Geekly Review #206

It’s been a pretty busy and geeky week. Here’s a roundup of what we’ve been up to.

Thor Ragnarok

As is always the case with Marvel films, I saw the latest chapter in the cinematic universe as soon as I could. Unfortunately it wasn’t a midnight showing, but I still did see the film on opening day after work. Unfortunately for Thor, there was a slight concern about the quality of this film based on his last outing in a solo film, The Dark World. I’m happy to say that any predetermined niggles you might have about this film can be squashed as it’s an upper level effort from Marvel and happily can claim itself a spot within the top 5 of Marvel’s movies so far.

Previous films in the cinematic universe have thrown hints of humour in to great effect, some so much that they border on more comedy than super hero movies like Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2. Well Thor Ragnarok goes one step further again and genuinely feels like it’s a flat out comedy with hints of connections to the Marvel Universe. From the very opening scene in which Thor should be a tad more worried about the situation that he finds himself in than he is, it sets the out layer for what the film will be. It features an exceptional cameo that I wasn’t aware of, and on this occasion I’m not referring to the cameo of another Marvel character which does happen, no I mean the cameo of a rather popular actor who I wasn’t aware was featuring in this film. The humour features throughout the film, and it also seems to target an older audience with regards to some of it’s jokes. The humour does not take away from the story and the stakes that are ever growing in this long story Marvel is telling film by film. Ragnarok reminds us occasionally throughout the film what’s been happening with nods back to Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Avengers 1 and does more than enough to hint at the Infinity War, Infinity Stones and Gauntlet.

Aside from the setting up to the next big team up next summer, it also tried to stick relatively close to the original source material for the Hulk’s part of this film from the comic ark Planet Hulk. Korg is absolutely incredible in this film and Miek is as expected before his transformation in the comic. I really hope that’s not the last we’ve seen of Korg and Miek. Even if we could get a Marvel one shot of them or something. Hopefully we’ll see them again in future GoTG films as we can only assume the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes full cosmic level once the dust settles on the 2nd part of Infinity War. Be prepared for some rather large shocks in the film too. The trailers do a damn good job of not giving anything away.

Stranger Things Season 2

So last week I marathoned through the first season of Stranger Things for the first time and was left blown away with how incredible it was. A week later the 2nd season released and you can guess what I did on Saturday. 9 hours of Stranger Things in one sitting as my wife and I plowed through Season 2. It was pretty damn incredible with some equally emotional moments comparable to season 1. New characters were introduced too which to be honest, I didn’t find overly relevant or needed. The thing that I found and after reading thoughts across various forums once finishing finding out I wasn’t alone is that one episode just didn’t sit well with me. Episode 7 in which 11 goes off in search to find her sister. The whole episode with her sister and band of misfits was pretty meh and I found slowed things down. The thing I enjoyed about the first season was the cast and their connection and relationships with one another. This episode left everyone out other than 11 and her sisters crew (and elevens mum and aunt, but you know what I mean).

In fact as absolutely awesome as this show is, and I did thoroughly love the 2nd season, it’s a shame it took so many episodes to get the ‘whole gang together’ at the same place. Story wise of course it makes sense with Mike helping Will out and Lucas and Dustin with their own plan to help take care of Dart. Steve went up massively in my estimations this season too. Is he my favourite character now? Might well be?

The final 10 minutes of the last episode are some of the happiest and heart-breaking 10 minutes of television I’ve watched in a long time. I cannot wait for the 3rd season, which I assume is going ahead. Well played Netflix, and just when I think I can’t think what to watch next, The Punisher is out soon, and Walking Dead is back. Winter TV seems decent this year.

WWE 2k18

And again much like last week, my choice of game hasn’t changed. I’m still plugging hours into WWE2k18. I’ve made a start on the career mode, and actually find I’m enjoying it a lot more than previous years. In the previous years, it was one heck of a grind to progress up the ladder to earn title shots. The matches were a bit ridiculous to earn your shots and it was just a long ass process to become any champion. Well this year round it appears to be a little different. I’ve been through next and left in the span of 2 Take Over PPV’s winning the NXT Championship at one, and defending it at one. I’ve been called up to RAW without losing my NXT title, so relinquished the title to move to the big leagues. The option to walk around back stage is pretty neat in that you can talk to other superstars that’ll request you to do things like run in on people or back them up. I’ve actually stayed away from this however instead focusing solely on picking fights with people I hope will help shoot me to the main event scene of RAW and a chance at the Universal Title. I’m actually planning to do a season write up in the coming days and try to update it with stages as I progress my character along, so won’t give much detail here of my matches and opponents, but stay tuned to see the progress of Murr in the WWE.

 – Murr

Destiny 2

If any of you readers are regulars here you’ll know I’m pretty big in to Destiny, so it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been playing a lot of Destiny 2 since its release last week. On console I started playing as a Hunter as that’s what I played most in Destiny 1 and loved playing that character. But I fancied a change, and I love the look of some of the armour for Titan’s this time around, plus the new Sentinel super ability is really cool too.

Back when I played the Beta on PC I was saying about how smooth and polished the game felt and that it felt like the ultimate version of Destiny 2 and it is. In an era where we often see pretty bad PC ports for games, it’s really good to see a solid version for PC. I’m regularly getting around 90 FPS and I know all my friends are reporting just as good things when it comes to performance and how the game looks.

Right now, I love Destiny 2 on PC, it feels like such a different beast. A lot of complaints of Destiny 2 were how it felt like it had been slowed down and that multiplayer played out a lot slower, but I think the PC version feels a lot quicker. The fact that you have the precision of M/KB to turn on dime in a split second really changes how it plays. Plus Hand Cannons now feel relevant! The Meta on console is very much about the Mida Multi Tool and Uriel’s Gift and whilst I still see it popping up in crucible, generally the mix of weapons feels a lot better. I fully expect the Meta to end up being pretty different on PC.

I’ve now completed the main campaign, unlocked all three sub classes and have hit around 220 Power. I’ve also got a fair few friends who have it on PC too now, which is nice as Destiny is always a lot more fun with others, plus it puts us in a good position for the ‘end game’ activities.

-Will