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

Lashing out

(This review contains spoilers for this episode and for Captain America: Civil War!)

          The penultimate episode of Season 3 has arrived, and with it comes a Civil War tie in. With the Sokovia Accords now law, Talbot’s arrived at the Shield base and is trying to get the Inhumans registered.

          At the same time, everything seems to be going off the rails, as Lincoln is supposedly trying to escape, Daisy is giving up blood to help Hive, and a small team of Watchdogs have been turned into weird, primitive human type things.

          I gotta say, I’m not a fan of how those primitive humans look. I like the idea behind them, but they look more like a rubber mask you’d find at the party store than a real threat.

          As much as I liked the big twist involving Lincoln’s escape, it’s sad that his character’s gotten so predictable that we would fully believe he’d try to escape from Shield to get to Daisy, and for no other reason than that. When watching the episode, I was like “oh okay, he’s doing this now” instead of wondering if it wasn’t what it seemed.

          But the reveal that Lash had been sent instead of Lincoln was one of the best. We got an amazing fight scene between him and Hive, and he cured Daisy of her mind-control. That being said, it’s kind of bittersweet to see him get killed off. He was a great villain, and he really went out in style. Still, I can’t help but feel that there was a bit more with him they could’ve done.

          With the reveal that Hive is prepping a warhead that will turn a significant part of the world into Inhumans, the 2-hour season 3 finale is set up to be action packed, with the promise that someone is going to die. My money was on it being Mack coming into this episode, but as it stands right now I feel like it’s a bit too obvious to be him. We’ll just have to wait and see.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Editorial: Why Overwatch succeeds where Battlefront failed

Why Overwatch succeeds where Battlefront failed

         I was a latecomer to the Overwatch Beta train, only joining in the last few days. I’ve come to learn that this was a huge mistake, as Overwatch is a complete blast to play. It’s everything I loved about Splatoon with what was great about PvZ: Garden Warfare 2 added in for good measure.

          I’ll save my praise and criticisms for when I actually get the full game and review it, but for now just know that it’s one of my favourite games of the year so far and I can’t wait to jump in and play some more.

          What I’m really here to talk about today is Star Wars Battlefront, and how the inevitable next installment of EA’s “reimagining” of the sci-fi shooter classic can learn from Blizzard’s first entry into the shooter genre.

          I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I got Battlefront last year, I was sorely disappointed. I played it about three times total, and until very recently I couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly I didn’t like about the game. The graphics are undoubtedly one of the best on console, and the sound design places you right in the middle of the original Star Wars trilogy, but something in the gameplay was lacking.

          Eventually, after a while of thinking about the game, I realized it. The devs somehow made shooting down Stormtroopers or Rebel scum as boring as grinding in an RPG.

          In Battlefront, you’re placed into a massive team that can grow up to thirty to forty people, all of which look essentially identical and, aside from a slightly different weapon or special ability selection, play the same too. There’s nothing creative or interesting here. Aside from the six hero-class characters, all the pawn-class playable characters are the same.

          When looking at Overwatch, you can clearly see that each character is different in their own way. Don’t like how Winston plays? Give Tracer a shot. Don’t like her either? Reaper’s ready to play. So on and so forth, until you find the characters that suit you best. Overwatch encourages experimentation and creativity with how you play, unlike Battlefront’s cookie cutter foot soldiers everyone is stuck with.

          There’s also the big problem everyone had with Battlefront’s Fee-to-Pay model right out of the gate. Those who forked over a few extra dollars were given the best weapon in the game, allowing them to dominate their way up the ranks by mowing down low level players repeatedly with no problem. Add in the easy to camp spawn points, and you’ve got yourself a ticket to the top ranks of the generic foot soldiers, all because you were willing to shell out a bit more cash.

          Because Overwatch works more on different characters than different weapons, it doesn’t have this problem, bringing back up the boring characters argument. If you die to another player in Overwatch, you can only blame yourself, and vow to do better next time. If you die to another generic looking guy in Battlefront, more likely than not you’re facing off against someone who paid to win, rather than being simply better than the game at you. You can try to avoid that player again, but with how everyone looks the same, you’ll have a hard time trying to do that.

          That’s not even mentioning how obscenely broken it is to give players a weapon that one-shot kills low level players just because they forked over some cash. I know that Battlefront is an EA game, and EA is all about their money, money, money. But seriously, we can’t sit back and act like this is okay.

          I’ve always been fine with paying elements in games, so long as you can easily get the same items without using some of your hard earned cash. Looking at a game like Hearthstone, even if you pay, you can’t specifically choose which cards you want to buy. You have to go through the randomly generated packs like everyone else. In a way, paying is just accelerating the rate in which you can get the cool stuff.

          Overwatch works on the same principle. The only things that can be paid for are strictly cosmetic. Skins, spray paints, character poses, and so on. If you don’t care for these things, you can walk away completely happy with your $60 purchase, feeling fulfilled.

          If I remember correctly, Battlefront cost around $70 at release, with $20 added on for early access to the Battle of Jakku map, as well as the one-shot gun. That’s a $90 game, with even more microtransactions waiting inside!

          But I’m getting off topic. We’re here to talk about how the next Battlefront can learn from Overwatch.

          I understand that the two are extremely different games, Battlefront being more focused on spectacle than gameplay, and Overwatch having the presentation being the icing on an already delicious cake. But when making a game, the gameplay should always come first. No one will remember your game in 5 years if all you had going for you was graphics and sound design, no matter how good they are. They’ll remember the games that were the most fun to play. Overwatch knows this. PvZ Garden Warfare and Splatoon knew this. The original Battlefront games knew it too. This “new” Battlefront doesn’t know how to be an enjoyable shooter, instead focusing more on the feeling of being in a Star Wars movie.

          Well, if I really were in a Star Wars movie, I wouldn’t want it to be as shallow as Battlefront is. That’d probably mean I was trapped in the Prequel Trilogy.

          Seeing as Battlefront isn’t getting any elements from The Force Awakens, it’s inevitable we’ll see a sequel in that timeline soon enough. So I ask the developers this: next time, try harder than just impressing us with your flashy graphics. Look at shooters that did it right, and borrow from them. Good luck, and may the Force be with you.

Ace Attorney Episode 6 Review

Going nowhere fast

(This review contains mild spoilers!)

          Ace Attorney took a trip to filler town this week, as extremely little that mattered in the overall case happened. You can skip to the last 5 minutes of the episode and have missed nothing.

          With the true culprit revealed through some extremely convoluted exposition, it looks like next week will have Phoenix back in the courtroom to thankfully wrap up the Steel Samurai case and move on to the final and best one from the original game.

          Also, can we all agree that no one should ever talk in leet-speak ever again? It was funny back in 2008, but now it’s just extremely distracting and grating. The director character wasn’t appealing in any way, shape, or form, and thankfully didn’t have more than a minute or two of screen time.

          The animation also seemed to take this week off as well, as more often than not we just has stoic images of the characters with their mouths moving. I guess it’s to save money on an episode that has nothing in it, but it just looks lazy.

          There’s also a running problem I have with Maya. In the game, she was my favourite character, as you really felt a connection with her after putting your all into defending her in the Turnabout Sisters case. But in the show, it really feels like she and Phoenix don’t share much of a relationship other than “Oh, she’s my mentor’s sister so I’ll keep her around.” She’s yet to come into her own as a character, and feels more like Phoenix’s sidekick that could be replaced with no one batting an eye.

          This week’s episode of Ace Attorney can be summed up in one word: Skippable. See you next week for the court case, Mr. Wright.

FINAL SCORE

1/10

Garbage

Captain America: Civil War Review

United we stand

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          Captain America: The Winter Soldier stands, along with the original Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies near everyone considers to be the best. So when it was announced that, as a follow up, Marvel would be adapting the equally popular Civil War storyline for the big screen, people were reasonably excited.

          The result? A film that isn’t as good as its phenomenal predecessor, but still a fantastic time to be had and feels like a worthy continuation not just of the Captain America franchise, but the MCU as a whole.

          The story follows the comic storyline vaguely, with more focus put on Cap and Bucky’s relationship than on the Superhero Registration (called the Sokovia Accords here). As much as I liked this change, it really didn’t feel like there was much of Bucky at all until about 45 minutes through. Before then, it was mostly just talking about the accords and how they’ll change the world. Sadly, the first third of the movie is extremely slow, and while there are some good points in it, it all feels more or less like waiting for the good stuff to come in.

          But when the good stuff does arrive, it hits hard. The action scenes are some of the best in any movie ever, let alone just a Marvel movie. The now famous airport sequence will likely be talked about for years as the greatest superhero rumble of all time, until something else comes along and tops it. The ending battle is nothing to snuff at either, but I felt that the opening zoomed by a bit too quickly to really make sense or care about what was going on.

          The biggest draw in Civil War isn’t the action, but the characters, and the actors all shine in what they bring to the table. Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannsson, Jeremy Renner, and Anthony Mackie are all as fantastic as they’ve been in previous movies, showing new sides to all their characters. Sebastian Stan gets to show a new side to the Winter Soldier, as he acts more like the Bucky we remember from The First Avenger. Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany return as Scarlet Witch and Vision, planting the seeds of the relationship they have in the comics. I enjoyed them both here much more than I did in Age of Ultron, as they seemed to have more room to breathe and not be tied up in the plot as much. Finally, Paul Rudd returns as Ant Man, and is where much of the film’s humour lies. He also holds a big surprise, and if you were one of the few lucky enough to not have it be spoiled by merchandise, I’ll refrain from describing it here.

          As for the new characters, Chadwick Boseman is fantastic as Black Panther, capturing the comic book character’s essence pitch-perfectly. The costume design is also extremely well done, making him look sleek and elegant without ending up with him looking like Marvel’s Batman. Martin Freeman has a brief role as a government official, and as much as I like how he did, it just felt wrong hearing him with an American accent. Still, he did an excellent job with how little he had to work with.

          The villain of the movie, Zemo, however, I felt was a little weak. His plan was very well executed and played into the movie’s themes of revenge just fine, but I doubt I’ll remember him the way I remember Loki or Ultron. He ultimately feels like the type of Hydra boss you’d see on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D than anything.

          And then, there’s Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. I’ve always said that the perfect Peter Parker is hiding in between Tobey Maguire’s whiny dork and Andrew Garfield’s quippy smart-aleck. Where one excelled, the other seemed to have trouble.

          I am more than overjoyed to report that Tom Holland absolutely nails the character, and in a way that blows both previous actors out of the water. He does far more than I was expecting, and you’re left wanting much more out of him. All his quips and lines land perfectly, guaranteeing a laugh out of everyone. His final appearance left the entire theatre cheering and applauding, and I for one can’t wait for Spider-Man: Homecoming next year.

          The climax is spectacularly done, putting a satisfying conclusion to the titular conflict, as well as the Captain America trilogy. I would go into more detail, but it really needs to be seen to be enjoyed in full.

          Captain America: Civil War is everything I thought it would be. It’s an excellent trip back to the Marvel Universe, and one I will be rewatching again and again in the years to come.

          One last point I’d like to stress: make sure you stay all the way till the end of the credits. It’s worth it this time, I promise.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Space Patrol Luluco Episode 6 Review

Shoplifting in style

(This review contains spoilers!)

          God, I love this show. It juggles being ridiculous, hilarious, and even heartfelt with literal ease. Every week when I tune in it never fails to make me smile.

          But anyways, onto this week’s episode. We last saw Luluco and company watching in horror as the town of Ogikubo was lifted away and put up for auction by Luluco’s space pirate mother. So what’s their solution for this predicament? Why, reactivate the frozen top half of Luluco’s father’s head, of course!

          Yes, Luluco’s father commandeers the mission with literally half a brain, as he unveils a secret rocket that’s been hidden away in Luluco’s closet this whole time. They then proceed to ram it into the side of the pirate ship, thinking that if they do something illegal to stop something illegal, technically that makes it justice. “Minus plus minus makes a plus”, as the Chief so eloquently puts it.

          Things get even crazier when Midori reveals she kept more of those black market apps from the first storyline, and, I kid you not, uses them to project a giant version of her hand, which she uses to grab hold of the pirate ship to stop the auction from going through. Did I mention this show was ridiculous?

          Midori is really starting to win me over. Even though she started out as a really cliché mean girl/goofy villain character, her goofy reactions and snarky dialogue really makes her a highlight for me. I much prefer her to Nova, who still feels like the show isn’t quite sure what it wants to do with him. I don’t think he even got a line in this episode.

          With the promise of the Space Patrol crew now exploring a new galaxy, the next storyline for Space Patrol Luluco is looking more exciting than ever. I just hope that there’s even more justice.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Star Fox Zero Review

Can’t let you do that, Star Fox!

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          I’ve never really considered Star Fox 64 to be the timeless classic many see it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic game and I’ll still come back to it from time to time. I just never really grew up with it, so I don’t quite have the nostalgia most have for it. However, when I was younger, I played a lot of Star Fox Assault, and while I’ll admit it hasn’t aged gracefully, it will always hold a special place in my game collection.

          So along comes Star Fox Zero, not a sequel or a remake of any older games, but instead a “reimagining” of the 64 game. That’s the first of many problems that plague Zero from the moment you press start. Because Zero is resting so much on 64’s laurels, it never quite gets a chance to be its own thing, instead reminding them how they could be playing a much better version of the same game.

          Make no mistake. Star Fox Zero is a far worse version of Star Fox 64 3D, a remake of a Nintendo 64 game from 1998.

          This is one of those rare games that somehow manages to get nothing right. None of the clear love the developers had for the game that was present in past installments is here at all. Instead, this feels like Nintendo flipping the middle finger to their fans and saying “You want your new Star Fox game? Well, here it is! Suck it, nerds!”

          Let’s start with the graphics. Overall, it looks like it would fit comfortably with games like Skyward Sword or Mario Galaxy 2. That’s not exactly a good thing, especially when comparing how the Wii U can handle excellent graphics, as shown in games like Mario Kart 8 and Yoshi’s Woolly World. Framerate issues abound when anything happens on screen, including the frequent explosions. Whenever anything goes boom, the game turns choppy. You’ll often take lots of damage because of this. Pop-in is a big problem as well. Either every ship in the game has a cloaking device, or the developers just didn’t bother hiding these huge flagships fading in out of nowhere. It’s honestly embarrassing to look at.

          Then, there’s the sound. The music is traditional Star Fox fare, nothing too special or memorable. It doesn’t help that it’s often drowned out by the laser fire, even listening to the music on its own doesn’t show off any clear winners.

          The real problem with the sound is the character dialogue. Unlike Star Fox 64, where the dialogue was so goofy and cheesy it was fantastic, the dialogue in this game is borderline unbearable. Falco, Slippy and Peppy never stop talking, repeating dialogue over and over again until you want to tear your eardrums out. Make a mistake and fly into a building, and you’ll be hearing about it. Are you taking too long to finish a mission? You’ll get chastised. Mercifully, the voices only come out of the Wii U Gamepad, so with a flick of a switch, they can be muted and you’ll hear from the cast no more.

          And last, but certainly last not, the biggest issue with the game, and one I’m sure you’ve heard about. See, Andross isn’t the true villain of this game, and neither is Star Wolf. No, this time Fox McCloud’s biggest adversary comes from within. His Arwing itself is literally fighting against him. I’m talking of course about the heinous controls.

          Before playing, I read the reviews and heard what people said about the controls. I figured they couldn’t be that bad, and maybe they just required a little extra work. But until you get your hands on it yourself, you just don’t know.

          The controls (and by extension, the camera) in this game are absolutely unforgivable. They seemed to try for Splatoon-style control mechanics, with the Wii U Gamepad’s gyro controls being used to aim and the control stick to move. Whereas this works in a third-person shooter, however, it completely bombs in an on rails shooter like Star Fox.

          See, the Arwing sections in 64 and Assault work because you can clearly see what’s coming at you, and you have time to react accordingly. In Zero, you have no such advantage. The camera angle on the TV is so bad, you’ll only take out an enemy ship if you get super lucky. Otherwise, you need to look down at the Wii U Gamepad screen to use more precise aiming. This puts you in an Arwing cockpit view, allowing you to try and take out the enemies using the Gyro controls. More often than not, they’ll get away as you awkwardly shift your body to try and do anything.

          This leads to even more problems, if you can believe that. The cockpit view on the Wii U Gamepad has a very limited view, so you have no idea where you’re flying. I lost track of how many times I looked up from my Gamepad just to watch in horror as I crashed face first into a building. It’s the game equivalent of texting while driving.

          Fortunately, the Arwing isn’t the only available vehicle in the game. There is also the all new Walker, which I find to be the only good point in the game. Think of it as a shakier, looser version of Splatoon’s controls. It works passably, nothing to write home about though. Then there’s the Gyrocopter, an extremely slow and tedious helicopter that is a complete pain to play as. The Gyrocopter’s main feature is that it can drop down a tiny robot to hack computer panels and pick up items. That all sounds fine and dandy, but you often have to be extremely precise with where you place it, or else you need to reel him back in and slowly place him down again. Rinse and repeat until you get it right.

          Star Fox Zero is an embarrassment to Nintendo fans, the developers, the Wii U, and the Star Fox series as a whole. Even the huge delay it got from last winter to now wasn’t enough to salvage this shaky mess of a game. But still, seeing the poor reception and sales this game got, I can’t help but feel a little bit sorry for this series. Like it or not, there’s no denying that Zero may have inadvertently been Team Star Fox’s final flight.

FINAL SCORE

2/10

Awful

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “Failed Experiments”

In case of emergency, call Kree headquarters

(This review contains spoilers!)

          As we make our approach to the two hour season finale on the 17^th, the stakes grow higher and higher for the crew. This week was no exception, as we got our first Marvel TV appearance of the Kree! At least, I think it was. Daisy mentioned fighting a Kree before, but I can’t remember when that happened for the life of me.

          Nevertheless, the Kree Reapers were easily the high point of this episode, and the fight scenes with Daisy and Hive were very fast paced and well done. It’s always nice when the larger Marvel Universe beyond just Hydra and the Inhumans comes to play, and this was no exception.

          I also liked the opening sequence, discovering where Hive came from and how we was turned into the Inhuman we know him as today. We got to see him as a tribesman in what I can only assume was Africa (Wakanda, maybe?) thousands of years ago, being turned into this monster.

          What I didn’t like was how everyone’s brains seemed to check out for an episode. Bad decision making was the norm this week, as everyone seemed to be getting themselves into trouble. There’s Mack throwing away his weapon as he faced off with one of the strongest Inhumans, Lincoln almost killing himself trying to create a vaccine that Fitz and Simmons warned against, and, my personal favourite, May and her team thinking they can kill Hive with bullets.

          Speaking of May’s team, is anyone else surprised that those two new agents survived the episodes? They felt like real red-shirt material to me, but they made it home safe and even got a few lines each to boot.

          There was also the problem that the majority of the episode took place in boring laboratories, with people talking about science and vaccines and stuff like that for far too long. I’ll admit, I got disinterested pretty fast.

          We ended off with the revelation that, since Coulson used Kree blood to save Daisy’s life after she’d been shot in Season 1, Hive can use her blood to make more Inhumans. A bit of a deus ex machina, but it makes sense, considering it was established a few years ago.

          Despite its shortcomings, this was still a really good episode for Shield, and I’m expecting things to really get going next week as we get closer to the end of the “Fallen Agent” storyline and past Civil War.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great