A Series of Unfortunate Events: Season 2 Review

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A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2 starts out on the wrong foot. Even though Season 1 mixed melancholic monologues, heartwarming caretakers who met ill fates, and ridiculous yet delightful Neil Patrick Harris performances to great effect, its rinse-and-repeat formula of the Baudelaire orphans outrunning Count Olaf began to feel a little overdone by the season’s end.

Season 2’s first two episodes, based on the fifth ASOUE book, The Austere Academy, fit too much into this mold. While it’s been more than a year since I watched the first batch of episodes, a sense of familiarity immediately overcame me as the Baudelaires’ time at Prufrock Prepatory school carried on. But as the season progresses, thanks to the introduction of a few key characters and episodes that deepen the lore of the Baudelaires’ lives, overall Season 2 ends up capturing the magic of Season 1 while transforming the shape and flow of the show.

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The C64 Mini Review

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While not having had nearly the same kind of impact on the ‘80s as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64 was nonetheless the 8-bit entry point to gaming for millions of players, myself included. My earliest gaming memories are of winding through demo cassettes that came Scotch-taped to the covers of British gaming magazines with names like Zzap, Crash, and various other mastheads seemingly inspired by a fight scene from Adam West’s Batman. Or using a tiny jeweller’s screwdriver to fiddle with the tape drive heads only for a game to load for five agonising minutes and then fail, forcing me to rewind, adjust the heads a half turn to the left and try again. Or typing lines of POKEs at the command prompt in order to cheat my way to infinite lives, and giggling at the word ‘POKE’ because I wasn’t yet in high school and anything vaguely sexual was hilarious.

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Arrow Overhauls Thea's Status Quo

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

It may well be that that the shift towards Ricardo Diaz as the main villain of Season 6 will give Arrow the long-awaited boost it so badly needs. But the series seems in little hurry to take advantage of that big twist. The show returned after another short, poorly timed hiatus this week, only for the Diaz storyline to recede in favor of a new League of Assassins-themed tangent. Needless to say, “The Thanatos Guild” did little to help the series build any momentum.

This episode feels reminiscent of the recent Deathstroke/Jericho storyline from earlier in the season in that it’s basically a side-story that also seems to be setting up plot threads for down the road. I don’t know if the writers are hoping to establish Athena and her minions as a major, overarching threat, but they’re definitely leaving room for this Thea/Athena rivalry to crop up again in Season 7.

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Netflix's First Match Review

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A coming of age story. That’s what I would liken First Match to. Monique, a troubled teen who spends years in foster care, turns to wrestling as a way of getting close to her father. The premise is familiar, if only by the idea that a sport is used to overcome some form of adversity. A 2018 Karate Kid if you will. That said, I would be remiss to leave my description at such a basic level…

The film opens with Monique’s clothes being tossed out of an apartment window. Accused of sleeping with her caretaker’s boyfriend, she’s being ousted in front of random bystanders. Bouncing from one foster home to another is nothing new though; after exchanging some choice words, Monique grabs what she can before departing in contempt. From here we witness a series of scenes that paint her current reality. Bad choices, a begrudged reunion, and a serious attitude problem. And that’s all before she bumps into her estranged father. Darrel, fresh out of jail, is working a part time gig in Brooklyn. It’s only by happenstance that he sees Monique. Their awkward meeting informs the viewer of a few facts. Namely that he doesn’t want to be a part of her life anymore and that Mo is desperate for her father.

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Netflix's The Titan is Underwhelming Sci-Fi

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The Titan premieres on Netflix on March, 30th

Starring Avatar's Sam Worthington, Orange is the New Black's Taylor Schilling, and Batman Begins' Tom Wilkinson, The Titan is a mild sci-fi offering that feels perfectly designed to nest and reside within Netflix's "Because You Watched..." scroll.

The Titan, from writer Max Hurwitz and director Lennart Ruff, isn't a bad film, it just never pops. And it spends the bulk of its body focusing on the wrong story. By the time the tale ends, you feel like you've just finally reached something interesting because the hour and a half leading you there contained a ton of filler and unnecessary fat. If we're talking Netflix Original sci-fi flicks, The Cloverfield Paradox immediately springs to mind here, as it too felt like an unnecessarily reverse-engineered backwards race toward a much more interesting story happening elsewhere.

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Gemini Review: A Mediocre Murder Mystery

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If a movie was entirely about setting a mood and sticking with it, Aaron Katz's Los Angeles murder mystery, Gemini, would be an unbridled success. Katz, serving as writer, director, and editor of the movie, sets the scene brilliantly. What he fails to do is serve up a story that is remotely worthy of its trappings.

At the center of the movie is Jill (Lola Kirke), an assistant to movie star Heather Anderson (Zoë Kravitz). They may be friends, but there is no question that Jill works for Heather, so when Heather—for no reason the movie cares to delve into—decides she wants to drop out of a project, it falls to Jill to make Heather's desires known. It is Jill who has to try and keep away adoring fans. It is Jill who has to keep Heather out of trouble. It is Jill who is deemed a suspect when a dead body is found in Heather's home.

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DC's Metal Finale Is Epic but Flawed

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Dark Nights: Metal has certainly lived up to its name, cramming in all sorts of heavy metal-worthy imagery and crazy situations. That doesn't change one bit in the finale. The downside is that the series continues to be too overstuffed for its own good in its final chapter. As good a job as it does hyping up what's to come for the DCU, it doesn't quite carry the same weight as Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's best Batman stories.

Not for the first time, I found myself wondering in this issue if Metal simply became too big for its own good. There are a lot of characters crammed into these pages, with the cast spanning the breadth and width of the DCU. But too often, it feels like this issue is unable to do individual characters the justice they deserve. I imagine the payoff (or lack thereof) with issue #1's big Sandman twist is going to annoy a number of readers. That twist did as much as anything else to build excitement for Metal as a whole, but in the end Dream and his compatriots barely factor into this conflict. Was it worth including them in the first place?

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Power Rangers: Shattered Grid Packs a Punch

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Never let it be said that event comics are limited to Marvel and DC. BOOM! Studios kicks off its most ambitious Power Rangers story to date with "Shattered Grid," a crossover that unites the original Mighty Morphin crew with half a dozen other Ranger teams. This story promises plenty of scope and spectacle, but it's refreshing to see that writer Ryan Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo are more concerned with establishing the emotional stakes of this story first.

Readers coming in cold with this storyline might not notice anything particularly amiss right away. The opening prologue offers some sense of the conflict to come, but for the most part, this issue is devoted more to team drama than anything else. Higgins writes his characters as restless and furtive after Lord Drakkon's escape, simultaneously gearing up for another major battle and also trying to find a sense of normalcy in their personal lives. Higgins even devotes a significant portion of this issue to Tommy and Kimberly's awkward, fledgling romance. Between that and the fun banter between Billy and Trini, there's a low-key, charming quality to this issue. And as someone who's experience with the non-MMPR shows is very limited, I appreciate the creators not bludgeoning readers over the head with a giant cast of characters right away.

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Amazon Echo Review

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Over the course of the last few years Amazon's Echo has positioned itself as the de facto smart speaker. The original version of the Echo was the first real player in the market and since its release Amazon has expanded its digital assistant Alexa to 6 other speakers—and that just counts ones made by the retail giant. Alexa can also be found on dozens of products from other manufacturers, including televisions, automobiles, and even appliances.

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Doomsday Clock: The New Rorschach Comes Into His Own

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Shipping delays are a pain, but the only thing that truly matters in the end is the actual quality of a comic. The original Watchmen proves this as well as anything. And now the same is holding true for its sequel. Doomsday Clock #4 may disappoint readers hoping for a massive leap forward in terms of the series' narrative, but as an in-depth examination of one of the series' key players, this issue fires on all cylinders.

Everything in Doomsday Clock is done with purpose and intent, and the fact that issue #4 parallels Watchmen #4 so closely is sure no accident. Watchmen #4 gave us "Watchmaker," an introspective, flashback-heavy story that explored the troubled history and unusual state of mind of Doctor Manhattan. Doomsday Clock #4 takes a similar approach to the new Rorschach. When last we saw this nameless vigilante, his plans of forming an alliance with Batman were foiled when he found himself locked away in Arkham Asylum. And now we learn what horrible series of events birthed this new Rorschach, along with a few hints as to the future scope of the series.

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MLB The Show 18 Final Review

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This winter, Shohei Ohtani brought the excitement and allure of a two-way player to Major League Baseball’s offseason. Meanwhile, while he courted most of the teams, the once-dominant Jake Arietta languished in the free-agent pool until accepting Philadelphia’s best offer.

In many ways, MLB The Show 18 has more in common with the oft-dependable Arietta than the shiny-new Ohtani, whose Babe Ruth-style two-way play on the mound and at the plate had every team lining up to sign him. This year, there’s a familiarity to the gameplay that doesn’t quite excite as much as it used to. The Show 18’s list of improvements lacks the punch some have come to expect from a top-tier game. But like the Phillies, buyers of MLB The Show 18 should know that they are getting a reliable and high-quality product, just maybe not the most alluring we’ve seen in the past few years.

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Fortnite Battle Royale Review - One of the Best Multiplayer Games

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Stiff arming its way through the crowded battle royale genre, Fortnite Battle Royale sets itself apart by trading the traditional, bland military simulation vibe with vivid colors and an outstanding, freeform building system that’s unlike anything else in competitive multiplayer games.As its name suggests, Fortnite Battle Royale fits so neatly into the battle royale genre that blew up last year that the basic description sounds as standard as you can get: Up to 100 players are dropped onto a large but constantly shrinking map with the goal of gathering weapons and gear to become the last person or team left standing. But if you look just a little closer, it can’t be mistaken for any other game because the vehicle you’re skydiving out of is, inexplicably, a flying party bus – a nice change of pace from a drab military plane – and the place you land is a giant, beautifully colorful island, instead of a realistic landscape, surrounded by a violent storm.

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Roccat Horde AIMO Gaming Keyboard Review

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Finding true ingenuity in a modern gaming keyboard is like finding a unicorn riding a skateboard. Sure, there’s the occasional unique lighting setup and you might even find some useful extra keys, but overall there’s very little that’s truly new in the world of keyboards. At first glance, the Roccat Horde AIMO (See it on Amazon) / (See it on Amazon UK) may look just like any other "membranical" keyboard, and in many ways that’s true. But it offers unprecedented levels of customization, and responsive keys that really set it apart. Let's take a closer look.

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 131 Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

Dragon Ball Super ends its 131-episode run with a glorious finale. Every scene received world-class treatment in care and the final battle hit all the right notes to add unexpected tension along with a satisfying conclusion. The story hit all the major beats as well, with the Frieza plotline culminating in an epic team-up between Goku and Frieza, while the overarching theme of trust brought to a head just how important Goku’s allies were, as well as bringing to light a new friendship between Toppo and Jiren.

The Tournament of Power marked a noticeable increase in Super’s animation quality, and it’s clear that everything Toei Animation learned along the way was applied during Episode 131. Frantic and subtle character movements, the coloring on their bodies, and of course, the explosions of Ki energy were all so well done that it seems, like this last battle, Super reached an incredible new form. No moment highlights this more than the final combined attack of Goku and Frieza as their contrasting colors merge into one giant blast that ultimately wins them the battle. Along with the visuals, the musical score was perfectly matched, hyping up the fight to such a degree I found myself leaning closer to the screen with excitement.

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Samsung Galaxy S9+ Review

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Samsung's latest flagship smartphone has finally arrived. The Galaxy S9+ (See it on Amazon) doesn't sport a ton of huge changes compared to its predecessor—even less so when compared to the more recently-released Galaxy Note 8—but the changes it does include are still enough to make it one of the best phones you can buy today. Though it still features a curved glass display, it's added a next-generation processor, enhanced camera capabilities with new features for both photo and video, improved screen brightness, and a relocated fingerprint scanner, and many other features that improve the overall experience quite a bit.

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AMC's The Terror Starts Scary, But Slow

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If you watched AMC's The Walking Dead this past Sunday, you'll mostly likely have noticed the pilot episode for new series The Terror aired, unannounced/unadvertised, right afterward - a day ahead of its official premiere date of Monday, March 26th. This will still be a (mostly) spoiler-free review however.

AMC's The Terror - a very lavishly and meticulously produced historical drama that blends fact with a fiction, taking a few supernatural liberties where vast swaths of unknown live and gaps in knowledge reside - is off to a good, though icy (pun intended), start.

Above, I wrote that this is to be a spoiler-free review and for the most part it will be. But that's partially due to this pilot episode containing mostly set-up and not much along the lines of pivotal plot. Which his fine, but the trudging pace makes for a slow go of things right out of the gate.

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Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 5 - Same Stitch Review

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One of the biggest draws of Telltale’s take on the Batman universe is that it has spent its first two seasons flipping Bat-universe convention on its head. Between Vicki Vale’s heel turn and Thomas Wayne’s criminal past, Telltale has not been afraid to flip the script in Gotham City. Perhaps the biggest payoff promised for ‘Same Stitch’, the finale of Batman: The Enemy Within, was that John Doe would finally become The Joker, just as we’ve been waiting for all season. With it, John could take his place as either your arch-nemesis or... your partner. While The Enemy Within never quite fully commits to that reversal, both the episode and the season are memorable for leaving scars on its stars – both physical and emotional.

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The Walking Dead Keeps the Action and Gore Flowing as Hilltop Gets Attacked

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Even though there was no direct follow up with regards to Negan's fate (yup, I could sure go for a big Negan backstory fill-in right about now), "Do Not Send Us Astray" kept things lively, maintaining the action-adventure pace of last week's "The Key" with an all-out attack on the Hilltop - which included Negan's bio-warfare plan actually being put into practice!

Before I pan for gold here though, let's address the Henry in the room.

Uggggh Henry. Unfortunately, young kids in TV crisis situations can apparently only be A: boring, or B: massive mistake makers. Either way it means you're either indifferent to them or you hate them. I wish someone could crack this particular code because it's a real bummer.

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Batman Ninja Review

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Batman Ninja will be available on April 24 digitally, and on Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on May 8, 2018. This review is based on the world premiere screening of Batman Ninja that took place at WonderCon 2018.

Batman Ninja is an impressive anime spectacle that sends some of DC Comics most iconic characters back in time to feudal Japan. Far from the technical comforts of his Batcave, this take on the Caped Crusader sees Batman trying to find a way to defeat the Joker (Tony Hale), Harley Quinn (Tara Strong), and other rogues gallery members without the use of his gadgets after Gorilla Grodd's time displacement machine goes haywire in Arkham Asylum.

The first thing about Batman Ninja that stands out is the quality of the animation. The movie is simply gorgeous. All the details from the sky and foliage that covers the landscape, to the facial features and costume designs of the heroes and villains are meticulously crafted. It’s no surprise that Takashi Okazaki, the creator of the Afro Samurai manga series, is the lead character designer.

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Neflix's Lost in Space: "Pilot" Review - WonderCon

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This is a SPOILER-FREE review of the Lost in Space “Pilot” that premiered at WonderCon 2018. The series will be available on Netflix on April 13th.

Netflix’s Lost in Space is a dazzling sci-fi adventure series that takes a 50-year-old franchise and modernizes it for a 21st-century audience. Creators Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Gods of Egypt) strip away most of the campiness of yesteryear and replace it with some grit and ambiguity. Unlike the 1960s version, where the Robinsons resembled the ideal nuclear “aw shucks” family, this iteration makes them feel like actual people with real problems, who are battling not only the harsh conditions of the planet their spaceship crashes on, but also their inner-family turmoil.

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Constantine Shines in Animated Form - Review

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Note: This is a spoiler-free review of the first five mini-episodes of Constantine: City of Demons, which premiered at WonderCon and are now available to stream on CW Seed.

Leave it to a trickster like John Constantine to weasel his way out of network cancellation. NBC may have pulled the plug on its Constantine series in 2015, but the character himself has found a second home in the Arrow-verse as an ally to heroes like Green Arrow and White Canary. Actor Matt Ryan has even been bumped up to series regular status for Legends of Tomorrow's fourth season (if it's renewed). And now adding to Constantine's good fortune, he's got a series all his own again. Sure, Constantine: City of Demons isn't the full-fledged continuation of the NBC series fans might be hoping for, but it serves as a fun showcase for an always compelling character.

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Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay Review - WonderCon

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Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay made its world debut at WonderCon 2018. It arrives on Digital on March 27, 2018, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD April 10, 2018.

The road to hell isn't exactly paved with good intentions in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, the bloody, darkly funny new DC animated feature film from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Life is both very precious and also very, very cheap in this R-rated adventure that sees Task Force X sent by Amanda Waller on a secret mission to obtain a supernatural McGuffin, whose nature is too spoilerish to reveal but suffice to say it offers something every character wants. And for this cross-section of DC supervillainy, that’s plenty reason to be even more cutthroat than usual.

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PUBG Mobile Review

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If you’d said a month ago that PUBG Mobile would run better than PUBG on Xbox, and that it’d be free, you’d have gotten a lot of strange looks. Yet here we are, and mobile gaming’s future has never looked brighter. It’s absolutely remarkable that it runs so well and manages to fit all of PUBG’s features onto tiny touch-screen displays.

Make no mistake: this is the real PUBG experience. One hundred people hunched over their Android or iOS phones and tablets fly over a deserted island and skydive down from a plane to loot abandoned buildings, gather up resources, and duke it out until there’s only one person left standing. The first time you drop onto a map and see all of the island of Erangel sprawled out before you in real-time, on your phone, is a surreal experience.

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The Best Smartphone Battery Cases

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There are few more panic-inducing moments in this day and age than suddenly realizing your smartphone is going die without a charger in sight. Amazingly, we used to survive without smartphones, but our modern dependency on those devices means we're constantly draining precious battery life. You could always keep a big power bank with you, but that's just one more thing to lug around. For true mobility and peace of mind, you'll need a battery case. Not only do these battery-infused cases keep your smartphone charged, but they also keep it protected as well. Here's a list of some of our favorites.

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Game Over, Man! Review

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There’s a school of comedy that says if a scene isn’t funny, just get louder. Or get crasser. Or just start gesticulating wildly. It’s a not a prestigious school, but if you ever wanted to audit a class, it’s as easy as watching Game Over, Man!, which launches on Netflix on March 23.

Game Over, Man! comes from the creators of the television series Workaholics, and stars Adam Devine, Anders Holm and Blake Anderson as the the cleaning staff at a fancy hotel, where a wealthy celebrity named Bey Awadi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is having an enormous party that night. Our heroes decide to use this opportunity to pitch Bey Awadi one of their many entrepreneurial schemes, the “Skintendo,” which uses a full body suit to control the character in a game.

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Detective Pikachu Review

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Detective Pikachu ignores the precedent set by Ash and his iconic Pikachu partner; its protagonist isn’t a trainer, its Pikachu is snarky, and it invites Pokemon from all generations to its city. But by doing so, developer Creatures has crafted an intriguing adventure game that, while not all that challenging, incorporates elements unique to Pokemon that ultimately make for a great whodunit experience.

It’s been two months since Tim Goodman’s father went missing while on a case in Ryme city, and this teen takes it upon himself to find out what happened. Tim runs into Detective Pikachu and realizes he’s the only one who can hear the Pokemon speak. Their special circumstance is a big underlying mystery of Detective Pikachu, and it lends to funny moments between the two early on as they try to hide their conversations. With their bond formed, Pikachu teams up with Tim to find his father.

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Soderbergh's Unsane Review

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Steven Soderbergh makes movies about just about every topic, from narcotics to space aliens to stripping to casino heists, but one of the subjects he keeps coming back to is the medical profession, and how absolutely terrifying it can be. Side Effects found the phobias in the prescription drug industry, Contagion watched with morbid fascination as the  world fell prey to a deadly virus, and now Unsane wants you to know just how easy it can be to get held captive by the mental health industry. Literally.

Claire Foy stars as Sawyer Valentini, a banker who just moved to a new town to escape her stalker, and who - understandably - is having trouble managing that trauma. She sees a therapist at a nearby clinic, and admits she has sometimes contemplated suicide, and so she’s told to fill out a boilerplate form.

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A Way Out Review

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As my co-op partner and I approached the climax of A Way Out, the cinematic, 1970’s-set prison-break adventure from the studio headed by filmmaker-turned-game-developer Josef Fares, I thought it had run out of gas. I’d been hooked for the first five hours, which do a magnificent job of blending drama with action and emotion with lightheartedness. In that time we’d rarely done the same style of of gameplay twice, and I had gotten to know and understand Vincent, the more diplomatic and reserved of the two playable convicts in this mandatory two-player story. But here we were, knee-deep in a cliched sequence I’d seen a million times before in both games and movies. I thought A Way Out had run out of tricks.

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Cave Carson Melts the Brain and the Heart

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The Young Animal imprint may do things a bit differently from most superhero comics, but one thing that hasn't changed is the tendency to relaunch and renumber books every so often. But as with Shade, the Changing Woman #1, the new title and #1 issue definitely feel warranted with Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye #1. That new title reflects a dramatically different and even more ambitious status quo for the series. Even with the same creative team, this reads like a very different book.

The new series opens with a streamlined cast - Cave, his daughter Chloe and mineralogist Professor Bartow - paying a visit to an oversized rock icon named Star Adam. Essentially a composite of David Bowie, Prince and Freddie Mercury, Star Adam certainly plays into the psychedelic weirdness the series is known for. He's a flamboyant and entertaining addition to the book, and one who allows the creators to shed some extra light on Cave's more carefree younger years.

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ASUS ROG Strix GL503V Scar Edition Gaming Laptop Review

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Asus designs its Republic of Gamers line of laptops for gamers of all budgets and needs, and it recently introduced two new "Strix" variants, one of which I'm reviewing here. This is the Scar Edition (See it on Amazon) / (See it on Amazon UK), which is designed for FPS gamers (the other version, for MOBA gamers, is dubbed the Hero). What differentiates the Scar edition, and makes it suitable for fans of first person shooters, is its blistering 144Hz refresh rate and inclusion of Nvidia's G-Sync technology.

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Jane Foster Makes a Tremendous Final Stand

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By their very nature, superhero comics at the Big Two don't often get to tell lengthy, complete stories with definitive endings. There's always another story to tell and another bend in the road for these heroes. Part of the appeal with Jane Foster inheriting the mantle of Thor is that her story can truly end. There may always be more enemies to battle and deeds to accomplish for the Odinson, but Jane has been fighting against her inevitable death since her very first appearance in Jason Aaron's run. And now that she's reached the end of her road, this series is paying off on years of crucial build-up.

After last month's downbeat, introspective issue, "The Death of the Mighty Thor" reaches its climax as Jane transforms for what looks to be the last time and confronts the Mangog amid the flaming ruins of Asgard. Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman craft what is easily one of the most action-packed and violent issues of the series to date. Nearly every page is crammed with images of desperate gods pummeling or being pummeled by their unstoppable enemy. Dauterman brings an added sense of energy to his pages through his panel designs. Rather than relying on clean, geometric arrangements, Dauterman's layouts are defined by sharp angles and clashing liens. It's as if the sheer force of Mangog's fury is warping the pages of this book.

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Isle of Dogs Review

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It can’t be a coincidence that the title of Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” sounds almost exactly like “I Love Dogs.” Anderson’s second stop-motion animated feature is a love letter to canines, the people who love their canines, and the unwavering loyalty that canines have come to represent all over the world. It’s also his mostly vivid and imaginative motion picture to date, and that’s really saying something.

Isle of Dogs take place in the near future, in the Japanese city of Megasaki, where the corrupt Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) has exiled every single dog to a nearby island full of garbage. Kobayashi says he wants to protect his city from canine diseases, but he’s actually involved in a complex multigenerational revenge scheme that dates back centuries, to the time when dogs screwed over the Kobayashi clan. Besides, the Kobayashis are totally “cat” people.

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Dell UltraSharp U3417W Curved Monitor Review

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Alienware recently entered the giant gaming monitor space, and its AW3418DW is mighty sweet (read our review), but at around $1,200 on sale it's a bit expensive for the average gamer. Luckily its parent company Dell is still putting its name on some of the best computer displays available, and its own 34" curved offering is substantially cheaper at just $700 (street).

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Pacific Rim Uprising Review

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It would have been a pleasant surprise if Pacific Rim Uprising had used the opportunity of a sequel to scratch under the surface of the pulpy universe set up in the original. Done well, it might have revealed deeper reasons to care whether humans in giant robot suits could again defeat invading interdimensional monsters, beyond satisfying an appetite for its breathlessly fun fight scenes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Instead, it leans heavily on the charming shoulders of Star Wars star John Boyega at the expense of developing the rest of a youthful, spirited new cast.

Uprising picks up 10 years after the original left off, in a world only half rebuilt from the destruction. Kudos must be given to production designer Stefan Dechant here, because Uprising’s cities are all either fully fleshed-out hubs of dust and skeletal remains of past battles, or vast, neon playgrounds at the cutting edge of futuristic rebuilding. This is a cohesive world that’s recognisable as our own, just a little out of reach – more Tokyo than Tokyo.

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Gravel Review

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Gravel is an arcade-style off road racer that eschews tight and twisty traditional rallying in favour of mostly high speed assaults on generously wide tracks carved through a variety of exotic locations. Think less Codermasters’ Dirt and more a store-brand SEGA Rally Revo.

The problem is that Gravel sits in a weird place on the racing spectrum; the casual driving dynamics are easy enough to pick up but the racing itself is surprisingly plain and basic for a game unshackled from any licensed motorsport organisations. The result is a passable yet unremarkable racer in a marketplace thick with better ones.

Gravel’s solo mode revolves around a globetrotting, fictional racing TV show dubbed ‘Off-Road Masters’ – but it’s only a thin thread of context to string together what’s essentially an entirely conventional single-player racing career mode. Other than the occasional boss race the only real baggage the TV show premise comes with is an unlikeable announcer I turned off very quickly.

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Heroes of the Storm Review - 2018

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If variety is the spice of life, then Heroes of the Storm is the MOBA genre’s ghost pepper. Recognizable characters from Blizzard’s most iconic games face off against each other on themed maps with unique objectives that serve as lightning rods for teamfights. Heroes of the Storm also takes a more simplified and accessible approach to the genre that bucks MOBA trends by implementing a streamlined talent system and team-shared experience. It doesn’t always work, but when its at its best Heroes of the Storm can be one of the most varied and exciting 5v5 competitive games around.

This is a MOBA with all the hallmarks of a Blizzard-produced game: a punchy art style, responsive controls, and loads of stuff to do to work toward satisfying unlocks. But most importantly, Heroes of the Storm’s take on the MOBA formula is distinctive because it’s willing to kill some of the genre’s sacred cows in order to make its mechanics easier to learn and its matches flow differently.

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 130 Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

 

The stakes couldn’t be higher as Ultra Instinct Goku takes on the mighty Jiren. The two are pushed to their limits and there is precious little time remaining before the Tournament of Power ends. While Episode 130 had some narrative missteps with it’s ending, opting to drag out the fight with sudden physical ailments and character appearances, its presentation was above and beyond anything seen previously, and the story helped define Goku's motivation beyond his hunger for battle.

The animation is leaps and bounds better than anything Super has presented before. From the subtle lines that help define the weary warriors to the bombastic fight scenes that burst with color and movement, Episode 130 displays Super at its best. With a franchise as old as Dragon Ball, it can be tough to innovate, but Super wisely didn’t rely just on the fidelity of its designs – it also went out of its way to depict battles in new and interesting ways. Ultra Instinct Goku’s movements combined with new camera angles added some much-needed zest to the fight, further giving this lead up to the finale the drama it deserves.

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Logitech G513 Gaming Keyboard Review

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The latest mechanical keyboard from Logitech is the G513 (See it on Amazon). Essentially an upgraded G413 keyboard, the new G513 is a stylish, full-size keyboard with fully customizable RGB lighting, a comfy wrist rest, and other features we’ve come to expect on higher-end gaming keyboards. It's available in both Carbon and Silver, and includes all-new propriety switches made by Logitech. The mechanical keyboard market is a crowded space these days though, and considering the premium $150 price-point, does the G513 deserve a place on your desk? I took a closer look to find out.

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Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom Review

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In many ways, Revenant Kingdom follows in the tradition of the Ni No Kuni series, once again putting a young boy at the heart of an epic story across a gorgeous cel-shaded land. In other ways, however, Ni No Kuni 2 sets its own course, with completely overhauled combat and a new focus on kingdom building. It’s a meaty, fun adventure that feels much snappier to play than its predecessor, but falls short in a few key areas.

Revenant Kingdom is set long after the events of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and is centred around Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, the heir to the throne of the fabled city of Ding Dong Dell. Evan is part human, part cat – or Grimalkin – and is part of a ruling dynasty that presumably stretches back to King Tom Tildrum, who we met in the PS3 game.

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Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered Review

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When Assassin's Creed: Rogue came out on Xbox 360 and PS3 back in November 2014, I thought it was an interesting installment in the series from a story perspective but found it frustratingly dated in other aspects, and ultimately awarded it a 6.8. Here's what I said back then:

"Rogue has the most interesting story of any recent Assassin’s Creed game. It’s fascinated by its own history, and introduces a level of ambiguity which changes how we look at the formerly simple conflict between Assassins and Templars. So it's all the more disappointing there's so little to do while the story is being told; the upgrade economy's pointless and most of the tasks are quite trivial. Story aside, so much of Rogue feels redundant, repetitive, and ultimately in need of reinvention."

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The Walking Dead Rebounds with an Action-Packed Rick vs. Negan Episode

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Honestly, the only thing that spoiled this episode, "The Key," a little bit, was the fact that we all knew neither Rick or Negan was dying. Despite their ferocious fight - that included Rick swinging a FREAKIN' FLAMING BARBED WIRE BAT! - no one was going down.

No, that type of big moment is happening in the season finale and honestly, the fact that we kind of figured that back at the very start of the season has worked to hurt and hinder this run maybe more than anything else - the idea that nothing will truly get resolved until Episode 16.

That being said, the Negan/Rick confrontation this week - though further showcasing just how inept Rick is at trying to kill Negan - was pretty damn fun. Mostly because, well, we've seen Rick get the crap knocked out of him countless times but it's a rare thing to watch Negan get tested physically. It's happened a few times, but this was the most extended sequence and the most dire. It's a slight shame that the middle part of it turned into an extended whistling-in-the-dark conversation between the two of them, since a lot of what they said was a rehash, but the upside here was that Negan learned about the Scavengers all being dead.

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Ravenous Review: This Netflix Horror Movie Is Great

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In the sea of zombie-based content found on Netflix, Ravenous stands out like a distant island on the horizon. The film’s significance is hard to make out at first; though it’s promoted as a Netflix Original, Ravenous’ plot description is commonplace. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for this Canadian horror film to show its teeth.

Directed by Robin Aubert, Ravenous (Les Affamés) opens in a rural region of Quebec, assumedly, on one of the first few days of the apocalypse. A racing event is taking place and a couple is seen kissing in a semi-secluded area near the track. Their public display of affection ends tragically moments later; the woman is violently bitten while the boyfriend looks on in horror. From here, the main cast is slowly introduced as the film skips to sometime after the plague has swept through the town. An old man can be seen fleeing from infected pursuers. A young boy mourns a recent loss before setting off on his own. Two friends trade jokes as they burn bodies in the woods. The early moments of the film are broken into what feels like vignettes – where instead of focusing on an overarching plot, we’re given snapshots of the current happenings as experienced by this small sampling of the surviving population.

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What Did You Think of Tonight's Gotham?

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Hey, yo. No press screener was available for tonight's Gotham episode so I'm writing it up right now. In the meantime, let everyone know what you thought of it below... 

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 Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

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Attack on Titan 2 Review

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With its first Attack on Titan game in 2016, developer Omega Force laid down a rough but promising groundwork for what a game based around the anime phenomenon should be: fast-paced and thrilling aerial battles against gargantuan Titans with a unique control scheme that allows you to zip around effortlessly using Omni-Directional Mobility Gear. Attack on Titan 2 builds upon that foundation with a much-improved interface and some cool new tricks to slice the napes of a Titan in fun and extravagant ways. But the sharp edge of this sequel is dulled a bit by an all too familiar story mode hamstrung by plodding pacing.

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Krypton Pilot Review: Does the Superman Prequel Soar?

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Everyone knows the story of Krypton: The destruction of Superman's home planet is the inciting incident that allows Kal-El to come to Earth as a baby and grow up to become its greatest protector, an origin story that has been told and retold in countless comic books, TV shows, and films over the past 80 years.

But as Action Comics (the series that first introduced the world to the Man of Steel back in 1938) prepares to release its milestone 1000th issue in April, Syfy is offering an origin story for the origin story — taking us back 200 years before Superman's birth to meet Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), his grandfather, as an equally headstrong young man.

Why should we get invested in the fate of a planet that's doomed to die? Because it turns out that Krypton's fate is inextricably linked to Superman's, thanks to an intriguing time travel element introduced in the pilot. We catch up with Seg-El after his family has been disgraced and stripped of its social standing thanks to the forbidden scientific research of his grandfather, Val-El (Ian McElhinney, aka Game of Thrones' Barristan Selmy), who believes the planet is in danger and, spoiler alert, may be on to something.

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Logitech G560 PC Gaming Speakers Review

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Logitech has been at the top of the computer speakers game for decades, as they have consistently put out great products that cater to the gaming crowd. The new G560 PC Gaming Speaker (See it on Amazon) joins their established line of RGB peripherals as it does indeed have its own lighting, and is the first desktop speaker from Logitech G designed specifically for gamers. Their stylish look, ample power, and unique lighting make them an interesting new entrant in the PC gaming speaker market.

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Surviving Mars Review

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I stopped asking the question, “How can you make a survival city builder?” when my metal mine ran dry. That left me without materials to repair malfunctioning power cables, which caused my oxygen generators to go offline, resulting in the suffocation deaths of dozens of people in my previously thriving and wondrous Martian colony. Life on the Red Planet is always perched on the razor’s edge, which gives an engrossing and only sometimes frustrating sense of danger and urgency to a genre that’s usually laid-back and relaxing.

Your mission in Surviving Mars is to establish a permanent population of living, breathing, potentially insane humans on a sprawling, pleasingly rendered map based on real terrain data from our planetary neighbor. Everything from windmills to the little automated drones that run most of your infrastructure are done up in a Roddenberrian, clean, almost cute aesthetic that evokes a sense of optimism and comfort that’s almost comically dissonant with some of the disaster situations I found myself in. Over time, they will gradually accumulate a thin layer of red dust that helps things feel more lived-in, and serves as a nice visual reminder of which structures haven’t had a maintenance check-up in a while.

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Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review

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The final chapter in the street-fighting saga of ever-scowling Kizama Kiryu, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life serves up a crime story that’s hard-boiled yet, for the most part, far more believable than the more melodramatic tales of previous games. Delivered with a new level of visual fidelity, it also makes its Tokyo and Hiroshima settings double as a pretty effective ‘look before you book’ service for the Japanese tourism industry. However, disappointingly simple combat and a list of meaningful gameplay additions so paltry they can be counted on a single hand (one that’s missing a couple of fingers at that) meant that I didn’t want to stick around to smell the ramen after the main story wrapped.

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Mulder and Scully Battle Aging in the Goriest X-Files Ever

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

"My gut doesn't need glasses."

In what just might be The X-Files' final standalone episode (save for the final few minutes, which seemed to set up next week's season finale), "Nothing Lasts Forever" saw both Mulder and Scully confronting aging while on the goofy, gory trail of a cult devoted to a silver screen has-been violently opposed to growing old (played with panache by Fiona Vroom - who also played CSM's wife in a flashback back in the season premiere).

Justified's Jere Burns also guest-starred this week, as the mad doctor who developed the icky and painstaking measures (hetero-chronic para-myosis something something) needed to stay young and beautiful. A method that involved not only butchering people in order to eat their organs, but also attaching other humans to yourself, surgically, to suck dry.

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SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset Review

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Move over Arctis 7, there are three new models atop the SteelSeries Arctis line of gaming headsets, and they up the ante, both in terms of price and features. At the top of the product stack is the $329.99 SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless (See it on Amazon), which costs more than double the Arctis 7 and features both a 2.4GHz connection and Bluetooth in addition to a redesigned headset. The Wireless Pro promises top-shelf audio with lag-free wireless operation, theoretically giving you the best of both worlds as far as headsets go. We put the headset through its paces to find out if it lives up to its promise or not, so let's dive in:

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