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Sony E3 Press Event Reaction

Most people would agree that last year Sony had the best press conference of E3. While it is too early to hand them that crown this year, their press conference was a definite crowd-pleaser. They knew their audience pretty well, and delivered exactly what would win them acclaim.

The show started with a solid cheer from the crowd as the first movie started playing and the credits came up on screen. At last, we would see more from The Last Guardian. A game that was first announced in 2009, The Last Guardian has been shrouded in mystery since. That shroud was lifted away with a game play demonstration to start the show.

This is the game that fans of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been waiting for, and the video delivered exactly what those fans wanted to see. More important, the assurances that the game was still under development were proven true. This type of fan service would be one of several themes for the evening.

The next game shown was a totally new IP from Guerrilla Games, the studio best known for the Killzone series. Horizon: Zero Dawn is set in the vastly distant future. Humans have been reverted to tribes slowly rediscovering technology. Nature has reclaimed much of what humans had built, and now strange creatures made of technology and looking like dinosaurs roam the land. The world is open and the bit shown was of a hunter going to collect supplies from the machine animals when a large predator chases her. The battle that follows showed an interesting variety in the weapons and tactics used to take down the threat. My guess is Horizon won’t be out until Q4 2016, but is certainly a title I will be keeping my eye on.

Sony has figured out that it is critically important to focus on the things the audience is most interested in: games. Specifically, new games we did not know about, or at the least new information about those we did. This was the case with the new Hitman game that Sony gave a first look of and Street Fighter V for which they introduced new characters.

However, by focusing so heavily on the new, you get a major distinction between the Microsoft and the Sony press conferences. Microsoft focused almost exclusively on their line-up through Q1 2016. The games they showed would be in consumer hands soon. While the Sony presser had its share of those- Batman: Arkham Knight, Star Wars Battlefront, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III chief among them- many of the games shown did not even suggest a release date. Sony’s strong present market condition gives them the luxury of focusing more long term. That, in turn, allows them to show more new IPs and focus on those fan service moments used to strengthen brand loyalty.

The presentation team put a heavy emphasis on showcasing games that were “better” on PS4 as the PS4 version would have some tangible benefit. Map packs, exclusive missions, exclusive betas, timed exclusivity, almost every game presented had some kind of benefit for playing it on PS4. This was particularly noticeable in the Activision Sony partnership. I thought it was odd the Call of Duty did not make an appearance at the Microsoft event. Now it is clear why. On top of PlayStation once again having exclusive content to the new Destiny expansion, The Taken King, the announcements about Call of Duty: Black Ops III with map packs showing up first on PS4.

It was a big night for the JRPG; from the new, intriguing World of Final Fantasy, which has a character size swap mechanic, to the two most cheered announcements of the press event. First, that Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake that will arrive on PS4 first. The crowd lost it at this point; this is a game that many gamers spent countless hours playing and shaped their gaming identity. Second, the odd announcement on the PlayStation stage about a new Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue III. People have wanted this game for thirteen years.

The Shenmue III announcement epitomizes both this idea of fan service and looking to the future. This is a game that the fans have been craving, but is hard for a studio to justify funding. Clearly Sony likes it, but not enough to fully fund it. However, they know they want it on their platform so they give it a prominent spot in their presser (and probably some technical and other marketing support, but that is speculation). It worked really well. As of this writing, less than 12 hours since the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, it has already broken its goal of two million dollars. That two million has been raised by approximately 27,000 backers- which kind of proves Sony’s point. That is not enough copies sold to justify a development budget, but the fans that want this are willing to pay more than $60. Four backers have paid $10,000 for this game. Approximately seven thousand others have paid $100 or more. Still, development is a world away. The campaign has December 2017 as a projected delivery date.

The game that personally has me most intrigued was back this year after the announcement of it at last year’s E3: No Man’s Sky. This game simply looks bonkers. An entire procedurally generated universe to explore however you want to. It is too big to really comprehend, and that is what is so exciting. The graphics look much better this year. However, we still have not seen a lot of player interaction Even so, this game looks to be special.

The other title that was a bit nebulous was the new game from Media Molecule. I do not know how to describe Dreams. I don’t get it yet. It is a collaborative tool of creation, that much I get. I’m not sure I understand much more about it. Here, just look for yourself:

Indies got a lot less attention this year than last. Devolver Digital, makers of Hotline Miami, got the spotlight showcasing four new games that will be on PlayStation platforms. Firewatch, a title that will make its console debut on PS4, also got the spotlight in the keynote (including a spot in the post show shown at the theater experience). Last year there was a much larger push for indies. My guess is this was largely a time issue.

The Vita got very little love. One sizzle reel, a couple of additional platform announcements, and that is it. It appears the Vita will continue to exist and be a largely ignored part of the PlayStation ecosystem. Project Morpheus, the VR headset, got more stage time even though the reality is the install base of Morpheus (which will cost a lot) will probably never eclipse that of the Vita this generation. Even though Morpheus was shown, not a lot of concrete information was shared. We know Guerrilla Games: Cambridge is developing an arena combat game for it, and that one headset can play with 4 other players on the console, but no real time frame or price point was given.

The only real non-game announcement was the expansion of the PlayStation television content platform Vue. It is expanding to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and they promised that soon users nationwide will have a selection of channels that they can purchase a la carte, including most Discovery and Fox channels. This could be a huge first step in a la carte cable. However, no pricing was discussed.

Star Wars made its appearance in the form of the announcement of the PlayStation exclusive starter bundle for Disney Infinity 3.0 which will include the second Star Wars play set a month before general release as well as a Boba Fett figure. I feel for the spokesman who came out after the crowd was hyped with a picture of the Death Star and the music cue got the crowd excited. The crowd in my theater booed when he started talking about Disney Infinity. After that, we did get footage of a new play mode from Star Wars Battlefront. It was a survival mode in which the two players playing co-op had to survive several waves of enemies.

The show ended with a new game play demo of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. There was a technical issue that forced a restart on the demo, which took a bit away from the impact, but it was still a showing from a studio that knows exactly how to design and execute major action set-pieces.

Overall, the presser was impressive. To me, it struck the right tone of we know we are leading this generation and let us share how we are going to stay ahead. Could it have used a little more focus on things coming out this year? Maybe, but I think the new Activision partnership will carry a lot of water with CoD: Black Ops III. Heck, CoD looked good enough to make me think about returning to the series for the first time in years. They accomplished the harder job of keeping the audience excited for the future. Overall, I give the press event a B+.

TV Review: Powers S1E10 F@#k the Big Chiller

Powers March 10Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) has escaped, leaving a path of destruction and death in his wake, pushing Walker (Sharlto Copley) to put aside his desire to regain his own powers in order to help the Powers Division and heroes of the world end this once and for all. Will killing Wolfe save humanity or are there more sinister forces lurking in the background?

The final episode of the series seems to mix everything that’s good and bad about the series, all in about an hour. The action, the story, it’s a bit better. The acting generally is over the top in a bad way, and about what I’d expect from a fan film on Youtube. Though some actors have reigned it in and remembered they’re professionals. The special fx are still dodgy, where flying is about as graceful as a high school musical production of Peter Pan. There’s also the continued fascination with over the top amounts of blood, almost to fetish glee. The costumes continue to look like bad cosplay.

The problem also remains the story still doesn’t make all that sense, with characters making choices that are completely baffling. Retro Girl flies through a window tackling Wolfe, knocks him down, then… does nothing except takes her foot off of him. What? With superheroes like this, how has this world not been overrun by villains?

Powers Cast PhotoThe episode ends with a lot of cliff hangers. There’s a major death. Kaotic Chic is still out there. Calista has an interesting turn. The last 10 minutes or so actually shows quality, as if the series was saving all of that for these last few episodes, and especially this one.

I’ve said through much of the series, that Powers has a lot of potential. There could be some fantastic blending of superheroes and police enforcement. But, for whatever reason corners looked to have been cut, the budget might have been too low to properly make the fx look decent. The series just had trouble finding its footing until these last few episodes, which is a shame really. As someone who watches all of the television shows based on comics I only kept watching this one for these reviews. With so many other decent shows out there, why would I have wasted the time?

Who knows if there’ll be a second season, but it looks like the folks behind the series started to get everything together. Hopefully if it returns, it gets a bit of a bump in budget, because the show has potential, we’ve seen it for a few episodes. Here’s hoping they can expand that to an entire season if they continue.

Overall Score: 6.95

 

 

 

 

Spider-Man Gets Animated in 2018

The_Amazing_Spider-ManThe I received notification of a release, the release isn’t exactly working, but it’s being reported all over that Spider-Man will be getting the animated treatment in 2018 courtesy of Sony. The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be writing the treatment for the film.

The film will co-exist with the live-action Spider-Man film that Sony is currently working on with Marvel. Spider-Man franchise vets Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce, along with former Sony Pictures Chairperson Amy Pascal, who will also produce the new live-action Spider-Man film.

The film will reportedly debut July 20, 2018. The live-action reboot will premiere July 28, 2017.

 

TV Review: Powers S1E9 Level 13

Powers March 10In the penultimate episode written by the Powers comic co-creator Brian Michael Bendis, Walker (Sharlto Copley) decides how far he is willing to go to regain his powers as Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor) sets the plan in motion to kill Wolfe (Eddie Izzard). Meanwhile the Powers Division sets a plan to catch Royalle in the act and discover where Walker’s true allegiance lies.

The series has gotten better the last couple of episodes, but has flattened out in quality in this episode which still includes horrible acting, and so many twists and turns as far as which side people were on that it became a mockery of itself by the end.

The episode continues to dance around good material, that’d make an excellent television show. Walker and Royalle keep debating and talking about their sins of the past, and wanting to make up for it as well as what it means to be a hero. That theme alone could have been drawn out the entire season and been the real focus. Instead, its lines every couple of episodes. There’s also Walker being torn as to whether or not he wants his powers back, and where his loyalty actually is. That is a focus of this episode, but that’s only shallow deep, as when we get to a juicy part, the episode and characters veer as if everything was not big deal. It also might be the fact no one can act like something is a big deal.

Powers Cast PhotoThere’s only one more episode left in the series, and there’s still lots to explore and wrap up, including Wolfe and the potential of an anti-powers movement. Either of those could be done over a bunch of episodes on their own, and both are prime for good material to come out of them. But, I’m expecting much of the same as the series wraps up.

To say this experiment by Sony and the Playstation was a failure in my eyes is an understatement. It fails on almost every single episode, never creating a voice of its own, unless B-Movie quality is its voice. With so many other choices out there, there’s many other shows featuring powers I’d choose before this series. It’s a shame because this one has so much potential as far as what can be done, it just isn’t quite using its powers right.

Overall Score: 6.85

 

 

 

 

Sony Pictures and Valiant Announce Five-Picture Deal

BLOODSHOT_001_COVER_LOZZIValiant Entertainment and Sony Pictures today announced a deal to bring two of Valiant’s award-winning comic book superhero franchises—Bloodshot and Harbinger—to the big screen over the course of five feature films that will culminate in the shared universe crossover film, Harbinger Wars.

Bloodshot, arriving in theaters in 2017, will kick off the five-picture plan leading to Harbinger Wars and will be directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski from a script by Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe from Original Film and Dinesh Shamdasani from Valiant Entertainment will produce the film. Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will serve as executive producers.

Harbinger will follow shortly thereafter from a script by Eric Heisserer. Sony and Valiant rHARBINGER_012_COVER_REEDERemain tight-lipped about potential directors. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe from Original Film and Dinesh Shamdasani from Valiant Entertainment will produce.

Both films will be followed by sequels before the title characters confront each other head on in Harbinger Wars—a motion picture directly inspired by Valiant’s critically acclaimed 2013 comic book crossover of the same name. Andrea Giannetti will oversee the five-picture HARBINGER WARS initiative for Sony Pictures.

In March, Valiant announced that it partnered with Beijing-based entertainment company DMG for nine-figures of film financing capital for the production of theatrical films and television programs based on Valiant’s library of iconic superhero characters.

TV Review: Powers S1E8 Aha Shake Heartbreak

Powers March 10Royalle (Noah Taylor) reveals to Walker (Sharlto Copley) the true nature of Sway and the inevitable devastation it will cause if Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) is ever to escape, in order to persuade him to join his new cause to annihilate Wolfe. Meanwhile as the message of Kaotic Chic spreads rapidly with fatal results it finds its biggest platform yet in a publicity stunt orchestrated for Retro Girl’s charitable foundation.

The series is actually getting better as it gets closer to the season finale, but as much better as the series is, it falls into the usual issues with horrible FX that either looks cheesy or goes over the top.

The episode, and series seems to be best when it focuses away from the powers themselves and just looks at the characters and what it’s like to live their lives. Its gotten much better as well amping up the Kaotic Chic storyline and moving away from Wolfe.

Powers Cast PhotoThe episode ends though in a way that sullies much of the quality of the previous 50 minutes. The publicity stunt above involves a villain named Red Hawk attacking Zora. Red Hawk’s flying looks so bad, it might as well have been a high school production of Peter Pan. Zora’s powers look a bit better this episode showing where the budget went. Then things go wrong, and it feels like someone on the show has a fetish for buckets of blood, because we see blood flowing in an over the top way again. Did the person responsible work on horror movies before? Because it reminds me more of that than anything else. It’s just bad. The storyline of Calista also drags on as she continues to click her heels hoping to have powers. A bit more of her past is revealed, but at this point the character and her arc is just grating.

The show is getting better. Its focus on a younger Christian and Johnny and how their lives intertwined with Wolfe is actually good. If the series focused on that more, and used the fx sparingly, it’d have been much stronger. It could have taken a queue from The Walking Dead, using its draw only every so often, making it a bit more special. But the series is now pivoting more towards Christian and Johnny making up for their pasts, and that has lots of potential. Sadly its come with only a couple more episodes to go. If there’s a season two (which I’d doubt), I’d hope there’d be lessons learned and a new focus and direction.

With so many other choices out there, there’s many other shows featuring powers I’d choose before this series. It’s a shame because this one has so much potential as far as what can be done, it just isn’t quite using its powers right.

Overall Score: 6.95

 

 

 

 

TV Review: Powers S1E7 You Are Not It

Powers March 10After Wolfe’s (Eddie Izzard) plea to end his life, Walker (Sharlto Copley) and Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) must act quickly to stop Johnny Royalle’s (Noah Taylor) petition to meet with Wolfe in The Shaft. Meanwhile Zora (Logan Browning) struggles with her new-found fame, while Calista (Olesya Rulin) becomes more desperate to discover if she truly is a Power.

Seven episodes in, and the series is slowly getting better. With the Drainer in place, the Powers police division is clamping down on Powers and putting them in jail where they’re getting their powers sucked from them. Which leads to an interesting question, do clones from a power count as a person? There’s some interesting moments like that peppered throughout the episode, but many of these we’ve seen before tackled in X-Men comic books. Hell, I think Jamie Maddrox/Multiple Man has had this very same issue.

The series is really now split into a couple of storylines. There’s the drug Sway, which Johnny Royalle is attempting to put the genie back in the bottle. There’s Walker’s debate if he really wants his powers pack. Then there’s the Calista and her continued belief she’s a power. That go old about the third episode. Finally there’s this anti-powers movement beginning that actually has an interesting thing revolving around it.

Powers Cast PhotoAll of this could be interesting, if so many issues didn’t remain in the series. The acting is beyond hit or miss. I really think this is about the point the actors decided to just cash in their check and either not care about their performance or go balls to the wall and be over the top (*cough* Izzard *cough*). The acting still just is so poor, you can feel everyone not caring through the screen while watching.

The show also has issue with special FX. Since there’s less powers being shown off it isn’t present as much, but anytime someone uses their special abilities it feels like something someone did on their home computer. That also goes for the costumes which vary from quality to something I’d expect a four-year old to put together while raiding my closet. There should absolutely be an inconsistency in costumes between the big league pros and the wannabes out there, but the wannabe costumes feel like horrible Halloween costumes. That and the FX create a cheapness about the series.

With so many other choices out there, there’s many other shows featuring powers I’d choose before this series. It’s a shame because this one has so much potential as far as what can be done, it just isn’t quite using its powers right.

Overall Score: 6.9

 

 

 

 

TV Review: Powers S1E6 The Raconteur of the Funderal Circuit

Powers March 10In the wake of the battle to stop Wolfe (Eddie Izzard), the Powers division gathers to mourn the loss of their fellow officers, while Walker (Sharlto Copley) seeks answers about his own future and the possibility of becoming Diamond once again. After seeing the uncertain and dangerous side effects of Sway first-hand Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor) begins unsavory experiments on known subjects of the drug.

Six episodes in and the series is actually getting better. The last episode was an improvement, and this one is an improvement on that. Partially because the episode gets away from the bad fx, and instead focuses on the police themselves and the aftermath of losing their fellow officers.

The episode mostly takes place in the police station where the fallout from all the deaths is felt and the officers must deal in their own way. It’s a good setting to really show off the various personalities and delve a bit more into the backgrounds of everyone, something that’s mostly been hinted at.

Powers Cast PhotoParticularly good is Walker and his partner Pilgrim’s interactions. There’s some fantastic moments of the two. There’s also good acting at times! I think the good in this episode just shows off how much the first five episodes stumbled in their execution. By doing less, the series actually does so much more and better as far as quality.

The show absolutely has a long way to go before I think it’d come close to deserving a second season and I’d consider it to not by an abysmal failure. But, it’s surprisingly showing improvement. Unfortunately, to understand what’s going on, you need to sit through a lot of bad.

With so many other choices out there, there’s many other shows featuring powers I’d choose before this series.

Overall Score: 6.85

 

 

 

 

TV Review: Powers S1E5 Paint It Black

Powers March 10As Retro Girl (Michelle Forbes), Zora (Logan Browning), and the heroes of the world rush to stop the escape of Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) from The Shaft, Walker (Sharlto Copley) realizes he must face him alone, the inevitable clash between mentor and disciple that will unravel the deep-seated history between them.

Can the series actually be improving? The episode is the strongest of the bunch, but that’s really not saying a whole lot. The episode is riddled with issues that border on ridiculous.

The episode still has horrible fx, and the acting is about as good as the average high school musical production. But, we get some more back story, so there’s that.

Powers Cast PhotoWhile Izzard’s Wolfe is on the rampage, Copley’s Walker engages him and battles him in an attempt to stop the killing. Keep in mind, Walker no longer has his powers, but he somehow gets them back, that’s not completely explained other than the fact he popped the drug Sway.

What we do get is a lot of back story and the history of Walker, Wolfe and Royalle. We see them much younger and the budget clearly is gone because the younger Walker and Royalle look nothing like each other, though for some reasons Retro Girl is still played by Michelle Forbes. It’s interesting and would actually be good if it was handled better.

The production values continue to hamper the series with fx that fall beyond the line of camp. The series is full of potential, but something somewhere hasn’t been handled correctly.

With so many other choices out there, there’s many other shows featuring powers I’d choose before this series.

Overall Score: 6.75

 

 

 

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