REVIEW -- X-Men: Destiny

Activision and Marvel Comics found success with both the X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance series on both PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox consoles. Now they are looking to recreate that commercial success with the release of X-Men: Destiny, which allows players to control three original mutants created specifically for this game and weave their destinies as the players see fit as potential members of the X-Men or the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Sounds great doesn't it? Read on to find out if everything pans out in the long haul...

Note: This is another re-posted article that needed to be reformatted from my original blog on Tumblr.

Characters:

On console versions, players have a choice of three new mutants at the beginning of the game.

Aimi Yoshida: Born in Fuji City, Japan, Aimi was smuggled out of Japan by her mutant parents before their family could be incarcerated in mutant camps. She arrived in San Francisco, hidden on a tanker ship, too young and frightened to appreciate her parents' motivation for sending her away. Instead, she only felt the bitterness and anger at her parents for abandoning her.

Grant Alexander: Born in Sandersville, Georgia, Grant is a college freshman who dreams of becoming a professional football player. He hopes to land a spot on the varsity team at the University of California, Berkeley. Grant has no interest in politics and knows little about the ongoing mutant/human conflict.

Adrian Luca: Born in Los Angeles, California, Adrian is the son of an anti-mutant extremist who was killed in battle. His father’s associates called themselves "Purifiers". Under their care, Adrian was educated to hate all mutants and brought up to seek revenge for his father’s murder. The Purifiers have trained Adrian to be a soldier in their “pure-blooded” army.

The Nintendo DS version has only one character.

Non-playable characters

Many established characters from the X-Men universe make an appearance in the game to assist the player in combat or in the completion of the story line such as:

X-Men

Cyclops
Emma Frost
Caliban
Colossus
Forge
Gambit
Iceman
Nightcrawler
Northstar
Pixie
Surge
Wolverine

Brotherhood of Mutants

Magneto
Juggernaut
Mystique
Pyro
Quicksilver
Sabretooth (Nintendo DS Only)
Toad

Cast

Jamie Chung – Aimi Yoshida
Scott Porter – Adrian Luca
Milo Ventimiglia – Grant Alexander
Steven Blum – Wolverine, Pyro
Aileen Ong Casas – Surge, Pixie
Keith Ferguson – Cameron Hodge
Bob Glouberman – Caliban
Bill Graves – Magneto
Phil LaMarr – Gambit, Forge
Yuri Lowenthal – Nightcrawler, Northstar
Sunil Malhotra – Quicksilver
Jason Marsden – Iceman
Sumalee Montano – Mystique
Nolan North – Cyclops, Adrian Luca's father
Alexander Polinsky – Toad
André Sogliuzzo – Colossus, Luis Reyes
Gaku Space – Sunfire
Joel Spence – John Sublime
Keith Szarabajka – Bastion
Fred Tatasciore – Juggernaut
Kari Wahlgren – Emma Frost
Wally Wingert – Commentator

Additional voices by Aileen Ong Casas, Mark Famigletti, Keith Ferguson, Bob Glouberman, Bill Graves, Phil LaMarr, Yuri Lowenthal, Sunil Malhotra, Jason Marsden, Sumalee Montano, Minae Noji, Nolan North, Alexander Polinsky, André Sogliuzzo, Joel Spence, Keith Szarabajka, Fred Tatasciore, Kari Wahlgren, and Wally Wingert

A large amount of the main cast reprise their roles from Wolverine and the X-Men including Steve Blum, Phil LaMarr, Nolan North, and Kari Wahlgren.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

X-Men Destiny is based in San Francisco, which has been divided into human and mutant areas due to a conflict between the two groups. At the start of the game, the player chooses from one of three mutant characters who have been originally created for the game. The game allows for the player to decide which mutants become their allies and enemies through choices made in the course of the story.


The game begins at a peace rally held in San Francisco, in memory of the deceased Professor X, by the Mutant Response Division's Chief Luis Reyes. Things quickly turn into a disaster as the rally is attacked by an anti-mutant extremist organization called the Purifiers who were taking mutants alive and not killing them. Immediately after, the latent mutant powers of the player's character are awakened and he/she is forced to defend civilians in the area from the Purifiers. The player's character then meets with mutants from both the X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants and makes the choice of joining either group as they go after Cameron Hodge, leader of the Purifiers. Hodge is wearing a Power Armor and personally joins the hunt for mutants.

While many characters wonder why the Purifiers are capturing mutants alive instead of killing them, the player character eventually corners Hodge on top of a building. The fight is then interrupted by Magneto, who is accused by Reyes for attacking the rally, and drops a steel bridge on top of the combat zone.

The player's character is saved by Nightcrawler at the last moment and teleported to China Town where he/she is tasked to find Gambit, who left the X-Men after the death of Professor X and is currently operating a casino in China Town. After meeting Gambit, he asks the player to help him raid a Purifier warehouse which contains technology that the Purifiers use against mutants. After the raid, Gambit gives the player the location of the secret underground lab where Purifiers hold captured mutants.

At the lab, the player meets several captured mutants such as Quicksilver, Surge and Colossus. With their help, the player eventually defeats Sublime and the U-Men, a group of anti-mutant soldiers that somehow uses power drained from mutants, and saves the captured victims.

Acting on information gained by the X-Men, the player goes to a secret underground base used by Hodge and Purifiers. He/she eventually finds Hodge who is now wearing a more powerful Power Armor containing drained mutant powers. Hodge claims that the power drained from Pixie and Caliban will enable them to find and capture any mutant that the Purifiers want. He also says that he is helped by some other group or person. After the fight, Hodge falls from the generator tower and is presumed dead.

Depending on the player's choice between the X-Men or the Brotherhood of Mutants, he/she goes to either Cyclops or Mystique with the new-found information and is tasked with finding Pixie and Caliban. With the aid of Forge, the player eventually finds Caliban and realizes that the person who is pulling the strings is Bastion, the robot who killed Professor X. Bastion somehow survived and uploaded himself to the MRD satellite; it is revealed that Reyes also works for him.

With Caliban's help, the player finds Pixie, but is too late. The helicopter carrying her gets shot down by a laser beam and crashes, resulting in the death of Pixie in the blast. Immediately after, regardless of the player's choices so far, Magneto accuses Cyclops of shooting down the helicopter and, alongside Juggernaut, attacks both Cyclops and the player's character. After the fight, Magneto grudgingly gives the player a chance to join the Brotherhood, and he/she is forced to make a decision.

Regardless of which side the player chooses, he/she is tasked to find and eliminate Reyes who seems to have mind control powers to influence other mutants. Reyes plans to amplify his power with Bastion's satellite so he can control both humans and mutants on Earth. After fighting several allied mutants and saving them from Reyes' mind-control, the player eventually finds the broadcasting tower used by Reyes and shuts down the signal with the aid of Cyclops and Magneto. However, Bastion downloads himself into Reyes, who is now wearing an even more powerful version of the Power Armor that Hodge was wearing, and takes control of his mind. Bastion also sends several Sentinel robots to the fight. After the player defeats Reyes and his Sentinels, Reyes surrenders to the authorities, to which the player responds that they (either X-Men or Brotherhood) are the law now.

The ending depends on which side the player chooses to join at the end of Chapter 7.

• If he/she sides with the X-Men, Cyclops and rest of the team is seen watching the remains of the city and promising that they will create a world where mutants and humans can live in peace. Cyclops says that there's another storm coming that might be worse than the ones they endured. Cyclops tells the player that it is good to know that the player is with them.

• If he/she sides with the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto and the player are seen watching the ruins of the city, with Magneto declaring the formation of a mutant-only nation and saying that he will teach the player how to survive in a world that despises mutants.

The Verdict:

I have to be honest here... After Spider-Man: Edge of Time, I REALLY didn’t have any high hopes for this at all. I meant to finish this BEFORE Batman: Arkham City came out but got sidetracked with college and work at the time. I must say, I really didn’t have much to look forward to here.

The plot follows you in the role of three teenagers whose powers manifest during an attack during a rally for peace between the X-Men and MRD after the untimely death of Charles Xavier at the hands of the villain Bastion. Long story short, Bastion is a crazed mutant from the future set to rearrange our time to make his rule over all humanity and mutantkind, even more set in stone. You assist both the X-Men and ironically, the Brotherhood (led by Magneto of course), regain control during the rally, but ultimately it leads into a quest of seeing who was behind the rally attack. Throughout the game, you’re constantly urged to side with either the X-Men, or the Brotherhood.

So yeah, you pick one of these 3 blank slate characters and choose a starting mutant power — energy projection, density control, and shadow control. I went with density control and picked the girl, Aimi Yoshida, who just happens to be Sunfire’s (Shiro Yoshida) daughter, despite that it is implied but never flat out said in the comics. Throughout the game’s events, your powers “evolve” and you’re offered with multiple advances for your powers to develop a branching skill tree of different powers and abilities. For example, Density Control branches off and offers Obsidian Shards, Tremor, and finally Obsidian Titan as evolutions to your default power. Each of these branches can be leveled up through EXP but the end results aren’t as amazing as those found in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance or X-Men Legends series. Then there’s the costumes of other mutants to find, as matching these costumes with the corresponding mutants’ powers unlocks the X-Mode state that amplifies your powers even further in battle.

Overall, all of this sounds nice on paper, but once you start playing, it QUICKLY turns into another button-masher that could be finished in roughly 5-6 hours. X-Mode really doesn’t do anything “great” or stellar for combat whereas spamming the same few combos would wear down roughly any and everything you run against. You fight the same stale major boss repeatedly. The only thing that changes is his attacks and appearance changes over the course of the game, which is VERY sad to say the Sentinel boss fight prior to the final boss fight was done REALLY well - in my opinion. As a LONG-time X-Men fan, it’s sad to see Marvel drop the ball onto something that could have been an amazing game. There’s NO opportunities to play as the other members of the X-Men nor Brotherhood, and on top of that, NONE of their powers aren’t even unlockable for use for your chosen protagonist. Lame sauce indeed. The only bone they toss you is random “challenges” where either the X-Men/Brotherhood members run around an area like they are on acid, taking out of bad guys and stealing your EXP when they are supposed to be “assisting” you in battle. Some damn teamwork.


Oh and let’s not forget the lame ass Saturday morning plot that the game runs off of.

I will say that I did enjoy that majority of the cast from Wolverine & The X-Men lending their voices here, as I don’t get sick of hearing of Kari Wahlgren’s Emma Frost and Phil LaMarr’s Gambit voices. Regardless, that’s not enough to warrant a purchase here. Rent during the downtime of new games in 2014 or pick it up in the bargain bin for no more than than $5-10, if you really want to give this a shot. There’s CLEARLY a lot better titles out there to waste your hard-earned cash and free time on during this holiday season. X-Men: Destiny comes across as an unfinished HD remake of an unfinished X-Men Legends sequel. It gets a 5 out of 10.

This is how X-Men: Destiny should have turned out, not this crap that we were handed. I don't know if gamers are ever going to get a "good" X-Men game anytime soon.

REVIEW -- Max Payne 3

Ah, our old friend, Mr. Max Payne. I gotta say Rockstar waited a LONG ass time to give us another outing of this series and I’ll gladly admit this is my favorite franchise to come out of their studios. I know I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but I have been catching up on some games that I’ve been neglecting or missed out on.

Note: This is another re-posted article that needed to be reformatted from my original blog on Tumblr.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

Nine years after the death of Mona Sax, Max Payne has left the NYPD and spends his days at a bar in Hoboken, New Jersey, nursing his alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers. During a drunken argument, Max kills the only son of local mob boss Anthony DeMarco, who puts a price on his head. After killing most of DeMarco's gang, Max decides to leave New Jersey with Raul Passos, an old classmate from the police academy who helped him defeat DeMarco's cronies, taking a job as a private security contractor in South America.

Max and Passos work for the wealthy Branco family in São Paulo, consisting of three brothers: Rodrigo, a real-estate mogul, Victor, a local politician who aspires to be the city's next mayor, and the hard-partying socialite Marcelo. At a private party, Max saves Rodrigo and his young wife Fabiana from members of the Comando Sombra, a street gang based in the neighboring favela. The gang later strikes again, successfully kidnapping Fabiana and demanding a ransom of $3 million. At the site of the exchange (a football stadium), the deal is interrupted by the Crachá Preto, an outlaw, right-wing paramilitary unit, who kill the Commando Sombra and steal the money. Max and Passos escape and meet with the Branco family for their next move. Victor suggests they rely on Armando Becker and his Unidade de Forças Especiais (UFE), a special police unit, to oversee Fabiana's safe return. Victor, Passos, Marcello and Becker leave via helicopter, moments before the Crachá Preto abruptly raid the Branco offices.

Max fights off the Crachá Preto and returns to Rodrigo's secured office to find Rodrigo assassinated, and a bomb waiting for him; he narrowly escapes the blast, before learning that Fabiana is being held in the Nova Esperança favela and that the Crachá Preto raid was meant for Max, as vengeance for the deaths of the Crachá Preto operatives at the stadium. Blaming himself for what has transpired, Max swears off alcohol and informs Victor and Marcelo that he is going undercover into Nova Esperança to save Fabiana. He gets lost in the sprawling favela, but is assisted by Detective Wilson Da Silva, who reveals that the Crachá Preto had links with Rodrigo, who hired them to clear out villages on land he intended to turn into a retail development. Da Silva thinks the UFE and Victor are all connected.

Max eventually finds Fabiana with Marcelo and Giovanna (Fabiana's sister), who were kidnapped while trying to pay Fabiana's ransom themselves. Fabiana is executed and Giovanna and Marcelo are taken away. The UFE raids the favela, and Max witnesses them collaborate with the Crachá Preto, selling them the people they arrested during the raids. Max later witnesses the Crachá Preto necklace Marcello, and escapes with Giovanna. Passos later rescues Giovanna but abandons Max, who is saved by Da Silva.

Da Silva reveals that Passos worked for Victor until he hired Max. Max recalls the time when he and Passos worked as security for a yacht party for Marcelo near Panama, which was attacked by Panamanian soldiers in the Panama Canal. Max escaped the yacht to find Marcelo and Passos trying to drive away with unknown cargo. It hits Max that he was recruited by Passos to be the "fall guy" for whatever illicit activity the Brancos were involved in. Da Silva deduces that Passos and Victor set Max up, so the latter would gain access to his brother's wealth and garner sympathy for elections. Da Silva informs Max about a rundown building, the Imperial Palace Hotel, where the Crachá Preto and UFE are seen entering with prisoners, yet none leave. Max discovers it is the base for a black market organ theft ring and corrupt UFE officers are being paid to deliver the detainees for organ harvesting; he frees the remaining detainees.

Max sets explosives to destroy the entire complex, but is held at gunpoint by Neves, the leader of the Crachá Preto and an ex-UFE member. Passos reappears and kills Neves, thus saving Max, then explains that Marcelo and Victor pressured him into the Panama plot in order to get Rodrigo to share his wealth. Passos apologizes to Max, who forgives him. Passos then leaves Brazil with a pregnant Giovanna to protect both himself and his new family from Victor's attempts to eliminate them. Since Da Silva cannot take any action due to extreme corruption within the police, he suggests that Max "turn himself in" to find incriminating evidence linking the UFE and Victor to the crimes of the Crachá Preto and the Comando Sombra. Max does so and escapes into UFE headquarters as planned, finding a surveillance CD stolen from Rodrigo's office and learning the identity of the assassin - a high-ranking UFE member named Bachmeyer. Max kills him in vengeance for Rodrigo's murder, and confronts Becker, but Victor appears and holds Max at gunpoint. Victor explains that he ordered the Crachá Preto to ambush the exchange at the stadium, which went toward funding the organ harvesting ring, the profits of which assisted in the funding of his campaign.

Victor and Becker escape to the airport with Max in pursuit. After an intense shootout with the UFE, Max catches up with them as they are preparing to board a jet. Becker and his men try to stop Max and allow Victor time to escape, with Becker himself using a grenade launcher to try to kill Max. However, Max shoots one of the grenades in mid-air, resulting in the burning and maiming of Becker. Max then has a choice of whether or not to kill the critically injured Becker; if spared, he dies from his wounds anyway. With Da Silva's help, Max disables Victor's plane, and approaches a disabled Victor with the intent to kill him, but he relents after Da Silva persuades him to spare Victor, so that he will answer for the crimes he committed.

A week later, Max finds out that the remains of Becker's UFE battalion has been disbanded indefinitely due to their ties to the illegal organ harvesting ring, while Victor has been found hanged in his cell, although the circumstances to his death are unclear as to whether it was suicide or murder. Max walks into the sunset, satisfied with the outcome of the last few weeks, and having found some solace after all the years of heartache.

The Verdict: 

The Good: 

Rockstar hasn’t changed much from the Max Payne we know and love. He’s still fucked up in the head after the murder of his wife and daughter plus the loss of Mona Sax in Max Payne 2. Before people point it out - YES, I know if you beat the game on the hardest difficulty, that Mona Sax survives the endgame ordeal, but they are using the original ending for continuity sake; much like Metal Gear Solid series went by the Meryl being still alive ending in the later sequels. An old friend from his police academy days drags Payne out of his pit of self-pity and into a seemingly easy bodyguard job in Brazil, protecting the Branco family of rich snobs. It wouldn’t be Max Payne if things didn’t take a dive into the shit tank, so expect many screwjobs and things not being so cut-and-dry here as well as in previous entries. The plot is weaved in a creative manner that keeps you interested from start to finish. The story spans two disks worth of content.

Much like the previous entries in the series, Max Payne 3 sports a very enjoyable soundtrack. If you’re savvy and look around in the environment during the campaign, you’d even find a few throwbacks to the original Max Payne score. There’s many more than suitable tracks for the environments and scenarios that Max gets himself into.

The new and improved Killcams upon the death of the last enemy are a nice touch on the John Woo-inspired gun play that we know and love. Speaking of gameplay, Bullet Time has been tweaked slightly. Shootdodging and normal Bullet Time count as two different actions, so you won’t waste the meter for just Shootdodging normally.

Occasionally, the game drifts back into Max’s past and we’re treated with the classic Max Payne garb and environments. As always, James G. McCaffrey provides his talents to his voice again in this third entry as Max Payne. McCaffrey has aged just as much as the character has and it’s a rare treat that we get to see gaming icons age and portrayed as vulnerable human beings, despite of all of the stellar things that they accomplish at our control. If anything, I think that that’s what this game does best in its narrative - it displays a man’s inner turmoil and his path to redemption to climb out of his seaming endless pit of despair and anguish.

The Bad: 

When I rented the title from my local Blockbuster, the guy at the register went on and on about how brutally hard this game was. I normally brush his opinion out the other ear as if he’s a moron, but I gotta say in this game he’s right. For a game that’s made a name for itself on last generation consoles for reckless, John Woo-esque gameplay, it’s shocking to see that you will RARELY resort to Shootdodging at all in this newest outing. I personally can’t STAND the recovery animation for it. I know it’s been roughly ten years since I’ve played the last entry, but I don’t remember Max being so sluggish and slow to rise after Shootdodging. More commonly, I found myself, hiding behind cover like a coward and picking my shots when and where I could. I could honestly count on one hand how many times I actually resorted to using the series’ staple shootdodging. More frequently the game’s AI has INSANELY accurate precision aiming, resulting many one-shot KO deaths via headshots before you know who or what killed you and from where. I find it strangely odd that they can shoot the wings off a fly but can’t throw grenades accurately for shit. What’s up with that?

The Last Stand mechanic (the game freeze frames in a one-on-one shoot off between you and the guy who has you about to die) was cool the first 3-5 times but it’s VERY flawed. If the opponent who shot you goes into cover, you cannot get your redemption and you’re stuck in slow-mo for roughly a minute and a half before seeing that FAILED game over screen. It would not have hurt for them to highlight that enemy who you need to focus on in firefights with multiple foes onscreen at once.

The Cover Mechanic. It’s hit-or-miss here. Combined with the expert aiming of the AI, you’d find yourself gunned down to death before even getting into cover or even peeking out briefly to get your bearings. An option to quickly move from cover to cover would have been a GREAT asset here. Hell, or take that mechanic from Vanquish where Bullet Time is applied as you vault over cover would’ve taken this title to the next level. But again, it’s a missed opportunity. The lack of innovation here really makes this title seem like it was more suited for the last generation of gaming rather than the present.

The Plot. Without any spoilers, I’ll say that the lack of a love interest was really disappointing. To see Max’s life spiral out of control in the last two games and he continue the trend of not being able to save the ones he cares for most in his life, it would have been cool to introduce a female companion for him to defies that cliche of his life. They started the trend since Max Payne 2 where they were slowly stepping away from the film noir presentation, but it hurts me a little that they stepped further away from that in this entry. Max’s narration never disappoints but it comes off as a narrative that would have been in the pre-show teaser trailers for Sin City and Scarface on Blu-Ray.

The Ugly: 

Let’s start with visuals. On disk 1, the character renders are roughly the same grade as Max Payne 2 on last generation consoles with a HD finish to them, but on Disk 2 it’s a vast improvement, as clothing doesn’t look painted on and everyone doesn’t have that same generic painted-on rendered face.

I already have bad eyes, but this game made it worse with the flashing/blur effect they use during cutscenes and set pieces. I probably could have finished the game even sooner if I didn’t have to constantly take breaks for my eyes to recover from that effect or ease the headache it was causing me. If you sensitive eyes, I’ll gladly advise you from NOT playing this title or at least play it periodically in spells with several breaks in-between.

Any replay value? 

The game isn’t long at all, but if you’re fan of the series, then you already know that these games are strictly rentals. I clocked roughly 10 or more hours through the total campaign. There’s more to be had with the extra modes and chores, such as In A New York Minute (a race against the clock through the gunfights of the game), obtaining all of the golden guns and clues within levels, and unlocking harder difficulties, but outside of that, there’s not much other reason to return to the game if you’re looking for a pure single player experience here. I really can’t fault the game at all for that too much, as the previous entries were roughly the same weekend/rainy day affairs as well.

Glitches?

There was a glitch I encountered on Chapter XIII whereas Max Payne dropped his guns to play the original Max Payne score on the piano by the elevator to the penthouse  His arms floated away and stuck themselves awkwardly out of his chest and head for a few minutes but it fortunately switched back to normal by the next gunfight. You’d think this generation’s of gaming would be over the “ragdoll corpse twitching era” from the last generation from shooters but it’s popped up a few times in this game as well, especially during KillCams — resulting in me laughing hilarious loud at the body jerk reactions. You’d think something like that would get past the debugging guys before retail release.

Closing Words: 

At the end of the day, Max Payne’s return is a mediocre one. He’s that old relative who is a few months away from being sent to the retirement home. What I’m getting at is this series - we had fun with it, we had some good times and bad times - but deserves to rest from here on out. Bullet Time has been done to DEATH in gaming after Max Payne’s original outing, and there’s no new ground to be found here. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed reliving a favorite from the last generation of console gaming, but I would be perfectly fine with this series coming to a close after this addition. Max Payne 3, despite its shortcomings and flaws, I still give a 8.5 out of 10.

REVIEW -- Spider-Man: Edge of Time

Following the success of Beenox's Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Activision releases a pseudo-sequel in the form of Spider-Man: Edge of Time. Did Beenox and Activision learn their lessons from the mistakes that allowed Shattered Dimensions to fall short of the super-hero-themed greatness that Rocksteady produced with the Batman: Arkham series? Read on to find out.

Note: This is the first of SEVERAL re-posted articles that needed to be reformatted from my original blog on Tumblr.

The Plot:  (Full Spoilers)

The game begins with Peter Parker/Spider-Man battling Anti-Venom, who suddenly kills him. Rewinding back to the starting of the event, in the year 2099 Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 investigates Alchemax's scientist Walker Sloan. While spying on him, Spider-Man 2099 discovers Sloan's plan to travel back in time and establish Alchemax in the past years before its time, allowing him to rebuild the company in his own image and prevent its rivals from ever being established. Spider-Man 2099 arrives just as Sloan enters his Gateway, but jumps through the portal too late to stop him. Trapped in the portal, Spider-Man 2099 sees visions of the original Spider-Man being killed by Anti-Venom as history alters around him.

Upon his return to 2099, Spider-Man 2099 (unaffected by the time change due to being trapped in the portal) discovers that Sloan's changes to the timeline have reduced New York City to a horrifying dystopia. Spider-Man 2099 then uses Peter Parker's DNA, stored within the company's archives, to create a chronal link with him, back in the present day. He then warns Spider-Man, now working for Alchemax in the genetics department instead of the Daily Bugle, about the events to come about his death in the Alchemax's building 66th floor. However, Spider-Man refuses to obey his orders to leave the building if innocent people are in danger and travels to the 66th floor. During their talks, the two Spider-Men discover that the wormhole between their timelines has created a 'quantum causality field', with the result that actions taken in the past automatically change the future; an example being Anti-Venom's attempt to drop a lift onto Spider-Man resulting in the lift that Spider-Man 2099 was using in the future becoming a closet. Travelling to the 66th floor, Spider-Man finds himself confronted by Anti-Venom, Sloan and Dr. Otto Octavius. Spider-Man battles Anti-Venom, but is eventually killed by him. Seconds later, Spider-Man 2099 pulls Spider-Man through the Gateway in an effort to save him.

While sending Spider-Man to the future to revive him, Spider-Man 2099 travels through the portal into the past and battles Anti-Venom, breaking the chip that allowed Sloan and Octavius to control him. Furious, Anti-Venom knocks himself, Sloan and Octavius into the time portal, merging all three into a monster that Spider-Man dubs "Atrocity". Both Spider-Men are stuck in each other's timeline, with events accruing such as Mary Jane Watson's near-death at Alchemax before Spider-Man 2099 saves her, and a confrontation with Black Cat 2099. In the future, while investigating the company's central archives to work out how to repair the portal aided by Spider-Man 2099 altering the building plans in the past to provide him with a way into the archives in the future, Spider-Man learns that he will become the CEO of Alchemax thanks to an anti-aging drug, with his future self having set up the entire crisis for his own ends. He finds the portal and returns to the present only for "Atrocity" to attack him, forcing Spider-Man to lure the creature into a trap and takes his DNA samples so Spider-Man 2099 can analyze his DNA in the future, learning the truth about its creation.

Just as Spider-Man 2099 theorizes that forcing Atrocity back into the portal would disrupt and end the time storm, he is contacted by the CEO Peter, who reveals that he intends to harness the quantum storm to rewrite his history and undo his past mistakes, remaking the entire universe in his image. After a final battle with the Atrocity and the CEO, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 knock both of them into the gateway, the resulting release of quantum energy collapsing the bridge and ending the time storm, which also reverses the changes brought about by Sloan and the CEO, leaving no one but the Spider-Men duo with any memory of them. Spider-Man 2099 then gives Spider-Man a lecture on time travel, ending the game.

The Verdict:

I rented this one Friday evening after work, and I started it today (Saturday) and just finished it. Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a follow-up, NOT sequel to Shattered Dimensions. Instead of four Spider-Men, you’re in control of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099. 2099 discovers a plot in his time (roughly a century ahead of our own) to allow the head mega corporation Alchemax to take over the past and take over the world. Changing the course of history allows Miguel O’Hara (Spidey 2099’s alter ego) to see Amazing Spider-Man’s death at the hands of Anti-Venom. O’Hara takes it into his hands to assist Peter Parker in preventing his own demise and setting the past AND future to their proper dispositions. The game allows interactivity for both Spider-Men as certain actions done in the past well affect the future and vice versa.

For those who aren’t comic book savvy, Anti-Venom is simply Eddie Brock’s new persona since he doesn’t wear the original Venom symbiote anymore. Flash Thompson wears the Venom suit as a mercenary for the US Military. Go ahead and facepalm like I did when I read that news. He’s a good guy now who has the ability which can “cure” abnormalities in anyone’s bloodstream, such as Spider-Man’s radioactive DNA and neutralize his powers. Alchemax brainwashes him to serve their purposes.

Overall, this is a VERY well-written plot for a Spider-Man game or any superhero themed game to date for that matter. Beenox and Marvel definitely get props for solid storytelling to make any Webhead fans feel at home. Josh Keaton (Spectacular Spider-Man/Peter Parker in that now cancelled animated series, but he was Ultimate Spidey in Shattered Dimensions and currently Spider-Man in both MvC3 and Ultimate MvC3) and Christopher Daniel Barnes (Spider-Man Noir in Shattered Dimensions, but he’s more popularly known as Spidey/Peter Parker in the Fox Kids’ Spider-Man: The Animated Series) both do an EXCELLENT job at bringing Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 to life with their witty banter and wise cracks that Spidey’s known for. Last year’s Shattered Dimensions blew me away on how crisp a Spidey game could look but I’m proud to say that Beenox topped themselves on making my favorite Spider-Man game visually.

On the downside, this game is EXTREMELY short. Ultimate Spider-Man on PS2 was about roughly 5-6 hrs. This one is over in about 6-7 hrs. Replayability is to be had in replaying Acts for medals on Challenges and earning points for Upgrades. Then there’s the arsenal of alternate costumes, ranging from Scarlet Spider, Iron Spider, Amazing Bagman, Future Foundation, and even the costume worn by the replacement to the deceased Peter Parker in the current comics, Miles Morales. All of this still doesn’t warrant a purchase from me. In Shattered Dimensions, everything from webswinging to each Spider-Man’s diverse combat abilities were top notch and fun to control, but in this game, a LOT of movesets and abilities were dumbed down for simplicity. On top of that webswinging is such a chore in this game whereas majority of the game’s prior to this one has made that the most fun mechanic if anything else didn’t feel right. I’m still scratching my head on why they axed the Spider-Sense ability from the last game that allowed you to evade attacks. In this game, the only thing your Spider-Sense does is show you objectives in the area. Level objectives in this game are simply beat up a ton of baddies to get a key to open the door to get to the next area. Or pulling a switch to open another said door to get to the next area. It gets old REALLY damn fast. The upgrades don’t feel like they change gameplay much either, whereas in previous Spidey titles you could definitely feel more development and progress as your Spider-Man got more powerful. Sure, Shattered Dimensions had its share of glitches and lame moments (I’m talking about you Noir levels with the shitty stealth mechanics), but it seems that this game was just rushed out to beat Batman: Arkham City and Battlefield 3 out of on the shelves before Christmas. Boy, I must say the boss fights (There’s only roughly about 3-4 of these to say the last few Spidey titles stacked numerous foes for you) go from insanely easy to cheap as fuck too. As mad as I was doing the freefall sections as 2099 and Black Cat 2099 fight, I still can’t stay too mad at Felicia Hardy’s fine ass :P Just look at her!

Catwoman eat your heart out. MEOW!! ^_^ I STILL don’t see why Peter
always prefers MJ over her… Anywho… back on topic LMAO.

All in all, Edge of Time is an enjoyable ride for only the most hardcore of Spidey fans, but the lack of lasting appeal as well as tons of gameplay flaws and glitches, I can’t recommend a purchase on this title at all. Either rent or pick it up when its DIRT cheap in the bargain bin, my fellow cheap ass gamers. There’s better things coming out in the coming weeks to spend $60 on. It sucks really, as I would have thought Beenox would have learned from their FEW mistakes with Shattered Dimensions and brought a fine-tuned product to the table in Edge of Time. Here’s to hoping they can do for Spidey what Rocksteady has done for Batman games.

I’m sorry my fellow Webheads, but saving MJ is only fun for so long. I'm giving this a 6.25 out of 10.

Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For World Premiere Trailer | Details

FINALLY after a roughly nine year wait, we get the glimpse of Sin City: A Dame To Kill For with the world premiere trailer.

The noir-action sequel, directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez, boasts an all-star cast that includes Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Haysbert, Jaime King, Jeremy Piven, Powers Boothe, Rosario Dawson, Eva Green, Stacy Keach, Ray Liotta, Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis.

Details:

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is an upcoming 2014 American film and sequel to the 2005 film Sin City. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are set to direct a script co-written by them and William Monahan and primarily based on the second book in the Sin City series by Miller. One of the smaller plots of the film is based on the short story "Just Another Saturday Night", which is collected in Booze, Broads & Bullets, the fifth book in the comic series. Two original stories written by Miller were also created exclusively for the film. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was scheduled to be released on October 4, 2013 but was pushed back until August 22, 2014.

Plot Overview: 

"A Dame to Kill For"

Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) is summoned by his former lover, Ava Lord (Eva Green), who wants his help to escape her abusive husband, billionaire Damien Lord (Marton Csokas). However, Dwight soon learns that Ava's true intentions are more sinister than they appear.

"Just Another Saturday Night"

On the night John Hartigan meets up with Nancy in "That Yellow Bastard", Marv (Mickey Rourke) regains consciousness on a highway overlooking the Projects, surrounded by dead young men, and unable to remember how he got there.

"The Long Bad Night" (original story)

Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a cocky gambler, disguises a darker mission to destroy the biggest villain in Sin City at his own game. He beats the wrong man and events take a turn for the worse. Along the way, he meets a young stripper named Marcy (Julia Garner).

"The Fat Loss" (original story)

Set after Hartigan's (Bruce Willis) suicide at the end of "That Yellow Bastard", this story centers around Nancy (Jessica Alba) trying to cope with his death.

Cast: 

Bruce Willis as John Hartigan
Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan
Powers Boothe as Senator Roark
Josh Brolin as Dwight McCarthy
Jamie Chung as Miho
Marton Csokas as Damien Lord
Rosario Dawson as Gail
Julia Garner as Marcy
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Johnny
Eva Green as Ava Lord
Dennis Haysbert as Manute
Stacy Keach as Wallenquist
Jaime King as Goldie and Wendy
Lady Gaga as The Waitress
Ray Liotta as Joey
Christopher Meloni as Mort
Crystal McCahill
Jeremy Piven as Bob
Mickey Rourke as Marv
Juno Temple as Sally

REVIEW -- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 1, Episode 14 - T.A.H.I.T.I.

After what seemed like an eternity after the month-long hiatus since the previous episode aired, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD returns to Tuesday nights on ABC.

After the events at the end of last month's episode that warranted a perfect rating from yours truly, let's see if Agents of SHIELD continues to deliver.

The Plot: (Full Spoilers)

Skye is rushed to a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility to save her life. The doctors are only able to stabilize her, forcing Coulson to bring her to the S.H.I.E.L.D. location where he was revived. Agents John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt) board the Bus in order to claim Ian Quinn, who Garrett's men had been pursuing, and bring him to the Fridge for questioning, as Coulson refuses to turn him over. Garrett compromises with Coulson when he realizes he is keeping Quinn until he can save Skye.

Through interrogating Quinn, Coulson and Garrett learn that the Clairvoyant made Quinn shoot Skye, so he could learn how Coulson came back from the dead. Fitz and Simmons, who are looking over Coulson's medical files, realize that S.H.I.E.L.D. did not revive Coulson, rather a place known as the "Guest House". They realize a specific drug would be there to help Skye. At the "Guest House", Coulson, Ward, Garrett and Fitz enter and find the place rigged with explosives after taking out the only guards. Fitz is able to find the drug, while Coulson finds a room marked "T.A.H.I.T.I." Inside, Coulson finds additional drugs as well as the upper half of a blue-skinned humanoid corpse. All are able to get out before the facility implodes, with Fitz getting the drug to Simmons in time to save Skye, despite Coulson's reservations, based on what he saw.

In the final scene, Lorelei (Elena Satine) arrives at a motel in Death Valley and comes across a newlywed couple. She mesmerizes the man, who drives away with her, leaving his wife at the motel.

The Verdict: 

(Laughs) No, that is NOT Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen...

I'm going to be completely honest and say that after this episode, I have completely NO idea where they are going with this Clairvoyant angle, who or what is "G.H." nor why S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping all of this under wraps. I have read a lot of great theories across message boards and other media outlets, with the best being that "G.H." could possibly be a Kree high ranking officer, assigned to this system of the Marvel Universe. That same Kree alien could be Mar-Vell, who most Marvel Comics fans know as Captain Marvel. My issue with that theory is that I cannot see Skye in Carol Danvers role as Ms. Marvel in this continuity. Sure, the current Ms. Marvel in the current Marvel NOW! revamp in the comics is a Muslim female in high school, so anything is possible at this rate. I just have this strong hope that we will see Carol Danvers pop up in this series later down the road before becoming Ms. Marvel and joining the Avengers. In the comics, she easily outranks Steve Rogers/Captain America in S.H.I.E.L.D. officer rankings. I wouldn't mind seeing how she fares in the field prior to having super powers. Alternatively, this actually could be a deceased Kree alien which could lead into a potential (most likely as The Accuser is confirmed...) setup for the Kree-Skrull war to be explored in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. That being said, Skye could potentially be a Kree/human hybrid, which is why her body didn't seem to have a negative reaction to the serum. Another interesting theory that I read about was that "G.H." was a dead Frost Giant that were seen in the original Thor. My only problem with that theory is when did the Frost Giants have access to traveling to Midgard and how does their blood have curative properties?

I have to admit that this episode laid on the cheesiness pretty thick with this episode, especially with a lot of bad one liners from newcomers John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt). Paxton is a fine actor, but I was disappointed at his portrayal of Agent Garrett. Paxton came off as a generic action hero straight out of a '80's action flick, which was pretty ironic with his array of references to American pop culture. I just wish that Garrett gave us a bit more to chew on in terms of narrative. It was interesting that he has connections to both Coulsen and Ward's backgrounds, but it wasn't enough to warrant a reason to care in this episode. Triplett was immediately thrown into the creepy guy archetype, who appeared to be stalking flirting with Simmons throughout this episode. I understand that they were trying to drive the point home that he has a school boy crush on her at first glance, but there's more creative narrative directions to that could have portrayed that message better than the "creepy bastard" approach used in this episode. Coulsen didn't help on the cheesiness in this episode either when he told the doctor that "We're her family" when informed that Skye didn't have much time left. I honestly rolled my eyes at that statement. It's clear that Coulsen's team is a tight-nit group, but I would not say they are a family - yet. Fitz and Simmons have that inseparable bond that you can't help but love while secretly wishing that your siblings were this cool. Ward is the boy scout/"big brother who does no wrong" or rather, the teacher's pet (pretty much Cyclops from the early X-Men runs...) while Coulsen and May are the firm uptight parents who mean well, but keep their children in line with an iron fist of discipline. So I guess you could see them as Skye's surrogate family, but it was just so lame hearing it said out loud. I feel that character development on this show hasn't grown to that stage that we can easily connect all of Coulsen's team to that level. There are still some secrets that are being hidden, such as Ward and May's relationship to everyone outside of Coulsen.

Other than cheesiness, this episode was littered with a few head scratching moments as well. I couldn't understand why the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents felt the need to kill the guards without thinking twice after they got to the "Guest House". Fitz has shown off firearms designed to stun in the past, but in this episode, the guys just run in there like Rambo guns ablazin'? C'mon, a little consistency please. I can understand the urgency to save Skye, but would she really want them to save her at the cost of slaughtering other people? Another thing I didn't understand was if The Clairvoyant can see everything then why would he allow Quinn to be captured in the first place? So much for that catch-22, if the place blew before Coulsen's team left from out of there, The Clairvoyant wouldn't have learned anything period. I'm just ready for them to reveal The Clairvoyant's identity and get this over with. As it stands, I'm going to predict that The Clairvoyant is someone from Skye's old group of hackers and only knows everything since he/she has been hacking S.H.I.E.L.D.'s networks for years as I seriously doubt that Joss Whedon is going to inject mutants (especially telepaths) into this continuity yet. At least not before Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (i.e. Magneto's children) are confirmed to debut.

Enough of my rambling... what did I think of this episode as whole? "T.A.H.I.T.I." gets a 3 out of 5. After the raising the bar to perfection on last month's episode, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD falls short with this return from hiatus. Sure, the "G.H." situation and the inclusion of Lorelei got people talking, but this episode didn't provide much else in terms of substance.

Jaime Alexander is set to reprise her role
in next week's episode as Sif.

While we're on the subject of Lorelei... My favorite part of this episode came from the teaser of the Asgardian, Lorelei, being introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For those not in the know, Lorelei is the younger sister of Amora the Enchantress, known to ally herself with Loki for his approval. I wanted Amora to be in Thor: The Dark World, but I will settle waiting for her to appear in a later Marvel film. Lorelei's arrival on Earth will give the perfect excuse Marvel's Agents of SHIELD to bring in Jaime Alexander to reprise her role as Sif from Thor and Thor: The Dark World in next week's episode.