10 Things You Like and Hate About...

[DiscipleofBob]

It can be very easy for fans to be overly forgiving of a product, or for critics to be far too negative.

The reality is almost always somewhere in the middle. Even the greatest movie/tv show/video game/book/whatever in your mind has some flaws if you really sit down and admit them. Conversely, even that thing that is so bad it offends your sensibilities might have some redeeming features worth talking about.


So I propose this game slash reviewing exercise. Pick something. It can be a movie, a book, game, series, anything you like (or don't.) It can be something you love, something you hate, or something you're indifferent towards. Find ten things you like, and ten things you dislike, just off the top of your head. They can be small touches you enjoy or nitpicks that irritate you, or they can be grand merits or unforgivable sins. It just has to be 10 each, you can't sell yourself short.

Since I'm proposing this, I'll start with something topical: Star Wars the Force Awakens. I'll admit I've never been as huge a Star Wars fan as a lot of people, but I did overall enjoy the movie.

SPOILERS just in case.

Like:

1. Finn is awesome and I want more of him.
2. Actual orchestral score. None of that Zimmer tuba fart that appears in every blockbuster trailer these days.
3. Rey's actress reminds me of Keara Knightly.
4. Kylo Ren is a surprisingly complex and interesting character, not another one-off dark clothed villain.
5. The effects look better than ever.
6. Han Solo's sheer joy at getting to fire the bow caster.
7. "You will undo these restraints and leave with the door unlocked." "I will undo these restraints and leave with the door unlocked." "...and drop your weapon!" *clatter*
8. I was worried more than just Han would get killed off. Glad the rest of the original cast made it so far and there's no RR Martin Syndrome here.
9. The stormtrooper with the badass club.
10. Cameos and Easter eggs everywhere!!!


Hate:
1. Wtf is the First Order? Are they actually in power or are they terrorists in hiding or something? How do they function? How can they still afford a contingent of brainwashed soldiers conditioned from childbirth?
2. I like Finn, but I'm going to need more of an explanation on why he's the only stormtrooper with a conscience.
3. I can only take so many homages to a New Hope. Rip off Empire Strikes Back for a change or something.
4. Plot conveniences, a Star Wars staple since A New Hope.
5. Kylo Ren is a very interesting villain. This does not change the fact that he appears whiny and incompetent as well as emo. No one should let Jedi go through puberty.
6. So Han, Chewie, and Luke just... left?
7. Oh look, a bigger badder Death Star *yawn*
8. Way too many unanswered questions for the first movie. Second would get a pass, but A New Hope stood on its own and so should this.
9. Snoke looks stupid. His name's stupid. His face is stupid. His holo-thingy is stupid.
10. The main non-Sith bad guy of the First Order looks like Hans from Frozen. Look at those sideburns and tell me I'm wrong!

[Legato Endless]

The Hobbit

1. The performances for a number of the newly cast characters is really quite good, and some standouts perform with aplomb even if the material isn't always worth of the actor.
2. Thorin, like his tragic predecessor Boromir, is one of the few cinematic portrayals in Middle Earth outright superior to his oafish literary counterpart.
3. The Arkenstone Kingship subplot gives the Quest for the Lonely Mountain a believable end game, which makes the strategic implications of their success for the sequel seem like less of an accident.
4. The outcasts scattered and trying to find home allows for a much richer texture than a mere quest to recover stolen treasure. This works fine in the book, but it makes for poor pathos on screen.
5. The singing and general interaction in Bilbo's house is stellar.
6. Gollum's riddle game and performance.
7. Even missing two legs, Smaug makes a pretty decent impression.
8. Thranduil successfully hams up every otherwise pedestrian scene he's in.
9. The Dwarves are more distinguishable, more colorful, and more relatable.
10. The direction and effects for the wandering in Mirkwood is deft and appropriately haunting.

1. Azog is generic and unmemorable, and his scenes in the first two films are frenetic jabbering filler.
2. The Orcs and goblins in general look cartoonishly unrealistic, a sad departure from the landmark effects work of LOTR.
3. Jackson's effort to push his favored filming technology of 48 frames does the film no favors. It's too clipped, too exposing, and only highlights the unpolished computer effects all the more.
4. Legolas' scenes slowdown an already bloated story. The love triangle especially.
5. The laboriously tedious introduction with Frodo and Bilbo drags on minute by unnecessary minute.
6. The barrel sequence is as poorly shot as it is poorly edited.
7. The White Council subplot is badly mismanaged, sacrificing all of the sensibility of it's requisite members for convoluted illogical conflict and cheap drama.
8. Smaug's death is long, drawn out, symbolically wearing and far less visually impressive than Bard obliterating Laketown with a single shot.
9. For the prequels, everyone's favorite evil lighthouse will be portrayed as: Floating Ink, A Shadow, A Looping Gif, a kaleidoscopic background, etc.
10. The blocking of Thorin's death scene. What.

Avengers Age of Ultron

1. James Spader's portrayal of Ultron.
2. Paul Bettany as Vision.
3. Andy Serkis does a good tease for Black Panther.
4. The Farm scenes providing something in short supply in the MCU: a chance to breathe.
5. The Hulkbuster fight.
6. Whedon's usual dialogue delivers some funny quips.
7. Quicksilver is better balanced to the cast than his incarnation in X-men 5.
8. The emphasis on the heroes actually caring about civilian lives. Normally just expected, but refreshing considering 'the million is a statistic' trend in pop culture.
9. Hawkeye's characterization is fantastic.
10. The themes of religion, creation, identity and evolution are a bit more ambitious and less on the nose than past entries in the series, giving Ultron some much needed texture.

1. No Black Widow Action Figure
2. The scattered, manic composition of some of the action scenes.
3. Some of the Avenger's characterization feels like it ignores development from past films.
4. Thor's vision to collect the stones.
5. A few of the one liners are occasionally inappropriate contextually, robbing scenes of needed tension.
6. The plot strains under the weight of too many subplots and mandated directives.
7. Quick silver is less memorable than his incarnation in X-men 5.
8. Why do Tony, Vision and Thor stop shooting when they've got Ultron Prime dead to rights? :smallconfused:
9. Cap fighting Ultron could easily have been trimmed down.
10. Tonally, this film is starting to feel a bit repetitive and overly familiar in the progression of the MCU.

[DiscipleofBob]

Now to try something that I absolutely love...

Avengers
Like:
1. Joss Whedon directing? About the only man I'd trust to pull it off, and he does spectacularly.
2. No one's ever tried something like this. Building a full universe in the movies instead of isolated trilogies and reboots. And it worked spectacularly.
3. I'm trying to think of any bad actors in this... Robert Downey Jr., Sam Jackson, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston, Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Johannsen... Nope, can't find any bad performance whatsoever. Okay, one possible exception but we'll get to him later.
4. They managed to make a Norse trickster god a credible villain for a modern superhero movie. That takes serious balls.
5. Mark Ruffalo deserves special mention for having two previous actors to compare his performance to, and in my opinion, he blows the other Hulks out of the water.
6. All the heroes get a pretty good share of the plot. No one feels left out or forced on. Well, with one exception.
7. Too many awesome moments. Loki catching the arrow only for it to explode. Hulk punching out Thor when they get a breath. "Puny god." It's too difficult to pick a favorite.
8. That Avengers music. You don't see a brand new score like that stick in your mind.
9. While I had trouble justifying this movie as anything other than a fanboy's wet dream blockbuster at first, a review by MovieBob explained why this movie really is that good and works on its own as an actual piece of cinematic art and not just the big crossover blockbuster. The whole movie is a metaphor for itself and is it even possible to bring together a series of genres like this together in one movie and make it work the same way comics have.
10. The entire MCU, including the movies, the TV series, and now the Netflix series building up to and from this movie.

Now for the hard part:
Hate:
1. Elephant in the room: I can't really tell if Jeremy Renner is a good actor or not because the whole time he's a brainwashed zombie. We don't really get to see the actor or the character get developed.
2. Not Captain America's best movie costume. They get better over time, but in this movie is looks particularly cheesy even by comparison.
3. Plot convenience with the whole aliens being shut down once the portal's down with little explanation. Probably necessary to avoid a bloated plot but still.
4. World council trying to blow up Manhattan. Incredibly stupid move. Makes a little more sense in hindsight with HYDRA but in context of this movie it seems pointless.
5. Little too much focus on Iron Man compared to other heroes. I blame Robery Downey Jr. getting special treatment for being the "main" hero when he should be equal.
6. Movie is excessively dark in some scenes.
7. Went to go see this a second time in 3D. Saw no 3D to speak of but got a headache afterward.
8. No Ant-Man. Unless you accept the headcanon that Hank Pym was there the entire time but too small to be noticed, but that's just headcanon.
9. Thanos turning out to be nothing but a tease for nearly the entire MCU.
10. Loki and his army turning out to be not that difficult to beat in the long run. Ruins a little bit of the tension.

And now for its polar opposite, something I despise.

Man of Steel
Hate:
1. Washed out colors, everything seeming gray and dull.
2. Krypton is a little interesting, but it should really be its own movie and not be in this movie at all. Krypton should be left largely to the imagination of the viewer.
3. The jumping around time storytelling does not work here.
4. Kevin Costner is THE WORST superhero dad ever.
5. All those people under the overpass in the tornado scene are dead. That's the absolute WORST place to go in a tornado.
6. Lois and Clark making out in a crater of decimated buildings and mass slaughter.
7. The world engine and terraforming plot is stupid and the entire central conflict in the climax is poorly written by people who just want to screw over Superman.
8. All Superman or any human knows is that this machine comes in two parts on opposite ends of the planet to violently terraform the planet. His choices are the closer part, which is positioned over Metropolis and already set to kill millions. The other, on the other side of the planet, is only set to kill fish in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Which one does Superman go after? Even if he somehow knew that destroying one part would shut down the other, it is still mind-numbingly stupid for him to fly to the middle of the Indian Ocean to deal with the less dangerous part first. There is no justification for this. Superman's stupidity and negligence causes mass slaughter in this movie and he does nothing to stop it.
9. Every actor is allowed basically 30 seconds of good acting before they turn into the blandest of cardboard cutouts for the rest of the movie.
10. Zod never says "Kneel."

There's probably a lot more I could think of but the point is only 10 things for this exercise.

Now for the hard part.
Like:
1. I could cheat here and list the cast numbers 1 - 10, but I won't. The casting for this movie is perfect. Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams, these are all great actors who are, very briefly, allowed to be absolutely perfect in their roles.
2. I really like the fight scene between Superman and the Kryptonians in Smallville. Not only does it work exactly how a fight between Kryptonians should work, product placements and all. And honestly the actual casualties don't seem to be that bad in this scene. Later on the other hand...
3. I laugh when Superman is fighting the giant robot spider. If you watch Kevin Smith's talk about how he almost directed a Superman movie you'll understand why.
4. Superman learning to fly was pretty cool.
5. They managed to well-utilize Russel Crow as Jor-El despite dying before the plot begins. His presence as an AI almost makes me hope for Brainiac.
6. Krypton IS admittedly pretty cool.
7. In this universe Amy Adams as Lois Lane knows who Superman is. This is important to me because I can accept most of the world not linking Superman to some random shy reporter at the Daily Planet. Lois Lane, who works with Clark Kent and is supposed to be a shrewd investigative reporter, has no excuse to not figure it out. Good on her.
8. I guess not resorting to Lex Luthor right away for this reboot is commendable.
9. Once he loses the armor, Zod resembles his classic costume a lot better.
10. Faora and her actress are one of the few consistently awesome characters in this movie.

Struggled towards the end there.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I'm working on a post for this thread, but it's really hard! I'm struggling to find things I dislike about one show, and things I like about another. Watch this space...

Edit: finally done!

Something I like: Steven Universe

Pearl. She's a nuanced, careful exploration of PTSD, and her story arcs are powerful, emotional and realistic. The ending of Rose's Scabbard makes me cry, and the 'week of Sardonyx' was incredible.
The way Steven challenges traditional gender norms is great, and the way the other characters in the show support him is exactly the sort of message that I'd want my children to see, if I had any. Related: non-standard family structures.
Estelle's voice acting is so on point.
I love the way the show doesn't rush itself. It takes lots of time for character development, exposition and emotional growth. Garnet took five episodes to forgive Pearl for her deception. Peridot's been working with the gems for over a month but she still considers them hostile captors rather than friends. It's a refreshing change from other cartoons.
Pearl's facial expressions! Salty, jealous, embarrassed, excited, horrified... So expressive!
Pop-culture references are always good. DBZ, Evangelion, Gitaroo Man... and it's always so subtle.
The brilliantly deadpan delivery of quotations like "Humans just lead short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control." and "Hello, this is Mom Universe. Yes, the children are playing swords. Sorry, playing with swords. They are bleeding. Oh no, they are dead. Don't call again. *hangs up* Sorry, I panicked."
The visual style is so cute and distinctive. I especially like the languid wide angle shots that they do a lot of.
Ruby & Sapphire are just adorable! I could watch them dance (http://45.media.tumblr.com/633b56505c416ababb8861a2b3521599/tumblr_nluu0cxnZC1r3vf28o1_500.gif) all day.
Last but not least, the show's diversity and inclusiveness is just stunning. It touches on everything; race, class, body shape, sex, sexuality... And it's built into the heart of the show, rather than being tacked on as an afterthought. It's a joy to watch, just for that.
I'm not a big fan of the songs. Apart from Strong in the Real Way, Stronger than You and Do it for Her, I feel that a lot of them take up valuable real estate in the 11 minute episodes, and don't have a lot of musical merit.
Mayor Dewey annoys me. I understand what he's supposed to represent, but my heart still sinks whenever he appears on screen.
The release schedule is a mess, and at times it detracts from the show's emotional impact.
Filler, especially Rising Tides, Crashing Skies. If ever a show didn't need filler, it's this one. That episode should have just been released on the KBCW blog.
I don't think the show does enough with Amethyst. She's often just used as comic relief and there haven't been enough stories just focused on her.
I was outraged when the Rainbow Quartz fusion dance was censored in the UK. Not impressed with that at all.
I'm not a fan of Frybo and Catfingers. You might call it 'early episode weirdness', but they're both really disturbing, body-horror type episodes early on in the first season, in what's supposed to be a children's show. They would have put me off watching more episodes if I hadn't been warned in advance.
The show hasn't done enough development of the human residents of Beach City. A lot of them are hollow caricatures at the moment, and it would be better if we knew more about them. That would also make the gems' indifference towards these people they're supposedly protecting stand out more.
I'd like to see more fusions... Though I don't know what I'd cut to fit them in. In particular, it would have been nice to see Alexandrite fighting something (especially because I figure that Alexandrite losing in a fight against a major antagonist is going to be used as a signal to say "look, they must be really strong!"). Also, Pearl and Amethyst have gone from hardly being able to look at each other to forming Opal without batting an eyelid. I would have liked to see how that happened.
And... Um... I guess Peridot's voice is just slightly too nasal? Like, if she could just tone it down by 10%, it'd be much better.
Something I don't like: Game of Thrones

Alfie Allen's acting. Wow, that boy is good.
The prominence of British actors in general is nice, from a patriotic perspective.
The visuals are good, with nothing too tacky, cheap or half-baked. The dragons are epic, the weapons and armour look good, the different settings are very distinctive.
Maisie Williams is also a legend. She's so switched-on and media-savvy, and I'm glad that she's done well out of the show.
The first season was very strong - I don't really have any complaints about it at all.
I would never had read the books if not for the show, so that's a plus.
To some extent, this show has made epic fantasy cool, which could have all sorts of knock-on benefits.
The fight scenes are impressive, I guess. Exciting and maybe not quite as unrealistic as certain other shows / films.
A lot of the things that were retained from the books, especially early on, worked well. Examples: Viserys' personality, Castle Black not looking anything like a 'castle'.
The title sequence is good, and justifies its length. That's no small thing! I have been turned off from TV shows because of weak intros in the past.
Dropping or merging important characters from the books. Yes, there are too many characters to keep track of in the books. Yes, a lot of them have the same name as each other. But some of the ones they've dropped or merged were vital to the plot, and dropping them forced them off the rails and into some major problems.
Renaming Asha Greyjoy. That just really annoyed me for some reason.
The Lannister twins. The show really messed them up. Jaime has somehow become a hybrid of both, causing his characterisation to wander all over the place. And their Cersei... Ugh. From one of the most troubled, evil characters in the book, to some kind of... relatable tiger mother?
Adding plot holes that weren't in the books. Especially with regard to Littlefinger's movements.
Not fixing plot holes that were in the books. Especially the 'Meereenese knot'. As an amateur writer, I understand how and why GRRM ended up where he did, but I'm sure that, if he had his time again, he'd write it differently.
Killing off Oberyn Martell. They departed from the text in lots of other places, and this was a great opportunity to profit. Engaging character, great actor... He should have lived!
Using rape as set dressing, wallpaper and for shock value. This is the one that drove me to stop watching the show.
I didn't like how early they revealed the Others on-screen. They could have kept them a bit more mysterious for a bit longer.
The 'Mhysa' scene at the end of season 3 was painful to watch. At the time, I couldn't believe they would do something like that. In hindsight, it's far from the worst thing the show's done.
Saint Tyrion. It's been a slow creep, but they've truly ruined a character that could have been great.

[Raimun]

Metal Gear

Seriously, Spoilers ahead.


1. Excellent storytelling. Spanning decades (both IRL and in fictional chronology) with changing character cast, the world building and all the small details are rather intriguing. Some call the story too complex and too ret-conned at times... but not me. It's easy to get if you actually play the games and watch the story unfold. Ret-cons are usually about minor details and the characters of the game hear disinformation all the time anyway, because, you know... it's a story about war and spies.

By the way, the main series has never rebooted. It's the same continuity since 1987's game "Metal Gear" to 2015's game "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain". I don't know other video games that can claim something like this.

2. Unique, memorable characters. Big Boss, Solid Snake, Raiden, Revolver Ocelot, The Boss, Grey Fox, all the different support crews, quirky boss squads, your own mercenary companies in later games and all the others. Got to love codenames.

3. Solid or great voice acting performances. Special mention to David Hayter, the voice of Snake(s).

4. Great music. Especially after they hired Harry Gregson-Williams to do original, cinematic music since Metal Gear Solid 2. Also features many classic and new songs by other great musicians and this has recently bled to even trailers.

5. Mood whiplashes. Yeah. They help to make the story feel more alive. Sure, the central theme of the series is rather dark and heavy... but that's not all there is to it. At one point you might be eliminating enemy soldiers, all professional, creative and cool as a cucumber, like it's some kind of a game. People at the radio/codec might offer advice and add witty remarks. Then you are reminded how war and related activities are horrible experiences for those involved. Suddenly you enter a grim battle against a challenging boss with high stakes. After that, you hear what his motivations for fighting were and you might even feel bad for the dying guy or gal. Your CO then reminds you of the next mission objective. On the way there, it's business as usual and then... something funny happens. You gather some new weapons and supplies. After that you spend time having conversations with your support crew about topics such as life, weapons, philosophy, war, movies, history, hamburgers, peace, technology, human nature, animals you've encountered, beverages, french cuisine and/or even the mission at hand.

5. General gameplay. You play as this awesome commando/spy. However, rather than running and gunning everything on sight, you have to be cunning and sneak around. While the multitude of guns is often an option, it's not the only one and many times, not the best one. You can get really creative as you mix stealth with unarmed combat, guns, gadgets, cardboard boxes or even mundane things such making a distraction by knocking on a wall or throwing an empty magazine to make suspicious noice. Also, since MGS2, the game rewards you for completely non-lethal gameplay.

6. Boss fights. Sometimes, they're open combat, sometimes they feature stealth. They're always awesome. It's hardly ever that clear cut and you have to find out their weaknesses, come up with a strategy and then execute it. By that description, it's a similar process to sneaking but more intense as the bullets keep flying, along with fists, explosives, swords, lightning, knives, rockets, supernatural projectiles, bees, mecha-sized kicks and/or weaponized high-pressure water.

7. The relationship between realism, technology and supernatural. On first glance, you would think that the world of Metal Gear is just our world starring some soldier dude, just like all the cookie cutter FPS-games. However, that's the way they want you to think. Sure, it's all grounded in (relative) realism and you play a Badass Normal elite commando who sneaks and fights against soldiers armed with assault rifles... but that's just the start. It won't be long before you encounter other elite black op-types, which include psychics, shamans, vampires, cyborg ninjas, cosmonauts with jetpacks and guys covered in bees. And they all seem to be after some nuclear equiped, walking battle mecha. Even your own (awesome) gear is sometimes way advanced for its apparent time, because governments like to keep secret prototypes. Sometimes they give a reasonable explanation... and sometimes there is no explanation given why that one guy can generate and manipulate 10 million volts of electricity with his (non-cyborg) body at the 60's. It's nice to have mysteries from time to time.

8. Big Boss. One of the greatest video game characters ever.

... But what about Solid Snake? Please. That guy is just a clone of Big Boss.

9. Cutscenes! Seriously. I like them. There a lot of them but it just wouldn't be the same without them. I'm also going to include codec/radio/cassette tape-conversations. I enjoy how all these advance the story.

10. The source of all this awesome: The series has always taken risks in its development and never plays it safe and boring. Sometimes the series even trolls its fans, which... results in more awesome stuff. Above all, the series has always kept its core but kept expanding it.

11. The central themes of the games: Genes, Memes, Scene, Sense, Peace and Race & Revenge. The overall theme of how war affects soldiers and everyone else is present in every game of the series.




These are all minor gripes. I kind of struggled to come up with these.

1. The series is over. That or they make Metal Gear Solid 6 without Kojima, the man behind the whole thing. Either way, things will not be the same.

2. Konami rushed the ending of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. As a result, there's kind of multiple points that could be claimed to be an ending but they're not alternate endings but a line of endings in one continuity. The ending(s) could have been better. Of course, it's not so bad because 1) The game is otherwise Excellent and 2) this is not the chronological end point of the series, that's Metal Gear Solid 4.

3. Speaking of which: Metal Gear Solid 4. While it featured improved graphics, it's my least favorite installation of the series. It's not horrible or even an average game but this game features more bad choices than any other game in the series.

4. The Emmerichs. Huey (father) and Hal (son, AKA Otacon). Some people hate Raiden but I think these two are easily my least favorite characters of the series. Raiden isn't all bad and he's got a good explanation for his unstability (raised as a child soldier) but these two have no explanation for all they've done. Hal was annoying even in original Metal Gear Solid but Huey seemed to be okay in Peace Walker. Same can't be said about Huey in Phantom Pain, where we got to see how cowardly, evil and self deluded this man was. In retrospect, Huey is way worse than Hal but it evens out because Huey was annoying in only game, while Hal was annoying in three games.

5. Parasite Unit, aka. Skulls! I hate them, I hate themIhatethem! Lucky that I've now beaten them all with S-Rank in the past. :smalltongue:

6. Boss fights have been in every game but I really miss the hay days of quirky boss squads and fighting the final boss of the game with fists (or swords) in a close combat fight. As the series progressed, these became more scarce.

7. I keep constantly changing my mind about whether this is a good or bad twist but it is sometimes in bad category: You don't play as Big Boss in Phantom Pain. That's some other dude. Anyway, like I said, I see this in both good and bad category... sometimes even simultaneously. :smallfrown:

8. I've never played and possess no way to play Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Kojima wasn't actually involved in making this game and I hear it's not good but... it's still canon... even if the stuff that happened there is almost never referenced in other games.

9. Uh... I don't know? That one point in MGS3 (or was it MGS2?) where I had to sneak around, after they took all my gear, got once a bit annoying during one of my playthroughs?

10. There is no point 10. This game series has only nine of these.

[Velaryon]

Great topic idea! It really challenges us to think critically about the things we enjoy and why we enjoy them, and also helps keep minds open.

I'll start with an easy one, the new Star Wars Battlefront on PS4:


1. It's the first new Battlefront game in 10+ years! I've been waiting so long for this.
2. The graphics are absolutely beautiful.
3. All of the guns (with one exception) are pretty well balanced.
4. Doing away with the class system in favor of customized loadouts is better, once you get used to it.
5. Fighter Squadron mode is the most satisfying piloting experience I've had since the first Rogue Squadron game game, if not X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
6. There are lots of game modes, and only a couple of them are total duds (see below).
7. Traits are a fun addition. I love taking the Scout so that I can sprint and fire without being detected on enemy radar, but Bodyguard (less damage from explosions) and Bounty Hunter (chance for free powerups on scoring kills) are great too.
8. Different game modes allow different numbers of total players, so there's something for everyone. I can stick to smaller modes like Cargo with teams of six, while those who like more chaos can play Walker Assault or Supremacy for teams of twenty.
9. Playing as Heroes or Villains is a lot of fun, and they play differently enough that it's not easy to say one is clearly better than another. Boba Fett offers more mobility than anything else in the game, but Leia can throw up a shield to protect teammates, and Luke can zip around the field at lightning speeds taking out anything that he can get close to.
10. The partner system is neat, especially if you play with friends. You can spawn off your partner's location, you can use their gear loadout, and you can keep track of them anywhere in the map.




1. Not nearly enough maps. The game launched with maps on only four planets: Tatooine, Hoth, Endor, and Sullust. Sure, they added Jakku with a free patch a month after release, but where is Yavin? Dagobah? Coruscant? Any of the planets from the prequels like Mygeeto, Mustafar, Geonosis, Kamino, and so on? With the amount of maps we got, this feels like half a game.
2. Lack of offline or single-player content. I get that shooters are a multiplayer-focused genre, but there is zero reason that we can't play all the same game modes offline with bots, or local co-op. What paltry offline content we do have (a handful of survival waves and crummy missions) is clearly tacked on just to provide a couple of trophies.
3. $50 for the DLC season pass, really? And three months after the game's release, we have basically zero information about what any of that downloadable content will be. All we know is that the company denied rumors that the first pack will have a new map (which is the thing this game most desperately needs).
4. The DL-44 pistol is way overpowered. It kills in two shots at short and medium range, has a better scope than most of the rifles, and a shorter cool time than comparable guns. Damage drops off at long range, but not nearly enough, because it's still very possible to kill at long range almost as effectively as with a rifle. It's easy to be taken down by someone before you even know they're there.
5. Fighter Squadron is horribly unbalanced. First of all, A-Wing hitboxes are tiny, making them significantly harder to hit than any other ship, and with basically no trade-off. Rebel ships in general come with shields that are way more useful than the speed boosters that Imperial ships have. And they seriously need to fix the exploit where the Millennium Falcon can throw on its shield, ram the Slave I, and come out unscathed.
6. Patches "fix" the wrong issues. Instead of tweaking the imbalance in Fighter Squadron or toning down the DL-44, they nerfed grenades to the point of uselessness.
7. Hero Hunt is a waste of time. It sounds like a fun mode, but you only get to be the Hero (and thus can only score points in the match) if you are lucky enough to land the last hit on the previous Hero. You can take down 90% of their life bar, but if someone else happens to hit at the same time as you, the game might award them the killing blow and you get nothing for your work.
8. Droid Run is a pointless mode. In theory it sounds fun - try to control at least two of three moving command points - but in practice it's no good. With teams of only 6, it's very difficult to hold on to points, so the match devolves into an endless chase of both teams running in a circle taking back the droids over and over again. It doesn't matter how well you do, because victory is determined solely by who is holding more droids when time runs out. Winning takes as much skill as a game of Hot Potato because it's basically the same thing.
9. Matchmaking is a bit clunky. While you can join a game with your party and all play together, it can be tricky finding a game that will accommodate parties of more than three or four people, especially in smaller game modes. On top of that, teams don't shuffle between matches, meaning that the only time your opponents or teammates change is when people enter and leave games (though thanks to this selfsame problem, people do leave games and join new ones frequently).
10. I'm just not very good at the game, except for Fighter Squadron. :smallannoyed:

[DiscipleofBob]

And now to start doing things I've recently watched / read / played...

Agent Carter
1. Late 40's detective noir set in the Marvel universe. The MCU knows how to tell a story in any genre, and tell it well. Agent Carter is no exception.
2. Haley Atwell is amazing. The other actors are good, but Atwell deserves special mention for just stealing every scene she's in even when it's not her show.
3. Period sexism is a major factor of the plot, but it never feels heavy-handed. The show never forgets it's supposed to be fun.
4. It's Who Framed Roger Rabbit if Roger Rabbit was Howard Stark and the detective character looked as good as Jessica Rabbit, especially when we get to L.A. in the second season.
5. The second episode that's framed by the Captain America radio drama with terrible acting and cheap radio sound effects coinciding with Agent Carter beating up the suspect deserves special mention.
6. The British snarky ever-so-polite banter between Carter and Jarvis. It makes even tense scenes hilarious.
7. Howling Commandoes cameo.
8. Second season looks to be bringing more of the supernatural and other Marvel elements into the show.
9. The supporting characters are sexist, but don't come across as generic bigoted *******s. They're still three dimensional characters and respect Peggy in their own way, but their views are undoubtedly products of the time.
10. The show successfully manages to pull some twists and turns without telegraphing them too much ahead of time.

1. Only on its second season and only between breaks on Agents of SHIELD. I like AoS just fine, but Carter is so much better and deserves its own full series.
2. I know he'd probably be too expensive for the show's budget, but Tommy Lee's general character from the Captain America movie could've stood to make a few appearances.
3. Same with the Howling Commandos who only briefly appear in one episode.
4. We get it. Leviathan is HYDRA, or a branch of it, or its ancestor, or something. You're not fooling anyone by calling it something different.
5. I know the Russian guy is Doctor Faustus, but they never explained exactly how his hypnosis ring works.
6. I don't think Peggy Carter has a definite love interest in the comics, but at the end of last season Carter was starting to have feelings for Sousa, and a few months later at the beginning of this season he's engaged to someone completely different. Either that moved REALLY fast or Sousa had a main girl this whole time. Either way, **** move to Carter and poor justification for the new scientist love interest.
7. The other SSR agent who takes over after Chief Dooley doesn't give Carter her justified recognition at the end of season one, despite how Carter kept HIS dark secret shut.
8. The subplot in season 2 about the SSR becoming a defunct agency when the whole thing is clearly being spearheaded by corruption at the top.
9. How much of an idiot and jackass do you have to be to pull Carter out of the interrogation with Dottie Underwood to send her across the country to basically punk both her and Sousa?
10. Mrs. Jarvis's accent is probably more accurate for a Jewish French person trying to learn an American accent than I give her credit for, but it still just sounds off.