So I recently started watching this show. And while I haven't seen all of it that there is yet, I feel like I've seen enough to know how I feel about it. It's fuckin cool.So the basic premise here is that the fellow there front and center is a billionaire named Oliver Queen. One day Oliver leaves to go on a cruise for a while with his dad, his girlfriend's sister (you dog), and at least one other guy who.... I'm not sure who it was. Things don't go quite as planned and the boat ends up sinking. Oliver winds up drifting to an island where he remains for five years before finally being rescued by a passing boat.
However, he doesn't come back to his home quite the same as he left it. He comes back harder, and with a mission. His father game him a book with a list of names of people in the city. The people in this book are not good people and Oliver has sworn a vow to take them down and revive his city from the poor state it's been in as a result of them.
In order to do this he covers himself in his green outfit seen above and begins hunting down the people in his list, literally crossing them off one at a time.I feel like I already gave this away, but I like it. And it's not just cause he shares my fondness for this color. I do think it's very well made. I like the characters. Oliver/hood is played with with the character doing a very good job of being both a billionaire playboy and a violent vigilante hellbent on taking down everyone who is hurting his city. Unable to do everything by him he does a sort of sidekick-esq individual. This person is Mr. Diggle (left of Oliver in the picture) often referred to as "Dig" or "Digs". Diggle was originally hired to be Oliver's bodyguard, and quit before coming back to do something sort of similar but much more dangerous. Oliver's younger sister, best friend, and the ex-girlfriend who he cheated on also play important roles (respectively far left, right, and far right.) As with most shows more characters do show up and become relevant as you get further into the show. I suppose one mild criticism I have is that some of the villains are sort of bland and illogical and almost unrealistic in their behavior. Sort of like stock characters, villainous just for the sake of having someone villainous for Oliver to fight. Though even the episodes with such enemies are good. Some of the villains are interesting though; I do quite like the one who intentionally hired 25 goons, because he knew that Oliver carried 24 arrows with him when he put on his outfit. One more thing I do feel like is worth bringing up is that the show does have a tendency to jump around a lot. Often there will be two of three events occurring at once, (or one or two current events and a flashback) all of them being interwoven with a clip of one then another then another. So if you really hate it when shows do that, you're probably not gonna like this show. Personally I don't care.
The one thing that shows like to do that pisses me off the most are super needless flashbacks. Like you'll see a guy walking down the street for a minute. Then it will flash to six months ago and the guy will be like, burying a body. Then it'll cut back to him walking down the street and the guy he buried shows up. And I'm always like... why the fuck was the first minute of him walking down the street important? It fucking didn't need to be there. There was zero point for that. Could have started with him burying the guy then said six months later, would have been the same information presented far less stupidly. But I digress.
The third season just started recently so you can watch it if you would like, alternatively if you have Netflix the first 2 seasons are available there, which is where I've been watching it. It is one of those shows that you could probably watch any random episode and not be too horribly confused, but I personally always prefer to watch things from the start like you're supposed to. And there are plot lines that run for multiple episodes and characters that come and go so if you have seen everything up to that point then you'll be assured to have the proper history, though the "previously on Arrow" bit will usually mention the super important things that you need to know for the episode.
All in all I like it I think it's pretty good. If it sounds interesting definitely give it a try, even if super hero stuff isn't your jam you might try checking it out, and if you think that goody two shoes heroes are lame, Oliver is not a goody two shoes by any means. He is violent, he is mean, the show can be in your face, and people do die. And none too rarely either.
9 arrows planted into hearts out of 10
So apparently right around now is a popular time for shows about comic book heros and not really heros. We've got Gotham and Flash starting up, and Arrow is starting season 3 (By the way I started watching the first season of Arrow, and while the back story is a bit strange and confusing at times, it's pretty fuckin cool)
So the Flash is the fastest man alive. His girlfriend really wishes he wasn't. Alright then, obligatory sex joke out of the way. So I tried the first episode of this a few days ago and I thought I'd talk to you guys about it, cause that's what I do here.
So the justification for Flash having his powers this time is perhaps a little convoluted but try and stick with me. When he was a kid there was some strange.... thing that happened in his house that resulted in the death of his mother, and the (incorrect) sentencing of his father for murder. Fast forward a bunch of years and the soon-to-be Flash is really excited about going to the unveiling and activation of a new particle accelerator. Unsurprisingly things go tits up and the accelerator explodes. However, as opposed to just killing anyone nearby, the explosion causes the release of a strange form of radiation into the city during a thunderstorm. Our boy flash is hit by a lightning bolt from this storm and winds up in a coma. Nine months later he wakes up and finds himself capable of running at superhuman speeds. He wasn't the only one changed that night though, and not everyone who got powers was as kind-hearted as him. Many of the "metahumans" as they are called are using their new found powers to hurt others. Naturally goody two shoes Flash vows to use his power to fight these people.
So then, what did I think of it? It was alright. I'll probably watch at least a couple more episodes. So far the show seems well done, which is good. Thankfully they got the one thing that really really needed to be right correct; the effects of him running look totally fine.
I'll be honest I don't thing I'm gonna love it, but so far it looks like it's pretty decent.
Th-th-th-th-that's all folks.
So this is a bit of an unorthadox post maybe. But fuck it I don't care. YouTube is media, so I'll review it if I want to. So there. All of the people I'm going to talk about are let's players / do gaming related content. Why? Because that's the kind of stuff I watch on YouTube. That and ASMR stuff. Note: These are in no particular order.
1. Gopher
So this guy isn't for everyone. Gopher takes things slowly and often times in a non-optimal fashion. And lots of people seem to get really fucking angry if someone does anything in any way less than the best possible way ever. Because all YouTube comments are 100% perfect at everything they ever do right? Right? Of course they are.
Gopher is most well known for his Skyrim content, in particular his "Skyrim Mod Sanctuary" which is a series he does with fair regularity. If you couldn't guess based upon the name, the series talks about available mods for Skyrim. And to his credit he always explains to you how to install the mods if you're interested in them. Seriously all the credit I can give to this guy for that. I wouldn't have modded Skyrim or Fallout: NV without him, and I totally love my mods for both of those games. So yeah if you wanan know how to mod those games, but don't think you're up the task yourself (which is totally fine, no need to feel stupid for it) he has lots of helpful videos.
In addition to teaching you how to mod games he also does let's plays of games. Primarily he does RPGs which is probably unsurprising. He's played two different characters in Skyrim, a playthrough of Fallout 3, one of Fallout:NV (Currently still on going), and he's recently started a playthrough of the new Wasteland 2. And these RPG playthoughs often lead him to do things in a way that isn't always 100% optimal for his character. This often happens when he's doing some roleplaying and does something that he either doesn't know isn't the best thing, or does something he knows isn't the best but is what the character would do. Or of course there exists the possibility that he just does something for fun, cause ya know he's playing a game, a thing (usually) with the main, if not only, purpose of being fun. In addition the RPGs Gopher also tends to like horror and horror-esq games. He's played both Amnesia games, Outlast, and both Metro games.
Recently-ish Gopher has also began streaming games and him modding games on Twitch. He streams Fridays, I believe Sundays, and I wanna say Tuesdays but don't quote me on that. Thankfully Gopher understands that not everyone can always make the streams so he uploads VODs of (I believe) everything he streams. The primary game he streams at the moment is XCOM. He's currently trying to fight his way through the mean ass long war mod for that game. However, if you hate XCOM don't fret. He does stream other stuff too.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids
YouTube livestream VODs: https://www.youtube.com/user/GopherLiveVids
Twitch page where he streams: http://www.twitch.tv/gophergaming
2. Northernlion
Northernlion has the largest channel of the people I'm gonna talk about. Northernlion is at this point probably still most well known for being the The Binding of Isaac guy on YouTube. That game (and a much smaller bump earlier on from super meat boy) has made his channel. And I'm cool with that. He in fact still makes videos of it almost every single day. He's almost 1000 episode deep into his lets play at this point, and is in fact currently doing two series of it. One of the current release of the game, and one series of the community remix mod for it.
In addition to his Issac content he also does play other games. He's currently doing a series on Prison Architect that I've been enjoying immensely despite his constant mis-steps. He's also doing a series of Europe Universalis 4 with three other guys. He also has a series of Gauntlet that he's doing with a couple of other guys. He also frequently will do "let's look at"s of games. These are exactly what you'd expect something called "let's look at" to be. He discusses a newly released game going over it's core concept so you can see if you're interested in it or not.
Now one thing about NL is that he's very much so not a pro at the games he plays. Even Issac which he's been playing for literally years, he still isn't perfect at. So again, if you're one of those people who is gonna get really super fuckin pissed off at the person playing the game not being the best person ever, then you probably won't wanna watch it. Of course if you are one of those people then you're probably just mad all the time at everything. Sounds shitty. Ever considered not being needlessly pissed off at someone on the internet playing a game to entertain you for free? Just a thought.
NL also does stream on Twitch. He does a show called the Northernlion live super show (or NLSS) three times a week; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He also streams games on Sunday where he plays with his subscribers. The NLSS will usually have Nick (aka RockLeeSmile) on it as well and the two make a good pair. Occasionally other people will be on stream as well. The VODs from this are uploaded onto NL's YouTube channel a few days after the show and I always enjoy watching them.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Northernlion
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/Northernlion
3. Baer (Yes that's spelled like that)
Hey look all the people I'm talking about are animal themed personas. No that wasn't planned. It just worked out that way. In truth the only one of them who even really acknowledges his animalistic name is Baer.
So Baer does lots of let's plays. He's currently running series on Cook, Serve, Delicious!, The Long Dark, Lethal League, and Nuclear Throne. The only one of these I'm not keeping up with is The Long Dark, just cause I don't really care for that game.
Like the other people I discussed Baer also streams on Twitch. He streams.... all the fuckin time. Seriously dude streams a lot. I don't actually watch his streams. Not that I have anything against them, but I just really don't go actually go on Twitch much. Though I have been watching Guardsmanbob stream Hearthstone a fair bit recently, but that's really just cause Ive been sort of obsessed with Heartstone and his stream is the most pleasant and reliable for that game. And the dude has nice music choices. Sorry, meant to be talking about Baer.
Yeah Bear's definitely a cool dude and he does cool stuff. I've been seriously enjoying his Cook, Serve, Delicious! stuff despite the fact I feel like I really wouldn't like to play that game.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BaerTaffy
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/baertaffy
So those are my top 3 favorite YouTubers currently. There are other people I do watch but these three certainly have my attention held the best.
Oh and if anybody was wondering wtf ASMR was from earlier I suppose I can explain that real quick. It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Now those are a bunch of big words that essentially mean a pleasant tingling feeling felt in the scalp or upper back. I don't tend to get those tingles very often but I watch these videos for relaxation and to help me sleep sometimes. It's a thing that if you'd explained it to me a couple years ago I would have thought was super bizarre but I now enjoy quite thoroughly. Might be worth looking into sometime if you're interested. Maybe it won't be for you, but maybe it will. What have you got to lose?
This guy is one brilliant bastard. If you don't know who he is, and if you haven't yet enjoyed his work, you should fix that.
Aziz here is a comedian. And he's very talented at his job. So far he's released 3 comedy specials (that I know of). In chronological order they are Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, Dangerously Delicious, and Buried Alive. Buried Alive is a Netflix original comedy special, so if you wish to see this legally you will need Netflix, but seriously if you don't have netflix, you should consider getting it. Netflix is fuckin awesome.
In case you happen to need some incentive to think that Aziz will be funny click this link: Jizz everywhere joke Yes that does say "Jizz everywhere joke". No I didn't mistype that.
As far as which one of his specials is the best.... that's a tough call. I do really like them all. I tend to recall his middle one the least. There is a bit more audience participation in the third special than the first two so if you really hate that then you might not care for that one.
Not too much more to say about this guy. He's fuckin hilarious. If you haven't watched his stuff and you like laughing (ya know like a normal human) then you should definitely look into his stuff.
Wait! There is one more thing to say about Aziz. Aziz has the only joke ever that's funnier after it's explained. This joke is in the first special. You'll know it when you hear it. Cause he'll say something and you'll be like what? And then he explains it and it's like "I get it!" And then you laugh. Cause you weren't supposed to get it.
10 great bits out of 10
So I just watched the premiere episode of this show and that that it might be worth talking about.
In short, it's alright. The first episode was well done with nothing that bothered me but I'm not totally sold on it just yet. I liked the first one enough to watch a second episode but from there on out we'll see.
So the the people here from left to right are Gordon (future commissioner), Gordon's current partner, Alfred, Catwoman I guess, and Penguin.
I will say that maybe they could have picked a different actor for penguin. Penguin is supposed to be gross and ugly and perverted and fat. This guy has a little bit of a slimy side, and he has the pointy nose and some slightly messed up teeth so I guess you could say ugly. And in fairness he hasn't been around long enough for me to say if he is or is not perverted, but this guy trips really hard on the fat hurdle. He's a damn twig. Penguin is fat! He's fucking fat. Every damn interpretation of Penguin shows him as fat. Don't believe me? Take 4 seconds google "Penguin Batman". I was gonna put a bunch of pictures here to prove this point really really hard, but for some damn reason I'm having issues putting pictures where I want them. But seriously Penguin is fucking fat. The guy playing penguin is a damned twig. And that kinda bothers me. Like when the new guy playing James Bond was fuckin blonde. That annoyed me. But there is an arguable reason for that. But fine I suppose it doesn't have to be a perfect point for point retelling there's some artistic interpretation.
Very mild spoilers in this next paragraph.
The first episode is more or less what you might expect. There's the scene where a mugger shoots Bruce's parents. The rest of the episode handles the investigation of this crime. They show off some characters. Penguin (obviously) shows up, there's a small girl named Ivy, there's a catwoman-esq person who kinda hangs around in a few shots doing catwoman-esq things.
So yeah I see potential here. The first episode was fine. Nothing overly amazing, but it was well presented. So I'll watch the next one and see how things turn out. Anybody else watch it?
No review here either. Maybe next time guys and gals.
Indie games are awesome, I'm gonna talk about one.
This is Closure. Closure is a puzzle platformer. On the surface it's really just a platformer, the entire puzzle aspect revolves around the core aspect of the game, and this is that the whole map doesn't always exist.
Let me explain, each level has a predefined map with specific elements at certain spots, some are manipulable, some are not. But here's the trick, these things only exist if you can see them. You've likely heard of a physics based platformer, well Closure is a light based platformer. Yes there might be a path from point A to point B, but unless you can see that path, it doesn't matter, stepping out of the light will cause you to fall away into the dark abyss, even if there would be a platform where you stepped. If you can't see it it's not effectively there.
The above picture is a fairly good representative of the visual style of the game. That four legged creature with a hole for a face is you. Why are you trying to solve all these puzzles? I have no idea, I guess for the same reason that people climb mountains; because they're there.
One thing that is interesting is that the.... thing you are changes during some of the levels. I haven't done them all yet but the first section causes you to put on a mining helmet, and this causes you to turn into an (albeit somewhat strangely proportioned) approximation of a human. Why does this happen? Fuck if I know.
The sound is minimal, but I think it suits the game well. In some sense you could argue that the game as a whole is minimal. The entire screen is very very rarely actually displaying an image, usually at least half of it is just black. There are small amounts of ambient noise, but mostly it's just sound effects of things happening.
There is no story. If that wasn't clear. Or at least there is no story yet. Perhaps at the end there will be something of an explanation, but I'm definitely not holding my breath waiting.
There is a sort of collection quest. Some levels in the game contain little glowing moths. Apparently there are a total of 30 of these, and grabbing all of them unlocks a bonus section. So that's kind cool.
My feelings on it? Very cool idea, somewhat flawed execution. The default controls for jump and interact are shit, but these can be rebound, so that's not too much of an issue. Issues that are not fixable are that the exact distance the character can jump seems to be not quite dependably standard. The number of pixels of darkness I can safely walk over versus the number that I can fall into and die is also difficult to parse. It's perpetually annoying to do 98% of a puzzle correctly screw up at the end and be forced to do it all again. Light orbs can be smashed for really no reason other than to force you to restart the puzzle, but I suppose this might actually be used as a puzzle element later. Your character can also be killed if a barrel or box falls onto you from pretty much any height. This I can't say could be a mechanic later. I want to like this for the cool things that can happen, but I'm not really sure I can because of all the very uncool things that do happen.Gameplay: 4.5 out of 10
Story: N/A
Visuals: 6.5 out of 10
Audio: 5.5 out of 10
Overall: 5.5 light orbs out of 10
The demo is open to the public! It came out on Friday guys and gals, so in case you hadn't heard you can grab it now, totally free.
For those of you who don't know what smash brothers is..... wtf the fuck is wrong with you? These games are awesome! It's just a bunch of Nintendo characters violently beating the shit out of each other!
Now of course this is a demo, so not all of the content is avaliable, there are only 5 playable characters; Link, Mario, Megaman, Pikachu, and the villager (What the hell is he from?) only one stage, and the only game mode is a two minute kill fest, but this is a really solid demo and it makes me feel that the game is put together well and will certainly be worth the money.
The demo does allow you to play with your friends, provided your friends are nearby. So that's pretty cool, and it does show an online mode that would presumably allow you to play with anyone in the world, and one would hope inviting registered friends to a match is somehow worked into that.
There is also supposed to be some means of connecting it to the wii u and using the gameboy as a controller. Which I guess would be kinda neat to do once just to see it, but I feel like in general if I went to my friends house to play the wii u with him, I'd want a damn controller. Though I suppose if you didn't have a second controller (or third or whatever the required number is) then being able to use the DS and play with your buddy would be nice so you wouldn't have someone left out.
There is a limit of 30 times that you are allowed to launch the demo, but considering that the real game is out in October, I don't see too many people actually using up all of those before it hits shelves. And if you do use up all 30 plays, then I think the demo served it's purpose quite admirably.
My favorite character thus far is link, which is unsurprising, cause I used to love him in both melee and brawl and he's pretty much unchanged, which I can get behind. Fox will be in the full release which is cool cause I liked fox. Marth will be returning but sadly not his bigger, better brother Roy.
All things considered I'm definitely looking forward to smash brothers. If you're on the fence, grab the demo and give it a whirl, if you're already on board the demo will give you a little bit to play with while you wait, and even if you don't think you'd like it maybe give it a try anyway, after all it's free.
This doesn't get a rating, cause it's just the demo.
That's the author there holding the first book of The Iron Druid chronicles. The novel was Released in 2011 and was published by Del Ray Books.
The novel's main character is named Atticus O'Sullivan, or at least, that's the name he currently uses. One finds it best to change their name a few times when they've been running from an angry god for around two thousand years. Summed up shortly the plot is that a long long time ago Atticus wound up in possession of a magic sword. A particular god named Aenghus Óg would really prefer that the sword was with him and that Atticus was laying somewhere six feet under the surface of the earth. The book explains how Aenghus tries to get that to happen this time and how Atticus manages to (spoilers not really) not wind up dead in the process.
What matters most, and what I think is done well here, is the cast of characters. Atticus is a druid and has the proper bravado to make himself a proper lead role, but he's not foolhardy or invincible. I really liked Oberon, Atticus' dog. Yes, his dog is an important character. Through some special magicness Atticus is allowed to mentally communicate with his dog. And his dog is... well more or less what you'd expect a dog that could talk would be. He's sort of like an excitable child and it fits very well. In addition to him there is the shapeshifting goddess of death who Atticus has made a deal with for immortality, The vampire and werewolf lawyers he employs, and the sexy redhead possessed by a witch.
I read this book because it was said to be similar to Jim Butcher's Dresen Files (By the way, go read those books. Now. Seriously, get out of here and go read the Dresden files if you haven't) and I can see how people would say it's similar. It certainly is similar in some ways. The main characters are actually pretty damn similar. The description of Atticus I gave applies very much so to Harry if you replace the word "druid" with "wizard." But that being said I do like this layout for a lead character, and I'm not saying that no two characters are allowed to be similar. Nor am I accusing the author of copying Butcher.
In short, I liked it. I'll probably look into getting the next one soon to see what new bullshit Atticus and his buddies will have to deal with. So if you're into modern fantasy mixed with a liberal splash of older lore and mythology then I'm sure you could do a lot worse than this.
8.5 iron talismans out of 10
In #ExplainAFilePlotBadly fashion, "Russian nerd films as his comrades getting killed one by one." I like that hastag, that hashtag is fun. Also "Insomniac punches self in ear, others join club." One thing I always wondered about that though, what was going on in the second guy's head? Cause in the film he asks for the next fight, but really he would have been asking one guy to fight him when that guy appeared to have been fighting himself.
So anyway back to Doc Frankie and his messed up pets. This is a "found footage" film. Which, normally, I fuckin hate. I normally hate these films cause the camera work is poor, intentionally yes, but intentionally poor is still poor. The filming in this movie is actually done very well by found footage standards, You could almost not know it if you started watching 20 mins in. And it's only really relevant a few times when the camera is dropped and one guy makes a messages to his parents. So this movie I'm okay with it being found footage style.
The actual plot, explained a little better, is as follows. During WW2 a small Russian scout team is out on recon when they start hearing a distress call from another group of Russians. Their radio then begins malfunctioning, but the sarge insists on moving to help the other unit. They wind up entering a town where the only inhabitants are some weird half-living, half-dead, half-robot.... things which the film actually calls "zombots." And despite how fucking silly that sounds, it's actually a fairly accurate name. The zombots, are the creations of "the doctor" a crazed nazi scientist using bizarre machinery to animate half corpse half metal abominations almost all of which are extremely hostile, and difficult to kill. From here things go roughly the way you'd expect. There's a reason pulled from a hat to prevent the guys from doing the sane thing and saying "fuck this, I'm out" then dropping the mic and heading to literally anywhere else.
The film is not great. It's not bad, but all in all it's just not terribly interesting either. It kinda just meanders around for an hour and half doing stuff. The film has a 2.9 average rating on netflix, and that's about right for this. It does get a small allotment of credit for being strange and not fucking anything up. If weird horror films are your thing, then maybe try this movie out. If not, well maybe skip this one. What this film would probably actually be really good for, would be a mystery science theater style joke fest with a buddy or two. It's well done enough that it's watchable and silly enough that it could provide some decent fuel for jokes.
5.5 mad scientists screaming "IT'S ALIVE" out of 10
The sixth guy just said it, he didn't scream it.
Cool album cover guys, but what about the music, does it suck? Oh it doesn't. Alright then. This album was released Nov. 8th 2011 and is the 4th album released from this band. It is the first album I have listened to from them. Track listing is as follows.
One Life
Invincible
Heaven's Gonna Wait
We Are Unbreakable
Young
Beautiful
Bullet For Your Dreams
Hot Mess
Stormy
Last Call
I Won't Let You Go (Darling)
------------------- Bonus tracks below
Hiding Place
Carry On
Heaven's Gonna Wait (Acoustic)
The first thing I'm gonna say is that the deluxe edition is probably not worth it. I did think this was a decent album, but the stuff I liked was not the bonus tracks. So I wouldn't bother going out of my way or spending any additional money on the this version over the normal.
There are a few songs off of the album I think are worthy of note. The first track, One Life, is a nice little anthem about living your one life (see what they did there?) to the fullest. My thought is, they have no proof. Hmmm what proof have you that I only get one life Hedley? None! For all you know I could have had 73 lives by now! I also quite like young, a fun upbeat song about being young and partying, though in a sense this song carries a rather wistful tone, cause he says "we were young" and talks about the fun things they used to do, implying that such things no longer occur, at one point he mentions being a zombie and feeling like he's 45 so the song (while not instantly apparent) is in a way kind of sad and nostalgic of better times.
Stormy and Hot Mess I'm kinda on the fence about. Stormy I only really like the chorus of, and Hot Mess I got back and forth, more mood dependent I suppose.
But all in all I'd say this is a decent album. I find it's not common for me to like more than 2 songs off an album. Maybe I'm just hard to please (Ladies) but that's average for me. I did find another song by the band that I liked called Kiss You Inside Out (Side note: Hands up for people that this is your fetish I know you're out there) which was on the re-release of this album in 2012. That's probably the version of this album to get, say "sod it" to the sucky deluxe edition content and grab the one other good song.
7 upended ships out of 10
