Injustice 1 & 2

Its DC fighting time!

This fighting game is like Street Fighter, except with characters from the DC roster such as Superman, who has become a ruthless dictator, and Batman who is running the insurgency against the Kryptonian. In the second game, Braniac comes along to mess with things but in both cases the stories start and end strong but have lots of "filler" in the middle, looking for any excuse to fit as many one on one fights as they can. 

Right on target!

The graphics and controls are ok (though both are improved in the second game) but some of the fighting stances are strange and the power hits make for hilarious moments where someone like Catwoman can single kick an opponent like Doomsday UP and THROUGH multiple floors of a building! Or even, Catwoman can just face tank punches from Superman. Things like that.

Outside the story the first game has an interesting STAR Labs trial mode which challenges you with various game play modes and/or outright unfair situations. The second game drops this in exchange for a leveling and loot end game system which is basically a stock standard series of fights. That's maybe the only part the first game did better for me. Anyway, if you like DC characters and want to watch them pummel each other silly then these games are right up your alley. 

Injustice

It's Batman vs Superman. Again.

Things go badly when Superman becomes the victim of one of Joker's schemes, which apparently is possible on this version of Earth since their heroes are a bit stupid. I do like that the main plot basically puts heroes against each other, that the fight animations are quite good, and that people are dying left and right to some of the silliest things. 

Foolish alien outsmarted by a clown.

Definitely enjoyable if you just turn your brain off. The only other thing that bugged me was that they draw knuckles as black rectangles... very distracting. Anyway - if you just want to see DC heroes fight and die against each other then definitely watch this, otherwise you aren't really missing much.

Birds of Prey and the Rise of the Black Swan

Two action movies that go in completely different directions.

Birds of Prey

"and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn" is a really long winded way to get the Harley Quinn name into this title which actually takes place in between Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. Told from Harley's point of view this takes place right after she gets dumped by the Joker which removes her "protection" from all the many people she has wronged. Margot Robbie does a great job again as Harley, but the intentional disjointed story telling at the start as well as her narrating the tale really does make it suffer a bit, along with the usual blind luck and idiot bad guys that seem to permeate superhero shows. There's also an obvious boys vs girls theme going on which should be expected.

That said it still is quite entertaining to watch if you can stick with it, and there are some really good fight scenes thrown in - especially one which lets Harley display her proficiency with a bat. If she wasn't crazy I'd say she should always be carrying one! Definitely one for Margot Robbie or Harley Quinn fans and one that should at least be on the radar for action fans. For kicks my wife also tried recreate the breakfast sandwich featured here and it was pretty good, so there's that too! Not the best superhero flick but not a terrible one either. I give it three diamonds out of five, and I'd only watch the bat fight scene again.

SAS: Rise of the Black Swan

Hunting season is open!

A band of train hijackers have a wrench thrown into their plans as SAS operative Tom Buckingham (Sam Heughan) happens to be onboard for a vacation. An excellent script, exciting action sequences and good acting all around make this a very enthralling movie with very few slow parts. Also, now I know about the Channel Train tunnel between England and France which is probably common knowledge to most people but that was a new one for me.

Yes the baddies do goof a bit, especially at the end, but that just makes for a more exiting tale. Highly recommended for action fans, Outlander fans, or simply fans of good movies as this "Die Hard on a train" will satisfy most viewers. I'd definitely watch it again and give it four train loos out of five.

Joker

Everything in Gotham is dark, even its comedy.

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) just wants to bring laughter into the world. Unfortunately being poor in Gotham and afflicted by mental illness leads him to be victimized by so many scum bags, until one day... he breaks and becomes more than a little murderous. Joaquin does a great rendition of this soon-to-be Batman villain, and old, dirty Gotham is done well cinematography wise.

Being retarded doesn't make you cool or exclude you from the LAW!

There's also enough difference from the usual Joker origin story to be interesting without being different enough to become alien. Obviously the tone of the whole thing is very dark, especially as so many Gothamites are such scum. Definitely one Batman fans or Joaquin Phoenix fans will enjoy, but for everyone else your mileage may vary. I give it 3.5 knock knock jokes out of 5, but would probably not watch it again.

The Cursed: Preparation is Half the Battle

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Gerrod, crazy Lea and Voghiln head back to assist in the rear guard while the team moves on to the next arena - this one occupied by guards led by Symm Haximus! Through careful dialogue Party Girl talks him down and with him abandoning the field, the remaining guards do the same.

They then proceed to the last arena where Dennaton awaits... with the Planar Hunters who have just returned in time to save him! Now is the time all that prep work pays off: Najim throws off his disguise, Joker suddenly turns into a man-sized mushroom and dies due to her earlier poisoning, and Shinordium uses the spirit transference scroll to trade bodies with the adamantine golem.

He then promptly smashes his old body with his new one in a single hit. It is now 7 against 3 in the parties favor. Dennaton wisely leaves his box seat to retreat elsewhere.

"The Winged" - Dennaton's Planetar still doesn't look concerned.

Insight: While not explicitly mentioned, the other preparations include being loaded with scrolls and potions to buff before entering the big fight. Since this combat system is ultimately based on math, everything counts!

The Cursed: The Sorcerer and the Wizard

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Meanwhile in Thay...

Having scouted the Hunter's Lounge the arena squad gets back to the fights, taking the powerful warrior Hort the orc to face vampires in round six, and is very impressed by Arzang as he can now time stop, cast imprisonment, and summon a fallen planetar of his own.

Round seven is against Githyanki, and they party up with old ally and booze hound Voghiln who says a crazy mage named Irenicus restored his flayer eaten brain somehow before selling him here. More importantly, he lets on that one of the Planar Hunters, a female bard called Joker, likes drinking with him on occasion.

I suppose the "bard" class makes sense?

The eighth match is surprisingly difficult against a Sahaugin prince and his water weirds due to all their paralyzation attacks but old senile man Dulf "Dulfy" Ebonbeard, who needs a regular potion dose for his condition, saves them with his amazing array of spells. He also reveals that the adamantine golem of the Planar Hunters is a soul-switched mage: a spell that can be undone.

With his knowledge and what the team looted from his room previously, Gerrod (the wild mage befriended before) is tasked to inscribe a scroll to handle this.

Insight: Much like the previous Black Pits, your party is restored fully after each match. That's good or this would be a very short side story! :P

Batman: Arkham Origins

The summary version of an Arkham game.

In this prequel to the previous Arkham games, a large bounty has attracted a bunch of assassins to kill the Batman on Christmas Eve and the only presents handed out during the course of the game are painful beat downs to all parties involved. Much like the previous games, controlling Batman is for the most part extremely fun - even if he is adverse to swimming. The combat system plays pretty much the same with a few new variations (for me anyway) which is great. I also quite liked the expanded use for detective vision in solving the mini crimes that come up during the course of the evening.

Breaking necks for great justice (I'm sure he's still alive)!

The map itself is composed of reused, redecorated sections of previous games but feels a lot smaller possibly because you can also use the Batwing to fast travel around the place. This also makes for a short game, main story wise as you can finish it with probably less that 40% total completion (the rest of which is filled by challenges and collectibles). Then it uses the "Diablo" method of locked difficulties to tempt people to replay which for me is utterly moronic. What's the point if you already know what's going to happen?

The other thing I find irksome is again some hard to reach collectibles - specifically the ones that break the rules of the game just to make it challenging. Like, Batman will refuse to grapple to a specific spot because that would be too easy, you have to find a way to glide there. In my book, that's not just bad design - its moronic. What, Batman decided to be inefficient all of a sudden?

Those things aside, it is still a pretty fun game (single player wise) and I give it three and a half batarangs out of five. Keep in mind you can probably clear it in around two days. Obviously take this into consideration if you are purchasing it because there is no way in hell that something so short should be charged the same as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for example (which has given me 333 hours of play).

I should also mention there is a pretty cool sounding PvP multiplayer mode over four maps where players are either Batman / Robin or gang members of Joker or Bane. Unfortunately you probably won't get to play it as you are required to have 8 players to begin, and simply put - not enough people are playing it.

Invasion of the Everything

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Guildwars 2 zones have come under attack by the forces of the seemingly too smart for her own good jester sylvari, Scarlet - who made her grand(er?) entrance during the closing ceremony of the Queen's Jubilee. She's far too interesting to be Trahearne's evil twin, so I'm now guessing she is the "Harley Quinn" to the Mad King's "Joker"... and I'm Batman! Well, no I guess I'm just one of the Gotham PD in that analogy because everyone is a hero and because I'm not rich. :P

Harley is way hotter than Scarlet though.

She's been a busy little plant though as not only does she have the tech and forces of the steam creatures, the sheeply stupid molten alliance and a small country of aetherblade pirates at her disposal - she also has twisted the watchwork knights in Divinity's Reach to her will turning them into... uh... Decepticons? From her barricaded position within the Crown Pavillion she sends them out in huge numbers via steam portals, and joins the forays herself just to remind everyone who is behind the attacks.

Really have to keep an eye on the clock if you want to participate in stopping these though (and to continue the story, you NEED to participate in at least SIX or have a buddy who already did that for you). A window of 10 minutes at the start of every hour is all you have to waypoint to the hot zone and once there expect to be way pointing around more to stop the gazillion foes warping in. Thank the gods Kiel won with her cheaper WP costs!

If you miss the entry window you will be sitting on your hands for 50 minutes, being left out and simply "waiting to have fun". GW2 likes introducing mechanics where you wait to have fun. They really are carefully going through that first manifesto and breaking every point they had. One of the achievements needs you to participate in 13 at the minimum (13 hours on the hour) but likely it will be more since you need to luck out and get 13 unique zones.

Fortunately the rewards are pretty good, better I think than the Crown Pavillion circuit but that may look more appealing after Kiel's WP reduction runs out after the next few weeks. I know I'll be participating as much as I can, that's for sure. Never had as much gold as now, yet I still don't have enough for a commander tag. I'm poor. :(

Batman is Cthulhu

At least in Gotham anyway. You may argue that Scarecrow or the Joker or any number of the other psychos in the rogues gallery there would hold that title, but then you remember that Bats often beats them down - and really, who wouldn't be afraid of someone that can defeat so many super powered freaks on their own? However underneath all the gadgetry is just a normal guy who is just as susceptible to the usual human failings (like bullets) as everyone else. This whole aspect of the Batman is done so well in the Arkham City game (the successor of Arkham Asylum) which I am just about finished with, just a few more side quests to go, most of which are really cool. The Riddler scavenger hunt is a bit excessive though.

Other than that the art, free roaming, fluid combat system, story, and music are all superb and the number of named criminals that you face is again pretty high though always you can't help but wish you also got to fight or encounter just a few more of them, or teamed up with so and so. Boss fights are also fun, though my favourite one is about half-way through where you have to use all you gadgets and tactics to bring down one guy. I know some people complain that they can't play the way -they- want since Batman doesn't kill, but once you carefully watch those finishing animations you will realize there are fates worse than death.

I'm gonna go right ahead and say that in the next game, if there is one, I would like to face off against Superman and other good guys for whatever plot twist. That would be epic. For now though, regardless of your Batman fanaticism or lack there-of, Arkham City is a great game and if you have a system that can run it and haven't played it yet you should go get it! :)