the song remains
Marvel 80th anniversary two packs Wolverine and Hulk
Super 7 reveals Rocky 4 reaction figures
The Best and Worst of E3 2019
E3 2019 took place this week in Los Angelas, California and there were many big announcements that were made during the four day show. Many press conferences surprised the live audience and viewers around the world, while some have been a snooze fest. E3 for the last few years has been trying to get back to their roots especially with last year’s show that disappointed many. Has E3 2019 rised from the ashes of last year’s letdown, we shall see as I rank them from the best to the worst.
EA Play
Last year’s show of EA at E3 was a huge disaster. It felt like an investor meeting more than a presentation show. This year, was a change of pacde for the better as Greg Miller to take the stage to introduce the developers of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order along with a long trailer and gameplay video which surprised the fans as nobody thought that we would see gameplay from it this year. The game was recieved very well from the live audience and the viewers at home and knowing EA’s track record of the Star Wars franchise, many were spectable if they could actually deliver this time and so far, it seems like they are since this is a single player game. This game reminded me of The Force Unleashed games from a decade ago. Other games that were shown was new content for Apex Legends, Battlefield V, and The Sims 4 along with new footage of Madden NFL 20 and Fifa 20. This was a huge improvememnt of last year’s show as EA realized their mistakes from last year’s show and did not want to repeat them. Every game that was showcased from EA including for its EA Originals program felt like it mattered to the casual viewer and it was all about the games this year instead of the microtransactions, loot boxes, etc.
Final Grade: B
Bethesda
I have no idea if Bethesda paid the entire audience to clap at every announcement it sure looked like it did. With the way Fallout 76 was handled last fall along with the disatrous pre order bonuses that did not come as advertised, you would think that the crowd would have not give them a warm reception but they did when it was announced that a battle royal mode will be coming to Fallout 76 along with more DLC. But besides that, The Elder Scross were showcased which included DLC for Elder Scrolls Online, Blades, and Legends and more trailers for Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, Wolfenstein Youngblood, Doom Eternal, and Ghostwire Tokyo. All of these trailers look great, but we did not see any gameplay from any of them. There were also some cringe moments during the conference as well, but not to the level of Ubisoft. Good conference, but I felt very underwhelmed with no major announcements from Bethesda.
Final Grade: C+
XBOX
Mocrosoft on Sunday saved the show so far especially after that miserable PC Gaming Show that felt longer than WrestleMania with Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the west for the first time ever, Borderlands 3, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Blair Witch, a new Battletoads game which surprised me, Minecraft Dungeons, and even an updated version of the Elite controller. I must say, XBOX’s controllers always felt great to use so I am for this decision to give it a complete overhaul. The bigger games that were showcased were Gears 5 (which was announced last year, but we finally know the release date), and Cyberpunk 2077 with Keanu Reeves making an appearence at the show to present the release date. The fans at the show ate this up as everyone cheered for him as he appeared. The biggest announcement is that the successor of Xbox One titled “Project Scarlett” will be coming in the fall of 2020 and we got little details of what the console will bring once it is in our hands. Also, Halo Infinite will be the launch title of this console just like the very first Halo was for the first Xbox 18 years ago. This presentation saved the show so far at this point even though we did not get any gameplay videos. But this presentation proved that Microsoft has come a long way since the ridicilous E3 2013 conference. They turned everything around year after year and their support from gamers has grown back to where it was before the Xbox One was first announced.
Final Grade: A-
Square Enix
Of all the conferences, Square Enix had the best presentation from the visuals, the announced games, and how they transitioned from one announcement to another. It was announced by different pictures on the wall of the screen each with the camera paning to the next game. It was an interesting idea and change and I think that it worked very well. Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally has a release date and it was showcased with a few cutscenes and the gameplay at Midgar. All of the characters looked very impressive and more brought to life than ever. However, this game will be episodic and Square Enix confirmed that they will release the first part of the game (Which is Midgar) at a full price and have the rest of the game released as different standalone games down the line. This has spawned a mixed reaction from the fanbase. The other announcements we have gotten was Life is Strange 2, Final Fantasy 8 Remaster, Dragon Quest XI, DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3, a new expansion to Final Fantasy XIV, and Marvel’s Avengers. The Avengers game does not look up to today’s gaming standards of visuals and graphics so I hope that it is changed from now until the release date. With those points aside, I enjoyed this conference more than any of the others at the entire E3 week and Square Enix delivered a conference that will be remembered for years.
Final Grade: A+
Ubisoft
I still do not know why in 2019 Just Dance is coming out for the Nintendo Wii. Yes, you just read that because that was part of this presentation. A dance off performance that we did not need just to announce the game. But the most interesting title is Watch Dogs Legion as this time around, you are also able to play as the NPC’s and I think that is an interesting twist in a video game I have not seen done before. Eqach NPC has different skillsets as well. We even seen Jon Bernthal present Ghost Recon Breakpoint as it is the newest entry of the series. That was a great way to introduce the game and to see him on stage with the dog. More announcements came to play as we were shown Rainbow Six Quarantine, Roller Champions which is a roller derby inspired video game and it is supposed to be in the same league as Rocket League. DLC was also announced for The Division 2 which will be released in the summer and fall of this year. The announcememnt of a subscription service called UPlay has spawned a mixed reception from the fans as we do not need another subscription servive on top of ones we are already paying for. Good conference, with more questions raised. But at least we got gameplay from most of the announcements.
Final Grade: C
Nintendo
Last but not least, Nintendo at E3 with their Nintendo Direct. It started with a new character announcement for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as The Hero from Dragon Quest was revealed. I never thought that anything from that series would make its way to Smash Bros. The different costumes of The Hero represent another game he has appeared in. We follow that up with Luigi’s Mansion 3, new footage of Link’s Awakening HD, The Witcher 3 coming to Switch as nobody seen this coming, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Contra: Rogue Corps, Resident Evil 5 and 6, Mario and Sonic at the Tokyo Olympic Games, and Daemon X Machina. All of these announcements were absolutely great plus the others I have not mentioned. The biggest aqnnouncements were that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be delayed (May I mention that you can finally sit down in the game!). Another great announcement is that Banjo Kazooie will be a DLC character in Smash Ultimate. This has been long awaited for many years now and I am happy to see it finally happen! Before the presentation finished, We got a glimpse of the sequel of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and I am totally looking forward to that. Nintendo usually goes all out for their E3 presentations on their Direct showcases. This was a must watch in my eyes.
Final Grade: A+
E3 this year was far much better than last year’s and 2017’s. It really felt like it was for the fans and gamers this time instead of investors and money.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
Com-Battler V Fighting General Daimos Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V
SDCC 2019 Mattel Masters of the universe
Ecto-1 by Hero collector Eaglemoss
Fear The Walking Dead Season 5, Episode 2 “The Hurt That Will Happen” Review
For the second Sunday in a row, Fear The Walking Dead has made me look forward to the next episode. We had a schocking plot twist at the end of the last episode that connects with The Walking Dead and now that Althea is kidnapped by the helicopter group, the group now searches for her. What are my thoughts of the second episode of the fith season? I will let you know right now as I give my thoughts of the brand new episode titled “The Hurt That Will Happen”.
The episode opens with a recorded video of Strand giving a message to Sarah, Wendell, and Charlie as if he was giving them a final message. Right after that, he shuts the camera off and gets out of the truck. He then walks alone to a gated area to see a cat and then one walker approaches him and falls straight through a sharp bar. After that, Strand realizes that Daniel is behind him pointing a gun and Daniel asks him why he is there. While Strand is telling him, Daniel shoots his gun. I liked how they made it seem like Daniel shot his gun at Strand only for the next shot to be seen that he shot a walker. Daniel tells Strand to come inside with him as it is not safe outside to talk. He even tells the cat to go inside with him as well.
John and Alicia are on the radio talking about Althea as they are searching for her and Morgan alerts them and shows them that all of the supplies and guns are missing as well. Alicia takes out three walkers after that and I must say, I like the weapon she has now as her signature weapon.
June takes off the bandage that Luciana has to check her nasty wound as John walks in to let them know that they have not found Althea. Back to o Daniel and Strand, Strand wants to know if Daniel has a small plane and Strand tells him that Althea is the reason he went to look for him. Strand also updates Daniel about Madison and Nick being gone and Strand asks Daniel if he can borrow one of his airplanes. Daniel does not trust him at all. Back to Morgan and Alicia as they see a road block with “DANGER KEEP OUT” written on all of the cars with radiation signs on them. Morgan and Alicia debate about going through the barrier. They also investigated the forest area until they are in trouble with a few gross looking walkers. I thought nothing of this initinally until a few miniutes later when a woman in a full body suit saves them.
The woman tells Morgan to take off all of his clothes. Alicia comes to stop the woman from shooting Morgan and interrogates her about Althea. The woman, who we now know her name is Grace, tells the both of them a reactor melted down a year ago and most of the area is contaminated along with the walker that they just killed. Grace says that Morgan needs to take a shower or else it will get worse for him. Can I also say that there are two crows in a cage above them? That might be some foreshadowing. Grace tells them that she seen the plane crash from a distance. Alicia questions if the area is even safe based on the information Grace tells them and Grace even tries to ask Alicia “the questions” about how many she has killed.
John and June goes to a house full of walkers and Strand tries to contact them by the radio in which he did not get a response since the signal was not strong with them. Strand tries to convince Daniel that he is not the same man from Mexico and Daniel made a funny comment about his haircut (I wonder who is the hair stylist of the apoclapse hehe). Grace does radaition testing of the area as Morgan kills a walker and I laughed when Morgan had on a shirt that said “Don’t Mess With Texas”. We also find out that it was Grace that set those traps for the walkers in the previous episode. More walkers come in and one of them is affected by radiation. A few of them also gets stuck in the mud. Alicia clears the walkers in fashion and one of the walkers try to bite Alicia and while I wqas watching this scene, I thought the whole time why didn’t Grace help her from the start instead of focusing on the radaition. Alicia could have died right there if she did not help her sooner. Grace also mentions that she used to work at the radaition power plant and told them about why she left and what she went through. John and Alicia are on the radio and Grace tells them over the radio to not touch anything. They go to the house that are full of walkers and Grace thinks that the walkers inside could have been people who were affected by the radaition meltdown before they turned.
Luciana contacts Strand and she gives him her location. She also tells him that they cannot stay there for long and the wind took down the attena so their contact has been cut. John and June (Also, my favorite couple of the show so far) tells her to stay inside, but Luciana refuses as walkers are approaching. She tries to shoot them with her working arm but that was not happening. Luciana returns and shuts the door. Alicia and Morgan talk about the three kids being right about Logan. Here comes my favorite dialogue of the episode and that is between Morgan and Alicia as Morgan talks about what he went through a few years ago. I also thinks that Morgan’s stick should never go missing at all from now on. Grace tells them that she cannot risk anymore people to be killed and tells the group that she will leave. Morgan tells her the walkie talkie channel as they part ways. After that, the group sees more walker heads under a billboard as they realize that someone knows that they are there. The episode ends as Daniel wants Strand to leave as he is not giving him the plane. Strand walks away from Daniel and Daniel told him the next time he comes back, he will kill him.
This was a great episode with a few head scratching moments such as Grace not helping Alicia sooner qand Luciana trying to kills walkers while she is very injured. I want to also say that Grace’s intruduction was handled greatly well and she did not seem like a random character at all. I believe that Grace will be a big part of the season when she returns. John and June’s chemisty on this season so far reminds me of Glenn and Maggie’s chemistry on the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead and so far, I am loving it. I also wonder when we will see Althea again after last week’s episode. I will be back for next week’s episode for another review!
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.