Mera'din

Just did this tonight. Same movie. My friend and I figured it would be fine because it was the middle of the week, and it was a subbed anime movie so figured there wouldn't be too many other people around to worry about. Definitely felt weird being in a theater, but there were only like 8 other people there and picking the seats cleared out all the seats around what you picked with ours as well so didn't have to worry too much. Was really fun though. Have definitely missed going to the theater. It was in South Dakota so I was worried they would half ass some of the typical protections, but the theaters there are doing a good job at least. Figure it's probably mostly the businesses that are nationwide that actually bother doing anything. Most of the stuff local to that state not so much from what I saw. ?

Pretty much agree with Anelle. It wasn't any worse than the older movies really. It was fine. Dumb fun. Could have been a whole lot worse. And at least they EVENTUALLY remembered to use the damn theme music. Took them the entire fucking movie. Granted, it was a new arrangement, but that wasn't surprising. Didn't care for it as much as the original, but was still happy to hear it.

Definitely feel like some of that is the trappings of how short it was. Feels like they were going for how things worked with Walker in the comics, but couldn't really extrapolate that with the time they had (and with him not being the focus at that point) but it seems like they tried to have him convey through body language and what not that he has started to turn around, realizing what being Captain America really meant, etc. Kind of wonder if this version of Madame Hydra maybe represents 'The Commission', whom he worked for in the comics as both Captain America and US Agent. Could function as another potential thread leading to doing something with the Thunderbolts. Really was hoping Sharon wouldn't be the Power Broker. They made it seem so obvious that I thought they must be going a different direction with it, but I guess not. Still will certainly make things far more interesting if this carries forward to another season or whatever else. Last 5 years have not been kind to her I guess. ? Sam's speech was damn good. I didn't mind the suit. Probably one of the best comic to live action ones there has been so far where they tried to keep a more "realistic" utility look to it. Was never overly fond of the ones they did for Steve outside of the first Avengers movie, so that was a nice surprise. The fight scenes in the new suit were pretty awesome too. Felt like they really dialed up how he fights a couple notches too. Getting punched and blocking with the shield while also bracing himself with the wings digging into the concrete was great. Also, Zemo's butler is fucking vicious. XD Overall I really like how this whole thing played out. Planted a lot of seeds to go in any number of directions. Probably one of the most villain/antagonist packed things they've done so far too. Used/adapted 6 different villains. Gotta be a new record, or damn close at least. >_> Dat closing title card was a nice touch too. "Captain America and The Winter Soldier"

That was literally the only one I never played. Refused to get it after they revealed there would be a multiplayer mode. Don't care how little it may have impacted anything else in the game I learned a long time ago not to support that shit when they pull it with traditionally single player games. >_o That and I was honestly burned out on prequels by that point and never even cared enough to see how the story was for it.

Yeah, they're really pissing people off with this one. The whole system is pretty fucking scummy. There's even more bitching about this already then there ever was for the sunsetting stuff so hopefully they'll make some changes to it pretty quick. It's especially ridiculous because they literally just got done axing a bunch of different currencies/resources. -_-

They turned that around in the long run though. PS3 started out practically a meme between the price point and Ken Kutaragi's undefendable bullshit among various other things but once they sorted their shit out, the cleaned the thing up pretty well and it eventually overtook the 360 by the end of that generation. There isn't much they could do at that point with how it was designed and that is clearly still biting them in the ass, but them seemingly trying to rest on their laurels isn't helping. If they wanted to sort out backwards compatibility, they could (and would have little issue in terms of the PS1/2 as an opening volley). But Jim Ryan ABSOLUTELY refuses to consider it and he needs to get fucked. Microsoft getting Phil Spencer was the best thing that ever happened to them, where as Jim Ryan is basically Sony's version of Don Mattrick.

He was one of the last good ones still there. At least as far as the "out in front" types go. Gonna miss his dev update. Kind of wonder what happened as his public notice about it had that super vague, PR spin quality to it. Usually if they leave on good terms they're a little more specific about why so I wonder if Activision started pushing too hard on something and he said 'fuck you, I'm out."

That's pretty much how I'm going into it as well. It'll be on HBOMax anyway, so no reason for me to not watch it at that point. XD

I know. That's why I said "practically behind their backs". This has technically been in the works for a while as apparently part of their renegotiated licensing agreement included MLB's ability to take the game to whatever platform they wanted, but the fact that it was dropped out of nowhere less than 3 weeks from the games release was amusing to watch on twitter. Especially since the game will be a day 1 drop on Game Pass vs. Playstation owners having to pay $70 for it (because of course it's one of the games upped the price on). The series has been a Sony exclusive for like 2 decades, and has been the sole MLB game series available for like 7 years. Sony can't be happy with the situation.

Watched a few this weekend: Nobody - This was a lot of fun. Solid comedy and acttion. Best way I can describe it is "John Wick, but with Bob Odenkirk". Also contains a shotgun weilding Christopher Lloyd, so there's that. Psycho Goreman - Another fun movie. Weird as fuck and kind of gorey but in a campy 80s "Toxic Avengers" sort of way. General feel of the movie reminded me of "Turbo Kid" which I had also enjoyed. Monster Hunter - Enjoyed this more than I expected. Dumb, fun action movie loosely connected to a video game. Ie: What Milla Jovovich does best. Really like the mo stereo designs and they seem true to the source material as far as I'm aware. Ending was annoying as fuck though. If I wanted a bullshit, mid-action cliffhanger ending, I'd go watch some anime.

Sony playing that FOMO game. Probably more likely that the instant and very verbal sentiment from a lot of people was "lol okay. Gonna pirate a bunch of this shit since you refuse to sell it to us." and they decided they like money after all. They're really screwing themselves this generation. Kind of wonder how things will play out in the long run because xbox has been on a roll recently and Sony seems to be trying to rest on laurels they may or may not actually have. Also, MLB: The Show '21 being put onto Game Pass day 1 practically behind their backs is an absolute alpha dick move. XD

Sony: lol jk? https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04/19/playstation-store-on-ps3-and-ps-vita-will-continue-operations/ Except PSP. That one is still getting axed. Good news overall though. Hopefully this means that the devs who were going to have to cancel projects can course correct and finish up now.

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.