Galaxy Warfighter (Steam) - PC Game Review

With a title like Galaxy Warfighter, anything can be expected. As long as it involves space ship fighting. Click "read more" for my full review.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 (ps4) Review

        Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a squeal to the EA reboot of the Star Wars video game franchise. While the game had a single player mode, the game was focused on a terrible multiplayer mode.The multiplayer mode had great game play and fast load times, but the amount of in game purchase that had to be made to play the game as advertised was ridiculous. Here in recent times though, they have updated the game to where you can play the game as advertised

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Green Phoenix - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review

Welp, I guess its time to sit on this rowdy bucking horse.

I have always loved the Indiana Jones franchise, especially when I was a child. So when I heard that the series was going to release the fourth film in 2008, my 14-year-old ass literally strong-armed my family into coming to the theater with me. The fact that I was the only person in the theater in a complete Indiana Jones cosplay was just the icing on the cake (if my sisters could dress up for Harry Potter films, then I could be Indiana Jones in the theater). This just goes to show just how obsessed as I was about the Indiana Jones franchise growing up and how the fourth film was going to be absolutely amazing if I had to wait nearly a decade and a half to get the next installment.

...yeah. It was alright.

Even when I was a 14-year-old who liked almost everything (I hadn't yet developed my critical credentials and experience yet), I could tell that there was something decidedly "meh" about this film overall. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like about it, but it is definitely the black sheep of the franchise.

The fact that a fifth film has been announced for July of 2022, of course, has me excited, but I feel like maybe we need to take a look back at the fourth film in the franchise to see if we can learn what we should and shouldn't do in an Indiana Jones movie.

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Mashin Sentai Kiramager Episode Zero - Summary/Review

Time for a shiny new Sentai series, and for the first time, we are beginning with a movie that serves as the series' episode 0. This movie aired along side the Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger film in cinemas. As for this season, it promises bright shiny colors, and power of gem stones. Looks we have competition. Click "read more" and let's take a look.

Kuso (PC/Steam 2017)

Minimalist platforming can be fun. How minimalist is too minimalist? Developer Fred Wood aims to find out with Kuso. The big gimmick of Kuso is that the player can, at any time, leave a shadow behind for use as a respawn point upon death. Apart from that, we are treated to a stick figure (named five-eight,) navigating beautifully drawn levels with 100 extra lives. (Or infinite lives, or one life depending on what mode you play).

Green Phoenix - 1633 Review

Last July, I released my review of Eric Flint's first novel in the Ring of Fire series, 1632. I expressed at the time how I wanted to review and show off all the books in the series, as it has long held the position of my favorite literary series of all time.

But for whatever reason, I never did get around to reviewing the sequels to 1632. Of course, the series is quite prodigious, with more than 2 dozen books and hundreds of associated short stories through the Grantville Gazettes. So going book by book like I often do with my reviews of film series would be rather ridiculous and completely dominate the majority of weeks that I have access to with the website.

But I do want to get through  and review each o f the series' main titles at some point or another. And it is with that spirit in mind, that I will take a look at the second book in the Ring of Fire series, published in 2002, 1633.

This is the book that truly lays the groundwork for the rest of how the Ring of Fire series is written. While 1632 might have introduced us to the world, it is 1633 that solidified and established the outside world with sufficient enough details for future arcs and story lines to be expanded upon.

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Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger Number 51: I'm Sure We'll Meet Again - Summary/Review

shoutout to tv-nihon for their fan sub 

This is it! The final episode! Last time, the Lupinrangers achieved their wish and their battle was over. However, they are trapped and unable to aid the Patrangers in their final battle against the gangler leader Dogranio. Everything is up to the Global Police now. Click "read more" and let's put this season to a close.

Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger Number 50: An Eternal Adieu - Summary/Review

It's almost over. Last time, Lupin Red took his final stand against Zamigo and Dogranio defeated all the rangers which caused Tooma and Umika to be hospitalized and captured by the Patrangers. What will happen? Click "read more" and let's see if they dud this right.

Epanalepsis (Steam) Review.

The indie gaming scene is full of experimental gems.  There's a lot of interesting and great ideas that have a lot of effort put into them.  But for every Octodad and Hollow Knight, you get gunk such as That Bastard Is Trying To Steal Our Gold, and today's game, Epanalepsis.  (Try saying that name three times real fast.)  Why is this game such a disappointing mess of an indie title?  Click on "Read More" and find out why.

Green Phoenix - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Review

As stated in my Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom review, the Indiana Jones franchise was originally pitched as a trilogy of stand-alone films. Following the mixed reception of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg and Lucas elected to make the third film in the trilogy more traditional and in line with the first film the franchise.

This resulted in the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. The film in the franchise that is easily my favorite and honestly the entire reason why I decided to take a look at the Indiana Jones franchise in its entirety.

Bringing back many of the powerhouse cast from Raiders of the Lost Ark and adding in the overwhelming charisma of Sean Connery, otherwise known as James Motherfucking Bond, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is widely considered to be the perfect Indiana Jones movie.

But does that hold up on a more analytical level? I may love this movie subjectively, but when taking a look at the more generalized elements of effects, music, characters and story; does Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade really deserve its place as the most popular of the franchise?

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Green Phoenix - 8 Epic Video Game Tracks

I have never been much of a video game player. I did play a bit when I was younger and I still enjoy the occasional computer game now and again, being a big fan of simulation and RTS games. But the real draw that I have to video games is the immersive cinematic quality that so many possess, especially as the technology and financing as grown to enable that level of narrative story-telling.

And much like films and television, a key element to a cinematic experience in video games is the music that accompanies it. While most early games at pretty basic 8-bit musical sections, as technology and visuals advanced, so to did the musical compositions. And the effect was some truly stellar and epic video game music tracks.

And it is these tracks that will be the focus of today's article. Today we will countdown, in no particular order, and highlight 8 absolutely epic video game tracks. Those musical pieces that you find yourself listening to completely outside of the gaming experience. The songs that get played over and over again or seem to represent the very thematic heart of the game in question.

Today is going to be a hell of a lot of fun and I hope you all will join me in geeking out about some of the coolest sounding video game music I can think of.

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Green Phoenix - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Review

The Indiana Jones franchise was originally pitched by George Lucas as a trilogy of films, much in the style of adventure serials of the 1940s. Raiders of the Lost Ark was a tremendous success, popularizing and revolutionizing the fantasy adventure genre in much the same way that Star Wars had revolutionized science fiction film. And so with that success in mind, Director Steven Spielberg and Producer George Lucas set about working on the next film in the trilogy.

When Lucas conceived of Temple of Doom, he imagined the film would stand within the Indiana Jones franchise much like The Empire Strikes Back stood within the Star Wars saga. The darker and grittier middle child that was more experimental and adult-oriented. Something that could steer the direction of the entire future franchise down an unexpected course, despite the intention of each film to be standalone adventures.

But where The Empire Strikes Back succeeded in its dark tone, Temple of Doom was much more controversial. The film was too dark for many audiences and especially the MPAA, who refused to give the film a PG rating. Knowing that an R-rating would kill the film in its cradle, Spielberg and Lucas worked with the MPAA to design an entirely new rating system, creating the PG-13 rating.

Temple of Doom's legacy within the Indiana Jones franchise remains a black sheep. Its middling performance revealed that it was more than the pure spectacle that drew audiences into the franchise. But was it deserving of its lukewarm reception?

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New Video Game Releases of the Week Spotlights (March 25 - 31) - Predictions

Any new games look interesting this week? Click "read more" and I'll point out a few stand outs.

Team Fortress 2 (steam)

-intro
      Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a Valve developed game that was released all the way back in 2007. It became free 4 years later in 2011. There are many ways of looking at the game as many people play it differently. As such, I will have to cover those ways differently.

Green Phoenix - Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) Review

As stated many, many times during my various Jurassic Park reviews, I was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs and paleontology growing up. A love I have actually healthily maintained to this day.

While I enjoy the fictional portrayals of dinosaurs, that passion also helped me to develop a love for documentaries and educational television and films. So much so that I even have a subscription to CuriosityStream simply because I want to have access to documentaries that I can't get on Netflix, Disney +, and Amazon. I had considered acquiring the documentary streaming service for a few months, due in no small part to the recommendation of some of my favorite YouTube educators and theorists. But the information that finally convinced me to purchase CuriosityStream was the knowledge that they had the entire Walking With... series available for viewing.

In the wake of the release of Jurassic Park in 1993, public interest in prehistoric life reached a fever pitch. This public excitement inspired Tim Haines with the idea of using ground-breaking computer effects and animatronics, similar to Jurassic Park, to create a dinosaur-centric documentary miniseries. Collaborating the Jasper James and special effects artist Michael Milne, Haines succeeded in creating the most advanced paleontological documentary ever seen to that point.

Walking with Dinosaurs is easily one of the most notorious and influential nature documentaries in recent memory and the progenitor of an equally influential franchise. It was a game-changer in the field of nature documentaries, utilizing state of the art animatronics, computer graphics, and the top paleontological knowledge of the time to bring the world of dinosaurs to life.

While dinosaur nature documentaries are a dime-a-dozen nowadays; back in the late 90s, Walking with Dinosaurs was truly revolutionary and the chance to talk about it in detail is exhilarating to me.

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Dynasty Warriors 2 (PS2) - Review (Dynasty Warriors Retrospective)

Continuing this look back on Dynasty Warriors, we have the second title that is the first hack & slash that this series in known for. While marketed as a sequel in America, it was actually the first in another series in Japan under the title Shin Sangoku Musou. This title change lead to a numbering difference in regions that still persist to this day. (Shin Sangoku Musou 2 = Dynasty Warriors 3, ect.) But, enough history lessons, (for now), click "read more" and let's see how this title holds up.

New Video Game Releases of the Week Spotlights (March 18 - 24) - Predictions

Hello again. Any new games on the horizon this week worth checking out? Let's take a look.

Sonic Movie Sequel Ideas - Red Shard Prime

So I posted my review on the Sonic movie and went into great detail about what I thought of the film.  However, as the ending set up the way for a sequel and the movie is doing well enough, I want to express my thoughts on what I feel would be good for a sequel and what I feel should be some ideas to go through with and ones to not go through with, at least not for the second film.

Also, MASSIVE SPOILERS, so heads up!

Green Phoenix - Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Review

A few weeks back, Red Diamond and I decided to check out the new Sonic the Hedgehog film. While I initially had no plans to review this particular film, I felt motivated to do so after seeing all the effort on the part of the production to...correct...some rather infamous glaring issues.

Video game films tend to have a, not all undeserved, reputation for terrible quality and when this film was first announced last year, it looked like that statement would continue to hold water.

And it all had to do with the design of Sonic himself.

Being as honest and as frank as possible, Sonic looked like absolute dogshit in the very first teaser posters and trailers. Looking far too cartoony to be real but far too realistic-looking to ever be considered cartoon cute, the original Sonic design essentially took a massive deuce in the uncanny valley.

And the internet made sure that absolutely everybody knew about it.

It was actually kind of incredible to watch a video game movie implode before it even reached the theatres in real-time. The design of Sonic could've very nearly sunk the entire project just from the teaser alone. It was then that the production team behind the Sonic the Hedgehog film decided to delay the film's release and completely revamp Sonic's design.

The result is what was delivered to theatres. A level of post-production on this scale for a video game movie due to public backlash is almost unheard of. And it is an incredible achievement what the CGI artists were able to accomplish. I felt like I had to support such a project.

Perhaps studios would listen to real audience feedback instead of "supposed" audience feedback.

So how did the film turn out? Is it an amazing work of art? Or is it like nearly every other video game movie?

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Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger Number 49: As Thieves, As Police

The story is wrapping up. Everything is changing and the biggest challenges are coming fast. So, let's not waste time, click "read more" for my full coverage.