Month: September 2019

Here are some tips and tricks to do your best in MyCareer.

Apple Arcade is the tech company’s biggest step into the world of gaming since first introducing iPhone apps with the phone over a decade ago. While the Cupertino giant has historically been hesitant to grasp gaming with both hands, Apple Arcade represents a keen interest in cultivating their gaming ecosystem.

What is Apple Arcade?

In March 2019, Apple revealed their Arcade subscription service. While details were a little light, Apple clearly signaled their intentions to create a space for original mobile titles that often chose to go for single-purchase pricing models. The iPhone creators seemed to see that more one-and-done titles were suffering in the mobile market and created a service to boost those kind of titles with funding and marketing from Apple themselves.

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The arc of John Rambo, first begun in 1982 with Ted Kotcheff’s broody action film First Blood, has been an unusual one to say the least. Rambo (sensitively portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) was initially presented as an emotionally wounded ex-soldier who had been deeply stained and hollowed out by the violence he experienced in the Vietnam war. When Rambo first whipped out his hunting knife and began eviscerating small town sheriffs, it was meant to be seen as the final, tragic crack in the soul of a broken man.

Audiences, however (and perhaps bafflingly), latched onto the film’s exhilarating violence and to Rambo’s soldierly efficiency more than to his tragedy, leading First Blood’s subsequent sequels to transform the titular trauma sufferer into a tragedy-free, unstoppable all-American badass killing machine and pop culture’s central symbol for unchallenged American military might. A character who was originally meant to stand as a symbol for the damage that war can do to a soldier is now best remembered as an unkillable human machine gun.

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Following its reboot of the Transformers franchise earlier this year, IDW is now hitting the reset button on G.I. Joe. The old continuity that began in the 2008 Chuck Dixon series is gone, as is the shared Hasbro universe that once connected the Joes to other properties like Transformers, Rom and MASK. For a franchise that’s been trapped in a perpetual identity crisis for years, this fresh start is just what the Dr. Mindbender ordered.

The first time around, IDW made the mistake of trying to find a happy medium between the classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comics and a more grounded tale of military espionage. That combination never fully clicked. And particularly once IDW revived Real American Hero and let writer Larry Hama continue where he left off in 1994, the core G.I. Joe books never felt all that essential. IDW’s one real accomplishment in its rebooted Joe-verse was the graphic novel Cobra: The Last Laugh, which is quite possibly the finest G.I. Joe story in any medium.

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Fans of Batman and Catwoman’s romance have plenty to be thankful for right now. Even though that romance collapsed due to the tragic events of Batman #50, it’s on the rebound as writer Tom King builds toward next year’s Batman/Catwoman series. And if these most recent two issues are any indication, fans are in for a real treat in 2020.

Batman #79 continues the “City of Bane” interlude story from the previous issue, as Bruce and Selina carry out a clandestine mission designed to weaken Bane’s stranglehold on Gotham City and pave the way for Batman’s triumphant return. Along the way, there’s a whole lot more Bat-beefcake for your viewing pleasure, along with a definitive answer to one of the series’ longest-running mysteries. All in all, a pretty eventful issue for being a “mere” side-story.

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For some reason rapper Lil Wayne is in a live-action trailer for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Video game commercials featuring celebrities tend to be pretty hit and miss and, well, we’re not quite sure which category this one falls into, but it’s real wacky.

It begins with a bunch of people wondering whether Wayne is even going to show up for a multiplayer session–at one point his teammates wager he won’t because they check his feed and, “Hoooooooo, that is a lot of champagne.”

To everyone’s surprise, however, Wayne shows up to the firefight that live-action versions of their in-game avatars are having in a nondescript forest. Just to be 100 percent clear, real people are playing a video game, but the video game is presented in the trailer using live-action actors; on occasion, the actual video game assets are used. Not confusing at all.

Anyway, Wayne Tokyo Drifts into the skirmish driving what looks to be a Porsche. Lil Wayne, as his character–Backwards Baseball Cap Bearded Man who may or may not be related to the lad last seen on the cover of Medal of Honor (2010)–hops out and says, “What’s up players?” Get it?

Big questions at this point are:

1) Why is Lil Wayne in this commercial for a game that stars well-known and accomplished actor Jon Bernthal? No shade on Weezy, he’s a legend and is known to enjoy playing video games, but surely you just go with the actor.

2) Why does he show up in a sports car? Does the in-game soldier live the same lifestyle as Lil Wayne and can afford to have a Porsche and treat it that way? Can you drive a sports car into battle in the game? I’d be into that.

Weezy gets chewed out for being late, which leads to a nice world-building detail: Lil Wayne owns a helicopter but the helicopter is currently in the shop, which is why he is late. Also, Lil Wayne looks up at his screen and his character is indeed standing next to a Porsche. I spoke to members of the GameSpot team who have played Breakpoint about whether a sports car is usable and they said, “What are you talking about? Leave us alone we’re actually working here,” which is totally fair.

Note: The subtitle was edited by us for emphasis, neither Ubisoft nor Lil Wayne were involved

Stoned Ashton Kutcher gets things back on track by asking about what approach they’re going to take for the mission. Points to him for using “guns blazing” and making that weed connection. Nice.

The team agrees with taking the stealth approach but Wayne has his very own Leeroy Jenkins moment, screams his full name “Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.” and sprints into battle. In real life he throws his arms out triumphantly but his in-game representation actually sprints forward, suggesting Wayne at the very least is capable of controlling movement one-handed. Impressive.

At this point, Lil Wayne’s “Uproar” begins playing and there’s an explosion of action. Close-quarters melee, dropshots, quick target acquisition and dispatch. This all leads to one of the soldiers to say, “Dope” and you know what? Stoned Ashton Kutcher coughs in response, if it wasn’t clear what he was into.

At this point, things get very meta. Weezy gets a phone call, causing his character to go idle, and we see him complaining to his boy Richie about not wanting to do commercials … He’s complaining about not wanting to do commercials in a commercial. He says he doesn’t care about how much they’re going to pay but quickly seems to put that line of thought to rest when he hears the figure because we all know Wayne love young moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Another question at this point: The commercial opportunity he’s being resented with seems to involve him saying the word “Shitballs.” What is this a commercial for? What product could exist that can be effectively marketed by having a rapper say the word “shitballs” and who would that even be appealing to? Oh wait, nevermind, it’s probably a third-person shooter video game aimed at males aged 18 – 35. Well played, Ubisoft.

After rattling off some “shitballs” and presumably getting paid a wild amount of moooolaaaaahhhh bayyyybeh, Wayne gets into the driver seat and takes the squad on a ride. More worldbuilding here: The DMV has taken Lil Wayne’s real license so the only driving he now gets to do is in video games. After some cursory Google searches, we were unable to determine whether Wayne’s license has actually been suspended but we reckon he’s probably not driving himself around much these days anyway.

This is a good line and I would encourage using it in circumstances where it makes no sense. It is unclear whether this is a joke about consuming marijuana, which is less enjoyable for many when they find branches.

Gosh darn it, another phone call! Weezy just can’t keep his head in the game. It’s Sloppy Bill this time. We’re not sure if Wayne actually knows someone by that name but either way that is a very unfortunate nickname for a person. It sounds like someone that has a drooling problem and is just constantly saturating their shirts with saliva.

Not sure who Dribbly Bill is but apparently he’s going to hook Wayne up with a skate ramp. You may be thinking, “But Wayne is known to be a huge fan of skateboarding so he must have one already.” Well, friend, this is where we get a bit more Lil Waye lore. And the team get driven off a cliff.

Back to the game and it’s compound breaching time. Except strange sounds seem to be coming from Yeezy’s mic…

“Ramona, you’re a bad girl,” Weezy says.

If you’re a dirty-minded person you may be thinking Wayne is engaged in a certain act, in which case shame on you, get your mind out of the gutter. It’s just a lovely dog.

The team unloads their guns on the warehouse and all seems to be going swimmingly until they utterly expose themselves as fake gamers. There is no way any self-respecting gamer would take cover next to these barrels…

They get overwhelmed and call for Wayne, at which point you can hear a sample of producer Swizz Beatz quietly say, “Ya’ll know his name,” and in comes Wayne screaming “Tunechiiii,” which is one of the many monikers he goes by.

Again, Wayne in real life doesn’t have his hands on the controller. This time it’s just a bit reckless; you can’t be doing that when your friends are pinned up against a literal wall of explosive barrels and you’re the only one that can save them. Grow up, Lil Wayne.

Things get a little bit heated and Lil Wayne blows himself up. Sadly, his friends don’t seem interested in reviving him. There’s an emotional moment where Wayne realizes he may have too many nicknames and seems to indicate that, at some point in his life, he considered also adopting the names Lil Tuna Fish and Wizzle Fizzle.

Like absolute cowards, they let Weezy die, hoping his replacement will be someone more capable. And when that replacement arrives there is one hell of a plot twist…

EeeyiyiyiyiyahtheDoggPound’sinthehou-owwse

Snoop Doggy, Do-owww-ohhhh-oggg (the bomb)

Anyway this was directed by David Leitch, who did Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw. Good work that guy, this is very good.

The Ghost Recon: Breakpoint’s open beta begins on September 26 and the game will be out on October 4 for PS4, Xbox One, PC.