Mega Bloks Halo Covenant Commander set

So I went and grabbed this thing, a newly redesigned Covenant Ghost set from Mega Bloks, and I must admit, this thing is cool. Let's start with the vehicle, since it is obviously the biggest part of the set. I find the design to be an interesting thing, for starters, this is the biggest mega bloks ghost I've seen, being about the same length and width wise, but towering over the rest in height, I don't really know what to think of this to be honest, the thing is big, yes, but I always saw the Ghost as a small, sleek, fast little thing, and I don't see that in this new design. and that isn't a terribly big thing, it's just a thing I think when I look at it. a more notable thought would be that giant piece on the front of the Ghost, it's nice that it's painted,  rather than a stupid sticker for the detail, but I generally don't like these kinds of specialised pieces,  some I don't mind, but then there are these big ones that are literally front and centre, and I think that these pieces just look like lazy design, like rather than designing it with standard parts, the designers cheated, it wouldn't be a problem for me if it wasn't right there on it's nose. All in all I must be honest, I'm not terribly blown away by the vehicle in this set, which is really weird, because before I built it, it was the figure that looked unremarkable, and it is the part of this set that has blown me away. The figure included is Jul 'Mdama from Halo 4, and truth be told, other than his name I know nothing about him. So why does this figure blow me away, it uses a new design for the elite figures, something more similar to the UNSC figures with extra articulation and removable and interchangeable armour, and I adore the way this figure looks. first off, the paint on him is really good, particularly on the chest plate, where you can see there is a hand print, the rest of the armour is painted dark blue with light blue detail on the helmet. Under the removable helmet is a head, which doesn't have any paint detail unfortunately, but the sculpt more than makes up for that, I'll be keeping his helmet on anyway, good thing then that the sculpt is really detailed throughout on the armour. He comes with a new energy sword that I think is a massive improvement over the original design, though that peg hole in his back is a bit useless with that sword. Now for what I really love, with the new design, he has 2 joints in is legs, this is a big deal, so much opportunity for articulation is open with that simple 2nd leg joint, as you can see I have him in a pose in the photos, and it's just brilliant. So to summarise, the vehicle is unimpressive, and while the figure looks pretty cool and has some awesome paint and sculpt detail, he's no Thel 'Vadam or Ripa 'Moramee, but he still looks cool and comes with a kick arse weapon and the new articulation is absolutely brilliant. If you're after a Ghost, I wouldn't say this is the best version from Mega Bloks that you can buy, but if you're after an awesome mini figure, go ahead, because this little fella does not disappoint.

Doctor Who series 1 Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways review

Spoilers for Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways ahead.
Here's what you need to know; through mysterious circumstances, the Doctor, Rose and Jack find themselves back aboard satellite 5, now a game station filled with twisted and murderous reality shows and game shows, but a much larger, much darker force is pulling the strings, and now the war begins to save the universe from the Doctor's oldest and deadliest enemy.

here we are, the 2 part finale of series 1, now let's get to business. I'll start as the episode starts, never being a fan of Big Brother, or Weakest Link, I have mixed feelings on the game shows in Bad Wolf, on one hand, it's kind of goofy, no, it is just goofy, but on the other hand, it's kind of interesting seeing these well known game shows take on a really fucked up form, where the reward for winning is not getting blasted to atoms, that said, I really would be inclined to say it's the weakest part of these episodes, the problem is it's not, more on that later. Something I do like is that they don't reveal the big baddie until near the end of Bad Wolf, it's a shame then that they showed who it was in the preview, and that the first anything you see related to them immediately gives it away, but there's a very good and kind of creepy scene with the Doctor and the girl wired up on floor 500 who's name I don't know, and it sets up the reveal very unnervingly. At that point whether or not you're disappointed by who it is depends on what you're expecting, but again I'll get to that. Another thing I think works in this episode is the characters, particularly the Doctor, Jack, and god/emperor, whatever you want to call him. Jack is a badass in these episodes, notably in The Parting of the Ways, while the Doctor is faced with a very difficult decision, not only in keeping Rose safe, but in ultimately possibly wiping out all life on Earth, this episode implies that he has made this choice before, which really puts some extra gravity on the situation. Rose on the other hand, I  get what they were doing with Rose, but I just wasn't interested in her story on Earth with trying to get back to the Doctor, and to be frank, I really feel bad for Mickey, once being in the position of loving someone so blindly myself, and how horrible of a mistake it was, I didn't hate Rose in this episode, but I was not on board with it. And the big climax of the episode was actually a bit weak, with Rose swooping in full on Deus Ex Machina to save the day, ending in the culmination of a really unnecessary romantic element with Rose and the Doctor that, looking back on, I remember accepting, but now I don't like it, it's just unnecessary.

Enough negative, lets get back on track, and now is when I go full spoilers, while Bad Wolf is all figuring out what's going on, the interesting portion of The Parting of the Ways is an all out war between the remaining staff of satellite 5 and the Daleks, who are the big baddies of these episodes. I really enjoy these scenes, not just because I love the Daleks, though that certainly helps, these are just cool scenes in my opinion, as the Daleks climb up Satellite 5 floor by floor, constantly meeting futile efforts of resistance. This attack is when Jack is at his most badass, as he orchestrates and spearheads the resistance, and eventually goes down with no fear what so ever, awesome. And there's a scene on floor 0 with Jack that I love, so much that I'm going to quote, "And if you hear fighting up above, if you hear us dying, then tell me that the Daleks aren't real," that quote and the music used, it's giving me goose bumps thinking about it. Speaking of goose bumps, the scene where the Daleks kill Lynda, that really is creepy, if only for the shot of the Daleks at the window, there is no sound, but the dischargers are flashing, and you know exactly what the Dalek is saying, it's a grim scene, at least for me. Finally, by far my favourite parts of the episode are the scenes where the Doctor and the Dalek Emperor are talking, the Emperor thinks of himself as a god, more quotes, "I reached into the dirt and made new life, I am the god of all Daleks," the scene aboard the mother ship at the start of the episode is a real highlight, and I do genuinely love it.

These 2 episodes are a funny thing, I do have some pretty major criticisms, notably the weak ending, unnecessary plot elements and the Rose story as a whole, in addition to the goofy opening with the game shows, but at the end of the day, I like pretty much every scene with the Daleks in it, I like the villain, I like the talking between the Emperor and the Doctor, this isn't a perfect ending to a series, but it's got some really good stuff in it that makes it, in my opinion, an excellent watch.

Thunderbirds Are Go Heavy Metal review

Here's What you need to know; experiments at a Hadron collider to very wrong when a firing generates a gravity well that starts ripping things out of the sky, with the threat growing larger by the minute, International Rescue has to work fast to save the day.
Again, I did review this episode when it first aired, but I will review it again.

I think I said something along these lines in my first review, but Heavy Metal is a very sciency episode, I don't know anything about particle physics, so I can't say how accurate it is, but it's cool that it at least doesn't dumb itself down for kids, and it makes for some cool scenes, particularly one with Thunderbird 1 and an airliner, the scenario of this episode is just cool, and I can't think off the top of my head any other time when the Thunderbirds had to tackle something like a gravity well, It's certainly a cool idea, and it works. Some things I'm less fond of, for starters there's a sub plot with Brains, it's kind of cute, but it doesn't really feel necessary, also, I know I brought this up in my first review, but Alan is obsessed with the Hood, seriously, anything goes wrong, it's the Hood. One of my biggest criticisms of this series as a whole is the excessive presence of the Hood, and Alan doesn't help. Finally, I think their solution to the situation was a bit out there, while I find it less dumb than when it first aired, I still think it's a bit dumb. That said, I still think this is a fun episode, I like the sciency aspect, and I particularly like the scene with Thunderbird 1 and the airliner, a few criticisms aside, this is still a fun little watch.

No ___mmi__

Today I went on one of my little excursions and took some photos in a local park, it was a bit naff really, I only got about 90 photos, but even with that tiny little amount of snaps, hopefully I got some that are half decent, including one I know I could have done better on. So here we have a photo taken from a bridge of the train line that runs through the park, a photo of the sun poking through some bushes, a badly damaged no swimming sign, and finally a little something special, Thunderbird 2 deploying it's transport module, that one I could have done better on, but anyway, enjoy.

I like bowling.

Today my and my friends went for some bowling, and I saw again how smug I am in victory, good god, I am a piece of shit. We played 2 games, admittedly I arrived late for the first one, so M bowled for the first few rounds of the game, on that note I feel my victory in the first game was a bit hollow, since M got a strike for me in my absence. Game 2 however, all me, I don't mean to brag, but it was a glorious victory, also, maybe it was just  me but it looked like me and M were in some kind of game to see who could bowl the hardest, yeah, when we bowled, it was violent. Now for the stupid part, there were 11 of us, so we divided into 2 teams in 2 lanes, only 5 lanes were in use, yet all 5 of those lanes were up the corner, right at the back of the building, why everyone was bunched together like that is beyond me. It got worse, like I said, we were split into 2 teams, my team finished both games in the lane we started the game in, the other team weren't so lucky, they got through half of their first game before the shit began. By shit I mean our lanes were constantly being moved around, our board moved 4 times, as did theirs, and every time they moved, they would glitch out and we would have to wait several minutes for things to be back in order, it was a shambles. Oh but it didn't stop being stupid then. When we were finally bowling again, the balls would get stuck in the back, so we were constantly running out of balls while we could see the ones we bowled piling up behind the pins, when that was fixed all the balls we had bowled came round at the same time, it's amazing no one broke a finger while we were then trying to unjam the machine on our end, they sounded like giant smashing marbles every time. Still, minus the absolute debacle between games, our team had 2 fun games and the other team had 1 and a half good games. Also, I won both games, because I'm smug, winning is fun. Bowling is fun, and that is that, working with broken machines on the other hand, not fun, possibly funny, definitely not fun.

The Strain season 2 Fort Defiance review

Spoilers for season 2 of The Strain ahead.
Here's what you need to know; Dutch and Fet become determined to find an answer to the mystery of Dutch's former lover, Eph and Nora get closer to discovering the magic weapon, but Nora finds that Abraham is carrying a dangerous secret, meanwhile Gus and Vaun lead a daring attack on Palmer.

This episode was cool, and this will sound cheesy, but this season of The Strain is getting better and better with each episode. Lets begin as the episode begins, with 2 NYPD cops coming across the rock star guy in an alley way, this is just a cool scene, even if there's not a lot to it, it's a grim scene that shows just how bad the situation in New York is. So bad in fact that what's going on on Staten island is apparently justified, I mean, it's good that they've managed to secure Staten island, and that someone is making a stand against the vampires, but that is fucking barbaric, I won't say what, but good lord. At least I can't say this of the actor, more of the character, but Eph's son is annoying me now, how stupid do you need to be to have it literally right in your face and still not see that the vampires are bad? Still, Eph's speech to the Master was cool, hope he's capable of living up to that promise. Now lets get to the meat, Abraham does something very vile in this episode, why it works in getting under your skin is it's gross, and wrong, but you get it, it makes sense, and it really shows how determined Abraham is to kill the Master or die trying. Now let's get on to Dutch and Fet, Fet is still a bad ass, wanting to blow up the subway to keep the Vampires in the city, and his determination to help Dutch find closure is very good, Dutch is also good in this episode, having a very emotional scene with her ex girlfriend's mum, I just don't think I buy her and Fet yet, I don't think romance is something this show needs. Now let's get to spoilers, because here it is, I hope Vaun isn't dead, their attack on Palmer's HQ ends in disaster, with Gus being the only one to escape and everyone else getting caught in a trap and burned alive with UV light. I really hope that Vaun escapes, because Gus' campaign of revenge will be a lot less interesting without him, unless Gus joins Abraham's campaign, and what about the elders, will that story end now, it seemed pretty important, plus Vaun was cool, albeit underdeveloped, millitant vampire badass, how could that not be cool.

Fort Defiance has a few things I didn't get behind, for example Eph's son's stupidity and denial about the vampires, Dutch and Fet's romance that isn't neccessary in my opinion, but I'll see where they go before deciding weather I hate them or not, same with Staten island and the possibility that Vaun is dead, meanwhile there are things in this episode I love, mainly Abraham and Eph's stories, I really enjoyed this episode, and I want to know what happens next, not just with Vaun, but Eph and Nora's virus, I would recommend this episode.

This may well have been a bad idea

 So today I took the plunge once again, this time not for metal Star Wars ships, but as you can see, a Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper. Just like with the metal ships last week, I'm not going to do a full review of these guys, to be honest I don't think there's much to say about them. Lets start with the good, I think the sculpt is decent, that's not saying much for the Stormtrooper, but Vader looks pretty cool with the sculpt, particularly the helmet, torso and arms. Darth Vader also has a good quality of paint on him, pretty much entirely on the torso, but it's very good little detail, the same could also be said of the Stormtrooper's helmet and the figures' accessories, a blaster and a Light Sabre. So far from a visual standpoint these figures are doing very well, now is when we move onto the dark side of them. Vader's cape is made of fabric, this isn't the bad thing, the bad thing is that his cape is crap, the fabric is creased and see-trough, it's also too big, and it just looks ugly. It's not as noticeable when you're looking at the figure as a whole, but it's still there. And now we move on to the articulation, which is crap, each figure has 5 points of articulation, swivel on the shoulders, legs and head, that's it. I like putting my figures in dynamic poses, thus articulation is important to me, Darth Vader's idle pose is fine to me, but the Stormtrooper is a massive disappointment, he's a soldier, and I can't pose him, I'll probably be getting more Star Wars figures in the coming years, and this Stormtrooper will be replaced, it's a shame, because I like the way the Stormtrooper looks. Not going to lie, these Star Wars figures aren't brilliant, at least not in my opinion, I'll be getting better figures in the future, no doubt.

Star Wars movie review

Here's what you need to know; young Luke Skywalker lives a comfortable life on the desert planet of Tatooine, but aspires to do more with his life. His opportunity comes when he is swept up in an intergalactic civil war between the rebels and the sinister galactic empire, and joins the mission to destroy the empire's latest and most devastating weapon, the Death Star.
Yes, I finally got round to watching Star Wars, it took long enough, but as The Force Awakens approaches, I really have no excuse. Also, for this review I will be reviewing the original 1977 theatrical version of the film, I just thought that was worth noting.

I must be honest, I felt a similar feeling going into this than when I first saw Lord of the Rings, after hearing so much praise and seeing how famous and popular the franchise became, I wasn't sure if the film would actually live up to the hype, fortunately just like Lord of the Rings, I wasn't disappointed by Star Wars. The film opens with a very cool scene where a rebel ship is captured by a Star Destroyer, where we are introduced to a few of the characters, mainly the 2 droids R2D2 and C3PO, and Darth Vader. Darth Vader was really cool in this film, but I don't really need to explain there. What I liked about this film is that they treated the Force like some kind of religion, a Religion that Han Solo thinks is nonsense, I didn't expect that, and the Force stuff they show is really cool, like of course Darth Vader's Force choke, and Obi-wan's various little tricks. But I did think that it was brought up an unnecessary amount of times, it's not exactly a criticism, but I'd have thought something as literally nebulous as the Force would be something a bit more subtle, and there are times where it gets kind of cheesy. I thought the empire was really cool, with their star destroyers and tie fighters, but just the scenes where they're all around a table talking really interested me. The line up of characters is really good, there's Han Solo, the badass space pirate, Princess Leia, the leader of the resistance who is a good shot with a blaster, Chewbacca, he's an Ape, aside from how he 'talks' I don't really understand the fuss. And then there's the droids, who are awesome, R2D2 and C3PO are 2 characters I loved in this film, they were hilarious. Luke is a cool main character, he comes from a small beginning, but is driven to join the rebellion in a way I didn't expect, I mean, the film's a U, I didn't expect charred corpses, but his want to do more is very relatable. The film's plot is also really fun, as it doesn't really stop moving once it starts, which does take a bit of a while, I must admit, after the opening scene with the star destroyer, I thought the film really slowed down on Tatooine, I didn't think it was bad, and I wasn't bored, but it did drag a bit in my opinion. What the film does really well is world building, the world of Star Wars is interesting, with the war between the rebels and the empire.

I must say, the design of the film was awesome, and by that I mean literally the design, one of the first things you see is a star destroyer, and they look awesome, the X wings look awesome, same with the Tie fighters, everything from the massive ships to the tiny droids look really cool, and that again adds to the film's brilliant world building. It being a sci fi film from the 70's the effects are something that is rather important, but I must say, for a film that's 38 years old, the effects hold up really well, in a pre CG world everything was models, puppets and robots, and this film is a great example of old effects still being good. While some of the effects, mostly on ships look a bit off, others still look really good, maybe it's just growing up watching Gerry Anderson shows, but I love these older effects when they're done well, and for the most part Star Wars has aged impressively. These effects are most important when the rebels and empire are in battle, and the action is pretty cool. Action really breaks down to shootouts and dogfights, while the dogfights lack that Ace Combat ferocity, that's to be expected of a 38 year old film, meanwhile, the shootouts are really cool, each one is just a cluster fuck of lasers and smoke that's a joy to watch. Back up in the air the dogfights still are very enjoyable, particularly the final battle on the Death Star, and an escape on the Millennium Falcon. Just as if not More important though are character scenes, and again, Star Wars has it covered. Every scene with the droids is gold, but when Han Solo shoots a bounty hunter under the table is awesome, when Obi-wan feels a disturbance in the force and is physically effected, that was awesome, Leia being broken out of prison and immediately grabbing a blaster, that's cool, and a scene with Obi-wan, Vader and Luke that I'm not going to spoil, even in Star Wars, movie spoilers are to be avoided, but I will say that I didn't get it at first, but as the film carried on it made more sense.

I'm happy to say I really enjoyed Star Wars, I did think it had some flaws, I personally thought that some parts were a bit cheesy, and the film slows down after the first scene and takes a while to get moving again, I had fun with the battles, I liked the characters and story, and I thought the world was really cool, the effects have held up really well and it made the effects heavy scenes really cool, even if some effects look better than others. I suppose I don't really need to recommend Star Wars since it's so well known, but I would recommend it.

From on high on the cliffs

Here we have 4 more snaps from the coastal walk, 2 taken in the forest in the valley and 2 taken on the top of the path, I particularly like the photo of the path with the roots coming up and the photo of the rocky beach, but that's just me, enjoy.

Doctor Who series 1 Boom Town review

Here's what you need to know; The Doctor, Rose and Jack land in Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS, only to find an old enemy has made itself at home, and has dire plans that threaten the existence of Earth. Now stuck with said old enemy, The Doctor and the team must make a very difficult decision.

Boom Town is in many ways a follow up to Aliens of London and World War Three, mainly in that it wraps up the story of the Slitheen family, one of which survived the missile attack at the end of World War Three, and has taken up residence in Cardiff and formulated a plan to escape the planet, before of course her plan was interrupted by the Doctor. This episode has a lot going on, and I have some pretty mixed feelings on it. The first part of the episode is the team hunting down Margaret and stopping her escape plan, this stuff is funny, and the scene where she tries to teleport away always cracks me up, but thrown in there is a really good scene with Margaret and a Journalist, I don't know how I could feel pity for a giant gross green alien that tried to destroy the planet, but I did in this scene, I think it was well done. This episode can really be broken up into 3 parts, the first is funny and has a really good scene in it, but the second is by far the best part of this episode, I really liked the character of Margaret in this episode, she stands out as a villain who has ultimately lost everything she loved and has nowhere to go, and this weirdly sympathetic side makes for some brilliant back and forth with her and Doctor, as she alludes to how similar they are. There's another drama going on with Rose and Mickey, and while the Doctor and Margaret is much more interesting, Mickey is understandably in a tough place emotionally, and the drama with him and Rose, while not very fun to watch for obvious reasons, still has a sense of gravity to it that can't be ignored while you watch. Unfortunately I think this episode kind of falls apart toward the end, the big twist and Margaret's deception is not remotely shocking or surprising, and the big climax with the rift is completely lacking  in interest after such a good character story, and the end of Margaret's story was a bit too happy in my opinion, a bit too neat, though Rose and Mickey's drama is left hanging, something I like, as it puts both the characters in a very interesting place, it's a shame that the Margaret and Doctor story ends as cleanly as it does, especially after a somewhat uninteresting big finale that the episode really didn't need.

Boom Town is a very good character episode, with 2 big dramas that are both interesting, and it's a brilliant and very sympathetic and human look at the character of Margaret. The episode's big ending is a bit of a disappointment, and Margaret's story ultimately ends on a disappointing note, maybe I wouldn't have said this 10 years ago, but with this episode less could have been more, regardless, this is still a very, very good episode.

Thunderbirds Are Go Under Pressure review

Here's what you need to know; things continue to go wrong for poor Ned and his plant when a deep sea crap clearing machine loses control with them on board, Thunderbird 2 flies out to rescue Ned and stop his toxic cargo from poisoning the ocean, meanwhile Penelope and Parker uncover as sinister plan involving the Hood.
I've already reviewed this episode and the next episode; Heavy Metal, but to keep things moving I will be reviewing them again.

For me, there are some episodes of this new series that are brilliant; episodes like Space Race and Skyhook, then there are some that are boring and slow; episodes like Crosscut and Unplugged, and then there's a grey area in the middle, where the episodes are fun and cool, but won't really stick in your mind; episodes like Slingshot and Under Pressure. I had fun with this episode, I really liked what was going on with Thunderbird 2 and 4 rescuing Ned. There's a good balance of tension and immediacy, and the episode doesn't overly rely on either, plus it's always cool to have some variety, and Thunderbird 4 has been somewhat absent in this new series. When the rescue all comes to a head it really is fun to watch, and Ned is a lot more likable than he was in Slingshot. But what brings this episode down is a subplot with Penelope and Parker being attacked by the Hood's goons and the Hood formulating another one of his evil schemes, this is a criticism I had of many of the earlier episodes, the Hood is a cool character, but he doesn't need to be pulling all the strings, I'd rather rarely see him and he be an actual villain than him just showing up all the time with dumb evil plan after dumb evil plan. And as much as I like the characters of Penelope and Parker, my favourite Thunderbird machine was never FAB1, so again, like the Hood, a rare treat would be much better, and the chase itself was actually really goofy.

I liked the rescue stuff in this episode, Thunderbird 4 was cool, and Ned was a lot more likable, and the rescue itself was fun to watch, but the episode is dragged down by a needless subplot, forced appearance of the Hood, and a goofy car chase. It's fun, but it's again not up there with the best this series has done, still, there's nothing to be lost in giving it a watch.

I hope this wasn't a bad idea

So this is a confession, I have never actually seen the Star Wars films, yep, I've caught a few minutes here and there on TV and I've had them on DVD for a while, I've just never actually sat down and watched them, no doubt I will though between now and Christmas, because it's pretty much settled that we're going to see The Force Awakens. And to be honest, I really like the look of it, and it's directed by J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, 2 films I love. I'm a collector, it's a sad truth, and like many collectors, I have a thing for metal, after all, my favourite Halo vehicles that I own besides the massive McFarlane Warthog set are the Jada Toys diecast vehicles, so how on earth could I say no to these guys. It's entirely possible that I may not like Star Wars though, the odds are crazy slim, but it's important to have an open mind when going into any film, especial ones held as highly as the original Star Wars films, which I understand goes completely against me going and buying these toys, I'm impulsive though. I'm hopeful that by Christmas I will not regret buying these things, and besides, they're cool, particularly the X-wing, from what I've seen of Star Wars, I always thought the X-wing looked awesome. Bit random, but I bought these guys, and I didn't really think they're worth a full review, so in the Idiocy tag it goes.

thoughts on Women as Reward - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

So the acclaimed media critic who's series has a 1.8/10 on IMDb, Anita Sarkeesian has put up a new video in her web series Tropes vs Women in Video Games, this time 'exploring' the women as a reward trope, so let's look at this video, here are my thoughts.

First off, Anita, I love you're little trigger warning at the beginning of the video, not safe for children, doesn't that contradict that your videos are educational, and"used by parents to spark conversation with their children," but oh well, it isn't the first time you contradicted yourself and it won't be the lt. As for graphic sexual content, as of writing this I haven't watched  the whole video, so let's see what examples she gives. Let's begin with an inconsistency with what she is saying, in her section about alternate character costumes she criticises female alternate costumes as sexualising and objectifying female characters, and lists off a bunch of examples of these costumes. Now, to a gamer, these alternate costumes are a joke, you'd think that these costumes are just the developers having a laugh, but of course that's not true, the devs are sitting in their offices twirling their moustaches and stroking their white cats designing these costumes to demean women. But when she hints at this treatment also being a applied to alternate skins of male characters, she addresses that these are just seen as jokes, what is that double standard, Anita, either they're both fine, or they're both not fine, you shouldn't hold this double standard. Also, most of the examples she gives are in Japanese games, Japan, a country known for having a wacky culture that is known to carry over to their games, and if it's so rampant in all games, why A the focus on Japanese games and B Resident Evil, think of some better examples for god's sake. On the subject of Japanese games, you use Metroid as an example of women's bodies being used to reward the "Presumed straight male player," first off, who is assuming that the players are all straight males, who other than you? And as for straight, how do you know it doesn't titillate a lesbian female player? here's the thing Anita, games are a massive industry, there is no 1 audience, there are many, many audiences that different games appeal to for different reasons, so how do you know that no lesbian female has ever played Metroid, you don't know, because you can't know, not without the numbers that A don't exist and B you wouldn't cite even if they did. Meanwhile, god fucking damn, how sexually arousing do you think a 16 bit video game character is? And Metroid came out in 1986, that was 29 years ago, we know your audience doesn't play video games, but let's pretend someone watching this video is a young and impressionable straight male gamer, what are the odds he's played Metroid? They're not good are they, so how is it relevant, and if you're using it as an example of a trend setter, it's still 29 years old, the industry have changed massively in that time and you'd be a moron if you disagreed.

Anita, games these days are rather generous with experience points, just look at a game like Call of Duty, where players are awarded XP points for pretty much everything, now compare that to saving chained maidens in Conan, or sleeping with women in God of War, I'll focus on God of War because I've played God of War, clearly more than you have done, Anita. God of War is a an adventure game based on Greek Mythology, now I'm not sure what you know about ancient Greece, admittedly I don't know a huge amount, but just google image Greek art and you will see a lot of art of naked people, not just women, but men, in this regard God of War's naked women could be a reflection of art. also, if you want to talk about idealistic sexualised female bodies and then you use God of War as an example, have you even seen Kratos, again with the double standards. also, these sex scenes in God of War are optional, you know, you're not forced by the devs to have sex with these women, you can always just not do it, and just as easily get the red orbs by vanquishing monsters. Earlier than this in your video, you claim sex is used as a reward in gaming, and then give the example of Ride to Hell, this is a shit choice Anita, for numerous reasons. Let's start with the obvious, who the hell has heard of Ride to Hell, and more importantly why do the people who know of it know of it, it's because it is a piece of shit, it is an abysmal game that no one in their right mind would ever play it, the creepy fully clothed sex scenes are actually one of many flaws, and to point this out as specifically what is wrong with the game proves you haven't played it, just how much 'research' have you actually done? You then use The Witcher, remember when I said the gaming industry has changed, for a while now games have been developed that target a more mature adult audience, games with more complex and mature stories, more realistic characters that must overcome adversity both massive and personal, The Witcher is an open world RPG game, so it would naturally have a long list of things you can do, including having sex with prostitutes, it's the same as playing golf in GTAV, which, like prostitution, is also optional.

Ok, Anita, on Xbox I have 35000 gamerscore, now tell me how much of that is for having sex with women in games, because I can tell you that the answer is in double digits at absolute best, you are aware that achievements are awarded to the player for a host of things, like progression based achievements or achievements for collecting all the collectables, how many achievements do you think there are in the Halo series for having sex with Cortana or Miranda Keyes, because the answer is 0, is there an achievement for having sex with Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite, no, is there an achievement for having sex with Anya in Gears of War, no, thank god I am typing this and not saying it because hearing Anita Sarkeesian talk makes my blood boil. This is stupid, Anita, you have cherry picked examples like God of War and GTA, and misrepresented your examples to make your point. Achievements are not literal rewards for achieving sex with women you fucking idiot. Now let's move on deeper into the shit shall we, when Anita defines male entitlement, Anita, you are insane if you think what you have said is actually true, you paint all men, not just gamers, but men, as misogynistic sexist pigs who feel entitled to the bodies of women, and yet where is your proof, oh wait, you have none, because none exists. And tell me when men send demands to female players asking for nudes or demanding they get out their boobs, because I have got to tell you, in my personal experience, I've never seen it, not once, and what's more, what's to stop the woman from telling them to piss off, do you think they lack their own minds and are just slaved to the whims of men, you misogynistic shitbag.

I'm sorry for that little outburst, I was watching Anita's video hoping it wouldn't come to that, and I was responding to the 'arguments' she made
 but for the love of god, when some con artist comes in and starts 'criticising' an industry I love to forward her agenda, especially when that agenda involves sucking the fun out of everything and more importantly accusing billions of people of being evil by virtue of their existence with absolutely no evidence, Anita Sarkeesian, you receive 'abuse' because you never address criticism or provide evidence, and you receive abuse because you are a piece of shit, and this is yet another video that shows why so many people hate you.

The Strain season 2 By Any Means review

Spoilers for season 2 of The Strain ahead.
Here's what you need to know; Eph and Nora turn to desperate measures to crack the code and kill the vampire virus, meanwhile Abraham struggles to deal with his mortality, and Palmer plays his villainous card to complete the Master's plan.

This episode got under my skin rather quickly, but in a good way, I'm not really scared by things in entertainment, but fuck the little kid vampires in this episode, could they not make that awful fucking clicking noise, it's creepy stuff to say the least. My pseudo criticism from last week that the characters could be made more interesting is gone now, because this episode has some really good character scenes, I would just focus on Abraham, but Eph and Nora also have some really good scenes. Let's start with Abraham, this episode carries on with the flashbacks to his past, this time it's 1965, and it explores him first meeting Palmer, these flashbacks are largely talking, but the talking isn't boring, thank god, Palmer's rolling in his wheelchair being all creepy and untrustworthy, and there's a really enjoyable scene with Abraham and an antique dealer, which I won't spoil. Meanwhile back in the present Abraham thinks that the other team members are losing trust in his knowledge after they failed to kill the Master in the season 1 finale, I always love some personal adversity, and I like what was done with Abraham's character in this episode. Eph is becoming more unstable as he turns to alcohol, which I think is really interesting and admittedly grim to watch, what stands out is a scene when he is with his patients giving one of them medicine. The patients also allow for a good scene with Nora, which I won't spoil, because it's troubling stuff. Fet and Dutch clear out a swimming pool of vampires in this episode, a romance has been brewing between these two characters, but in this episode you can see what is going to happen a mile off, and there's a tiny bit of cringe, though I did laugh when Fet said he couldn't swim. The scene when they clear the changing room of vampires also has some odd editing choices that I don't fully understand, like slow motion, why is a vampire's severed head hitting a mirror in slow motion, it's just a weird choice to me, and it wasn't as cool as it sounds. On the subject of odd scenes, I'm not really sure about Palmer's big speech, I get that it's supposed to be funny, and it's supposed to unite New York against the vampires, again you know what's coming with this scene, and while parts of his speech did make me chuckle, it was just dripping with cheese. I love the scenes with the patients though, every time they were on screen was just unnerving as hell, and it's frankly cruel what Eph and Nora are doing to them, but this is a situation where there is no good ending, and this episode does a very good job of conveying the cruelty of their actions while making you understand the motives, it's heavy stuff, but it's great.

This is a more enjoyable episode than BK, NY, there are some cheesy or cringe worthy moments, but it explores the characters in a way that I really like, particularly Abraham, the flashbacks are cool in this episode, they're not as creepy as the prologue to BK, NY, but they're still enjoyable to watch. The vampire killing is cool as ever, but unlike the neat muzzle flash in the BK, NY, this episode has an iffy use of slow motion that feels out of place. this episode has some really creepy shit, mostly with the kid vampires, even though they only appear briefly, it got under my skin, and it was awesome, this episode is worth a watch.

Snowbound

Here we have 4 photos taken in January on the Roaches, when we went up there the fog was thick and the snow was about a foot deep, it was awesome, but it was also unfortunately freezing, regardless, I really enjoyed going up there with a camera, it's one of my best photography excursions, and here are some of the those photos, enjoy.