Shmee.Me

July 10, 2014

ThePaladin is BATTLEBORN

Gearbox Software is the maker of the wildly successful Borderlands series and they’ve just announced their newest game – BATTLEBORN!

You can watch the trailer for yourself. I personally am excited to play as a dapper robot with a gun cane. Details are sparse at the moment, although BATTLEBORN has been described as a Shooter/MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena; think League of Legends); which is a strange mix. However, Gearbox successfully combined RPG elements from Diablo with a shooter to give us Borderlands, so I’m willing to give them the chance to wow me. My one critique is that besides the Dapper Robot(TM) none of the other character models look that good, the elf ranger is especially unattractive. They have over a year to fine tune and maybe pull a Borderlands and completely change the style, so I’m not too worried.

Regardless, BATTLEBORN will be one more reason to checkout the Gearbox panel at PAX this year… besides the free stuff and Randy Pitchford giggling like a little kid while giving away secrets… and I guess Mikey.

July 9, 2014

Shmee Is Playing The Witcher 2!

The Steam sale is a wondrous thing. Just when E3 got me all excited for The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Steam went and put The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on sale for four dollars! I played the first Witcher quite a bit, but I never finished it because it was really hard, and my manly pride didn’t let me reduce the difficulty. CD Projekt RED really amped everything up for this sequel. The combat is better, the graphics are better, the story makes sense, and now that I have so little pride left, I don’t mind playing it on easy.

Honestly my only complaint this time around, is that while the areas look wide open they are actually a series of paths, and you can’t veer off those paths at all. You want to walk through those shrubs? To bad there is a leaf in the way you can’t walk past! You need to walk all the way around. You want to drop off that slight ledge? Do dice! Still this is a story based action RPG, so walking through shrubs and off ledges is more a nice-to-have instead of a need.

I have been having a lot of fun with this game, and it has made me glad that I upgraded my computer so I am able to run it. Even though the Steam sale is over you can still get this game cheap, and it is well worth your hard earned money!

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Ex-Superman To Play The Atom On Arrow!

It looks like the people over at the CW are intent on making their version of the Justice League! According to the Hollywood Reporter they have added Superman Returns actor Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer AKA The Atom to their hit show Arrow.

Brandon did a pretty good job as Superman in Superman Returns, and the problems with that movie were not his fault, so it will be fun to see him suit up as a superhero again. Even if The Atom is a demotion from one of the most recognizable heroes of all time.

The Atom is a good choice for the show since he is a super-scientist. He can explain the rise of the metahumans, and pretend to make sense of all the crazy new super-people running around. It might even be a good idea to have him share time between Arrow and The Flash.

I can’t wait to see which hero they use next on the show, and if they create an official Justice League in the future or not. I am hoping they do. As a matter of fact I would be okay of they just went ahead and turned the CW in to just a DC Comics superhero channel!

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Shmee Watched Fast & Furious 6!

I was going to review Fast & Furious 6, but you know what? I have decided against it. It is the sixth movie in a series, so either you know that you will like it, or you know to stay away. It contains pretty people driving cool cars really fast while blowing stuff up real good. If that appeals to you then you have probably already watched this movie, if not then you should. If that sounds kind of lame to you, you shouldn’t.

It is a fun movie, but at this point the series has stopped finding ways to wow me. I know what I am getting, and the film delivers. It is like getting a cheeseburger at McDonald’s. It is fine for what it is, but it is hard to be super excited about movies seven and eight plus The Rock spinoff since they will be pretty much the same thing. Still, sometimes I get cravings for a McDonald’s cheeseburger, and I will be back.

This series has a legion of fans, and the movies do really well, so I am sure you will be able to find them at your local Mega-plex for years to come.

July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

Shmee Tries To Walk Hard!

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a spoof on the biopic genre, but mostly the film Walk The Line the Johnny Cash biopic. Since all biographical movies follow the same basic flow it is an easy genre to make fun of, and for the most part the Judd Apatow written and Jake Kasdan directed film lands it jokes, but the film can be slow at times.

The story follows the titular Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) from his troubled childhood through his hard living but successful career. Along the way he is always trying to write his masterpiece. This movie mostly makes fun of the Johnny Cash film, but the movie also makes fun of all sorts of rock legends including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, and The Beatles to name a few.

While the movie copies and lampoons the basic biopic style, the real stars of this movie are all the great songs they wrote. My favorite is a Bob Dylan style song about dwarf solidarity. It is perfectly cringe worthy. However when they are not singing the movie can slow down, since not all of the standard spoken jokes and site gags land as well as the musical ones.

John C. Reilly really throws himself in to this role, playing a believable over the top musician. Since there have been so many of these musical biographies made he must of had a lot of material to use to get ready for this film. Cox’s two wives played by Kristen Wiig and Jenna Fischer are both very funny, and this movie manages to cram just about every notable comedian in to this film plus few real rock stars.

It is a shame this movie didn’t tighten up the script a bit because with its level of talent and the great songs they wrote this movie could have been a classic, but instead it is just a funny if uneven film. To be sure their are much worse spoof movies out there (all the Scary Movies), but it is no Spaceballs that is for sure.