Diablo Alternatives

So one of my favorite games of all time, that I still have the disks for, was Diablo II.   I played the crap out of it, used the game editor/hack to make it crazier, and like so many was enthralled by it.    When Diablo III was released I impulsively went out to buy it...for PS3.  Hush, I know, bad me for using my system!   Anyways, since I didn't get the PC version, I have no idea what happened on that end.  I heard they had some server issues at the start, but that didn't affect PS3 at all which was nice for a change.  I did however have the issues that many others had: no multi-player, seemingly limited level lengths, and indeed repetition.  Honestly the original was repetitious as well, so that's a bit of a null agruement for me.  It was also one of the last semi-affordable games I brought for PS3 before gettting a PS4 which ushered in the $80 game era, so I was pretty happy to treat it as the equivalent of buying mindless shovelware.

Should have been advertised as "Redux" o"Redo"  "Reprint"
or "Rebuy this because we totally messed up and trust you
to pick up the bill" Edition

Than they released the expansion.  It suddenly came clear to me that  I had purchased the wrong version of Diablo as the PS3 expansion, both disk and download was not an expansion.  It was full price reprint with the all the missing nuts and bolts added in.   If I had been offered a coupon for the new game or fair trade in for the original disk (which tanked prices locally because of the new "upgrade") I might of have said yes.   But, I will not pay again because someone messed up putting in closed architecture or other problems that prevented an actual expansion DLC for PS3.  Nope, no sale, sorry.    So I was stuck what was my alternatives?

Dungeon Hunter
Ah, Diablo's little clone...I mean cousin.  I actually had the first version and despite its sub-par
graphics, some glitches and limitations, I loved it, and it cost a fraction of Diablo.  With its transfer to portable devices, I had to wait to get an upgraded portable before playing it again.  DH IV is my recommendation for anyone looking to play it, Its fast paced, balanced, and while it does have some micropayment and "earn gems" nonsense, its an easy play.   I just started DH V, from the Win 10 store, which looks pretty good graphically, but has lots of issues.  It no longer has the class system, powers are based on weapons and items which skews its gameplay quite a bit.   Micropayments are EVERYWHERE, and while you can earn gems and the like, it has way to many parts that will definitely bring your gameplay to a grinding halt at higher levels unless you fork over cash.  And while a subscription (really? for shovelware?) is available to remove some barriers, at the time of writing this the chest store (where you use all those gems) is totally broken, with no messages on their site or boards of any notions of the issue or if they are looking into it.   And despite many players offering fixes (none of which have worked for me) any notions of supporting it with cash are now completely abandoned.  You do not spam me "buy this pack for $30.00" while your store is broken and think I'll trust any purchases with your company.     Value: $ with broken store, $$$ when fixed  Enjoyment:  ">__<"  

Gauntlet Slayer Edition
Oh man, when I saw this on the PS store for $14 Canadian, I pounced.  I'm old enough to remember
playing Gauntlet 2 in the arcade, a lot.  But instead of a pick up arcade hack and slash, slayer edition was different.  It has power unlocks and upgrades, weapon optimization and other common dungeon tropes.  However, those are actually good additions I quite enjoy.  What is a bit bad is its dull brown graphics, a camera that is just a little to far out and fonts WAY too small to read from more than

Blurry and out of focus because of crappy
camera on phone.  Yep.
Pretty much the same when playing.
Yep.

1 inch from the TV and...I don't know...just missing something.  There is also a surprising learning curve, which each class having a different controller layout.  While I get why they did this, it makes playing the game not very intuitive or arcade like.  However, I still play it and spent money on the Necromancer, which totally kicks ass.    Value: $$$   Enjoyment:  V__V


Mages and Minions

Well here's my new love from the app store.  Its pretty much what I had hoped that Gauntlet was going to be, quick paced, colorful, a little retro, and easy to pick and play for a few minutes than back to work.  Unlike all the others, this is strictly designed for touch screen, so just touch to move and attack.  Powers are activated by drawing shapes on the screen over your enemies or targeted areas, so

OMG color not washed out browns pretending
to be HD.  Stay true Mages and Minions.

drawing "V" or "Z" with your finger will activate different powers.  you get companion AI slots, your minions, that further grant powers (like the Z draw power) and aid you in battle with unique powers.  It uses shards to upgrade weapons (like Diablo simplified runes), as well as fusing lower level weapons together.  It pretty much has all the tropes you'd expect.  It uses a gem system as well to purchase some store items and speed up item and power upgrades (which are by far the worse part of the game...90 hours to max level my chain lightning...what up!  At least I can still play as it does so).  Gems can be purchased, picked up randomly (a few here and there) and from watching ads from loot boxes.  Now this sounds bad, but honestly compared to other games its pretty harmless.  If you don't want the 5 gems from watching an advert, you may ignore the loot box and never get the popup, which is great!  View enough adverts and they stop popping up in loot boxes for a while, revealing other treasure.  It's great model for other companies to mimic for soft selling over hard selling.  Its lack luster graphics, limited classes (only 2), lack of multiplayer are its major flaws...plus the carpal tunnel I think I'm getting from playing it.  I also, so far, have found it a little to easy, but otherwise  I recommend a try.    Value: $$$$   Enjoyment:  ^__^

T.V. Purgatory

So here is a common massive rant that all viewers are aware of...you missed your favorite show because the network changed its time at the last second.   Because you have to go out and earn that cash the cable company and advertisers so desperately need, you totally missed the advert telling you where it went and it totally slipped your mind to spend every waking hour paying attention to any changes.  But no problem, you have a PVR and your buddy has the new improved expensive version as well, so you got all your bases covered.  However, the network didn't send out a "new" signal for the show or some other electronic curse prevented it from recording your show the second time around.  So when your watch day comes up a week later, there is no sign of the season ender you'd really like to watch.

Just in case you don't know what Beta or VCR is,  this is what
I grew up with as a kid.  It was back at this time that
networks and advertisers tried to make it illegal
to record shows; though they lost in the supreme
court they still long for the day that you
quite your job and stay home to watch their shows,
 because they really need you not to fast
forward through their commercials that
they claim don't actually influence your purchasing
decisions with the money you don't have because you
stayed home to watch their shows.
Hypocrisy never changes. 

Now if my PVR was a VCR or Beta back in the day and I missed my show, because this problem is far from being new, I would have to wait for repeats or be completely screwed.  But this isn't the 80's, its the 21st century, I got the internet.

So loyal to my show and truly wanting to legally support it with my money, which I honestly have tried to do,  I go to the network site a week or two later and get my favorite thing as a Canadian, "this show is not available in your region."

Ahh, Bell and Rogers, our two biggest cable outlets, I smell your monopolization spraying all over the concept of consumer choice and buyer beware.  What makes me sad is the ads on the sites are pretty much exactly the same on TV, the same company in both the US and Canada, so why the block, your still being paid.  But they want you to go to the site of the Canada network they purchased, you are not allowed to watch the show from its original producer that has put it up legally for free.

Ok I will watch your commercials...doing
house cleaning or laundry. Or should I tie
myself to my couch my lord telecom? 

Past experience with this has taught me that my show on the Canadian network site is unreliable for release.  I also know full well and accept that I will need to watch the ads to support my show, FINE.

 But the site is really bad for auto play side ads that interfere with the show, unskippable ads measuring 5 to 10 minutes long and eating up so 90% of my CPU memory when I go there.  So time for Adblock sadly, however they have a adblock blocker, so my show will not come up.

So options:  wait and pay for it on I-Tunes, wait for Netflix (Canadian so probably not), take 2 hours to watch a 1 hour show on the regional site, use a virtual IP to watch on the original site (which our cable companies are fighting successfully make illegal and perhaps serving more time in jail than actual fraud for violating), hope for a rerun that may never come, or download it illegally.

And like so many, you can guess which option we had to go for.   And honestly I actually felt bad about it.

Its sad, because this is the death of TV that has always been marching on for the last 30 years.  Or is it?    What is odd that some of the best produced shows in history have occurred in the  last few years at least in my opinion.  In the late 90s and early 2000s reality TV and networks not wanting to pay writers more than fast food workers, plus the rise of truly illegal copyright issues almost killed TV...but it survived.

While many smaller networks took hits and here in Canada where absorbed by big telecom companies in the most glorious example of conflict of interest in my life time, TV came back.   While procedural crime dramas still dominate the market and reality TV is used to justify the higher channel numbers, there are a number of show that really try to make an effort of being actually good.  So in a weird way TV has sort of had its second coming, but well it last?

Now in real free market capitalism, I the consumer have the right to choose what I purchase and from who I purchase it from.  So naturally I really would love to get rid of the channels and networks that have filled the air with what I consider crap and only keep the stuff I like.  But, since the beginning cable packages have forced me to take one good network along with a list of stuff I don't care for.

Here in Canada, cable companies have been arguing against the consumer choice and the free market, claiming that we should not have the right to choose individual channels or even individual shows.   At the behest of the CRTC companies here where forced to make skinny cable packages.  And the result was a below bare bones package of crap and an a la cart system that is terrible.  And to "promote" this new system and their own streaming services the big companies have pushed to restrict Netflix here in Canada and increase its cost.   They, like telecoms in the states, have also been pushing to get rid of net neutrality and honestly sometimes sound like that consumers need to be forced to buy their products.  Of course this is to maintain revenue, but it is the typical hypocrisy you see when the  free market affects them.

So what is the future of TV and internet viewing in Canada than?  Is TV dead?  No, because the free market's reigning in (by the companies that claim to live by it) well force it to continue and prevent new models from replacing it.  Without change, here in Canada will be dominated by less than ethical consumer methods, and cable TV well be bundled  in such a way to force us to take it or live off the grid.  Television will become stagnet, but unable or unwilling to change or natural die off...becoming TV purgatory.

The future face of Canadian media consumers

Tai Chi Zero....just weirdly awfulsome

Okay back to gaming stuff later.

Today,  Tai Chi Zero (0)

I picked this up as a lark at one of the fine local used DVD/Music/game places around town.  Despite having the internet, I still like to support the local guys on occasion and totally promote that habit for everyone out there.    I spotted a most wicked DVD cover with only a few English words on it, but it looked like Kung Fu, it looked straight from Hong Kong, it was the only one on the self.  So I had no choice, I had to buy it.  

Here's the trailer that makes the most sense of what the movie is about...

Here's the box cover that lured me in.

Awesome right!  Damn, I'd killed see this on the Imax 3D, be like Sharknado on a budget.

I love alternative historical fictions, and this one takes place in around 1800 or so, I think.    The primary issue with the copy I got (bootleg maybe?)  is that the subs are so terrible, that it makes google translate look like the perfect option for getting a doctorate degree in studying ancient original source text.
 
Put the movie on, right at the beginning, and here's what  I get:

Our scene: classic battle between two warring kingdoms is going down on a very pretty green screen, we know who is most likely going to be our heroes from how the shot is being established.   

 General to troops:  "old Zu Tianwei, Paul my magic.   Brethren and discomfited enemy soldiers.   Won the capital, a large number of flour can enjoy the endless.   Kill!"

WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!     please tell me there's a better sub of this somewhere....or maybe not.
The sub dialog is a mess beyond all reason.   I'm sure a literal translation was done by someone unable to give it context, grammar or anything else.  Which makes me kind of sad, since they clearly spent some coin on the movie, a bit more for better subbing would have been nice.  But, I kind of love the insane wacky translations and being able to follow the story through just its shots and scenes....which honestly is what every movie should have.

So without doing the whole movie scene by scene, or some massive plot synopsis (that's what https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_Chi_0 is for), I'll give a quick overview of the parts I love about this corny movie.  

So a young man, with demonic pimple energy (the hows and whys are conveyed through a silent movie backstory with only Chinese text and no subs! awesome, love it) finds himself in the army  and his super power being exploited.  When you hit the pimple, he hulks out and even with his apparent substandard martial arts, he kicks lots of ass matrix style for a few moments before zonking out.

However, the more he uses it, the closer the death he becomes (because it becomes closer to being a big blackhead that might pop?  who knows!)  Thus a wise doctor tells him he must go find better training, a special type of boxing (Kung Fu) that will help him center his energies and a master who may save his life by controling his pimple power.    WAIT...is this the basic plot for Into the Badlands...nah its kind of the plot for 1000+ Kung Fu movies.

Angelababy...actress, model, business woman

Our Hero ends up in the this secretive village (after the half animated/half live action, stop and start credit sequence finally finishes at the 15 minute mark!  YES, Thank you) where no one will give him the time of day when he asks to see the master.  For you see (as we'll learn later) you don't teach the secret old ways to outsider.

 He meets up with a very gorgeous young woman, played by Angelababy (oh mononyms, you know no cultural boundaries)  who turns out to be a doctor...and a master boxer trained in the old traditions...and in reality our real hero.    So lets forget about our loser protagonist and get to the real plot.  

and will happily kick your ass
with a smile.

The East Indian Trading Co.  really wants to put a railroad through China, and in particular put a stop in our secret village (which at one point gets an Chinese language overlay of all the buildings, as if looking for quest giver point in a MMORPG).

The leading voice for this industrious change  is a top hot wearing man who is betrothed to our Kung Fu doctor.  He has returned to the village after being away, not only to bring western tech to a village that doesn't know what electricity is, but to prove to the elders and the locals (who clearly once bullied him mercilessly) that as an outsider he is worthy.    But after a failure of his electricity demo, he is clearly not worthy, and after loosing face he leaves the village and our girl behind (Idiot).  

Little Girl, Perfect Combo...lots of point racked up on the KO.
I think the movie tracks the points...or knock back distance

 So back to wacky hi-jinks as pimple head tries to find the master and some really, really random fighting game references breakout as he tries to sneak back into town (seriously, see the pic and trailer) after being told to get out and go home.   He by proxy is slowly picking up the secret boxing by getting his ass handed to him, and finally gets picked up by "long term employment uncle" (my next character name) who subtly helps him out.  Can you guess who the old pipe smoking philosopher turns out to be...  So Yadda, yadda, back to the real plot once again.  

So old top hat is back, and evil (who knew a British trained turncoat wanting imperial western expansion would turn out to be evil!  Faint!)  He now has vengeance in mind after loosing face.   And this time he isn't just bringing a train to town, oh no, he's bringing the train through town...with....this.....

So its about here I'm going to stop.   Seriously.  If you like "its so bad its good", you really need to sit down and watch it.  Because from here, stuff gets serious....weird.....er....ish...     But basically our  hero tries to stop That Thing, by getting in and literally throwing a wrench in it... And its actually our female lead who shows up (girl gets some props for not once needing rescuing and taking the initiative) and is the one that really figures out how to p'wn it dead.   And..... no, no I'll quit here for real this time.

Because in how this movie's subs would put it:  "farther you go, the less it comes, so no go now here and look it.  Bye and away."    

Value: $$$$$  (I got for like $7.00 used so yes!)
Enjoyment:   0__o  ---> ^___^  Even though this is was a 2012 movie, this will be this year's Mr. X for me.


OHHHH there's a sequel out there too, because huge cliff hanger.

So...5e

Again been a while.  Been busy trying to figure out the business options for my Novel and what I want to do about it.   Also been playing with a possible conversion for DRev out of 3.5 into....5th!     Yes, 5e is now SRD. Well call me surprised that in the world of locking everything behind a copyright door or hiding behind a paywall that this is mostly in the open.  Lessons learned from 4e I guess.  You can find it here:  http://www.5esrd.com/home
 

There are definitely things from 5e I really like, by far the best thing is the easy to understand proficiency system for virtually everything.    Your proficient with longswords according to your character sheet?  Cool what level are you, 5, cool,  proficiency gives +3, add your strength mod and your good to go.  Works for everyone and everything.

The other is Advantage and Disadvantage.   Roll two d20 and take the highest or take the lowest.  Done and done...okay it does have some issues at higher levels as power and situations granting Adv. or Dis.  start to become more common, but since they cancel each other out, all these cool effects will have the possibility having no effect at all.    My idea to help with this issue is use coins or tokens to track Adv. or Dis.  and whichever piles up more will apply, maxing out piles at 3 a piece.     So let's take melee attacks for an example.  You gain Adv. with melee attack, put a red token (or whatever you choose) somewhere that clearly represents your melee attack.    However, you take Dis. from some situation, putting a blue token in place, indicating now that you have neither Adv. or Dis.  You than activate another power that grants you further Adv. with one specific melee attack action on your turn, granting a tempory red token and once again gaining Adv. at least until your attack resolves and the token is once again lost.    This will however might be only an optional rule to ensure streamlining is kept in mind. 

Keeping in the mind of streamlining  a huge couple of questions come to mind.

The first my partner in crime has mused about in the past, Lumping or Spliting for stuff?

The concept in 5e that you have certain tools or tool kits that are required for certain actions.   Instead of writing down that you have a pan, tinder, lighter, some cooking oil, salt, pepper, a plate, fork and knife...you can simply say you have a cooking kit.    So can we just eliminate the giant equipment list....or does that destroy the flavor of our world and ruin player engrossment?    its one the greatest fights in RPGs in the last 20 year for sure.   For DRev 5e which way do we go?

Than there is the idea of general or specific weapons and armor.   5e SRD still goes mainly specific, such as picking up a short sword and leather armor...though if you pick up a shield...its just a shield.  So one of the ideas we we're playing with is general weapons, and in my mind even eliminating things like payload for ammo.  


Here's a new idea for DRev 5e if we go general. 

Name	TIER	Damage	Range	RoF	Reload
Light Pistol	1	1d8	20/60	Normal	6
Medium Pistol	2	2d4	30/90	Normal	5
Heavy Pistol	3	2d6	30/90	Normal	4
Energy Pistol	4	2d6	50/150	Auto	3

So until we decide on the cost thing, we may just stick with our TIER system for virtually everything, though we could use our own version of the 5e rarity version, that I’ll look at in the next blog. 

Range will use the 5e rule, nice streamlining.

Rate of Fire (ROF)  is simply going be labeled as normal, auto or how often it can be used.  Once/two rounds for example.   We’ll examine of really streamlining auto.    Autofire can Burst (-2 to attack, does one additional shot of damage, but cannot do critical damage) or Spray (hits 10 foot area, targets in area make Dex save contested by your attack roll to take half damage.  Can only be used once per round).    

The newest idea I’ve been playing with is a Reload number.  If your attack roll is less than this number the weapon becomes empty of shots, meaning you will have to reload it as a bonus action or reaction.  You will keep track of how many reloads you have rather than having x number of bullets.    So I might have 3 light pistol reloads.  If my attack roll is less than 5, I get one shot off and than will have to take a reaction or action to use one of my reloads for the pistol.       Not sure if this is good idea or not and I know other systems have tried this as a way to streamline weapon use and minimizing what players have to track.  This would even apply for bows and crossbows and the like.   You can also roleplay the reload rate as fussy weapon designs and the like. 

In the next blog, I think I’ll look at the most controversial idea, eliminating gold…...

Windows 10. A few months and counting

Sometime in the fall I took the Windows 10 high contrast pill.  And at first I loved it.  It was pretty and I might be one of the few old timers growing up on DOS and than early windows systems that really, really like the tiles feel of it.  Easy to set up, nice on the eyes.  There was also the promise of more streamed functionality and an app store that could compete with google play.  And the upgrade was free!   NICE!    I was all in.   So off I went on my journey through the new windows.     I think I might have got cut.   

So Edge.   YEAH I KNOW no one ever uses windows IE neener neener.  For years I have rebelled against this notion, I like IE, there I said it.   And the idea of an updated version that might have some the options available to Firefox and Chrome while still keeping its simplicity and stability (at least compared to the version of Firefox I have somehow got to stop working completely even after a reinstall) made me a happy man.   But man it's a beast of something else.   

Right now its only doing 1% CPU use and about 2.5% memory which is beyond awesome, but it has weird spikes of 25% or more depending on what I am up to.    However, this not an Edge issue, this is a windows 10 issue as we will discuss.  

So right now as I a type in Edge in the blog, because I forgot to open it as "Internet Explorer" mode  I can't post screen caps or pics, or links, or anything.   So I can't show you my screen cap of my memory use.  Nor can I open my google docs since this triggers a seizure inducing flicker that does not end until I close the tab.    Clearly this is either a major flaw of Edge or a screw you to Google from Microsoft.   If somehow the second is true, than Hurray Coorporations are indeed people....their toddlers.  But considering the red underline I'm getting for incorrect spelling for the last 2 paragraphs as I write this up I think its the latter (so no screen caps of that either.

When I first got Win 10, I pretty much convinced myself it was window dressing, pretty much a skin you added on with a few minor tweaks.   However, this notion came crashing down as a pack of Win 7 files where segerated or even duplicated in new files.  So for some my older programs I had to redig to find them manually since their links where broken on the desktop.  That was weird.   

Than there are the capatability issues, both backwards, forwards, up down and around.   Campaign Cartographer needed a full uninstall, the installation of CC3+ and the expensive token packs I got still don't want to install...so hurray!  

For Eddge, some site (again like the blog here) kind of run...wonky.  It's not so much they won't run because its acting like a spoiled apple browser hating on certain scripts, its just sometimes a little off.  And not extension or add-on seems to exist to help, just the "open in IE" opition....which makes Edge useless?  

Than there is my much loved security software, Vipre.  I have had a lifetime subscription to them for a long while, and on Win 7, it ran clean and low resource.  And while I know its not exactly windows fault (maybe), Its now running 29% or more all the time.  So now I need to find a new one that I trust, and from what I found, many others have the same issue, even with better CPU speeds.   

Than there is Cortana, stupid stupid Cortana.  Yeah, I've turned her off 3 times manually, but after a windows update she keeps popping back on eating up processor power like nothing else.  Even after a RAM upgrade she's still eating the wrong memory.  So I turned her off with the Regedit trick...yes regedit in my new streamlined family/grandpa/ma friendly OS trying to compete with apple products.   FAIL.   And guess what, after the longest Windows Update I think I have had since the time of dial up, she came back on again....so what??    

Then there's all memory issues with both Edge and Chrome.   Chrome in my opinion has been always a memory hog, but 45% for youtube vidoes...what the hell.   In Win 7, it never seemed this high. 

Next is the store.  Honestly I have actually gotten some pretty good stuff off of it, but I am very, very wary of credit carding anything on it, so pay cards for it at the 7-11 store down the way soon I hope.   But it does seem a little barren, and I didn't see an easy way to upload stuff.   This means they must have a vetting/vendor process not privy to the general public or I haven't bothered looking for.   Google makes it look so easy, but I can't give MS too  much grief.  It's a good way to content control.  But is does mean the store looks sparse and bit unloved.  

So other than a few other annoyances like the sticky "click for office 365" (NO I will not pay you yearly or micro payments for my office program that you might randomly shutdown or put on your cloud without my permission TYVM)  am I satasified with it?     

Good stuff?  I still love the home panels for surfing my PC, I find easy on my brain for some reason, and really like it.   The new mail and calendar stuff is really nice and modern, though oddly sometimes I have to go back to use the 2012 MS desktop mail once and while.  And please, please rename "People" back to "CONTACTS"  like the rest of the planet and stop trying to be a hipster.  Oh and put a link for it in, you know, the MAIL program to reduce window clicking.  Also make it easier to synch with other platforms, like google or android so I can manage all my contacts there.  Geez.

V__V   Meh.    Certainly glad this wasn't a paid upgrade.   But sadly I'm too scared or lazy to step back.  If I go back to Win 7, how many of my recent adjustments get lost in hidden files?  And for just how long before they stop supporting Win 7 and I get seriously left behind like I did with vista and other past builds I kept maybe for way too long?   

$$$$   For the free stuff.      Zero $, for even the NOTION of paying ongong fees for the new office program.  I will not lease or rent my document editors. NO. 

Movies of the Year

So everyone needs a movies of the year post.    So here's mine in no particular order, other than just as they came into my head (so best/most memorable first?). Includes not just the films but movie going experiences, where being in the theater really enhance the movie (or perhaps ruined it).

And yes I'm doing this before seeing the big marketing event of the year, Star Wars The Force Awakens. That one may poison the well and end up on nearly everyone's top list.   Will most likely do another one on that later.   May also look at the Hateful Eight in the New Year once the crazy holidays are done as well.

____________________________

Mr X.   Randomly went to this and we had no idea what we were getting into.  This is a Bollywood movie about a cop who somehow gets the ability to become invisible (but only in the dark and in shadows), his clothes fuse to his body (but somehow he can still make love and they never stay dirty for long) and his ex (a cop who is trying to capture him because he turn vigilante) at one point surrounds a house with mirrors to reflect the sun through clearly open windows to counter his invisibility.  Plus its surprisingly sexy and sweet despite being aware of just how silly it is.  Oh, and best made for movie title track in decades.... Puff puff puff.   Sorry out of breath and still missed tons of stuff.   We laughed sooo hard after we got out, I thought we might break something.  Perhaps we were just in the right mood at the right time, but have very found memories of seeing this.  Video link to Mr X song (hope it stays there); be aware sexy enough to be NSFW?  No nudity, but wow!

Mad Max: Fury Road  So why  didn't this enter my mind first?  Because it was so big and being first is pretty much expected.   However, this was honestly the movie which all others where measured against for the year.  Who would have thought that the apocalypse could be so pretty,  a few sparse pages of spoken dialog (if that), and not going with the direct remake route would work so well.  Oh and don't forget center frame steady cam throughout the movie.  Please, please all directors quit using shaky closeup cam and copy this movie.  Add in some subtle feminism, shout outs to previous movies, Charlize Theron being beyond awesome, flaming guitars on cars...well you get this.   The Theater was packed and had an electric vibe to it. All the OSCARS NOW. 

Back to the Future (anniversary viewing)  Do you really need a link for this?   Due to some scheduling conflicts we didn't get a chance to see all three in theaters, but we did catch the original trope maker.  I was just slightly, slightly to young to see it in theaters when it first came out all those years ago...though I might go back in time and tell my parents to take me causing a temporal flux...  Anyhow this was great to see on the big screen.   The theater was filled to the brim with generations of fans, a few with the Marty vest on.  The random person sitting beside me may have been celebrating their birthday on that day, I think, as I overheard them say "been waiting our entire lives for this."  If not B-day, its still a perfect quote.  We laughed a lot and quit a few people mimicked lines as they came up, as if we were singing along at concert or something.   

Turbo Kid  We had to go to a small art house movie theater (one of the last in the city), look for

Apple on her Unicorn BMX

parking in one worse places in the city, if we had missed it would have disappeared, and we stayed for a somewhat terrible unrelated animated short afterwards.  But it was more than worth it.   Turbo Kid is a must see for all 80's fans out there, especially if you like over the top gore and silliness.  Unlike Mad Max where we pretend everyone drives super cars in the post-oil world, in Turbo Kid they drive BMXs!   One of the many twists and homages in the movie.  Laurence Leboeuf as Apple straddles on the edge of falling into annoyance but stays cute and likable.  It also has Michael Ironside (yes that one), playing our main villain and chews scenery with the best of them.   Oh oh..and 80's synth rock and tunes from what seems to be from 8 track converted in midi files....YES!

Ex Machina  In in era where my DVD collection is getting so big that I'm waiting for Netflix releases to rewatch my favorites, Ex Machina found its way into my collection day of release.   It has a few flaws, including some wooden acting from D. Gleeson on occasion.  But  I can love things for their flaws.    I know that the IMDB list the actors in order of appearance, but Alicia Vikander needs first billing and is captivating..    Only issue for movie going experience is that there was only five of us in the theater (boo, it was pretty enough for the big screen) and one guy fell asleep and started to snore....sigh.    So better at home for sure.  

The Martian  We immediately called it MacGyver in space as soon as we walked out.  And that was just fine with us.  Infinitely better than Interstellar which kind of went off the rails trying way to hard to be the next 2001.  A yes the Martian had some sci-fi short cuts, but it didn't break my suspension of disbelief as much as Interstellar's lets solve anti-gravity with math through morse code through dropping books through reality strings driven by love.....I'll take growing a potentially irradiated potato growing in poo on mars tyvm.   Theater experience was terrible because of some awful pre-teens behind us...totally know what its like now. Sorry to all people when we're too noisy in the past and future.   Sadly never got a chance to review it on the big screen again.  

Ant-Man  This is guilty pleasure movie for sure, and I loved it so much more than Age of Ultron.   Perhaps because I thought Ant-Man was going to suck and was surprised by it.   What I got was fun almost early 80's, late 70's tongue in cheek heist movie.  It didn't challenge any tropes or do anything new for an origin story, but it was light hearted and fun ride.  Totally love it and quite a nice lift after the darker trend many superhero movies have been taking.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.   Okay I blame Ant-Man for this...or its that vice versa?   After one heist movie, wanting to see another one really found its way into my blood.  And UNCLE certainly filled that gap.   A little goofy, high energy, a period piece (as we imagine the early Red Scare era), and once again a movie with Vikander.  Yeah totally sold.   Oh did I say compact car chase...  

Felicity Smoak in a fridge?

First lets say this

LIKE EVERYWHERE

I haven't done much  blogging or comments on the shows I watch, since in reality there's tons of conjecture from many other sites.  One of the shows I have been watching is Arrow.  You can find a full spoiler filled review for Arrow's season finale on IGN HERE.    The IGN assessment is fine and accurate, but Arrow has been bugging me something crazy for a while despite my enjoyment of it.   Now before I start, I like the cast of arrow and love the fact that they have gotten away from strictly adhering to the lone wolf or Five Man Band model.  Having a number of female characters is great, though a little more diversity would be okay.  

Orcale's Smoak Yes Agree

I accept the silly suspension of disbelief for super science in our comic books and shows, and Felicity as Arrow's Oracle was good idea.   And I certainly have no problem with their choice or Emily Rickards for the role, she has been a trooper with it thus far.  However,  I think since about season 2, I been feeling sorry for Felicity Smoak.     Her character has had a lot of strange rebounds and mixes of awful tropes:  

She's been the occasional Damsel in Distress, though they have tried to balance this out by showing her skills, really limiting it, and saving Ollie's butt numerous time, even if its just remotely.  So we'll give it a pass on this.  

The terrible "will they or won't" writing has demonstrated fear of Moonlighting Syndrome (aka Shipping Bed Death) that the creator's clearly have.  While relationships do have their ups and downs, the clear use of sudden emotional swings and distrust scenarios throughout the series to prevent them truly getting together was getting a little much.   When Ollie and Felicity finally got together and drove off into the sunset, I almost wanted the series to end.  

Now when the 2015 season restarted with the two returning to Star City to fight crime once again, they were the cute couple in love.  And though I hoped they would find some new writing tropes to avoid yhe aforementioned Moonlighting Syndrome, honestly you could sense they wouldn't.   

GROWL
Stop Rubberbanding the Relationship
We need a new trope for this!

Issue one was actually from the Flash crossover, when Flash warps time again.  Flash's time jump resets a big fight between Ollie and Felicity after she finds out he tried to keep the existence of his son from a fling a decade ago from her.   The continual trust issues between the two characters borders on purposeful derailment.  I understand Felicity being angry with Ollie for not telling her, but to walk away and end the relationship  right there after all the lies she's seen him do is ridiculous.  As was his reaction of her being so surprised.  After seeing them as a couple finally, this sudden stop was jarring and under developed.  The reveal of Wally West in Flash was much more natural, heart felt, and resolved in a manner that made sense for the characters.   Worse, if they have gone with the time line, the writer's would have solved in an episode or two anyhow to get them back into the "will they/won't they" stage once again.   And even worse in our new established time line Ollie won't tell Felicity about it...again...knowing full well what happen's if she finds out on her own.   Seriously, if he tells the woman who he loves, who is use to keeping secrets, how exactly is the mother of child going to find out, unless he walk's up and tells her.

 This takes us into the 2015 season finale, where after Ollie and Felicity finally agreeing to get married in a very sweet moment...can you guess what happens.   Felicity gets shot.  WOW surprise...not.   Called it right from the escape from the gas chamber scene.   So what now, is she dead?  Don't know.  Honestly seeing that Rickards is going to go shoot some real movies, maybe its a temporary or  permanent contract thing.  Its comics, so we have established at least a half dozen ways to make her live again, so its an easy out they could take...making her death/near death pointless.   The question is:  Fridge Moment or not.   Women in Fridges is now a pretty classic trope identified by smarter folks than me, and maybe as guy I'm ill equipped to really pass judgement.   Felicity has had character development (despite the rubberbanding) so kind of ruins the trope in its purest sense.  But is her death just to give Olly motivation to act....which honestly he doesn't need?    If the character is truly being written out, would it be better for her to die as hero on her own terms? (And not mess it up like Doctor Who's 2015 season finale...totally different rant).    The new season will tell.  I'm not making any predictions other than that there is most likely some contract talks going on behind the scenes.  Here's hoping they bring her back, and give her a chance for some of her own pay back.

If there is no chance of her being written out, more shocking would to have Olly getting shot and dying in her hands (after her dramatic rescue of him perhaps, or too OCC?).  That would be a huge curve ball.  We know he'd be back of course, but would have been kind of nice change of pace.  

  Frankly with poor Simmons getting tortured in Agents of SHIELD (which was shocking in the Whedonverse), and the extremely telegraphed  possible death/endangerment of Patty in Flash after the holidays (thanks trailers..oay), I'm starting to wonder if things are going a bit wrong in my beloved comic TV universe.  Perhaps its just dark reflection of the comic industry (and much of TV) still suffering from old tropes they or we as consumers can't seem to disconnect from.