Mera'din

Yeah, this looks like fun. Marvel seems to often be at their best with their relatively unknown properties so I'm interested in seeing how this one plays out. I honestly didn't even know who this character was until the last Secret Wars event they did even though he's been around since the 70s. I'm assuming they're retconing him to be the son of the Mandarin based on the movie title and his father's general appearance in the trailer. Plus, we're long overdue for them to pick that thread back up. Coincidentally enough, my first encounter with Shang-Chi's character via Secret Wars had done exactly that so I'm partial to the idea of him being the son of the Mandarin anyway. XD

In the comics, this version of Madame Hydra (think she was the 2nd one?) had originally been an agent of SHIELD (alias Agent 14) and was Fury's lover at one point. Kind of wonder if she isn't possibly the Power Broker in this case. She obviously knows everything that's going on, and considering Walker's ties to the Power Broker in the comics, it tracks. It feels like they keep trying to push Sharon as the Power Broker but it doesn't make sense with her sending Batroc to the Flag Smashers if she's supposed to want payback for them taking the serum. Unless Batroc is going to betray them I guess? Fontaine just feels like a better fit for me at this point in lieu of a classic Power Broker. Walker is the best option for them to get back at the Flag Smashers at this point as he took the last of the serum, is emotionally vulnerable and would want nothing more than the opportunity to get to Karli thanks to his lingering guilt at not getting Lemar's true killer. Side note: Is it just me or did the scene with Bucky and Sam forcing the shield off of Walker's arm feel really reminiscent of the Avengers trying to take the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos?

I've seen a few people complaining about it. As far as I know, the cause is fixed, but some people still haven't had their stuff restored. They're supposed to be doing that within the next couple days. Sucks the stuff will get rerolled though, especially if that applies to the mods and not just the stats. As relatively stable as the demo was, I'm surprised they had this many issues. Though it seems like they maybe weren't expecting the amount of players they ended up getting and Square-Enix kind of fucked them on the server side of things as such. I ended up getting it on PS5 as it makes it easier for my wife and I to be able to play together until we can get a bigger desk and I haven't had any troubles with the game outside of abnormally long time to log in to the game. Smooth sailing after that every time I've played. Seems like the vast majority of the problems came from multiplayer related things so that's probably why I haven't really run into any of the bigger issues yet.

God that episode was fantastic. This is more like what I was hoping to see at the beginning. It was never going to match the level of shit that WandaVision got up to, but that's fine. I was looking for the feeling I got from the Captain America movies which on the whole tend to run in a different vein that most of the other movies, and this episode finally hit that stride. Finally seeing the full extent of the conflict in Walker, seeing him really starting to crack which is going to get so much worse after his talk about having the serum in the military allowing him to save more people, and then not being able to save his best friend even after he took it. I'm hoping they really start to push the dichotomy between him and Steve from here. Steve also lost his best friend (or so he believed at the time) despite feeling he should have the power to stop it. Would be great to see some literal and thematic comparisons in the next couple episodes about how he deals with it (obviously we've already seen the immediate fallout. 😧 ). The whole conversation Sam had with Karli was some solid stuff even knowing how it was going to playout because of course Dude-bro America was going to assert his dominance and bust in there like a jackass. Really felt like we were seeing Sam in his element during that little bit. Solid stuff with Bucky too. The flashback to confirmation the de-programming had worked and the slight doubt when Walker was pushing him on backing Sam up were both solid scenes. Everything with the Dora Milaje was good stuff too. It's always great to see them in action. Everything Zemo was excellent. I'm going to be unbearably disappointed if they throw his character away at the end of this series. They made him so much more interesting than he ever was in the comics (not that I've read much Captain America, but still), and the actor just sells him for all he's worth. Really glad they didn't waste him as a derpy Hydra baddy. Show got immediately better with his presence. Maybe they'll eventually do a Thunderbolts type of thing with him. That could be fun. XD

3 is definitely the one that made me nope the fuck out of getting the Platinum. Wasn't even because I couldn't do it, as I was able to do them all back on the PS2. However, they completely fucked the grip controls on PS3 (not sure how they are on the PS4 version), and it made it feel nearly impossible to get him without basically a perfect run and I rage quit after like 3 hours straight of failing because of something that wasn't my fault. >_<

5.) Persona 5 Strikers This was a decent game. It's made by Omega Force, the dev that does all the "Warriors" games (Dynasty, Samurai, Hyrule, etc ) and it shows. It feels a little less "open" then most of those games, but I think that's do more to the source material than anything. It still very much FEELS like Persona 5. It took a bit to get used to how it plays, but once I got into it, I had a lot of fun. It felt a bit shallow compared to the main series games (really felt the lack of side character stories and all the usual Persona trappings), but it was a fun story none the less. Nothing ground breaking, but the new characters they added were solid and probably one of the best things about the game. Probably worth a play for sure if you liked Persona 5 and just want more of the main characters doing what they do. Just have some post-game grind to do to finish up the platinum.

Really looking forward to this. There is so much crazy shit they can do with this kind of set up and I hope they go all in with it. XD

I'm getting into this series a bit more. I feel like this is where they're stacking a majority of the world building to show the disparities of life before/during/after the "Blip" and it was really needed. I was never expecting this to be on caliber with some of the other announced shows, and that's fine. I'm just glad it's starting to feel like it's starting to gain a solid identity. I had the thought about Sharon being the Power Broker too, but I don't know if that works that well for her character. I think she is likely working directing for him though. She'd use whatever tools were available to her to keep herself going and that's probably the biggest tool in the box so to speak. Was definitely cool to see Madripoor. My understanding from what I read is the bar they go in is actually the same bar that Wolverine would frequent? Feel like they're just actively trolling people at this point with X-Men adjacent easter eggs. XD

One thing I learned that's pretty fucked up about this online store closure thing just recently: There were a number of developers still making stuff for the Vita that were given no notice of this. They learned about it via the rumor from last week and now have to decide whether to cancel projects or haul ass to get their game out before the store goes down on that platform in August, which is extra fucked up since it seems like Vita caters more to smaller devs at this point. Sony really dropped the fucking ball on this.

It's official. They clarified that you can in fact still download previously purchased games and content and any ps+ games you had (as long as you retain the service).

Okay, yeah. I'm on board for this one definitely. Also, it was confirmed that King Shark is voiced by Sylvester Stallone. In other news, I watched the Snyder Cut. I... didn't hate it. It still wasn't what I would call a GOOD movie, but it was WAY more enjoyable than Whedon's version, even despite the completely ridiculous runtime. Also, you could actually follow the fucking story and it wasn't like watching disjointed scenes that someone spliced together with little to no context. Not to mention the actual character development for the "new" characters. And last but not least, they not only acknowledge that Darkseid exists, you actually fucking see him in the damn movie. XD Also happy they put that Joker scene in it, if only to put my mind at ease about whether, if given a legitimate shot, Leto could have played a decent Joker. The answer is no. No he couldn't. His laugh was good, but I just couldn't get into whatever he was trying to do. It's like he was going for the absolutely wrong kind of crazy or something.

I think we'll see the new guy start to lose it before the end of this. In the comics he was as asshole who had a raging nationalist hard on for the government and military. He got super strength from the Power Broker (glad they're using him in this. Was wondering if they would after that fight when it turned out they all had strength). He went by the name "Super Patriot" and was super antagonistic towards Captain America, constantly attempting to discredit him. He was chosen to replace him when Steve gave up the identity after some of Red Skull's shenanigans. Once Walker was picked to take over the role, he attempted to use Steve as a role model and tried to emulate him but was kind of shit at it (because there's probably almost nobody that can emulate the moral integrity that he has) and after more Red Skull shenanigans, gave it up, eventually becoming U.S. Agent. With that in mind, I'm kind of expecting him to get douchier over time as Sam and Bucky continue to blow him off until something happens that makes him have a complete meltdown and realize he can't do the job the way it needs to be done. I also like how they styled his outfit to kind of allude to the U.S. Agent outfit. Right now it feels like this series is missing SOMETHING. Not sure what though, especially with how top heavy with "villains" it is between Flag Smasher, The Power Broker and Zemo. Also Walker sort of though he's more pseudo-antagonist than actual villain. I'm enjoying it, it just doesn't give me the kind of drive to watch it that I got from WandaVision though. Really glad they included Isaiah Bradley in this. That whole thing was an interesting story in the comics from what I've read. Makes me wonder how many other people who have been Captain America in the comics they'll find a way to fit into this though. There's a few bigger ones they could still use, excepting Jeffrey Mace since they made use of him in Agents of SHIELD.

Yeah, some of that was obvious or things the PS3 and/or 4 did as well, but some of it was news to me and good to know. The manual disk eject thing especially is cool to have just in case. I remember when my original PS3 died and it still had a disk in. I basically had to completely dismantle the thing to get it back. X_x

Hard to say if the store is just gone. Though maybe can still pull stuff out of the "list" of purchases/licenses or whatever? Not sure. Sony themselves haven't said anything yet so this is still rumor/"insider info" territory yet. I certainly hope that's the case though. I specifically kept my PS3 around for stuff like this. As nice as backwards compatibility is, I don't feel it's intrinsically necessary but if they cut off ways to retain digital content, that turns into a completely different matter. Especially as games are less and less "complete" even on physical media. Are we going to eventually hit a point where you can't download patches/updates for the game too and you're stuck with a potentially broken/inferior version of the game? Shit like this is why emulation and ROMs are so important. Edit: Holy shit, what is with the PSTV prices? You weren't kidding @little birdy Fucking nobody wanted those things when they were readily available. I bought mine for under $50 (was even the bundle that came with a DS3 and a game) at Best Buy when they were trying to get rid of them just to play Persona 4 Golden.

Rumor is they're going to be shutting down the stores for the PSP, Vita and PS3 in the near future.

They show his name to be John Walker on a poster during the credits so he's definitely the guy that ends up being US Agent. Interested in seeing how far they take his character. I agree about Batroc. That was a character I was not expecting to see again but was a nice suprise. Wasn't expecting Rhodes either but it makes sense with Sam having been in the AirForce as well. Wonder if we'll get any War Machine action later. They also semi-snuck in another Captain America villain as well. The terrorist organization that is being investigated by Sam's sidekick army guy bears the name of one, "Flag Smasher". Definitely not expecting this to be as fundamentally impressive as WandaVision, but I'm hoping for an interesting ride none the less and so far it's not disappointing the expectations I had for it.

Kind of feels like where I'm at right now. Don't play it nearly as much as I did at first even though I've been consistently able to get to the end now, but I really want to know where it's all going. Even with that in mind, it seems like there's still a ridiculous amount of stuff left to do in the game even after reaching that point. X_x

Thinking on it some more, I'm kind of wondering if they're not angling for a "Dark Phoenix" type of thing with Wanda. The way the presented her getting her powers and how Agatha treated her had a really strong Phoenix Force vibe to it. >_> Also, I feel like I'm usually pretty on top of comic stuff in general, but how did I not know that her kids were actually eventually revived in the comics? I've legit read comics with them in it and had no idea that's who the characters were supposed to be. O_O It's something I found out after the "Halloween" episode (due to Billy's costume looking familiar) and kept forgetting to post about it because I was distracted by other things going on. For anyone who is apparently as dense as I am: They brought them back nearly 20 years later in Young Avengers and are Speed and Wiccan. They were presented with different last names but went through a storyline discovering they were brothers and who their parents are. I apparently completely missed that but have read stuff with them after that point and never realized.

4.) Hades Can't say that I've "really" beat it yet since the story just seems to keep going but I've completed a run with each weapon so I'm going to go ahead and list it now. This game is absolutely fantastic, and that's coming from someone who absolutely HATES Rogue-like (or Rogue-lite or whatever this counts as) games. I've made something to the effect of like 30 runs, and have not once encountered repeated text or interactions with characters/bosses/etc. and it's clearly not done yet (and has remained interesting). If I ever start feeling a little tired with the game I go play something else for a couple days and coming back feels like a relatively fresh experience. Boss rooms even have alternate encounters at times that mix it up really nicely. The amount of replayability in this game is downright staggering. This is by far the best game that SuperGiant has put out and that's saying something as all of their games have been generally impressive.

I was under the impression that the "friend turned enemy" it refers to is Mordo. Strange has never had any real direct contact with Wanda so it seems unlikely to mean her though she is supposed to be in the movie. Actually a little disappointed that there was no real mention of him outside of Agatha's offhand comment at the end since that much magical energy being thrown around to make the Hex should have drawn his attention.

That whole thing was super intense. Figure the person the skrull was talking about would be Nick Fury. As of last sighting, we know he's in space and the space station he was on makes the perfect setup for what we know SWORD to be in the comics. Kind of wonder if they won't roll SWORD and Alpha Flight into one thing in the MCU with how closely they're tying Captain Marvel related stuff to it. I really like how they handled the stuff with the two Visions. Got the sad goodbye, with the solid chance of a "revival". He's free of outside control, he has his memories back, so I feel like we'll see him back before (hopefully) too much longer. Can definitely see how this will lead into the next Dr. Strange movie now. Mephisto seems even more likely at this point with some of the stuff Agatha was saying and with what we saw in the last after credit scene. Could see Mephisto using the lure or her children as a way to be freed/made whole/whatever if he isn't already via whatever Agatha was worried about. As a side note, apparently the Darkhold is in that Runaways show too, though I don't know if that even counts as part of the MCU (was under the impression it wasn't but have seen some talk to the contrary). Kind of curious how it resurfaced either way since Ghost Rider was supposed to to have hidden it in another dimension in Agents of SHIELD (maybe something related to Dr. Strange as well in that case).

Legends is basically a series of shorts that recap info about specific characters. Kind of goes through everything they've done in the movies up to the current point. They're only a few minutes each I think.

Ended up getting HBO Max a couple weeks ago because I like what they're doing for movie releases and there is honestly a lot of good stuff on there. Ended up watching "The Little Things" since it seemed interesting and had a really solid cast and was the new movie when I picked the service up. Movie was kind of not good though. Setup is really misleading and has no real resolution outside of the character/interpersonal story. Turns into a sort of "MAKES YOU THINK, HUH!?!?" type movies which is FINE, but you need to, you know, actually resolve the main plot of the fucking movie, thanks. Their attempted "twist" at the end was also incredibly predictable.