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Battlefield V Tries To Become Left 4 Dead III!

Well this was unexpected.  We were expecting a Battle Royal mode, which since they increased Battlefield V’s player count to 64, I am sure it is coming, but what we got was a new co-op mode with randomly generated objectives.  You and three other friends will do your best take on different scenarios from early parts of World War II.  As the game gets older, it will get later on in the war.  Also, there are no crates in Battlefield V.  You of course can buy cosmetics for your soldier, but you don’t need to.  They are hoping, that much like Fortnite, you will really need that scorpion bomber jacket, so you won’t mind throwing down your hard earned cash, or grinding your way to get it.

If fan reaction is anything to go by, people are really excited to head back to WWII with Battlefield.  All I know is that they had better remake Wake Island!  You can’t have a Battlefield in  WWII without it.  So if Battlefield’s tried and true gameplay with a little bit of Left 4 Dead excites you, Battlefield V launches this October.  I know I will probably be getting it, and yes, I will probably have a lady avatar!

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With Black Ops 4, Call Of Duty Is Now Just Following the Leader

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (aka CoD: BlOps 4) was announced yesterday, and for the first time in a long time Call of Duty is changing things up.  Instead of the usual frantic multiplayer we have been playing for a really (really) long time, it is now 5×5 and adopting roles and unlockable soldiers, so if you were thinking Rainbow 6: Siege by way of Black Ops, you would be right.  Meanwhile instead of a five hour over the top campaign to give the game a focus and a theme, they have instead added a mode called Blackout.  You and dozens of players are dropped in to one map, and the last person/crew surviving wins, AKA PUBG/Fortnite.  The only thing that looks the same is the Zombies mode.

It is clear the well ran dry with the creative team over at Treyarch, so they just looked around and copied what was popular, and what is insane is that it might be working.  I mean this is the first CoD: BlOps I have been interested in, in years.  Battle Royal with helicopters and verticality?  That sounds amazing.  A faster more streamlined Siege?  Yes please!  And co-op zombie killing has always been fun.  I mean it is pretty much just their horde mode anyway.

While it is a shame Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is ditching a lot of what long time fans have come to expect, at least they are copying all the right games.  If they can deliver everything in one well balanced and polished title, it will be hard to say no to.  Being able to switch from Siege to PUBG, and then take on a zombie horde all on the fly with the same group of friends sounds like a lot of fun.  So I will be following CoD: BlOps 4 with great interest.  It may be the one that finally brings me back in to the fold, but only because it stole from all the right people.

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Destination Wedding Is The Movie We Need For These Dark Times!

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in a movie being grumpy at one another might just be my favorite pitch for a movie in a long time.  After watching the trailer for Destination Wedding (not to be confused with the Hallmark movie of the same title), I hope they don’t ruin it by falling in to lazy rom-com traps.  I mean who doesn’t want a Grumpy Old Men (except one is a one woman) Gen-X edition!  But even if they do, I would watch these two watch paint dry together, so I am all in!

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Looks Like Bethesda Is Going After Borderlands With Rage 2!

While Rage 2 lacks Borderlands signature cell-shaded look, the over the top zany post apocalyptic action seems a lot like Gearbox’s main money maker.  Much like with Prey, it seems that Bethesda is doing something a bit different with id’s old IP.  Which is fine, Rage was never considered a classis, I just hope it can find a way to differentiate itself from Borderlands.  The real question is now that they have resurrected almost all of id’s FPS titles, when are we getting that Commander Keen game?

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Alien: Covenant Is The Alien Movie For People Who Don’t Like Alien

I don’t think Ridley Scott really wants to make Alien movies anymore, but he knows if he slaps the Alien name on something people will give him the money to make whatever he wants.  With Alien: Covenant, Scott wanted to make a movie about a being’s hatred for its creator, and then he tacked some Alien stuff on to it.  It is kind of interesting, but the two conflicting ideas don’t really coalesce in to a coherent film.

Covenant takes place a few years after Prometheus, and the colony vessel Covenant gets a strange message on its way to its new home destination.  The crew decides to check it out, and guess what?  That was a terrible idea.  It turns out that this is where Elizabeth Shaw and David (Michael Fassbender) crash landed with a ship full of the Alien virus.  David meets the newer, more obedient, version of himself Walter, and things get very strange.  The crew makes more bad decisions, and a lot of them get killed by the xenomorph.

The xenomorph is kind of secondary to what is going on with Walter and David, and it should never be said in an Alien movie that “the” alien is taking a back seat to a robot that clearly has the hots for himself.  Like I said Scott brings some interesting ideas to the table, but they are never fully fleshed out, and this never truly feels like an Alien movie.  Just one where the Alien is around.

Covenant is beautifully shot, and the special effects are really well done, so Scott still has what it takes to make a major motion picture, but this movie is just kind of a mess.  Which is a shame because I wanted to like it.  I was one of the seemingly few people that enjoyed Prometheus.  Sure it was dumb, but it was dumb fun.  This movie forgets the fun, and instead wants to focus on its “themes”.

If you are looking for a good Alien movie, Alien: Covenant is not what you are looking for.  If you are looking for some high concept Sci-Fi, you might like this, though it is not realized enough.  I enjoyed parts of this film, so if you really like the genre, it is probably worth spending an afternoon checking out, but you won’t really miss much if you skip it.  Maybe they will finally get it right  with the next one.