Shmee.Me

May 3, 2016

Shmee Doesn’t Know What Game To Buy This May!

I am in uncharted territory, there are three games I want to buy in May. Yes the May before summer. Yes the May where we usually just have to play whatever mediocre game some major publisher decides to bless us with. Not this May! This May I have to make a decision.

This first game I am desirous of is Battleborn:

I am a little hesitant because it is a little too MOBA-y, but I really like Gearbox’s games, and the single player/co-op part of the game I liked. Maybe if there were some straight up shooter multiplayer modes it would make my decision easier.

Next up is Overwatch:

Say what you want about Blizzard, they know how to make a great game and then support it forever. The only thing holding me back from Overwatch is that there isn’t a single player. It is just multiplayer, so if I suck at the MP it will be a wasted purchase.

Lastly but not leastly Total War: Warhammer:

Finally a game that encompasses how epic the Warhammer universe should be! The problem with this game? It is an RTS, and I am less than par at RTSs. I always mess something up with my attacks and defenses. I guess I am bad at grouping things, but the gameplay has looked amazing.

Any normal May just one of these games would be coming out, so they would have been a must purchase, but this May, I have to pick one. I am thinking I will end up with Overwatch because I know that Blizzard will make sure this game is as perfect as it can be, and then I will get Total War: Warhammer on sale later. Battleborn? If my friends get it, I will get it, so I can play with them. Still what a great problem to have in May.

Are you getting a game this Spring? If so which one and why?

April 29, 2016

Looks Like They Are Going Ahead With That Tomb Raider Movie After All…

While the internet is freaking out wondering if Alicia Vikander is physical enough to be the first lady of video games, I am just amazed that they are actually going to go ahead with this movie.

First off let me get this out of the way, Alicia Vikander (pictured above) will be fine as Lara Croft. She is an Oscar winner and very talented, and she looks very similar to the new young and athletic Lara Croft from the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. To say that she can’t do an action movie because she has never done one is bull crap. You hear me internet! If the script is good, she will be too, but that is the problem I am having. Video game movies up till now have been terrible. Not because the source material is bad, but for some reason writers have had a hard time translating games to a non-interactive medium.

The first Tomb Raider movies staring Angalina Jolie were at best so-so, and sadly that ranks them amongst the top of the video game to movie heap. They also only did at best so-so business at the box-office. Again that sadly ranks them at the top, so why are studios so excited to jump back in? I know they are out of ideas, but I am getting sick and tired of good games getting crappy movies because picture people don’t understand the medium they are converting to the big screen, and nothing I have seen recently has proved to me that they are getting any better at it.

If there was ever a video game character that should be easy to bring to life via film it would be Lara Croft, but they are going to screw it up. They are going to go all in on some weird mystic stuff and leave out all the adventure, fun and charm. Then they are going to panic and put poor Alicia Vikander in something sexy and tight to try and cover up that their script didn’t work out. In other words we are getting another Tomb Raider movie, and I think the two we got were more than enough.

April 27, 2016

Nintendo Just Had The Most Boring Console Announcement Of All Time!

nintendo-screen-controller-patent — Nintendo NX Controller Patent Image

When Nintendo said they would talk more about their new console in 2016 we assumed that they meant E3. I mean that is where console launches happen. You get on a big stage with flashing lights then you show off a bunch of cool games that are ‘only possible’ on your new shiny toy. That is just how it is done. Well Nintendo went another way. They got in front of their board members and said it is launching globally March 2017. Oh and that it will get a port of the Wii U version of Zelda.

That was it. No fan fair, no lights, no nothing. Way to get the crowds excited! Worse yet they said that the console would be skipping E3 completely. The focus of their 2016 E3 would be the Wii U version of the Zelda game that no one is going to want because they are going to want the Nintendo NX version. Not to mention the date. Who in their right mind launches a console in March? Get it out there just in time for Summer when kids go outside to play? Are they worried the new Xbox will be out next Christmas so they are trying to get jump on the competition? Who knows.

Nintendo has kind of always done its own thing, and that is great, but this feels like a mistake. They should have had an E3 where they focused on Zelda like they were planning, and then just have “One more thing”ed it like Apple always does. Fans would have gone crazy. Instead now we are just wondering when we are going to get our first look at this new machine. PAX West? Probably not since they will try and push the Wii U for one last Christmas. CES? I guess that would make sense. They would pretty much get the whole show to themselves. Though my bet is they release one of those puppet YouTube videos. I do love puppets.

Regardless of what their plans are, congratulations Nintendo on the most boring and confusing console announcement in recent history!

April 15, 2016April 15, 2016

Batman V Superman Didn’t Live Up To Expectations. Now What?

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a total miss with the critics, and movie goers are fleeing auditoriums at record rates. There aren’t many movies that make $800 Million worldwide and are considered failures, but BvS is considered exactly that. The question now becomes, “What does Warner Brothers do now?” Apparently the answer is double down.

Even with Batman v Superman ‘only’ earning $800 Million it has given Warner Brothers executives a taste of what superhero movies can do for their studio, but they also know that the clock is ticking as far as how long the spandex cash cow will last, so to retool their movie slate would cost them too much time and money. All they can do now is try and make sure the next few movies in the DC Cinematic Universe are good so that Batman v Superman is quickly forgotten. Judging by the amount of money they are now throwing at Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman they aren’t taking any chances.

The budgets for both of those movies have been given a significant boost after the historically bad second weekend for Batman v Superman. People have been claiming it is has been to add more ‘funny’ scenes in to both of those films, but according to the directors the money has been pretty much for whatever they think will make the movies better. In other words people loved Wonder Woman from BvS, and the Suicide Squad trailer got people excited, so Warner Brothers is trying to make sure they capitalize on the opportunity.

As for the Justice League movie that starts filming in a couple of weeks, it sounds like Zack Snyder is going to have to deal with a lot more suits around his shoots. Pretty much every executive Warner Brothers has said they are going to be more involved with Justice League than they were with Batman v Superman. I can only hope that means Justice League will be batter than Batman v Superman and not even more of a convoluted mess.

We will see if the extra money that has been pumped in to the Suicide Squad has paid off soon since the movie comes out in four short months. The trailers have been fun, so hopefully the movie is as well. Wonder Woman comes out early next year.

April 6, 2016April 6, 2016

The Walking Dead Season Six Finale Was Bull Crap!

Okay we need to talk about The Walking Dead season six finale “The Last Day On Earth”! Obviously this rant will contain spoilers so you have been warned. Well except for the fact I can’t really spoil anything because nothing really happened. I don’t know what the writers were thinking with this episode. They managed to create an episode that not only didn’t deliver on its promises, but that also now has the worst cliff hanger of all time.

They have been asking for all of the second half of season 6 “Who will survive?” only to not tell us. Sure the introduction of Negan was good, and he is just as charismatic and terrifying as we have been told, but we were also promised he would kill someone, and while he technically did, they just didn’t show us. So they used 90 minutes to not deliver on the one question that they have been asking for months. Of course now they get to ask ‘Who was it?”, but that is garbage, it is just being mean to their fans.

The show already had a natural and interesting cliff hanger, “How will the group survive this?”, but I guess that wasn’t enough, so they decided it was okay to amp it up for no reason. I could see if this show was doing poorly how an action like this would make sense, but this is the most popular show on the planet, so there was no need to not deliver on their own marketing.

The Walking Dead has been getting lazy with their writing for a while now, and this finale might be the tipping point in The Walking Dead’s popularity. I have not heard this much backlash about an episode of TV in a long time, and I think the producers of The Walking Dead are going to regret filming “The Last Day On Earth”.