Shmee.Me

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016

Daredevil Season Two Wrap-Up: If Ninjas Are Boring You Are Doing It Wrong!

I figure enough time has passed for me to give my final judgement of Daredevil season two. Which will be way better than my midseason impressions I assure you! For the most part this was a pretty successful season. The Punisher stuff was very good. Frank Castle becoming the terrifying murderous vigilante was great. Surprisingly what wasn’t great was the Elektra/Ninja storyline.

I mean Elodie Yung was an excellent Elektra, but that story really never went anywhere, and it mostly served as a distraction from all the good stuff that was going on with Frank. It just seemed like any time there was a lull in the story they just threw some random Ninjas at it and started talking about ‘The War’.

The only real positive the ninjas served is bringing up the question of if superheroes should kill or not. For the most part we can all agree that they shouldn’t because then they would be replacing the law, but in the case of the ninjas their clan would just sweep in and collect them, so none of these guys that Murdock was knocking out were ever going to serve any jail time. He was just going to have to fight them again tomorrow. So if he was truly fighting a centuries old war, maybe, just maybe, he should stop pulling his punches. Maybe then he could have saved us from a couple of those boring ninja fights.

I have to tell you that I never thought ‘boring ninja fight’ was something I would write, but here we are. Daredevil has boring ninja fights. Now like I said they are only part of what happens this season, and I do think they are building to something bigger, but they are kind of forced in to a holding pattern until Iron Fist shows up. Once all the Marvel TV series are launched we can probably get to the interesting ninja fights. At least I hope so. If the Luke Cage show is filled with boring ninja fights I am going to be ticked!

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016

Shmee Takes On The Automatron!

Fallout 4 got its first piece of DLC, and I have to say it is pretty good. I wasn’t so sure about Automatron when I first heard about it. Sure it had more robots and a random villain, The Mechanist, to shoot, but no new city to explore. Well I was wrong okay! It turns out Automatron was just what Fallout 4 needed: more loot, and more ways to use the loot you already have.

Automatron starts off with you getting a new radio frequency to listen too, and if you tune in, you hear a distress call from some traders. When you rush to help out you will be too late, but you will find Ada the robot programed to defend the caravan, and she will want vengeance on The Mechanist for her fallen group. If you help her, you will gain the ability to build a robot work shop to customize not only Ada, but bring to life as many robots as you have the scrap for. Of course you can only bring one robot companion with you at a time, but it still it really lets you build some pretty great robots.

Making the bots is the best part of the Automatron DLC pack. If frees you to design the perfect companion. Auto laser canon? Sure. Freezing canon and a hammer to break apart your foes? Absolutely. Need someone to pick locks for you? The bots got you covered! The robots can fly, walk, or roll on the ground it is up to you. Well provided you have the perks to do it. The perks to build the robots are the same as all the other crafting perks: Armorer, Gun Nut, and Science. Since you will be fighting a ton of bots it might also be good to have Robotics Expert as well.

Now if you don’t have those perks don’t fret. There is another way to build the bots you want, and that is from killing other robots. They will drop parts that will go in to your Mods inventory that you can attach to your robot pals. The cooler the robot you destroy, the higher the likelihood that they will drop something sweet for you to take home and strap to your favorite metal friend.

When you start Automatron you may disappointed with the apparent lack of customization offered, but don’t worry once you beat the quest all robot mods will become visible to you. You will still need the perks to build those mods, but at least you will be able to see what you need to get what you want. Side note: It was nice that this quest offered a couple of outcomes which is sadly rare for Fallout 4.

Automatron has made Fallout 4 better. The quest, while generic, did at least have a couple of endings, but the creators of this DLC really understood what makes Fallout 4 tick, and that is loot. By giving players more ways to use loot in a creative ways it really adds to Fallout 4’s already addicting feedback loop. While the main quest-line in and of itself probably isn’t enough to recommend Automatron, building cool robot friends is. Even if after a while they do seem to be a little over powered.

March 25, 2016

Batman v Superman v Story Structure!

People were right to worry that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would struggle because it tried to do too many things. This movie has so many story threads that instead of having a standard plot it is really a series of vignettes, and some of those vignettes are really good, but not enough of them. Plus they are all jumbled together so it is hard to follow.

The main plot, as best as I could discern, is that Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) can’t bring himself to trust an alien that destroyed an entire city including his Wayne Financial building, and every small incident involving Superman (Henry Cavill) only makes him angrier. Meanwhile Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is investigating one of those incidents herself trying to figure out if someone is manipulating the public’s opinion of Superman. Someone like Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) perhaps?

Anyway that should get you started, I am still trying to sort out the rest. I mean this movie has three dream sequences. Three! So an already confusing movie has random stuff thrown in to boot. Then they try and shoehorn in the rest of the founding members of the Justice League. While it is great to see them on screen for the first time, they add nothing to the movie. Well, with the exception of Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot. She is amazing. Wonder Woman by far is the best part of Batman v Superman. The movie gets better every time she shows up, which isn’t often.

Ben and Henry did a fine job as Batman and Superman, but really they weren’t given a whole lot to do but snarl at one another. I mean after filming their faces must have hurt from all the sneering. They only person that got to smile or show any range of emotion was once again Wonder Woman. She was so good you guys! Then that brings us to Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luther. Again fine, but I am still not sure what Lex’s endgame was. Not to mention I am pretty sure that Lex was insane which was an odd direction to take for the smartest man on the planet.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice needed to be longer and explain everything better, or be shorter and cut a lot of stuff out. At its long two and a half hour running time it was a pile of randomness. There were parts I liked: For instance when we finally got to see Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all fighting together I was the happiest man alive. Looking back they should have just bucked up and made the Justice League movie and forgot all about the Batman and the Superman v’ing each other. That would have been the movie the suits at Warner Brothers obviously wanted, and what the fans wanted too. Plus we would have gotten more Wonder Woman!

March 24, 2016

Lego Batman Is The Batman We Need!

With Batman V Superman getting poor reviews (I am seeing it anyway), Lego Batman is the Batman that we need in these dark times. You deserve your lobster Bruce, today you deserve it!

March 22, 2016

Firefight Is Finally Coming To Halo 5!

When Gears of War launched Horde mode it was the start of something special. Cooperative monster slaying in waves, so much fun, but Halo ODST and Reach perfected it with Firefight. For some reason Halo 5 didn’t launch with Firefight, but that is changing! It will become part of Halo 5’s already great Warzone, so REQ packs and tanks for everyone! Maybe it is time to bust out my copy of Halo 5 and start killing some mobs! See you online maybe?