A post that isn’t a review? Yep, time for a good old fashioned opinion piece, allow me to go all White Goodman on you fine readers and hit you with some knowledge.
OK that sounded stupid. (just a little 😛 ~Lone)

A thought struck me recently: Why do we get so up in arms about sequels? In fact not just sequels; remakes, reboots and franchising in general.
Immediate Answer: Well we as fans of entertainment, don’t like to think of our favourite films/characters/heroes/intellectual properties being used solely for profit. We want new and original content and not just the same things rehashed and reused every so often.

OK, that’s fair enough. New ideas should be sought after and praised, of course they should. Humanity probably wouldn’t have gotten very far if we didn’t take advantage of new and exciting ideas (Christ knows where we’d be if the wheel hadn’t caught on), and don’t get me wrong, I am all for new ideas in films and entertainment but if I like that new idea why is it so bad that I want more? I’m always the first to ask for seconds and thirds at the dinner table when pasta is being served.

This train of thought really struck me when I saw a news article about Disney and how they’re going to extend the life of the Frozen Brand (Yes I know it’s a giant film and you probably can’t escape it, yes I know Let It Go is everyone’s favourite song right now, yes I can understand how so many people find the film overrated, just hear me out). The comments on the link to the article were what you’d expect,

“They’re just trying to make as much money as possible”

“Why can’t they come up with anything original?”

“Frozen was overrated anyway”

“Hey everyone, lets all just Let It Go”

Yet all I could find myself thinking was,  “You’re all surprised? This is Disney we’re talking about”
This is the company that bought Marvel because they were raking in so much dough with all of their really, really good adaptations of their superheroes and we’re all surprised that they want to make more money of their most successful animated film ever? But I’m not here to talk about Frozen, not when I already did for my dissertation, (it made me enjoy the film even more).

Look I believe you can make a good film out of anything, if that means I get to return to Arendelle or fight some more Xenos then sweet, bring it on says I.  BUT, having said that, I can completely understand why sequels/remakes etc etc are frowned upon. We all know why, say it with me everyone, “They’re never as good as the original”

Now that phrase is as subjective as it gets, how could it not be? But as for sequels never being as good as the originals? What about Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Die Hard with A Vengeance, Hot Shots Part Deux, Blade 2, Empire Strikes Back, Shrek 2, Desperado, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Revenge of the Sith (Don’t give me that look), Spider-man 2, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn, Superman II, Back to the Future Part II, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior or X-Men 2. We can probably agree that each of those are superior to their predecessors or at least on par with them.

But of course those are only a few, and a debatable few at that. But still proof that it can be done, it just majorly sucks that not many people took notice of how a good sequel is made, and more of how much money they brought in. Foul play indeed I think we can all agree. But saying that, we still shouldn’t be surprised (trust me I’m especially not trying to put myself on a pedestal here, I am as guilty of bitching about sequels and money grubbing studios as the next person), last time I checked the whole point of Hollywood was to make money wasn’t it? That’s why Film Studios have marketing divisions and accountants isn’t it?

In fact going back to Disney, people are annoyed that they’re going to be franchising Frozen right? Well why are we angry at that and not the Marvel Franchise? That’s one of the biggest franchises out there at the moment yet when Captain America 3 or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gets announces nobody says a thing. Well that’s because the Marvel Franchise is praised as unanimously good of course. But so is Frozen, at the very least people thought it was good when they saw it, that’s half the reason it was so well received (aside from all the money it made of course).

In fact if you are so sick of a certain franchise, why not just stop giving it your attention? Turn the radio station over next time you hear Let It Go or turn it off altogether, this is sadly more difficult for parents since their kids are the target audience, sorry parents everywhere.

So when a large studio decides to make money off something popular we collectively smack our foreheads and bemoan it. Yet when they’re in the midst of franchising the shit out of something else that’s very popular…we all clam up? I guess I’m just yelling at a larger beast here, after all I’m just one person with a keyboard, hardly going to make a difference right?

I wish we would stop committing the above offence. Sequels and franchising are not inherently bad, it’s their execution that can be viewed as bad. But hey, this is all amazingly subjective and I’m sure a lot of people disagree with me on this. Do you disagree? If so I’d love to hear how. (Politely, mind you this isn’t YouTube.)

The best summation I can give is this, if you don’t like the look of something, be it a sequel, remake or whatever, just don’t give it your time of day, you’ve undoubtedly got better things to be doing.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

~RattlinMan

Director: Ralph Hemecker
Starring: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Rick Cosnett, Robbie Amell, Victor Garber

Major Spoilers Ahead

The Flash: Season 2, Episode 1 – “The Man Who Saved Central City”
It’s back. Finally. You know that phrase “waiting with bated breath”? Well I have been waiting with bated EVERYTHING!! I love this show, I really do. Ever since minute one I’ve found it to be so much more enjoyable then Arrow, which of course deserves major kudos for starting this DCTU (That’s the DC Televised Universe, trademarked I’ll have you know, maybe). But Season 2 has finally started and Episode 1 is off to a…well not stellar start exactly but about the same level that Season 1 started off with.

So after the Cliffhanger ending of Season 1 where Central City was being ripped apart by a black hole, we learn that Barry Allen aka The Flash has, for the last few months, been defending Central City all on his lonesome for fear of his friends getting hurt. The reason you ask? It turns out that Firestorm (a superhero formed from the merged personas and bodies of supporting characters Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein, don’t ask because science) flew up into the vortex and separated their bodies in order for the resulting bullshit techobabble to destabilise the wormhole and close it permanently. Thus Barry, who has been receiving a huge amount of media attention due to the endeavour has secluded himself from his friends and family because this is what every superhero does when their close friends step on anything bigger then a drawing pin.

Let’s all be honest here, does anyone actually enjoy this trope in superhero fiction anymore? Did we ever? To my knowledge Spiderman tries to pull this shit on a regular basis and look where that’s got him, retcons up the wazoo, tons of dead family and friends and an instance where he made a deal with Satan. Yes that actually happened! Now the Blue Beetle, there was someone who could protect his loved ones. Speaking of which when are we getting Ted Kord in the DCTU?….ANSWER ME DAMMIT!!!

But back on the topic, Barry throughout pretty much all of this episode is being your a-typical grump who keeps rejecting his friends offer for help even though its left him completely alone in Star Labs and most likely unable to operate any of its equipment which has usually been instrumental in defeating….every bad guy if I remember correctly. Even when it hasn’t been some do-hickey of the day it was probably some science babble given to him via radio from Cisco or Caitlyn, at the end of the day what we’re left with is that Barry clearly needs his teams support. The problem is that in order to convey that sentiment, the script states it through the filter of the aforementioned really tired superhero trope of “I must protect my loved ones by not letting them help me”. If they really wanted to put a new spin on this trope, throughout the episode we should have seen Barry gradually make the decision by himself to go solo and then right before the finale his friends grab him by the shoulders and convince him to go the other way, it would have been a very gradual progression that felt natural…and then would have subverted the trope entirely by having Barry see things from their point of view.

Having said that however, the rest of this episode is SOLID. The best kind of enjoyable in my opinion. You can really tell the effort that went into it from an acting standpoint. Despite the tired old trope that was utilised all throughout the episode (other tired tropes include starting with a dream sequence that includes everyone whose “died”, because lets face they ARE coming back) everyone was on top form for the start of Season 2. ESPECIALLY John Wesley Shipp, Jesse L. Martin and Danielle Panabaker. We also get some great cameos from Rick Cosnett, Tom Cavanagh and Robbie Amell, tons of great chemistry between Carlos Valdes and Victor Garber, who is fast becoming one of my favourite characters and to everyone’s surprise I’m sure, a really great turn by Adam Copeland as Atom Smasher who brings a tremendous physical talent to the role as well as being intimidating and able to make the word “Zoom” sound really foreboding. I really hope we see him in other things or just straight bring him back as Atom Smasher, he’d be a great recurring villain.

We also get some lovely starting points for the Season Requisite story threads that will develop over the coming few episodes. Zoom is name dropped, a very prominent Flash villain in the comics, we also see that the Particle Accelerator may not be the sole reason for all the meta-human activity, Atom Smasher reveals that it was Zoom who turned him into a meta-human. How you ask? Well you’ll have to keep watching won’t you. BUT the best reveal comes in the form of JAY FUCKING GARRICK!!! The Flash of Earth 2 made his debut in this episode and as cool as that is…it was actually really underwhelming. Ok that’s actually mean, I’m really freaking happy that this show is introducing the alternate universe angle this Season because that’s always been one of the most enjoyable facets of Superhero Fiction, what rustled my jimmies about his introduction was that it’s just him walking onto the scene and stating who he is. I was really hoping he would have blitzed onto the show in a spinning cylinder of lightning and speed, in fact the show really looked like it was going that way.

The final scene is after Atom Smasher gets defeated and the band is back together all congratulating Barry on getting over himself and welcoming his friends back into the fold, as well as getting his Dad out of prison. But the point is that Cisco and Caitlin start stating that Star Labs now includes upgraded security systems that should keep anyone out who shouldn’t be there, that’s when the lights should have started flickering and we hear this really ominous noise, a noise that almost sounds like Barry when he’s running, that’s when a swirling pillar of lightning appears in the room that seems to be draining Star labs of its power, we all stare in confusion until BOOM a man clad in red leather, a tin hat with wings and boots is standing there, he looks up at the cast and announces,

“My name is Jay Garrick and your world is in danger”

God…DAMN that would’ve been awesome. But alas we can’t have everything, if that were possible I’d be living on the moon in a bunker made of solid platinum being served an endless supply of milkshake by my staff of monkey butlers. Was there a point to that? Maybe, I don’t know, it’s very late. But the point I’m making is that even though it wasn’t as great an entrance as I wanted, it’s still great to have Jay introduced here. I seriously can’t wait for more Speedsters to start being introduced (Bring on Jesse Quick!) I’d also be stupid to not mention that we get two genuinely touching scenes in this episode, both towards the end that left me with a very big smile on my face, I won’t spoil those ones for you though, but trust me when I say that both are very well written and bring a good balance of light-hardheartedness and relief to that particular plot thread.

So in summation, whilst this episode gets dragged down by a tired and very overly played out trope, what really holds it together is the performance by the cast, a great villain to start off with and some killer reveals for the series to move forward to.

So anyway… FORWARD!!!!

A few months back, Unknown Artifacts began popping up in various systems throughout the galaxy of Elite:Dangerous.  Some transmitted in morse code, others just seemed to sit there. The collective player base scratched their heads and set out to find out what, exactly, these artifacts were all about. The forum thread detailing commander’s efforts to decipher these artifacts is long, impressive and worth a read if you have some spare time.

To make a long story short however, it was revealed that while some were in fact morse code scans of nearby objects others retained there secrets. Until recently when a player by the name of Mike Juliett Kilo fed a pre-recorded unknown artefact signal into a scanner in his cargo and got back the following image:

To those not in the know, this is a wireframe depiction of the Vulture spacecraft, the ship which Kilo happened to be flying at the time. As he said to the official Elite Community site at the time: “I was prepared to see an alien face or Thargoid warship. I certainly didn’t expect to see a Vulture, especially as I was flying one at the time! It sent shivers down my spine.”

Thargoids are the alien race that has featured in some previous Elite games, notable for being insectoid and thouroughly in love with blowing things up.

Frontier, of course has remained coy on the entire matter, stating that the artifacts are only the beginning. Of what, we don’t know.

As Hearthstone grows and new cards get added to the mix, new deck strategies are formed and cards that at one time weren’t terribly overpowered become so and need a tweak. Now it’s the turn of Warrior favourite the Warsong Commander.

For those unfamiliar with the card it’s a Warrior-exclusive 3 mana cost Minion with 2 attack power, 3 health and a card effect that gives Charge to every minion with 3 or less attack that is summoned as long as Warsong Commander remains on the field. It’s quite a good one for a Warrior deck that relies on smaller creatures, but with the introduction of the Grim Patron it became part of a combination that could do 30 points of direct damage far too fast to be countered.

A Grim Patron is a minion that has only 3 attack, thus benefitting from Warsong Commander’s effect. Whenever the Grim Patron takes damage that it survives, it will summon ANOTHER Grim Patron to the field. Which will also gain Charge, and so on. When combined with another Warrior-exclusive card, the Frothing Berserker who gains +1 attack everytime a minion takes damage but starts at just 2 and also gains Charge from that… well it all gets ridiculous quite quickly frankly.

Because of this Blizzard have changed the Warsong Commander’s text to now read “Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.” which completely breaks the combination down. You can still use your Grim Patrons to power a Berserker, but not to such ridiculously high levels.

On the matter Blizzard community manager Zeriyah said:

“Going forward, we will continue to stand by our stance that we will only make adjustments to cards when we feel it is completely necessary and allow the injection of new cards into the game help our players define what the meta evolves into. In the case of Warsong Commander, we felt this change was necessary to help expand both future design space and to stand by our overarching game philosophy that battles between minions and fighting for board control is what makes Hearthstone fun and compelling.”

This is quite a substantial change, and honestly while I can see why the change was made, it really is QUITE the nerf. It eliminates a deck type for certain and while Warsong Commander might once again find its place within certain styles of Warrior decks, it might take a while to start seeing them a lot again – similarly to what happened with Starving Buzzard last year.

The patch to apply the nerf will release next week.

If you are a fan of the good old 2D side-scrolling hack and slash arcade games, this game is definitely for you. Zombie Vikings is a quirky and visually stunning multiplayer game that will have you hooked with the story right from the beginning.

The storyline for Zombie Vikings is based on the gods from Norse mythology. The story begins with Loki stealing Odin’s good eye which contains magical powers. In order for Odin to retrieve his eye he raises four Vikings from their graves and sends them after Loki. It seems like quite a basic storyline but with other characters added in throughout the levels and also a twist to the plot you won’t want to put your controller down.

The voice acting for the game is really well done as the voices truly match the characters adding to the humour of the game. The music for the game is very quirky and upbeat and really fits the style of the game. My personal favourite piece is when you pause the game – lounge style music plays while someone starts singing the word “pause” to you. Such a nice tough to the game, although it did make me want to keep it on pause for a while.

The gameplay can get quite repetitive, however side missions and boss battles help to break this up. When you complete the side missions in the game you receive new weapons, however if you are playing multiplayer you will need to fight to the death to receive it for free,  otherwise you will need to use in game coins to buy the weapon. Although the game can be played with one player it is more fun and easier when you play it as a multiplayer game. There are also parts in the game where the players can use a move called zombosis that joins the characters together creating a giant more powerful zombie which all players control. There are certain levels in the game where you need to have someone playing as a specific character as it is about their backstory. This can be a bit annoying if you are playing by yourself and have gotten used to a different character however, if you are playing the game with four people this isn’t much of an issue.

There were a few issues with the game when it was first released as there were some frame rate issues and quite a few glitches; one for myself being I got stuck in a wall. However the team at Zoink games were quick to fix the issues by releasing updates. Let’s remember it is easy to review a game but not so easy to make one and occasionally mistakes can happen so don’t let these sorts of things put you off playing games!

Overall the game had me hooked with the humour and storyline. I also adore the artwork.

So ima give this game  7.5/10

Check out the trailer: