Review

All Things Geekery Podcast Episode 3 – They’ll Never See it Coming – MTV’s Scream Review

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Welcome back to The All Things Geekery Podcast! I’m super excited this month, because the “Geeks Team” has a new addition to the podcast with my lovely wife – Skater Girl from Sk8rgirldesignz.  Another exciting bit is that my co-host Victus Darkaero and his wife had their first child so he is out for a bit on baby leave, but he’ll be back soon for future episodes!

This episode we take a look at the hit MTV television series, Scream. This is planned as the first of many episodes of the Scream series review.

 

You can follow along with this series by tuning in to Scream on MTV, or watch the episodes after they air on MTV.com.

Note that these Scream episode reviews are filled with major spoilers, and we highly recommend that you watch the episodes before listening to the show if you do not want major plot points, including the endings, spoiled for you.

Be sure to subscribe to the All Things Geekery Podcast with any of your favorite podcast apps.  Stop by and drop us a review  so we know how we’re doing.  Thanks for listening, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

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Social Contacts

Host: Iogro Merrybelly

Twitter @iogromerrybelly
Blog @ http://www.ahobbitsjourney.com

Co-Host: Victus Darkaero – Twitter @victus_darkaero

Co-Host: Skater Girl – Twitter @sk8rgirldesignz

ATG Podcast

Twitter @allthingsgeekry
Blog @ http://www.allthingsgeekery.com

Music Credit Erik Skiff

scr.ee tags:

#ScreamTVSeries

Scream The Pilot Review

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mtv-s-scream-tv-show-reimagines-ghostface-for-a-new-story-new-cast-new-format-new-rules-486221Ok, so let me start this post by saying I’ve thrown the idea back and forth for years now of whether I do film & TV reviews.  It’s always come down to NO not right now as I’ve just got to much going on and I didn’t want to add to an already full plate.

So why the change you ask?  My change has come due to that once full plate becoming less full as I’ve finished up some major projects that I’ve finally finished.  This has freed up more room to write both on this site, and for my book series I’m working on.  Honestly, I’ve always wanted to do film & TV reviews and now that I have the extra time I’m jumping on board with one of my favorite genre’s so I hope you enjoy the post as I look forward to this new journey.

With my first ever film & TV review write up, we start with the new TV adaptation of Scream which is brought to us by our old friends MTV!

Now I know I’m coming into this show a bit late as it’s already finished up with season 1 and has been renewed for season 2 which airs on May 30th this year.  MTV’s Scream takes the very popular and familiar movie franchise title and brings us into something new.  This isn’t a continuation of the story from the movies, nor is it a TV remake, as it involves different characters, location and backstory from the films. Instead, this creation brings us back to the original tone of the films without being about the same people or places.

Personally I was a huge fan of the Scream films so when I stumbled across this TV gem I was rather ecstatic to begin watching it.  Though I had my doubts and questions as most TV adaptations of popular films are just strange at best.  Regardless, Scream has brought us right back to the original movie. The opening sequence, featuring Bella Thorne, brings us back to 1996 with the Drew Barrymore sequence in Scream, as a high school girl, home alone in her big house, finding herself being watched, and contacted.  Now things have changed over the past 20 years so instead of a phone call they’ve replaced most of the interaction with this mysterious watcher by texting.  Things just go very badly for her once she starts replying back to these mysterious texts.  It’s an entertaining sequence, due to some fun iPhone issues involving Siri not understanding you put into the middle of a horror scene.

4b4d74cc81fd4685c6bbeab93fa121f5From there, as the show unfolds we get to meet the cast and overall feels like a Scream movie, but different and same all at once.  Weird I know, but the parallels to the first film’s characters; Sidney, Billy, Stu, Randy and Tatum in Emma (Willa Fitzgerald), Will (Conner Weil), Jake (Tom Maden), Noah (John Karna) and Brooke (Carlson Young), as these kids from “Lakewood” begin to realize a killer is among them. The show throws some other characters into the mix, including a mysterious new guy in town Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) and Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), who was the victim of some recent cyber bullying.

Probably my favorite character of the series is Noah, the socially awkward film, game, and horror geek – aka Randy if you were watching the Scream movies.  Noah brings us one of the best Film to TV translations of all time when he says, “You can’t do a slasher movie on television,” because ultimately slasher films happen quickly.  TV needs to pull things out and stretch them over a long period of time to bring us the same story. Scream at least has the benefit of including the whodunit aspect of the films that did set the series apart from most others in the slasher genre. The show introduces plenty of characters who could be the killer, even as some of it – including important town history involving Emma’s mom Tracy Middendorf, who actually had a role as the babysitter in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

If you haven’t watched the show – Checkout the Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-dU21LXMw

Ok so all in all, the pilot series was a win in my book!  The show had me hooked from the get go, and has me curious who the killer is.  This is quickly becoming a favorite go to show and I can’t wait to see where they go with things!

scr.ee tags:

#Slasher & TV

 

Brothers A Tale of Two Sons – Game Review – Episode One

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download (10)Ok so yesterday I picked up a fantastic game that has been in my “Want List” for a while….Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a beautifuly designed game with a rather dark underlying tone that has a fairy tale look to it.  I’ve played about five hours of the game so far which for me is un-heard of.  The game has such a great story, the game play itself is quite unique and took me a bit to get used to.  Throughout the journey I’ve seen so far of these two brothers trying to save their dying father is a fascinating interaction with the world in some very unique ways.  You get to experience themes of death, adventure, teamwork, and a very in-depth story that pulls you in.  The controls for the game are very unique, as you have to use both joysticks to control the players, and it frequently caused me some hand eye coordination issues.

Much of the story and the attraction to this game for me is the Brother’s language they speak in.  It’s an imaginary language that has no subtitles, so it’s all up to us to watch body language and pull the story from the visuals being shown.  All the characters I’ve seen to this point have a stake in the story being told, as does the interaction of items in the world, locations you visit, and landmarks you are asked to find.  You have to pay very close attention and piece together all the bits of this fantastic visual story being told.

Brothers-A-Tale-of-Two-SonsThe game kicks you off in a small village with pleasant townsfolk and honestly I spent a lot of time just looking at the stunning landscapes, and environment I was just immersed in.  One complaint I have of the game so far is the lack of detail you actually get to see on the Brothers themselves.  They have a bit of lack luster compared to the world around them, but still that is minor because to me the game play and unique style makes up for that miss.  Brothers is one of the most unique games I’ve played in the last year with it’s control system, and the non-verbal language system that leaves the interpretation of the story up to you.  I love that the game has options as well, because you can jump right into game play and fight your way to the end of the game, but I’m also noticing that if you don’t pay close attention to details around you, a lot of side stories that seem to help build the story and adventure will be missed.

I’m anxious to continue on in this story, and I hope practice makes perfect with these controls because they are a challenge to get the hang of.  While the movements of the game can pull away from some of the game at times, overall the visually stunning surroundings and interesting world interactions pull you back very quickly.

More to come on this game as I’m excited to see where the journey goes and how the story plays out on this game.

scr.ee tags:

#episodeone

 

The Walking Dead – The Game – Episode 2 Starved for Help Review

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walkingdead_episode2_group-600x400The second of my five episode review, Starved for Help picks up three months after the zombie apocalypse erupted.  You are still playing as Lee trying to protect Clementine, and now dealing with a group of survivors and trying to make the best of a dump motel you’ve tried turning into a secured fort.  This is where the game has gotten really interesting because the choices you make help build relationships and can also destroy relationships. Every choice you make caries over into a new episode of the game you play, so all those choices you made in episode one you now have to live with in Starved for Help.

This game doesn’t give you a second chance or to take back your choices to someone, so when your dialogue windows pop up it gives you just a few seconds to choose, and those choices could bring you closer to a friend or even create a new enemy in a later episode.

download (7)This episode is the first time you get to see the choices you made in the previous episodes. Everything from your relationship with Clementine, to the new found friendship with Kenny.  This also means that you have some remembering to do… did you tell any lies in the previous episode, were you truthful, who did you be-friend and who did you make an enemy out of.  All of these choices set Lee and his group up for a very suspenseful and action packed 2nd episode.

download (6)Starved for Help opens with the most gruesome scene to date in the game in my opinion, but besides the blood and guts it is becoming a really big challenge to keep your cool and look out for the group.  You have become a leader in the group and you have to make the tough decisions at times, and you get thrown right into the middle of your group’s nearly out of food, so it’s up to you to decide who gets to eat and who doesn’t.  Will you pick your friends, will you take the high ground and do whats best for the group, what will you do? That draw back you might have going with the emotion thing really comes into picture when a new group of survivors from the St. John’s Dairy Farm show up and invite your group to come over and trade gas for food. The family asks Lee all sorts of questions about the group, but something isn’t quite right with them.  Do you take the chance and go with these strangers who say they have food, or do you chance it and stay at the motel and hope you all can survive.

images (26)Episode 2 is full of cliffhanger moments, sketchy choices you have to make, new chances to redeem yourself, and even be-friend some new people.  It’s suspensful, emotional, full of blood and guts, and it even has some WTF moments in it that really make you turn your head and ask yourself what the heck just happened….but I’m not going to spoil those moments for you as you will just have to check the game our for yourself.

scr.ee tags:

#thewalkingdead #seasonone #episodetwo

 

A Glance at The Walking Dead: The Game Season 1

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Happy Halloween Everyone!

I thought it quite fitting and ironic that these last few weeks of gaming have been intense, suspenseful, questionable, and even down right horrifying.  It’s Halloween and nothing else would even be right…right?  Well anyways….Zombies have completely overtaken my gaming experiences of late and it’s all due to the amazing work that Telltale games has put into “The Walking Dead Game” which has it’s flaws but delivers an amazing game experience like none other that I soon won’t forget.  I’m currently playing through season one of the game, and it’s unique player choice system, and award-winning script writing has won this game multiple awards.

images (15)This game was originally released to be five episodes in which you play a character named Lee Everett, a convicted murderer on his way to prison.  Though the convicted murderer has something much bigger than trying to learn the inmates code on his hands, and that is the zombie apocalypse that has broken out.  This gives Lee a whirlwind of decisions that he is now having to make, and guess who is in charge of those decisions and all the steps in between; yep you guessed it, it’s YOU! The decisions that you make in the heat of the moment have rewards, or great consequences that stay with you throughout the entire journey of the game.

This game is an adventure game by nature which is ultimately based off the critically acclaimed comic book and television series.  This isn’t your typical adventure game though, and as you play through the five episodes, the really important moments of the game come when you choose how Lee responds to situations and what he says in conversations with his fellow survivors.

images (14)This is a choice based game and specific dialogue comes up on your screen with timers, and you literally have seconds to choose exactly what Lee will do or say next….In this game when you choose and make your decision, the game adapts the story and moves on in the timeline, so choose wisely and choose quickly.  This exact feature is what makes The Walking Dead so special… everyone playing this game has the same task a head of them, which is to protect a little girl named Clementine that you encountered on your journey and you’ve taken her under your wing for protection.  The cool part about the decision system is everyone goes about the game a different way.  I might choose to befriend someone you hate, and you might choose to leave someone I took. I might blowup in anger, but you may keep a cool level headed mind. Whatever group you have with you will remember the decision you have made and that creates the dynamic of the group and how people react to you.

images (18)Once you are done with an episode of the game, it gives you a recap of your choices and how it compared to the percentage of what other players have chosen in that moment. The game itself has a way of drawing you into the moment, and you are basically the artist making the sketches for how the story plays out.  The main story has a very black and white foundation, and we’ve been hired as gamer’s to finish the drawings with whatever colorful choices we see appropriate at the time. Which is what makes this game such an emotional roller coaster and endearing.  Part of that connection comes from amazing writers in which they’ve added comedy, suspense, horror, and all those emotional moments seem to happen at just the right time.  The other big factor is the great voice acting, and visual style that is a picture perfect image out of the comic books.

Ok, now time for my critiques of the game and what I’ve seen fallen short or even off the wagon at times.  As much as I want to praise the whole game at being a superstar, there are a few things that really stood out to me as being what the heck just happened moments.  For instance, scenes will freeze as the next one loads, game play will slow down as the game tries to process intense action sequences, and at times the voices aren’t synced to the visuals on screen.  Even with these few hiccups in the game design, this is one of the best games I’ve ever played and don’t mind setting through a few flaws for the experience of a game like this one.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking a look at each of the five episodes of season one and can’t wait to play season two, though I’m waiting a bit as I’ve heard season three won’t be out until sometime in 2015.

scr.ee tags:

#thewalkingdead #seasonone