Sunday, May 29, 2016

X-Men: Apocalypse - Movie Review


I'll keep things spoiler free! Another weekend, another super hero movie, another X-Men movie (anyone ever ask why it is X-Men when there are women on the team as well? Like, wouldn't X-Team, or X-Squad, or hell, even X-Peeps be better?). Personally I'm all tapped out when it comes to super hero movies. The last one I saw was Dead Pool which totally increased my man crush on Ryan Reynolds (I really wish I could make little mole babies with him) and was just oh so mole! I didn't see the latest Captain America movie and the only reason I went to see X-Men was for my best friend's birthday. However, I will admit that I enjoyed the movie and also I very much enjoyed Days of Future Past (the movie, never read the comics though I did research the story arc a bit). As with any endeavor into time travel, changing the past to right the future, and all that other "let's reboot and make more money while not sucking as bad as the original" jazz there were questions that still remain unanswered but there was still action, comedy, an interesting story line if you continue to remind yourself to go no further backward in the movies then Days, and oh, in case I didn't mention it already, some amazing action.

Apocalypse is a continuation, story and setting wise, from Days of Future Past though significant time has passed between the two. Some origins are rewritten and it seems that much like the new Star Trek films take place in a different universe the new X-Men movies will take place in the new/altered timeline that existed after the events of Days. Almost all of the characters that were heavily shown in the movie were memorable, there were a few that I wouldn't have missed if they weren't there but they do have a purpose. There are some serious BAMF moments at the end, some moments that were so extreme they seemed unrealistic (even for a super hero movie about mutants with super powers), well placed sarcasm and dry humor (oh yes, give me more please!) and in the end I'm not disappointed I went to see it.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Overwatch - Initial Review

Overwatch, the latest game released by the video game juggernaut Blizzard Entertainment, is in one word: FUN! Yes it does have some negatives, and there are some interesting design ideas at play but all in all the game is enjoyable. That is until one of two things happen: 

  1. You get a group of gamers who think they are playing DOOM multiplayer or Quake Arena or some other arena based shooter and won't work together, which is nearly a universal lose in Overwatch.
  2. You get at least one gamer who talks smack like they have some idea on what everyone is doing wrong and why everyone but themselves is contributing to the team currently getting their collective ass handed to them.
When of the above scenarios take place the fun factor does drop considerably, however, Blizzard included an awesome feature for #2 where you can ignore their spoken and written words so you in the end you can just click your mouse a couple of times and make their whining go POOF. #1 still sucks though. While I'm a casual gamer I don't like to lose, I enjoy co-op playing with a good group of gamers, and enjoy working out strategies to best win on a particular map. However, I'm not going to go all Leroy Jenkins calculations or start taking notes. Overwatch allows that to happen and I'm happy to play it. So happy in fact that I have already sunk $40 on their crates to try and get different things because there were a few skins I wanted. Nothing affects the stats in the game though so it isn't Pay 2 Win (P2W) or anything. Below are some screen grabs of the three toons I play the most and that I have alternate skins (that I like) for.





I added Widowmaker because the skin I got from a crate is pretty hot (you're welcome). I play her occasionally if the map and team warrants it. I'm generally either healing (Mercy) or tanking (Reinhardt), lawl, old MMO habits die hard I guess.