Category: Reviews

First Impressions, Games, Reviews

What is Apex Legends and Should You Try It?

Posted on by megedon

It’s been around a month since Apex Legends sneaked onto the battle royal scene. Flying under the hype-cover as it’s EA producer spent it’s time promoting their ill received Anthem game, Apex was announced the same day it launched and has since exploded in popularity. The battle royale genre has been the new bandwagon genre that the industry has flocked towards trying to make a quick buck on that the unbelievable popularity of games like Player Unknown Battle Ground and later and even more successfully, Fortnite have found. I was a fan of the original Titanfall and Titanfall 2 so a game from Respawn Entertainment was attractive to me, however Anthem provides a great example of how EA can force great studios to make something way outside of their wheelhouse in the pursuit of some popular and possibly lucrative fad. So I had some hope but also some reservations when I reinstalled Origin (sobbing) to give Apex a go.  Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised.

The game retains all the characteristics that have come to define the BR genre but, it does enough differently that the game truly stands out on it’s own and is not some sort of reskin of PUBG, Fortnite, or Black Ops 4. Probably, it’s strongest selling point is that it’s free to play. But the second and more interesting selling point is that the game has launched with a level of completion and polish that has been a breath of fresh air (looking at you Anthem). While there have been some issues with crashing (that have occasionally cut short my game sessions in frustration) it has by and large been a stable game that feels complete with some room to grow. Just about all of it’s systems launched with a level of thought and polish that I have never seen a BR game launch with and as someone who experienced the early days of PUBG that’s something I can really appreciate. That being said the game is different from it’s BR competition in a variety of more tangible ways.

From the beginning of booting up the game you’ll notice the many differences that give Apex it’s own unique BR flavor. The first thing you might notice is that instead of being able play in groups of four, two, or one, Apex forces you to play in groups of three. Did you want duos with your buddy? Too bad you’re getting a rando thrown in there. Want to play solo and truly display your dominance as the most badass Caustic (one of the games playable characters) player that ever lived? Too bad you’re going to have to carry two other total N00bs as you dive into the hottest drop you can find. On the other side the limit to three in a group is also irritating for my friend group who typically now have to leave one man out when we try and play together, but there is a reason for it. The game is structured around squads of this size and is strongest when played that way.

apex legends characters

Once you’ve found your group you get to pick your “Legend”. Apex currently offers eight playable characters each with their own special abilities hitboxes, voice lines, and skins. A lot of the abilities synergize with each other, and promote different kinds of playstyles but don’t have an overwhelming effect on the game play. For example, Bangalore can drop smoke and then Bloodhound can make enemies visible in it. Your squad takes turns selecting characters and the last player to pick gets the consolation prize after probably having their main character, Wraith, “stolen” from them, of being the jumpmaster.

apex legends map v2

Then the game begins and you are all suddenly in the drop ship flying across a relatively small map along a random straight path. Unlike most BR games you drop with only 60 total players or 20 teams of three, this is in part because the pacing of Apex tend to be much faster than other games in it’s genre, typically lasting less than 20 minutes. The map has a variety of collections of buildings/structure where loot spawns and it’s up to your jumpmaster to decide where to drop the squad and then control your collective flights to the desired location, not that you can’t break off and drop on your own. If you are that Caustic player (the name of the character really is a reflection of some of the people who play him and this is definitely not a personally biased judgement on my part) and you want that sick highlight-reel worthy play you will most likely solo drop to that hottest of drops “the bunker” and promptly die leaving your teammates in the lurch down a man for the rest of the game and nothing in the game will stop you from doing that.

Once you land, hopefully in a group, you begin your scramble for armor and weapons to protect yourselves and begin your quest for absolute Apex domination. Communication during the mad scramble is made easy with the groundbreaking ping system. It is easy to ping weapons and attachments you find so your teammates can benefit from your frantic searching for a gun that is not the mozambique shotgun pistol. It is also easy to ping attachments you need for your guns, the location of enemies, or where you want to go (or the millions of mozambique pistols you find so they may share in your pain). And then your game can begin.

apex legends revive

Another neat wrinkle that separates Apex from the rest of the BR genre t is the revive system. In most BR games if a teammate takes enough damage they are incapacitated but able to be picked back up and continue the fight if a teammate gets to them in time or before an opponent murders them to lootable death. This mechanic is important to BR games because it heightens the sense of urgency and anxiety in the game and one of the genre’s biggest payoffs is the moments when you overcome that adversity. Those moments when the rest of your team is down and it’s just you against the enemy team and you need to pull off an “epic game moment” in order to pull through are some of the moments that I remember most in playing this game, often even more so than matches I win. Apex has complicated this mechanic in a way that adds to this. Now, even if your teammate is completely dead there is a window of just over a minute to grab their “player banner” and then you can carry it over to a respawn beacon and summon them back into the game. They’ll be as lootless as the moment they first dropped, but they’ve now got a second chance to help your squad win. This mechanic is great. It means that in a competitive fight where you only have one squadmate left standing you still can get back into the game but you are still much more vulnerable for having been completely downed. It also creates the very fun moments where your teammate who ran away from the fight like a brilliant coward can sneak back and theoretically get your entire team back into the game almost completely making up for abandoning you. The mechanic just really feels at home in a BR style game where the objective is to make it to the end not necessarily get the most kills (cough, cough, looking at you random guy who decides to peel off of the squad to hit a dropship where half the players in the entire game are landing).

apex legends zip-lines

When it comes to getting around the map, Apex Legends’ characters aren’t as mobile as their kin from the Titanfall entries, but movement is more free than in any other BR game I’m aware of. There is no fall damage and the fastest way to move around the map is sliding down slopes and jumping off cliffs. Additionally you can crawl fairly high up on the various structures in the game and many of the environments enable weird parkour exploits and plays. Additionally zip lines are scattered all over the map and give players quick and easy access to different parts of the map. There are also vertical zip lines attached to balloons that allow you to basically re-drop over a short distance. Combined these features make Apex a very mobile game, and it means there’s another skillset to learn and improve on in addition to the usual shooting

It’s gunplay is probably most similar to Fortnite out of all the other BR games but doesn’t revolve around a building mechanic which for me is a huge plus. The armor and healing system in the game make sniping feel a little underpowered relative to other similar games. Finding cover and healing up to full before a team can close on you to take advantage of a sniper shot that takes you down to half health is usually doable and makes sniping a lot less lucrative. It is still very possible to snipe in the game and the supply drop only, Kraber sniper rifle  is a nightmare in the right hands, but as a whole the gameplay largely revolves around midrange to close quarters fights and you’ll rarely find yourself downed by a distant player you don’t see coming.

apex legends thumbs up v2

If it hasn’t been clear from my tone at this point, I’ve really been loving this game to the degree that I have developed some (probably) baseless hate for people that main certain characters or enjoy a certain style of gameplay different from my own. I have collected many of those memorable moments that keep me coming back to this game and it’s been so nice to scratch the BR itch without having to play a 40 minute game of PUBG only to get headshot by a Kar-98 from across the map or get verbally abused by an eight-year-old wunderkind with godlike building and shotgun skills in Fortnite (I swear this is a hypothetical). The game has already done enough of the things that I think are important such as the amount of polish it launched with and some prompt rebalancing of a few of the guns after the game was launched give me confidence that it will hold my interest into the future. The game is also very replayable. Relatively short matches and including short queues to get in game mean that you can play a fair number of matches without loading screens or tedious cross map running (looking at you PUBG) that tend to sap my energy and desire to play multiple matches in a single session. This will be easier with new content announced to be just over the horizon including things like new maps, characters and guns.

This all being said, the game is not without its flaws. I mentioned earlier that I’ve had some issues with the game crashing frequently enough that I’ve stopped playing much earlier than I intended to and I know those problems aren’t limited to me. There is also no way to re-enter the game after that’s happened which magnifies the issue. This has partially been addressed in some new updates to the game and even new graphics drivers that have increased the game’s stability but it’s something worth commenting on. There are also some small features that I would like eventually such as a matchmaking system so I can avoid playing against people who had 100 hours and 10k kills in like the first three days the game was out. There have also been reports of cheating that if true I hope get addressed.

apex legends loot box

But, really all of these things are minor complaints. Really the one area that I worry about and that I think might have some badness already baking-in is unsurprisingly, the monetization system. Apex uses the typical cosmetic based loot-box system of getting money to pay for the content they’ve produced and while it isn’t the worst one I’ve seen by a huge margin I am always terribly uneasy about the potential slippery slope situation and with a producer like EA hovering over them I feel a bit more justified in my mistrust. Apex has three types of currency. Legend Tokens, which are earned by playing the game, Apex Coins, which are purchased with real money, and Crafting Metals which you obtain randomly in “Apex Packs” (which is their word for loot-box). Apex Coins can be used to purchase everything in the game, this includes skins, the two characters who aren’t initially unlocked, and Apex Packs. Legend Tokens can be used to unlock the two characters and to purchase modifications for skins you already own and that’s all I’m aware of. Crafting Metal is used for crafting specific skins you  want. You also earn an apex pack every time you level up until you hit level 20 at which point it’s every other level and then completely stops once you hit level 100. This means that you get 45 apex packs just for playing the game. But the planned obsolescence in that design is an alarming sign that combines with another odd mechanic. In the games store there is a rotating number of modified skins that you can purchase with your Legend Tokens, however you can only purchase those if you have already unlocked the skin it’s based on, which “fortunately” for you the game store informs you you can buy with Apex Coins and gives you the coin amount and a handy link to go buy the coins you need. I will stress that right now this is not a huge problem for me. I’m not even at level 50 yet, and I’ve really enjoyed the gameplay experience immensely. While I’m not planning on getting sucked-in to spending a much of money on it, I’m nonetheless concerned that this is something that will diminish my long term enjoyment as I worry that the microtransaction creep potential will blossom into a problem that could dramatically decrease the quality of what is currently a great game.

Possible future monetization-ocalypse aside, I really do recommend playing this game if any of what I described is at all interesting to you. The prerequisites to play are very minor for most people. You either need  a computer just above the performance level of a potato, a playstation 4 or xbox one past those hurtles the only cost to play the game is free.

 

1
Reviews

The Defenders is Basically Every Crossover Event

Posted on by CommissarTaco

In the comics (and graphic novel) industry, particularly the Superhero “sub-genre” that headlines for the Big Two (DC & Marvel), there’s what’s called a “Crossover Event.” For those of you not hip to this (which is fine), it’s the outwardly incredibly simple idea of mushing multiple characters from the same universe into the same story line. DC has Justice League. Marvel has The Avengers. You probably don’t need more examples.

I feel like it’s being accepted more and more that–unless you’re a younger fan, in which case bless you and perhaps don’t read this–these actually tend to kind of suck. The equation seems like it should be incredibly simple: you take characters that are fun, you put them in the same series, and it’s even more fun. Fun plus fun plus fun should equal three funs, right? Well, as a number of better writers than myself have illustrated, this usually isn’t the case. As detailed in this excellent essay, Crossover Events and Renumberings actually tend to be a “jumping off point” for readers when it comes to the Big Two. Marvel especially.

In addition to the in-depth and heartrendingly accurate breakdown of how messed up the direct market in comics are, I’d also like to throw out what I think is the practical problem in terms of writing these types of stories. You’re basically taking the main characters from a bunch of different series and having them all on the page or on the screen at the same time. When this leads to witty exchanges of views, co-operation, and fun over the span of a short period of time, you can get the rare success of this type of subgenre. For all of the grief I’ll give Marvel and even with how disenchanted I’ve been with superhero flicks in general, I’ll concede that the first Avengers movie is a good example of how this can be done in a non-infuriatingly bland way.

index
“With our power combined, we aspire to be a lot less boring than your typical Supes-Mashup!”

 

However, I think part of what explains why that worked is that two hours and thirty minutes of the same MCU characters being on-screen together is a relatively short period of time, where as a result the writers don’t have to worry as much about things the clash of the different series tones. It’s when these endeavors have to explain themselves in a little more detail (such as in the comics runs or in, say, a Netflix series) that some of the contradictions become more obvious. Part another way: “The Avengers” is basically everyone in the MCU having a two-and-a-half-hour cameo, and it’s way easier to nail that format.

When the characters who normally headline their own series come together for a longer period of time, the problems tend “pop out” right in front of your face. A lot of these characters have different goals/ethics, which would be more interesting if it weren’t for the fact that the stories usually detail them all coming together to fight for a common cause. Each of their own individual series has its own tone–Jessica Jones’s tenacity in the face of an oppressive shit world, Luke Cage’s sizzling energy as the series has him deal with corruption in the community he loves, Daredevil’s split between getting things done within the system and concurrently asking the question of whether the system is too broken, Iron Fist being an excellent reason to not cast Finn Jones as White Buddhist Batman–and it’s hell of a thing to try to let these spill into each other without accidentally muting them all. And the villains have tended to be either ridiculous (even by Supervillain standards) or just a pathetically lame foil to let the Superheroes stand out more.

Understand, I’m not saying every crossover ever has failed to take this all into account, but basically all of them have had to deal with the above challenges. And I can tell you, personally, as someone who owns too many DC trade paperbacks, that the above challenges and the fact that writers tend to shrink from them a bit is the reason I own all of Scott Snyder’s Batman run for the New 52, and approximately zero of the Justice League trades.

But back to Marvel’s Defenders. As you probably guessed by now, I don’t think it’s really up to snuff. I know there are people who’ve become pretty disillusioned with the Netflix Marvel series in general, but I’m not among their number; I liked Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Daredevil quite a lot, and I tolerated Iron Fist. I really did think there was a significant chance for The Defenders to break through the tape that way too many crossovers seem to wrap themselves in. Sadly, it’s really impossible for me to say that it did. And I really wanted to like this, if not love it.

promo325197252
Less than the sum of its parts, sadly.

But it really is the same old stuff. There are a couple of neat hooks where the characters are brought together in not totally contrived ways, and otherwise it’s that weird feeling where you never really get to spend enough time with any one of these characters (except for Iron Fist, whose mentor is cooler than him, but hey), and the overall plot rushes into focus fast enough that the reasons that they’re able to hash out their differences and co-operate feel cardboard. Maybe if I didn’t enjoy three out of the four of these series so much, this wouldn’t bother me as much. But that’s sort of the opposite of the point here, isn’t it? I was watching Defenders because I did like the other series.

There’s two exchanges that sum up the entire series for me. For one, it’s one of those scenes where the writers threw two characters into conflict for contrived enough reasons that it’s just hard to sit through (see also: Arya and Sansa Stark’s conflict from Season 7 of Game of Thrones), so it’s got a strike against it right off the bat. Secondly, Knight, a detective, is questioning Jones. Now, I know Superhero stories are never really going to break from the whole “cops are generally good with a few bad apples” perspective so I’m willing to give that a bit of a pass, especially since the police in Luke Cage weren’t exactly heroic-it’s really just Knight, as his friend, who stands out as trying to do the right thing. But I’m also really not sure why Knight would be treating a known associate of Cage as hostile. She even goes as far as to give Jones shit for offing Kilgrave at the end of Jessica Jones Season 1. Kilgrave had raped Jones (and other women as well), so this is downright wince-worthy stuff.

Jones’s reaction is to basically continue the dialogue while acting annoyed, and it’s really hard to figure out why doesn’t have a stronger reaction to this. It’s even harder to figure out why the writers thought this needed to be in the series at all. This scene could’ve easily been an interesting back-and-forth between characters who’re trying to do the right thing and taking vastly different approaches, and instead it ends up with an unconvincingly vanilla conflict that’s derived from Knight saying something uncharacteristically awful. Add some incredibly forced dialogue into the mix and it’s just pretty much the perfect example of things not fitting together and god-awful writing turning it into a total mess.

There’s another one where Luke Cage calls out Iron Fist for being an entitled prick, which is a scene that’d work approximately one thousand percent better if Finn Jones wasn’t a wooden actor, Iron Fist wasn’t an entitled prick, and if Cage’s decision to call him out on this had a bit more of a lead-up to it. On that last point, I’m all for Luke Cage yelling at Iron Fist, but the scene managed to be rushed, robbed of impact, and once again display how Jones really, really cannot act all that much at the same time. If you replaced him with a board with a slightly constipated expression on it, Mike Colter’s words would’ve had more impact.

But seriously, I know I’ve made it more than clear that I don’t care for Jones’s acting or the Iron Fist in general, but the weakness of that series combined with his central role in this one is an issue. When Cage goes after him, the viewer might be inclined to take his side, but a better constructed Iron Fist character with a better actor would’ve given that scene an appropriate amount of nuance, prompting there to be a range of different opinions that could arise from viewing it, like “Cage is right, but Rand clearly didn’t get his point across” or “Cage came on too strong, Rand doesn’t get what’s going on yet” in addition to (what seems like the only possible conclusion unless you’re just the hardest-core Iron Fist fan in the world) “Cage is right and let’s move on.” It takes a scene that should be thought-provoking, and turns it into something much less.

the-defenders-ending-explained-marvel-netflix-season-2
This looks awesome.

I could go on–the villains are pretty wooden aside from a Madame Gao reappearance–and the show manages to take eight episodes and make it feel like it both should’ve been shorter (for reasons I mentioned above re: The Avengers) and longer. But instead I’d rather just focus on the picture above.

In the end, I do keep coming back to this and other shots from the promo material, and being annoyed by how cool some of these look, too. Because once the series got going, it was impossible for me to not wonder exactly where the gritty, “it’s just a bunch of friends hanging out trying to deal with the impossible burdens of life” feel of these actually went. Because hell, that is so something the viewer can relate to. There’s another one where they all look like they’ve been hanging out all night and are beginning to feel slightly hung over. These are also pretty cool in their own way, and a series that had found a way tap into that feel of them all genuinely bonding probably would’ve also been the same kind of series that actually managed to figure out how to balance its characters and tone better.

As it is, we got something that played it way too safe and ends up feeling like it could be a show about any four slightly bland superheroes, rather than two whose personas (and actors) carry the hell out of their own series and one who’s the only blind criminal defense lawyer that I’m aware of in superhero canon.

You can enjoy parts of this series, and if you watched the others, you’re probably going to watch this one. But if you were expecting “awesome+awesome+cool+Iron Fist = more awesome” (or some variation on that equation), I don’t really think that’s what you’ve got here.

 

 

 

0
Reviews

Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (HP#8)

Posted on by ladykaibi

images

I finally read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two). Finished it today, in fact. This isn’t going to be a long or particularly detailed review, but there were some particulars I wanted to mention about the book.

First impressions overall, I thought the book was good. I went into it basically only having the short review of the friend who lent me their copy of the book, and who rated it a 2.5 out of 5. So, I had a cautious and skeptical approach to the book as I opened the cover to begin reading. But that slipped away, and I found myself no longer paying attention to time as I flipped page after page.

There are spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want those, stop reading and come back later.

One of the things I enjoyed about the book was how certain elements clued in from the beginning was woven into the solutions and eurekas at the climax and near the end. Granted, that’s a pretty standard storytelling technique, but particular moments like with Harry Potter’s baby blanket became nice illustrations of that technique.

I sometimes think time travel (as in plots that involve the act of traveling in time, not the act of creating prequels) is an easy answer to recycling a good series, but that didn’t stop me from still finding some enjoyment in this book. That said, I’m squinting my eyes hard at more and more popular series/stories recycling old plots or content through the instrument of time travel. I hope that it doesn’t become an apparatus so commonplace that it becomes boring or predictable. I like time travel stories, but I don’t like seeing it becoming a cashcow opportunity.

So far as the plot of HP#8, it definitely seemed to me to be much more about the relationships between Harry Potter and his son Albus, as well as Albus and his friend Scorpius Malfoy, than about the second rising of Voldemort, even though that was used as a vehicle for the relationship plots. And I liked that. Bringing back Voldemort would be quite a bit boring and would have appeared like the writers were just returning to material “that worked before” rather than trying to reinvent something more fresh.

That said, there are times I was not entirely sold that the reason Harry and Albus had such a tense relationship was because Albus was concerned about living up to the Potter name, worried about disappointing his dad, jealousy, and embarrassment. I realize that’s what they were going for, but throughout the book you are more or less told this like “hey guys, this is the reason they are not getting along.” And there could have been an even deeper build and more complex background to the tension that Harry and Albus share than the usual “my dad is famous and I’m a nobody loser.” And near the end, it got really Lion King-y with the whole son: “I thought you were never afraid,” father: “There were many times I have been afraid. / Even great heroes can be afraid. / I was very afraid because I thought I was going to lose you” stuff.18789624_10104044781861579_897182098_o.png

Generally, I enjoyed the transitions in the book, and watching them play out in my head made for some pretty poignant visuals, and I can sort of imagine how the lighting and staging could make this pretty powerful.

After reading it, I went over to my Goodreads app to log it. The rating from the 300k+ people who have rated it on the app is exactly the right rating for this book. 3.77 out of 5.

1
Reviews

Manchester By the Sea: A Cathartic Gem and Future (Multiple) Oscar-Winner

Posted on by thewilllane

Manchester By The Sea (2016)

Written and Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

 

mv5bmtyxmjk0ndg4ml5bml5banbnxkftztgwodcynja5ote-_v1_ux182_cr00182268_al_

Let me start this review by deeply exhaling, borderline sobbing, into a nearby pillow. Jesus Christ. I can do this.

Casey Affleck jovially suggested in his recent gig hosting SNL that Manchester By The Sea was very sad. Depressingly sad. Just very, very sad. He wasn’t joking and, if anything, I could suggest that him joking about this movie being sad was a half-assed version of a trigger warning.

Overview

Manchester By The Sea follows the story of Lee Chandler (Affleck), as he attempts to navigate through life as a lowly multi-apartment custodian. He lives alone, drinks alone, eats alone. Are you seeing a trend? When he is floored by news about his brother Joe’s death (Kyle Chandler), he is forced to take on the responsibilities left to him by his brother. This includes taking permanent guardianship of his nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges), maintaining Joe’s fishing vessel, which in turn means dramatic changes to Lee’s life as a lonely sad person.

Throughout the narrative, we get glimpses of flashbacks that set up the more current goings-on. Each one offers the viewers a greater context behind the thought-process of Lee, his former relationship with his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams), and even earlier interactions with young Patrick out on Joe’s fishing boat. It is through these we come to understand why Lee is so reluctant and resistant to take on all of these responsibilities, despite wanting to respect Joe’s posthumous wishes. With everything having come to a head, Lee is forced to acknowledge the greatest factor in all of this, his past.

Catharsis (and Spoilers)

To me, this isn’t a film that truly warrants a “spoiler” warning. Much like the content of the film, it is worth tackling head-on in a way that allows just as the heading says, “catharsis.”

When I walked out of this movie, I didn’t feel like I could say anything about it. It felt real; arguably, it was too real. To say anything that vaguely resembled criticism would be almost self-deprecating. While the events that transpire within Manchester don’t fully reflect events that I have experienced, but I have dared myself to find a film that I connected, or even sympathized, with more. I failed to do so.

Manchester By The Sea has a few choked-up-worthy moments, including a seemingly inconspicuous trip to the grocery store after Lee shuffles his buddies out of his house at 2 AM. Lee trudges down to the store, too drunk to drive, and when he returns, his house is on fire. Randi is being held back by police and firefighters both as she screams, “My kids are in there!” Lee stands in awe as his life unravels before his eyes.

Following this, we see another flashback of the next day, where Lee is being questioned by police at the station about what caused the fire. It is then to be revealed that the fire may have been Lee’s fault, as a log he placed in the fireplace has begun to smolder and rolled out onto the carpet to set the home ablaze. Lee recalls not putting up the gate in front of the fireplace. Lee is let-off, scot-free, much to his own surprise. “We’re not gonna crucify you, Lee. It was an accident.” Even despite having admitted to smoking marijuana, getting drunk, and possibly dabbling in cocaine, Lee is dumbfounded to be set free. Upon confirming he has a ride home with his brother and father with police, he walks out of the interrogation room, and with that oft-noted Lee Chandler moment of hesitation, he swipes a gun off of an officer and presses the gun to his temple. He is tackled and smothered by officers and his family before he is able to commit the deed.

Fuck.

Over the course of the film, whenever Lee is faced with a difficult decision, he crumbles. That one-time-family-man Lee turns into a disheveled and drunken bar-brawler because he has no other way of coping with the shit he’s had to deal with in his life. He drinks heavily. He fights. He punches the walls. These are all textbook examples of behaviors belonging to a lot of different mental ailments, but perhaps most importantly, Manchester serves as a reminder of the crippling effects PTSD. And that is something I can connect with.

I lost my mother when I was twelve years old. Not only is it something that I have accepted in the past thirteen years, but it has become a part of who I am today. It has shaped me in many ways, including serving as a catalyst for my successes in my young adult life. In 2013, my father was dramatically affected by the explosion of an apartment building right next door to where we used to life. He has been living with the harmful effects of smoke inhalation, minor scars from the burns he received, but the most devastating thing he’s had to deal with is PTSD.

It’s hard to understand why people with PTSD do what they do. To them, it is rational thinking, but within the confines of constant neurotic turmoil. It is safe to say that my father is not the same person today as he was five years ago. It’s been an incredibly difficult experience since then, but it comes with a mutual understanding between my father and I: life is full of bumps, barriers, hazards, and breakdowns, but how we deal with these things is what makes us who we are. My father’s PTSD has slowed him down immensely, but that has not stopped him from continuing to support his family, work his steady job, and try to make the most of a terrible situation.

In many ways, watching Casey Affleck’s brilliant performance as Lee Chandler sparked a range of mixed emotions. When I saw Lee Chandler on-screen, I saw my father over and over again: a past (or present for Lee) of alcoholism, the distant relationships with family and friends,  and disengaged conversations. Manchester felt almost too real, too relatable to my life. From taking place in New England (seeing as I am from mid-coast Maine), the range of botched New England accents, catching Bruins hockey games on TV, right down to the fricking forest green Carhartt jacket that Lee wears, which I am convinced is the same one my dad still owns today.

Strengths

1. The acting in this movie is easily the best thing about it.

The combination of Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams, despite her limited supporting role, is one for the books. Affleck, calling it now, will win the Best Actor Oscar for this role. Lee Chandler is a tragic character in every sense of the word. Affleck takes on Lee’s hopes and dreams, watches them all fall apart, and tries to pick up the pieces in such a way that we aren’t capable of discerning whether or not we should help him or continue looking on at the train wreck in front of us. Furthermore, Lucas Hedges’ portrayal of Patrick, whose accent isn’t terrible, is also sure to garner the Academy’s favor. Never before have I wanted to cry watching someone pick up frozen meat off the floor before amidst a panic attack.

2. Pacing and flashback sequences are on-point.

In a world where most movie-goers aren’t really interested in sitting through a two-hour sobfest, Lonergan’s writing and direction are paced brilliantly to make sure no one is bored. Every scene feels like it means something to the story, enhancing our views of Patrick, Lee, or the past with Randi and Joe. Each flashback gives us valuable insight and information that evokes profound emotion and shows passion for the story, structure, and characters on screen. No scene is too long or too short. It just feels right. Manchester is Ken Lonergan’s baby and we need to respect him for it.

Weaknesses

1. There’s one scene that needed to be in the movie.

Near the end of the second act of Manchester, Lee is running errands downtown and runs into Randi on the street. She offers him lunch or a cup of coffee, but Lee being Lee, he wants no part of it. She is upset, not with him, but with herself. She exclaims, “I love you,” which tugs at our heartstrings even more. Randi profusely apologizes to Lee, trying to find some vulnerability, some opening, to get him to come out of his shell. She says something to the effect of “I should burn in hell for all the things I said to you,” referencing the blame-game that ensued following the deaths of their children. It might be minor, but I wanted that scene. I think it would have pushed her performance over the edge, not just teetering, for a future gold statuette for Williams.

Conclusion

Manchester By The Sea is nothing short of powerful. Despite my cathartic gushing and wallowing, I wish to repeat that it’s been a long time, if not the first time, that a movie made me feel the things I felt watching this movie. Lee might not be the easiest character to empathize with, but damn is it hard not to root for him to turn his life around.

To try to make both of us feel better, here’s Casey Affleck’s “Mayor of Dunkins” skit from SNL.

Score: A probably biased 5 Vanilla Nut Taps out of 5

0
Reviews

Rogue One: A Rouge-Hot Review

Posted on by thewilllane

My name is Will and I am not a Star Wars lifer. I’m not even a Star Wars quarter-lifer. I didn’t see my first Star Wars film until I reviewed in on my other blog, Dr. Awesome Film Reviews, back in 2013. It was a sweet experience, one that was filled with references that made me exclaim, “Yep, that was from Star Wars the whoooooole time.”

Since then, we’ve been blessed with two brand new additions to the canon, Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, and now Rogue One. With TFA being stellar, Rogue One had big shoes to fill, since most other Star Wars prequels had been, well….terrible. So, with all of that out in the open, it’s safe to say that Rogue One was not only great, but it made people go out of their way to completely forget how to spell! What chaos!

rogueone_onesheeta_1000_309ed8f6

The story of Rogue One is centered around a rogue one, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), who is the daughter of formerly-Imperial-scientist-turned-farmer-turned-saboteur-Imperial-scientist, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson). As a young girl, her father is taken from her by the Empire, more specifically by power-hungry Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), as Galen has the scientific book-smarts to help the Empire build a super-weapon capable of destroying planets. Wait for it…the Death Star. Flash forward approximately fifteen years and Jyn finds herself amidst Rebellion-led attempts to desperately seek intelligence about this new weapon. She falls in with an Alliance officer, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), as they scour various planets and moons seeking information that would lead them to Jyn’s father and/or the building of the Death Star.

When on the moon Jedha, they are taken captive by the extreme militant, Saw Gerrara (Forest Whitaker), aka Mr. “I CAN’T ESCAPE MY FALLOUT POWER ARMOR COSPLAY,” who not only has information about the whereabouts of Galen, but also a defected Imperial pilot who aids in their quest and a hologram message from Galen himself. Within this message, we are exposed to the secret plot conducted by Galen all along: he specifically sabotaged the construction of the Death Star, the single easily-overlooked weakness that we’ve all come to know and understand from the original Star Wars film. Cassian and Jyn work together, alongside the Alliance’s rebellion, to seek out the plans for the construction of the Death Star so the Alliance can work to destroy it (in future films).

Note: beyond this mark, there be spoilers. AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Image may contain: 1 person, text

Okay, so, there’s some great stuff going on here. Like every film, the movie has incredible strengths and somewhat devastating weaknesses. To really flesh these ideas out, I’m going to directly and indirectly spoil some key sequences. You’ve been warned.

Strengths

1. The supporting cast is easily the best thing about this movie.

Without the supporting actors, this script flops. Key members of the ensemble like Whitaker, Mendelsohn, and Donnie-Facking-Yen really make this movie great. While Whitaker’s character is merely a stepping stone that gets rolled in the destruction of Jedha, Whitaker gives this character life. He’s described as an “extremist,” yet he’s awfully soft-spoken. That’s what makes him terrifying. There’s a really unsettling scene of Saw using a miniature Godzilla villain to nearly lobotomize the Imperial pilot. No thank you.

Krennic’s capture of Galen in the opening scene inevitably led him to seize more power within the Empire’s hierarchy. Mendelsohn’s performance is what dreams are made of; he’s great as a slimy, conniving, corrupt, and fear-inducing villain that’ll do anything to please Vader and the Emperor. Naturally being Australian, Mendelsohn’s rage slips in and out of accent, but y’know, I don’t care. It makes the anger more believable.

Donnie Yen, probably best known for the Ip Man franchise, plays a pivotal role in the supporting cast. He is one-part Legolas, one-part Ip Man, and one-part blind comedic relief. In the scene where Gerrara’s men capture him alongside Jyn and Cassian, he is hooded and dragged away. In doing so, he yells, “Are you kidding me? I’m blind!” Not a single person in the theater wasn’t dying of laughter.

2. Darth Vader is still too cool for Jedi school.

Holy shit. Man. Vader has two scenes in the movie, but it’s not like the Joker in Suicide Squad. MOTHERFUCKERS EVEN GOT JAMES EARL JONES IN ON THIS. Phew. Okay. I’m ready.

Vader’s presence is often alluded to early on, specifically by Krennic. Once we see him, both in burnt-skin-sitting-in-my-spa form and the classic heavy-breathing version, it evokes nothing but the classic sense of terror, suspense, and fanboy nostalgia that every 40-something felt seeing the original iteration in theaters back in the late 1970s. As for a real spoiler, Vader’s last scene, in the final five/seven minutes of the film, is nothing short of breathtaking. You watch it, you see the Alliance officers skittering like rats into a sewer grate, and you just have to say, “Those dudes are fuuuuuuuucked.”

3. The Star Wars realm continues to be vast and awesome.

Much like my first time viewing the original trilogy, this film continuously had me blown away by the creative worlds, characters, and creatures that inhabit each one. Whether its the former Jedi Temple’s home of Jedha, the Imperial base on the tropical planet, Scarif, or Eadu, the mining planet that has more lightning strikes than Florida, these places are immense and can be easily recollected because of their unique characteristics.

Weaknesses

1. Jyn Erso fits the mold as an unlikable protagonist.

The more I thought about this idea, the more it made sense. Jyn Erso is not that interesting, but rather a more plastic and less versatile Rey. The writers and new-age Star Wars-think-tankers, I’m sure, are gunning to revitalize the narrative of “female protagonists in male-dominated genres are what we need!” Yes, that is technically accurate. However, Jyn’s narrative is one that is fraught with skepticism. Do they trust her? No. Can she command the audience in an Alliance town-hall meeting? You bet your sweet bippy. But how did they establish that trust? It’s kind of loose justification, especially if you’re leaning on her biggest critic, Cassian. I guess having him feel guilty about maybe sniping Galen without her knowledge is enough. Maybe it isn’t.

Just as characters are dying left and right on screen, we feel more connected to them and their struggles than hers. “Rebellions are built on hope” she says in the trailer. Apparently Cassian’s lines aren’t the only thing she steals from this movie. Lord of the Rings fans (at least many of them) will tell you similar struggles with how whiny and childish Frodo is, and even some Star Wars fans will tell you how much they find Luke Skywalker to be equally insufferable. Jyn just doesn’t cut it. She’s got the personality of a clipboard, yet we are compelled to follow her to the end of her journey.

2. Game of Thrones character arcs are a tough pill to swallow.

Are you familiar with the story of the 300 Spartans? A rogue group of soldiers are sent on their way  like some kinda “suicide squad” to defeat an insurmountable empire? Ring any bells? It should, because Rogue One is a glorified, albeit more interesting, version of that story.

In the same vein, Game of Thrones appears. On the ride home from the movies, my fiancee was particularly upset with the fact that almost every single new character from Rogue One dies. Jyn, Cassian, Donnie Yen, Krennic, Donnie Yen’s bodyguard who probably has a name, Galen, Saw Gerrara. All of ’em. Whether it’s in battle with the Empire on Scarif, getting planet’d to death on Jedha, or totally eating your words and getting Death-Starred (I’m looking at you, Krennic), they’re just super dead. In fitting the mold of the 300 Spartans mythos, they have to die. They don’t exist in A New Hope. They are the soldiers sent, or in this case volunteered, to be slaughtered for the rebellion. My fiancee is not wrong. It doesn’t feel great to watch the characters that you establish a connection with die on-screen. The difference here is that it doesn’t feel gratuitous like Game of Thrones, where killing characters is the sport of choice for George R.R. Martin. They serve a purpose; they’re not red shirts. We care for these characters, but we also know what’s coming: a new hope.

Conclusion

Rogue One is a bonafide hit. It hits all the right notes, pulls your heart strings, and generates a lot of empathy and laughs alike. While the inevitable heat death of most of the characters isn’t awesome, the fact that easily-recognized characters emerge pre-Episode IV, including a CGI Moff Tarkin, is a nice throwback for fanboys and movie-goers everywhere. It should also be said that this is easily the most ethnically diverse cast ever assembled for a Star Wars flick. Sure we got John Boyega and Daisy Ridley for Episode VII, but this is different. This feels bigger. I can see great things coming on the horizon for this franchise.

Score: 4.5 Rouges out of 5

0
Reviews

Let’s Talk About Games People Shouldn’t Play (AssCreed Liberation)

Posted on by taf

Oh, hi.  It’s been a while.  Almost 3 months, I think.  *checks watch*  Yeah, about 3 months.  A whole 3 months I’ve spent trying to play Assassin’s Creed Liberation.  And in those 3 months, I’ve learned one very, very important life lesson.  This singular piece of enlightenment led me to happiness.  Want to know what it is?  Sure.  Here it is.  Don’t play Assassin’s Creed Liberation.  Hey, cool, review’s done, I’m gonna go back to playing a good game, The Last Tink-

the_scary_door_tn

*Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak*

Oh.  Did.  Did anyone else hear the door open?  Has it always been like that?  I can’t remember.  Wait, it’s cold out and the cat could run away, why the fuck’s the door open?  Hold on folks, I’m gonna go shut-

CINNAMON

OH GOD CINNAMON NO

Ahem.  It has come to my attention I cannot write a review that is nothing more than a strong advisory against people playing a video game.  It has been advised that I write an actual review, or risk severe consequences.  Thus, without further ado, here goes the review of a game I actually could not complete.

You read that right, I actually could not complete this game.  I tried for several months but due to a combination of poor controls, frustrating mechanics, and a game ending glitch, my attempt to complete (much less enjoy) Liberation was doomed from the start.  Let’s start with the controls.  They’ve been ported over from Assassin’s Creed 3, so already we’re not doing so hot.  There’s the same janky free-running issues that make it nearly impossible to travel from one rooftop to another, there’s the same difficulty with trying to maneuver yourself appropriately for a kill, there’s the same frequent issues with unintentionally jumping off of a roof and disturbing the guards’ tea break… you know, the classics of any free-running-based game!  If we’re talking about classic mistakes, that is.

Whoops! An Accident!

Whoops!  An accident!

This feeds directly into the issues with the game’s mechanics; namely that the developers ignored the issues in Assassin’s Creed 3, and instead decided to made more issues with Liberation’s mechanics.  For one, the main character, Aveline de Granpré, has three personas: the socialite, the slave, and the assassin.  This is a neat concept, but there are issues with all three classes and the mechanic itself.  If you’re playing the socialite you can charm other people into letting walk behind closed doors, and you can even charm guards into following you and protecting you.  Pretty nifty, right?  Not so much; there’s very little you can do to defend yourself.  You’re extremely limited in what weapons you can carry, you cannot free-run, and your top speed measures in at about the same as a particularly lethargic tree sloth who’s just downed an entire case of sleeping pills.  So what about the slave persona?  You can free-run, but you also draw more attention in this persona, and you’re limited to the same weapons as the socialite.  The assassin persona is the best and the worst of the bunch; you have access to all the mobility and equipment you had in prior games, but you start off as notorious every time you assume this persona, and gather notoriety the quickest.  This makes the assassin persona a powerful weapon that requires judicious use.  Right off the bat, this is an issue.

The point of the AssCreed series is to adopt the persona of….. wait for it…… an assassin!  A stealthy warrior capable of blending in with the crowd!  And assuming this persona… draws attention.  Anyone else notice an issue here?  Hands up if you notice an issue.  That’s right.  The persona that should be the most low-profile of them all draws the most attention!  This makes no sense.

“But Aaron, what if the guards are on the active lookout for anyone dressed like an Assassin?”

Who said that?  Was it you, Babquez?  I’m watching you; don’t interrupt me when I’m ranting.

Back to where we left off: guards looking for you in the assassin persona.  There’s been established precedent that guards looking for assassins does bunk all to your ability to blend into the general crowd.  See: every other AssCreed game that came out prior to this game.  So why would it change in this game?  The answer is bad; it’s for the sake of the new persona swap mechanic.  I hate this mechanic.  I hate it for several reasons.  I hate that it changed everything about how you played AssCreed games (well, game.  Clearly the developers didn’t end up liking it either, since it’s yet to make a reappearance), I hate that it leads to making light of the plight of slaves in America during the 18th century, I hate that it perpetuates the idea that women’s main powers during that time were flirting with people and dressing up, and I hate that it perpetuates sexism when there was a chance to actually create a strong female character.  Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Nope

Nope. Not like this.

First, the slave persona.  Where to start.  Well, let’s start with Aveline, who is of the mocha skinned persuasion.  She uses the slave persona to blend in with the general populace when she’s in the actual town of New Orleans, and to blend in with the escaped slave population when she’s roughin’ it in the bayou.  There’s two issues with this.  One, it downplays the hardships slaves faced in America in the 18th century by portraying someone disguised as one being free to run around the deep South without being harassed.  Two requires a bit more background info.  When you make it to the swamp and begin encountering the freed slaves/free Africans, if they’re black, they’re all dressed in tribalistic gear and face paint.  Every one.  White people in the bayou tend to be dressed in sensible clothing, and this idea for sensible dress extends to Aveline’s personas.  So the second (and third, there are three now) issue(s) with the slave persona include whitewashing Aveline by, despite her skin tone, dressing her like white “civilized” people, and dressing up the black “savage” people in tribal garb.  Maybe Ubisoft has a good reason for putting the above issues in their game, but I don’t know what they are, because I couldn’t actually play their f*%&ing game.  More on that in a bit!

For now, let’s talk about the socialite persona.  Wow.  Where to begin.  First, all of the clothing options available for the socialite accentuate Aveline’s cleavage and hide her other physical features.  All the better to charm men with.  Because a woman who’s able to use her cleavage to ensnare the attentions of men and do little else is an empowered character, right?  Right?  *crickets*  No, really, that’s the extent of what the socialite can do.  That’s why this persona is in the game.  To “charm” people.  If there’s more to the persona, I wouldn’t know, because I couldn’t play the f*%&ing game.  Almost there!

The final issue with the personas system is you can’t switch between the personas unless you have a dressing room.  Code-wise, I can understand the need for this kind of kit switching location.  It means the game can process the change of persona, and change the rules it applies to the game world based on Aveline’s appearance.  This rationale makes sense from this perspective.  In practice it takes a character who’s supposed to be mobile, mutable, and adaptable, and ties them down to a specific type of location if the player wants to utilize one of the main abilities in the game.  This is not good game design.  Individually any of these things are bad, but not game-ruining.  Combined with Aveline being the first female protagonist in the AssCreed universe, it pushes the game into the “this is both bad and problematic” realm.  Kinda like a tractor that, instead of pulling heavy equipment, sprays nacho cheese all over the place.

Cheese Fields

Soon, the pepperjack fields shall be sown

Finally, we come to the biggest issue with the game, namely that it has a serious game-ending glitch.  This is a well-known glitch, and Ubisoft has acknowledged its existence and continual presence in their game.  Sometimes, Aveline will stutter when she’s swimming.  Then you get to land.  And you keep swimming.  People can interact with you, but you can’t interact with them.  Normally, you can fix this glitch by exiting the game and re-opening it.  But sometimes?  Sometimes the game just says no.  Sometimes the game decides it doesn’t want to be played.  Sometimes, you just wind up swimming through the streets of New Orleans, unable to interact with anyone or anything, unable to remove yourself from your land-filled half-life.  I spent literal months trying to figure out how to fix this glitch, and I couldn’t.  And when I couldn’t, I realized that I could not continue.  It was only act 3 of the game, but I couldn’t find a way to replay my way up to that point.  The game mechanics.  The inability to actually play the game.  The importing of a terrible free-running system and making it worse.  I couldn’t do it.  The game beat me.

 

0/5 Would not play again. Burn it with fire, and don't look back.
0
Reviews

Quick Fixes (Games I’ve Played Lately, Part One)

Posted on by CommissarTaco

Been playing too much things to give justice to them all fully, so I’m going to lay out my recent plays (and faves). This doesn’t mean we won’t revisit these later on, but in an effort to break the ice…without further adieu:

Far Cry 4 — “You Have Failed This Island” 

article one

the newest addition of this Ubisoft shooter series just hit the shelves, but 4 was the one I’ve spent the most time with (by about twice over) of any FC game other than the spin-off “Blood Dragon.” To be sure, the game still houses some of the quirks that I find off-putting, and the storyline really eventually did feel like it was getting my way, but I really enjoyed doing my Green Arrow impression as I stealthily took base after base from the fascist ruler of a rather beautiful island. While I could list a bunch of complaints–skinning the bizarrely-hostile wild animals as an upgrade system rubs me the wrong way, the guy on the radio of the vehicles is just freaking annoying, and the storyline seems like on overly long, unwieldly US foreign policy analogy–the fact is that I enjoyed the vast majority of the 35 hours I spent on the game.

The driving mechanics felt right to me, successfully giving vehicles a good amount of “weight” and avoiding the GTA-feeling of driving a car on skates. The combat was fun, and FC4 implements stealth well in a game where you don’t need to use stealth; for those unfamiliar with the adventures other games have had trying to do this, it’s kind of rare. I wish I could tell you more about how shooting the baddies feels, but about 90% of my combat experience was using the bow. And it was wonderful. And you can fire exploding arrows.

As with most non-mind-blowing-but-perfectly-playable-open-worlders, I’d recommend waiting for a sale, but this is the first Far Cry game since the spinoff where there was something magnetic about it to me. Better writing/story missions would’ve made this game a lot better, but it was a lot of fun. Oops! Almost forgot: this is becoming more and more redundant these days, and it’s sort par for the course for the series, but wow does the island ever look and feel great. It’s purdy. Ubisoft Montreal gets a thumbs up for this one, on balance.

And yes, UPlay still sucks.

Rocket League — “About As Much Fun As You Can Have With Your Pants On”

articletwo

I mean, except…you don’t need to wear pants to play Rocket League. N

Ahem, anyway, RL is the type of game that, once you play, if it’s remotely your cup of tea, you’re very likely to wonder why it didn’t exist before now. “What if we combined boost-centric racing with indoor soccer?” Doesn’t seem like it should click as well as Rocket League does, but it turns out to be a multiplayer match made in Game Heaven.

The typical mode is 3-on-3, where you and two internet buddies (or friends you queue’d with) face off against three other players. They’re five different maps. The ball is bigger than your car. You can put lots of silly things on your car. The games last five minutes, and the goal is to–stop me if you’ve heard this!–score more goals than the other team. If the game is tied after five minutes, it goes into Sudden Death OT (first one to score wins).

The ability to flip, jump, twist, double-jump, boost, fall with style, etc.–coupled with a pretty good matchmaking system that usually pairs pretty evenly matched teams–makes this game one where both newcomers and crazy-serious-pro-gamers can enjoy (as well as those of us in-between). There are other modes as well, though it’s definitely optimized at 3-on-3, and you can try 4v4 or playing with a giant puck as well.

Rocket League is so much fun that it’s one of the few games I’ve played recently where I’d just say “buy it now.” It’s $20 at full price, so that helps too. If FC4 surprised me with how much fun I had with a FC game, RL blew me away with how such a silly “what if we…” formula makes for such a polished, fun experience. And that polish really is evident down to fun little details like the scoring system or the ball exploding your team’s color when it crosses the goal line. It’s hard to believe that the developer, Psyonix, hadn’t done anything more notable before. That said, it’s a helluva breakout game!

That is, if my teammates don’t eventually find out where I live and murder me for my awful defense.

 

Black Ops 3 — “I’m Bouncing Off The Walls Again”

article 3.png

Yes, I guess I’m reaching back a bit with this one, but I never did post my–mostly positive–review draft of the latest entry in the non-bad half of the Call of Duty franchise. If you can get over the typical CoD crap–yes, of course there was a patch that broke the game for a significant number of people, and of course one of the shotguns was hilariously brokenly good on release, and of course the anti-hacking “system” isn’t great–there’s actually plenty of fun to be had.

While the single-player narrative sort of trails off into something esoteric enough that it’s kind of one part incomprehensible and two parts “okay, but I really couldn’t care less,” most of the levels in the campaign were fun to play and I do admire the attempt at making the campaign center around high-tech and cyborgy stuff…even if it’s more of an attempt than a success. That said, the level design is generally pretty darn great, and someone at the studios finally realized it shouldn’t matter if you play as a guy or a gal! The latter would be a bigger step forward if so many of the character models weren’t varying shades of white, but at least they made it past step one (hint: if your main character being a specific type of person isn’t really central to the plot at all, this “why not be ______?” approach should be taken by more people).

Multiplayer is where it’s at with this title, though, and while there are a lot of differing opinions on this one, I grew to really like that BlOps 3 made movement abilities–utilizing a handy sort-of-jet-pack–a thing that becomes a key part of the gameplay. Rather than just target recognition and aim, having this as a more fully formed third dimension of gameplay makes BlOps 3 both a bit sillier and more fun to me than certain “realistic” versions of the game (such as the ones on the other side of the BlOps-Modern Warfare Divide). It’s still, at its heart, a personshoot. But Treyarch’s latest entry is a personshoot with the ability to wall-walk, use the occasional power-up, and slide under someone’s aim around a corner to hit them in the face with something. While it’s not the only way people should be making multiplayer shooters, it’s a fun way and actually a neat little departure from the typical formula.

~

We’ll be updating more often now, so there’ll be more of these to come (and again, they aren’t in place of full reviews). Happy driving-shooting-sneaking!

 

0