Shmee.Me

September 1, 2016September 1, 2016

What Was The Point Of Preacher’s First Season?

I am not one for spoilers, but I have decided that I have to talk about how the first season of Preacher ended, so take this as your spoiler warning. The show ends with a town wide explosion. Which is similar to the comic book (in the comic it was only the church), but the comic book did it in the first two pages not after eleven hours of television. We had no attachment for anyone in the comics yet, so the explosion just set the tone for the wild and crazy graphic adventure. In the show we know everyone, so they just killed a bunch of people we have some sort of interest in.

What was the point of the first season then? To show that Jesse is kind of a jerky know-it-all? Trust me if they had followed the comic books people would have come to that realization anyway. I don’t think Preacher needed a prequel, or this prequel at any rate. It didn’t show us anything relevant or new about these characters. It did show us that they are going to try and be as weird as the comic books, but just at a much slower pace. Maybe the writers just wanted us to be asking the same question as Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy, “What is the point of it all?”.

August 30, 2016August 30, 2016

No Man’s Sky Is What Is Wrong With Pre-Ordering!

I am not here to jump on the No Man’s Sky hate bandwagon. That wagon is already filled to the brim. No I am here to tell all the bandwagoners that this is all their fault. People love to get excited about things, and when they get excited about things they want to do something. In the case of videogames the only thing that they can do while they wait is pre-order, but once again this has burned them.

People let the hype work them in to a tizzy, and they were ready for No Man’s Sky to be the best game of all time. You would be able to fly to the infinite number of planets and make them your own. Each planet would be wondrous and filled with adventure! The space simulation would be pitch perfect. This would be the ultimate game! As it turns out No Man’s Sky is Terraria (in the Minecraft family), but in space. Which is not a bad thing, but it is not the be all and end all to gaming.

Understandably people who thought that they would never have to buy another game ever again are upset they spent $60 on something that was different than what they expected, but had they waited less than a week until after No Man’s Sky came out they would have understood what the game was, and then made an informed decision. Honestly once that week was over a lot of them probably would have got the game anyway because people who have accepted the game for what it is seem to like it. It is relaxing and it is fun to wander around and see what is next. Sure the space combat is kind of wonky, but there is still the thrill of landing on or jumping to new worlds.

All of this to say that the current system of pre-ordering needs to stop, and in this age of digital downloads there isn’t even a need for it. For most games the reviews are out the day before launch which is still enough time to read the reviews, and then buy the game and have it download to your console or PC in time for go-live. In situations like No Man’s Sky where we had had to wait a while, the reviews were still up pretty quick, and since it is not multiplayer no one was missing out on anything. Do yourself a favor and save your money until you know what you are buying. You will be happier. I know I am.

July 1, 2016

I Must Have Been Really Good Because Pacific Rim 2 Has A Release Date!

After all sorts of talk about directors and story it looks like Pacific Rim 2 is fully moving forward because they announced the release date yesterday! February 23^rd, 2018, so if they are going to hit that date they are going to need to start casting and filming soon. Which means we will soon be flooded with all sorts of giant robot news! Or more like I will be reading all sorts of giant robot news and then posting it here causing my own mini-flood.

Anyway, I now have plans for February two years from now. Soooooooooo excited! Just so you know, I need Pacific Rim 3 too, so you are all going to have to see the movie this time around. I can’t rely on China’s box-office again to make it happen, so butts in seats people! You have two years to get ready.

June 24, 2016

You Should Be Disappointed With Mighty No. 9; You Shouldn’t Be A Jerk About it.

The Kickstarter funded Mighty No. 9 developed by Keiji Inafune launched this week, and the reviews have been less than kind. Last I checked the game was sitting at 58% on Metacritic. The people that teamed up to give more than $4 Million have been raging about it all over the internet saying things like, “He took our money and ran!”, or “People have created better games with a lot less money!”, but neither of the those statements are fair.

It is true that other games made with less money have been better, I could list several, but those teams were small being made up of one or two dedicated people, not full dev teams. Large development teams like Inafune’s Comcept cost a lot of money, so if things go sideways they burn through money fast, and it seems clear from Inafune’s interviews that is what happened with Mighty No. 9. Not many developers would ever utter the words, “It is better than nothing.”, if things went well. Things went bad and Comcept pushed through and published a game for their backers. Was it the game they wanted? No, but it was indeed better than nothing. Which is more than a lot of failed projects produce. Nothing. Leaving backers empty handed.

I am not saying people should be happy with Might No. 9. It is clearly not a great game, but they shouldn’t be so mad at Keiji Inafune and the rest of Comcept either. They tried their best and failed. A lot of good dev teams have created bad games, and I think that is the case here. What people should be taking from all of this is to remember that backing any creative endeavor on Kickstarter can go sideways, even ones with a lot of talent and knowhow. Which is why you should always spend your money and back projects wisely with the understanding you may end up with nothing, or something that is better than nothing.

June 23, 2016

The CW Brought Back Wonder Woman For Supergirl But Not Superman?

The new DCW TV shows have been doing a great job of bringing back actors from DC’s previous shows and movies for roles in the CW’s current offerings, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that Linda Carter would be coming to Supergirl to play the President of the United States (I would probably vote for her this year, and I still might), but was surprising that they decided not bring back Tom Welling to play Superman.

I mean they already had a Superman ready to go and they went and cast someone else. Now I have no doubt that Tyler Hoechlin will do a fine job as the Man of Steel, but it would have been great to close the loop with the original DCW show. Welling may have been busy, or maybe they decided that if they do bring Welling in that he will play some sort of side character like all the other former cast members they have brought back, but it would have been great to see him in the suit, being the Superman that Smallville promised he would become.

However, focusing on the positives, Linda Carter is going to be back on TV! That is exciting, and who knows with The Flash screwing up the multiverse maybe we will still see Welling fly in to save the day. I would be in for some Superman versus Superman action.