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Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

It’s flip week I suppose, seeing as I covered the sequel to a game before the actual game came out. Anyway, this week’s game of the week is Mass Effect 2. Featuring an all-star cast of lovable characters, my favorite of which is currently Doctor Mordin Solus after his glorious rendition of The Major-General’s song. With a wide-array of ways to play with an even wider array of things to say, Mass Effect 2 is definitely one of the best games I’ve played to date. Check out the rest of the article to get my in-depth review of Mass Effect 2. (more…)

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Alright, so admittedly I haven’t delved much into the single player campaign, and although I haven’t really gotten into the depth of this amazing series, I can at least give my current opinion on it. Mass Effect is a game similar to others like Dragon Age, in which the choices you make determine the outcome of the game. I can call it similar to Silent Hill in that there are always multiple endings depending on the path you chose during the story (such as Paragon or Renegade, which are essentially good and evil respectively). You play as Commander Shepard on the default, with the ability to change your characters looks and background with a few simple choices (or import your character directly from an ME2 file). Essentially the choices you make determine the outcome of the game and the fate of the universe etc, just like many other games of this genre. Read more to see my in-depth review of Mass Effect 3. (more…)

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At the urge of many of our readers here on Banana Feed, I’ve taken the time and effort to catch up on 3 seasons of Modern Family.  Luckily it fell into my rule of ‘anything past 4 seasons might be too much of an undertaking’, so I guiltlessly spent entire weekends powering through nearly 75 episodes following the Dunphy,s Pritchetts, and Tuckers.  I admit, I was wrong to call this show overrated, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.  Phil Dunphy and Cam Tucker lead in terms of the show’s strong comedic roots, the every household story lines can apply to most families in America, and the curvascious Sofia Vergara all make this show definitely worth the watch.  While undoubtedly being one of the best comedies on television, but it’s not without flaws: predictability, repetition, and cheesy wrap up moments plague the series, but the surprisingly smart writing and delivery more than make up for it…most of the time.

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Last week, I got Batman: Arkham City – Game of the Year Edition.  I had bought Arkham Asylum earlier this year for a super discounted price, and I completely enjoyed it.  Taking down foes with your advanced tool belt and unmatched combat skills is one thing, but being the Batman at the same time where you take down infamous criminals from the Batman universe makes this even better.  So when Arkham City was released, it immediately gathered attention for potentially being one of the best games of the year and eventually did by many credible sources.  I was going to buy it a couple of months after it was released, but when I caught wind of this version with all the DLC and an included extra DLC would be released in late May, I simply had to get my hands on it.

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Alright, despite the fact that E3 2012 isn’t really over yet (at least, I don’t think it is), I’m going to go ahead and write this wrap-up article as the main performances and press conferences are already done with. With a star-studded line-up featuring the regulars such as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as well as developers EA and Ubisoft, people were expecting an amazing E3. Feel free to read further to see what I thought of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. (more…)

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I’m not a big foreign film buff. I wish I could, because there’s an amazing plethora of fantastic films all ranging from Swedish to Japanese to Chinese. A couple of days ago, I got my hands on a little American-known Korean film: The Good, the Bad, The Weird. It’s an obvious tribute to the 1966 classic starring Clint Eastwood. While it seems like a cheesy ripoff, the film itself is an absolute blast to watch having an amazing combination of dry humor, great action, and compelling leads.

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It’s finally over.  For now.  Last night was the season 2 finale of Game of Thrones and boy was it amazing.  The episode itself was beautiful and the contrast of set pieces provided an amazing adventure as we traveled nearly all around Westeros wrapping up and cliff hanging every major player.  While some resolutions were met, other conflicts continue as we wrapped up the second season.  I’ve said this many times before, HBO’s Game of Thrones delivers the story it needs to very well, but many book readers like myself can do nothing else but compare George R.R. Martin’s masterful writing and execution.  While the show had an excellent representation of the show, there can’t be nothing else but a small sour taste when some of my favorite and most memorable scenes in the books were watered down here.  Read below to get the gist of what happened on the very busy episode of Game of Thrones.

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A great part of the video game experience is a multiplayer component.  A lot of the games I’m playing these days all have cooperative or competitive aspects that let me play with or against players all around the world or with my friends on my couch.  Here’s a list of games I’m playing and the experiences I’m having with it.

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For having 8 different story lines, focusing on one or two is pretty bold.  But last night’s episode: Blackwater showed just how expansive this series could be if they were given even more time and money.  Penned by George R.R. Martin himself, there was a clear coherence amongst all the chaos, and it was great that they found a better medium between the books and the series.  There were a number of powerful scenes, intense action, and gore that filled last nights episode.  Actions that will affect next week episodes and the rest of the season to come.  Last night essentially followed two story arcs clashing: Tyrion and Davos/Stannis as they are finally at war with each other.  Click below to get some of the highlights.

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Spring Television for the most part is coming to a close. Most of the shows have hit their finales, save for a couple of the heavy dramas. We’ve recently been bombarded with news about shows coming back, being cancelled, and some new ones. I personally haven’t sampled many of the new clips that preview the fall shows, but I’m sure some are bound to be promising. I’ve divided this awards ceremony by two pages: one for comedies and the other for dramas. There’s a lot of bias here and there and my opinion is erratic, but I like to think there is some truth to my choices. And I may or may not of come up with custom titles simply so I could put all of the shows I watched [and didn’t watch] this wonderful spring season.

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I can’t believe how fast these past 8 weeks have gone and how far we’ve advanced in Game of Thrones.  The big battle is up next, and most of the pieces are lining up in their final positions.  It’s interesting how the producers have taken things so far as they’re including tidbits of the third book/season in the episodes so far.  I wouldn’t say a lot happened this episode except that some characters are walking to new places seeing as the finale is right around the corner.  This marks the first time in a while where we’ve seen most if not all of the major storylines, which might explain why so little was actually done.  But by far my favorite part included the beautiful Talisa, but we’ll get into all of that below.  Obvious spoilers.

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I am a tremendous Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon fan.  The series was more than just a children’s television show with its adult themes and tribute to Chinese culture.  And with likable characters, beautiful animation scenes, and a very intricate and engaging story, its was impossible to not enjoy the three season run of the original series.  The story follows the story of a young boy, Aang, who’s destined to be the Avatar, peace keeper of the world, by mastering the four elements: wind, water, earth, and fire.  He unfortunately can barely escape his own adolescence and must employ the help of his friends to find his way. I redirect you to the wikipedia article if you’d like further backstory.  The series had its closure and marked the end of an amazing show.

But with its immense popularity, Nickelodeon had obvious plans for a sequel series.  The question at hand would be if it would feature its same characters as older and more developed, or if it would focus on another Avatar, before or after Avatar Aang’s time.  In all honesty, the safer route would be  to use the same characters already developed and safely liked by audiences and put them in another time to go through more shenanigans.  So when Nickelodeon announced that it would take place nearly 100 years after the first series, it was an ambitious move that would have to deal with introducing a familiar setting with completely different characters.  Naturally there would be a wave of a devout fans that’re watching every move, making sure they don’t screw up the beloved series.  And as a devout fan myself, I have to tip my hats off, because The Legend of Korra is shaping up to be a more complex, more mature, and even more beautiful series than The Last Airbender ever was.  Read below on my impressions of the show so far.

Watch the Entire Series so Far in [relative] HD here

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Game of Thrones is getting a little crazy and is tweaking my interest.  Not the traditional type of crazy or interest tweaking, where there are babies being slain in the street or rat torture devices being strapped to people’s chest, but rather the type of I’m not entirely sure on how to follow what’s going to happen.  Now I’ve read the books and I know all the plot follow ups with last night’s many cliff hangers, but the way they’re executed leaves a sense of interpretation that will genuinely surprise me when I see them seen through.  I suppose this is good to keep the book readers some-what on their toes and the non-book readers a traditional sense of ‘the sh!t is really hitting the roof.’

Overall, last night’s episode was fairly cliffhanging albeit resolutionless.  To me, this season has been extremely resolutionless at many points, primarily because of the way the show jumps around so much that the individual stories will be requiring 8 episodes to finish up.  Regardless, the shows shining moment is the glorious return of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Jaime Lannister after only being seen in episode one.  His classic [even wisdomous] snark replaces the hole felt with a lack of Tyrion and carried much of the show’s heart despite being depicted as one of the more villainous characters.  I’ll get into how he defines the shades of gray Game of Thrones installs in all its characters, Dany’s Dragons, and how little Jon Snow knows in the posts below.  Be free to discuss with me, but keep book spoilers to yourself!

**This symbol means that the following passage adheres to the following: [This doesn’t happen in the book, so I’m thoroughly interested in what will occur].  Trust me, it happened quite a bit this episode.

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If there was ever a way to start off a very promising blockbuster summer, The Avengers was a proper way to do it.  If there are any movie/Marvel skeptics out there, it takes a lot of stubborn ignorance to deny the marvel (Oh lulz I get it!) of what has been accomplished here.  Starting in 2008 as a vague idea that may or may not form came a movie with so much star power and ambition that it was easy to dismiss this as an action-oriented ‘Valentine’s Day’ that had so many A-listers that each one would eventually be fighting for star power and screen time.  Not only this, but there are 60 years of myth-lore and a rabid fan base that had to be dealt with for this movie to be successful.

It’s almost amazing how it all turned out.  In 4 years, Marvel meticulously planned in each of their corresponding movies how they would  set up this behemoth.  Without these previous movies, character development of these famed heroes would be lost.  So after countless infamous post-credit cut scenes in The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America, Joss Whedon delivered what was thought to be the impossible.  A coherent, action-packed, well-written 2 and a half hour ride that perfectly balances its down to Earth heroes and deliciously evil villain despite an ambitiously star-studded cast.  Slight spoilers.

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Mass Effect has significantly changed my life when it comes to gaming.  I used to not be such a big video game guy as it took me nearly 5 years to finally get a PS3 after it was released.  Mass Effect 2 was among the first game I got.  While it was difficult to get into, not playing Mass Effect 1 and buying it used so I couldn’t control decisions from the first game,  I managed to eventually persevere through it and get all the correct DLC to get the way I wanted.  By the time Mass Effect 3 came out, I spent 30 hours gaining everyone’s loyalty and etc., I had successfully gotten a fairly perfect Paragon mode with all my crew members.  I spent another 30 hours playing through Mass Effect 3 and my Paragon Male Shepherd chose the synthesis route and I thought I was done and satisfied.

It was interesting that I never truly considered the Renegade route.  Even more astonishing that I never remotely considered a female Shepherd.  And after going through some forums I read some very interesting quotes regarding my decisions: “Anyone who has never played a Female Shepherd should be considered sexist” and “Playing through renegade is a completely different side to the Mass Effect universe”.  I’ve taken these statements into account and decided to knock out two birds with one stone.  So here is my journey as Renegade FemShep.

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Last week I was unable to do a Game of Thrones review due to finals week, but now that we’re back on regular schedule, this week’s Game of Thrones once again proves that there is never a dull moment as some of our characters are put on the hardest of trials.  This week mainly avoids the adventures of Davos Seaworthy and the Red Woman in preparation of what is likely the siege of King’s Landing they were talking about.  Instead there is heavy focus on Winterfell and North of Wall plot advancement along with some light dabbing of Dany, Ayra, and Tyrion.  Get my plot summary below.

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Reading the book, I seriously thought nothing would surprise me when it comes to this season of Game of Thrones.  I know all the plot twists, character actions, and stories, but last night literally had my hand over my face in shock and awe.  Game of Thrones continues to smash down TV etiquette barriers with some of the most grotesque and explicit material I’ve ever seen on TV.  Ranging from S&M to live births, things don’t get more crazy than last night.  Oh wait, they actually do.  With last episode, I’m sure we won’t stop hearing the end to how Game of Thrones has hit the fan, simply because it’s oh so delicious to talk about.

Overall, I feel as though the set up episodes have finally met their end, as characters are finally hitting the high points and settings of where their character climaxes will take place.  Everyone is positioned to where they’re supposed to be where some of the most exciting stuff will likely to begin.  Last week, we didn’t really get a glance at Dany and her dragons, and it seems the season is continuing the trend of leaving out major characters in favor of prolonging screen time to certain others.  It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t get a look at Dany, Catelyn or Robb, in favor for Theon, Bran, or Jon who were absent this episode.  So let’s dive into what may be Game of Thrones most controversial episode yet.

As usual spoilers only pertain to the episodes released so far.

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Betrayal, heterophobia, and traps were everywhere on this week’s episode of Game of Thrones.  All in all, it was another set up episode  where we’ve been left off on cliffhangers again with just about every character, some more exciting than others.  Tyrion proves his wit again, Dany’s dragons were no where to be seen again, Arya’s got sh!t for luck again, and Jon Snow continues to be punished for doing the morally right thing again.  That’s not saying that this series is getting stale or repetitive, but being a book reader, I can see the reasons why they’re making the characters do or say things in relation to how they’ll act later.  I’m just worried that non-book readers will be finding faults in this show that’s seemingly going no where.

I try and think back and I can’t think of how it could do any more set up than it already has.  Once again, I bid each and every non-book reader to pick up a notebook to jot down names of important people and keep your people in order before it gets even more confusing than it already has.  Or at least have another book reader by your side to clarify some key points, but make sure he’s not a d!ck, because he can easily spoil the entire series for you.  If you haven’t been taking notes/have a book friend, consider me your book friend, as I explain key scenes for you all.

**The double asterik is a remind throughout this summary to visit this passage.

I remind you again, the creators of this show do everything for a reason, so bear with it.  Scenes that are filled with nonsense drabble are actually relevant, so pay attention.  Every conversation, every action, while seemingly meaningless is worth paying attention to.  So bear with it now or else you’d be even more pissed down the road when things happen for no apparent reason.  You’d be wrong, because the creators tried to fit in the context, but you were too ignorant to see the set up in the first place.

And as always, obvious spoilers.

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Read The North Remembers Review Here.

The second episode of Game of Thrones was aired yesterday.  Fortunately for me, I was able to write this article in advance thanks to a leaked Dutch version of the show that aired the following Monday of episode 1, I would usually follow up and share the link to you guys so that we all my enjoy it, but unfortunately it was taken down very soon after it was leaked.  It was truly a glorious day for me, and hopefully the Dutch have made the same oopsie daisy as they did last time by the time this post is published and I’m able to take a look at episode 3.

Episode two picked up immediately after where the one left off.  As a whole, the episodes are still following a ‘set up’ format, where nothing is actually happening, but a lot of cliff hangers and unfinished conversations are being dropped here and there.  As a man who’s read the books, I can see why they include every conversation they had, but if I had not read the books, it would feel like an overwhelming drabble that holds no significance to so far.  So I advise the non-readers to truly try and perk up their ears, and even have a pen and notepad to right down names so you may remember if/when they show up later.  Also, the show’s penchants for sex doubled this week, notably.  As usual, no book spoilers here people.  Or under penalty of Bruce the Ape’s wrath, I shall end you [or at least give you a very stern talking to.]

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Here it is lady and gentlemen, my first pure video game related post.  Today I’m talking about a game my friend recently let me borrow: Gearbox’s 2009 shooter RPG, Borderlands.  The format of these posts will usually be about my personal experiences with the game and what I’ll praise and critique about it. Before I begin talking about my experiences/thoughts about the game, I’ll give you a quick summary regarding some back story.

The planet of Pandora is a desolate wasteland.  The world seems to be run by bandits and the dangerous wildlife that inhabits it.  A team of treasure hunters have been sent in to discover the ultimate treasure, only known as the vault, on Pandora.  You take control of one of the four ‘classes’: a hunter who uses sniper rifles, revolvers, and a deadly bird, a siren, who specializes in smgs, and disappearing in and out of battle, a soldier, who keeps a portable turret, a combat rifle, and shotgun at his sides at all times, and the berserker, who when enraged, starts punching things with his fist.  On your way to finding the vault, you’ll need to blast your way through hordes of bandits, animals, and bosses if you want to survive.

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