I previously raved about my 2012 Roku 2 XS, but recently it started acting up a little bit. I think it was just getting too slow to run the new apps. Well for $50 or less you can get this year’s Roku Stick, and you should! I streams everything the bigger Rokus do, but in a small little package. It is fast, and the streams look great! It even lets you stream the audio from the stick to your phone so you can watch TV without waking up your two year old.
Roku continues to show the folly of getting a Smart TV. Why spend $100s extra when you can add one of these to any TV for just $50. Better yet you can find them all over the place for $40. At that price you don’t need to worry about the tech getting old because you can simply upgrade it in a couple of years.
If you are looking for a way to get your streaming apps on your TV, but don’t want to spend a lot of cash, the Roku Stick is totally the way to go. The only reason to get something else would be because you are heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, so then you would have to get an Apple TV. Still even if you are an Apple Fanatic, for $40 you get access to everything else the internet has to offer as well. The Roku Stick is a great device at an even better price.
The E3 press conferences used to be a place where game companies would surprise people, but lately thanks to leaks or publishers trying to get out in front of news cycles there aren’t a lot of surprises any more. The only company that seems to really be able to have those exciting shock moments is Sony. Will any of those games be good? Will they be out any time soon? Who knows, but they make for a good show. Now that is not to say that other companies didn’t have a lot to show, they did, and a lot of it was good. There just wasn’t the excitement level that we used to have.
EA
EA had a good year with Star Wars, Mass Effect, and Titanfall 2, but honestly Battlefield 1 was still by far the most impressive thing that they had to show. I don’t think I have been this jazzed about a Battlefield game since 1941.
Bethesda
Bethesda has had a reduced E3 presence since they bought Id, and thus bought QuakeCon, but they still had a couple of new games to show, one of which was the much wondered about Prey 2. Which is no longer a ‘2’ or anything like what that game or its predecessor were, but the new Prey still looks very interesting. Also we are getting a new Quake. After a new Wolfenstein and Doom, this was hardly a shock.
Microsoft
Microsoft started and ended their show talking about hardware. While I can’t wait to get my hands on a more powerful Xbox at least I will have a lot of games to play to help me bide my time. They had what might be my game of show, Sea of Thieves. I was curious before, but the video above and the show floor hands-ons have me supper hyped for this game.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s show was all over the place. Steep a new extreme sports game looked like a lot of fun, but the disappointing Ghost Recon: Wildlands demo was a real bummer. Worst game reveal this year. They also really want Watch Dogs to be a thing. Watch Dogs 2 was like half of the show.
Sony
Sony went all out! Games that we have been wanting for years like Last Guardian got release dates, and then they announced stuff like Death Stranding. I don’t know what the heck is going on in that video, but it has got everyone talking. Great job Sony!
Nintendo
Zelda. Nintendo brought Zelda and little else. This Zelda looks to be the most ‘Western RPG’ inspired, and it looks great, but Nintendo needs to do something soon to knock our socks off. Otherwise they will not even be worth talking about.
All in All there were a lot of great games brought to this year’s E3, but just not a lot of surprises. I can’t wait to get my hands on Sea of Thieves or figure out what Death Stranding is all about. It looks like we got a lot of good years of gaming still ahead of us!
While I wait to hear from Nintendo for my E3 wrap-up, I thought I would give my thoughts on Hitman’s third episode, Marrakesh. Sadly Marrakesh is the worst episode so far. Having been spoiled with both Paris and Sapienza it was kind of a bummer to get just a standard paint by the numbers Hitman level. It is still better than almost anything Absolution did, but that is not high praise.
What is really a bummer is that there is such potential with Marrakesh. The market area is crazy and bustling with activity, but neither target makes use of this. Instead you infiltrate a dilapidated old school and an embassy. Far away from anything that makes Morocco unique or interesting. Plus to finish the hits in those two locations it is just a matter of finding the right person to disguise yourself as to take the target down. There weren’t any of the fun mouse-trap like ways to kill these two gents, and if there were they weren’t very obvious. Not to mention it was supper easy. I got the Silent Assassin rating with very little effort.
Things are not all bad though. The level does have good bones, and the market is pretty great with hundreds of NPCs, so I am sure that there will be added Contracts that make better use of what Marrakesh has to offer. It is just a shame that the main story targets were so bland. In the end it was still more Hitman, and that is something to be thankful for, but if you are paying by level, I would skip Marrakesh for now until people fill out the Contracts board or IO Interactive adds a few more of their own. I hope the next level is a return to form for 47, and I get to do something dastardly to some deserving people.
I should have known that when the people behind Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Kora were brought on to reboot Voltron that it would end up being pretty great, but it is even better than I imagined. Which is quite a feat considering the original Voltron was kind of a mess. I love it, but it doesn’t hold up well. Somehow they were able to take that mess and create a fun space opera out of it.
I love that they didn’t try to make Voltron more than it is. It is still kind of a silly and dumb, but it is also full of action with a good cast of characters. It is the show that my nostalgia lets me remember the original Voltron being. Which was terrific. If you want to spend your time watching robots form up to make another robot to fight evil cat people than Voltron is for you. If not, you probably didn’t read this mini-review anyway. I hope that Netflix reboots more of the shows from my childhood.
Preacher is such a weird show! I am not sure what to think of it. It is definitely different than the comic book, but you can tell it shares the same DNA. The first episode introduces us to all the main players and their odd and bloody world, but I am not sure where it goes from here. Jesse got the ‘word of God’, but instead of heading out on a road trip he is staying put, so I am not sure what can happen to him in the middle of nowhere Texas. I guess we will find out.
To Seth Rogan’s credit, he and his crew managed to make something completely unlike anything else that is on TV. Not to mention DC Comic’s infiltration of every TV network in America seems to be right on track. If Preacher can keep hitting these strange notes every week, AMC might have another hit on its hands. They also might just have a strange show based on an odd comic book.
