Tracer stirred up some emotions // rip Carrie Fisher

While i was writing this post i read that Carrie Fisher died from what it looks like right now complications as result of a earlier hearth attack, So let me pay my respects to the first lady of Star Wars. While i have no personal connection to Carrie Fisher, her work both as an actor and outside have been a inspiration to me and many others. She will be missed but it is in a way fitting that she ended her career working on the same franchise that catapulted her in to the spotlight and in the long run gave her a platform (and that maybe in it´s own way claimed her life in the end) Rest In Peace. 

Now back to your regular scheduled programming

I held off on making this post because i wanted to get a better image of any impact it might have. You see in it´s latest free comic for Overwatch Blizzard presented us with Tracers girlfriend. This in it self should not raise many eyebrows, after all characters are presented as having partner all the time in the entertainment medium. But you see, Tracer is ofc a girl. So this is political in many ways. Not only is it a pretty much unseen example of representation, a character that is not only well established and given a rich backstory but that is also the face of the brand. Tracer is the de facto poster girl for Overwatch, having been not only in the initial marketing material but also on the standard box art. Now i am a very cynical human being that honestly do not trust humanity at large to handle anything more dangerous then a sponge without trying to hurt them self or someone else. So i walked in to the Blizzards and other forums expecting to see a full and utter shitstorm... And to my delight and surprise i found very little of that (if one does a signal/noise analysis) sure you had some trolls trying to fan the flames and some people who seemed outright sad. But for the most of it people where either indifferent or positive. Most felt that the introduction by the way of a comic with family as the theme was fitting and not forced. Many like me also felt that the act it self carry a lot of weight but that it does not really change the character. Tracer is still Tracer. 

So Blizzard have issued a challenge of sort, proving that you can make someones sexuality a non-issue even if it breaks the typical mold. Tracer is not defined by her sexuality, she is defined by her personality (and that she is sort of unglued from time... As one tends to be. ). Who she dates is at the same time not important but also very important from the perspective of representation. Because the more exposure something gets, the more "normal" it becomes. This is an aspect i feel some people miss when they say thing like "we do not need the Pride movement" or "why can´t we just keep things like that in our homes." 

Rocking the boat is always going to create people who want to get back to status quo. Even if they are part of the community doing the rocking. But if nobody ever rock the boat, people in general will never know they are actually on the boat. 

So thank you Blizzard for doing this and... well... Cheers luv, the cavalry is here. 

So 2016... People seem to be upset with you.

This year the tune in my social feed pretty much went like this "Hey 2016.. Why did you do X" with the implication that it has been a shit year. This i think says more about my age than it does anything else. You see the way i look at it is that my generation have been getting its first real taste of A: mortality and B: reality.

You see everything is cyclic, and much like the sweet summers children that we are we have been riding one such cycle that we now see coming to a close. All the "greats" are dying and the world is hitting "the shitter". Only that if we compare this to many other years in western society's long and storied past, 2016 have been a fairly good year. But that is of course  besides the point, after all compared to the black plague this year have been one of blissful bathing in milk and honey.

But the sheer naked fear that have been the reaction to the world (and by world i am talking about the US and north + central Europe... you know.. the world) changing. That is what has sort of taken me aback. Now i saw my fair share of bullying back in school and i am no real stranger to people being irrationally cruel or spiteful. But Jesus fucking Christ in a playpen.... The unstable nutjobs that usually occupy the sort of fringe where people have relatives who in the 50´s moved from Germany to Argentina or enjoy dressing up in white sheets and pointy hats, these people have not moved in to center stage and they look like a mix between a smug Garfield and Jimmy Cricket after a week on acid... Worst of course is that they infect the general population with their own brand of paranoia. This in turn makes things look a lot more shit than it really is. This in turn leads to things like the Swedish Democrats or Trump in politics and violence in the society.

Personally i used to give these fringe elements and the people they inspire a bit of slack, understanding that for many it is just a matter of society changing to fast for them... And in all honesty most people do not have the flexibility to constantly re-evaluate their morals and values. But i have had fucking enough. 2017 will be a year of me leveraging all my education, ability to do research and.. well... intelligence to grind people like that in to paste. I´l take every last shred of foul play and suppression techniques i know to run them in to the ground. They have had about 5 years to get their shit in order and if they refuse to do that... Why should i be the nice and polite one trying to cushion their emotional fallout as i deconstruct their arguments.

Not so much any more. I have spent 5+ years at a university learning how to look at the world from outside my little box, i do not demand that you do that.... But using Google and some common sense is not to much to ask.

Anyway... Next week we will be looking at my top picks from the entertainment media for 2016.

cheers

Random rants and musings

So the year is coming to a close and while i am not going to post my retrospect yet, saving that for the holiday. But i am starting to feel like this year has worn out its welcome. Not only have it been a utter shit show in the politics... domestic as well as abroad (thanks USA) but it has also been a fairly hit and miss in the cinemas and on TV. At least the gaming scene have had some good offers. More than a few "better than expected". But i´l get back to that later in the month. 

Now the thing that have made the most impact in my consumption of entertainment media came about this black Friday, i finally upgraded my computer... Or more correctly.. Replaced seeing as most components were 6+ years old, Any way this new machine is a monster compared to the old machine and for all intents does the job it need to do. It is sort of VR ready and play almost anything i need it to play without missing a single pace. Sure it will not do 4K anytime soon but i have no real need to go there at this point. But i can say this, it is pretty funny to see how much better one does when one does not have to fight the computer and the framerate. Overwatch is a dream right now and PvP in the Crew finally works.

I had a theory before in regards to PvP in the Crew. I did not notice it until Wild Run brought in the Summit PvP. In that everyone get the same car at the same level with the same parts. In short.. it is all about the driving (in theory) but i kept falling behind in every race. Not skipping or rubber-banding, just going slowly. I had my suspicions about why but now it is confirmed. I´l actually start recording some nice PvP action to show of my not so stellar driving skills.

Beyond that i have just had a blast going back through the old library and see what this new rig does to the games i have. Also making plans to pick up a few new ones like Watchdogs 2 and Titanfall 2. But for now i am just enjoying buttery smooth gameplay.

Anyway... That will be it i think. Apart from the upcoming quick look at Rogue One  sometime after Christmas i have no solid plans on content right now. Will do a top ten and retrospect around new years and sort of looking forward. 

As always, be kind and stay safe. 

/T

It felt fittingly random. Hetty for president. 

Some small changes

Going forward updates will happen Tuesdays due to real life getting in the way... And with that PSA.. On to the news... or well.... you know.



So while there have been a lot of news for games that i play and enjoy, i feel i need a bit more time to digest and reflect on these news.

One thing i do not need to reflect over is the news of a new Mechwarrior game, now i have been playing MechWarrior Online for a good long time and i am eagerly awaiting the strategy-ish game from HBS. But my first and most enduring encounter with the Battletech universe was Mechwarrior 2 back in ye olden days. Since then i have played most of the iterations of the Mechwarrior franchise, only missing out on some expansions here and there... Also Mechassault... Missed out on that... not very sad.

But now comes a brand new single player story driven MW game. But to add frosting to my delicious mech cake, it is Piranha Studios that are developing it, the same people who brought about MW:O. So MW5 will be sharing models with  MW:O, and this is good because no matter what one feel about how MW:O plays. They have done a great job turning the often fuggly line art of the old tabletop rulebooks in the awesome 3D models.

Anyway.. if you at this point is feeling a bit confused as to what i am talking about... Have a teaser trailer.

Updates as they will happen in the coming years.

Misplaced stories and what to do with them. (Fantastic Beasts spoilers)

First off…

Spoilers ahead…

You have been warned…

So in my Fantastic beasts review I mentioned that there were some minor scenes that felt out of place… .. . These where any scene that contained the unmasked Gellert Grindelwald aka Graves. They literally bookend the story and have no impact at all. This is very much a done story being shoehorned in to a multi movie narrative. Now before someone says to them self “that filthy muggler has no clue of how important Grindelwald is to the story” This is partially true, it has been close to 10 years since I read the last in the core series and have not really revisited them since. Sure I did watch all the movies but they never stuck. So in many ways I had but the vaguest grasp of Grindelwald going in to this movie, add to that my active avoidance of spoilers and previews. I was as close to a blank state as I have ever been going in to a franchise movie. (compare with my encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel and DC lore that have me going in to any such movie with more knowledge than I care to think about.) So I did not really care about the opening scene and once the end scene comes rolling around it was more of a… dafuk… But I am aware of the importance of Grindelwald, I was just expecting them to push that in to the next movie.

And this is where my main gripe comes in, I think the people making the movie had the same idea until some focus group came in and had their say. The scenes with Grindelwald are sloppy and pointless. They serve no purpose at all in my mind and while I get that people new to the franchise need some anchoring for this character seeing how it is obscure to say the least, and that trying to launch an entire movie series built on him would be risky. They did not have to be so bleeding lazy about it.

I still love the movie that sits between these bookends and I think that a movie about Grindelwald will be interesting especially if they perhaps play up the by fans suggested romance between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Mostly because it would explain a few things about ol´ Albus. It just pokes me the wrong way that this was the way we got introduced to the character.

It was also fun to see Ezra Miller seeing how he is the new Flash, trying to fill the place that Grant Gustin have in my heart… 

Fantastic beasts: A spoiler free review

First off, sorry about the lateness of this post but i simply fell asleep before i could write it up. It is also good to digest a movie a bit before writing about it in my mind. 

Fantastic beasts and where to find them, for the people unfamiliar is the latest movie in the Harry Potter universe. It is a prequel of sorts and is set during the roaring 20´s. As the title suggest it is about the the author of the in universe book "Fantastic beasts and where to find them". This book has been presented as a end all be all source of best knowledge. I am going to leave the story of the movie at that and simply say that it is a very good story. 

Now the movie it self is well crafted, if one discount a handful of scenes, but these does not really impact the movie so that is something i am willing to overlook. Both the female and male lead are likeable and especially Redmayne have that perfect adrokable vibe. But as good as they are they are almost upstaged by the supporting cast, human and beast alike. It is also nice to see the movie break a few tropes that plagues most average blockbusters. 

Now no movie is flawless, and in the case of this movie, outside of those errant scenes most problems in this movie have to do with how the action scenes are cut, they are messy and the use of a first person view in some of them really does not work. Add a rather lackluster use of 3D and you have what sometimes feel almost Michael Bay-ish. I´l go in more detail about my thoughts regarding what worked and not in my spoiler review. 

To sum things up i think Fantastic beasts and where to find them is a great movie and i felt my money was welt spent. But it does touch on some subjects that will leave people who have just read the books or even more just seen the other movies a tad bit confused. Go watch Fantastic beasts and where to find them, you will not be disappointed. 

/T

Trailers... Trailers everywhere.

So... 

This weekend-ish i caught two new trailers, both live action remakes of animated movies and both really good. First was the Ghost in the shell trailer. As someone who have not really read the manga, just watched the animated movie and the series. That trailer is looking really good and it seems to be doing a good job in capturing the feel and look of the source material. There have been accusations of white washing and i am sure they are not uncalled for. But there have been some fairly angry voices raised against the casting of Scarlett Johansson as major Motoko. 

Pisswash... That is what i say about that. Sure the character have a Japanese name but her design have always been "race" agnostic in that way that many anime and manga characters are. In fact i´d say the casting is eerily close to the source material. 

There seem to be a tad bit less nudity than in the original anime, but to be fair that was a smart choice as it did not really fill any real purpose beyond "boobies"... Well the in-universe logic was solid, but while you might need to be naked for the optic camo to work.. there is no need to create a universe where you need to be naked for optic camo to work. Especially when the same universe have  full body prosthetic. 

Now in way this is Ghost in the shell coming full circle, at least in Swden as there at one point was plans for the animated Ghost in the shell to go up on the silver screen. That never came to be, and here we are. 

Anyway.. go look up the trailer and if you have the time give the original animated movie a look.  

Next up is the answer to the question, what will Disney do when they run out of formats to re-release their movies on. Live action remakes seems to be the next thing. With Maleficent, Cinderella and the Jungle Book doing a more or less good job of masking this idea... Beauty and the Beast looks to be a more or less scene by scene recreation with some minor alterations to (i would assume) get away from some of the worst legacy sins of the original one. After all once one peeled back even the thinnest of layers in that movie, shit got dark.. quick. All in all things look good from the trailer and while i think the animated Beast look about... 10 times better, he ofc did not have to contend with reality in any shape. For what it is a like it. Will be interesting to see what they do (if anything) to adress the shortcomings of the old movie. After all you only need some very small tona shifts to have huge impact in that movie, Toss in some extra lines of dialogue and you might create a entirely new story.  Will also be interesting to see Emma Watson break away from her previous character of a witty and strong book-smart girl that sets her own path.... Yeah... Never mind. 

Still again watch the trailer for the nostalgia kick if nothing else. Just avoid the commentary field... It is... sad. 

Until next time, be safe and play fair. 

/T

Blizzcon 2016 my take

                          

So Blizzcon have come and gone. This was as expected a sort of off-year with no really big reveals on the horizon. I would assume that people who care by now have digested the recaps and info dumps sp i am not going to go through it all. I will mainly focus on WoW and Overwatch as these are the Blizzard games that i currently play but i will touch on things i found interesting for other games and beyond. 

Let me first touch upon what might have been the biggest reveal, Overwatch League, a bit like Premier league just way smaller and for a digital shooter game. So Blizzard just slapped a foot of prime meat on the table and asked the rest of the esports scene what they have done so far to advance the.., well.. sport. In short it is a organized league that if it actually reaches what it set out to do will have proper teams and formal contracts, making it look more legit. In reality it will not be much different from how it is today but appearance as we know is key. If people feel a connection to the event they will be more invested, and Blizzards idea to have local teams tied to towns and regions  (not only on a national level) fits very nice in to this. After all i´d love to see the Gothenburg Guthooks take on Kiruna Pickaxes for a spot in the regionals. Time will tell what this will pan out in too and how many teams it can support. But the idea i feel is really fresh and interesting. 

So beyond that Overwatch saw mostly tweaks and QoL stuff beyond the new hero Sombra. Now i had the chance to play as and against Sombra on the PTR today and i think she will be very fun and Tracer levels of irritating in the right hands. But she also seems to have a very high skill bar, being both squishy and fairly low on damage DPS hero. Her strengths ofc lies in  her ability to control the field of battle. Also i like to see that Blizzard continue it´s new path of making female heroes that look badass and kick arse without needing to dip in to the "battle dental floss" outfit category. She will most likely see some serious rounds of nerfing and buffing in the coming weeks. Personally i was more happy to see Torbjörns scrap resource now having a slow auto generation to accompany the usual kill drop way, that way one does not have to suicide dive in to the enemy team to get some packs made. 

I also love and adore the new hero "limit" in quick play. Only one version of each hero per side stops the *insert very foul words here* cheesing that is a two Torbjörn and two Bastion with a tank and a healer point capture or any of the other insane troll builds. I was for a very long time a strong opponent to the limit and had a live and let live attitude. But at this point i have had enough with humanity and its so called right to free will. It will be a joy to play once this patch drops live. 

But no big expansions planned for Overwatch.. Or any other game in reality. 

As for WoW, well we will be taking the fight to the *more bad words* Eredar in their own back yard and trust me you that i will be very happy about that. Because i am so sick of the burning legion that i will even put up with Illidan to get the job done I wish we will get to shot them up once and for all. This would also set up for a new and final expansion next where we shut the door on the last remnants of old gods and titans. A worthy end to the story so to speak. I also like the idea of class mounts. 

Beyond that not much to report, this Blizzcon was mostly a retrospect on Legion. 

Now it was a bit sad to not have Chris Metzen there as he retired before the con, but all in all the quality was as high as it used to be and it was nice to see that games like Overwatch  have gained some real traction now. 

Not sure it is a good idea to teach a AI to play StarCraft... Once it get a taste of the sort of smack talk that accompanies competitive games have it will be ready to go SkyNet on us... But at least it will have a brilliant comeback to the claim that it is botting =P 

But looking forward there are a ton of fun things to enjoy if you like Blizzard games. 

Stranger days. A Dr Strange review. (spoilers...)

Smolder smolder smolder

So i spent last night watching the latest offering Doctor Strange, based on the comic character by the same name,and right of the bat Marvel wastes no time reminding us that they have a interconnected cinematic universe as the logo now sports more movie clips than comic pages. 

But i get ahead of my self, in case you are not familiar with Dr Stephen Strange, he starts out as the less charming Tony Stark, both in this movie but also in his comic. A superstar surgeon with a ego that make Dr House look humble and a nurturing a budding god complex as he fancies him self one who holds life and death in his hands, and only the ones with a case big or difficult enough (but with a safe margin for success)get his care. It goes without saying that Dr Strange treats anyone not him self as shit. 

But fate, as it usually does in origins stories... Has other plans and send dear Stephen on a one way trip off a cliff and in to the caring arms of irony. The car accident destroys his hands 

Now with his entire life literary shattered and with no one really to blame but him self he reacts very human and lashes out at everyone. He spends his wealth on experimental surgery and consultations. But to no avail. He then hears about a mystic called the ancient one. Taking a desperate last stab Stephen seeks out this mystic. The rest is as they say history, Strange learns that there is a much bigger world beyond his science and in time ends up as the Sorcerer Supreme, the guardian of all magic.  

The movie follows this story to a beat, it is one of the most faithful translations Marvel Studios have done, Keeping strides with Captain  America. In the movie the car is a Italian supercar and it is hinted that if he was not such a huge arsehole people might have gone looking for him sooner and thus saved his hands, but beyond that the transition from surgeon Dr Strange to mystic Dr Strange follows the comics without any deviation. 

Now in the movie Strange have to find a group of mystics after learning of a man who regained the use of his destroyed spine after having studied with the Ancient one, After getting the acid trip of his life by the way of mind magic, giving a entirely new meaning to the phrase "tripping balls". Strange is unceremoniously tossed out on the street again having been deemed to vain and arrogant to handle the power the Ancient one could teach. 

This ties back in to the opening of the movie where a very angry and former student of the Ancient one Mads Mikkelsen compartmentalize the librarian of the mystic order and then steals "insert object of DOOM... (not that Doom)" and sets out to enable the overtaking of the world. Strange it would seem reminds the Ancient one of this failed pupil. 

At this point it should be obvious that the movie is not exactly breaking new ground, but it is ok, it would feel very out of place and the last time we really had a Superhero movie trying to break new ground we got Ang Lee´s Hulk movie... Not a fan. 

So the story from here on is pretty textbook, Strange get accepted, trains and fails only to triumph at the critical moment. what saves the movie is the excellent acting and comedic timing. It is a funny movie that delivers on the action and Benedict Cumberbatch get to channel some of the same sides he showed in Sherlock. 

The supporting cast is as good, starting with Mads character who manages to do surprisingly much with a script that is just a hair longer than the one for Boba Fett. He is more a catalyst for future events than an actual villain, a problem many of Marvels movie villains have had. But he is just the right amount of smug zealot that you feel very good when he gets his comeuppances. 

Tilda Swinton as the Ancient one did cause some commotion for all about... five seconds... Some allegations of whitewashing was leveled...   But seeing that this is what the Ancient one used to look like. Switching the gender and nationality was not that big of an issue, dude was not very Asian to begin with. Swinton does a really good job of playing this odd and peculiar mystic who defends the reality as it is.  

Mordo also plays a big role in this and while he is set up as the counterbalance for Strange it is not too hard to see what path he will take, and by the end of the movie he has gone full on magic fascist. But i like how they portray him and his motivations does make sense.  

Last but not least i have to mention Wong... Played by Benedict Wong... (i just fond that a little funny.) In the original portrayed as Strange´s manservant in a very stereotypical outfit. Here he is the ever important wall whom Strange can bounce jokes off. He also serves as the head librarian after the old one lost his.. well... head. 

The big-ish bad  is Dormammu and while he got a Galactus/Phalanx treatment and just becomes mostly a big head... It could have been way worse. He is the lord of a place called the dark dimention that lies outside of time and he wants to take over the world... How he is defeated i will not reveal here... But it is simply awesome. The second big thing is of course the time gem hidden inside of a relic that Strange picks up along the way. It serves a very important plot point and will be very important in the next Avenger movie. 

Verdict: I really enjoyed this movie and for what it is worth i would rank it on the same level as GotG, it is a fun and wild popcorn movie that have some really insane special effects but is a tiny bit hampered by the very classic narrative used. I say that you should go and see it while it is in theaters as it will lose some of its visual impact once it is on TV´s and monitors (unless you have a Gear.. then i would thing it is smart thing to wait. =P)

Also there is a brilliant end credit scene with Thor and a stein of beer. It also hints at the probability of Hemsworth, Hiddelston and Cumberbatch in the same scene... How they will contain that... who knows.

Nintendo Switch, nice bait.

So the new Nintendo Switch looks like a really nice slab of consumer electronics. But as usual i am very cautious about what it actually can deliver, you see i get annoyed at the battery life of my iPhone and i feel that the weight of my old iPad was a bit to high to casually lug around. The Switch looks like it could clock in at the same, if not more. And while i would enjoy being able to play more substantial games, as opposed to most mobile games... bless their souls. I am still not sure the ups outweighs the downs.

Among the rumors we have a 3 hour mobile battery life, that is a problem, but even 5 or even 6 hours would be on the short side. I have also seen a few people complaining about the lackluster backwards compatibility. This does not bother me because my last Nintendo console was a Super Nintendo. But i can see how some people would find it irritating. Also i look forward to the wear and tear of the docking station and the unavoidable day when your Switch switches to carry along only due to a dead base station. I also predict a lot of glitchy controllers and shit simply dying.

Now i also hope that nintendo have a stronger lineup of games than the WiiU... I am seriously down for a new Mario Kart (and the new Zelda game looks really cool) but that has never and will never be enough to sell me a new console.

All in all time will tell and i will remain cautiously optimistic at this point, it looks fun and whimsical... And that is all yuo can hope for with Nintendo these days.

Sorry...

Today's post got lost in the time stream and will materialize tomorrow.


But i am sure you do not mind.

Happy halloween Terror.. Overwatch halloween event

So my favorite non-diplomatic solution to inter-personal conslicts OverWatch just got its first proper seasonal event. It is a spooky tale of a mad scientist and his abominabel creation. This event brings more themed costumes and other in-game goodies. But it also give us a taste of some proper PvE gameplay as we are presented with a horde mode. Now i would love to tell you how it works but so far the cue is infinite and the gameplay is scarce. I´l have to get back with more info at a later date.

Now the skins are a good mix of new models and re-colored regular skins. But unlike the previous summer games event you can actually buy these with in-game gold (for now it seems) making the grind a little less painful. And there are some wicked skins.  I´l show them off below. But for now this seem to be a massive step up from the summer games and unless the brawl is a down right bust it will be setting a nice bar for the coming seasonal events to follow.








Skin spoilers incoming













Ana - Ghoul (re-color)

Bastion - Tombstone (re-color)

Hanzo - Demon (re-color)

Junkrat - Dr Junkenstein (new model)

Mercy - Witch (new model)

Pharah - Possesed (re-color)

Reaper - Pumpkin (new model)

Reinhardt - Coldheardt (re-color)

Roadhog - the Monster (new model)

Soldier 76 - Immortal (re-color)

Symetra - Vampire (re-color)

Zenyatta - Skullyatta (re-color)

Enjoy and take care.

Of birds and battlemechs.

So i said i was going to give a more in depth review on miss Peregrines home for peculiar children today once i had become more familiar with the source material and had the movie sink in a bit. Turns out it was a fairly good and honest book to movie adaptation. As a non-fan of the books there is nothing i can complain about or even feel is worth pointing out. My recommendation still stands. Go see it, if not for some light and harmless entertainment. 

So that left me with a feeling of... What the heck to write about now.... .. . So after downing  a can of that peculiar brand of battery acid called Monster i was sugared up enough to see in to a new plane of existence. This did shit for coming up with new ideas but at least i felt productive. 

So i am going to take the time to talk about one of my current favorite shows on youtube. Seeing how that now have replaced my viewing of the TV. Anyway, the show is called Death from Above and it is produced by Hyper RPG. It is a RPG/Tabletop show based on the Battletech strategy miniature game. The same game that spawned the MechWarrior/Mechcommander series of computer games. 

The setup is simple, There is a classic storytelling/free form-ish RPG session  followed by a rpg/tabletop strategy session. In it we can follow a mercenary crew as they try to navigate the treacherous politics of 3025... in a backwater part of the galaxy nobody really cares about. Sarna.net have a good write up on the history and lore of the Battletech universe but in short it is a miniature wargame about walking tanks and the people who pilot them... This game was created back in the 

80´s and boy can you tell. 

Anyway the players in the show control both their character and the mech they pilot while the GM controls the rest apart from the "villain of the week" who is a guest star. Another thing to note is that this show is viewer founded and as a incitement viewers can buy different advantages or disadvantages that opens up for all matter of chaos. It also have perma-death,  so if one of the intrepid
"heroes" bits the bullet. They are gone form the show. 

Again not going to spoil the story (and i recommend avoiding the comments section if you are spoiler sensitive.) but i feel safe in saying that it is a a really nice story with some good twists and hearth warming amount of.. well.. hearth in it. =)

So go watch Death from above on Hyper RPG @ twitch and youtube

Until next time. Be safe.

Giveaway time. Star Trek Online PS4 faction packs

If you like to get your hand on one of the following packs just find me on twitter(@Tawessthemee) and retweet the announcement of the giveaway. Three lucky people will get a pack. If you want a specific one, mention that. =)


Starfleet Pack (Federation)
Delta Flyer and Pet!
NX-class Explorer
Rhode Island-class Science Vessel
Excelsior-class Cruiser
Sao Paulo-class Escort
Valiant-class Escort
Jupiter Uniform
7 of 9 Uniform
Liberated Borg Human Bridge Officer
Sehlet Cub Pet
Unique Character Titles


Legacy Pack (Romulan)
Scorpion Fighter and Pet!
T'varo-class Light Warbird
Dhael-class Warbird
Valdore-class Warbird
D'ridthau-class Warbird
Malem-class Light Warbird
TOS Uniforms
Nemesis Uniforms
Liberated Borg Reman Bridge Officer
Sehlet Cub Pet
Unique Character Titles


Empire Pack (KDF)
To'Duj Fighter and Pet!
B'rolth-class Bird of Prey
Qaw'Dun-class Bird of Prey
Koro't'inga-class Battlecruiser
Puyjaq-class Raptor
Negh'Tev-class Battlecruiser
Academy Uniforms
Mercenary Costumes
Liberated Borg Klingon Bridge Officer
Sehlet Cub Pet
Unique Character Titles

Extra delivery: Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children (non-spoiler review)

I watch Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children this very evening and walking in blind so to speak, being entirely unfamiliar with the source material I was partially bracing my self mentally. After all I sat through City of Bones and came out feeling like I had just gargled a kitten soaked in absinth... I was very confused. 

Good news... Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children is a coherent story that is fairly easy to follow and hit all the needed notes. I would even say that it is enjoyable as long as one can disengage the brain enough. 

I am not going to go in to the story at all because it is pretty much impossible to do so without spoiling things. But I have seen in being compared to the X-Men franchise and that is not a bad place to start. But it is still a coming of age story leaning on the classic heroes journey. So don´t expect a earth shattering experience with twists so sudden that you fall off your chair. Instead prepare for a fairly innocent and adorable young adult fantasy story with clear sides and distinct characters. Also the actors are well cast and do a very nice job, again nothing that will win a Oscar but still a solid performance. 

I will do a more in dept review come Monday (I need to look in to the source material among other things) but my initial thoughts are that you should go see it for a nice wind down from the summer blockbusters and enjoy something a bit more quiet before Marvel injects you with some digital LSD by the way of Benedict Cumberbatch.

A good movie and for the genre one of the best we have seen so far... Even if that in it self is not saying much.  

Be kind and stay safe. 

Calling all units on the Crew

So I was planning to talk about this earlier but my driving  game of choice is getting a expansion. Last time it was crazy car meets, this time it is centered around the blue lightning, the fuzz, the 5-0, the bear... Yeah.. The cops are getting some well needed reinforcement from the players. Take to the road as one of the boys and girls in blue, busting racerns and issuing fines like there is no tomorrow.  I am not going to rehash the info we have so far, just read up about it on the homepage for the Crew. 

I am sort of underwhelmed, it is not the expansion i was hoping for, not is it really one I feel the game needs, But then again in know it is a popular feature with many other players and it is fairly optional so I guess I will live with it. Also it give mes a chance to turn my Nissan Fairlady Z in to Prowl, expanding my lineup of Transformers inspired cars. 

With this expansion we will also get the Nissan GTR, the lovely computer on four wheels. That will make a bunch of people happy, but since it is a expansion exclusive car... it will make people angry. Ubisoft gives and Ubisoft takes away I guess. 

Beyond that i am waiting for the next Overwatch hero and looking towards Blizzcon. I think Blizzcon is the closest i get get to actually having a annual event that I watch. My Superbowl experience so to speak. Not as much that I feel I have to go to it but to sit down and watch it. This year is a odd one and i look forward to see what they will show off. 

Short post this week. 

But take care and be safe. 

So about that ARK DLC..

Wild Card, the studio behind famed  (and still in development) survival game ARK recently released the aptly named scorched earth expansion... Normally this would not be cause for any rising of eyebrows. 

But seeing how the core game is still not released, a paid expansion does sound a bit weird. Especially as this can look like using money people paid to develop the game to make something people need to pay for again. Creating a interesting double dip effect. Now i do not think it is quite as heinous as some very (very very very) vocal fans on the games steam page, but rather i feel it is a short term publicity suicide and a future thorn in the side of the games marketing. A really unfortunate move seeing as the game up to this point had done pretty much everything right... Or as right as one can when one is crowdfunded. Now this will be mostly forgotten in a few months but will also be one of these things that detractors will bring up every time they need something to bash the game over. 

Now this i just my own theory but i think they might have needed the fresh cash that this expansion might bring, and that this injection was worth losing some customers over. The game as a pretty fanatical core fan base and many will get this no matter what, So it will absolutely do good things for the company coffers. It will be interesting to see if this will be but a fart in space or something that will slowly erode the fans trust, the next couple of moves from Wild Card will be crucial and i hope they have a plan for this. Because if they did this unaware of what the backlash would be (seeing the name of the expansion i doubt that) they are in deep shit right now. 

Time will tell. 

I am going to round off with saying that i will miss Chris Metzen on the upcoming BlizzCon but that i do not feel that his retirement is not earned. Heck he created such wondrous worlds. 

So Chris, enjoy the good life with the family. 

Take care and be safe. 

Can´t spell SONY without a N and a O

So the latest thing people got angry over was... well... SONY being SONY. 

Last time... i promise.... 

The story goes thusly.... 

Sony nixed Fallout and 

Skyrim mods on the PS4. 

Something that makes fair sense going by the very rigid and monolithic nature of SONY. Heck it would cost them a lot i guess... for no return... Not a wise move if one is in the market for money. (what other reason is there). Now on one hand this does suck, especially if you are a console gamer. But on the other hand having your hopes and dreams being crushed should be fairly common ground. 

Now the fun part of this is ofc Microsoft gloating like there is no tomorrow, having been the small kid having his lunch money stolen, this egg on the face of the tormentor is a god sent. Not that the thrashing they will get for it won´t hurt. Nut short term satisfaction is worth it i guess. Rest assured MS will find a way to completely fuck this up too.

Now for me, as a outsider looking in i get equal amounts of entertainment and uneasy feelings from this. Especially as MS move their PC stuff closer to the consoles, not the other way around. The PC will always be a superior medium if you are willing to invest in it. But it will also always be more expensive and need more attention. But it is that complexity i like. That and the fact that i can do all the fun, work and... well... other stuff on it. 

But getting back to the whole no mods on PS4. This i guess will set the tone for the war going forward, on one hand MS that is willing to do pretty much anything for more customers and SONY trying to set them self up as a "elite" brand but in the process dicking over part of their customer base. 

Now the tie-breaker will be if Nintendo smoked the good or the bad weed.... Time will tell. 

Not really much to say about the situation... I fully understand why SONY did what they did, but i thin it was a bad move and will kost them short term. But i also guess they will save money on it long term because CSR are expensive, as is multi skilling. 

Now i am going to sleep because i have worked a 10 hour day today. 

Cheers and take care. 

So YouTube did a thing... again... Angry people ensued.

So…. We are at the point again where we need to talk internet…. I tell you to chill the fuck down but you refuse. I am not sure what to do with you…

This is how i view the internet, thank you South Park.

Now this time around it is a bunch of people getting angry over YouTube… And don´t get me wrong, there are plenty of things to get angry with over YouTube. But in this case it is mostly just a matter of piss poor communication. You see the lifeblood of YouTube is and will most likely always be ad revenue… Heck that is what keeps it free and fairly unregulated. Well it turns out that those people paying money to Google want to have a say in what type of content their product is the opening act to. YouTube have starting to remove the ability to earn money of videos that does not follow a set of vague and fairly puritanical rules.

This is nothing new, it is in fact about as old as marketing itself, after all you do not try to market Jack Daniels to five year olds and if you have positioned yourself as the beacon of family values, you are not going to want to see your ads running before a clip of a person cursing like a sailor while smoking something best left in the Shire and pounding back Absinth… No matter how often this person sings “let it go”. This is just a fact of life. The fact that YT did not give people a decent heads up is them being arseholes but that should not be news to people trying to make a living on YT. It is more or less a drinking game at this point what will be the next dick move.

So… Here is where things take a sharp left out in to cray-cray land. A bunch of firebrands started to call this censorship… Now keep in mind no videos have been removed (as part of this issue… Fair use and the insane claim system is a very different issue.) only the ability to make money should YT deem a video to be “bad”. Now one could say that it is a way to starve out the unwanted ones and only keep the loyal dogs fed but in reality YT have been staring all the dogs for years. Shortly thereafter came the usual idiosyncrasy about free speech… At that point I simply zoned out.

So who is this impacting in reality… Well most YT channels make little to no money from ad revenue anyway. Most big ones supplement the income with sponsors and donations. So having a few videos every now and then get flagged will not matter, no this will only really hit home with channels built on abuse and being shitty human beings. My sympathy for these people are less than zero.

Now it is sad to see that YT keep up this system of communication so poor it make the IKEA building instructions look clear as day… And it is really bad that they simply did not enforce their rules sooner, setting precedence for what was ok and that was not. After all if you stick your dick in a wall socket and nothing happens because the power was off, you might get the incorrect ideas that it is a harmless thing to do.

But toasty genitalia aside, I fail to see that people would be willing to actually pay to keep YT open, just look at the angry words that people tossed around regarding YT RED. So if we like to keep our free entertainment channel… well free. We will have to accept that the people who actually pay have some input, just like in the “real” world. 

Any way 

Stay safe and have a great week. 

What is next for Blizzard...

First an update on the potential giveaway… turned out anything worthwhile was used up or given away already. But I promise I will make it up at the next milestone of 10k views.

Now with that out of the way I am going to delve in to the topic of today.

For many years we have seen Blizzard go from strength to strength.  From the original RTS games through Diablo and WoW and now with the trio of Hearthstone, HotS and Overwatch. Especially Overwatch have been a really good game in my opinion. Sure it suffers from the same balance issues as any non-symmetrical PvP. But it is still fun and it hits that really sweet spot of rewarding but not over time-consuming.  

But as Buffy and the gang asked… Where do we go from here..? With the upcoming Blizzcon the question of what will Blizzard do next is a hot potato indeed, The Star Craft 2 saga have concluded and due to its weird position as a E-Sport I think Blizzard are reluctant to muck around too much with it or start a new chapter in the saga. Also where do you go next, keeping things fresh but still being true to what people know as Star Craft? As for the old dog on the porch… World of Warcraft is really on its last leg… We can all see the sunset and while it is pretty and I am sure we will see at least another expansion. It is still walking well threaded ground. Hearthstone and HotS do not really make for grand expansion and to Overwatch, being a PvP arena shooter the idea of a paid expansion is pretty much anathema… (take note EA and your insane reliance on splitting the BF player base over and over again) That leaves us with Diablo… And the internet have been abuzz with some theories that Blizzard will reveal a new Diablo this year. Now this is not a dumb idea and while I am not a big fan of the Diablo games I find them fun enough. There is also as noted above nothing else I can really see being the big ticket item for this year´s Blizzcon.

So what would I like to see from a new Diablo game… Well I would like to see them jump the timeline so to speak. Push things a generation or two forward. A returning evil after a time of peace (cliché I know) maybe a slightly more Elizabethan-ish design… Or why not go all fantasy steampunk. They have flirted with it before with the Warcraft games. Not too bothered with classes but for what it is worth i´d love to see an elemental gunslinger replace the classic mage… Even if the gun mage is becoming as strong of a thing as the staple I suggest it replace. Also I would really like to see a class that is based around a quarter staff… Much like the monk i´d like it to be agile and mobile. As for the rest I think they have it nailed down now for regular game, I have heard that running the ladder get a bit grindey after a while but it is a non-essential part of the games for me.

But time will tell and personally I am much more interested in seeing some more Overwatch stuff, not only for the current game but some spin-off titles exploring the rich but mostly hidden world surrounding the game. That is what would make my Blizzcon.. That and getting one of those swagbags for free… But I do not think that Blizzard would prioritize sending one of those to a blog that scrapes up less than 250 views a month. =P

Well… That will be it for now.

Be nice and play fair, and I will see you again next week.

T

Celebrating mediocrity... (5k views)

Arn´t they cute.. they are unrelated to today´s post.

So... I hit a sort of milestone. And since i am born in the eighties i always try to celebrate even the small things.

I hit 5k views... Yeah... in total.... Not in a day... or a month.... or even.. sad to say.. a year... No it took about two years.

But that is also way more than i actually thought i was going to get. Sure a part of those are crawlers and other types of trackers. But i am still proud because i kept at it and following through has never been my strongest point when left to my own devices without a concrete goal or deadline.

So i´l try to dig up some digital swag and giver it away later in the week. You know.. to celebrate. =P

So what now...? Not much, i´l keep on trucking and see if we can hit 10k in one year perhaps. Than 15k in six months... who knows.

I have also started to work on a little side project... The guys sitting the the top of the page. Who and what will come at a later date as that is around version 0.5.

So.. Thanks for the time and let us get another 5k views together.

Cheers.

Suicide Squad a review. Spoilers.

So what to say about the Suicide Squad.... 

It is a movie that have some serious problem, but none of them big enough to stop me from enjoying the movie. But first... The plot goes thusly.

Superman have pretty much triggered a new arms race as the world realized that not only where they not prepared for a metahuman (DC´s catch-all term for anything with superpowers) attack but they where woefully unequipped... These events where part of the BvS movie. 

Enter Amanda Waller (played to perfection by Viola Davis, at no point did you doubt that she could and would destroy you) and Task Force X lead by the biggest stick since Scott Summers... Rick Flagg(played by Joel Kinnaman). My guess is that Flagg had his pert in the movie reduced when Tom Hardy dropped out because he literally serve no purpose in the movie. Anyway... Flagg is the commanding "officer" of the task force consisting of the best of the worst. The idea is to send in a bunch of nano-explosive laced criminals to do black op´s missions. If they live and complete the objective they get time off their sentences. If they fail Waller just toss them under the buss and if they start to color outside of the lines... click click boom. Head comes off. Generally speaking at least one member of Suicide Squad tend to bite it when they are sent out. 

I leave it up to you to guess if this movie follow suite. 

So.... Enter the antagonist, A ancient metahuman that the government try to control, this goes about as good as expected. So once the big bad start to fuck up one of DC comics many made up cities Waller activate TF:X and Flagg, a bunch of no-name marines and the self titled Suicide Squad consisting of 

Deadshot (Will Smith, master marksman and single dad) 

Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, amphibian metahuman with heighten strength and durability)

El Diablo (Jay Hernandez, Pyrokenetic gangboss)

Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Angry.. really angry.. Throws boomerangs) 

Enchantress (Cara Delevingne, the host of a angry spirit that can do magic.. ish...)

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, Crazy as balls acrobat and psychologist)

Flagg also bring in Katana (Karen Fukuhara, Master swordsman with a magic sword) as his enforcer, not a all together bad idea seeing how these are not the most balanced people to begin with. Beyond this point the movie can pretty much be split in to two... One is a average summer action movie and the other is a fairly smartly written drama... neither get the time it needs to really shine. I guess it do not need to tell anyone that the big bad is beaten and everyone is happy... Oh well... Alive... Sort of... Also we have a Joker sub-plot that is fun but also really does not go anywhere.(I´l make a separate post about Jarred Letos Joker.. Lot to say there.)  This is very clearly a origins movie setting up this sub-franchise of the DC CU. 

Now what make the movie a worthwhile watch in my mind is the fact that it does a lot of "show not tell" as far as the characters and their motivations. The action part of the movie is rather useless, it does what it needs and for the most part it is well put together. But seeing how the movie manages to make you feel for the bad guys as wells as the antagonist... Not so much for the big bad... But it belongs to the action part of the movie. The smart use of the bigger DC universe is another, the movie fits in very well and actually makes me more interested in the upcoming movies. There is a genuin warmth in the movie and more than a few really funny moments. The timing and pacing is also nice and the extra credit scene is absolute gold. 

Now i have brought up before (several times.. I know) how much I like the Amanda Waller character and there is not enough praise I can give to Davis for how she make this character work (and álso David Ayer and John Ostrander for actually writing a good character) She has all the menace and stone cold attitude that i always felt that the Arrow version lacked. You get the feeling that she could make even Batman tighten up with a single look... Not to mention the poor generals and politicians she bulldoze in the movie.

It does suffer from traileritis... Much of the early movie have been spoiled by trailers and seeing how the later part holds no real twists worth mentioning... It was annoying, But the great soundtrack from the trailers carry over in to the film it self making up for some of it. 

So to cap it off... It is no Avengers but a much better film than the previous Superman films gave any indication of DC/WB being able to produce. A easy to digest summer popcorn film with a great cast and enough hearth to fill the empty void that BvS left. 

Box over box over Overwatch

So a bunch of people are angry at Blizzard.. again....

And i guess it is kind of justified this time. You see Blizzard have taken the whole Loot Box scheme they have to a new level. Usually you get "gold" that you can use to buy any stuff you do not win form the boxes.

But for the Olympics Blizzard have a new box, with some new skins, sprays, victory poses and stuff. You get these as usual when you level up but here is the kicker. The event is just three weeks long and then the box goes in to the vault until next summer (potentially) and seeing as there is one hundred-ish new items one could understand that people get antsy.

Especially as you can ofc also buy these boxes for the regular price.

Now as someone who have done the seasonal grinds in WoW... I´d gladly pay to be able to get around that. But now for kicker number two. remember how I mentioned that you can use gold to unlock stuff... Not this time... The seasonal items can only be won by the grace of RNGsus.

This last detail is what I guess pushed the most vocal people over the edge as these are generally the same people that invest the most money in the game and by that token have the most "gold" to spend. NOw all that gold have to sit pretty until the next hero is released.

This is of course a calculated move by Blizzard, had people been able to use the gold it would have made a deep cut in to the number of boxes bought. Cynical as it might seem, Blizzard is not anyone's pal... bro... BFF... They are in the habit of trying to make money. You do not make money by giving away all your stuff for free. It would be the morally right choice seeing as we paid full price for the game (but on the flip side... Artist have to eat too., =P )

Now full disclosure, i bought five boxes and i was lucky enough to get exactly what i was looking for. The Torbjörn "IKEA" (in reality called Tre Kronor) skin. So for me the minimal investment i have made compared to the amount of enjoyment i get from using that skin is not even measurable. But i can understand that some people spent a lot and did not get what they wanted and the lack of an option to buy it via the "gold" store just pile on to that frustration. It also i would guess hurts that a new player starting now  or a low level player will have a way easier time to get the new stuff as the XP needed to level up is a lot less before level 20 i think.

Any way, me personally i can not give a flying fuck about any feathers this have ruffled or any slippery slopes people say this is the start of. Sure it is cynical and very much a sign of the times but at the same time i get quality entertainment for pretty much peanuts.

If this is a deal breaker for you, by all means quit and hit up your bank for a charge back... Me i am going to play a short hairy man from Gothenburg dressed as if he feel asleep at a IKEA company Christmas party.

//Peace