‘The Bachelor’: Little Ben Comes Out to Play in the Fantasy Suite

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March 3, 2016

The long awaited trailer for the all-female Ghostbusters reboot from director Paul Feig has finally been released!

Feig’s take on the Ghostbusters reboots the universe in favor of having the new generation of scientists being the first on their kind in their journey of hunting ghosts. Screenwriter Katie Dippold tells /Film:

One of the reasons to do it this way is that it’s just like today’s modern times. Like science doesn’t believe in ghosts anymore. So to say that [ghosts] had existed for the past 30 years, it’s just a different world. And in the original it’s so fun when ghosts unleash upon the city for the first time. It’s just a fun thing, we didn’t wanna skip over it.

Hidden in the trailer is a link to ParanormalStudiesLab.com which houses a behind the scenes making-of feature called “Busting Ghosts with Science.”

What do you think of the first trailer? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Ghostbusters hits theaters July 15.

The Search for Dory’s Family Begins in the ‘Finding Dory’ Trailer

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March 2, 2016

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It’s been thirteen years since Finding Nemo found us cheering for Marlin, a clownfish father, looking for his lost son, Nemo, with the help of a very forgetful fish named Dory. The story captured the hearts of millions around the world and quickly became an instant classic.

Now after all these years, Disney and Pixar are returning to the deep underwater world to explore Dory’s journey to find her family.

With the release of a brand new trailer, Finding Dory appears to be bringing back many old faces and new as Dory’s journey takes her both above and below the ocean.

“Finding Dory” reunites everyone’s favorite forgetful blue tang, Dory, with her friends Nemo and Marlin on a search for answers about her past. What can she remember? Who are her parents? And where did she learn to speak Whale?

Directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Diane Keaton, and Eugene Levy, Finding Dory will open in US theaters on June 17, 2016.

‘Big Hero 6’ Animated Series Headed to Disney XD

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March 2, 2016

Hiro and Baymax captured our hearts on the big screen, but it’s not over yet.

Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide announced today a Big Hero 6 animated TV series based off the hit movie that will continue the stories and adventures in San Fransokyo. Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, the creators and executive producers behind Disney Channel series “Kim Possible,” will be serving as executive producers.

“Our colleagues at Walt Disney Animation Studios have created a brilliant new world, inspired by Marvel, with vivid, unique characters. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to further develop these characters into a world class animated series — full of fun, action and the kind of endearing storytelling that only Mark, Bob — and Baymax — can deliver.”

The 2017 premiere of Big Hero 6 on Disney XD will also feature the return of control freak Wasabi, scientist Honey Lemon, fanboy Fred and no-nonsense Go Go, who together form the legendary superhero team, Big Hero 6, alongside Hiro and Baymax.

As the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro now faces daunting academic challenges and the social trials of being the little man on campus. Off campus, the stakes are raised for the high-tech heroes as they must protect their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains.

Netflix Renews ‘Fuller House’ for a Second Season

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March 2, 2016

“You got it dudes,” is what I imagine Netflix said to Fuller House fans this morning as the streaming media company announced via Twitter that they will bring the hit series back for a second season.

Your list will get even fuller.

Season 2. Coming soon to @Netflix. #FullerHouse ?❤️?https://t.co/aEdTwbLDLM

— Fuller House (@fullerhouse) March 2, 2016

Fuller House brought back the entire Tanner family (minus Michelle) from Full House, picking up nearly twenty years after the original series ended. The series follows DJ, who is recently widowed with three sons, as she navigates being a single mother in her childhood home with the help of her younger sister Stephanie and childhood best friend Kimmy Gibbler.

The entire first season of Fuller House is available to stream on Netflix.

Let’s Give A Hand to These Actors Who Deserve More

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March 1, 2016

With the Oscars airing last night (and Leo finally nabbing his tiny golden man), I started thinking about television and movie actors who have gone through similar tragedy to the one Leo faced in The Revenant and how they still go unrecognized for their sacrifice. Let’s take a moment to honor these heroes in no particular order.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) – Game of Thrones

Woody Harrelson (Roy Munson) – Kingpin

Tony Hale (Buster Bluth) – Arrested Development

Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Michael Ironside (Jean Rasczak) – Starship Troopers

Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn) – Arrow

Bruce Campbell (Ash Williams) – Ash vs. Evil Dead

You’re welcome. A round of applause to me.

‘The Flame in the Flood’ Review: I Hope You Like Death, Little One

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February 27, 2016

I play a lot of survival games. A lot. In fact, if you follow me on Steam, you might think that’s all I play. Because of my tendencies to hate myself and want to watch my player character die, The Flame in the Flood called to me. A survival roguelike with adorable artwork that’s meant to remind gamers of The Oregon Trail? Hell-to-the-yes.

Developed by The Molasses Flood, The Flame in the Flood follows main character Scout as she traverses a world flooded to biblical proportions. Along the way, she meets a dog named Aesop and he joins her down river in search of an emergency radio signal.

On the surface, The Flame in the Flood is a simple game. Your goal is to travel downriver with your canine companion and just…survive, by any means necessary. If that means you have to eat 30 stacks of cattails and dandelions, so be it. Hey, we didn’t say that survival tasted good. Of course such a world isn’t without perils of the aggressive nature, so expect to come across snakes, bears, and wolves on your journey. As you drift downstream at the mercy of the currents you can stop off at different islands comprised of gas stations, marinas, camp sites, and so on. It is on these islands that you collect your goods for survival, kill animals for meat and hide, and upgrade your raft and weapons. Then you push off the dock, never to see that land again, so loot while you can.

See? Simple.

And if that’s all you want from a game, to float down a never-changing river, plod through repetitive land areas, and make the same three foods over and over for hours on end, then The Flame in the Flood is for you.

Don’t misunderstand me. I liked The Flame in the Flood. For the first hour. It was an exciting survival game–a struggle to get flint for a stone knife, difficult to collect enough saplings for snares–but once I hit the third region out of ten and realized that everything was the same as it was the first time I set sail, I grew tired of the journey. And that’s the problem with the game. Once you get the basics down, that’s it. There isn’t an “end game” to strive toward and things don’t progress in difficulty down the river. Sure, it gets a smidge colder along the way and it rains so you might catch a cold. Or you might run into a bear, but that’s it.

The game is labeled as a roguelike in that each time you play the river is different from the game before. This doesn’t affect modes that restart from checkpoints, however, as those stay the same, which is kind of frustrating when you’ve played the same area over and over. I did find a loophole in the game mechanics though, that made my playthrough significantly easier (to the point that it felt like cheating): whenever I was near-death, I simply closed out to the menu and restarted the game. The game would start again at the last save point (usually when I landed at a new dock or woke up from sleeping) rather than the last checkpoint (which is where I’d go if I died). Again, it felt like cheating so I didn’t abuse it, but the option is there. Because you’ll die, a lot. Either from drowning or starving or getting mauled by a bear or just due to sickness, your death will happen.

Since I am a huge fan of the survival genre, and I don’t mind chore games that require me to grind for resources, I was disappointed with how little went into the mechanics of The Flame in the Flood. Sure, I was frustrated that I could loot a used snare for partial resources but I was even more frustrated at the lack of options when it came protecting myself in the post-societal world. Using a bow was pointless and the only means to defend myself came in the form of spear traps and poisoned meat. Even a rudimentary spear would have been a welcome addition against charging boars.

The same complaint goes for food and clothing. You can loot garlic, which I thought I’d be crafting into a more complicated meal that would offer buffs or healing. I hoarded the garlic thinking a rarer item like that would be important. Nope. It’s just garlic. You eat it plain. The clothing crafting system is okay but there was no real need to craft the top tier bear armor because it just didn’t matter. If my character got cold (traveling downstream, mind you), I simply lit a fire. Higher tiers of armor didn’t grant me better defense or a lesser chance of getting lacerations, it just kind of made me less cold.

Throughout the world there are small, random quests you can complete by visiting dropboxes and each quests offers you up a reward of some kind. While great in the early game, mid to late-game, these tasks are pointless. Why waste resources to make rabbit armor and collect a camp fire when I could just…make my own camp fire? If the quests had increased in difficulty with better rewards based on each region, I would have been excited. Instead, like most of the game, they stayed the same until the end.

Along with quests, there are random NPC interactions, solo characters who can tell you a teensy bit more about the world and offer to trade with you (or just give you free things). It would have been nice to interact with even a small civilization, a family or two living in the wilderness together, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I met with Magnolia a few times (who said the same thing each time I met her and if I could have, I would have killed her for being a witch) and ran into some characters for the main quest. Mostly, the game was without human interaction, which is a shame.

Crafting was a needed addition for the game and the menu wasn’t too complicated, even offering a quick deploy option for food and weapons at the left-hand side of the screen. The inventory, however, was another matter. It was a mess of items that didn’t stack properly, items that adhered to arbitrary stacking rules (meat stacks, jars don’t, etc.), and a complicated nuisance of shuffling items between pack, dog, and raft. Oh, and don’t spend too long in the inventory because the game doesn’t pause while you’re in there and animals WILL kill you while you’re desperately trying to make space for more nuts and bolts.

As I said before, the graphics were stunning, a perfect art style for such a game and even the music mixed nicely with the theme. The atmosphere, though repetitive, was well done and easy enough to navigate. It’s fairly linear and each map area is small so you won’t be getting lost in the woods any time soon. Again, simple. And on the Xbox One the game performed wonderfully. I didn’t have any issues with bugs or glitches.

Unfortunately, The Flame in the Flood is a game with a lot of squandered potential. It does survival and roguelike but doesn’t do either as well as I would have liked. Though on the surface it looks like a polished product, by the end it feels more like an early access game, and I say that actually liking the main story and concept behind the ending. For the first few hours it offers plenty of fun and excitement, but don’t expect to get much more out of it. I played for 8 hours and felt like I explored all I needed to, which is disappointing for a game that should be based on replayability.

Score: 5.5/10

The Flame in the Flood is available now for PC, Mac OS, and Xbox One.

A review code for this game was supplied by the developer.

The Workprint Gamescast Episode 24 – Team Killers!

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February 26, 2016

What’s up, guys and gals! Welcome to the Workprint Gamescast!

Listen to Rob, Jen, Bilal, and the gang talk about the latest in video games news, what they’re playing, and all other manner of nerdy habits.

THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST: Rob is out sick so Jen stages a mutiny! With her are first mates Josh and Ben as the ragtag crew discusses the joys of trolling your own team by killing them. Also, Pirates?!?!?! (Rob apologizes in advance for this…he…he should have known better than to get sick.)

Want to watch our shenanigans live? Check out the Workprint Twitch channel. Our gamescast goes live every Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST.

‘The 100’: What has happened to Lexa?

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February 26, 2016

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Spoilers, spoilers, y’all. All the way through The 100 Season 3, Episode 6: “Bitter Harvest.”

The third season of The 100 has been dividing fans all over the internet and for good reason. For a show that has always moved at a break neck pace, it feels like season three has turned up the boosters to 11. And even though it seems like we’re missing pivotal scenes (the massacre, the three month jump, and so on), I think this season has been more about exploring who these characters really are and unearthing those traits for both the plot and the fans. (And it’s been really, really good.)

I’ve already gone into detail about what I believe happened with Bellamy, elaborating on his train of thought leading up to the massacre. (And I felt vindicated in my reasoning after his scene last week with Clarke.) I’ve also talked about Jaha’s changes and his savior complex. But now I want to focus on another leader, Lexa.

Lexa inspires a significant amount of hate among fans, Skaikru, and Grounders alike. She’s weak, she’s ruthless, she’s selfish, she’s a waffle in love, blah blabbity blah. Except I’m not actually sure she’s any of those things when we look closer. In last week’s episode, “Hakeldama” she proclaims that “blood will not have blood” and this week in “Bitter Harvest” she makes good on that promise. On the surface that motto seems like a stark change from her character we’ve come to know and that some (*ahem* Titus) believe she’s acting on behalf of Clarke, but I argue that this is the Lexa we’ve always known but refused to see.

Not a character of many words, we don’t really know much about Lexa’s background. What we do know is what other characters say about her. She commands respect and loyalty from the Grounders, especially Indra, a character who is strong and powerful in her own right, a character who could fend off enemies without batting an eyelash obeys Lexa’s final word. Of all the Grounders, Indra challenges Lexa the most, questioning her decisions against the ways of the Grounders, but ultimately, she defaults to Lexa’s command because she trusts the Heda’s opinion. I have no doubt that Indra assumes the changes in Lexa are due to Clarke, but even upon first meeting Lexa we know that Indra considers her commander merciful.

When it is believed that Skaikru tried to poison Lexa, Lexa only takes Raven to be killed when Indra admits she would have killed the lot of them. And when Lexa finds out the truth of the poisoning, in a very Ned Stark fashion, she passes the sentence and then swings the sword. Lexa could have killed all of Skaikru in that room and been done with the whole ordeal. She had all of their leadership imprisoned and could have easily sent the rest of Arkadia scattering, leaving them to Mount Weather or the wilderness, but she didn’t. Lexa realized the importance of a treaty with Skaikru for both her people and theirs.

In fact, Lexa consistently follows the notion, “sacrifice the few for the many.” Even in TonDC when it looked like she and Clarke had left hundreds to die, she wasn’t thinking of what they lost, but the hundreds and thousands more left to save in Mount Weather. In her mind, she was saving future generations from imprisonment and torture.

When Nia challenges Lexa at Polis and clamors for a vote of no confidence, Titus implores Lexa to kill the traitors and be done with the issue, but she doesn’t. Instead of killing twelve ambassadors, she decides to kill one. One, for many, even at great risk to herself, and in the end, despite protests from everyone, it works out to her advantage.

It is because of her calm and well-thought out that I see a lot of similarities between Lexa and Kane as leaders. They recognize the tradition of their people but ultimately, they also admit when tradition is not enough or when tradition goes too far. They are both open to changing their cultures for the sake of their people even when they are met with resistance, learning everything they can about their enemy and humanizing them.

Clarke, on the other hand, is not yet a leader. Lexa and Kane both see Clarke in the transitional stage between warrior and leader. Over the course of three seasons we’ve watched Clarke make the difficult decisions, watched her racked with guilt over the deaths she’s caused, the ones she’s lost. And that’s why I think that Lexa is constantly giving Clarke so much say in their actions. Sure, there’s sexual tension between the two, but Lexa is a leader, bred and born, she knows how to keep work and play separate. Instead, she sees Clarke as a younger version of herself and she helps “train” Clarke by giving her an opportunity to make the hard decisions.

You can see this relationship play out between them in “Bitter Harvest” when Lexa grants Clarke autonomy over what happens to Emerson. As Clarke agrees with Titus’ suggestion to kill Emerson, Lexa’s face drops in disappointment. Clarke still doesn’t understand what it means to make decisions outside of the moment (a lesson she and Bellamy are both learning). Clarke sees the issues as, “I don’t want my friends to die right now” whereas Lexa believes in protecting her people for their entire lives. Her role as Heda is eternal and she knows she has to make decisions that she can live with forever.

The 100 airs Thursdays on The CW at 9pm EST.

‘Game of Thrones’ Star Finn Jones Cast as Marvel’s Iron Fist

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February 25, 2016

The last piece of The Defenders puzzle has finally been cast as Netflix and Marvel have found their star for Iron Fist.

Game of Thrones star Finn Jones, who plays Loras Tyrell, Margaery’s brother on Game of Thrones, will take on the titular role, completing the casting for all the major roles in the Netflix and Marvel deal. Jones will join Charlie Cox, Daredevil, Krysten Ritter, Jessica Jones, and Mike Colter, Luke Cage, as part of The Defenders.

Confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, Iron Fist will center on Daniel Rand “who fights against the criminal elements corrupting New York with his kung fu skills and ability to summon the power of the fiery Iron Fist. The series picks up with Rand returning to the Big Apple after having gone missing for several years.”

More on Iron Fist’s powers and abilities below:

Through concentration, Iron Fist can harness his spiritual energy, or chi, to augment his physical and mental capabilities to peak human levels. By focusing his chi into his hand, he can tap the superhuman energy of Shou-Lao and temporarily render his fist superhumanly powerful, immune to pain and injury; however, this process is mentally draining, and he usually needs recovery time before he can repeat it. Iron Fist can heal himself of any injury or illness and project this power to heal others. He can sense mystic energy, particularly that which is related to K’un-Lun.

He is capable of fusing his consciousness with that of another person, enabling each to perceive the other’s emotions and memories. He has unusually keen eyesight, but it is unclear if it extends to superhuman level. His entire body is oriented to combat, enabling him to adapt to any environment with minimal exposure. At times, he has absorbed energy directed at himself and channeled it to augment his own power. Under certain circumstances, he can even focus his chi to create nexus points between dimensions.

More on Marvel.com: http://marvel.com/universe/Iron_Fist_(Danny_Rand)#ixzz41DMsJRDy

‘Penny Dreadful’ Season 3 Trailer Embraces the Dark Side

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February 25, 2016

The Penny Dreadful Season 3 teaser trailer has arrived and it begs the question – “Do you think you know sin?”

Last season, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and company thwarted the forces of Lucifer once again but there was not much to celebrate as the group ventured off, damaged, in their different directions.

The new season will see the return of Patti LuPone who guest starred last season as the Cut-Wife. LuPone will play a new role as a series regular – Dr. Seward, an American therapist who treats Vanessa with an unconventional new approach. Also returning will be Simon Russell Beale as Dr. Ferdinand Lyle and Sarah Greene as Hecate.

Joining the cast in the new season will be:

Wes Studi (Hell On Wheels) will play Kaetenay, an intense, enigmatic Native American with a deep connection to Ethan (Josh Hartnett) who also becomes an ally to Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton).

Shazad Latif will don the role of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Henry Jekyll.

Christian Camargo (DEXTER^®, The Hurt Locker) will play Dr. Alexander Sweet, a zoologist who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Vanessa;

Sam Barnett (2012, Jupiter Ascending) will play Dr. Seward’s mysterious young secretary

Jessica Barden (The Outcast, Far from the Madding Crowd) will play Justine, a young acolyte to Lily (Billie Piper) and Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney)

Perdita Weeks (THE TUDORS) will play Catriona Hartdegan, a scholar with expert knowledge of the supernatural.

Penny Dreadful Season 3 premieres on May 1, 2016.

New ‘Daredevil’ Trailer Shows Off Elektra and The Hand

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February 25, 2016

Elektra: I need your help Matthew. You’re the only person I can trust.
Matt: Oh sweetheart, you don’t break into my house and then talk to me about trust.

The second trailer for Marvel’s Daredevil has arrived and as promised, the trailer shifts its focus from The Punisher to Matt Murdock’s old college girlfriend, Elektra Natchios.

With Matt’s vigilante life cleaning the city of crime, the trailer has Elektra revealing to him that the Yakuza have not fled New York, but have actually gone into hiding. As Matt erases one staple of criminal power after the next, the Yakuza are priming themselves for a takeover.

The official synopsis for the new season can be found below:

Just when Matt thinks he is bringing order back to the city, new forces are rising in Hell’s Kitchen. Now the Man Without Fear must take on a new adversary in Frank Castle and face an old flame – Elektra Natchios.

Bigger problems emerge when Frank Castle, a man looking for vengeance, is reborn as The Punisher, a man who takes justice into his own hands in Matt’s neighborhood. Meanwhile, Matt must balance his duty to his community as a lawyer and his dangerous life as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, facing a life-altering choice that forces him to truly understand what it means to be a hero.

Marvel’s Daredevil Season 2 arrives on Netflix on March 18, 2016.

‘Shadowhunters’ Review: The Cup, The Kiss, The Bite

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February 25, 2016

SHADOWHUNTERS - "Major Arcana" (Freeform/John Medland) KATHERINE MCNAMARA, DOMINIC SHERWOOD

Shadowhunters

Season 1, Episode 7: “Major Arcana”

Air Date: February 23, 2016

There’s been a lot of build up in this season of Shadowhunters so far and finally some major events came to fruition as the Mortal Cup was found, certain individuals had their first kiss, and someone got into deadly trouble.

Here are all the big moments you need to know in this week’s episode:

Maureen and Simon Hooked Up

You read that right! In the equivalent of roid rage, Simon (with Camille’s blood flowing through him) ends up sleeping with Maureen after leaving Magnus’ loft and another heated argument with Jace. He mistakenly calls her Clary and things get super awkward super fast. Poor Maureen is feeling insecure enough as it is and Simon’s blunder doesn’t help. But the guy is going out of his mind with worry that he’s becoming a vampire because of the hallucinations, increased aggressiveness and the blood cravings so I get that he’s super confused about everything at the moment.

Captain Vargas Gets Killed

Luke’s boss Captain Vargas becomes the unfortunate victim of a shape-shifting demon at the precinct looking to find out why Clary and Jace are there. While the New York pack alpha is being investigated by internal affairs, the demon manages to kill and then impersonate Vargas in order to try and find out why Clary was so interested in Luke’s belongings. Her last words? “This job is going to be the death of me.” Yikes.

Izzy Breaks Up with Meliorn

Last week we caught a glimpse of Izzy sending out a message but we didn’t know to whom or what it said after her conversation with Robert. She confirms though that she’s ended her relationship with the Seelie after Alec gets back from Magnus’ place. Attempting to help restore her family’s honor, Izzy is trying to be the mature and responsible Shadowhunter that her parents want her to be. She’s opted to wear more conservative clothes and emulate a style that is closer to Maryse’s. Her biggest sacrifice was saying goodbye to Meliorn because of the pressures against Shadowhunter-Downworlder entanglements.

Clary Finally Gets The Mortal Cup

Clary and Jace at first go with Luke to the precinct, where the werewolf promises that he’ll get the tarot cards quietly. The two then attempt to get it on their own when Luke is held for questioning by internal affairs. Unfortunately their plan hits a snag when they discover that the alpha’s stuff was being held in the evidence room because of the investigation. Izzy and Alec then arrive as backup so that Jace and Clary could make another attempt at locating the cards. Alas, the plan succeeds and they are able to find it but Clary isn’t able to physically retrieve the cup from within the card until being chased by some Shax demons in the basement of the precinct.

Bonus: Clary’s improv session of distracting the police officers by slapping Jace and calling him a son of a b***. His look of surprise was priceless.

Clace FINALLY Kiss

Clace fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief and as the duo shared their first kiss. It happened right in the middle of the Institute after Clary gets back with Alec in tow. Jace was barking orders to other Shadowhunters that they had to find the fiery redhead when she shows up and hugs him. In the basement, she had encountered the shape-shifting demon who was pretending to be Jace and killed it after she realized that it wasn’t actually the Shadowhunter. It was possibly a combination of adrenaline from demon slaying, finding the cup, and the relief that they were both ok that gave Clary the courage to just go for it and kiss him. It’s about time guys.

Simon Gets Bitten

Simon is not having a good day. His best friend is MIA, he slept with Maureen and made a terrible exit, his mom and sis are both freaked out and on top of that he thinks he’s turning into a vampire. Desperate, Mr. Lewis goes back to the Hotel Dumort looking for Raphael in hopes of figuring out what was going on with him. Instead he finds Camille who calmly explains that her blood in his system was the cause of all the weird things he was experiencing. Eventually it would dissipate and he would be his normal mundane self again. Simon is visibly relieved, but it’s short lived because this time Camille decides to go for the bite and the aftermath is not going to be pretty.

You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 Central.

Griffball Comes to ‘Halo 5’ Today, Warzone Firefight Announced

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February 24, 2016

Free content updates were promised from 343 Studios before the release of Halo 5: Guardians and the studio has delivered on them quite frequently since the game released at the tale end of October last year.

Hammer Storm marks the fourth release of free DLC content for Halo 5, which will bring back the fan-favorite Griffball, a gameplay variant reminiscent of soccer, but you know, with the addition of Gravity Hammers and Energy Swords. In total Halo 5 has seen 11 new maps, 12 new modes (including Big Team Battle and Forge) and more than 180 new REQ items – all completely free.

Hammer Storm includes the following:

New game modes: Grifball, Assault and Fiesta. From the hammer-meets-sword sports sensation of Grifball, and weapon-roulette hilarity of Fiesta, to the fan-favorite Assault game type that’s been fully evolved for Halo 5: Guardians, Hammer Storm brings a brand new game mode to fit every flavor of Halo fan.

New map Torque. An entirely new environment primed for battle, Torque is a large symmetrical map that caters to Capture the Flag and Assault game modes. The pistons in each courtyard can provide key gameplay for cover, traversal, and objective movement.

New weapons change the game. The Gravity Hammer provides the proper tool for smashing enemies, and the Halo: CE Pistol brings back a legacy of single handed death-dealing. Be sure to watch for the classic headshot death animation when you deliver the killing blow!

New REQ items. Hammer Storm contains a myriad of new REQs, including attachments for loadout weapons, weapon skins, armors, emblems, assassinations, visors, and stances.

New possibilities with Forge. The new “ball” mechanic that powers the Assault and Grifball modes unlocks the potential for entirely new game types in Forge mode, not to mention paving the way for returning favorites like Oddball and Ricochet.

Along side the release of Hammer Storm, 343 announced that they have been listening to the fans and are currently working on Warzone Firefight, a new Firefight mode that was first seen in Halo 3: ODST. Warzone Firefight will release later in 2016.

The ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ Trailer is Absolutely Gorgeous

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February 24, 2016

Every time developers Naughty Dog put out a new Uncharted game on the Playstation 3, people would question how they managed to make the games look so great.

With the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End trailer today, people are asking that very question again.

I mean, just look at this game! IT. IS. GORGEOUS.

The final chapter in the Uncharted series will put players back in control of Nathan Drake, the series main protagonist, as he teams up with his brother for one last hunt for treasure. Yea, I know, it’s vague as hell but the story trailer doesn’t give much in terms of details.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End releases exclusively on the Playstation 4 on April 26.

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Review: Dying Light’s The Following Expansion

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Josh Lemis

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February 24, 2016

Warning: The following review of Dying Light: The Following contains at least two(2) spoilers and one(1) disparaging comment about the quality of casino buffets in Louisiana. Suck it Louisiana.

When you can take two or more things that I like and give them to me as one thing, that’s pretty awesome. For example: Casino buffets (not you, Louisiana) give me crabs or lobster, prime rib, and just about any dessert I could possibly want to eat, so, you know: awesome. The new midnight edition of SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt gives me NBA and NFL coverage, gambling tips, and Aqua-Teen cameos, so: awesome.

It’s for this reason that Techland’s Dying Light: The Following should also be awesome: I get parkour (which I don’t usually get to do because I’m lazy), zombies (which I don’t get to kill…yet), and the ability to run over anyone who gets in between me and my objective (which I don’t get to do because there’s no justice in this world).

Dying Light: The Following takes place in the aftermath of the original story, with the protagonist, Kyle Crane, learning from a survivor that there are people immune to infection in “the countryside.” Conveniently, you begin gameplay in a sewer tunnel that just happens to lead to this area. (Despite having spent pretty much the entirety of the core game searching for a way to get survivors out of the desperation of the quarantine and coming up short.) In the countryside, you meet a handful of vaguely ethnic survivors, all of whom seem to be in league with a cult called The Children of the Sun, and none of whom are eager to speak with you.

After you spend a couple missions doing Kyle Crane things, you gain the ability to start doing odd jobs for the settlements in the region, and develop a relationship with the Children of the Sun, eventually joining their ranks and learning the truth about their mysterious leader: “The Mother.”

From a story perspective, the game is solid. There are a couple of minor plot holes when compared to the original, such as the presence of about 400,000 police and military checkpoints in what amounts to Harran’s version of Smallville. It seems to be the solution for power-creep, as the players are expected to be high enough level to require that level of loot, but judging by the number of cop cars, the crisis should have lasted about 13 seconds before every zombie was obliterated in a hail of gunfire from about 29,000 police officers. (They probably all died because their guns SUCK; see below.) A good attempt was made by the writers to incorporate a player choice leading to two endings, and despite the choice being relatively inconsequential as far as the protagonist is concerned, it did puzzle me as to what in the wide world of sports they intend to do with the next DLC. (And there will be more DLC.)

The gameplay is exactly what you got in Dying Light, except with more open areas to run in, and the introduction of their new mechanic (hehe): driving. You get your vehicle almost immediately, with no real explanation about why the only vehicle that works is your dune buggy. (Or the SUV’s the bandits show up in at the end of the game, which are the exact same vehicles that are disabled all over the map but painted differently, but whatever. /rant)

The driving, simply put, is fun. You can exchange parts on your vehicle, make repairs just like in the melee weapon system, and as you level up your ‘driver’ skill, you can make modifications such as a ram-bar and flamethrower, which are both buckets o’ fun. The driving is equally challenging and rewarding as you splatter zombies all over the countryside, but risk damage to your vehicle basically any time you do anything. Parts are easy to come by through salvaging the static vehicles on the map, and you do gain access to rare resources for upgrading your buggy as the game progresses.

If achievements and collectibles are your thing, the game incorporates a number of extra driving-specific challenges and races. The buggy also supports a passenger who has the option to sit in the back and read the latest edition of Good Harranskeeping, or to stand up in the back and use firearms or the crossbow to help clear the hordes. I was delighted, much to the dismay of my co-op partner, to learn that as the driver I could clothesline him to death with low hanging branches and the occasiona…

What?

Yes, I said crossbow.

Okay, okay, slow down there Darryl.

The crossbow (and bow, but who cares?) is the main addition to your zombie slaying arsenal. It comes with a variety of ammunition, upgrades passively via the main storyline, and is downright OP. The crossbow easily one-shots mini-bosses and it highlights a complaint of mine about the original Dying Light: Why do guns have to suck? The melee weapon crafting and upgrade system is awesome. It keeps itself simple while allowing for a great deal of customization, and the inevitable permanent loss of a weapon to gives the player pause when assigning resources and cleaving through crowds alike. Why, with this excellent groundwork, are you stuck with whatever gun you happen to pick up off the ground and no ability to modify it at all? If we’re willing to suspend realism long enough for me to fall off the top of a power pole onto a pile of trash bags filled with what sounds like broken glass and hepatitis, and get up without a scratch, then why can’t I have electric bullets? Why can’t I at least get a scope or a red dot or a SILENCER. FOR THE ZOMBIES.

Techland pls.

Graphically, the expansion delivers what the original did with a country twang. Freerunning and climbing allows for some amazing vista views and there’s plenty of exploration to do. The gore is abundant and even has an impact on the game as you try to wipe zombie guts out of your eyes while plowing through the horde in your bumper car. The cutscenes are very active, and provide for a decently immersive first person experience, despite some instances where Kyle Crane seems to just be moving his head a lot and not actually interacting with the world.

All things considered Dying Light: The Following is a solid addition to the franchise, but it’s not without flaws. Most of the bosses, including the final boss are simply large sacks of HP, with the latter slapping on a pointlessly random quick-time event that will instantly kill you if you fail. (It was so frustrating, I almost considering docking an entire point from the game just for that fight alone.) It reminds me of third round of Family Feud, where the incompetent family that lost the first two rounds gets to advance because they stole one good answer at the very end. (Except, y’know, with a teleporting psychotic rage monster.)

The lack of an upgrade system for the firearms seems like an egregious oversight, considering the work that has gone into the systems for upgrading and crafting melee weapons and car parts. I also noticed some minor instances where the dynamic quest system could get confused by the interaction of multiple players in Co-op, but these were not gamebreaking. (The worst being an instance where we helped a man off the ground, despite the fact that he was still standing and shouting insults at bandits who were, in fact, in pieces on the ground). The game was not perfect in any one area, but is a solid play for fans of the original, and is definitely fun to play with a friend.

Score: 7/10

A special thanks to my Co-Op partner for this playthrough of Dying Light: The Following, who will not be named per his request for privacy. (It was Benjamin Putland, y’all.)

This game was reviewed thanks to a code supplied by the developer. Thanks, guys!

‘Jane the Virgin’ and the art of the OMG WTF cliffhanger

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February 23, 2016

jane the virgin chapter thirty four — Jane The Virgin -- "Chapter Thirty-Four" -- Pictured: Gina Rodriguez as Jane -- Photo: Scott Everett White/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Spoilers through Jane the Virgin 2×12, “Chapter Thirty-Four,” including some major ones, so stay away until you’re all caught up!

There’s this magic thing that happens in the final moments of a Jane the Virgin episode–I don’t know how the writers manage it week to week–but as the episode comes to a close, events go from zero to a billion in a single pop song verse.

It’s not truly surprising, especially when you remember Jane the Virgin is made by The CW. I grew up on shows like Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill–I know how crazy the cliffhangers can get. In Jane we’ve already had newborn kidnappings and near-death stair incidents. And let’s not forget we all watched a dude get impaled on an ice sculpture at the buzzer.

But there’s something different about how Jane approaches the drama. It’s a TV show that is very good at the bait and switch, which really says something since as the viewer have a telenovela narrator holding our hand throughout the story.

A few weeks ago the mid-season premiere “Chapter Thirty-One” got pretty crazy and ended with Rafael getting needled in the neck by his estranged mother (who we then learned is the crime lord Mutter). As with most of the cliffhangers in Jane the Virgin, things got cleared up in the opening moments and Rafael appeared to be…relatively okay with the events that transpired afterwards. But some cliffhangers, like the season one finale, or last night’s “Chapter Thirty-Four” ending, take a little bit longer to resolve themselves. I think we’ll be feeling the effects of last night’s ending for week’s to come, whether for good or bad.

But let’s talk about how we got to that shocking finale in last night’s episode. It was a whirlwind of an hour, guided by an overly talkative narrator, teasing us with the prospect of a name change for the show. At first, I have to admit, I thought Jane’s relationship with Professor Chavez would go down the Little Women route, giving Jane her own Professor Bhaer who would allow her to shine. Alas, Professor Chavez mentions he’s only into Jane as a casual thing and right then I knew they wouldn’t get past the make out phase. (Which I’m completely okay with even though no one would have been sad to see the actor repeat his dance routine from Magic Mike XXL.)

Besides, with the way the show has been pushing the love triangle between Jane, Michael, and Rafael, there’s no way the writers could simply push those shippers aside. Unfortunately for Rafael fans, Jane put the kibosh on their relationship, shooting down any hope he might have had for them to be a family. I felt for Rafael in that moment, but I can’t say I’m surprised. He’s been downplayed heavily in season 2, making ludicrous mistakes one after the other. On top of that, he’s embroiled in yet another unplanned and unwilling pregnancy, this time with Petra (a story line I’m really not a fan of) and their romance seems to be kind of, maybe, possibly heating up.

And then, out of left field, there’s Michael.

A few weeks ago, Michael pushed Jane away, treating her coldly and forcing her back to Rafael, and then eventually toward Professor Chavez. However, we learned in “Chapter Thirty-Four” that Michael’s reason for this wasn’t because he didn’t have feelings for Jane. In fact, the opposite. He drove her away to keep her safe from Rose and after the character’s (somewhat suspicious) death, he felt like they could be together again.

After the intense hospital scene, and yet another emotional breakup between Xio and Ro, Michael shows up at Jane’s door (the site for the majority of the cliffhanger endings) and professes his feelings. I’m sure that the sweet summer children among us would like to believe this is the end of the emotional struggle for Jane, that she’s finally made her “choice.” A lifetime of watching CW shows and with nearly two seasons of Jane the Virgin under my belt, I’m not so hopeful. I wish I could believe this is “it” for Jane, but there are still ten more episode endings on the season two books and I’m certain at least half will involve Jane’s love life.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get some super sappy and potentially title-changing moments between Jane and Michael–I think we will–but like every other time Jane finds happiness, disaster intervenes.

What do you think? Will Jane FINALLY be happy in her romance life? Is Michael “the one?” How many more crazy cliffhangers are we in store for on Jane the Virgin?

Jane the Virgin airs Mondays on The CW at 9pm EST.

‘The Magicians’ Endure Freshman Hazing in The Trials

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February 22, 2016

The Magicians

Season 1, Episode 6: “Impractical Applications”

Air Date: February 22, 2016

This week’s episode of The Magicians gives us hazing the Brakebills way, Quentin and Penny becoming magic bros, and we learn why Kady is stuck as Marina’s slave.

In order to determine if the first year grad students really have what it takes to one day become great magicians, a sort of hazing ritual is enacted by the upperclassmen. Quentin (Jason Ralph) is reading (a Fillory book maybe?) alone inside the living room of the Physical Kids’ cabin when he hears a noise and goes to investigate. Yes Q, someone really is being creepy on purpose. He is accosted by two cloaked figures in gold masks and a bag is put over his head.

The two mysterious individuals turn out to be Margo (Summer Bishil) and another upperclassman who have taken Q outside the cabin along with a gaggle of other first years. Eliot (Hale Appleman) then waltzes onto the makeshift stage (also donning the cloak and mask) and welcomes the plebs to their trials, a tradition at the school that will test their abilities to think and act like magicians. If they pass their true journey begins, but fail and they flunk out of Brakebills.

The trials are a little reminiscent of freshmen hazing in Dazed and Confused except there’s magic involved. Their first test has Penny (Arjun Gupta) and Quentin grouped together with another guy (let’s call him Bob) and their team name is Horny Chupacabras. The task is to decipher a spell that was encoded by 18^th century magicians and cast it successfully by 9 am the next day. It is a seemingly impossible task until Quentin realizes that they have to think outside of the box. His plan? To cheat of course. Penny is on board but Bob refuses. So Q and the traveller meet inside a closet where he reveals that they can get the answer through Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley). Boom, the once adversaries are now reluctant magic bros. Penny astral projects and memorizes Alice’s answers and he and Quentin pass the first test despite Eliot knowing that they cheated. The point is that there are no half assed spells they had to figure out a way to get something done. Honest Bob vanishes.

THE MAGICIANS -- "Impractical Applications" Episode 106 -- Pictured: Hale Appleman as Eliot -- (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy) — THE MAGICIANS — “Impractical Applications” Episode 106 — Pictured: Hale Appleman as Eliot — (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy)

Their next test lands the plebs in the forest again and they are given an item to use to perform a very specific task. Q has a bow and arrow and is supposed to catch a fish, Penny is given an axe to bring in a wild horse, Alice is given rope to crash a tree and Kady (Jade Tailor) has a net to somehow get a pheasant. The two lovebirds run into each other first and Kady has a momentary freak out about flunking and how she needed to stay in Brakebills. Poor lamb you really need to stay in or incur the wrath of Marina (Kacey Rohl).

Penny realizes though that they need to talk to each other to find out which person had the skill needed to complete the task. So after a powwow session, Penny ends up with the net to catch the fish (he’s from Florida and knows his fishing), Quentin has the lasso since he went to junior cowboy camp (but hated it), Alice takes the arrow to kill the pheasant and Kady has the technique to cut down a tree. They all pass and derisively Eliot and Margo reveal they were all outside the cabin the whole time.

THE MAGICIANS -- "Impractical Applications" Episode 106 -- Pictured: Summer Bishil as Margo -- (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy) — THE MAGICIANS — “Impractical Applications” Episode 106 — Pictured: Summer Bishil as Margo — (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy)

Speaking of which, Margo really shines in this episode as the upperclassman who is just having way too much fun wielding power over the freshmeat. Both her and Eliot’s over the top drama were a treat to watch and Bishil and Appleman do a fantastic job in playing off each other’s characters. Their chemistry as BFFs is on point and I’m sure we all knew people like that at school.

The group’s final trial though is the hardest one as they must each bare a truth to the other person before a magical rope is loosened and they have to be butt naked doing it.

Penny and Kady’s scene was so hard to watch because the traveller had to be uncomfortably vulnerable and admit that he was falling in love with her. Oh but here’s where it got horrible because Kady had to reveal that she had been using him and that she was a liar. Even though she didn’t say everything, we know that’s the truth because she’s there mainly because she has to do Marina’s bidding. We’ll get to the rest of Kady’s story soon.

Meanwhile, Quentin and Alice decided that drinking would help loosen them up for this terribly awkward test. Midnight came around though and both their ropes were still secure. A dejected Alice confesses that she tries so hard to control herself daily because people already hate her, but the truth was she didn’t know the extent of her power. Q realizes that he hasn’t changed even with real magic in his life that he is still trying to run away (he now can’t turn to Fillory for comfort). Looks like they made it in time as their bindings fall away after revealing these two

In what looks like a very painful process, they all transform into birds and fly away into the night towards an unknown destination. Now that’s how you haze!

THE MAGICIANS -- "Impractical Applications" Episode 106 -- Pictured: (l-r) Jade Tailor as Kady, Arjun Gupta as Penny -- (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy) — THE MAGICIANS — “Impractical Applications” Episode 106 — Pictured: (l-r) Jade Tailor as Kady, Arjun Gupta as Penny — (Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy)

But lets get to Kady’s backstory. Turns out that her mother Hannah was a cast out hedge witch as well and has now hooked up with Julia (Stella Maeve) to start their own rebel hedge org. Marina kicked her out because of a botched spell that had ended up killing two people in their group. But the most messed up thing was that Kady was indentured to the powerful psycho thanks to mom. That’s so wrong. Hannah contacts her daughter and asks for her help with a spell that they were planning to cast to retrieve Marina’s files. Kady refuses of course but takes Julia’s crude handwritten spell to the safehouse anyways, pretending that it’s something she found at Brakebills. Kady has a complicated past and it’s so heartbreaking that she’s had to lie to Penny this whole time. To make matters more tragic, Hannah ends up dying (in a bad bad way) courtesy of Marina’s hexed files. Gotta hand it to the hedge witch, no one screws her over and gets away with it!

The Magicians is on Syfy Mondays 9/8 central.

For more on The Magicians click HERE.

The Workprint Gamescast Episode 23 – Broken Game Launches

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February 22, 2016

What’s up, guys and gals! Welcome to the Workprint Gamescast!

Listen to Rob, Jen, Bilal, and the gang talk about the latest in video games news, what they’re playing, and all other manner of nerdy habits.

THIS WEEK ON THE GAMESCAST: Rob declares his love of the Deadpool movie, Jen discovers the allure of Smite and Bilal tries his hardest not to spoil EVERYTHING! This episode also discusses the launch of Street Fighter V and compares it to the worst game launches in recent memory!

Want to watch our shenanigans live? Check out the Workprint Twitch channel. Our gamescast goes live every Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST.

Plot Holy: How Buffy put the ‘Christ’ back into “Christ, this show can’t stand Christianity”

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Josh Lemis

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February 22, 2016

With the upcoming release of the next entry in the Dresden Files series, I’d like to take the time to look at modern fantasy series and their portrayal of Christians and Christianity. As an audiobook listener, I’ve come to appreciate James Marsters’ rendition of each of the Dresden books, so it’s in tribute to him that I’ve chosen to start with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I love urban or modern-setting fantasy. I think the complexities of the modern world enhance the classic “magic and monsters” nature of high fantasy, and add infinite possibilities for world-building. One such complexity that has always been a hot issue for me is the portrayal of Christianity and Christians in urban fantasy. Now, spoiler alert: I am a Christian.

This isn’t the part where I spend the next paragraph proselytizing, and I’m certainly not going to warn off the “children of God” from exposing their children to media that includes spoOooOky black magic. I don’t actually think a modern fantasy story needs to validate Christianity, I’m just of the opinion that it is a huge world-building blunder to not address Christianity when the setting is otherwise saturated with Christian symbols and allegory.

Hear me out: nonbelievers have one extremely powerful and compelling argument to justify not believing in God: God is supernatural. It’s absolutely ridiculous to the atheist that there is a supernatural being that is infinitely more powerful than humans, knows everything, created everything, and exists outside of the flow of time. That argument becomes significantly less compelling when you, say, fight demons and the spawn of hell with crosses and holy water.

“The power of a 2,000 years dead man who I don’t believe holds any supernatural influence compels you!”

If you’ve made it this far, I’m going to assume that you’re at least generally familiar with the subject matter of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The title character spends her free time fighting vampires and demons as a sort of “chosen one”, trying to prevent the opening of a portal to hell (or “a” hell). Buffy and her allies use, among other tools, crosses and holy water to defend themselves against their supernatural and evil foes, despite the fact that none of them demonstrate or subscribe to Christian faith. Buffy herself admits that she’s not certain if God even exists, and nobody seems sure why their arsenal is so effective against the undead, despite the abundance of obviously Christian symbols.

This trend of willful neglect to the Christian influence in the show’s world takes a far more negative turn when Caleb is introduced. Caleb is the highest profile character with a significant link of Christianity (his history as a priest), we are reminded of this by his clothing (that of a Catholic Priest), and he just so happens to be a vicious sociopath and right hand of the First Evil. The show takes a sudden turn from complete neglect of the fact that Christianity is a real thing in the world, to introducing the character with the most Christian influence as a serial killer who serves the ultimate “big bad guy”.

No, the other big bad guy. — No, the *other* big bad guy.

The sort of inconsistency required to appropriate Christian relics as symbols of power to fight evil, but to refuse to acknowledge Christianity except as a loosely referenced past to a psychopathic antagonist is a significant world-building error. It reeks of the writer allowing their own bias against Christianity to bleed into their work in a way that is inorganic to the subject matter.

Perhaps the writer is unaware of this, or it’s done intentionally as a way to avert controversy or to pander to an audience the writer/producer anticipates is largely non-Christian, but regardless of the reasoning, it shows a significant flaw in the development of this modern fantasy setting. Again, I don’t require that a modern fantasy setting validate Christianity, but to appropriate symbols and lore from Christian belief as symbols of power and then invalidate the faith and associate it exclusively with the bad guys is something I cry foul at.

Tune in next week for my look at Christian influence and portrayal in The Dresden Files. Maybe in two weeks. Actually, let’s just play it by ear. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

‘The 100’s Thelonious Jaha: Madman, Messiah, or Murderer?

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February 19, 2016

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Spoilers through The 100 season 3, episode 5: “Hakeldama”.

If there’s one story that divides The 100 fans, it’s the City of Light arc. (Though lately it may not divide fans as much as Bellamy’s recent actions.) For much of season two, ex-chancellor Jaha and punk BFF Murphy traipsed through the desert in search of the fabled city so that Jaha might save Skaikru from those pesky human traits like pain and emotions.

Here’s the thing about Jaha: he has a savior complex. On the Ark he leapt at every opportunity to be a martyr for his people, even when Kane rightly pointed out that sometimes dead leadership isn’t the best idea. The first dozen or so times it was admirable but by the end of season one it bordered on straight up annoying. Like many of the other characters on The 100, Jaha desperately wants to be hero and his sacrifice is how he accomplishes that goal.

That is until the oxygen deprivation sets in and his subconscious dreams up a crying baby and alive Wells to inspire him to head to the ground. Once he crash lands in the desert, now dehydrated and overwhelmed, he comes across another way he become a hero to his people: the City of Light.

By the end of season two, he and John Murphy have reached A.L.I.E.’s mansion, but only Jaha experiences the City. John is instead trapped inside a bunker, left to his own insanity for three months. (A trick intended to break him, I’ve no doubt.) And here’s where we get to see the transformation Murphy has made over the course of three seasons. In the beginning he follows the powerful, Bellamy and Co., in the hopes of staying in their good graces. That backfired for him and after being beaten more than anyone besides Lincoln, he quickly learns not to trust every hand out. So, when A.L.I.E comes a calling with her magic pills, he rightly refuses.

Jaha, however, has no such darkness. He’s been praised for his heroism, praised for his leadership, praised for his sacrifices. No one has beaten Jaha to a pulp, tied a noose around his neck, and looked on him with disgust. When he sees the name “Camp Jaha” he smiles because he thinks he’s earned it. He never corrects someone when they refer to him as “Chancellor.” So when A.L.I.E. approaches him and says she’s been waiting for him, waiting for someone intelligent enough to lead the humans to the City of Light, he thinks, “Yes, that is my job. I will be their savior.”

I want to note here that I don’t think Jaha is the first to find A.L.I.E. Obviously with the rumors and the Grounder knowledge of the “sacred symbol,” word has spread. However, A.L.I.E. mentions she is waiting for someone intelligent enough to carry out her design, which says to me that she’s either tried before and failed or she was waiting for someone with enough influence to make a difference. There’s a stark contrast between having a Grounder outlaw or a still beloved chancellor hand out her Halloween goodies.

Then Jaha returns to Arkadia a changed man, peddling his infinity pills to the sick and crippled with a creepy, stoner smile. Sure, many think he’s a bit insane, but he’s also the chancellor who couldn’t wait to off himself; insane is okay when it’s not a Grounder. Besides, he’s spent four months in the desert so naturally, he would be a little loony. At most, he’s a nuisance, but surely nothing dangerous, not with Grounders poised to attack.

Which is exactly what A.L.I.E wants. She knows Jaha will never convince the leadership to try her tasty technology drug, but with enough of the weaker ones on her side, she can force them to join or die. There’s something frightening about a hologram having access to an army that can’t feel pain and Jaha is recruiting its members under the guise of peace and spirituality. And everyone else is focused on killing each other.

To answer the question I posed in my title–is Jaha a madman, messiah, or murderer–I think it’s all three. To Jaha, he is messiah, he is finally fulfilling the role of savior to his people. To Abby, he is a madman who should be stopped but she can’t do anything about it. To Murphy, he’s a murderer, someone who steals away your chance at a full life and keeps it for the “good” of the City of Light.

And by the end of the most recent episode, “Hakeldama”, Jaha has Raven on his side.

The 100 airs Thursdays on the CW at 9pm EST.

‘Arrow’: Haters to the left, a Felicity Smoak love story

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February 18, 2016

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Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. All the way up through Arrow 4×15. (I say 15 because I’m including the promo trailer in that disclaimer.)

I like Felicity Smoak.

There, I said it.

These days that’s a dangerous opinion to have around the Arrow fandom especially with Mama Smoak trespassing and stealing all the good hard-earned subplots, but I don’t care anymore. I am openly #TeamFelicity.

And you know what else? I like Mama Smoak, too. Arrow doesn’t have that many parent/child relationships, and it certainly doesn’t have the beautiful Joe/Barry relationship The Flash has, but Donna Smoak is a good person. She’s an honest person. She’s loyal and yea, she’s loud and kind of superficial but she loves her child unconditionally, and after all that has happened on the show, doesn’t someone deserve that kind of happiness and support? Shouldn’t there be at least one ^{kind of} healthy parent/child relationship?

Why do I love Felicity even though she’s over-the-top, cliche, and too OP for the Arrowverse? Let me count the ways.

She’s kind. Outside of a few instances where the writers shit the bed (some of which I mention below), Felicity is usually the one seeing the best in people. She borders on annoying when she’s telling others to patch up their relationships with brothers and fathers and sisters, but she always has the best intentions. She doesn’t like her friends or family to be sad and will oftentimes put her own feelings on the back-burner to keep people (Oliver) from worrying.

She’s an unabashed loser. While I wish the writers had explored Felicity’s loss of identity more during her medicated wheelchair episodes, Felicity is a person who knows who she is. She’s a nerd who makes unintentional double entendres look like her job. She laughs way too loud at her own jokes. She loves food. OKAY SHE’S ME, ALRIGHT. THAT’S WHY I LOVE HER.

She has the best relationships with people. Felicity is the reason why I came around to liking many of the characters on Arrow. Seeing them through her eyes (Sara, especially) made me more receptive to who they were as characters. She helps Laurel with being the Black Canary, Diggle with becoming a family man, and Oliver with, well, keeping the salmon ladder (which benefits us all). Donna Smoak is similarly open, honest, and forthcoming with her advice. Is the optimism and shrill laughter between the Smoak women sometimes annoying? Hell-to-the-yes, but I don’t mind it because Arrow is a show that needs the light, it needs to awful nerd humor and the puns to survive.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, Felicity is far from perfect, especially of late. In the early seasons, she wasn’t afraid to stand up to Oliver’s nonsense, call him out on a lie, or suck up her feelings when a mission was on the line. Something happened to her character when she become part of the “Olicity” ship and I’m not okay with it.

Some notable objections: Season 2 Felicity would have never approached Oliver with the ring she found, basically forcing him to propose. Some of her jokes in season 4 have come across as more callous than goofy. Handing her Palmer Technologies feels like a stretch, but in the grand scheme of things, that one can slide. And while I don’t like her reaction to finding out about Oliver’s son, it makes sense that she would be just as shocked and upset. I’m okay with her being angry; I’m not okay with her slamming Oliver because of it.

But all these things I can forgive because at her core, Felicity is still the same person. Sure, there’s a weekly reference to how “strong” and “badass” she is in Season 4, but the rest of the writing isn’t that great either. Seriously, look at what they’ve done to Laurel. Bottom line: watching Felicity makes me happy; she still makes me smile.

Based on all those stupid flash forwards and next week’s promo, things look like they’re heading down a dark path for “Olicity” (Ugh, I hate that name). I have an inkling I’m not going to like what happens to Felicity’s character, but I’ll still love her. I’ll always have Felicity the early years and that makes it okay. Ish. (Please stop ruining her!)

Arrow airs Wednesdays on the CW at 8pm EST.

Let’s Gossip About that ‘Agent Carter’ Love Triangle

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February 18, 2016

Agent Carter Love Triangle — MARVEL'S AGENT CARTER - ABC's "Marvel's Agent Carter" stars Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter. (ABC/Bob D'Amico)

Spoilers through Agent Carter 2×07. You have been warned, you sexual deviants.

There’s a new thing happening on season two of Agent Carter (which has been fantastic, bee-tee-dubya) and it involves kissing. At first, I’ll admit, I wasn’t a fan because I’m all, “NO. THIS IS ABOUT PEGGY NOT BOYS.” Maybe it’s the Tumblr thing to do these days but I was firmly entrenched in the Peggy/Angie camp, hoping they’d just power through the world together. I mean, this is Agent Carter, not Agent “Looking to be a Mrs.” Carter!

That being said, somewhere along the way, I decided, you know what? Jarvis and Ana are the true OTP of the show, but why shouldn’t BFF Peggy be happy too? Why should I keep her from being romantically involved because my fan-fiction says Cap gets thawed out soon and they reunite and dance until their feet bleed? Sure, Peggy is a badass first and forever, but no man or woman in her life will ever change that fact. Besides, the show runners can try whatever they want romantically as long as we continue getting phenomenal scenes like this:

Two nights ago, during the double episode extravaganza, Peggy kissed or nearly kissed both Jason Wilkes and Daniel Souza. (*clutches pearls*) It was so out of character that even Jarvis pulled out his best “ohhhh guuurrrllllll” voice. The internet is all atwitter over this new love triangle and Twitter is all ainternet, but let’s take a look at these suitors, shall we?

MARVEL’S AGENT CARTER – ABC’s “Marvel’s Agent Carter” stars Enver Gjokaj as Chief Daniel Sousa. (ABC/Bob D’Amico)

Daniel Souza

Souza was the chief of the Los Angeles SSR office, until Uncle Vernon came to town with Dudley Thompson and took over the joint. Unfortunately, that means Souza is on forced leave and can’t help Peggy with SSR resources. Thankfully, Peggy knows where Souza’s loyalties lie and she’d never blame him for the coup, but he did still ignore my girl Peggy’s messages and that is just poor etiquette, Daniel.

On top of that, Daniel did hide the girlfriend/betrothal from Peggy and on some level, that’s gotta sting for her, even if she did lean in pretty heavily for the kiss-that-was-promised. Because of that dead man block, I almost think their pairing is inevitable. You know how networks love to get off on withholding. And then of course there’s the whole “Cap saved the life of Peggy’s future husband” line to consider, which puts Souza at the top of the list.

Jason Wilkes

I didn’t want to like Wilkes. He came along with his adorable smile and sweet eyes and for a sold two episodes I was convinced he was just whispering “Hail Hydra” over and over. He seemed too nice and too trusting to be a good guy. I know how contradictory that all sounds but in television, you never know who you can trust. At the end of the first episode who among us did not expect him to be a source of conflict for season 2? Hm? HMMMM?!

Thankfully for Wilkes, his actions seemed genuine and even though I tried to call Chris Evans and warn him about some dude macking on his girl in a phone booth, they are rather cute together. Of course he’s drawn to Peggy. She seems quite fond of him too, but I think part of that is her nature to protect those around her. Peggy feels responsible for putting Wilkes in harm’s way and thus becomes closer to him and he misreads all those signals as “feelings of an amorous nature” and then passionately kisses Peggy. Wilkes could be a dark horse in the race for Peggy’s heart but ultimately I think there’s really only person who can break down the walls she built up since losing Cap.

Dottie Underwood

Right?! Dottie is forever giving Peggy sex eyes and sometimes I think Peggy is like, “Well, maybe, it’s been a really long time…”

I’m kidding, of course, mostly because the “ship” names are so beautifully perverted they need to remain untouched: Pettie / Doggy.

All that being said, I’m happy with where the season is heading. The romance subplots pale in comparison to the others, but shit, I see nothing wrong with a few kisses here and there if means I get to have girlfriend hour with Peggy and Jarvis. The story has been top-notch for Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell continues to be the best superhero on TV, and my goodness if ABC doesn’t renew for a third season after I was okay with not getting season three of Galavant, I’m rioting.

What do you think? How are you feeling about this season of Agent Carter? Is the love triangle too much or do you have a ship you sail? Let me know in the comments.

Agent Carter airs Tuesdays on The CW at 9pm EST.

Last Night’s ‘Man Seeking Woman’ Is Required Viewing for All Men

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February 18, 2016

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This Man Seeking Woman article contains spoilers for “Cactus”

Growing up I found myself to be one of the nice guys. I’d go out of my way to help out a girl I was interested in and make her day easier in whatever way possible – at times even at my own expense. I did this all in hopes of her seeing me as more than a friend.

And much like Josh in last night’s episode of Man Seeking Woman, who spent the previous episode setting himself up as a perfect boyfriend candidate for Rosa (in the same manner a candidate would set them self up in the public eye before announcing their running for a political seat of power), I learned a hard, rough truth. Someone won’t like you just because you’re nice and more importantly, they aren’t required to.

After Rosa breaks up with her boyfriend (the one and only Jesus Christ), Josh offers to help her move out of his place and into her new apartment (you know, in order to score even more brownie points in the race to become Rosa’s boyfriend). The two bond during the move and share their guilty pleasure love for the movie Must Love Dogs starring John Cusack.

As Josh gets up to leave after setting up Rosa’s TV, fate intervenes with a broadcast airing of Must Love Dogs causing Josh to stay for the viewing. During the movie, a breaking news alert interrupts their viewing to inform them that a giant asteroid will impact the planet in seven minutes destroying all life. With nothing to lose (and constant prompts from the news anchors to take whatever risks anyone has been withholding) Josh makes a move on Rosa who quickly backs away turning down the advance.

The asteroid would have been better than this. #ManSeekingWoman pic.twitter.com/L4jCBv6hAi

— Man Seeking Woman (@manseekingwoman) February 18, 2016

“I’m so sorry! I’m sorry for giving you that impression and I think you are so great and so sweet and so funny and so… but I want to be your friend so bad,” Rosa tells Josh. “Because that is the highest level of intimacy, really if you think about it and I’m really sorry.”

Those words, in one form or another, were ones that I grew so familiar to hear one failed attempt after the next in my youth. And much like Josh’s situation, the world didn’t end for me (the asteroid ends up being destroyed).

My problem, like Josh, at that point in my life was believing that if I put in X amount of time with and doing nice things for someone I liked, I should receive the reciprocated affection I felt towards them in return. Writing and reading that statement seems absolutely crazy, but it is a true sentiment that ends up ringing true for many men.

In most circumstances, the woman apologizes for the crime of being a friend and tells you how great they think you are. Hearing how great you are and how some other girl out there would be lucky to have you weren’t the exact words I or anyone else would want to hear at that moment. But in every case, this always leads men in this situation down one dangerous train of thought. One that Josh expresses and explores in last night’s episode.

“You know, plain truth. Girls just don’t want to date nice guys. Never have, never will,” Josh tells his best friend Mike over lunch. “Like why isn’t it just that you date the guy who’s nicest to you? That should be a law.”

And thus Josh finds himself in front of a panel of judges retelling his moment with Rosa during the asteroid as he pitches “The Nice Law.” As one judge puts it, “Seems rather reasonable. Nice guys being rewarded for being nice guys.” The judges end up passing a bill that goes, “If a guy is really, really nice to you, he gets to be your boyfriend.”

Nice guys ain’t finishing last this time. #ManSeekingWoman pic.twitter.com/a8VCssqBD0

— Man Seeking Woman (@manseekingwoman) February 18, 2016

As you can imagine, things take a turn for the worse fairly quickly. While making his way home, a homeless man named Chainsaw opens the door to Josh’s apartment building for him. Josh walks by without saying anything causing Chainsaw to follow him in for acknowledgement of opening the door. Josh tells him it was a very nice thing for him to do.

And herein lies the dilemma. Since “The Nice Law” requires you to date any guy who is nice to you, Josh now finds himself trapped in a relationship with a hobo named Chainsaw. Josh tries to talk his way out of the relationship by saying he created “The Nice Law” and soon comes to the realization how wrong he was when it came to Rosa and the horrible new law he set in motion.

Chainsaw: *starts to unzip pants*
Josh: Hey! WOAH! WOAH! What are you doing there?
Chainsaw: Just following the law. If the guy is nice to you, he gets to be your boyfriend.
Josh: Okay, okay, okay very good. I now see where you might have gotten a little confused. I came up with that law…
Chainsaw: *starts clapping*
Josh: …because there was this girl named Rosa that I was very nice to…
Chainsaw: Like how I was nice to you.
Josh: …and I really liked her…
Chainsaw: Like how I really like you.
Josh: You seem like a nice man, but I really think we would be better off as just friends. *slow realization sets in* I get it now. Just because I was nice to Rosa doesn’t mean she has to sleep with me. She has the right to sleep with or not sleep with whomever she wants. Its up to her and I just have to live with it.

Last night’s episode of Man Seeking Woman tackled an issue that I wish I had a better grasp of earlier in my life. Just because I was very nice to someone doesn’t mean they have to like me. Majority of the time the person on the receiving end won’t even see it as an affectionate act.

I, along with many others I knew, were always the nice guys. We sacrificed what could potentially have been great friendships with women thinking exactly how Josh did. There’s nothing wrong in being the nice guy. Just don’t expect something in return.

‘Shadowhunters’ Review: From Nephilim to Werewolf

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February 17, 2016

Shadowhunters

Season 1, Episode 6: “Of Men and Angels”

Air Date: February 16, 2016

This week’s episode of Shadowhunters brought Luke’s past to center stage and we learned how he changed from nephilim to werewolf.

After Clary, Jace, and Simon bring the New York pack alpha to Magnus, the Downworlder struggles to stay alive with poison coursing through his veins. The warlock can help but is missing a few key ingredients necessary to fully heal Luke and so Clary’s suitors both volunteer to retrieve the items. Magnus also asks Jace to have Alec come to the loft for his super virgin Shadowhunter energy.

Luke meanwhile is in a delirious dream and sees Jocelyn who urges him to tell her daughter everything so that she can be unlocked. He tries to tell Clary about their past but is too wracked with pain and makes Magnus promise to tell her before its too late. The High Warlock of Brooklyn reluctantly agrees and while the Luke is passed out he begins to tell the story of how Valentine became the infamous villain he is today.

Many years ago before the Uprising, Valentine had been a good and honorable man but at some point he changed. Jocelyn had begun to notice her husband’s attitude shifting from adhering to the accords to being against the Downworlders. In the end, his master plan was to create a new army of Shadowhunters to fight for his cause by using the Mortal Cup.

SHADOWHUNTERS - "Of Men and Angels" - Magnus and Luke reveal Clary’s past in “Of Men and Angels,” an all-new episode of “Shadowhunters,” airing Tuesday, February 16th at 9:00 – 10:00 p.m., EST/PST on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. (Freeform/John Medland) NYKEEM PROVO, SUSANNA FOURNIER, OWEN ROTH — SHADOWHUNTERS – “Of Men and Angels” – Magnus and Luke reveal Clary’s past in “Of Men and Angels.” (Freeform/John Medland) NYKEEM PROVO, SUSANNA FOURNIER, OWEN ROTH

Luke picks up the rest of the story once he is healed from the poison and tells Clary that he and Jocelyn were the reason that Valentine went over the edge. He reveals that he had once been a nephilim and was her father’s parabatai. As both Jocelyn and himself noticed Valentine’s growing fanaticism they began to confide in each other more and more. They were the two closest people to the Circle leader and when he thought that they were having an affair it broke his heart (they weren’t actually having an affair). Valentine became obsessed with winning Jocelyn’s heart back and began experimenting on himself by using demon blood to grow stronger.

Meanwhile Clary’s father sought to remove the competition by purposefully leading Luke into an ambush. However, his former parabatai survives the bite and is transformed into a Downworlder instead.

As a Shadowhunter, Luke was born Lucian Graymark. He grew up in Idris and had an older sister named Amatis. In the early days of the Circle, he along with Jocelyn and other members were all passionate about their ideals. When Valentine began to change, they both tried to temper him and even fought to prevent the Uprising, but they failed. Jocelyn at least managed to keep the cup from her husband and protect their unborn daughter.

Luke finally tells Clary about the box she found and to her surprise it wasn’t about her father. The items were mementos of her older brother who died as a baby. When he reveals that Jonathan Christopher perished from a fire that Valentine caused at Fairchild Manor, the shock triggers Clary’s ability to push objects from reality into paper. Earlier the werewolf alpha had also mentioned that Jocelyn was an artist as well and something finally clicks in her mind and she realizes where her mother hid the cup.

Luke’s backstory shows us that Shadowhunters are capable of terrible deeds as well despite having angel blood. They are not infallible and have the capacity for great good or evil just like any Downworlder or mundane.

Final thoughts on the episode:

Circle flashbacks were awesome and it was such fun to see young Jocelyn, Luke, and Valentine
We even got to see the infamous Morgenstern blade Phaesphoros, it’s name meaning “light-bringer”
The Lightwood family interactions were fantastic as we really got to see their dynamics: Maryse favoring Alec, Robert doting on Isabelle, and both siblings indulging their youngest brother Max
Speaking of Max, he looked adorable in his little suit!
Simon seeing his dead body with the vampire bite must be the final nudge, he’s already beginning his transformation
Malec’s first date made me giggle like a little girl, well all their scenes really
The mention of Clary’s brother Jonathan Christopher was also a little thrill as a foreshadow of future events

You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 central.

Early Registration for Nintendo Account and Miitomo Now Available

By

James Mikolajewski

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February 17, 2016

Back in late 2015, Nintendo announced their new account system, Nintendo Account. This new system would link all of their consoles together, including Wii U, 3DS, and the upcoming NX, as well as their future smart phone games. It was expected to roll out in early 2016, and as of today, Nintendo has opened the gates, allowing fans to register early for this new program. You can apply by following this link.

You can sign up using your Nintendo Network ID, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook account (or easily assign all of the above to your new Nintendo Account). This new account will keep track of all of your future purchases and Nintendo games played, and will add to the new point system. You will be allowed to cash in your points for both physical and digital goods. Think of it as a hyped up version of the old Club Nintendo system.

Once you have created your new Nintendo Account, you will be able to preregister for Nintendo’s first ever smart phone game, Miitomo. While this is more of a social network than a game, this does show big steps for Nintendo. This is what they had to say about Miitomo:

“Miitomo is a free-to-start social experience that uses Nintendo’s Mii characters and lets you spark conversations with your friends in a whole new way, which first debuted with the launch of Wii Sports in 2006. More than 200 million Mii characters exist across Nintendo systems worldwide. To get started, users can quickly create a Mii character to act as their social go-between, customizing its facial features, eyes, hair, as well as voice and personality. Users can also use the camera of their smartphone or tablet to snap a photo that will be translated into Mii form, or they can simply import their Mii from the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS systems using a QR Code.

Once their Mii is ready, users can add friends in person, or through their existing Facebook or Twitter accounts. After that step is complete, it’s time to answer some questions. Miitomo creates conversations and turns discussions into a form of play by prompting users to answer all kinds of questions. Did you know that your best friend’s favorite food is pizza? Maybe, but did you know her favorite music genre is secretly polka? And that she believes in aliens? The answers get shared among friends, sparking interesting conversations – part of the fun is discovering surprising facts about your friends that you never knew before. When users hear how their friends responded to questions, they can give it a heart or a comment, either through text or with a picture.

Mii characters will travel around and visit others that users have added as friends in the app, so it’s important to look good. Users can set their own style with shorts, pants, socks, shirts, shoes, accessories, hats and more. If they want to go further in expressing themselves, they can even dress up in a variety of outlandish costumes, such as a bear costume, pirate costume, hot dog costume and more. As users experience Miitomo, they’ll earn Miitomo coins, which can be redeemed in the in-app shop to get all kinds of varied and interesting outfits. There is also the option to get more Miitomo coins via in-app purchases.

And if that’s not enough, users can try out the Miifoto feature, which lets them put their Mii characters in fun poses and use cool stamps, or combine their Mii image with photos they have taken themselves. These creations can then easily be posted to social media services like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”

So, will you register for a new Nintendo Account? Or are you waiting until the NX releases (hopefully) later this year? Let us know in the comments down below!

Bethesda Announces First Set of ‘Fallout 4’ DLC

By

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February 16, 2016

With Fallout 4 having a few months under its belt on consoles and PC, it was only inevitable that DLC talks would start up sooner rather than later.

Today, Bethesda has announced the first three add-ons of Fallout 4 DLC that will be releasing over the next three months – Automatron, Wasteland Workshop and Far Harbor.

With the increase in content coming to the Season Pass, Bethesda will be increasing the price from $29.99 to $49.99 on March 1, 2016. Those who still have not purchased the Season Pass will have till the end of February before the price hike takes effect.

Fans who can’t wait to get their hands on Fallout 4’s DLC can sign up on Bethesda’s website to partake in a beta to test them out ahead of time. Players accepted into the beta will receive a code to redeem the content. The beta is the full version (complete with achievements) and those participating will not have to purchase the add-on.

Bethesda has also promised the continuation of free updates to Fallout 4 on both PC and consoles, with plans to completely overhaul Survival Mode that changes how you play the whole game: food, sleep, diseases, danger and more. Along with the Survival Mode, Bethesda is hard at work on a Creation Kit, which will allow you to create and play mods absolutely free. More details will be forthcoming.

Details on the first three add-on Fallout 4 DLC can be found below.

Automatron

Automatron
Price: $9.99 USD | £7.99 GBP | $16.95 AUD
Release: March 2016

The mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons like the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices!

Wasteland Workshop

Wasteland Workshop
Price: $4.99 USD | £3.99 GBP | $7.95 AUD
Release: April 2016

With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixi tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!

Far Harbor

Far Harbor
Price: $24.99 USD | £19.99 GBP | $39.95 AUD
Release: May 2016

A new case from Valentine’s Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths. Travel off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where higher levels of radiation have created a more feral world. Navigate through the growing conflict between the synths, the Children of Atom, and the local townspeople. Will you work towards bringing peace to Far Harbor, and at what cost? Far Harbor features the largest landmass for an add-on that we’ve ever created, filled with new faction quests, settlements, lethal creatures and dungeons. Become more powerful with new, higher-level armor and weapons. The choices are all yours.

‘The Magicians’ Review: All Magic Comes With a Price

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February 15, 2016

The Magicians

Season 1, Episode 5: “Mendings, Major and Minor”

Air Date: February 15, 2016

Sadly even magic can’t cure brain tumors.

This week’s episode of The Magicians brings some semblance of normalcy back to our squad of magicians, well as normal as a life with magic can get anyways. This time though Q is dealing with his father having a grave illness and his abilities does squat to help.

Quentin

Quentin’s father has made a decision not to undergo treatment or surgery because of the high risk that his condition could get worse in doing so and he’d like to spend the rest of his days actually trying to repair his relationship with his son. At first Q is unable to accept this and tries to find a way to cure his dad’s cancer with magic. He even attempts a forbidden spell and uses Cancer Puppy as his test subject with Eliot’s help. This poor dog was enchanted to remain a puppy, but still experienced the effects of his true age at 150 years old (in dog years I’m presuming). They fail and the adorable pup is with us no more.

After being reprimanded by Dean Fogg, Quentin finally accepts and understands that all magic comes with a price. He reveals to his father that he is a real magician by putting together a model plane that he damaged when he was very young much to the older man’s amazement. He might not be able to fix his dad, but Q can give his father some measure of happiness by not only repairing the plane (which held sentimental value) but by also showing his true self to him.

Alice

Dean Fogg tracks Alice down at a farm where she’s been since leaving Brakebills (she left because Quentin bound her brother’s no longer human soul). She is reluctant to return but is convinced by the dean to give it another try after he confesses that he felt personally responsible for her family’s loss and didn’t want to take more from them (that’s why she wasn’t invited to take the entrance exam). He also admits that he was wrong and that believes she is too talented not to be at Brakebills.

Alice first runs into Quentin, Eliot, and Margo at an alumni function being held in school with her famous aunt. The event was a meet and greet for students looking to get a mentorship with a distinguished alum. Q tries to apologize again and she says that she shouldn’t blame him because the truth is that her brother died five years ago. The situation becomes super awkward and she goes off to join her aunt.

Meanwhile Eliot and Margo are determined to get closer to her so that her aunt might pick one of them to be her apprentice. Their attempts at bonding fail but points for sheer effort. We should all be so lucky to enroll in Eliot’s graduate drinking program.

Alice encounters Q next when she brings him a note from the administration office about his dad. This unfortunate circumstance though gives them common ground and they are able to understand each other better. She even helps him disperse a very strong spell he casts out of misery during a school game. By the end they’ve become lab partners and she tells him that he’ll get through this. It looks like Alice has decided to stay after all.

THE MAGICIANS -- "Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting" Episode 103 -- Pictured: (l-r) Summer Bishil as Margo, Hale Appleman as Eliot -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy) — THE MAGICIANS — “Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting” Episode 103 — Pictured: (l-r) Summer Bishil as Margo, Hale Appleman as Eliot — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)

Eliot and Margo

The mischievous twosome were in competition with each other in this week’s episode as they both wanted to become Gengii’s apprentice. Alice’s eccentric aunt apparently runs a Camp David-like retreat for magicians and is a known figure in the magical community.

Margo’s competitive nature really came out during the Welters game played with the alumni in attendance. Welters is played on a large field with squares made up of different materials like water, sand, grass, etc. The object is to take as many squares as possible through magic. The Physical Kids end up winning thanks to Q’s massive spell that conquers the whole board. Btw, their Welters uniforms were kind of awesome.

Unfortunately for Eliot and Margo though, their plans fail and Gengii doesn’t end up picking either of them. But the duo’s resilient natures kick in and they bounce back because they don’t need mentors anyways.

Julia

We pick up from last week after poor Jules was kicked out of Marina’s group and she is not doing so well. The hedge witch tries a spell that she found through Google and nearly burns her apartment down while suffering some minor burns (it was an invisible fire spell fyi). Julia turns to Pete who is somewhat sympathetic to her plight and who tries to get her to see that there are other things she can do just as Quentin once did. She refuses to listen though and ends up using sex to get information from him about other safehouses and hedge groups.

She goes to one that he recommends only to find that the hedge magicians there were far behind her in knowledge. Pissed off, Julia confronts him and Pete explains how his hands are tied and he won’t directly oppose Marina. The other safehouse she went to was the second best in their community but he suggests that they run away together outside of the city to where there are other places with artifacts of power. Julia says no because she loves her boyfriend and isn’t wiling to go with him. Pete rightfully throws back at her that she just slept with him a few days ago and that was a poor way to show how much James mattered to her. He tries to get her to understand that it won’t work with her boyfriend because he doesn’t know about the most important part of her (magic duh) and she can’t say anything because it’s too dangerous. Julia is in full rebel mode and says that Marina’s stupid rules don’t apply anymore and if Pete doesn’t want her to tell James then he needs to give her some spells. He refuses and she walks away.

Kudos to Pete though who went on the offensive and wiped James’ memory so that he no longer knew Julia. Enraged, she finds him again and he argues that he was actually protecting James from her because she was a train wreck waiting to happen. She’s refused to listen to any advice he’s given her and would only hurt herself and others. Ouch. Thus begins Julia’s descent into madness.

Penny

Penny’s journey this episode is by far the most exciting as his traveller’s magic begins to take him to more dangerous places. He first meets his mentor Stanley who straight up tells him that their power is a terrible life-destroying burden. The older man then flashes his prosthetic leg, courtesy of frostbite when he zapped himself to the Himalayas. Stanley then recommends that Penny get a tattoo that will bind his body to the earth so that he can only travel via astral projection.

One night he ends up ghosting himself into an unfamiliar dungeon after hearing the pleas of a trapped woman. Penny finds her wrapped in chains and he notices that she has the traveller’s tattoo. A moth appears suddenly and The Beast walks inside, asking Victoria if she’s ready to talk yet. He turns his head and says hello to a freaked out Penny who retreats back into his body. Soon after he goes to confront Stanley who admits that there was one other traveller who had mysteriously disappeared along with most of her third year class (we heard about that back in episode one). His mentor said that he had no idea she was still alive but had no intentions of rescuing her. His advice, get the tat asap.

Sometime later, Kady sees him sketching a crest that he saw in the dungeon and urges him to tell Alice and Quentin since this involved The Beast. Penny reluctantly agrees and goes with her to the Physical Kids’ cabin. Taken aback, Q whips out a book and furiously combs through the pages and then shows them the exact same image. Q then tells them that is the crest of Umber and that he thinks Penny went to Fillory. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

The show tackled some very serious subjects this week and showed audiences that magicians were tools of magic, but they couldn’t fix everything. Both Alice and Q had to let go of people that they loved while Julia grappled with herself as she is forcibly disconnected from magic and James.

As Fillory becomes a larger part of the narrative as well, I’m beyond excited to see how the squad is going to handle this new fantastical realm. So far, the series has deviated in some ways from the novels but I for one am thoroughly enjoying these new storylines. It’s going to be so much fun to see more of The Beast and how the magicians will fare in an actual quest.

The Magicians is on Syfy Mondays 9/8 central.

For more on The Magicians click HERE.

‘The X-Files’ review: ‘Babylon’

By

Matt Perri

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February 15, 2016

THE X-FILES
Season 10, Episode 4
“Babylon”
AIR DATE: February 15, 2016
GRADE: F

“Oh no. Nonononono…”
— Stan Marsh, SOUTH PARK

We deserve BETTER than this. FAR better than this.

I say this as a writer/reviewer and as a fan of The X-Files since it first aired back in the early 90’s when yours truly was raving about this show to his high school chums.

You know you’re up shit creek when you’re not sure if you’ve accidentally started watching the 24 revival: Shiraz (Artin John), a Muslim kid, prays to God — then travels to pick up his colleague so that they can go to a museum showcasing the Prophet Muhammad. On the way, he bumps into a Pure ‘Murica yokel in a truck who drinks beer and wonders “what country he’s in”. When they get to the museum, boom. It’s hit by an explosion, followed by a gratuitous shot of people running out of the place engulfed in flames, a pleasant sight to be sure. But, then, this is the same series that used imagery from 9/11 at the beginning of the revival to try and win emotional points with the audience. Subtle.

How does any of this involve Mulder and Scully? It doesn’t. Mulder’s content with reviewing tapes of religious phenomena with Scully in their FBI dungeon. But Agents Miller (Robbie Amell) and Einstein (Lauren Ambrose — and, YES, that’s the actual character’s name) are a different story. They’re a YOUNGER version of Mulder and Scully. They look like Mulder and Scully. They act like Mulder and Scully. Sadly, that’s really about it. There’s no reason they should even exist as characters outside of being an arbitrary dose of self-deprecating meta injected into an aimless episode to advance an incredibly weak plot: one of the terrorists who aided in blowing up the museum is brain dead at a hospital in Texas so Miller comes to Mulder and Scully looking for a shaman or necromancer of some sort so that they can get into his mind and “find out what he knows”.

At first, Mulder and Scully scoff and send the agents on their way — only to change their minds and deal with the agents directly. While Scully helps Miller (by attempting to read the terrorist’s heart monitor like a polygraph machine while they ask if the kid can hear them — I kid you not), Mulder’s method of communication involves the theory that thoughts suddenly have “weight” and can directly affect the things people do. Naturally, this means Mulder’s plan involves tripping out on ‘Shrooms because he hears that people who use that stuff get “closer to God”. And who better to assist him with this than Agent Einstein who — you guessed it — is a doctor/scientist who has access to ‘Shrooms?

What follows is an embarrassing sequence (even for this show’s lighter episodes) where Mulder goes insane, wanders out of the hospital while winking and pointing at doctors and patients and ends up at a Texas dance club, line dancing to Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” with the bar’s other customers which include Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi, god bless that man for putting up with this shit) and the late, great Lone Gunmen (Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood and Dean Haglund — oh, what COULD have been) and also a dominatrix version of Agent Einstein. Y’know. Just cuz. Eventually, Mulder does have his “closer to God” experience when he encounters a near-unconscious Shiraz aboard a slave ship (controlled by The Cigarette-Smoking Man as long as we’re going balls-out crazy here) who tells him where the rest of his terrorist group is hiding out.

Oh, by the way, Mulder wasn’t really tripping balls. Einstein really gave him Niacin pills. In effect, Placebos (which totally give a person “visions”, just like Mushrooms do) — but, then why was Mulder tripping? “It was the Power of Suggestion,” Einstein triumphantly declares, leaving Mulder dumbfounded, swearing to Skinner that he saw The Lone Gunmen there and that Skinner, himself, was cheering Mulder on as he got his groove on. But all that didn’t happen…it’s just what Mulder believed, see? SEE???

This is what the revival of The X-Files has come to: long-winded minutiae culminating with weak punchlines. The shitty Mulder/Scully clones aside, one of the more irritating aspects about this particular episode is the set-up: dumb white American hick stereotypes making fun of the “brown person” (their words, not mine) resulting in Shiraz rolling his windows up in the apparent fear that harm is about to come to him…and then it turns out those hick Americans were right. Shiraz was an evil “brown person” after all, so our fear of those people are justified! This is driven home by two white government officials who get all fearmongery with Miller, telling him that these people are all here to wipe us out.

I’ve been through “First-Person Shooter” and “Bad Blood”.and “Teso Dos Bichos”. I know what “X-Files Awful” is. I’m not really sure there’s not much more to say here except for the only three words that will forever describe my future aversion to this entry:

This. Episode. Sucked.

‘Zoolander 2’ Review: Fashionable Humor Laced With Nostalgia

By

James Mikolajewski

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February 13, 2016