Spider-Man: Raimi Vs Webb

This week I did something I haven't done before, I watched both the original Spider-Man franchise and the Amazing Spider-Man movies (including the new one).  So today I am going to tear them apart to determine which of the two franchises is the definitive Spider-Man.  Because the movies are so different I'm going to compare the similar elements first, starting with the characters.

The Family

Everyone knows Spider-Man was raised by his aunt and uncle, and in the movies they are portrayed very differently.  In Raimi's original trilogy May and Ben Parker are much older, personally I preferred the younger version that Webb chose.  Sure the late Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris were a more accurate portrayal, and far better used than Martin Sheen and Sally Fields are in Webb's series.  This is a difficult decision for me because I am such a fan of Sheen's other work.  However if I had to choose based solely on their performances in the films...I'm gonna have to give it to the original.  Despite their age they are just given a lot more to work with, which results in a far better set of characters.

The Thief

This one is a far easier choice to make.  In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man the thief is seen robbing the wrestling promoter, presumably taking thousands, after the promoter refused to pay Peter $3000, Peter lets him go.  This results in the death of his Uncle in a carjacking gone wrong, and a fairly emotional confrontation a few minutes later.  In Webb's Amazing Spider-Man however, Peter lets the thief get away after being denied chocolate milk from a convenience store, and uncle Ben is then killed trying to stop him.  This leads to Peter searching for the man, who apparently looks like every other criminal in New York, and confronting the look alikes one by one all while being a smart-ass, cheapening the whole ordeal.  So for this I obviously have to go with the original.

The Love Interest

For this one I can't directly compare Gwen Stacys, because that would be unfair to Bryce Dallas Howard who only got a few minutes of screen time.  So instead I'll compare Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy.  In Raimi's movies Peter and MJ have a...complicated relationship.  Personally I feel Raimi's handles the idea of a civilian vs superhero identities a lot better.  Peter knows that he can't be with MJ and still keep his secret in tact, this works for the first two movies.  However the third movie doesn't have this barrier and their being apart is just for the sake of keeping the character consistent.  In The Amazing Spider-Man however, Gwen learns almost immediately that Peter is Spider-Man.  This leads to an entirely different relationship, one that is far more supportive and actually makes the characters better.  Of course both actresses are really just playing the same roles they always play, and Emma Stone is just more charming.  So I give this one to Gwen Stacy.

Flash Thompson

Honestly, both franchises horribly misuse this guy.  Flash is Peter's high school bully as well as Spider-Man's #1 fan, and in the comics he goes on to become his friend, joins the army, loses his legs, becomes an alcoholic, sobers up, and becomes Venom.  In the Raimi films we get maybe two scenes where Flash picks on Peter, and the incredible hallway fight scene where Peter fights back.  In Webb's movies we get a scene where he picks on someone else and gets angry when Peter calls him on it, a scene where he loses at basketball to Peter, a scene where he tries to offer support to Peter after Ben dies, and one last scene where he is shown in a Spider-Man shirt.  In essence Webb's version is the jock we all knew in high school, not a jerk, just full of himself.  It's this more humanized take that Webb does that ends up being the better interpretation, and therefore the winner in my opinion.

Green Goblin

Comparing all the villains would be like  comparing apples to broccoli, they're just all so different.  So instead I'll do the common enemy; The Green Goblin.  Raimi's Goblin is portrayed by Willem Dafoe, and my God what perfect casting.  Dafoe is terrifying, going from calm to crazy banana-pants at the drop of a hat.  Raimi's version also has a Jekyll and Hyde feel as the Osborn and the Goblin are separate entities.  The only problem with this version is the suit, it just looks ridiculous, especially when compared to this anamatronic mask they were testing for the film.

As for The Amazing Spider-Man franchise (MAJOR spoiler warning for those who haven't seen The Amazing Spider-Man 2 yet), Norman is not the Green Goblin, instead it is his son Harry.  In the film Harry is Peter's childhood friend who has been away at boarding school for years, only returning to the city because his father is dying of a degenerative disease that turns his skin green, and by the way it's genetic.  So throughout the movie Harry is trying to find a cure for his Green Goblinitis that involves Spider-Man's blood.  But when he finally gets it the blood not only cures him, but turns him into the Green Goblin for a whole 5 minutes.  Honestly this was probably one of the bigger slaps in the face Webb's films gives us.  It's clear the Goblin is only in this movie to set up the Sinister Six film that's in the works, although Rhino is handled even worse.  Though to the movie's credit Dane Dahaan does really well with what little he is given.  As for the suit, personally I feel it's really dumb, but arguments have been made for it being better than Dafoe's.  This comparison ends up being a bit unfair in the end simply because of how high the bar was set with Dafoe, and how lazy Webb's attempt came off as being, the better Goblin is Dafoe.

Spider-Man

And now for the topic you all came to see, which Spider-Man do I feel is better.  First a bit of background.  When the original Spider-Man movie was being cast over 10 years ago, even the studio thought Tobey Maguire was a bad choice because he wasn't the action star they wanted.  However Raimi wasn't looking for an action star, he wanted Peter Parker...and he got him.  When it comes to Superheroes and villains I feel movies need to stick with a simple rule, cast the secret identity, not the hero.  Think about it; the costume is going to be worn by a stunt man most of the film anyway, so whats it matter if the actor can bench a truck.  Maguire however did end up bulking up considerably for the movie, and thanks to baggy clothing he managed to maintain the illusion that they were very different people.  This version of Peter is more emotional than Garfield's and the way they are both played are very different.  Andrew Garfield plays Spider-Man as a smart-ass hipster.  He does the quips we all wanted from Maguire but never really got, and his body type is more what we expected as well, the lanky, more spider-like look.  However where Maguire was the perfect Peter Parker, Garfield is a more more accurate Spider-Man.  Garfield's Peter is an entirely different story, he's obnoxious, he seems cooler than he should be, and despite appearing smarter than Maguire's version, he ends up being all show with his gadgets whereas Maguire was actually intelligent.  If you look at the fights in these movies Garfield is constantly being told how to win by Gwen, but Maguire improvises,  examples being removing his mask to appeal to Octavious, or creating an acoustic enclosure to bring down Venom.  As for the suit, both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Raimi's suits are equally impressive, seriously well done costume people, these are fantastic.  So the ultimate decision ends up being one of personal preference here, and personally I just prefer Tobey Maguire's take on the character.

As a last minute bonus, check out these images I found on the internet of the unused Black suit and Venom.

Seriously, between these, the Spider suit, and the unused Goblin Mask Raimi proved that it is possible to have comic accurate costumes that don't look stupid on film.

Editorial: Creating The Ultimate Superhero Game

Well it's that time of year again, blockbuster season.  Yes that magical time of year where Hollywood starts cranking out one big budget movie after another in hopes to take our money, I mean entertain us.  And inevitably there will be Superhero movies as well, in fact there already has been a few already.  But with all these fantastic movie choices it seems odd that when it comes to Superhero games you are stuck with either Batman or Spider-Man.  Sure there are the occasional alternatives like Infamous, the surprisingly good Wolverine game, and Injustice.  But There is yet to be that definitive game when it comes to superheroes.  So today I'm going to lay out some aspects gathered from some of my favorite superhero games, and how to combine them into the ultimate experience.

Sandbox

First and foremost we need a sandbox environment.  Luckily most developers have already figured this out by now, if you're gonna give us powers, let us play around with them.  For those who don't know, a sandbox game is one where you are given an open world where you can explore and do missions rather than forced to do levels one after the other.  Although I would love to have a new location, perhaps an entirely new location...that isn't a dark run-down city.

Multiple Powers

For a licensed superhero game this isn't a necessity.  But for a hypothetical "ultimate" superhero experience why not.  This has been seen seen before, from MMOs, to Infamous, to even the Lego games.  Basically what I'd like to see is a game that lets you choose your powerset, then unleash it on your enemies.  Maybe even make a boss immune to each power option so that players will be forced to fight smart, or better yet...

Multiplayer

The staple of of the modern videogame, mutiplayer turns even the most boring game into an afternoon of awesome.  Obviously I'm not after an MMO here, in fact what I have in mind is more along the lines of the Fable series, where each player has their own unique character and can unlock stuff, but only player 1's game is affected.  Call it a Team-Up, or sidekick mode, plus with the above idea of a boss that is immune to each power, a second character would be perfect.  Or maybe even expand this to 4, or even 8 players to create a super team of your very own.

Different Playstyles

This is the first item on the list I haven't really seen in a game, and admittedly it may be asking too much, however this is a hypothetical game so whatever.  Anyway in the game Infamous Second Son the hero can gain 4 different powers, however they all play essentially the same.  What I'd like to see is different controls for each power.  Imagine a game that let you choose Spider-Man, Batman, or Delsin; all of which played exactly like their respective games, in fact all those games have the same basic level design so in theory it would all mesh really well.  Plus it adds more depth to character creation.

Character Creation

Kind of a no brainer at this point in gaming, even Arkham and Spider-Man have alternate costume options.  But for a game where you create your own superhero character creation is a must.  Thus allowing those who want to wear tights and capes to do so, or players can opt for a more modern look, or even go without a costume if they feel so inclined.

Moral choices

Something Bioware has perfected, making choices that affect the game's outcome.  There are the obvious "should I kill this person" decisions, but what if you had to also make a choice between saving a love interest or a bus full of kids, real hard choices that define people.  Thus players can play the Boy scout, the psychopath, or anything in between.

Secret Bases

The last thing needed for the ultimate superhero game would be a lair for the player to hang out, store trophies, and change their appearance.  Or even take it one step further, use in game currency to order things like weapons, costume pieces, vehicles, or decoration and have them delivered to the player's base.

Anyway, this is what I would love to see in a definitive Superhero experience, have any ideas of your own?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Television Review: How I Met Your Mother

It's been a while since I reviewed an entire television series.  This week one of my favorite shows of all time ended, and there were some good times as well as bad times that I'm going to go over here.  Needless to say this particular review will be full of spoilers.

In a nutshell the series is about a man named Ted Mosby telling his kids how he and their mother met...over the course of nine years.  The series focuses on Ted and his friends; Barney Stinson the womanizer, Ted's best friend Marshall Eriksen, Marshall's girlfriend and later wife Lily Aldren, and Ted's former love interest Robin Scherbatsky.

Ted's story begins when Ted decides to stop dating and settle down with "the one".  The first episode has you believe Ted will end up with Robin, until his kids interrupt the story out of shock.  As the series continues we follow the gang through their lives and major milestones.  For example in the early seasons Marshall and Lily date, break up, get back together, and eventually get married.  All throughout the series everyone's careers also progress in a natural way rather than the exaggerated 
trajectories we usually see on television.  For example Robin moves to New York to be a newscaster, she starts off as the late night field reporter, then gets a job on an early morning talk show, then moves to a national news team, and eventually she becomes the number one newscaster in the country.

As the series goes on we see a large, possibly inappropriate number of women Ted dated before the titular mother, I say inappropriate because he is telling his children about all the women he slept with before their mom.  Some of these women we are led to believe Ted will end up with, particularly Stella.  Stella not only lasted the longest, besides Robin, but they were even engaged until she left him at the alter.

One of the biggest things I liked about this series was how jokes often came back.  For example their is a joke where Ted tells his kids how he got his dates mixed up once and as he's explaining the event happened later on, he bursts into the bar in a dress proclaiming "Now we're even".  Two seasons later we finally learn what he was talking about, and why he was in the dress in the first place.  Another ongoing joke was Barney's job.  For the first 8 seasons Barney made ridiculous amounts of money and when anyone asked what he did he would answer simply "please".  Then in the final season we learn his job is to sign forms without looking at them, which is highly illegal, but it's okay because it was all part of a long revenge plot and Barney was actually a whistle blower.  Other notable recurring jokes include; the dopplegangers, Robin Sparkles, and my personal favorite: Barney's history lessons.

Another thing this show did really well was the tone.  Unlike most television comedies, were everything is funny, always works out, and even the bad times are hilarious.  How I Met Your Mother manages to balance comedy and drama flawlessly, making us laugh as well as cry.  The ending is the best example here, but I want to cover it separately later.  Another example is the episode "How I Met Your Father", in this episode after a pregnancy scare Robin is telling her future children how she and their father got together.  The episode is full of jokes but ends with a very sad note, Robin cannot have kids, and the future children don't exist.

Now for a negative of the show, Bob Sagat.  Personally I have nothing against Bob Sagat, however he plays the voice of future Ted, a character who is seen a few times throughout the series, however whenever future Ted makes a screen appearance he is always plays and voiced by Josh Radnor.  Basically it's an inconsistency that always bugged me.

The Final Episode

If you have ignored my earlier warning about spoilers, this is your last warning, I am going into detail on the series' final episode so if you haven't seen it; avoid this section like the kid on the playground  with lice.

The final episode covers multiple decades.  Ted meets his wife in the first ten minutes of the episode and decides to stay in New York.  After that we get to see what happens to the gang between when they meet and when Ted starts the story.  Three years later Barney and Robin get divorced, forever altering the gang.  Robin leaves after the realization that her friends are all moving on in their lives, and nobody sees her again for more than a few minutes every few years.  Ted, who starts the series obsessed with getting married, lives with the mother of his children for years before finally tying the knot.  After a year in Italy Marshall goes back to corporate law, something he hates, until he gets the opportunity to be a judge again, eventually even becoming a state supreme court judge.  Barney finally reforms after having his own child with a one night stand.

Overall the series finale was perfect...until the last 2-4 minutes.  Personally I was fine with the mother's death, sure it was really sad, but it gave Ted a reason to tell the story.  What I had the problem with is everything after the story ended.  Turns out Ted never got over Robin, and the whole story was his way of asking his kids if they were okay with him dating her.  After 9 years of amazing television, and not a single bad episode, it's understandable that the series makes a mistake.  But the very end of the series was like watching your team play the perfect game, only to have the other team score at the buzzer.  Sure it doesn't matter and your team still wins, but it changes how you feel about the game.

In the end How I Met Your Mother is my favorite sitcom to date, and considering I grew up on shows like Friends, Fraiser, Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of Queens this is quite the statement.  Now that it's over there is a huge hole in my life, but at least I got the closure I needed out of the finale.  I give the show a solid A. 

Comic Review: Superman Birthright

I've been meaning to read this story for years, and I finally got around to it last night.  In a nutshell Superman Birthright is a modern retelling of Superman's origin story, something that has since been done a lot.  At the time the mini series was meant to be a non-canon story, but was so well received it replaced the already established Superman origin story.  It was written by the Mark Waid, the man behind Kingdom Come and the current Daredevil series.  The art was done by Leinil Yu, who was also the artist of Mark Millar's incredible Superior series.

The Good

This mini-series did a lot of this well, one of the biggest highlights being that they explained the disguise, really well in fact.  Clark refused to use a mask, so his mother came up with the idea for him to wear layers to hide his muscles, bad posture and acting to seem mild mannered, keeping his hair well groomed because flying would mess it up, and very thick, strong prescription glasses to dull his otherworldly eye color.

The next strong point was Lex Luthor, everything about him was perfect.  In this story Lex is a genius in the field of...well everything really.  his origin is that he lived in Smallville, and was an outcast until an accident left him an orphan as well as bald.  After that he started his company in Metropolis, and created truly amazing technology by looking at planets and hypothesizing how something could survive on them.  His hatred of Superman is based on his obsession with alien life, and when he finally makes contact, he is treated as a lesser being.  So he decided to put together an elaborate plan to discredit Superman and eventually kill him as an alien invader.

Superman's power set was slightly altered for this mini-series as well, making him powered by multiple sources; the yellow sun charges him, but the powers themselves stem from the differences between Earth and Krypton's environment.  Basically everything about this mini-series is brilliantly written, well, almost everything.

The Bad

I have a few complaints about this series, interestingly enough it was basically everything I didn't like about Man of Steel.  The "S" shield, something that went from being a simple letter, to the El family crest, but in this series it was made into the Kryptonian symbol for hope, something I found kinda dumb, but not the biggest problem.

My biggest complaint with this series was how Pa Kent acted in the early issues.  Like the Man of Steel film, Pa Kent is responsible for for Clark hiding his powers.  And in the early issues he was very disproving of the idea of Superman, even to the point where he tried to destroy Clark's rocket to stop him.  He eventually turns into the Pa Kent we all recognize, but the whole point of Pa Kent is he helps Clark become Superman.  

The series was a bit slow in the early issues, but by part 4 the pacing got better and I ended up staying up until 3 AM because I couldn't stop reading.  But the early 3 issues were kinda disappointing, I felt like it was just an average storyline and didn't see why it was so well received.

The Verdict

The series was overall great, but it does suffer from the usual origin story problems, and this one in particular suffers a little more because it is such a well established character.  But the series proves itself thanks to the brilliant creative team of Waid and Yu.  Thus I give this mini-series an A-.

Injustice Gods Among Us 2

With the dawn of the new Consoles I've been thinking a lot about some of my favorite games from the last generation of consoles.  This week I started replaying Injustice: Gods Among Us, quite possibly my favorite fighting game ever.  Anyway today I want to express my idea for a sequel.

Plot

       Possibly the best part of the original game, Netherrealm chose to not only create a universe, but create a second one as well, and make a story that is actually better than most story based games.  This is really nice for people like me who cannot find people to play with regularly and find online to be not as fun as local play.

       For a sequel I feel the game should stick with the universes it already established, maybe it could expand to a third universe even, which could then explore how the one universe has everything go well for it while the others take dark turns.  As for a plot itself I have a few ideas; the first would be the aftermath of Superman's defeat, with the greatest protector of the planet gone a villain such as Darkseid would be free to move in and conquer with relative ease forcing the heroes and villains to come together to defeat him.  Another possibility could be another event happens that branches the "good" universe again, and the Insurgency Batman learns that all divergent universes stem from the same universe, and exploring why this is.

Stages

       The weakest part of Injustice, at least in my opinion was the stage selection.  There was only a small number places to fight at, and some of the stages were identical with very minor cosmetic differences.  What I want to see is a wider array of stages, the DC universe is full of iconic locations, so why are we limited to so few stages?  I want to see places like Oa, New Genesis, the Flash Museum, or even the Legion of Doom's hideout.  I just want more to keep me interested longer.

Characters

       Injustice had a wide variety of character to play as, but there were some aspects that could have been better.  First and foremost I feel there were a few too many Batman characters, especially considering the game revolved around Superman.  Sure some of them were important to the plot, but Bane and Grundy simply acted as muscle and could have easily been different characters.  Then there is Batgirl, who was fun to play as but ultimately added nothing to the story.  I also was a little disappointed with the large amount of DLC.  Don't get me wrong I'm okay with some DLC, but Injustice had a large amount, too much for the casual player to pay for.  

       What I would like to see is more unlockables in place of some of the DLC, this could add some replayability to the game as well.  As for specifics, perhaps the game could add a new type of character besides the gadget/power dynamic they have now...say magic, adding a new level of strategy for players.  I also would like to see an expansion on the alternate costumes doubling as characters, for example more Green Lanterns like Kyle Raynor and Kilowag, or Jason Todd as a Deathstroke skin.  I thought his was a clever way to increase the roster, so why not do more with it.  Some characters I'd like to see would be a mimic character, someone who can randomize his play style for those who like that, a character like Amazo, Black Alice (for magic characters only), or Parasite...In fact the more I think about it, the more I want Black Alice.  I also want a character I've grown attached too in recent years, Animal Man, his personal move could be to change up his moveset between speed, strength, and defensive types.  Also as I mentioned in my plot idea, I want a big bad, a REALLY big bad specifically I want Brainiac, a character who can bring an Age of Ultron like story to the game.

Other Thoughts

       The main thing I'm asking for from a sequel is to not simply release the same exact thing again and call it good like some other games out there, or worse yet decline in quality to coast on the title's reputation.  But I think Netherrealm understands this, just looking at Mortal Kombat's history they seem to understand how it works, they even rebooted the franchise after making a game that simply did too much.  So I am excited to see what they have in store, and hope we get to see it in the near future.

Video Game Review: Mass Effect 3

       Mass Effect 3 tends to get a bad rap from fans of the series.  Is this deserved? yes and no, While there is no denying by comparison 3 dropped the ball on important matters, but it also did a lot of things really well.  This review will have some spoilers, so if you haven't played the game yet I suggest doing so, but since it was released years ago I don't want comments about how I ruined the game for anyone.

What Worked

Controls

       The controls in this game are really well done, particularly with the Kinect integration.  This game managed to use the Kinect in a way that actually works, and I as a Kinect owner was really excited for more games following its example (but we all know how that went).  Like the previous games you had wheels that controlled powers and weapon selection, but this takes you out of the action, the Kinect made these also controllable through voice commands that actually increased the immersion into the game.  Another fun addition is the strong melee attacks, for most classes this uses an omni-tool to create a weapon, but for Adepts and Vangaurds like me it was a telekinetic blast.  This not only looks cool, but can dish out insane amounts of damage as well.

The Loadouts

       Unlike previous installments, in Mass Effect 3 you were no longer limited to weapons based on your class.  This is both a blessing and a curse however because yes you can carry one of each type of gun, but the amount of weight you are carrying affects your powers.  Because of this you must pick and choose the weapons that best fit your play style.  Then their is the armor, unlike most RPGs Mass Effect's armors don't progress in level, instead each armor piece affects different bonuses and the player makes an armor tailored to them, right down to the color, designs, and material of the armor.

The Story

       This is where I lose everyone, but lets be honest; up until the end Mass Effect's story is everything you expected it to be.  The plot is the Reapers finally made their move, and now you need to travel around the galaxy to gather forces to fight them.  There are some hard choices to make, parts that made me laugh, parts that made me almost cry, and parts that left me speechless.  We get to see what happened to everyone since the last time we saw them, and are introduced to new characters.  The ending however is going to get it's own section later.

What Kinda Works

Multiplayer

       I have mixed feelings about the multiplayer.  Yes it was fun, and it plays exactly like you would expect it to.  But I found the unlock system to be a bit broken.  Earning points takes longer than it should, and when you finally have the points to unlock something it is entirely random, I still only have one non-human character and one assault rifle.  It would have been better if it was more like the single player where you can choose what to use points on.  However the biggest problem with the multiplayer is that it is required for the singleplayer mode.  Meaning at some point you have to stop what you're doing in the story, and spend hours in the multiplayer, this simply takes away from the experience.

The Downloadable Content

       Because this is an EA game, their is a lot of DLC.  Personally I only bought the Citadel pack, and only quite recently when it was 50% off in Xbox Live.  However I have seen the other DLC sets and I have to admit they are all rather interesting.  All or them add to the story seamlessly and doesn't feel out of place.  However I personally am getting tired of games releasing DLC the day the game is released and charging obscene amounts of money for it.  The Prothean package was released on the day Mass Effect 3 was released, had a character that contributes a lot to the story, and cost $10.  This pack in particular felt like it should have been included as part of the main game.  

What Did Not Work

The Ending

       Everyone saw this coming, the ending to this game isn't necessarily bad, it's just that we were promised our choices meant something and in the end all the endings were relatively the same.  Not only that but the ending was simply ridiculous; SPOILERS: the Protheans created the Reapers to end all life and start everything over every few thousand years, you get to choose if you want to destroy them, control them, or merge with them.  Either way the result is the same.  What's worse is that in the game you find ways to destroy the reapers and even a creature stronger than the reapers (KALROS!!!), their should have been a fourth option where you drop kicked that stupid kid and continued the fight slowly pushing back and eventually defeating the Reapers...In fact until a new Mass Effect is released telling us otherwise I vote we all adopt this new ending and pretend the other never happened.

The Side Quests

       Shepard is nosy in this game.  Almost 100% of all side quests are given by listening in on random conversations or settling arguments between two strangers.  This makes you feel weird as you do them, but there are those few that do feel natural.  For example finding an item so a guy will sell guns to the police, or stopping a gang war before it even starts.

The Crew

       This is the end of the Shepard Trilogy, so why then is everyone you ever fought side by side with cannot be recruited?  Some of them make sense, like Mordin dedicating his time to curing the Krogans and then dieing, or Thane's medical condition making him unable to travel.  But the others are in the game as well, however they refuse to join in, they even hang out in the Normandy so it's kind of a slap in the face.

The Dreams

       There is no way around it, these were bad.  The dream sequences had you running in slow motion after a kid you watched die on Earth, why? Because, that's why.  Sure watching the kid die was hard, even I was moved by it, but Shepard has seen many die, why must this one affect him more?  Plus thanks to the ending I lost all compassion for the kid.

How It Should Have Been

       I basically already covered this in the individual sections, but to recap fix the Multiplayer, it could have been still tied to single player, but making it required was just a bad idea.  Next bringing back the entire crew, it's the last stand so why break up the band?  Third lower the DLC prices, I'm okay with paying for it, but if you add up the prices for all of the DLC it actually comes out to more than the game itself now, so a discount would be greatly appreciated.  Lastly, and possibly most important, change the ending...Seriously guys adopt my 4th option and pretend the other ending never happened, I for one intend to.

The Final Verdict

       Despite its flaws Mass Effect 3 manages to be almost the game we all wanted.  Sure it isn't as good as Mass Effect 2, but it still is a fantastic game that deserves your money.  If you don't own this game then you should go out and buy it right now, the whole trilogy is only $40 now.  I give this game a solid B+...an A with my new ending I made up above.

Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron/Infinity

It's been exactly 2 months since my last post, so to make up for that I will be reviewing two of Marvel's last big events.  But before I do I feel  should explain what I consider "Big Events", a big event has it's own series and multiple tie-ins, where as a small event is contained within a single book or even two, and a limited series is a series that has no tie-ins.  So for today I have two big events, one I really enjoyed, and one I felt was just filler.

Age of Ultron

       Age of Ultron has a pretty basic premise; Ulton, a psychotic robot built by Hank Pym, has finally upgraded beyond what the Avengers could handle.  Honestly considering how obvious of a plot that is, I'm surprised this wasn't written by Mark Millar.  The story takes place in a distopia where Ultron drones go around killing anyone and everyone they can while fighting off a meager resistance.  In a last ditch effort Wolverine and Susan Storm go back in time to kill the one man responsible...Hank Pym.  The story has a few twists I don't want to give away so that's all I'm going to say about the plot, basically imagine the Terminator with super heroes.

       This event is my favorite since the Dark Reign, the villain selection, the distopic setting, even the tie-ins are well done.  Personally I'm a sucker for distopia stories, and what sets this one apart is that everything the heroes try ends up making things even worse, and when they do find the best possible scenario all of reality ends up broken.

        Ultron has rocketed to the top of my favorite villains list in recent years because every time he shows up in comics, cartoons, and soon movies; he is a force to be reckoned with.  But it's more than the shear power he possesses that makes him a great villain, it's also the backstory and reasoning behind his actions.  Ultron was originally created by Hank Pym, one of the original Avengers, as a side project with artificial intelligence.  However Ultron decided humans were disgusting creatures unfit to even exist and he went very evil very fast.  In the years following Ultron did what all technology does, he upgraded, each time becoming stronger and eliminating a weakness he once had.  He also created a "family" for himself as well, but they for some reason always end up siding with humanity. 

       The pacing of this event is handled very well, most comic book events in recent years always seem a bit rushed at the end, as if the writers suddenly realized they now only had 5 pages for a big showdown they have been teasing for months.  Here we get a few issues/tie-ins where we are introduced to the series and everyone is looking for the original Ultron, then an issue where Wolverine and Susan Storm go back in time to prevent Ultron from ever existing.  After that we get a few more issues/tie-ins where we see that without Ultron creating his family, certain events play out completely different and the world sucks even more than before.  Then we get act 3, where they figure out a way to make it all work out for the best, then we get a final ending where all of the fallout is explained in detail rather than teased.

       The aftermath of this event is the introduction of a new character from another universe now being stranded in Marvel's mainstream universe, and the most powerful villain in the mainstream universe being thrown into the Ultimate universe and creating a major event there as well (more on that later).  The new Avengers movie is now Avengers: Age of Ultron, and even the first What-if series since Siege came out a few years ago.  But possibly the greatest of all things to come out of this event is the possible permanent death in comics in a long time, or at least it's set up that way, but since it was a popular character that may change.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and if you ever get the chance I highly recommend you read it as well.  If you enjoy comics or want to get into them, this series manages to hold your hand just enough make this a great jumping on point.  I give the series an A, and again I highly recomend you read it.

 Infinity

       Infinity is a whole different story, to put things bluntly it's a mess.  Up until very recently the assumption was Thanos would be the villain in The Avengers 2, and Marvel themselves even seem to have believed building this guy up comics for years with a secret origin, his return, and especially this event in particular.  

       The story here is there is an attack on a planet that is allied with the Avengers so they leave to help.  Thanos decides to use the opportunity to attack Earth and hunt down one person, his child.  Already the problem should be apparent: there is simply too much going on here.  A 6 part series involving Thanos, a villain Marvel has been building up for years,  is almost entirely told in tie-in.  The majority of the main series is the massive war the Avengers are fighting with to protect their intergalactic allies, which if kept separate could have been an amazing series.  Back on Earth the B-list heroes are fighting off an invasion of their own on the form of Thanos.

       To it's credit the event had the potential to be really good, but the marketing was a little too good and the event itself couldn't live up to the hype it created.  Personally I feel if the Space war and the Thanos attack were two different events then they would be two great small events, or even simply formatting the series different to where the Thanos event we were promised took more of a spotlight and the Avengers absence was a tie-in.  The true mistake of the series is this guy.

       This is Thane, the son of Thanos.  Thane is the reason Thanos comes to Earth, to kill the last of his children.  Where to begin, first if Thanos knew he had a child on Earth, and he wants to kill all of his children, why did this never come up in the decades of prior encounters.  Next is his origin story, he is an Inhuman without Inhuman powers, until Black Bolt sets off a blast that gives all those with Inhuman DNA powers, Thane's appearance is a result of this blast and because of his father...quite the coincidence huh?  His powers then happen to be exactly what Thanos has been trying to achieve for years, and he deprives the readers of the final showdown that has been building up ever since the Avengers movie.

       I believe the true purpose of this event was to set up the Marvel Universe for what I like to call "long events", events that aren't really events but simply are a period of time that resulted from one, like the Dark Reign or the Heroic Age, so it is for these reasons I feel that Infinity only deserves a C, because it felt like it should have been more than it was and can even be skipped.