Shmee.Me

November 30, 2016November 30, 2016

Telltale Batman Episode 4 Is The Episode You Have To Play To Get To Episode 5

It seems like all Telltale series have to have the ‘setup’ episode. All they do is serve to set up events so the ending can knock them down, and Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 4 is that episode. That is not to say there is nothing good in episode 4, there is, and I am very excited to see where all this setup leads, but it seems like it could have all been handled with a cutscene.

Though I will say their version of The Joker is very interesting, and the choices that you have to make in this episode are much less clear. Which was proved at the end when I got to compare my decisions to everyone else’s because they were all pretty much 50/50. Other than that though, Batman was spinning his wheels and ignoring pretty obvious clues and character motivations.

Despite Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 4’s flaws, I still enjoyed myself, and it is still one of the best Batman Year 2 stories ever made. If you are on the fence about Batman: The Telltale Series, you shouldn’t be. It is a great story that is a lot of fun to play through. I just hope everything pays off well in Episode 5.

November 28, 2016November 28, 2016

Shmee Takes Titanfall 2’s Single Player For A Ride!

After the lackluster multiplayer test for Titanfall 2, I was going to hold off getting Titanfall 2 until it was cheap. Luckily for me (unluckily for Respawn Entertainment) they launched Titanfall 2 within a week of the most anticipated Battlefield game in quite some time, so the prices dropped quickly. I have not had a chance to play the multiplayer yet, but I have completed the single player campaign, and it is incredible.

The story is has a run a of the mill, young recruit being forced in to heavy action and turning out to be the greatest soldier that ever lived, thread, but what makes the story special is the interaction between Rifleman Jack Cooper and his Titan, BT-7274. They play off each other so well, and even better they let you pick Cooper’s dialog. You press up or down deciding how snarky you want to be, so it is not a complex dialog tree, but it does engage you just a little bit more in their tale.

While the story is nice, you play first person shooters for their action, and this is where Titanfall 2 truly shines. The shooting mechanics are flawless. The free-running allows you to come up with creative ways to take out the bad guys, and then when you are in BT, you feel completely unstoppable. Even when you are not shooting, the free-running puzzles are a ton of fun, and the collectable ‘pilot helmets’ are always challenging to find and get, but not overly so. Also almost of all the of the achievements are for the single player and easy to obtain, so it should help out your Gamerscore.

The only downside to the single player that I have found is that the graphics, while detailed, are not up to the standards set by other games, and worse you can tell the resolution is low and being up-scaled because everything is a little fuzzy. Thankfully when you are running and gunning as fast as you can you don’t notice these issues all that often, but you do notice them.

Considering you can find this game for $30 or lower these days, Titanfall 2 is worth the price of admission for the single player alone. I am sure there is some fun to be had with the multiplayer as well, but that is just gravy on top of all the fun I had with the campaign. This has been a good Holiday season for video games, but a disaster for my wallet. Though I have been having too much fun to care that I am broke.

November 22, 2016

Shmee Starts His Tour Of Duty With Battlefield 1’s Multiplayer!

After thoroughly enjoying Battlefield 1’s single plyer campaign, I have now been able to dip my toes in Battlefield 1’s multiplayer pool, and? It is still pretty much just Battlefield. It has been tweaked and the player progression is a bit different, but in the end it is still the massive battles you have come to expect from Battlefield except the weapons are a little different.

When you level up you will now get war bonds. You use these war bonds to buy guns and equipment. As you level up while playing different classes, you slowly rank up those classes as well giving you the ability to buy different/better guns. There are still ‘battlepacks’, but now you get them a whole lot less often, but they generally have better stuff in them. Pretty simple, but it feels like I am unlocking guns at a much slower rate than in Battlefield 4.

There is a new pigeons mode, but it is pretty much just center-flag/oddball. Grab the pigeon, hold the pigeon for a set time while not getting shot, and then release the pigeon to score a point. Though if you release the pigeon when there are a ton of enemies around they can shoot the pigeon down. A fun twist, but nothing ground breaking.

Another new addition is that when you are playing Conquest and a team is loosing they will get a super weapon to try and turn the tide. These usually come in the form of a zeppelin or an armored train. While annoying if you are winning a close game, for the most part they can be ignored while you continue to take and hold points. Whatever you do, just don’t let a guy who loves to honk the horn drive the train because it is awful to have to listen to for ten minutes straight. You may help destroy the train even if you are on the same team as him (or her).

It may sound like I am not overly enthused about Battlefield 1’s multiplayer, but that is not the case. It is very good, and I plan on playing a lot of it. Just don’t expect it to be a grand departure from what they have done before because it is pretty much a refinement of the games that have come before it. Very good, but in a tried and true sort of way. That’s all for now, maybe I will see you on the Battlefield!

November 21, 2016

Shmee Helps Newt Scamander Find His Fantastic Beasts!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first major work in the Potterverse not to feature Harry Potter, and it shows that J.K Rowling’s magical world is bigger than one boy wizard. Fantastic Beasts is not a perfect film by any stretch, but it does move the universe forward in some interesting ways, and it shows us new aspects of the Wizarding World, while still feeling grounded in Rowling’s universe.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he lands in America with a case full of creatures and some unknown purpose. Things quickly get out of control when he looses his case and a few of the creatures escape. Meanwhile something has been terrorizing the streets of New York, and Newt has to prove it is not one of his beasts and save the city.

The story is fairly basic, which is fine, but it gets kind of muddled with the three or four other things going on at the same time. This movie does a lot of world building for being the ninth movie in a franchise. Luckily all that world building is pretty cool and the more we can dig in to the Wizarding World the better, and I was very happy that Fantastic Beasts has a proper ending. It may have put to neat a bow on everything, but it was nice not to have wait until next time get the rest of the story, and with four more Fantastic Beasts movies in the works, there is a lot of story still coming.

Like all Potterverse films, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has a great cast. Eddie Redmayne is charming and fun, and Colin Farrell is dark and obviously villainous in a wonderful way. Dan Fogler is a perfect stand-in for the audience as the No-Maj (muggle) who is constantly being blown away with everything he is seeing, but loving every second of it. I don’t think there is one bad casting.

Fantastic Beasts is a visual treat. 1920’s New York looked great, and every magical creature was a wonder to behold. The spells all were realized wonderfully. While I don’t think I could ever tell you what David Yates style is, or be able to pick one of his films out of a line-up, he does handle large speciall effects laden films well, and that is a very hard skill to master.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a great film that buckles a little under all of its world building. Hopefully future films are a little more focused. The only other downside I could see is that this Potterverse movie felt a little more grown up, and it may be a little too dark and feature themes (physical abuse for instance) that are hard for younger children to deal with. Though as for me, I had a blast, and I cannot wait to see where Newt and his gang end up next.

November 17, 2016

And Now A Movie About A Monster In A Truck!

This is one of those movies that I have no idea how it got green-lit. Made for TV special? Maybe, but Monster Trucks is a full fledged release, and a misleading one at that since there is only one monster and he is not a truck, he is living in a truck. It looks like someone in California started smoking weed before it was legal, but hey I am all for more kids adventure movies, so hopefully Monster Trucks pans out.