Don't mess with Marla Grayson's money, and don't mess with Rosamund Pike's appearance.
Monday, 1 March 2021
Sunday, 28 February 2021
Dr Disrespect Barred From Call Of Duty Tournament, Likely Over Twitch Ban
The reason behind Dr Disrespect's Twitch ban may still be a mystery, but it might also be affecting his eligibility for tournaments, as the popular streamer has been banned from competing in the upcoming Toronto Ultra Call of Duty tournament. This is ostensibly because the tourney will be streamed live on Twitch, and allowing the good Doctor to participate would violate the conditions of his ban.
Dr Disrespect's digital drama started in June 2020 when Twitch suddenly banned the popular and often controversial streamer without explanation, a ban that has since been confirmed to be permanent and irrevocable. While the Doc had garnered a reputation for being brash, and was briefly banned by Twitch in the past for filming himself and others in a restroom at TwitchCon, the second ban was given without reason, and without an expiration date either. After a few months of speculation and silence, Doc resurfaced on YouTube to resume streaming, and while he's offered insight on how the ban has affected him, both personally and professionally, to date there is no official reason why he has been permanently ousted from Twitch.
Doc has speculated on the reasoning behind his ban, but otherwise has largely moved on from Twitch and the whole debacle, until it became clear that the ban was going to affect his career beyond his ability to stream on the platform. Dr Disrespect and fellow streamer, Zack "ZLaner" Lane, with whom Doc has played Call of Duty: Warzone on YouTube, and last year's Toronto Ultra Tournament winner, were expecting to participate in this year's tournament. But as reported by Game Rant, ZLaner announced via livestream that, to his disappointment, Dr Disrespect would not be able to participate in the tournament.
"I got a message back from the organizers from Toronto Ultra and Call of Duty, they’re the ones pulling the tournament off, and they said Doc is not allowed.”
Doc, when asked about the issue, could only respond that he didn't know why he wasn't allowed to participate in the tournament, but it isn't exactly a difficult connection to make. Twitch is the only platform handling the tourney's official video livestream, and if Dr Disrespect participates in the tournament, Twitch would have no choice but to stream him, which would basically create a loophole in his ban. That loophole could be one he or other gamers who have been similar banned could exploit in the future, and Twitch has enough of its own legal problems without creating the possibility for more. That is, of course, entirely speculation, but it is reasonable speculation, especially considering that Doc's ban is still otherwise unexplained.
The Toronto Ultra Call of Duty: Warzone tournament kicks off tomorrow, March 1, at 1 PM EST, and is offering a first place prize of $100,000. ZLaner is still scheduled to play, but unfortunately, he will be doing so without the Doc.
Source: ZLaner (via Game Rant)
The LEGO Games Aren't As Good As You Remember | Screen Rant
With an endless supply of pop culture reference material, licensed LEGO video games were once as commonplace as Madden or Call of Duty releases. Each iteration was a nostalgia trip, taking players on a toy-based adventure through their favorite fantasy worlds, and the LEGO name itself is synonymous with many people's childhood memories. With LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga set to release later in 2021, these nostalgia trips aren't over. But hard truths must sometimes be said, and the truth about LEGO games is they simply aren't that good.
The many licensed LEGO video games are well crafted, with great attention to detail in recreating toy versions of the properties they represent, and there's no shortage of fan demand for more movie franchises to become LEGO games. That doesn't change the fact, though, that the core functions of the games don't always work the way they're intended, and, at the end of the day, their gameplay can border on maddening.
Take away the theme from each LEGO game, and players are left with an action-adventure game full of puzzles. Some of the best and most popular video games are exactly that, from Uncharted to the Batman: Arkham series. The biggest difference between those games and LEGO games isn't just the serious narratives and highly detailed, realistic settings; it's that the mechanics of those games work, whereas the mechanics of LEGO games are often clunky and inconsistent.
Ask any fan of what they like best about the LEGO games, and the answer will almost certainly be something about how fun it is to relive cinematic moments from the films or to unlock their many characters. Seldom, if ever, would someone mention how fluid or fun the combat is - because it's not. It's not uncommon to flail around at enemies while accidentally smashing teammates to bits or to constantly get knocked off a ledge because of way enemies cluster and players respawn. More times than not, LEGO game combat is just running around frantically, jumping up and down, and haphazardly playing whack-a-mole.
If the combat is frustrating, the puzzles can be downright infuriating. Players might have to use Wingardium Leviosa or the Force to raise a series of objects, for example, only to have their cursor constantly drift away from each object, sending it back to the floor to start over again. And half of the time, the nearly-always-simple puzzle solutions aren't evident without aimless wandering. No amount of unlockable, fan-favorite Star Wars characters can change the fact that unlocking them, or sometimes just unlocking the next level, can take hours of metaphorically beating one's head against a wall. Almost anyone who's ever played the LEGO games has likely found themselves combing through an area, swapping characters and interacting with everything they can multiple times over, just to try to find a hidden item or the right way forward.
These problems don't make the LEGO games bad; they can be very fun adventures through beloved franchises. But it's possible to think pizza is tasty and to recognize that it's not a balanced, nutritional meal. It's time to accept that, although the LEGO video games can be fun, they can also be not very good.
Even Marvel's Villains Are Teaming Up Against the King in Black
Warning: Spoilers for King in Black: Thunderbolts #3!
The Thunderbolts have teamed up to take down the King in Black… whether they like it or not! Much like DC's Suicide Squad, Marvel's current iteration of the Thunderbolts stars an unlikely band of supervillains brought together - with little say in the matter - by a greater authority than themselves. In this case, it's current Mayor of New York Wilson Fisk who forms this oddball team of expendables. Their mission: kill Knull, the King in Black, at all costs.
The new series started out with Fisk assigning this task to a handful of villains, explaining that if they succeed and survive this nearly impossible undertaking, he'll pay them handsomely. The only caveat is that if any of them refuse to accept this mission, Fisk will lock them up in a jail cell where they'd be sitting ducks as Knull's symbiote army consumes the earth. Left with practically no choice at all, these Thunderbolts - spearheaded by Taskmaster, Star Mister Fear and Batroc the Leaper - have already lost plenty of teammates while also picking up some new ones along the way.
A new preview for King in Black: Thunderbolts #3 by Matthew Rosenberg and Juan Ferreyra picks up shortly after the team received a new directive from Norman Osborn: acquire the Sentry's dead body and use its leftover energy to blow up Knull's lair. Seeing as how this team has been cursed with bad luck from the jump, it's no surprise their stolen getaway bus breaks down right as this new issue begins. Star, the only one amongst them with something of a moral compass, has to practically pull Taskmaster's teeth to convince him not to leave the Ravencroft inmates they brought with them behind.
As they make their way on foot through the symbiote-infested streets of New York, one panel showcases the team walking together as one. On their way to their climactic final destination, unsure if any of them will survive, this is typically the epic moment in most superhero stories when the team finally learns to work together as one and bring down the enemy. Only, given that none of this team really wants to be there and would gladly stab each other in the back if it meant their own survival, this is a hilarious subversion that's made even funnier by Mr. Fear threatening to kill Foolkiller for mentioning he'd rather not be a Thunderbolt.
Given how popular it currently is, the superhero genre often runs the risk of following its familiar narrative patterns a bit too closely. Specifically, when it comes to super powered team up stories, it's quite rare not to see the team overcoming their differences to become something greater than their individual selves. The current Thunderbolts series is having a blast exposing its absurd squad for exactly what it is: a group of villains with absolutely nothing to lose. Find out just how ludicrous things get from here when King in Black: Thunderbolts #3 releases on March 3.
How Teenage JJ Abrams (& His Dad) Help Shape Escape From New York
Here's how a young J.J. Abrams and his father helped shape Escape From New York. John Carpenter was hot off the success of Halloween - which helped kickstart the slasher movie boom of the 1980s - and The Fog when he directed Escape From New York. This action thriller finds Kurt Russell's outlaw Snake Plissken forced to break into New York, which has been converted in the movie's bleak dystopian future into a walled-off prison, to rescue the kidnapped President. The movie was a solid hit at the time and would help launch Russell's career.
Escape From New York would also inspire countless low-budget ripoffs and be a major inspiration on the character of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid games. Carpenter and Russell would later reunite for 1996 sequel Escape From L.A., which sadly proved to be a major letdown and a box-office failure. A remake of the original movie has been trapped in development hell for over a decade and shows - ironically - little sign of breaking out.
Escape From New York has been a noted inspiration on several filmmakers, including Robert Rodriguez, who claims it influenced his decision to become a filmmaker. The other is J.J. Abrams, with both the concept and poster of Cloverfield being heavily inspired by Carpenter's 1981 film; the head bomb from Mission: Impossible III is another nod to the explosive device planned in Snake's neck. It turns out young J.J. had a hand in shaping the final cut of Escape, as he and his producer father Gerald W. Abrams attended an early rough cut.
John Carpenter himself was in attendance for this test screening, and this version of Escape From New York lacked many sound and visual effects. Abrams recalled in an NPR interview being mortified when Carpenter asked for feedback and his father raised his hand. He noted the original opening scene, which depicted Snake and his partner being caught after committing a robbery, undermined the character's mythical outlaw status. Despite his embarrassment, J.J. later raised his hand too and noted that he was a little confused by the fate of Adrienne Barbeau's Maggie, who disappeared after a car crash in the finale.
Carpenter thought that was an interesting note and when Abrams later saw the final cut of Escape From New York, he noted the original opening was gone and an insert had been added of Maggie's dead body to confirm her fate. While it may have been entirely possible John Carpenter came to make those creative choices separate of the feedback from the Abrams' boys, J.J. later met the movie's DP Dean Cundey, who confirmed after that test screening they went back to shoot a close-up of Maggie's corpse. The deleted opening scene itself is a fascinating little curio, but snipping it was the smart choice.
McDonald's Pokémon Cards Sold On eBay For $600 After Scalping Controversy
The new Pokémon McDonald's cards are being sold online for outrageous costs. Pokémon is currently celebrating its 25th-anniversary and has teamed up with McDonald's. The Pokémon Company is celebrating by releasing exclusive stained glass Pokémon figures, a new video game in the form of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and a music album featuring Katy Perry and Post Malone.
The Pokémon Trading Card game initially released in the United States back in 1998. It has remained popular to the present day, as the Pokémon franchise continues to receive support from a large and loyal fanbase. Billions of cards continue to be bought, traded, and sold. Pokémon TCG continues to be one of the top-selling card games as well. As the value of certain cards increases, there is a greater incentive for outsiders to come in and hoard rare cards and sell them later for a much higher price. Legacy cards in particular are becoming more valuable.
As part of the collaboration, certain Pokémon cards can be found in a Happy Meal box at participating McDonald'slocations. Each box contains 50 different cards, including some rarer holographic cards. However, according to Gamerant, some scalpers have marred the release of McDonald's Pokémon cards. Similar to the PS5 scalping controversy, boxes of McDonald's 25th-anniversary cards are being sold on sites like eBay for hundreds of dollars. This includes a recent transaction in which a single Pikachu Pokémon card sold for $500.
Pokémon cards remain a hot commodity. A Japanese man committed fraud by forging 25 different popsicle sticks in an attempt to acquire rare Pokémon cards from an ice cream company. This was done to boost his chances of winning a rare Mythical Zarude card, in perhaps the strangest example yet of the lengths fans are willing to go through in order to get their hands on these highly valuable cards.
The ongoing commercial success of Pokémon is undoubtedly a major factor behind the huge profits these cards are generating. This is influencing many people who hold no real interest in Pokémon to swoop in, purchase popular cards and sell them at a higher price to bring in some major profit. Considering how common scalping has become within the Pokémon trading card game, the McDonald's 25th-anniversary cards never stood a chance from the moment they were first leaked in early January. The hope is these high prices will eventually decline.
Source: Gamerant
DC's Black Superman Will Play A Key Role In Future Comics
DC's black Superman is set to play an integral role in the future of their comics universe. Calvin Ellis debuted more than a decade ago and has been used in a smaller roles since his introduction, but in the upcoming Infinite Frontier initiative, one of the newest iterations of Superman will play a part in the next storytelling era for the publisher.
DC Comics has introduced a few of Black Superman before in the pages of Animal Man, Tangent Comics, and Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, it wasn't until Final Crisis #7, when a black Superman would get a starring role that wasn't limited to a single miniseries or one-and-done appearance. Ellis was created by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke and was from Earth-23 in the multiverse, where he was president of the United States. Ellis was said to be influenced by former President Barack Obama. Post-Final Crisis, he's appeared in The Multiversity. The character has recently been revealed to be part of DC's Infinite Frontier initiative.
This week there's been a renewed focus surrounding the character, after it was reported Warner Bros was planning on introducing a brand new black Superman in a film produced by J.J. Abrams and written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Actor Michael B. Jordan has previously said that he would like to play a version of Ellis in the films. Even before the announcement, DC Comics had already revealed plans to give the character a bigger role, as he was featured on the splash page showcasing the Infinite Frontier era for DC Comics. Ellis can be seen standing beside Nightwing.
DC Comics hasn't revealed what role Ellis would be playing in the Infinite Frontier era, but the fact he's one of the characters on the splash page is a big deal. These characters weren't random, they are all set to play sizable parts in DC's future stories. The question is: will Ellis join the main DC Universe or will he be a part of his own universe on a different Earth?
It's great to see DC showcase some new diverse superheroes as part of their upcoming comics. With Calvin Ellis in the image with both Nubia and Tim Fox, Infinite Frontier will feature a black Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman alongside the heroes who originally held the mantles. There's more than enough room for multiple versions of each character and with the inclusion of Calvin Ellis, DC is ready to make sure the black Superman is going to play a much bigger role than he has before.
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