Follow @Mr_McCrackelz

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Back in the habit.


Now that I've thrown down $25 for PS-Plus I might as well give Overwatch anouther shot, right? It's funny how a 7 month gap can give you the distance to figure out what you really want out of a game that used to confuse the crap out of you. For one, I'm way better at Macree for some reason, I won a 8 on 8 death match with 76 handily, and I am KILLING it as Zenyatta.

There's almost never a wrong situation for this guy. My score cards are bursting with golds and silvers. As long as I can hide between the legs of a tank I can heal and mark for death all day long. I think... I think I'm finally super into Overwatch.


Monday, September 11, 2017

Destiny 2 is... well... s'ok.

You save this entire game, Nathan Fillion. Look at me, seriously, DUDE... the entire game.

 What do you what in a shooter? Do you want something that's really easy to pick up and nigh impossible to master? Bungie's got you here. Every gun, every enemy, and every head shot feels like it belongs in the billion dollar plus venture Destiny is. I'm running around with two different pistols. If this were Borderlands I'd be screwed, but in Destiny if I just breathe deep and concentrate I'm never more than 4 headshots away from moping up entire mobs.

I was ready to lay into D2 a lot harder than I'm going to because you know what? There is something really special about Bungie's games. I can't quite describe it, but nothing is ever too hard or too easy. If you just pay attention/run away screaming at the right time you can make it though any firefight. I really can see myself poping in and out every few weeks or so to snag loot and do public events. The gameplay is truly a cut above and the gear is uniformly interesting. I also thought I'd hate the controller based cursor menu but it's lovely! It's way snappier and intuitive than it should be. So you get an 8 Destiny 2. A rock solid 8.

But I'm not that happy with it. It's not just because you can blow through the entire campaign in a day and a half. No, you sold me on this game with that trailer of Nathan Fillion's character being a fun nut. He may very well be that and he was absolutely the highlight of the game. But here's the thing,  no one else is. The script is awful. Flunk creative writing 101, awful. I know I gave Andromeda a lot of crap for it's dull as sand dialogue but guys, it's 12th Night compared to this drivel.

Video game writing has a long way to go but it's been years since I heard a villain say "we're not so different, you and I." Austin Powers had an entire sketch on that line 20 years ago. Don't even get me started on their crushingly unfunny attempt at GLADOS. Just be prepared for it. Oh, and Lance Reddik  pauses... for dramatic effect... all the time. I just don't understand how someone looked at the script, saw Reddik's character doing 3 Horatio glasses removal lines in a row and though that was ok. It's tragic.

So in summation, super fun shooter, really pretty and well designed levels, spectacular guns, endlessly fun to shoot enemies, and one whopper of a script. Stick around for Zoe and Mal. You have my permission to skip everything else. If Dinklidge and North can't make Ghost work, no one can.


Saturday, September 9, 2017

6... hours... later.

https://ak6.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/12640118/thumb/1.jpg

This beats waiting until October 24th for destiny 2 but my internet ain't supposed to be this slow. Goddamn.


F**k it. I'm bored.



Good news and bad news. Good news is I've got a job with one of my all time favorite managers at his new restaurant if I want it. Bad news is those full time, paid vacation, heath care, and 401k having leasing assistant jobs are gonna leave me twisting in the wind for a week and a half before they cut me loose. Also my technical writing course was canceled from lack of interest... BUT I got my $2000 back!

So now what? Destiny 2 seems to be getting decent reviews and lord knows I'd take an even mediocre looter/shooter right now. The PC version comes out in.... OCTOBER?!  Fine. 30 fps PS4 version it is. For the record, when you google Destiny 2 PC release date it says the 6th. Get on that, Bungie.


Friday, September 8, 2017

Bojack Horseman Season 4 Review: "just a big waste of time."




No matter how much you like a show, no matter how long it manages to be exceptional, gravity exists in the creative world and it always catches up. Thrones was fun this year but it just seems so exhausted now. Kimmy Schmidt was on auto pilot half the season. It took me 2 months to bother finishing it when I had devoured it's first season twice by that time. The Defenders was a administrative decision in dire search for a reason to exist. Deathnote is just... awful. I don't know the first thing about the anime but I know that a production that refuses to fire a embarrassingly amateur lead actor should never been given that kind of budget.

So thank the sweet lord in heaven Bojack's back. The darkest, weirdest, most devastating, and delightful show I've ever seen came back swinging. The first two episodes this season are perfect compliments of each half of it's dueling personality.



First there's Mr. Peanut Butter's random as heck run for Governor of California. Which for a distressingly long time seems to point to a more realistic downturn for a character who has managed to simply stumble into fame and fortune at every turn. It takes the show's most lovable character and basically uses him to illustrate America's issues with blind populism. While turning the gubernatorial race into a skiing competition may sound like Bojack's more fanciful outings; it's brutally honest about the mockery of the democratic process that would have to happen to make that a reality. It's horrifically plausible to boot and I look forward to what I hope is a villainous turn for PB. Paul F. would murder it.



The second almost lost me as the "fixing a house/fixing your life" metaphor is tired stuff even if it involves anthropomorphized alcoholic horses. Bo's gone to his grandmother's summer lake house which is identical to the one in his fantasy of the life he wished he'd lived with Charlotte... located in the town of "Harper." The depth of Bojack's continuity continues to impress. But again, fixing up a house filled with flashbacks to the 40's (solid casual sexism and polio jokes aside) goes exactly where you expect it to. Bojack's abusive mother had one all her own and it takes almost the entire episode for it to pay off. Good goddamn does it pay off, though. I didn't realize Bo's grandma was Jane Krakowski because I've never heard her act her ass off like this before.

4 years later it amazes me that a show can have characters with names like Governor Woodchuck Couldchuck Berkowitz and still manage to haunt me. I thought I might sip and savor this season. Cut back to two a day... make it last... yeah, no. I've been waiting 14 months for this.


Thursday, September 7, 2017

Big Mouth. Looks. Amazing.



An murderer's row of comedy talent, a lavish animation budget, and a maddeningly untapped well of brutally honest puberty jokes. I just watched the teasers an hour ago and now I am all about this. Pre-teens are sick, sick, muthers and it's high time we made brutally honest fun of them to the caliber of 90's Simpsons. Because that's how funny these trailers look:





And if that's not enough, Jordan Peele's credit is for the "ghost of Duke Ellington." You know you wanna see that.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Well... Damn.


Just had a hell of a week hanging out with a friend's extended family. It was fantastic. But you know what's not fantastic? Coming back from a 7 1/2 hour drive thinking about the burrito you want for dinner and seeing a flat instead. On Labor day so... nothing to be done about it as I'm fresh out of spares. I don't think someone slashed it, there's plenty of parking. But if that was the case, it's good to know they think I'll call their bluff for a few days before doing anything about it.