show created such deep and compelling villains with complex motives, like Hive or especially Aida. Ruby just felt like flat, fluffy nothingness only there to get some extra views from her Disney Channel-age fanbase to try and give the show one last boost to try to keep it alive.

          Also Strucker’s dead too. Oh well.

          You know, I wonder if anything else is going to happen in the MCU before next week’s episode airs…

          Oh well, even if there is, I’m sure they’ll just completely ignore it.

FINAL SCORE

3/10

Bad

Chill Chat: Survivor: Ghost Island Midway Point Predictions

Survivor: Ghost Island Midway Point Predictions

          We’ve reached (roughly) the halfway point in Survivor: Ghost Island, so it’s time once again for me to give my thoughts on the season thus far and some updated rankings on who’s going to take home the million-dollar prize!

          Overall I’ve really been enjoying this season, especially last week’s episode. The epic Chris vs. Dom feud culminating in possibly the funniest Tribal Council ever was a complete majesty to witness from start to finish. Ghost Island has also been a lot of fun, though it isn’t the focal point of the season that I was expecting it to be, and more of an entertaining extra that shakes up the game every now and then. It’s been nice visiting several crucial points in Survivor history through advantages, including Erik’s infamous lost immunity necklace and Ozzy’s “f-ing stick”, which isn’t what it sounds like. I really hope we see more of these as the season goes on.

          But you don’t want to hear about that. You want me to tell you about where I think everybody’s standing and my updated charts of who I think is going to win. So let’s start with…

          MICHAEL: Michael had a rough night last night. After losing the Immunity Challenge to a woman with no gag reflex, Michael managed to pull himself back from the brink of extinction by playing Ozzy’s stick idol at Tribal, negating six votes to keep him alive in the game.

          But now Michael has lost his idol and one of his allies, leaving him almost completely alone in the game right now. It’s no secret that he’s a big threat going forth, boasting strong games in the social and competitive aspects of Survivor. What he needs now is to align himself with another strong alliance that can hopefully bring him to the end.

          DOMENICK: Dom had a big win last week, when he finally took down his biggest rival in the game: the notorious Noble One. This week however things started to look a little less promising for him. Laurel and Donathan took notice that he and Wendell are running things, and with the fact that has an idol perhaps the worst-kept secret of the season, Dom will need to play strong from here on out to stay in the game.

          WENDELL: My Day 1 Winner Pick has consistently impressed me since the season began, being perhaps the best camp builder the series has ever seen and stealing the award for Best Voting Confessional Ever from right under Rob Cesternino’s nose. “You’re trash…at rapping.”

          But here’s the problem: Wendell runs the risk of being too good. He’s probably the most consistent challenge performer out there right now, and it’s easy to see that he’s pretty popular among the camp. It’s a similar situation to Zeke in Game Changers: if he makes it to the end he’s almost certainly winning, but he’s so likeable that it’s going to be a rough road getting there.

          KELLYN: Perhaps the biggest female player this season, Kellyn hasn’t done quite as many huge moves as some others, but she’s been a very consistent player overall. She’s been on the right side of every vote she’s been involved with, and she managed to nab herself an Extra Vote at Ghost Island.

The only thing I find really unusual about her is that she hasn’t been as spotlighted as I think someone like her usually is. Maybe it’s just because she hasn’t done a truly big move yet, but I’m doubtful she’s going to go much further because of this.

DESIREE: Much like Kellyn, Desiree hasn’t had too much screentime overall, but has had a pretty influential role in the season going forth. Her alliance with the Naviti women (Kellyn, Chelsea and Angela) has gone pretty under the radar, but she used it to take down Libby, her biggest rival, last night.

But she’s also got a few flaws. One thing is that, much like Kellyn, we haven’t seen too much of her yet. Judging by the next week preview it looks like she’ll have a lot to do in a week, but for now she is seriously lacking in interviews and one-on-one time to really get to know what kind of person she is. I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far, but I don’t know if it’ll last.

SEA BASS: I have no idea what this guy’s doing on this season but he makes me laugh. He’s served no real purpose and been little more than an extra number in people’s alliance, but man are his analogies funny.

DONATHAN: Poor Donathan’s kind of fallen off the radar in the last few weeks. He looked like he was going to be a confessional golden boy early on, but once the second tribe swap happened he basically fell off the face of the Earth. He pops up from time to time but he’s not the heart of the season like I thought he would be.

The good news is that the fact that he’s so invisible right now might mean he’s going to go pretty far. We got a lot of background about him early on in the game, meaning that the editors clearly want us to like him. We’ve also been dealing with a lot of big personalities over the last few weeks (Dom, Wendell, Angela, The Noble One), and with Donathan acting as sort of an observer lately there hasn’t been much reason to go see what he’s been up to. If he keeps playing quietly, there’s a good chance he makes it to Final Tribal and wins this thing.

LAUREL: Laurel has something of a breakout episode last night in that she finally played a part in a vote. While she’s sort of been an extra member in various alliances for a while (mainly with Wendell), things got interesting in her story early yesterday when Wendell revealed the existence of both Dom’s and his own idols. Not a great move by him, but it puts Laurel in a great position.

Information is EVERYTHING in Survivor, and knowing about not just one, but two idols currently in play is an amazing extra tool in your belt. Revealing that information to another core alliance like Desiree’s could get Laurel a head up on the competition and an easy ride to the end.

However, Laurel is another person that we really haven’t seen much of until now. She was practically invisible in the pre-merge, only popping up once to say she wanted to work with Wendell. If she does make it to the end I wouldn't be surprised if she’s this season’s Troyzan who’s only there to deflect votes from another potential winner.

JENNA AND CHELSEA: These are also people on this season.

ANGELA: Last but not least, perhaps last night’s other breakout player was Angela. Otherwise known as the lady with no gag reflex, Angela hasn’t exactly had an easy time out there. Other tribemates have said that she’s not an easy person to trust, and she was one vote away from being voted out instead of Morgan early on.

Last night she preached a bunch about her military training and wanting to cause chaos, but I just can’t see her winning. Even if she makes it to the end a huge part of Final Tribal is explaining to the people you voted out why you deserve a million dollars. Angela has made very few true bonds with anybody, instead acting as sort of a free agent that swings wherever she wants. This can only last her so long.

Okay, that’s everybody! After careful consideration, here’s this season’s chart:

WHO’S GONNA WIN?

High Chance: Wendell, Donathan

Mid Chance: Michael, Domenick, Desiree, Kellyn

Low Chance: Sea Bass, Angela, Laurel

No Chance: Jenna, Chelsea

King of Rhymes: The Noble One

          I’ll be back when the season’s over to give my overall thoughts on the winner and the season as a whole!

The Crossing Review: “Pax Americana”

Like butter scraped over too much bread

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I had high hopes for this show, but…man, this episode was not good. While I enjoyed last week, I’ve found myself not looking forward to new episodes nearly as much as some of the other new shows I’ve started recently. And after this, I have my doubts I’ll be back for more.

          I think Oprah may have had a hand in writing this episode, because they were giving out subplots like cash and prizes this week. You get a subplot! You get a subplot! EVERYBODY GETS A SUBPLOT!

          Of course, this quickly turned out to be a disaster. Keep in mind we’re only on the third episode of this series, and considering the show has spent the most of it’s time so far building up the world and mystery of the Apex, we still don’t know too much about the lead characters.

          What do we know about Sheriff Jude? He loves his son and is here because of some unknown incident. What do we know about Apex lady? She wants her daughter back. What do we know about the FBI agent? Diddly squat. When starting a new TV show, the most important characters to focus on are the main leads, because they’ll likely be the backbone of your show should it continue for a second, third or even fourth season. There’s a reason why, despite the introduction of several new characters, the original five leads remain the fan-favourite characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. We got an entire season dedicated to them working together, building character and relationships and learning about what kind of people they were before new characters were introduced into the mix.

          Here, even minor characters are given entire scenes, and we’re only on the third episode! Having an ensemble cast is one thing, but even ensemble casts have core leads that are more important than the others. Right now the show should focus on three characters: Sheriff Jude, the FBI agent, and the Apex lady. Let the rest of the characters be a part of their storylines instead of having a bunch of individual stories running around, leaving it hard to keep track of who’s who and where everyone is.

          A show like this only has 44 minutes to get us invested and give us all the information needed to understand where the characters are right now and where the story is going. This episode feels like 44 minutes of absolutely nothing happening, because when you try to learn about everybody, you end up learning about nobody. Sheriff Jude is clearly meant to be the main lead, but I know extremely little about him. Is he a good sheriff? Does he interact with people in the town or is he more of a loner? How long has he had this job? Do the people like him? Is he more of a goofball that only gets serious while on the job or is he all business all the time? I have no idea. Having an implied backstory doesn’t create a deep character.

          I don’t know if I’ll give The Crossing one last try or not, but this was really hard to get through. I guess this is one of those shows where they came up with the concept first but couldn’t really build a story around it.

FINAL SCORE

3/10

Bad

Editorial: The Best Worst Game Box Art Ever

The Best Worst Game Box Art Ever

          Box art is kind of a thing of the past these days. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon, but it doesn’t have the power it used to. Back in the day before internet reviews for games were everywhere, one of the few real methods of judging a game before you bought it was how pretty the picture on the box was.

          But not every box art is created equal, and today we’ll be counting down my favourite best worst box art of all time!

Phalanx

          This one is a classic. Take a look at this box art and just try to guess what the game is actually about.

          If you guessed a hyper-speed shoot-out in space like the green text on the box says it is, you’d be right. But if you thought the game had anything to do with that banjo-strumming hillbilly there, you’re wrong. As far as I can tell, the game features no hillbillies of any variety.

          The game’s ad company later admitted they chose the image because they knew it would attract attention just because of how silly it looked. At the time the market was full of Gradius knockoffs, and I guess someone thought that a picture of a hillbilly would separate their game from the rest of them.

Batman: Arkham City (Game of the Year Edition)

          Truly proving that hilariously awful box art is not a thing of the past, this so-called “special edition” of Arkham City is special in all the wrong ways.

          It makes so many classic box art sins that it’s funny. All-white background? Check. Cool male protagonist wiping his mouth for some reason? Check. Obnoxious reviews all over the place? Check, check, and checkarooney.

Ultimate Duck Hunting

          I’m guessing this is a modern upgrade of Duck Hunt I never heard of?

          I love this one for two reasons. First: the guy hunting ducks. He’s aiming at the sky, but the duck is flying closer to his waist! What, does he think the bullet’s gonna hit it on the way down?

          And secondly, the giant ominous dog face floating in the background. What’s up with that? Is he the final boss? Or is he your omnipotent companion who gets the ducks for you after you shoot them? I’ve never played the game, so I dunno.

Karnaaj Rally

          Another all-time classic. Why is it that so many of these covers have just one thing that completely ruins them?

          I mean, this one speaks for itself. You know what makes me really want to buy a game? Seeing a guy on the cover with his hair photoshopped to be blue looking like he just got kicked in the nuts. That really gets me pumped.

Ninja Golf

          Ninja Golf aims to answer a question we all must ask ourselves at some point: when does terrible make a complete 180 and starts becoming awesome again?

          Here we see a ninja carrying his clubs across the green and wielding a scimitar…because that’s what ninjas do. I guess. Is it weird that I actually want to play this one?

Super Duper Sumos

          No.

          Just…no.

The Mystery of the Druids

          This one is my absolute favourite. The first time I saw it I laughed for like two minutes straight. It’s so perfect.

          The face is just so hilarious and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because the model is so quality or maybe it’s because the expression isn’t one they usually use right in your face on a box cover. Whatever it is, it’s amazing.

          In fact it’s so amazing that it’s inspire photoshoppers the world over to create tributes to it, so to close us out, here’s some lovely fanart of Mystery of the Druids!

Timeless Review: “The Kennedy Curse”

Get down, Mr. President!

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I gotta say, it’s unusual to have an episode of Timeless that 99% takes place in modern day. It’s a fun departure from the norm, but it is kinda weird to see Lucy and Wyatt adventuring out in the present.

          An incident in the past has led to Wyatt and Rufus bringing young JFK back to the present. He quickly figures out something’s up and makes a run for it, and the chase is on. Wyatt is sent out to be joined by Lucy and Jessica, while Agent Christopher goes to look elsewhere.

          This episode is clearly meant to center around the growing tension between Lucy and Jessica, something we only got hints at last week while the rest of them were in Salem. I’m still of the mind that Jessica is Rittenhouse, seeing as they’re pretty clearly setting up a relationship between Lucy and Wyatt, but they’re laying some smart groundwork leading to some strain in their relationship.

          I also really enjoyed the actor playing young JFK. Timeless has a knack for finding people that embody the historical figures they’re playing pretty darn well, and this guy was no exception. He felt like what you’d think a young JFK would act like, even one whose reality has been torn to shreds.

          Agent Christopher’s short subplot was also pretty interesting. She was captured by Rittenhouse and offered protection for her family by Lucy’s mother in exchange for preventing Lucy on going on any more missions. The mom character has been a really interesting one this season. Torn between what’s best for Lucy and what’s best for Rittenhouse, her actions to try to protect her daughter while still getting stuff done for the organization has been very interesting to watch, even more so after seeing the preview for what’s going on next week.

          There really isn’t too much to say about this episode. It’s just a really solid one-off adventure that gives a lot of development for Lucy and Wyatt’s relationship. I really loved the last scene of Lucy and Flynn sitting together and just quietly watching an old-timey movie. It’s small touches like that that makes this show as good as it is.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “The Honeymoon”

Meh

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I have to say, this episode was one of the most fun to watch all season. Not because it was good, though. It was pretty darn terrible. But much like the infamous premiere of Inhumans, it was one of those things that was so awful that it became hilarious.

          Let me start by talking about what I liked in the episode. I thought that Deke had some funny lines toward the end, and the last scene had a pretty great twist in it.

          Yeah, that’s about everything.

          I knew we were in for a rough ride when one of the first lines in the episode was “I wanted to be you, but now I just want to beat you.” I would like to congratulate the third grader that wrote that on getting a job on an ABC show. It’s not often people their age get jobs on big networks.

          Things continued to get weird as bright flashes of white began to happen throughout the episode, apparently trying to blind the audience to save them from watching this trash. I guess it was to show flashbacks, but the intro and exiting flashes of white were so distracting that you didn’t even pick up what the flashbacks were even supposed to be about.

          This episode also really felt like nothing of consequence happened in it. Fitz, Simmons and Yo-Yo went to get a thing, they didn’t, and they got captured. Deke was shot and had to get fixed, and he did. So entertaining.

          We also got to see the continuation of one of this season’s most epic fights: Ruby and Werner as they square off against each other in the battle of Overacting vs. Underacting. As Ruby tries to act sinister and evil so much that she quickly goes waaaaaay over the top, Werner spends the episode with a look in his eyes that screams “I get my paycheck after this, I get my paycheck after this”.

          Speaking of Ruby, she’s still not a compelling villain by any means. Man, I miss Aida.

          The only reason I’m still watching this show is that I feel committed to see it through at this point. Season 5 is almost certainly going to turn out to be the farewell season, and I want to be able to say I saw the entire show from start to finish. But if they do turn out to get renewed, I doubt I’ll be able to sit through more of this to earn those bragging rights.

FINAL SCORE

2/10

Awful

Star Wars Wednesday: Who the heck is Ahsoka Tano?

Who the heck is Ahsoka Tano?

          Star Wars Rebels has been over for a while now, and it does feel kind of weird to not have a Star Wars cartoon on TV at the moment. While we already have confirmation that Iron Man director Jon Favreau will be taking the reins of a live-action show set in the universe, I think we should look back at one of the most iconic characters created by Dave Filoni and his team: Ahsoka Tano.

          But who is she and what makes her such a great character? Let’s take a look.

          I still remember the confusion among fans back in 2008 when Ahsoka was announced as a new character to be featured in the upcoming Clone Wars cartoon. Introduced as Anakin’s padawan we never knew about, a lot of the reactions were summed up by: “…What? Anakin never had a padawan, who the heck is this?” Things weren’t looking much better after the disastrous Clone Wars movie happened, giving us a pretty annoying version of Ahsoka who constantly got in the way and screwed things up. Her constant calling Anakin “skyguy” was so poorly received that they promised she wouldn’t do it anymore later on in the show’s run.

          But Ahsoka proved to be like a fine wine: the more time spent with her, the better she got. Her character development came to a head in the penultimate season of Clone Wars where her fate was revealed. She left the Jedi Order after feeling betrayed by them, but viewers immediately asked for more.

          While we did eventually get more when she began to make numerous appearances in Star Wars Rebels, I always found it pretty crazy how a character that initially left the fans more than a little bewildered at first became the face of Star Wars TV for just under a decade. How did this happen?

          I think a lot of it is thanks to the fact that she’s one of the first strong female characters outside of Leia that really got a starring role in a Star Wars product. With Rey still a few years off, Ahsoka was the first prominent female Jedi to appear in a visual medium. I also consider her to be the quintessential female character from the Prequel era, similar to Leia in the Originals and Rey in the Sequels. She’s much more headstrong and self-assured than Padme, that’s for sure.

          We also might be able to thank Ahsoka that we have characters like Rey and Jyn headlining movies these days. Ashley Eckstien (Ahsoka’s voice actress) used her role on the show to create and promote “Her Universe”, a Star Wars themed brand of merch aimed primarily at girls. It quickly became a juggernaut that still runs today, proving once and for all that Star Wars is a franchise for everyone.

          If you want more Ahsoka, I definitely recommend the recent book named after her. It creates an olive branch between her stories in Clone Wars and Rebels, and is overall a really fun read. If you missed it be sure to give it a look.

The Crossing Review: “A Shadow Out of Time”

The lady who couldn’t sit still

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I’ve reached a point in my TV show-watching career where I’m able to point out sets I’ve seen before on other shows. Last week I spied a staircase used to film a scene in the Timeless finale, and this week several scenes took place in areas that Once Upon a Time shot in. This isn’t a slight against the show, just a funny thing I noticed that probably means I should get out more.

          This was another really good episode of The Crossing. I think the writers definitely know they’re sitting on a very exciting concept, and they’re doing everything in their power to get us invested in the world of the show and what’s going on. This week introduced us to the disease that Apex created to wipe out the humans in the far future, as well as give us more background to Jude and Reese.

          Picking up where last week left off, Reese is demanding to be brought to Leah, but Jude isn’t super keen on taking her there on the grounds that he doesn’t want to get involved in another conspiracy. We still don’t know what exactly happened to bring him to this town, but they definitely imply that whatever happened was enough to mess up his marriage and send him out to the middle of nowhere for good.

Meanwhile, we got to see a bit more of what the future is like and how Reese and Leah got together. Reese found her as a baby and raised her as her own, even though it was illegal for an Apex to raise a normal human. Leah then got the mysterious sickness created by the Apex to wipe out humanity, leading Reese to keep her alive using her enhanced blood. This is why the two of them are so desperate to need to get back together.

          And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We also learned more about the government guy this week, who turned out to be the leader of an anti-Apex resistance who travelled to the past to prevent them from ever rising up. He answers to a mysterious female superior who’s face we didn’t get to see, definitely implying she’s someone we’ve already met. We didn’t get too much of this plotline this week, but enough to get me intrigued.

          The one thing we didn’t find much about that I really would’ve liked more of is Emma, the FBI agent in charge of the case. I couldn’t tell you anything about her character right now except that she’s a typical government lady. I know more about some of the secondary characters than I do her. I really hope that next week we get a bit more background on her.

            This is a very strong episode that does a great job at developing Jude and Reese more while still giving enough additions to the overall mystery of the show to keep viewers invested in the arching plot. I do wish we saw more of Emma, who is still little more than a blank slate, but the development we got for the other two leads more than made up for it.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Editorial: Fortnite does it right

Fortnite does it right

          If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming community over the past few months, you’ve surely noticed that Fortnite has taken the world by storm. And why wouldn’t it? Despite still being in Early Access the game feels like PUBG fully realized, without the graphical and gameplay errors that plague that game.

          While I’m not a huge fan of the Battle Royale concept as a whole (a 1 in 100 chance of winning just doesn’t appeal to me), I can definitely see how Fortnite managed to become the early king of the gaming ring this year, as well as how it managed to get away with stuff like microtransactions and the like.

          First and foremost: Fortnite has quickly become the poster boy for Free to Play gaming. While you can buy cosmetic stuff with real money, you never have to drop a dime on the game if you don’t want to. In a world with games like Battlefront II costing $79.99 to get basically the starter pack with the microtransactions to get the real stuff waiting inside, Fortnite decided to prove once and for all that you can still make a good game that garners massive popularity while having said microtransactions inside.

          The only cost? The game has to be free to play.

          I feel that this is partially why Fortnite has exploded in popularity so massively. You don’t need to drop a single cent to give it a try. All you need is some empty space on your hard drive and the game is yours to play. If you don’t like it, you uninstall it and you don’t need to give it a second thought. But if you do like it there are a bunch of options to give back to the developers who made this game by buying some of the bonus cosmetic stuff they have available.

          At the end of the day it’s a win-win. The people playing the game don’t have to fork over an $80 shell price just to have access to the base game, instead getting one they can try at their leisure and forget about quickly if it doesn’t appeal to them. And if the game turns out to be good and garner itself a fanbase the developers will still garner a profit from microtransaction sales.

          Of course, for companies like EA and Activision there can never be enough profit, and that’s how stuff like Star Wars Battlefront II and Destiny 2 happen.

          But here’s the good news: Fortnite has quickly emerged as one of, if not the most popular online multiplayer game in the wake of Overwatch. While PUBG certainly garnered some attention last year, once this fancy new kid on the block showed up boasting about how it could actually run on something less than a supercomputer, wasn’t plagued by hackers from foreign countries, and, best of all, was free, heads quickly began to turn. It even reached a point where Drake, perhaps one of today’s biggest musical superstars, was playing it. That’s some damn nice free advertising if Drake of all people says your game is good.

          While I do have my doubts that this’ll actually happen, I would very much like to see Triple-A publishers try to replicate Fortnite’s success the same way they tried to replicate Overwatch’s success by making 2017 the Year of the Loot Box. But I think there’s only one way to take down Fortnite, and that’s by doing it one better. Thing is, there’s no way anyone’s going to prefer a $70 knockoff of the game to the $0 real McCoy, so if they want to throw their hat in the ring of Battle Royale they’ll have to learn to dance like Fortnite does.

Timeless Review: “The Salem Witch Hunt”

Sick burns

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Man, I’m so gonna miss this show when the season’s over.

          Timeless continued its seemingly non-stop winning streak with a trip to Salem this time, with Flynn along for the ride as Wyatt is…busy with other things. Of course, going to a village full of crazy people isn’t really the best idea, and things quickly to awry for the team as they always seem to.

          First off, the elephant in the room: Wyatt’s dead wife is back, and she’s none too happy that he’s been gone for two months. So unhappy that she’s filed for divorce. Wyatt decides to make things right by doing something incredibly silly: he shows her around the base!

          I’m sticking to my guns from the last episode that his wife is Rittenhouse, especially considering her seeing all the Mason stuff was such a big deal. But, to their credits, there’s still a chance that her coming back was just an accident. We know that Rittenhouse made a secret trip to 1980, but we don’t know what they did there. Maybe the wife is Rittenhouse and they were deliberately trying to bring her back, or maybe they were doing something else and this is just collateral damage to the timeline. I honestly can’t wait to find out what’s going on here.

          We also got a bit of further development of Jiya’s premonitions as she finally told Rufus what was going on, and that he killed a Pilgrim-looking guy in one of her visions. Another thing I loved about this episode is the resolution of this subplot. Rufus knows going in that he doesn’t want to kill anybody, so when they come across the exact Pilgrim Jiya described, they immediately go after him and assume he’s Rittenhouse. He turns out to be okay, but because they attacked him he confronts Rufus later on and dies as a result. If Rufus had never known that he was a potential problem, that guy would never have died, and Jiya’s vision wouldn’t have come true. Talk about some awesome writing, and again, I can’t wait to see how this subplot ends up.

          And those weren’t even the best part of the episode! That honour goes to Flynn, who’s madcap adventure through Salem was both hilarious and kinda dark. With Wyatt busy he has to go alongside them, and it doesn’t take long before he’s back to his old ways of shooting his way through problems. His more extreme methods were really fun to watch contrasted with Lucy and Rufus’ more pacifistic ways of getting information. I also found it great how the only way they were getting out of the hanging situation was with Flynn showing up and taking out the judges. Sometimes the best defense really is offense, I suppose.

          And, as always, the set and costuming design was on point this episode. Without fail Timeless always manages to truly bring you to the period they’re travelling to every week, never once breaking immersion. It’s always a true sight to behold, and the various designers working on the show really deserve special recognition.

          Seriously, more people need to watch this show. It’s unbelievably consistent with its writing, visuals, story and surprises, and it’s easily the show I look forward to watching the most week after week. This episode was no exception, blending great action and adventure with lots of awesome teases of surprises brewing for later.

          #RenewTimelessAgain

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “Inside Voices”

In memory of Cap’n Crunch

(This review contains spoilers!)

          After two great episodes in a row, I was really hoping we’d finally reached a point where S.H.I.E.L.D could be consistently good again. Turns out it was a fool’s hope, as this episode was by and large a complete disaster. Characters acted out of character, the dialogue was pretty weird at times, and I didn’t really feel invested very much.

          Coulson, Talbot and Creel trying to break out of the HYDRA base was pretty awesome though.

          Daisy and May are trying to figure out where Coulson is, and they’ve enlisted Robin’s help in finding him. Only problem is, she’s not talking. Meanwhile, Coulson is trying to escape the base with Talbot and Creel, but Ruby is making things difficult. And meanwhile again, Simmons is trying to prove that she’s invincible…for some reason.

          Let’s talk about that last one first. Simmons decides she needs to get Fitz out…for some reason, I guess. To do this, she needs to convince Mack to open the door. How does she go about doing this?

          By filling three cups with water and one cup with acid and drinking them one at a time to prove she’s invincible.

          Not only is this an incredibly stupid thing to do even with the whole “we make it to the future” thing, it flies directly in the face of Simmons’ character. If it was just a trick to convince Mack to open the door I would’ve been fine with it, but she reveals at the end that she actually filled one of the cups with acid. You mean to tell me that Simmons, a character that we’ve spent 100+ episodes with seeing her develop and seeing her form emotional bonds with the rest of the cast, would risk her life just to prove a point?

          I don’t think so.

          And while I thought Coulson’s great escape this week was awesome and made great use of Creel, it did have two major problems. Firstly, there wasn’t enough of it. It felt less like a major plot in the episode and more like a fun treat after sitting through the May and Simmons plots. And secondly, a problem I’ve been having for a while now: it’s impossible for me to take Ruby seriously as a villain. Sure, she cut Yo-Yo’s arms off, but “dangerous” does not create a compelling character. Think back to Hive and Aida and how three-dimensional their beliefs and motivations were. Ruby has all the personality and qualities of a tornado. She shows up, does some damage, and then leaves. She has no character, no personality, and no reason for us, the audience, to understand why she does what she does. She’s a villain for the sake of having a villain.

          This episode was a mess, to say the least. May’s storyline was heartwarming albeit unmemorable, Coulson’s storyline was fun albeit lacking in several qualities, and Simmons’ storyline was a complete joke. After this, I think I’m finally ready to write this potentially final season off as a wash.

FINAL SCORE

4/10

Mediocre