Shmee.Me

May 4, 2016

Star War: Rebels Is Why We Need Shorter TV Seasons!

I know Rebels ended over a month ago, but I had to catch up on my DVR, and today is Star Wars day, so the timing is perfect! Star Wars: Rebels had a 15 episode season last year and it most mostly great. This season they got a full order of 22 episodes, and there was a lot more filler. Don’t get me wrong there was still some really good stuff in there, but not every episode was must watch, and worse still it seemed like some of the episodes covered things we had already seen before.

That being the case the season finale was still amazing. It tied in threads from The Clone Wars, Knights of the Old Republic, The Force Awakens and of course the original trilogy, and it all made sense! It also managed to make the call to the Dark Side truly seem alluring. If it is the way to gain more power and save your friends why wouldn’t you? To the uninitiated it seems a lot more helpful than being a non-feeling stuck-up do-nothing jerk of a Jedi.

Star Wars: Rebels would be a better series if they cut out all the fluff. If this was a focused 10-12 episode series it could be one of the best on TV. Though I understand the reasoning for its longer run with Star Wars being so hot right now, so Rebels is a money printing machine, and like the finale proved it can still wow its audience. I just wish that was every episode, not every other. Who knows maybe they will find a little more meat next season and I will be asking for even more episodes, but I doubt it.

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?

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016

So I Guess Paragon Is A MOBA…

For some reason, maybe due to the people making the game, I thought Paragon by Epic Games was another asymmetrical arena shooter. It turns after I played it a bit during their recent free-play weekend that it is instead another MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). I am not a big fan of MOBAs, so you may have to take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I thought it was fine.

The main features Paragon brings to the genre are tight third person shooting and faster movement speed. At least compared to the other MOBAs I have tried. Other than that pretty much everything else is the same: There are lanes, you can grind mobs, you level up and gain skills, you get items, you shoot down towers, and then finally you shoot the tower at the opposing side’s base to win the match.

Now this game is apparently still in alpha, so I wouldn’t consider this a review of any sort, but so far besides the tighter shooting mechanics nothing stood out about Paragon. It is just a third person MOBA, and with the glut of MOBAs out there that is not great. It needs some sort of hook. Like I said, I am not a big MOBA fan, so I could be missing something, and honestly the whole time I was playing Paragon I wished I didn’t have to do all the MOBA-y stuff and could just shoot the other guys. I guess I wanted an arena shooter, and that wasn’t what I was playing.

I may give Paragon another shot in a few months to see if they have found their hook or not, but this free-play weekend kind of killed any enthusiasm I had for the game, and since I thought it was something else that is probably my fault. However, with so many games to play these days just being ‘fine’ probably won’t cut it. In short, I hope Epic finishes the new Unreal Tournament soon.

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 28, 2016April 28, 2016

47 Takes Care Of A Few Things In Italy!

Hitman‘s second location has arrived and this time you are whisked off to the fictional town of Sapienza, Italy (it is the name of a University in Rome however). There you will have to take down a scientist and his protégé, and destroy a new bioweapon. It will be all in a day’s work for the world’s greatest assassin Agent 47.

Sapienza builds on the great level design of Paris. The areas are varied, and each area creates a new wrinkle for how you are going to get in and earn your pay. It also seems like this map is a bit bigger than Paris, and considering how big the fashion show was, that is no small feat. Even better Hitman seems to load twice as fast, and a lot of the glitchiness seems to have been fixed. Plus the servers haven’t crashed once, so things are looking up for Hitman.

However, even with all the bugs they have fixed it looks like they have added one. Once you start map if you start to follow any ‘Opportunities’, the little guided events in the game, but then do something wrong so you load a game to a point before you started that ‘Opportunity’, it will not track it anymore. This is a pain since you earn ‘Mastery’ for completing ‘Opportunities’. Fortunately there are several to find, and you just have to remember to save right after you start one. It is just annoying. I hope they fix it soon.

Each level of Hitman so far has been better than the last, so this is shaping up to be the best Hitman game yet. The only thing holding it back may be value. If you are like me and are going to play through this level a few times than the $10 to pick it up makes sense. If you are only going to play it once, and you aren’t going to explore the map you could beat this in like an hour (it took me about two hours my first attempt), so it is a tougher sell. For Hitman fans this is must buy, for everyone else you may want to wait for a sale.