2018

A Puzzled Rime – The Game Review

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Hello again everyone!

I hope the week has started off well for you all and the creative vibes are still flowing for writing.

Today I want to jump in and look at a Rime which I just finished over this last weekend.  Rime is an absolutely gorgeous game filled with some pretty amazing music and beautiful art.  The game has some very mysterious elements which fill a strange world you get to explore, but the game lacks new ideas to make it stand out from other puzzle platformers.  Unfortunately, most of the puzzles in the game are bland and instead of a challenge we get monotonous.

Overall Rime’s story is pretty basic: you wake up on some strange island after a shipwreck, and have to solve a mix of puzzles in this new world to try and piece together what really happened.  You start the game with a nameless character who doesn’t speak or have many features you can make out except his figure and a red cloak.  Your guide through the game is a small fox who has more personality than you do…that’s for darn sure.  This fox mainly helps you navigate the world and points you in the right direction which is a huge help through the game.  You can do some exploration as the world is pretty open, so it’s nice to have a guide back to where the next progression point is.

The games puzzles you complete throughout the world seem more like simple tasks and don’t offer a lot of challenge to figure out.  Exploring the world can be fun as it’s got an amazing art style to it, but ultimately all the puzzles and tasks to figure out pull away from things instead of adding to the beauty of the story.  Even though I got bored at times from the puzzles, I love artistic style games so that’s ultimately what caught and held my attention in Rime.  The world exploration does offer up some hidden collectibles you can gather, but at the end all they gave you was a picture that showed up on the menu screen.  I gave up the pursuit of finding all the collectibles pretty early on honestly as it seemed pointless and didn’t add to the game or story you were just thrust into.

I go back to the aesthetic aspects of this game being it’s winning factor for holding my attention again, as the game was littered with bugs and performance issues.  Multiple times I had camera issues where it got stuck in strange places, and an overall clunky climbing experience while all topped off with some choppy screens due to loss of frame-rate.  This game has a mystery to it that had me glued to the screen but at the end of things it didn’t deliver.  I loved the open world feel, the artistic beauty and hooks to keep you interested in the story along the way….but all said and done this game wasn’t an experience I enjoyed once things came to a close.

The Greatest Captain Returns

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We are in the age of revivals lately for classic TV shows that we all loved like X-Files, Lost in Space, and even a good old modern spin on Evil Dead to name a few.

Just a few days ago one of my favorite shows of all time had some very exciting announcements, from the one and only Patrick Stewart!  Yes that’s right, Patrick Stewart announced recently that he will be reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series for CBS all access.  Needless to say the internet and Trekkies worldwide went bonkers about the news.

Of course, bringing Picard back has a weight to it for the fans and brings huge excitement….it does beg the question of is it a good decision to revise his role?  Most of the modern day remakes lately have had mixed reviews and up’s and downs at best so this move to revise a Star Trek show could fall in to a fate just like these other shows have.  My personal opinion is the show will do well because of the fan base and nostalgia around the Star Trek franchise.  Patrick Stewart has aged well and I’m hoping his return to the screen will be a huge success for the franchise.

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When announcing the news at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, Patrick Stewart said the team hasn’t even started writing scripts for the show yet.  We don’t know much about the show, but what we do know is it will take place 20 years after we last saw Picard.  One of the things I loved about Star Trek the Next Generation was the stories and plot and Stewart will be an executive producer on the new show and will be involved in the story.  Captain Picard was originally introduced to the fans in 1987 which is mind boggling as I was only six when TNG debuted.

The last time we saw Picard on the big screen was in Star Trek: Nemesis so I’m excited to see where the future of Star Trek goes now that Picard is returning.  If you look at the rich history of this franchise it has spawned multiple shows, movies, and a fan base that is massive!  Take Star Trek: Enterprise for example which is set a hundred years before Captain Kirk’s era, or the JJ Abrams reboot which retold Kirk’s origins and early years of a star fleet officer.  Where could they go with this new show…..well the book is basically wide open for any number of stories and directions.

Stewart did mention he is excited to come back and reprise his role and is looking forward to seeing the creative process and working with the teams again.  I wonder who else we will see return on this new adventure? Will we see any other old familiar faces make appearances or any cameos in the show….or will we see a whole new cast?  I’m truly excited about this new venture into the Star Trek franchise and I do hope we get to see the deck of the Enterprise one more time!

Lost in Space – Season 1 Review

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BlaugustRebornLogo2018Hello everyone!

So this week has been quite the blur due to the busy schedule and I had a couple days I wasn’t feeling well.  Needless to say I haven’t felt like writing the last couple days and my mind has been out of it today honestly.

I know this week was supposed to be about connecting and potentially co-working on things with someone….but with not feeling well and my brain being mush tonight’s post is all I could focus on and put together.

This post really has nothing to do with this weeks theme in Blaugust, but like I said my brain has been mush the last couple days and this is fresh on my mind.  My family and I love to binge watch a good show when one does come along which happened just recently with Netflix’s Lost in Space.  In my personal opinion it’s one of the greatest sci-fi remakes of our time and an amazing family adventure series as well!

First off let’s jump in with the….what made the show so great!

Creators Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless did an absolute amazing job bringing the show back to life and giving it a great 21st century look.  The world was absolutely beautiful and the characters in the story were so like-able….well most of the characters anyways.

Who wouldn’t love the Robinson family which personally was the shows strongest point for sure.  If you’re not familiar with the story…..here’s the what on the story!

If you haven’t seen the show yet, well then ****SPOILERS AHEAD****

Let’s start with the Christmas Star….yes that’s right the Christmas Star!  This object is a mysterious object that crashes into Earth which forces humanity to look for a new habitable world to call home.  Humans have a base ship of sorts called The Resolute which is leading the mission for finding this new home.  They also have smaller jump ships called Jupiter ships, which is what the Robinson family use for a large portion of there exploration.  The Resolute runs into a massive space-time disruption event of some sort which forces an evacuation of the Resolute, and a crash landing from the Robinson’s in one of the Jupiter ships on an unknown world.

The show really starts to take root here and show it’s colors and genius with the Robinson family at the center of it all!  One of the best parts of the show is how the Robinson’s are a dysfunctional mess but they don’t really see it at first and truly just stumble over one another.  Especially when it comes to working together.  The creative writing done in this show was crazy good and the writers used a ton of flashback scens to really tie the story in together. The flashback are what help bring all the information to the table and really allowed you to connect to the Robinson family.

That classic saying from the show so became a hit so many years ago is back as well!  Yes, that’s right, “danger Will Robinson” is back with a very creative new presentation of the beloved robot.  The robot has a very unique story and is quite different from any other that has ever been told to date.  One thing that does remain close to it’s original roots is Will’s relationship with the robot which becomes apparent quite early on of how distant Will’s father has been, and that’s why Will is looking to the robot for friendship.

As far as the Robinson ladies of the show they are pretty amazing when it comes to the dynamic they bring to the table.  Maureen, the mom, ultimately is the leader of the group.  The daughters also bring a weight to the show that really draws you into the family dynamic.  One of my favorite characters in the show is Judy, the oldest daughter which I think has the most baggage and biggest change in the show.  She has a massive weight on her shoulders and has gone through some pretty traumatic experiences in her life already even with only being 18.

Now let’s move on to the worst part of the show for me….the villain!

Dr. Smith played by Parker Posey is one of the most manipulative characters I’ve seen on screen before.  Dr. Smith comes into the good graces of the Robinson’s early on but they don’t understand the evil they just let into the family.  Dr. Smith lacks complexity which is ultimately why I don’t like her, but also because she’s the bad guy and I’m not a bad guy fan…no matter how good the actor is.  The writers even tried to give some backstory on Dr. Smith but I think by the time it happened people were probably already set on the decision of “I Hate This Character” and didn’t care.  Personally in my opinion Dr. Smith’s character added nothing to the story.

Overall though I think this series is a massive win and something you could sit down and enjoy with the family together!  The Robinsons are an amazing family and have a huge story of survival and redemption they tell all along the series.

Marvel Studios: Black Panther – Hitting Theaters February 2018

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v006q4ynkmbxcdfqo7fjBlack Panther is one of the upcoming phase 3 movies that Marvel has revealed they are very excited about.  Looks like the fans will be getting there first official taste of the Black Panther trailer that will be releasing this summer.  Marvel has a pretty big year ahead of them as they will also be at the Disney D23 Expo, and San Diego Comic-Con showing off new projects.

If you all don’t know much about the Black Panther then check out the quick history run through from Variant Comics as they do a fantastic job.

From what we know so far the story of Black Panther will chronicle T’Challa finding balance between being a man, soldier, politician, and the soon to be responsibility of becoming the king of Wakanda.  The movie will look to take place very close to the events that happened in Captain America: Civil War.

One thing I would like to see from the movie is paying tribute to the history and past of the Black Panther, as he comes from a world us fans have never seen on screen before. Marvel could take this movie so many different directions as this will be the first time we get a real glimpse into the full life of this character.  We did get a small little nibble of who they were creating the Black Panther to be in Civil War, but for most fans it wasn’t enough and it just left them wanting more.

Overall, the Black Panther is a Marvel superhero that has always intrigued me and many others.  Personally I can’t wait for the movie to release and knowing the fact that we have to wait until summer to see the trailer just makes it that much harder to wait.  This movie I think will set a new stage for Marvel to begin explorations deeper into the Marvel universe and begin expanding characters that we all grew up with and love even today.  Black Panther hits theaters February 2018 which seems like an eternity away, but here’s to hoping for great things!