This week there’s been a lot of TV, and a lot of Call of Duty.
The Punisher
Friday 17th November was the day I took a day off Call of Duty and spent the evening watching Neflix & Marvel’s latest series The Punisher. I had a lot of hype for this show based on the display from Jon Bernthals performance as Frank Castle in season 2 of Daredevil. So far I’m not disappointed. I’d heard on a radio review coming back from work that by the end of episode 2 the people reviewing the show were more interested in checking their online banking and were questioning did Marvel and Netlix need another super hero show since the latest influx of them all on Netflix. When I head this the first thing I thought was that they obviously didn’t realise that this is cannon with the other Marvel TV shows and that Punisher would and did feature characters from the Defenders shows.
The show so far is what I’d expected from reading some of Castle’s finest lately and from what the trailer interpreted. Violence, and a fair amount of it. The initial episodes we’re introduced to a character that I assumed would go on to be a side lead character to Bernthal, but he disappeared sooner rather than later. As we start to get introduced to Micro, I figure that he will end up being the villain, but again I’m swerved. The point I’ve left the show at we’ve now been introduced to the real villain and I guess I should have seen it coming. I also have the suspicion that Lewis the traumatised war vet will end up doing something that I’m going to dislike.
One thing that I’m surprised about is the portrayal of police in this show. It’s not a secret that the United States police has been hit with lots of scrutiny over the last year or so. Seems every week a story about an unarmed male is shot while the police defend the decisions saying the suspect was armed, or intimidating the officer or flat out attacking the officer when 9 out of 10 times these claims have been proved false. The Punisher as a TV show does not hide the current affairs or sugar-coat it at all, as it’s clearly referenced twice that I’ve seen so far where the police abuse their authority to make arrests or worse, shoot when the suspect is doing nothing wrong. Wonder if this will stir any controversy as more people watch the show?
Motherland & Sick Note
While I might be scathing about the review I’d heard about The Punisher on the radio, they did however recommend a few shows that turned out to be pretty decent. Motherland and Sick Note.
Motherland is one of those awkward and cringe comedy shows. It’s about a group of mums who are essentially trying to impress one another and all fit into a group of smug mothers. While that might not sound particularly funny, wow. I spent Saturday afternoon binging through the 6 episodes on iPlayer and found myself thoroughly entertained. Episode 3 “Pool Party” ended up being hilarious. A show about what stay home mums and mums juggling a career and mother care makes for a surprisingly funny show. Even from the simplest of things like trying to host a birthday party for their kid in which everything is being judged from the cake that was made / bought to the entertainment for the children (“Just thought Ivy might want a peep at my carrot flute”). Definitely recommend giving this a watch on iPlayer.
Sick Note is the latest comedy show to hit Sky One and features Rupert Grint. He plays a character that’s not worried about work or life, just drinking, smoking and playing PS4. When he’s on the verge of being sacked due to his attitude, he manages to withhold the sacking by going to a doctors appointment for a fake arm injury he’s been using to get time off work. When he gets his tests back, he’s told he has cancer from an incompetent doctor. Once he tells his work, friends and girlfriend he has cancer, everything starts going right for him. His job is safe and he can choose his hours to work around how he’s feeling. His girlfriend takes him back. He’s somewhat happier than he has been in a long time. But when he finds out he was incorrectly diagnosed and is actually fine, he doesn’t want to go back to the thought of life turning on him again, so he plays the cancer diagnosis out. The doctor who carried out the incorrect diagnosis is in on the ploy as he does not want his career jeopardised. It certainly has it’s funny moments, like I’d never thought I’d hear Ron Weasley saying in a conversation on PS4 that his girlfriend had licked his asshole. It’s also addictive in that it’s not just flat out comedy, but has a weird and interesting underlying plot with regards to will this backfire and will they get caught they’re faking the diagnosis. The end of episode 2 finished on somewhat of a cliff hanger which I wouldn’t have expected when initially starting this show.
WWE Takeover: Wargames
As Wargames was on Saturday night I stayed up to watch this. No Survivor Series though due to the ridiculous hour Sunday morning that would start, but plan to watch that this evening. I enjoy Takeovers, even when the lineup might not look that thrilling, the PPV still ends up being absolutely quality. This card however utilised most of the roster and was incredible. The Alister Black vs Velveteen Dream match genuinely slots into the top 5 matches of the year, some genuine competition for Dunne vs Bate as match of the year candidate. The winner of the Women’s NXT Championship was a fairly obvious one, even though I didn’t pick her for my picks in our Book It Vince picks game. And the NXT Championship changing hands to Andrade Cien Almas completely swerved us as we watched it in the early hours of the morning. A brilliant result to Almas who some months ago was rumoured to be fed up in WWE and wanting to get out. It seems that Drew McIntyre suffered an injury in the match which is incredibly unfortunate for him. As for the main event, I didn’t know what to expect. Given WWE in 2017 is a little more safe than it was 10-15 years ago, the thought of War Games I figure was still going to be a tame match and not over the top. Was I ever wrong. Superplex from the top of the structure into a crowd of 6 people below, one really bad looking head cut with blood everywhere. Killian Daim looking like the star of the match. What a debut PPV match for Adam Cole. Insane. Now once again the main WWE roster has to follow on from an epic show.
Call of Duty: WW2
And funnily enough I’m still massively hooked to COD: WW2. Due to my persuasiveness I’ve managed to talk 3 friends to buy the game, and a 4th friend recently joined the party. All this week the 4 of us have been playing online every night having an absolutely amazing time. I do enjoy multiplayer games so much more with friends. I’ve reached the momentous occasion where my kill/death ratio is now in the plus, last check it was +75. So work to do to cement that position, but still. We’re absolutely loving Hardcode Domination. We’re not winning many games, but that’s not stopping the laughs and curse words flying around. As the 2 newer guys are progressing I’m capturing all of our defining moments and sending them back to them once we’ve ended our game session. It’s been thoroughly entertaining. Hopefully we all keep at it for many more evenings.
– Murr
Tannenberg
Tannenberg is a newly released FPS set during WW1 from the same team who made Verdun, I picked it up on a bit of a whim over the weekend.
Tannenberg is the latest entry in the 1914-1918 WW1 Game Series that started with FPS Verdun, expanding the focus to encompass the Eastern Front. Warfare between the Russian Empire and the Central Powers offers a fresh experience for new and veteran players alike, with four new squads, 20+ weapons, four open maps that give players tactical freedom, and a whole new 64 player game mode with full AI bot support so you can experience epic battles at any time!
The main game type is a conquest like mode where you will battle for control of various points across the map, the more you control the more you will tick down your opponents remaining tickets. Initially I wasn’t too sure on it, I found that I was just getting killed all the time from people I couldn’t see in densely packed forests, but after a few more games I started to get a grips with the pace of the game, and learn some of the maps. It was then that I went on a rampage.
I forget which map it was on, but it was quite an open map with lots of fields and a few smaller houses dotted around. These fields didn’t provide much cover and therefore became a pretty dangerous place to cross – not for me though, like Walter White would say, I was the danger. I quickly racked up a kill streak of about 40 at the beginning of the round and actually ran out of ammo so I had to basically sacrifice myself in order to get more as I’m pretty sure you can’t pick any up from any where. By the end of the game I had well over 100 kills and my name was littered across the post battle screen for things like longest kills streak, most effective player etc… It was then that I decided that I actually really liked the game.
Tannenberg features mostly bolt action rifles and I actually really like this, there is no run and gunning. It’s a lot more running between covers and taking a few shots. The pace of the game is a lot slower to most others and some people might not like that, but once I was used to it I found it really enjoyable.
It’s in early access at the moment and is a little janky in places, but for the most part I think it’s really good.
