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Fargo decided to step sideways and show viewers what happened to Peggy, Ed, Dodd and Hanzee during the events of last week's "Did You Do This? No, You Did It!" (an episode the four characters were -- mostly -- absent from).
Full spoilers for "Loplop" continue below.
Did you miss the Butcher of Luverne and his wife during their absence in last week's stellar Fargo episode? Were you itching to know why Hanzee killed those people in Sioux Falls? Then this week's episode was just for you, as it narrowed its focus immensely to follow the misadventures of its least likable characters (Dodd and the Blumquists) and the increasingly fascinating Hanzee.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
“Red Faced” is not only a vast improvement over last week’s misfire, but also the best episode of Supergirl to date. It manages to tackle important questions and put Kara front and center in a way that forces her to grow, while also giving us some great Cat Grant moments and making headway on the series’ lingering mysteries.
Melissa Benoist has been the high point of every episode thus far, and while that certainly doesn’t change here, it was a relief to see her get to add a new layer to Supergirl. Kara dealing with the disparity between her lowly secret identity and being the Girl of Steel is a staple of the Super-mythology, but “Red Faced” proved to be a turning point. The underpinnings of the episode were a huge step forward in terms of letting Kara deal with her deeper issues. Or, as Cat puts it, “the anger behind the anger.”
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
"Worse Than a Crime" wrapped up the entire Theo Galavan arc while also throwing in a few quick scenes at the end to set us up for both Hugo Strange and Mr. Freeze arriving on the scene in the second half of the season (which begins three months from now!).
As I brought up last week, or even before that perhaps, the whole "Brotherhood" monk plot is weak. And the monks themselves - who were supposedly so dangerous and imposing that they traveled from overseas just to bring about the endgame - were physically weak. As in, they weren't even a match for Selina by the end. So much for fans wondering if this storyline contained any League of Assassins startup seeds. These guys were about as capable as the Wet Bandits. Theo himself, who didn't even really get to put up a fight at the end, was way more of a fighter/solider than they were.
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Written and directed by Peter Landesman (Parkland), Concussion tells the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith), the Nigerian forensic pathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players, and the National Football League's attempts to deny the research and ruin Dr. Omalu's career. While not as hard-hitting as 2013's Head Games (which explores the CTE in the documentary format), Concussion sees Smith at his finest and effectively conveys the NFL's duplicity, even as the game itself is still revered.
Structurally, though, Concussion has problems. While the main focus is on Omalu and his campaign for truth, the film also introduces a generic romance subplot featuring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Jupiter Ascending) as Omalu's love interest Prema. Basically, the character's only purpose is to reaffirm Omalu's conviction while contributing nothing of her own. As a result there is little clashing between them, and when there is it's pushed aside because, inexplicably, they "love each other."
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Awesome explosions: Just Cause 3’s got ‘em! The story would have you believe all of this spectacular demolition is about liberating the picturesque island nation of Medici from a mustache-twirling dictator. But considering it doesn’t even care how many civilians you blow up in the process, we all know what it’s really about: ridiculous over-the-top action, physics-based comedy, and impressive destruction in a vast sandbox world. In those areas, Just Cause 3 is at the top of its game.
Watch the first full hour of Just Cause 3 above.
The map is absolutely huge (reportedly its three islands span 400 square kilometers, but I didn’t have a tape measure on me to confirm), and how you choose to get from its sunny beaches and forests to its snowy peaks is a big part of the joy of it. There’s fast travel if you’re into the whole brevity thing, plus arcadey-feeling cars, planes, boats, and more, but learning to use Rico Rodriguez's unique combination of grappling hook, parachuting, and wingsuit to gracefully zip around is the most challenging and rewarding. There’s a real skill to it, and mastering techniques such as the no-parachute, no-wingsuit Spider-Man-style swinging takes some practice.
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Just Cause 3 is the explosive sequel to Avalanche’s story of Dictator-removal specialist Rico Rodriguez. This time, however, he isn’t simply facing off against another tyrant. Rico has returned home to Medici, a country he was banished from, to help his friends throw down their own evil tyrant named Sebastian Di Ravello, and restore control to his once peaceful home. With over four hundred square miles to explore, and cause chaos, Just Cause 3 is an bombastic adventure just asking to be savored.
Welcome Home Rico
Just Cause 3 begins in typical Just Cause fashion. Thrust right into the action, players are instantly given a taste of what the game has to offer, before being thrown headfirst into the game’s evolving storyline. It’s a more fast-paced entry point than most games tend to offer these days, and it really helps to hit home with the level of destruction and chaos that players will be able to cause.
From here players will be introduced to the Just Cause staples, the parachute and grappling hook. But the nifty gadgets don’t stop there, as players will also pick up the wingsuit within the first fifteen to twenty minutes of game time. This means you’ll effectively have every form of transportation you need early on in the game, which keeps the pace rapid from the very beginning.
Shock and Awesome
Even for a series defined by causing mayhem and explosions, Just Cause 3 delivers. Armed with infinite C4, and many more explosive throwing weapons, Rico is ready to take down any chaos items he comes across--and they are everywhere. This time around Avalanche has taken a new approach to the towns and cities pockmarking the islands of Medici.
Now responsible for liberating the towns, Rico must destroy every Chaos object within the town’s border. Then, and only then, can he place a rebel flag over the town, which marks it as a free city. You’ll then have to continue to do this until you’ve liberated the surrounding region and province, which will weaken Di Ravello’s hold on the nation.
It can prove annoying when campaign progress is gated behind liberating areas, but the core loop of causing chaos is so enjoyable that it's easy to overlook. What could have been a tedious exercise in busywork instead felt like gentle pathing toward the requisite insane combat and destruction scenarios. This is a series all about wanton havoc, and Just Cause 3 captures that perfectly.
All the open-world freedom and gameplay tools come at a slight cost, though. I experienced a few graphical glitches, and the ragdoll effects had a tendency to occasionally go overboard.
Wingsuit Extraordinaire
The most prominent new mechanic, the wingsuit, is one of the most useful items in the entire game, and helps further refine an already smartly realized traversal system. Not only can you wingsuit down mountainsides and experience beautifully crafted vistas, but you can also use it to quickly infiltrate and exfiltrate towns and fortresses as you work to liberate Medici.
Pair the wingsuit up with the grappling hook, and you can find yourself soaring through the skies of Medici for extended periods of time. My longest record so far is around ten and a half minutes, and I’m sure it's possible to go even longer. All round the wingsuit is a nice addition to the Just Cause armory, and I’ve really enjoyed my time with it. I have had a few gripes with it though, as you can’t simply stop using the wingsuit, instead needing to open your parachute to end it. This small difference makes precise landings almost impossible. This isn't altogether a huge issue, but having a grappling hook I'd expect Rico to be able to close his wingsuit and reel himself in, which I haven't been able to do.
The assortment of different mods available throughout the game's many challenges also spices things up, allowing you to have homing grenades, thruster C4, and an assortment of other options that help to keep the carnage from growing dull.
Toppling Tyrants
Rico’s latest adventure is a welcome addition to the Just Cause family. There is plenty of destruction to cause, and plenty of room to explore the world however you want to. It’s a welcome amount of freedom from the action-packed linear games we seem to have gotten used to, and I’d easily rank it among the best of the open world games that the current generation of gaming has to offer.Just Cause 3 is more than worthy of sitting on your shelf next to games like The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, so don't miss out on this action-packed ride.
This review is based on a download code provided by the publisher. Just Cause 3 will be available in retail and digital stores on December 1, for $59.99. The game is rated M.
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Tablet computers are just easier...or at least they look it. Big screens, no keyboard in the way, usually a better price than a laptop, and yeah, they’re slick. Then someone asks you to do a little more than an app from the app store can do. That slick tablet goes gently on the couch and you grab your laptop. Alone, tablets are never enough, especially if you’ve been using a laptop.
That doesn’t mean tablets are useless, far from it. They’re perfect for things like streaming a full season of Jessica Jones from the couch after a particularly long week. Or when you want to watch someone else edit that document in the office. Or those times when just need an internet-connected screen that won’t crap out after a few hours.
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For Catwoman, revenge is swift. Very swift - this Batman: Arkham Knight DLC took me only a half hour to complete. Catwoman’s Revenge is a mostly fun, self-contained story set in a toy store that The Riddler has converted into a robot factory, and the dark, moody Arkham take on ‘toys’ - if you can call these monstrous figures that - is a genuine delight. It is however, a very slight experience that brings nothing new to Arkham’s world.
If you’ve played Arkham Knight and its predecessors, you’ll know Catwoman’s set of skills by now. She can crawl along designated parts of the ceiling, use a whip, and generally move a little faster than Batman in combat. Catwoman’s Revenge makes good use of each, though I wish I’d been able to let her loose in a less confining environment.
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Over the weekend, the folks at DidYouKnowGaming? released the latest in its series of videos spotlighting video games that never came to be. This particular video takes a look at a movie tie-in that was widely expected, but never wound up happening. It's a look into the tie-in for Marvel's The Avengers.
In examining the video below and what THQ's Brisbane had in mind for the game's concept, it's worth wondering whether this game could have panned out?
Through a Hero's Eyes
It's worth noting off the bat that THQ's idea for this Avengers game was solid. The movie tie-ins prior to this were mediocre offerings, at best. The instinct with an Avengers game would have been to craft a run-of-the-mill brawler or a dungeon crawler. But as the video notes, that had already been done. In fact, the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series was a fantastic encapsulation of everything great about the Marvel Universe as a whole. While the Avengers film was a more ambitious filmmaking effort, in terms of its narrative and its idea of tying in multiple film franchises, it would have been a mere drop in the bucket in the gaming world, which had seen this concept done better.
In that sense, a first-person action game would have been a brilliant move, for its sheer curiosity factor alone. Smashing in first-person as the Hulk could have been something special. Taking flight as Iron Man could have been cool, right down to the Jarvis interface. The co-op element sounded inspired, with players potentially fighting over who could be which Avenger. Of course, if humans weren't available, this entire concept would have hinged on capable bot AI, which may have been something of a tall task.
While it could have been a massive disaster, the fact that nothing like it had been done before would have made it all worth the effort.
A Not-So-Secret Tie-In
Where the Avengers game starts to deviate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe was with its story. Writer Brian Michael Bendis came aboard with a script the strongly resembled his Secret Invasion storyline from the comics that debuted just a few years prior to this game's development cycle. At this point, the concept sounds less like an Avengers movie tie-in and more like "Secret Invasion: The Game."
For fans of that story, that's all well and good, but part of the novelty of the whole Avengers film was seeing the team come together for the first time. This story feels like less of that and more like a tale that taps into a more seasoned Avengers team. Now, here's where it should be noted that artist Jeremy Love, speaking to DidYouKnowGaming?, denied that this story would be based on the overall MCU narrative. Still, it was worth hoping for more of that magic and less of something that could have simply fit into the aforementioned Ultimate Alliance series.
Could This Idea Still Work?
At this point, THQ's story is well-documented. Financial troubles ultimately led to the publisher's demise, leading to the scattering of many gaming franchises and the cancellation of numerous others. That, of course, included this Avengers game. But could this concept, in itself, still work?
Marvel has taken its focus to the mobile market, offering up puzzle games, card games, and asynchronous multiplayer efforts. For the most part, action is off the table. The lone action effort is Marvel Heroes, which feels like an MMORPG extension of the Ultimate Alliance series. Gazillion has offered up fan service in droves, with its expansive roster of characters and also with its stories penned by some of Marvel's best writers. In fact, Marvel Heroes 2016 is supposed to jump into Secret Invasion in December, reviving some of the concepts left behind from this canceled Avengers game.
But what about the first-person, co-op action? Is there still a place for this? Again, it would ultimately depend on what would happen if human partners weren't available. I would love to tear things up as Hulk in a solo environment, but the premise demands four heroes and if my three partner bots are as intelligent as some of today's AI partners (Halo 5: Guardians, popping up as an immediate example), then that sucks a lot of the fun out of it. With that said, there's no denying that the enjoyment would have come from combos. Fastball specials, Thor charging up Iron Man, or Iron Man reflecting blasts off of Captain America's shield could still work in a first-person environment.
Bendis points out that the Avengers game is a generation behind, in terms of tech. That makes sense, but ideas never go out of style. With next-gen consoles and PC hardware having taken major leaps in the last five years, this idea seems more feasible now than ever. Those additional resources could also help realize the game's detailed, destructible environments.
If anything, I'm hopeful this latest spotlight on the canceled Avengers game will get more than a few people wondering what a first-person Marvel game would look like. Given that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is looking to come to a head in the next five years, perhaps the story could take more of a cue from the massive tie-in tale that's set to tie over 15 years of movies together. Hopefully, the concept can see some new life with the aid of strong new gaming technology, because a first-person Marvel Universe game sounds like an idea worth of a heroic effort.
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Sports and science are two worlds that often don't mix. (Not directly, anyway. The ESPN show, Sport Science is actually quite fascinating.) But that's what's about to happen, now that discarded testing items from Valve's Portal are making their way into Rocket League.
Starting tomorrow, players will be able to pick up the following items as drops:
Cake (Topper)
Conversion Gel (Rocket Trail)
Propulsion Gel (Rocket Trail)
Repulsion Gel (Rocket Trail)
Aperture Laboratories (Antenna)
Cake Sticker (Antenna)
Companion Cube (Antenna)
Personality Core (Antenna)
PotatOS (Antenna)
Players can earn any of these items, regardless of whether they win or lose a Rocket League session. It's all a luck of the draw. Look for these free items to make their way into Rocket League tomorrow. You monster.
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Warning: Full spoilers below.
Homeland kicked things into gear with "The Litvinov Ruse" after a couple of weeks of slow burns, finally bringing Carrie and Saul together as the old colleagues worked to ensnare another old friend, Allison, in their sticky trap of satellite surveillance and bugged cell phones.
But first, about that Carrie/Saul reunion: Make fun of Claire Danes’ crying face all you want, but how gratifying was it to see her starting to tear up as Saul gestured for her to come in for the hug? And ain’t nothing like a hug from Saul “The Bear” Berenson, that much is certain. It’s been an interesting exercise separating them all season, but I’m glad to see them back in full Batman and Robin form (and no, I’m not sure which one is Batman and which is Robin). Saul clearly regrets the hard stance he took with Carrie earlier in the season when she told him her life was in danger, even if the original reason for their estrangement remains (and is referenced once again here by Saul’s old Israeli friend Etai).
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We learned earlier this year Nintendo plans on launching its Nintendo NX in July 2016, and while that date seems relatively early considering the Wii U’s lifecycle, a new report has been published which once again solidifies the company’s plans for the new year.
A new report published by Digitimes says the Nintendo NX will enter mass production at the end of the first quarter of 2016 with the device’s upstream supply chain estimating shipments to reach around 10 - 12 million units. Foxconn Electronics has been chosen to manufacture the Nintendo NX, which is estimated to enter mass shipments in Q2 2016.
In addition to Foxconn, suppliers such as Foxconn Technology, Macronix, Pixart Imaging, Coxon Precise Industrial, Nishoku Technology, Delta Technology, Lingsen Precision, and Jantech will also supply components for the Nintendo NX.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment. We’ll be sure to update this story when we receive a response.
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Since its release, Rock Band 4 has mainly focused its DLC offerings on musical acts from the past, culminating with last week's big Van Halen pack. For this week, Harmonix is looking a little more current, offering up a five-pack of recent hits from the Billboard music charts.
The following tracks will be available as part of the "Off That Charts 01" pack:
Beck - "Dreams"
BØRNS - "Electric Love"
Catfish And The Bottlemen - "Cocoon"
Cold War Kids - "First"
X Ambassadors - "Renegades"
These five tracks will be available tomorrow, December 1 for $8.49. They can also be downloaded individually for $1.99, hypothetically for those that never, ever want to hear the song "Renegade" again. To get a glimpse of what's coming, check out the video below.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Debuting Monday night, NBC's new midseason comedy Superstore (created by The Office alum Justin Spitzer) is the kind of show that would have fit right in with the network's lineup circa 2009. In the final months of 2015, the show feels a little generic and outdated, but it's not without its charms thanks to stars America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) and Ben Feldman (Mad Men), as well as a mostly talented ensemble.
The series is basically like every other workplace comedy on the planet, just set in a megastore. There's the happy-go-lucky new guy, Jonah (Feldman), and the antisocial pro, Amy (Ferrera), who are obviously into each other but would never admit it out loud. Then there's the dorky boss (Mark McKinney), the pregnant space case (Nichole Bloom), the by-the-books stickler (Lauren Ash), the sassy overachiever (Nico Santos) and the wild card (Colton Dunn).
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Deep Silver has released a new trailer for Mighty No. 9 that highlights all of the different game modes players can expect in the title when it launches on February 9.
The “Bring It” trailer shows off Mighty No. 9’s Boss Rush, Challenge Mode, One-Hit Death Maniac Mode, and online Co-op challenges. All of which have been implemented in order to make the game fun, challenging, fun, replayable, and, of course, fun. The new trailer also shows off a montage of various in-game visuals, which all look exactly as you’d expect Mighty No. 9 to look.
After being delayed over and over and over again, we certainly hope Might No. 9 ends up being a fun experience when it’s released in February. It would be a shame if all of these delays ended with a sub-par game, which we always hate to see around here.
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Nintendo has announced Mario Kart 8 will be the highlight of a new show on Disney XD called “Clash of the Karts: Mario Kart 8”.
Clash of the Karts will star eight of America’s “best young gamers” as they team up with a number of popular YouTube personalities, like Strawburry 17, Andre from Black Nerd Comedy, AtomicMari, and SethBling, as they compete in a one-hour multi-round Mario Kart 8 competition.
Clash of the Karts: Mario Kart 8 will air on December 5 at 8pm PT/ET.
This isn’t the first time video games have taken center stage on Disney XD as the Nintendo World Championships aired on the channel back in September 2015. We think it’s safe to assume the show did well for Disney XD in order for it to want to continue with another game-related television show. Let’s just see if the Clash of the Karts show is as entertaining as the Nintendo World Championships.
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Rainbow Six Siege pulls me in opposite directions at the same time. On the one hand, the moment-to-moment gameplay experience is fantastic. Every second of the short rounds matter, walls and floors won’t protect you, and sound tactics win matches. But, like other 2015 multiplayer-focused shooters such as Evolve and Star Wars Battlefront, there’s not a lot of there there. My time with Siege so far leaves me feeling like this Rainbow Six revival is a skeleton with not a lot of meat on its bones.
Siege reboots the long-running Rainbow Six series as a five-on-five, attack-and-defend competitive shooter that’s as much about blowing holes in the world around you as in your opponents. Destruction is no gimmick; shooting through walls, blasting through floors and ceilings, and keeping as much of your corporeal Special Forces husk behind fragile cover during firefights is key to extending your life in each of the respawn-free modes. Using a gadget to detect the presence of an enemy and fragging them through what would, in most other first-person shooters, be an indestructible hunk of drywall isn’t just satisfying; it’s thrilling. And while Siege isn’t the best-looking shooter out there in terms of environmental detail or character models, it includes memorable touches like the arterial blood spray that coats the wall behind your target when you off them. It looks like something truly terrible happened in that spot.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
"Birth" answered several questions about Emma's motivations but not all of them. "Broken Heart" filled in the gaps and showed Emma didn't embrace darkness. Not really. She stumbled into it because of her decision to protect Hook. Love and fear pushed her into a corner, and she made a snap decision. It's hard to blame her. If anything was going to push her over the edge, the loss of a loved one would be it (points to Snow for understanding Emma's choice). On the other hand, Hook being the reason behind the curse and death of Merlin undermines Emma. She hasn't been the Dark One to her core, just superficially, and it feels like a waste.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
This week's Into the Badlands got off to a rousing start, as Quinn and his men stormed the Widow's estate. So far, every episode of the show has kicked off with a fight sequence, but this one felt especially dynamic since it was Baron vs. Baron -- literally in the case of Quinn and the Widow, who actually went toe to toe at one point. It was also a nice change of pace to see two experienced opponents go at it, as opposed to just one guy or gal wiping the floor with nameless enemies.
But while "White Stork Spreads Wings" was a very solid episode overall, parts of it languished -- specifically (and not surprisingly) Ryder's recovery subplot. As I've mentioned before, we still have no reason to care about Quinn's family; they're either too dull (Lydia, Jade), too annoying (Ryder) or too evil for evil's sake (Quinn) to invest in any of them -- and their long, drawn-out storyline made little actual progress here. On the bright side, Veil had more to do this week than in previous episodes, which at least made her character seem a bit more relevant.
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AMC didn't send out advance press screeners for The Walking Dead midseason finale (they usually don't for finales) so I'm busily typing away at the review right now. In the meanwhile, check out these video interviews with some of the Walking Dead cast from New York Comic-Con and then let us know what you thought of the episode down 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 http://ift.tt/1kiBJkp.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Of course The Leftovers introduced us to a wild new danger just one chapter away from the finale. On a season filled with brilliant, haunting left turns, Meg's new band of militant domestic terrorists - set to blow up the bridge leading into Jarden - is the perfect way to draw all our remaining players down to Texas while also showcasing the fact that the the world has only gotten more dangerous. That time has not worked to heal here.
The Guilty Remnant stand to remind everyone that the world ended years ago, and live a harsh life in order to constantly remind themselves, but Meg's new methods go way beyond reminding. She means to inflict pain. For the sake of pain, in fact. She'd rather be the aggressor (by putting her cigarette out in someone's eye) than stand there take others' abuse as a passive totem. Which lets you know, right off the bat, that she cares about herself too much to be in the GR. She's just an angry psycho wearing white.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
While I'm certainly more than ready for Ruby to catch up with Ash (seriously, let's get this done), "The Host" nicely tied up the Elegos story that began a few episodes back in "Books from Beyond." No, Elegos didn't have any master plan other than just wanting to mess with, and kill, our heroes - and we haven't really seen many Deadites since his arc began - but it still was supremely satisfying to watch Ash blast that demon's head apart. Sometimes you just want the ol' Boomstick to go "BOOM!"
That being said, there are only ten of these half-hour chapters (this season) and we just spent three of them tangling with a "lesser" demon who apparently didn't have all that much to do with the bigger picture. Of course, the bloody (toothy, leechy, pukey) battle did cost Pablo his uncle (while also helping re-set Pablo on the "Brujo" path) so maybe it wasn't a total loss. There were consequences here. And the shot of those totems all catching on fire as the uncle burned on the pyre was pretty sweet. It was the heaviest moment of the series so far for sure, as the death of Kelly's parents wasn't even treated all that seriously.
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Warning: Full spoilers below.
And so the underlying themes of this season come to the forefront in the excellent penultimate episode of Season 9, “Heaven Sent,” as the Doctor finds himself being stalked by Death itself. His opening narration says as much, that one day we all will notice a second shadow next to our own... And that is exactly what happens to the Doctor here. Over and over and over again.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
It was great to finally get an episode that made the Zeros into interesting antagonists. They’ve been teased throughout the season but their previous appearances hardly made them seem like a threat at all. “Party with the Zeros” takes the group across the border into Mexico and shows us the heart of the Zeros organization lead by their queen La Reina played by Gina Gershon. This is a beautifully shot and framed episode that goes for that filmic experience while still delivering the usual camp that Z Nation is exceptional at.
With the season winding down we’re finally dealing with some of the pressing issues that were established earlier in the year. Dr. Kurian returns and it is revealed that he has been working for the Zeros on a cure, at least that’s what he’s led everyone to believe. It seems Dr. Kurian is still intent on establishing his new Murphy World Order with zombie-human hybrids ruling the Earth. As far as mad doctors go, Kurian certainly delivers.
There are many more deals on PC games to be found, so be sure to visit Amazon and search for your favorite game.
Bundle Stars
Pay $10.19 for Quake (w/ Mission Packs 1 and 2), Quake II (w/Ground Zero and The Reckoning Mission Packs), Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena, and Quake IV. These activate on Steam.
Or pay $2.99 for Blades of Time Limited Edition, bit Dungeon II, Etherlords I & II, Wizardry 8, Rune Classic, FATE: Undiscovered Realms, and Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny Revised Edition (w/For the Gods DLC). These activate on Steam.
Or pay $14.99 for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its DLC packs. These activate on Steam.
Or pay $12.74 for four copies of Rise of the Triad and four copies of The Apogee Throwback Pack. These activate on Steam.
Or pay $2.99 for Distraint, Replay - VHS is not dead, Heckabomb, Spellsworn, Sleep Attack, MechaNika, Adventure in the Tower of Flight, Rack n Ruin, Get Over Here, and Coffin Dodgers. These activate on Steam.
Or pay $2.99 for Tropico Trilogy, Hard Reset Extended Edition, Combat Wings: Battle of Britain, Inquisitor Deluxe Edition, Zeno Clash 2, and The First Templar - Steam Special Edition. These activate on Steam.
Or pay $2.99 for Kingdom Rush, Secrets of Raetikon, Pixel Piracy, PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate, PixelJunk Shooter, Velocity Ultra, Qora, and GAUGE. These activate on Steam.
Rocket League Complete Pack [Steam] - $23.77 (30% off) (Individual game and DLC also on sale)
Use the code SAVE10-WTHGMG-GTBFCM to get 10% off your purchase. Some exclusions apply.
In addition to the deals below, Green Man Gaming is having 4-hour Flash Sales throughout the weekend. Be sure to visit Green Man Gaming to find out what's on sale right now!
Green Man Gaming is also offering a series of 24-hour deals. Those can be found here.
Humble Bundle
Pay what you want for Grid 2 (w/Drift Pack), DiRT Showdown, Overlord, Operation Flashpoint Complete (Dragon Rising and Red River), Hospital Tycoon, and Colin McRae Rally. Pay more than the average $5.56 to get Grid Autosport, Overlord II, Overlord Raising Hell, Grid 2 Spa-Francorchamps Track Pack, and more games to be named later. Pay $15 or more to also get the Grid Autosport Season Pass, DiRT 3 Complete Edition, and the GRiD 2: All in DLC pack. All games work on Steam with Steam keys available for a $1 minimum donation.
Or pay what you want for Wormd, Worms Crazy Golf, Alien Breed: Trilogy, Light, and Worms Armageddon. Pay $6 or more to also get Worms Revolution GOLD, Worms Reloaded, Flockers, Schrodinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark. Pay $12 or more to also get Worms Clan Wars 4-pack, LA Cops, and Beyond Eyes. Pay $70 or more to also get the Team 17 Legacy Collection. All games work on Steam and Steam keys are available with a $1 minimum.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
First off, apologies for this review going up a couple of days late due to the holiday. Now on to it!
This week’s Rebels had some huge visual connections to the original Star Wars (or Episode IV or A New Hope), as a rescue mission onboard an imperial ship had a lot of echoes of the Death Star sequences in that film. The familiar Imperial corridors, the gunners, the torture droid, our heroes dressed as Stormtroopers… There was a lot of nostalgia on hand here. And yeah, it was pretty on the nose, but it mostly worked.
What was cool was that it was a big visual tie-in to that first movie, while also being a big episode for two characters from completely different parts of Star Wars – the Rebels-created Kanan and The Clone Wars’ Captain Rex. Because the dramatic crux of the episode was the strained relationship between these two reluctant allies and how Kanan would finally make a big decision during a moment of truth, risking himself to go back and rescue Rex. And yeah, maybe he didn’t need to call him “friend” just yet (that felt a bit much), but the decision itself spoke volumes.
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Love is in the air, and it's time for a Revolution.
Step into the boots of Arno Dorian as he barrels headfirst into a journey for justice. Thrown into the waging war between Templars and Assassins he'll soar through the city on a quest to save the beaten people of 18th century France one Phantom Blade at a time. He's also set his eyes on Elise, a young Templar woman whom he's known most his life.
Murder, betrayal, a spiraling love affair, and a city just waiting to erupt... what are you waiting for? Take the leap.
Prologue - Follow de Molay, find the Templar artifacts, and then kill the Assassin.
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Note: The Expanse debuts December 14th on Syfy, but the premiere episode can be seen now online, including here at IGN right below. However, our premiere review doesn't delve into major spoilers.
The Expanse might just be the show we’ve been waiting for that will finally fill a void that has existed in the science fiction genre, on TV, for some time now. We’ve seen some space-based science fiction shows crop up in recent years that have shown potential. The quality of programming on Syfy is starting to ramp up again with shows like Dark Matter and Killjoys but while both show promise they don’t deliver anything groundbreaking. After a single episode, The Expanse, based on the series of novels by James S.A. Corey, already feels like it’s delivered a rich and interesting world that is bursting with plenty of potential.
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Warning: full spoilers follow below.
When you’re coming off a show as big as Sons of Anarchy, you’re either going to hit it out of the park or stumble out of the gate. Unfortunately for most showrunners, magic doesn’t often happen twice in a row – especially with such a small timeframe between projects.
Sadly, this was the case for Kurt Sutter’s The Bastard Executioner. While the series featured a stellar cast and the acting did what it could, the project felt jarred and sewn together from the first episode, when it tried to be everything all at once. It was gory (to varying degrees of success, depending on your ability to swallow scenes like a baby being stabbed in its mother’s womb or crows picking organs from dead bodies), featured Sutter’s wife Katey Sagal in a vastly different -- but not altogether sellable -- role in Annora of the Alders, and unrolled so many plot points and characters in the first two-hour installment that it was somewhat difficult to keep track of who was who.
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Hearthstone has taken the world like a Windfury Shaman. However some of us are still trying to wrap our heads around it. We here at Shacknews want to help you out, so we've gathered some experienced old Hearthstone hands to explain the best ways to get started.
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Origin announced its Origin PC EON17-X this past June, giving PC gamers around the world a reason to show some interest in the gaming laptop. Considering G-Sync technology was only previously available for desktop machines, delivering a gaming laptop with the feature is a pretty big deal as it can keep tearing and screen stutter to a minimum while you’re on the go.
The EON17-X has all the bells and whistles those who take their PC gaming serious would want in a gaming laptop. And while it performs to the degree I expected it to, I didn't expect it to underperform as much as it did in certain aspects.
Heavy-duty Gaming
The EON17-X is considered a desktop replacement, which means you shouldn’t expect to do any serious traveling with it. Weighing in at 8.6lbs, it’s quite a heavy gaming laptop, but considering how much is stuffed within its chassis, I’m impressed Origin was able to put so much into such a small space. Stuffing an Intel i7 6700K CPU into the EON17-X alone should is an impressive feat, considering it’s only ever been made available for desktop computers. And what makes the CPU even more enticing is the fact it’s been overclocked to 4.5GHz.
While the laptop itself is on the larger side, it uses its space well as it features a 17.3-inch 1080p IPS Matte Display, a full sized keyboard with customizable backlight, and a multi-gesture trackpad. The keyboard was comfortable to write on as it had just the right amount of sponginess and clickiness for my taste, and I really enjoyed the custom backlighting since I was able to have it display a wide variety of colors. It wasn’t to the quality I’d expect from an RGB keyboard, but I was still impressed with its ability to add just a bit of visual spice to its overall black and rigid body.
The trackpad, on the other hand, was more of a nuisance than anything else. Instead of being placed in the middle of the palm rests, it’s positioned slightly to the left. Having it in that position has caused my left palm to come into contact with the trackpad too often. Other than its frustrating positioning, the trackpad had a smooth surface, which I always prefer over one with texture to it, and it even had a fingerprint reader in the middle, which performed very well as I was able to capture all of my fingertips within its system. Now if I lose nine of my fingers, I’ll at least have one more available to unlock this laptop.
Performance at a Cost
With an Intel i7 6700K overclocked at 4.5GHz and an Nvidia GTX 980M, the EON17-X performed just as well as I expected it to in our benchmarks. In PCMark 7, it scored a 6513, which is on the higher end of the gaming laptop spectrum, while in 3DMark 11, it scored a P11423 and an X4331. It’s 3DMark 11 scores are also very good as it nearly reaches performance levels that can run the Oculus Rift, which is very impressive for a gaming laptop.
In my time with the EON17-X, I played the latest releases, including Fallout 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Across the board, the laptop performed flawlessly as I was able to push it to give me a smooth gaming experience in everything I threw at it. While getting Fallout 4 to perform well was a breeze considering its recommended specs, getting The Witcher 3 to perform at Full 1080p with all of its details maxed out is even more impressive.
When it comes to gaming on the go, battery life may be just as important as the performance you can get out of a machine. While the EON17-X exceeds in its performance, it fails in its ability to stay on for long periods of time. On a single charge, I was able to achieve a little over two hours of battery life when using it for everyday tasks, such as email, social networking, and watching videos on YouTube. When I played a game on it, the battery life dropped significantly as I was only able to get around 30 - 45 minutes of game time while running several games on their highest visual settings. So if you plan on taking your gaming on your commute, it better be a quick one or else you’ll find yourself with a nearly nine-pound paperweight.
Homebody
Even though the EON17-X is categorized as a laptop, I can’t imagine myself lugging it around on a daily basis. Instead, I could easily see myself propping this on my office desk and treating it like a desktop while also saving some space from having a full-sized desktop set up. And if I need to travel with it, it’ll be at short distances where I can throw it in my car to visit friends and family while also showing off this beast of a laptop.
One caveat that keeps me from wanting to travel with the EON17-X is its very short battery life. I feel like it wasn’t really built with traveling in mind as getting to play a game for under an hour while on the go doesn’t warrant having to lug it around for several hours.
With all that said, as long as you keep the laptop at home and close to its power adapter, you're going to get some serious performance that should be able to keep up with your gaming habits for a couple of years.
System Specs
CPU: Intel i7 6700K overclocked to 4.5GHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX 8GB 980M
Display: 1920 x 1080p IPS Matte Display
Memory: 16GB DDR4 2133MHz
Storage: 1TB Seagate Mobile SSHD
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
OS Drive: 256GB Samsung SM951 PCie M.2
Lifetime 24/7 Based Support and Lifetime Free Labor. 1 year Part Replacement & 45 day shipping warranty
45 Day No Dead Pixel Guarantee Free
This review is based on a loaner unit from Origin. The Origin PC EON17-X is available in retail today.
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Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur may not rank among Jack Kirby's most famous Marvel creations, but they've certainly endured over the decades. And now this partnership is taking a radically different form as Devil Dinosaur is dragged into the present-day Marvel Universe to form an alliance with a preteen girl named Lunella Lafayette. There's a lot to like in this charming first issue, though the Moon Boy/Devil Dinosaur mythology actually proves to be the weak link.
Lunella is easily the strongest element of this new series. She's cast as a young science whiz/inventor trapped in a precarious position. She's not superhumanly gifted enough to be a worthy candidate for something like the Future Foundation, but far too intelligent and talented to be wasting her days in the public school system. Thus, she taps into that same outsider vibe that so many great Marvel heroes do. She doesn't fit in among her peers. She has ambitious dreams that no one in her life seems very interested in helping her achieve. Even before factoring in elements like her latent Inhuman lineage and her love of tinkering with Kree artifacts, Lunella is already a very compelling lead character. It's a testament to the writing talents of Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare that this new heroine stands out so quickly.
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This isn't the first time former Spider-Man villain Venom has starred in his own ongoing solo series. It's not even the first book to feature Flash Thompson in the lead role. But this new series is certainly unique in that it focuses on the symbiote-powered hero as an intergalactic adventurer rather than a grim and gritty defender of the common man. This shift in focus results in a fun new platform for Flash. But like most of the Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff comics, Venom: Space Knight is a bit lacking in depth.
The one real problem with this new series is that it doesn't have a strong, defined sense of purpose. Other than his desire to answer the question "What is an 'Agent of the Cosmos' and what do they do?", there's not much conflict at play here. Who cares about the different between an Agent of the Cosmos and a Guardian of the Galaxy? Either way, the end result is plenty of punching and shooting and stabbing and swashbuckling. Perhaps it's a flaw in Flash's new status quo that he's no longer in conflict with his symbiote costume (now that it's been purged of its anger) and is thus a pretty straightforward, happy-go-lucky hero. The narration does little to flesh him out as a character, with Robbie Thompson mostly relying on tired football metaphors.
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Sega has released a new trailer for its upcoming Total War: Warhammer that highlights the game’s campaign.
In Total War: Warhammer, Grimgor Ironhide is on the hunt for a new adversary after slaughtering his way across the Blasted Wastes. Today’s trailer shows off the game’s impressive engine in action as we’re taken on a fly-through of its campaign map for the first time, which hints at the range of cities and terrain we can aspire to conquer.
Total War: Warhammer is scheduled to release on PC on April 28, 2016.
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As everyone prepares to drive home for the holidays, it's worth mentioning that some people will be making the trek into snow-covered parking lots on Friday morning (or even right after Thanksgiving dinner) to get in line for precious Black Friday deals. That, of course, is insane. But for the non-insane people, there's online shopping and Amazon now appears to have officially lined up its Black Friday deals in calendar form.
Shacknews has helpfully gathered some images of what to expect over the next couple of days:
The notable games include Batman: Arkham Knight, Disney Infinity 3.0, Persona 4: Dancing All Night, and Mario Kart 7 on Thursday; Guitar Hero Live, Mortal Kombat X, Destiny: The Taken King, NBA 2K16, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, and Super Smash Bros for Wii U on Friday; and The Witcher 3, Until Dawn, Dragon Age: Inquisition GOTY Edition, and Mad Max on Saturday. This, of course, does not account for daily deals or anything else that Amazon feels like throwing up on a whim.
The full deals calendar can be found on Amazon. The big sale begins tomorrow.
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