Neoplasmic has some thoughts to share on one of his favorite video game franchises, Halo, particularly in light of the latest installment in the franchise’s delay. It’s the latest edition of Rambling About Games! It’s a long one, so please enjoy!
Read MoreWelcome to the official RPC Gaming review of Sucker Punch’s magnum opus, Ghost of Tsushima. The samurai epic was published by Sony on July 17th and has gone on to earn many accolades and a heapin’ helpin’ of positive reviews. So what’s our verdict on this visually spectacular Kurosawa simulator? Read on and find out!
Read MoreThis video essay from RPC mainstay The Director, aka Joshua Lozano (and Youtuber joshboy64), details how Naughty Dog elicits strong emotions through the gameplay of such titles as Last of Us 1 and 2, as well as the Uncharted franchise.
Read MoreHey, all! Your friendly neighborhood RPC founder and EIC, Neoplasmic, here. Just thought I’d write out some stuff about our video game content and rating system and what we love to do here. As you’ve no doubt discovered by listening to our awesome Renegade Arcade podcast, we love games, and we want to be clear about how we choose the games we cover, how we review them, and what our scores mean.
Read MoreHere it is, at long last: our review of The Last of Us Part 2! A word of warning, however… as there are SPOILERS AHEAD! Since launching two weeks ago, this game has seen a lot of criticism and controversy over its themes, characters, and design. So what’s our verdict? Read on and find out!
Read MoreCaptain America: The Winter Soldier is what Marvel fans often point to as the film where the cinematic universe truly came together because it was here that the complexity, nuance, and genre-defining that were already prevalent in the previous films were brought to the attention of filmgoers and critics. Any series that went from pulpy, old-fashioned WWII adventure to espionage political thriller in the same vein as The Manchurian Candidate and the Bourne series.
Read MoreIron Man 3 is the final standalone outing for Tony Stark, released at a time when audiences were assured that six different superheroes could indeed occupy the same film successfully. What they needed to be reminded was that these heroes could still be interesting in their own flicks.
Read MoreThe summer of 2011 saw the releases of four major superhero movies: Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. The former was DC's first crack at establishing a cinematic universe for themselves, but it came massively short. The latter three Marvel branded films, however, solidified that company's progressing dominance of this new stage of the genre. Thor and Captain America especially were noteworthy for continuing the Marvel Cinematic Universe's winning streak, proof that audiences were becoming more and more welcoming of these larger than life characters in their own standalone stories before seeing them together in one flick.
Read MoreThor came out in a time when audiences were starting to accept the fact that a certain group of Marvel heroes could exist in the same cinematic universe. Iron Man and Hulk were two characters that fit neatly in the science-fiction genre, albeit the former being somewhat more practical than the latter, so the idea of them teaming up wasn’t that big of a stretch to moviegoers. But there was another hero on the horizon, one that belonged in the fantasy genre in a way few other Marvel heroes did, so much so that his creators weren’t Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, or Jack Kirby, but the Norsemen of centuries past: Thor. It didn’t help that Marvel’s depiction of the god of thunder was extremely goofy, with all the insane worlds he visits via a rainbow bridge while donning his flying helmet.
Read MoreIron Man 2, the first direct sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was made at a time when Iron Man went from a relatively obscure hero in the comics to an instant star in the movies. So, it only made sense that Marvel would give Tony Stark another outing before they dove into their truly esoteric characters like the even more obscure Thor and the explicitly patriotic Captain America.
Read MoreThe Incredible Hulk is a fascinating chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was released when people still had the unusual (however you felt about that film) taste of Ang Lee’s Hulk from 2003 in their mouths and had to deliver what that movie failed to promise in the eyes of many fans of the not-so-jolly green giant, it brought forth a star that audiences agreed was a good Bruce Banner and wanted to see more of in future installments, and it was still in a stage where the Marvel films were keeping their interconnectivity subtle.
Read MoreAs I said in the prelude to this review series, the 2000s were the decade that superhero movies were becoming the next big Hollywood genre, after being deemed the kiss of death in the 90s. They were becoming more adult and complex and had their creative voices as shown by the success of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and the failure of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, which to many filmgoers and critics, relied too much on nostalgia for the original Christopher Reeve films. But an even more unique take on the comic-book flick came in the form of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.
Read MoreMarvel is a word that, when said as a noun, means something that elicits amazement in the eyes of someone. For eleven years, to an entire world of filmgoers, a series of movies was precisely that, representing the changing tide of the whole cinematic landscape and a time when superheroes were not relegated to pulpy pages read by teens who frequented the nearest conventions. It was even the word that it went by.
Read MoreOne of my favorite bands of all time is Trivium. They are a 4-piece Heavy Metal band from Orlando, Florida that features Matt Heafy on lead vocals and guitar, Cory Beaulieu on backing vocals, Paolo Gregoletto on bass and backing vocals, and Alex Bent on drums. They were formed in 1999 and have since released 8 studio albums, with a new record set to release on Friday, April 24th.
Read MoreLet’s talk about the biological elephant in the room: COVID-19. Otherwise known as the Coronavirus.
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