TV Review No. 29 Marvel: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Absolution (S3, Ep21)

Strong Points:
Great tension
Good use of the memory machine from Season 1 and overall great scene
Brett Dalton does it again...
...as does Iain De Caestecker - trapped room scene
Nice moment between Fitz and Simmons
Great action
Twists and turns
The addiction idea
Hot potato with the cross

Weak Points:
Daisy's actions didn't feel completely earned
Some bits of humour, while good on their own, were a bit at ends with the serious nature of the scenes
Secure base, still not secure hanger
Lots of people on base but the only people who seem to be able to survive are the main characters, while some of the extras are seemingly better equipped and trained

Spoilers ahead:

Film Review No. 9: Warcraft: The Beginning (12+)

Strong Points:
Great CGI for both characters and environments
Twists and turns
Funny...
Still able to enjoy it without knowing much backstory...
Good fight scenes
Potential for sequels
The Guardian was great
Showed that neither side was particularly evil


Weak Points:
...Not sure if all was intentional
Still don't know half the characters names
...Although you may lose some of the smaller details
Too obviously setting up for a sequel

Rating: 66%

Spoilers ahead:

First Impressions: Doom Demo

After playing the beta and finding the multiplayer all right at best, I didn't have too high hopes for this game. However, after hearing people's glowing reviews for the single-player and the fact that this demo was free, I decided to download and play. I really enjoyed it. Here are my thoughts on the first level of Doom (which comprised the demo) #readlikehell

E3 2016: Bethesda

Coming into this conference, rumours had already been flying about of Skyrim Remastered and more info on Dishonored 2 so it was nice to see some surprises in the E3, namely the announcement of Prey (which I think should be called Good Morning Morgan) and Fallout in VR. There was more where that came from though and here's a round-up to read at your pleasure:
P.S. that console line opening, though!

E3 2016: EA Play

The first conference of the event and it's not even in E3 proper! Yes, EA's got their own conference in LA and London simultaneously, a day before E3 and we got news about Star Wars, Titanfall 2, Mass Effect, Fifa, Madden, Indies and of course, Battlefield 1 with a 1-hour live stream of the pre-alpha. I'm going to be rounding off the live stream's news as well as giving my own opinion on the games in question

Pre-Release E3 News and Leaks

Nothing's sacred anymore. E3 used to be the place where the big games companies would outline their plans for the year and announce the big new games. Now we gave companies doing their own event before (EA Live), announcements of games with promise of gameplay in E3 itself and leaks. So many leaks. I, personally, like to know about a game when it should be announced not a couple of days before - it loses hype. Sure, a leak about a game a couple of months before is all right but a couple of days or hours before the actual announcement? What's the point? Anyway with my rant over, the amount of information which has come out just before E3 is enough to warrant a little catch-up post, which, if you read the title, this post is going to be on. Enjoy (unless this post was already leaked to you before I wrote it...).

TV Review No. 28 Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Emancipation (S3, Ep20)

Strong Points:
Good Civil War references
Fitting tribute to Peggy
Twists
Watchdogs are back
Good ending to [redacted]
Talbot freaking out about Hive
Nice makeup and costumes
Lincoln's storyline was actually good this episode!


Weak Points:
[redacted] has slightly confusing powers
[redacted]'s death while fitting, seemed a bit at ends with the greatness of their character
No 'call in the Avengers line'?

Spoilers ahead:

Review No. 120 Watch_Dogs - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Nice world
Great story with emotion and consequence
Good sound and art direction
Hacking is great fun
All items are usable and helpful (blackout is the most original)
Varied mission types (mostly)
Online is fun
Nice, varied characters - most of which you end up caring about
Just looking into people's lives and actions is really immersive and detailed
Controlling another character's movement via a camera is fun...
Lots to do
Easy to go in all guns blazing or stealthy - both are accessible and fun to do
Gives lot's of scope for sequels

Weak Points:
Some story arcs were a bit predictable
Can't upgrade weapons
Run out of new hacking options quite quickly
Handling of cars is a bit hit and miss
End of mission normally involves 'kill all enemies or escape'
You have a hacking phone but can't use it to ring up characters like GTA V?
...although it would've been nice to have been able to control their actions e.g. shooting someone, as well
Linear storyline in the sense that you can stealth your way to the target but if the story calls for a massacre, a massacre is what you've done
NPC's seem to think your really dangerous and run away or think your weird and run away, just when your driving or running
Ubisoft's famous optimisation

Nitpicking:
When you rebind a key it doesn't rebind the hint for using it
When you are on the smartphone or choosing weapons while moving, the keys are the same so accidentally clicking something is common
Can't turn off news bulletin in car

Behind-The-Team: Overwatch Experiences

I was going to do a first impressions of firstly the Overwatch open beta and then Overwatch itself, however, time was not on my side and I feel I have played too much of the game now for a 'first impressions'. So instead I've gotten the rest of the team who have played Overwatch to give their thoughts on the game and the characters inside. Enjoy:

TV Review No. 27 Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Failed Experiments (S3, Ep19)

Strong Points:
More throwbacks to the first season
Nice scenes between James and Daisy and James and May
Great action
End of Malick's Hydra
Lincoln disobeying actually worked this time
Tense and emotional throughout second half
Mack!
More foreshadowing


Weak Points:
More members of the team added without much reason
Splinter bomb could kill Kree, not used on Hive
The Kree looked... interesting
Not really sure of Radcliffes self-purpose besides just 'pursuit of science'
Daisy's turned from 'we're the best but I have free will' to 'we're the best but I have no free will'
Lincoln still disobeying

Film Review No. 8 X-Men: Apocalypse (12+)

Strong Points:
Great action sequences
Nice CGI
Emotional and tense
Funny
Good acting - especially Micheal Fassbender
Nice costumes - for the most part
Quicksilver's slow down parts
Cool effects for some of the bigger events
Awesome mutant abilities
Stan Lee cameo

Weak Points:
Running cams
That's quite a lot of gore for a 12
[Redacted] seemed more like a spoof cameo than a character
Days of Future Past reboots the present day X-Men so we have a film in the past
Can't seem to stay on one subject for too long
Could they give the mutants a break?

Some spoilers ahead:

Video Game Character of the Month - June 2016 - Tracer - Overwatch

Video Game Character of the Month

June 2016
Tracer
Overwatch

Overview:

The Cavalry's here! No, not May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but Tracer, one-time pilot now time- travelling British special forces hero with pulse bomb. A Videogame Character of the Month award is the least we can do as thanks for Tracer and the rest of Overwatch stopping the Omnic Crisis over 30 years ago and we would like to present it to you... Where'd she go?

And now some information on Tracer: