Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 2017 Annual #1 Review

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In any annual, most of the fun comes in allowing the various creators to play freely within the universal playground sans the regular trappings of the series’ ongoing narrative. It’s a formula BOOM! Studios nailed with its first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Annual and, wouldn’t you know it, they’ve done it again with their second.

Again featuring five different stories from a collection of industry talent, this annual offers a little bit for everyone. Regular MMPR writer Kyle Higgins and annual artist Goni Montes kick things off with the one story directly tied into the flagship title's ongoing narrative. Anyone following that book knows that an alternate version of Tommy eventually goes full Vader on his former allies, and here we see how the initial fractures are formed. It'd be easy to lean into Tommy's loner machismo, but Higgins actually gets more mileage by playing the character as the odd man out. As Rita manipulatively points out, Tommy wasn't one of the five initially selected by Zordon, making his status as a Ranger comparatively second tier. There's not a whole lot that Higgins can unpack in the limited pages provided, but its enough to add further layers to this particular portrayal of Tommy.

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Saga #43 Review

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If you were looking for yet another reason to pick up Saga, this issue’s 25-cent cover price fits the bill. Released in conjunction with Image Comics’ 25th Anniversary, the latest from Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan gets first-time readers caught up to speed even as it sets new wheels in motion.

This issue is billed as a jumping on point for new readers, and while it’s difficult to imagine anyone out there not already reading this series (who are you people?), it certainly does the job. Coming off of hiatus, writer Vaughan dedicates the early part of this issue to recap territory. Detailing both the overarching themes of the series and its more immediate developments, the refresher does a nice job of crafting an opening for new readers to hop on board, assuming they get past the first jarring page. While long time readers may find the backtracking unnecessary, at a price point of 25-cents it’s tough to argue with the direction of the content.

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Fargo: "The Law of Inevitability" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

"The Law of Inevitability" took place during the hours following Ray's untimely demise, giving us sort of a strange condensed Fargo chapter in the process. It was an episode that felt a bit constrained and strangled as it attempted to dole out the immediate aftermath of last week's big shock.

Firstly though, let's talk about the appearance of Mr. (Wes) Wrench there at the end, on the prison bus, as a huge callout to Season 1 and the Fargo mob who Lorne Malvo tore through during his path of chaos and murder. Yes, Wes Wrench, who apparently met Hanzee Dent as a child - the man who later morphed into mob boss Moses Tripoli.

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Cable #1 Review

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Marvel is banking pretty heavily on '90s nostalgia when it comes to the ResurrXion relaunch. Hot on the heels of X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue and a new incarnation of Generation X, Cable is back in his own solo series. Luckily, one needn't already be a fan of this gun-toting, time-traveling cyborg assassin to enjoy what James Robinson and Carlos Pacheco are delivering.

Robinson has really found his niche at Marvel these past couple years. Cable continues the approach of books like Scarlet Witch and Nick Fury, books that reflect current Marvel continuity but focus more on telling clean, approachable stories set in their own little corners of the Marvel U. Cable doesn't follow the standalone issue format of those books, but otherwise is cut from a similar cloth. Robinson doesn't burden readers with Cable's convoluted history or an excess of plot in this first issue. Instead, he throws them right into the middle of Cable's latest time-hopping adventure. It's not clear who or what Cab;e is pursuing in this first issue, but clearly this is a case where the journey is more important than the destination.

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The Flash: Season 3 Review

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of Season 3 of The Flash, which is now on Netflix. I'll discuss basic plot and character details but avoid getting too much into specifics.

Season 3 appears to be the real test for The CW's Arrowverse shows. Arrow followed up its first two seasons with a much rockier third season, leaving that series in a hole of which it's only just now managed to climb out. The Flash went through a similar series of hurdles this year. The Flash: Season 3 was noticeably more uneven than its predecessors, suggesting that maybe Barry Allen's best days are behind him. Luckily, the show was able to recapture its footing where Arrow continued to struggle. The strong last couple months of the season went a long way towards making up for the mistakes that came before.

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The Long Journey Home Review

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According to one of my playthroughs of the roguelike The Long Journey Home, humanity's first meeting with an alien species took place between the crew of our first interstellar vessel and a squat little glukkt trader named Mendarch. Here it was: the chance of enlightenment and the promise of advances in science beyond our wildest dreams. There was a whole unspoken history in his calling our place the galaxy the "prohibited sector." And what were the fruits of that first mission? He offered to loan me 600 galactic credits and only told me that he expected 200 credits in interest after we finished the transaction. Aliens will be human, I guess.

That's the fun part of The Long Journey Home, and the glukkt are but one of a long list of races who approach your ship with intentions both malevolent and magnanimous. Unfortunately, I had to fight to enjoy these moments. There's a great premise at the heart of this adventure, but it gets smothered under the weight of frustrating and tedious minigames which require ridiculous feats of precision and patience and wear out their welcome long before you ever reach Earth – if indeed you do. I never quite made it all the way back home (though I came close a few times), because this is, after all, a game designed to be a tough and often unfair adventure through the stars, giving you stories to tell of your brave crew’s sacrifices. It does that, but the story was always more about just scraping by until the end, with few climactic triumphs to keep the mood from getting too dire.

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ASUS Republic of Gamers Strix GL702VM Review

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The hottest trend in gaming laptops is "VR readiness," and the ASUS Republic of Gamers GL702VM proudly (See it on Amazon) (See it on Amazon UK) announces in its marketing materials that it's is a machine wholly capable of transporting you to new, entirely virtual, realities. Its "readiness" is due to the inclusion of an Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU, which is the new entry level GPU for VR. At $1299, the GL702VM configuration I received for testing is on the lower end of the pricing spectrum given its specs, and the most readily apparent trade-off it makes to hit this low-ish price is the fact that it uses an older Intel Core- i7 6700HQ CPU, which is from the previous generation, a.k.a. Skylake.

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Secret Empire #3 Review

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Secret Empire certainly doesn't lack for scope. This is one of those event comics that really does extend into every corner of the Marvel Universe, from superheroes to supernatural figures to cosmic empires. The only down side to that massive scope is that it takes a while simply to arrange all the pieces on the board. That's a problem Secret Empire #3 runs into. With so much emphasis on introducing new characters and conflicts, there's precious little room to build on what the series has already introduced.

The main, overarching conflict of the series is actually pretty straightforward at the moment. As this issue establishes, both Hydra and the Avengers are desperately searching for the scattered fragments of the Cosmic Cube, and both seek to restore the world to the way it once was. The main differences being both sides have drastically different ideas of what "it once was" actually involves. But straightforward though that conflict may be, the sheer number of rival factions and new players cropping up is getting to be a bit much. This issue especially suffers from two late-stage additions that threaten to bog down the series rather than truly enrich the core Hydra/Avengers conflict.

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Mark Waid Grants Your Wish With Captain Kid

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"You're only as old as you feel" is a nice adage, but at some point reality begins to outweigh optimism. It could be one year or 30, but at some point you feel it -- a confounding ache, a never ending hangover -- and in that that moment you realize that certain things were a lot easier before you put on some years. So what if you could go back to that younger, ideal you? And more importantly, what if that you also came with super powers? That's the question Mark Waid, Tom Peyer and Wilfredo Torres present in their emotionally strong but narratively sporadic first volume from AfterShock Comics.

In overly simple terms, Captain Kid is essentially a reverse Billy Batson. Rather than a young boy turning into a muscle bound adult, Kid's Chris Vargas instead reverts from a creaky, middle-aged man with bladder issues to a super strong, ab-tastic teenager. It's wish fulfillment of the highest order, and its easily the most engaging part of this series. Writers Waid and Peyer do an excellent job of laying the emotional groundwork of the series early on. Chris is a bit of a sad sack when we first meet him, with a dead end job and ailing father to go along with the aforementioned physical ailments. And yet, he's not a loser -- he's a sharp guy with caring friends, just one feeling the grind of a life halfway lived. And when he changes into Captain Kid, those problems don't disappear. Flying doesn't pay the bills, electromagnetism cant help his loved ones -- his powers are a gift to be sure, but Chris and Kid lead almost entirely separate lives.

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Tokyo 42 Review

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When played strictly as a stealth game, Tokyo 42 is a total blast. As a killer for hire in the stylish, high-contrast high rise setting of future Tokyo, I delighted in silently slashing guards with my katana blade on my way to take out a mob boss in the top floor of a beautifully ornate temple or plant a series of explosives along a tangle of factory pipelines. Unfortunately, once my cover was blown and the shooting started, Tokyo 42 became a wildly inconsistent experience thanks to targeting controls that miss when they seem like they should hit and AI that hits when it seems like it should miss. And in a game where you can be killed with only one shot, you really need the controls to work for you rather than against you.

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The Americans: Season 5 Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for The Americans: Season 5 finale below.

The Americans season finale in some ways felt like a re-set of the past year – after all, we ended Season 4 with Philip and Elizabeth considering going back to Russia, and now we end Season 5 with them realizing that isn’t going to happen. Of course, the knowledge that next year is the final season hangs over this, as it’s hard not to worry that the decision to stay could end up leading to something terrible happening… even though taking Henry and Paige back to Russia could have also been disastrous. Really, there’s no good way out for this family at this point, which adds to the tension and tragedy of it all.

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Prison Break: Season Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the Prison Break season finale below.

When Prison Break originally wrapped up in 2009, the death of Michael Scofield gave the otherwise happy ending a touch of poignancy and tragedy. The conclusion of the Prison Break revival goes to a similar place, but this time, Michael gets to live. And the big death seems even more unnecessary than before.

Of course Whip was the one to die. The Ogygia gang was expendable from the start, and Ja only managed to survive because he decided not to leave Yemen. The show made a few attempts to build up Whip into a primary character, yet he never quite took hold. Even the finale tried to create a bond between Whip and his newly disclosed father, T-Bag. However, the connection felt forced, as did Whip’s untimely demise... which Michael and company only seemed to care about in the moment rather than mourn for their friend later.

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The Walking Dead - A New Frontier Episode 5 Review

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A good season finale needs to satisfy everything the season preceding it has set up while laying groundwork of its own for the road ahead. “From the Gallows,” the fifth episode in The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series — A New Frontier, succeeds in doing both, keeping the spotlight on Javi, Clementine, and the characters around them that matter for the vast majority of an emotionally resonant, stirring ending.

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 92 Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

Preparations continue as the Tournament of Power draws ever closer. Opting to keep things relatively relaxed, Episode 92 focused again on the activities going on in several other universes, one of which set a new record for the long-running series. Not all was so well handled, though, as a silly moment involving our heroes ruined what could've been a more compelling storyline.

Toppo, his crew, and their heroism were highlighted again this episode. This is something Super has been pushing for awhile, so I hope it’s building to a meaningful payoff. They are clearly the good guys, so how will Goku feel having to eliminate them and destroy their universe? This is a question that hasn’t been explored in Dragon Ball before, so I’m interested to see how everyone reacts when they realize they’ve doomed good people from other universes.

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Supergirl: Season 2 Review

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of the second season of Supergirl, which is now available on Netflix. I'll discuss basic plot and character details but avoid getting too deep into specifics.

Supergirl went through some pretty fundamental changes in the transition from Season 1 to Season 2. Not only did the series add several key new cast members (and lose another), production shifted from Los Angeles to Vancouver as the series itself hopped from CBS to The CW. That shake-up wound up working in the show's favor. Unfortunately, over time it became clear that Supergirl still has some significant problems to work through before it can stand alongside the best of the Arrowverse.

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Attack on Titan Episode 34 Review

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The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

A discussion in the trees is the focus of this week’s episode, as Reiner and Eren argue about their past and future. Although a few interesting topics come up, Episode 34 drags on with meandering dialogue and uninteresting scenes that ultimately cause the entire episode to feel like it was unnecessary, especially when it only raises more questions and offers few answers.

The most compelling part of the episode is the discussion surrounding Reiner’s split personality. It’s been subtly hinted at in the past that he had something wrong with him, but those previous scenes did well to hide it under the guise of stress or confusion. Finally, we learn the truth that he is suffering from a split personality of sorts and that it’s something he’s been struggling with since he was first introduced. This revelation is quite interesting. The idea of someone going undercover for so long and having issues telling right from wrong is quite compelling. I only wish we had learned more about his struggles so that we could better understand Reiner’s point of view.

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Asus ROG Strix Wireless Gaming Headset Review

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The Asus ROG Strix Wireless (See it on Amazon) (See it on Amazon UK) is the wireless version of the company’s Republic of Gamers (ROG) two-product line of Strix gaming headsets. The flagship ROG Strix 7.1 is a wired headset that delivers true 7.1 surround sound by stuffing 5 separate speakers in each earcup as center, side front, and rear speakers along with the subwoofer. The Asus ROG Strix Wireless I'm looking at costs $80 less than its wired sibling and, like most headsets, features only a single speaker in each ear. It offers convincing virtual 7.1 surround sound though, and is compatible in wireless mode with both PC and  Playstation 4, but also includes a 3.5mm cable for wired operation, allowing it to be used with Xbox consoles and mobile devices too.

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Wonder Woman Review

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The world’s most popular female superhero has finally made it to the big screen for her first solo movie, but the Wonder Woman film has a Herculean task ahead of it to be considered a success. It not only has to do right by a feminist icon but it also has to be a superhero movie good enough to break the DC Extended Universe stink streak. Watching that drama unfold was almost as exciting as the movie itself: could it overcome an uneven lead performance, some poorly rendered special effects, and a frustratingly mishandled end fight? It does, and Wonder Woman proves to be an emotionally resonate film that won me over with its refreshing take on the superhero formula that featured something we haven’t seen in the DCEU yet: a true, bona fide hero.

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F is For Family: Season 2 Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review for all 10 new episodes of Netflix's F is for Family, which lands on May 30th.

Things get even bleaker in the second season of Bill Burr's F is For Family - a raunchy, no-holds-barred animated series tasked with juggling ton of different tones and themes.

Firstly, it's a time portal that takes us back to a different, and more dangerous, era of child rearing, employment, and relationships. Secondly, it's a comedy -- albeit, one with an avalanche of anger at its core -- that seeks to enlighten while it parodies. On top of all this, it's social commentary mixed with a love story mixed with a handful of coming of age tales.

Plus, it occasionally dabbles in the type of absurdist humor you'd see on something like The Critic or Family Guy. So, at times, the show's spinning a lot of plates, but at the heart of it is the tale of a father and husband who never wound up making his dreams come true and now trudges through life unknowingly trying to crush everyone else's aspirations. And honestly, that's a theme that can resonate no matter the era. The poison that can spread through a family because of untreated and unaddressed depression and/or misery.

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What Did You Think of Tonight's Gotham?

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My Gotham review is on the way, but in the meantime let us know what you thought of "Pretty Hate Machine"...

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at http://ift.tt/2aJ67FB.

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Kingston HyperX Cloud Revolver S Gaming Headset Review

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Kingston's HyperX gaming division has a three tiers for its headset lineup, with the Cloud Stinger series aimed at budget gamers, the Cloud line for mainstream gamers, and the Cloud Revolver line for audio purists. The Cloud Revolver S (See it on Amazon) (See it on Amazon UK) is a new "S" version designed as an upgrade to the current Revolver model that adds a 7.1 Dolby Surround dongle for push-button immersion. At a $149 MSRP its priced exactly the same as many of its competitors including the Logitech G533, SteelSeries Arctis 7, and Asus Strix 7.1, so it’s got some stiff competition. Let's see how it stacks up.

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The Leftovers: "The Most Powerful Man in the World" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Kevin returned to the Leftovers' version of the afterlife for a riveting, brain-spiraling, and heartrending penultimate series episode where, after dying a couple of times in order to check items off on a beyond-the-grave grocery list that included learning a song and passing along some messages, Kevin wound up having a catharsis, violently cutting a key out of his own heart.

The afterlife world, which we saw twice back in Season 2, is, naturally, very reminiscent of the flash-sideways reality back in that final season of Lost. The viewers see familiar faces, in this case dead ones, but in a word-jumble version of the show's established story. Everyone's present, even those we haven't seen in a while, but in different roles. The "rules" of this world are far from clear and it seems like each time Kevin leaves the place he has to do it in a different manner. The most significant side-effect of this mysterious doppelganger-filled astral plane however is that it always shows Kevin certain varied truths about the real world.

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American Gods: "Lemon Scented You" Review

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Full spoilers for American Gods continue below.

American Gods picks up from its cliffhanger from the past two episodes right from where we left off: with Shadow Moon encountering his living dead wife Laura for the first time. There is a sense of anticipation here for how she will handle the situation, but the payoff wasn't quite what was expected.

For all that Laura must have been thinking long and hard about how she would approach Shadow once she revealed that she was still alive, this was a bit of a jarring shift in her behavior from the disengaged and apathetic woman we met in last week's episode. I've watched this episode twice now, and the second time around I think I have a better understanding of what Emily Browning and showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were going for: Laura is re-learning how to care, and she's pretty bad at it.

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Supernatural: Season 12 Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Supernatural: Season 12, which is now available on Netflix. That is, until the end of the piece, where a spoiler warning will be provided.

After the huge cosmic scale of Supernatural's Season 11 (that wound up being a strange, zero-sum game by the end), Season 12 brought things back down to earth in a effective, emotional way that involved the miraculous return of Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) and the shady-turned-diabolical dealings of the British Men of Letters.

Through this arc, the season was able to focus in on a handful of more nuanced themes involving family, wasted potential, and lingering resentment over abandonment. Mary's return was both joyful and painful - for both her and the boys. They welcomed her back warmly, but their relationship was still strained because of how old they were when she was killed and what their childhood was like because of her absence. In particular, Dean and Mary's struggles were more notable because of the fact that he was old enough to remember her being his mom and old enough to take the brunt of John's special form of rearing.

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Into the Badlands: Season 2 Review

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of Into the Badlands Season 2. I'll discuss basic character and plot details but avoid getting too deep into specifics. 

Initially, it seemed like AMC might have chosen a bad time to debut Into the Badlands: Season 2. The show risked having its thunder stolen by Netflix's Iron Fist series, with both debuting within a couple days of each other. But if anything, the timing only worked in AMC's favor. Iron Fist went on to be a pretty resounding critical disappointment, whereas Into the Badlands cemented its status as the best martial arts show on the air.

"Bigger and better" really was the dominant theme of Season 2. The cast grew. There were more episodes to work with. The fight scenes became even more ambitious and epic. Even the general scope of the series received a boost. With production shifting from New Orleans to Ireland this season, creators/showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were free to open up the show and truly reflect the scope of this post-apocalyptic universe. All of these factors contributed to an improved second season.

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Samurai Jack: Season 5 Review

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After years of waiting, Samurai Jack finally got the ending that many thought would never come. Now that the story has concluded, let's look back at how the final season pulled off such a strong finish despite a some pacing issues towards the end.

Warning: full spoilers ahead!

Moving to Adult Swim gave Genndy Tartakovsky and his gifted team the license to take Samurai Jack in a more mature direction, and aging up the content to better align with the tastes of its now-adult audience proved to be a master stroke. Adult themes were explored in a way that broke new ground for the show. Jack took his first human life in the season’s biggest gut-punch moment, making him confront the morality of killing in battle. Instead of hacking away at lifeless robots, Jack now spilt the blood of his enemies and suffered nasty, grievous injuries himself. Wandering the land, immortal and unable to defeat Aku, Jack suffered intense PTSD that haunted him in the form of his younger self given a demonic makeover. And the introduction of Ashi gave Jack his first true romance, and for as complicated as it was with her being the daughter-assassin of Aku, their love became the crux of the show’s emotionally devastating finale.

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My Hero Academia Episode 22 Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

All throughout Season 2, My Hero Academia has done an excellent job of delivering a seamless blend of action and character development. "Bakugo vs. Uraraka" is no different, serving up a thrilling battle that provides new insight into Bakugo and establishes Uraraka as a strong character who will fight tooth and nail to achieve her dreams.

Despite what others seem to think, Bakugo isn't an evil, bloodthirsty villain. While he uses extreme words like "die," it's clear that deep down his ruthless, competitive spirit stems entirely from his desire to be number one. This is made perfectly evident in his battle with Uraraka. Instead of writing her off as an easy win, he sees Uraraka as a formidable opponent who shouldn't be underestimated. I really appreciate how Bakugo's attitude in this battle reinforces the fact that Uraraka isn't just some frail girl he should go easy on, despite the booing audience who clearly believes otherwise.

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Doctor Who Review

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Spoilers follow for this episode of Doctor Who.

The second part of Season 10’s loose trilogy that started with Extremis last week, “The Pyramid at the End of the World” feels a little saggy even as it tells a tale of world-spanning danger. And yet, the terrific trio of Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas keep the hour entertaining and intriguing all the same.

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Turtle Beach Elite Pro Headset and Tactical Audio Controller Review

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Turtle Beach's Elite Pro hardware is the company's ultimate setup for eSports, combining a high-end headset with an external 7.1 soundcard/controller for fine-tuning everything and greatly expanding its connectivity. At $200 MSRP the Elite Pro are the company's most expensive wired headphones, and you can add another $150 for the external soundcard (both can currently be purchased as a bundle - (See it on Amazon) (See it on Amazon UK).

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Rime Review

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On the surface, Rime is a gorgeous, melancholy adventure of a lone wanderer in the similar fashion as memorable games like Ico, Journey, or The Witness. But just under that layer of beautiful art, mysterious locations, and wonderful music, is a game with very few new ideas. Instead, almost all of its puzzles are shallow and ultimately uninteresting versions of things we've seen and done in other, better games.

Rime's basic premise is simple and familiar: you wake up on a magical island after a shipwreck, and have to solve a variety of environmental puzzles over the course of the six-hour adventure to piece together just what the heck happened. Your nameless adventurer character doesn’t have a ton of personality beyond looking like a cross between Ico and the main character of Journey, but your guide through Rime is little magical fox who’s just about the cutest critter ever. He doesn’t do a whole lot, but he helpfully points you in the direction you should go in – which I found especially useful in knowing where not to go if I wanted to explore everything in an area before progressing.

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Bloodline: Season 3 Review

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This is a review for all 10 episodes of Bloodline's third and final season on Netflix. If you haven't finished the season, or started, keep in mind that there will be no huge spoilers in this review, though I will be discussing basic story elements when relevant. 

If you've finished the season and want to read my thoughts on the ending and other plot specifics, you can head to the Bloodline: Season 3 Spoiler Discussion Page.

Bloodline was never a tale that was designed to last for years without running into a certain turgidity. Season 1 rounded things out with a pivotal murder that represented the crazed culmination of a family that had been living limply atop a fragile lie - their well water poisoned long ago by a tragedy that sent them each spiraling internally. The muggy atmosphere, pressure cooker plot, and expert performances made for a scintillating family drama - but one that also, like its main characters, existed on borrowed time.

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War Machine Review

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Brad Pitt remains an actor worth watching. He can be compelling and enjoyable even when he finds himself playing a disappointing character in a lackluster movie, and this is precisely what occurs in writer-director David Michôd's War Machine, which launches on Netflix on May 26th.

The movie, which is "inspired" by Michael Hastings's non-fiction work, The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan, is seemingly meant to be a dark comedy. Instead, however, it plays out as a hollow, not terribly funny, drama, offering the tale of four-star General Glen McMahon (Pitt), his staff, and the impossible job they were given of turning around the war in Afghanistan in 2009.

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Steel Division: Normandy '44 Review

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Steel Division: Normandy '44 accomplishes one of the most difficult feats in strategy gaming: it's a historical wargame where the fun of the game and the accuracy of the history are intertwined, instead of at odds. Developer Eugen Systems has had success with real-time wargames before (with its cleverly titled Wargame series) but with Steel Division it’s escalated both the production values and tactical complexity, with remarkable success.

Unlike the stereotypical World War 2 strategy sim, Steel Division isn't about pushing counters across a map and waiting for some dice rolls to turn out in your favor. It's a great-looking game, for one, with lush, detailed maps and units. Controlling it feels good too – any real-time strategy veteran should almost immediately feel at home with its interface. There is a significant learning curve in terms of how to play Steel Division well, but it's attractive and enjoyable enough to get started with that it's hard not to want to play more.

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Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days Review

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Absurd as it is, there’s some entertainment to be had in the very concept of a top-down shooter based on the 1992 film that made Quentin Tarantino a famous director. But other than that novelty and some passable robbers-versus-cops gunplay, there’s not much to get excited about in Big Star’s simplistic adaptation, Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days.

Bloody Days puts you in charge of the crew from the live action Reservoir Dogs… sort of. Likeness rights were obviously not secured along with the name, as Mr. White is really the only character that bears any resemblance to his silver screen counterpart, the late Harvey Keitel. Mr. Pink, originally portrayed by Steve Buscemi, is an angry-looking dude with blond hair and a big goatee, while Mr. Brown seems modeled not so much on Tarantino as an MMA fighter stunt double that had to look enough like him to be convincing at a distance. It’s a little difficult not to be distracted by those discrepancies in a game that leans on such an iconic license.

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PlayStation VR Aim Controller Review

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If it feels to you like there’s a crucial element missing when you play virtual reality shooters with a traditional gamepad, Sony’s PlayStation VR Aim Controller could quickly become your new favorite accessory.

The Aim Controller comes in bundles with the new PSVR game Farpoint, but it’s also being sold separately for $59.99. Though Farpoint is the only game currently supported, other games including ROM: Extraction, The Brookhaven Experiment and Dick Wilde will also support it in the future. Naturally, all these games involve shooting, and the PSVR Aim Controller makes one heck of a gun.

The controller itself is sleek and futuristic, much unlike the dated-looking Sharp Shooter accessory Sony released in the PS3 era. Also unlike the Sharp Shooter, the Aim Controller doesn’t require a PS Move wand to be slotted into it; all the buttons and the signature light-orb are part and parcel with the controller itself, giving the whole thing a complete, finished vibe instead of feeling like a cheap add-on.

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Boruto Episode 8 Review

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“The comet has entered the constellation. The destiny of the stars, the time for harvest is near. And just as I thought the key to it all… is him.”

This week’s episode of Boruto opens with these ominous words, but perhaps more ominous is the character who speaks them: Toneri Otsutsuki, the main antagonist of the Naruto movie “The Last”. His sudden appearance raises several questions for this episode, as well as the series. Is Toneri the perpetrator of the possessions? Or a bystander hoping to intervene for the greater good? The show isn’t ready to answer that question just yet, but it does seem to finally be laying the groundwork for Boruto to learn about his mysterious powers, and whatever evil they are trying to reveal to him.

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 3 Review

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Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which is available to stream now on Netflix.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt really came into its own in Season 2. As the first season specifically designed for streaming rather than broadcast TV (given Season 1 was originally meant to air on NBC), the show was free to take more risks and let the run-time play out a bit longer. The result was a hilarious season that took more risks and didn't shy away from the darker side of Kimmy's post-bunker life. That's why it's so bizarre to see Season 3 play it safe. Much of what makes the show work is still plainly apparent this year. But that's the problem, really. We're getting more of the same in Season 3, and little sign that the show is still willing to venture outside its comfort zone.

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Perception Review

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Perception invokes the most basic human phobia - a fear of the dark - by placing you in the shoes of Cassie, a blind woman who navigates by means of echolocation. It gives her - and you - only momentary glimpses of her surroundings, forcing you piece together room layouts, landmarks, and threats in the mere seconds before the shadows rush back in. It’s emblematic of Perception’s problems, then, that my main emotion as I sat in the dark wasn’t fear, but irritation.

The smart-sounding, high-concept set-up is ultimately its downfall, but along the way it bears some fruit. We’re so accustomed to being shown exactly where we are and where to go in games that to be left in darkness is actually refreshing at first. In the opening moments, exploring the purportedly abandoned New England house Cassie finds herself in is unnerving, opaque, and unpredictable. Until 10 minutes in, when you realise that the next four hours will amount to a bland adventure game with a veneer of horror and an increasingly awkward central gimmick.

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SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless Gaming Headset Review

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The SteelSeries Arctis 7 (See it on Amazon) is a wireless gaming headset that sits on the the top perch of the company’s Arctis line of headsets. It has an MSRP of $149.99 and features lag-free wireless audio, virtual 7.1 surround sound, and a versatile modular design that lets you use it with PCs, Macs, gaming consoles, VR, and even mobile devices.

Right out of the box, I liked the look of the Arctis 7. I’m a gamer of a certain age and can appreciate the "mature" look of the headset. It eschews cheap attractions such angular plastic molding, aggressive logos, and a garish color scheme. SteelSeries offers the Arctis 7 in either black or white, and both designs are simple and understated. The black version I received for review features matte black surfaces with a silver SteelSeries logo printed on the outside of each earcup. The cloth, "ski-goggle" headband features a gray-and-black pattern; SteelSeries sells more colorful replacement bands for a reasonable $14.99 each if you want to customize your look.

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Fargo: "The Lord of No Mercy" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

"The Lord of No Mercy," one of Season 3's best episodes yet, will rightfully be remembered as the chapter where Emmit accidentally killed Ray during one last attempt to bury the hatchet and end their cruel squabbling. It was a harrowing, and wonderfully Fargo-y, accident that now changes the entire course the season. Ray's gone, an injured Nikki is hiding from a both cops and crooks, and Gloria's main suspect has transformed into an entirely new murder case.

But for me this episode was most notable for drawing strange and eerie parallels between Varga and Gloria. He's the big bad wolf that she needs to take down and this week she finally met him, receiving yet another lecture about how fickle "reality" can be when there aren't facts to back it up. Gloria as the humble small town cop and Varga as the more sophisticated and vicious criminal mastermind who thinks he can run roughshod over a parade of simpletons is textbook Fargo. But the awesome twist here is that both of them exist in the shadows - off the grid and out of sight.

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The 100: Season 4 Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for The 100: Season 4 finale follow.

The 100 season finale was terrifically entertaining, putting our characters in a scenario with a huge ticking clock element that added to the tension throughout.

So let me get my complaining out of the way! And honestly, it’s more about what the finale was lacking than what we did get, since what we got was so good. But still, it felt like a couple of missed opportunities here for strong drama away from the central scenario.

First off, the only focus in the scenes at the bunker were on Octavia and her doubt about being a leader. A compelling situation for her, to be sure, but it still felt odd to skip over everyone else at this particular point. Abby’s absence felt especially strange, given how much was going on with her. She’d specifically asked Kane to give her spot to someone else, and he’d disobeyed her. But we never saw her wake up, nor anyone else, to see how they reacted to Kane and Jaha’s decision to use Clarke’s list after all.

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Captain America: Steve Rogers #17 Review

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It used to be tradition for Marvel to accompany their major event comics with a book like Civil War: Frontline - something tasked with exploring how these massive conflicts impact the ordinary man on the street in the Marvel Universe. There's no Secret Empire: Frontline, but apparently this event doesn't need one. Captain America: Steve Rogers #17 does the trick on its own.

This issue is actually framed as a very direct continuation of Civil War: Frontline, with hotheaded reporter Sally Floyd returning to the forefront to interview Captain America for the third time in her career. Needless to say, things have changed quite a bit since that time Sally infamously harangued Cap for not knowing about MySpace (writer Nick Spencer wisely updates that exchange to involve twitter instead). Essentially, this issue presents a televised interview where Supreme Hydra Steve Rogers attempts to win over the highly skeptical Sally as he extols the virtues of Hydra's America.

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Arrow: Season 5 Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

It's impossible not to approach each Arrow season finale with trepidation. The Season 1 and 2 finales were both great, ranking among the show's overall best. But the Season 3 and 4 finales were the exact opposite. Arrow has developed a nasty habit of falling apart at the finish line in recent years, and even with all the improvements the show has undergone this year, there's always going to be that fear that the show will blow it in the end. Thankfully, that's not the case with Season 5. "Lian Yu" isn't just a great season finale, it's quite possible the show's best episode ever.

The series truly came full circle this week, wrapping up Oliver Queen's five-year flashback saga and dragging him back to the island where it all started. In the process, pretty much every surviving character of note (and one dearly departed favorite) returned to help the show celebrate this important milestone. This was a jam-packed episode that managed to never lose sight of Ollie's very personal mission. It's funny to note that this is the first time the writers cooked up a finale that didn't involve Team Arrow racing against the clock to save Star city from destruction. Despite that, this episode felt as epic and eventful as any of them.

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I Am Groot #1 Review

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Now that the core Guardians of the Galaxy comic has gone twice-monthly, do we really need separate solo books for both Rocket Raccoon and Groot? The recent Rocket #1 made a strong case for itself, telling a very different sort of cosmic detective noir/heist tale. That series is clearly telling a story that couldn't be told within All-New Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm not convinced that's the case with I Am Groot #1.

The one advantage with this latest in Marvel's long line of Groot-centric comics is that it has a slight urgency to its status quo. As established in Al-New Guardians, Groot is stuck in his baby form for some reason. Beyond the fact that this puts him in immediate physical danger on any new mission, there's also the ongoing mystery of how and why Groot has become trapped in this infant state. There's little sense that I Am Groot will specifically be exploring that mystery, but at least Groot's new, more precarious state gives the series some sense of novelty.

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Venom #150 Review

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Legacy numbering is back in vogue these days, and Venom is the first of what looks to be a great many Marvel titles reverting to its original numbering scheme this year. And it certainly comes at an appropriate time. The Venom symbiote has now officially passed from Lee Price to Eddie Brock, restoring a status quo that hasn't existed for about 15 years now. This renumbering and (more importantly) the resulting change in story direction help reinvigorate a series that had stumbled badly out of the gate last year.

The most immediate and obvious improvement in this issue's lead story is visual. The book has suffered greatly from the murky yet hyper-exaggerated approach taken by Geraldo Sandoval. Tradd Moore's work is no less stylized, but it's stylized with a specific purpose in mind. Moore brings an incredible sense of energy to the page as he explores the violent reunion between man and symbiote. His line-work is clean, and his characters are dynamic and expressive. Often Moore doesn't even rely on traditional panel structures in his images, opting instead for incredible collage images where the boundaries between Eddie and his suit often blur. Moore really nails the idea that this story is really about two old lovers feeling the pangs of lust all over again.

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Sennheiser PC 373D Gaming Headset Review

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Sennheiser is a name that needs no introduction in the world of audio, but PC gamers might not be aware of its premium gaming headsets for those who have high audio standards and deep pockets. According to Sennheiser, the PC 373D headphones (See it on Amazon) are "Hands down Sennheiser’s best headset for PC gaming," and at a $250 MSRP they better be, as that's about $100 more than similar high-end headsets from Razer, Logitech, et al. The PC 373D aims to deliver the entire package with superb audio quality, a noise-cancelling microphone, and a solid and comfortable build. This headset features the exact same design as the equally priced Game One headset, but outdoes it by featuring offering Dolby 7.1 surround sound and handy software control.

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The Flash: Season 3 Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

I’m not sure anyone would argue that Season 3 isn’t the weakest year so far for The Flash. That said, the show has made some pretty impressive strides in recent weeks, pushing back against the darkness that’s dominated Barry Allen’s world lately and finally molding Savitar into the compelling, understandable villain he should have become months ago. “Finish Line” wasn’t without its problems, but it does serve as a proper end-cap to the season and a potentially huge game-changer for the series going forward.

Last week’s episode left Team Flash in a very dark place, as Savitar seemingly succeeded in his goal of murdering Iris and ensuring that he’ll be born four years in the future. This episode wasted little time in revealing that good ol’ H.R. pulled a switcheroo and sacrificed himself in her place. I know I’m hardly the only one to predict that twist last week. I can understand why this twist might upset some viewers. It’s certainly easier to kill off Harrison Wells 3.0 than to eliminate Iris, especially when there’s always an assembly line of Wellses ready to replace any that get damaged or broken.

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