First Impressions: Avengers Age of Ultron

Age of Ultron, the sequel to the box office hit "The Avengers". To say this movie is building up a hype train is a understatement and for good reason. With the success of the first film, how could they top it?

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: May the trumpets be herd, for Hoenn's Out

To say that I was hyped for this game is a understatement. With Pokemon posts taking up a decent chunk of the content here, its safe to say that I'm a Pokemon fan and if you've read my review of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, then you'll know that I'm a Gen III fan boy. So of course I was excited for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (which for the rest of the review shall be referred to as ORAS). After playing it for just over a week, how well does it show off the strengths of Hoenn and how faithful is the remake? Do note, spoilers are plentiful here (unlike the IGN review).

Team Fortress 2: "A World war themed hat simulator" - Valve

What is there to say about Team Fortress 2 that hasn’t been said? If you play First person shooters or have Steam, then you know of this game. It’s one of the few FPS games that doesn’t try to take itself seriously and never has. The trailers, the taunts in game, the weapons, the characters, everything about this game is designed to be comical.

Rant: Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystals, how the community has treated them

I was going to save this for when I actually reviewed the games but by that point, this ship would have sailed and sunk.

While I will say that I'm proud to be a Sonic fan, I've had my share of entertainment from the series, one of my biggest problems I have with the series is the fans and how they react to new games. When a new game comes out for the series, you either hear praise for it from the fans, or you get everyone saying "this is the end of Sonic games, the franchise is dead" and so on. That second one is the reaction to the two Sonic Boom games, and while I haven't played the games yet, from what I've seen of the games, the "critique" from the fandom is off by a mile.

PSA: Adsense for Blaster's Reviews

When I created Blaster's Reviews, I intended for this to be a long term project that would develop and grow over time. However, for some of its aspects to grow, I do need to earn some money. I've always intended to create video reviews in the future and chose not to do it straight away due to lack of personal equipment (I can rent the equipment, but at the time, I didn't know if this would be successful, I still don't, so I chose not to do it).

I am enabling a feature called "AdSence", a feature that enables advertisements to be displayed on this site once the application is approved. This hopefully won't be permanent, should the application be accepted, but for the time being, its a necessary evil, I know its annoying. Once a reliable option becomes useable, I'll disable the ads, you have my word on that. But until then...

One note on Patreon, considering the main topic, my patreon account still exists and you can find it in the "About me" section to the right. If you do enjoy my content or want to see a specific form of content (it can be anything), Patreon donators will get the priority (though I do read all requests). If you enjoy the content but hate ads, please become a Patreon supporter for the two sites.

Finally, due to the way Adsence is set up, there will not be ads on Blaster's Projects, that remains untouched by this.

Next week is still the Team Fortress 2 review so stay tuned for that

Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald versions: Care for a tropical holiday?

On this day in 1995, I was born. On this same day in 2005, I received what would be the first of many games in this series: Pokemon Emerald version. And it is for that reason why I held this review back an extra day, to coincide with the 9th anniversary of me picking my first starter Pokemon.

Pokemon Generation III was a weird time for Pokemon. A large chunk of its fan base left the series as they thought they were to mature for it or they were "Pokemon'd out" due to the last two generations, while at the same time, a brand new wave of fans started to play the series. If you ask any older Pokemon fan, they'll tell you they either came in during the hype of Pokemon Generation I, or during Generation III more often then not. There were people who hated Generation III during its prime, but what about 9-11 years later? As with all my reviews, no nostalgia goggles here, time to pick apart Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and in particular, Pokemon Emerald version.

As with Generation I and II, the formula for completion is still pretty much the same: Get starter Pokemon, defeat 8 Gym leaders, stop people who are trying to do evil things, defeat the champion and congratulations, you're done. However there are a few new things to this (for their time) along with gameplay that newcomers would find archaic. This is the list of new features from Bulbapedia:

Top 10: The sounds of Pokemon

To make up for not having a post on Wednesday (to be explained later, trust me there's a reason). I figured there should be something to make up for it, so here are my Top 10 Pokemon songs from just the games, but remixes from the anime are allowed. Yes there are a lot of Battle themes here as I prefer those over the other tracks, not that they are bad. Do note that these songs loop so you don't have to see the full video (assuming you actually play these videos...).

10. Battle Gym Leader (Kalos) from Pokemon X and Y

Transformers: Age of Extinction... YOU HAD ONE JOB BAY, ONE F$@#*() JOB!!!

WARNING: This post has been known to cause connection issues due the the large size and large number of images.

Back in June, I did the Transformers Marathon to coincide with the release of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction (Revenge of the Fallen actually coming out the day it was released here). Do I regret the marathon itself? No as it was a learning experience, what I regret is saying that it ties in with Bayformers 4. But I am a man of my word, and I did say that I'd review Age of Extinction. In-case you couldn't tell from the title... let's just say I hoped you like Zeta and Omnicron's review.

Do I even need to explain the plot, as with the other films, while there are slight differences (more here then in prior), they are still the same film. Something happens to the Autobots, Decepticons come back, listen to whiny human character, cut to final battle. But if you want details...

Opinion piece: The concept of True Fear

That is correct, you get two opinion pieces today.

While I do investigate all different kinds of the mediums I review, all different genres, play styles ect, horror isn't one I investigate often. While I have my own personal fears and there are scenes in films that creep me out because they rely on those fears, when a movie, show or game is meant to be scary, I find that I'm even less scared by it. With all the talk about Five nights at Freddy's happening at the moment (maybe a review next year, I'm rarely topical, you should all know that by now), it has given me a chance to ponder the concept of True fear and why I'm not as easily scared by horror.

So what is the difference between horror and "true fear"? For me, its the human factor. The human imagination is powerful and it can scare you more then any movie of show could. What's scarier, a lifeless corpse in a dark hallway, or seeing someone shoot that person while they are alive? When you see a dead body, with blood around him, your mind instantly starts thinking "who did this? How did this person died? What did the killer look like?", it leaves more room for the imagination to take effect, and as such this person without a face seems more terrifying, the illusion itself is scarier then then this person is, and when done well, it can be truly terrifying. That's why I think books do this kind of horror the best because while it can describe the face, the imagination can still alter it, so in reality they still don't have a face, but instead thousands of slightly different faces. Fear of the unknown is a fear shared between most people on this planet, hence why people fear death, hell and the devil, and at a root, the imagination can be a cause.

This concept also lends itself to the concept of the Uncanny Valley, when something looks so realistic that it stops being realistic. As human beings, we're used to seeing common sites in society, we know what a human face looks like as a example. But when robots start being made with human esque aspects to them, human eyes, moving mouths ect. In trying to replicate realism, it actually stops looking realistic. In horror, the concept can be used to scare you. Look at Five nights at Freddy's and Slenderman as examples. If you look at the designs for the anamatronics in the game, they all have that Uncanny Valley aspect to them.

The same can also be said for Slenderman (before taking into account his other... features...). It's no accident that there's no face on him.

There is another aspect that these two concepts share for their games in particular, the shock value. You don't know when and where these characters will show up, and combined with the the atmosphere that the games have, it will get those jump scares out of you. I haven't seen enough of the gameplay of either of them to accommodate for the music (should it exist) but the dark colours, the lack of any other presence, and the lore the games have

For Five nights at Freddy's can be found here for those curious http://www.gameskinny.com/qp4nb/five-nights-at-freddys-lore-hints-you-may-have-missed
And here's the lore for Slenderman (because I've had a hard time finding a source with detail):

A common problem though for shock scares is the lack of subtlety. a patch of blood every hour and a chilling theme is scarier then blood pools every 5 minutes... that I'd hope would be common sense.

Finally, a final excellent tool in horror is the lack of control, the lack of power. An army of zombies isn't threatening when you're a walking tank, that defeats the purpose of horror. The greatest horror monsters have all shared traits with the humanity of the time with their greatest strengths being the lack of strength you have to challenge them, but letting the viewer walk away wondering, questioning "am I really like that?" Even modern characters like the Nolanverse version of the Joker has that aspect to it. If you can master those tools, then you can create something truly terrifying. Until next week for Transformers 4.

Don't be afraid of what comes alive at night :)

 ... Its and old joke, but a good joke...

Why do Bronies and Pegasisters exist?

I believe I speak for a large majority of the world who also don't have a clue as to why this question needs to be asked. There are people who make money off of Youtube trying to answer this question and personally, while I see their opinions as valid takes on the question, I don't think it's the whole answer. Seeing as I've just finished my review of this generation of the series's first film, I might as well throw my opinion into the mix as well. Is this opinion the final answer to the question? Probably not, though I do believe its a step in the right direction. This is a wall of text FYI.

As a forward for those who aren't aware of the term: a "Brony" is a male fan of the My Little Pony franchise in some way. It is a self endowed term that the community gave to itself. Due to a large, and loud, portion of the community being male, the fan base refers to itself as "Bronies". However there is a female equivalent (which I found during the research for this topic, I generally don't like to look to deeply into fandoms due to... distasteful products fan communities have produced) called "Pegasisters" (I swear to Arceus I'm not making this up).

One of the closest takes on the question is this (as a short hand version): the current MLP generation is written as a sitcom and men tend to prefer sitcoms and comedy in general over other genres. There are, however some flaws with that view. Generally speaking, a sitcom generally follows every member of its main group (take for example, The Big Bang Theory, every episode gives each member of its main group a decent amount of air time). One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when putting MLP in with these types of shows is that, while you may see the main cast in each episode, any given episode tends to revolve around a select few of them and the others would only appear if they needed to be. So while it might be a comedy, it isn't a sitcom. The other issue with this view is that it negates the other portion of the fanbase, the intended market.

So why do I think its fanbase is the way it is, a part of it will be explained if you read these:

"Animation is different from other parts. Its language is the language of caricature. Our most difficult job was to develop the cartoon's unnatural but seemingly natural anatomy for humans and animals."

"Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world."

"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."

Who was the person who originally spoke these words? Walt Disney. The man spoken of as one of the geniuses of animation, the man behind the most well known animated character in history. This style of thinking is still used in the Disney animation studios (at least, to my knowledge... theory) to this day. There's a reason why people still watch Disney films, regardless of their age: because their films are targeted towards everyone and I believe the same can be said for MLP. When I finally caved into my curiosity, I said to myself "if its anything like what my sister watches, then I'll look into the first 5 episodes at the most (to give the series a fair chance), and move on if it doesn't pursued me to keep looking into it". At the end of the first two episodes I was asking myself "Did they seriously just do that in a show for that audience?". Normally a pilot episode/ episodes are used to shown as concepts as to what the rest of the show is going to be like and while the pilot for MLP is misleading to a degree, it did accomplish its goal of deviating itself from the other children's TV shows (both for boys and girls). As I looked into it more for this review, I started seeing several resemblances to animated Disney films.

Before I go into this point, I want to talk a little bit about Marketing (yes I know its boring, I had to learn it in High School). When your marketing a product for kids, your not only targeting kids, your also targeting their parents. The reason for this is that, more often then not, the parents are going to be the ones to fuel their children's love for the series. For example, I didn't get into Transformers from watching the show, what first got me into is is a birthday present from my parents, which was Transformers Armada Jetfire. From there I discovered the show and the rest is history. The other aspect to targeting parents is this: If a child is watching the show, then the parents will either ignore the show (loosing a possible viewer), the child will either want the parents to watch the show with them (which may make them phase out, loosing quality time with the child) or watch the show with them because they have nothing better to do with their time. If the parent likes the show, then the parent will most likely be inclined to buy the toys based on that show for their child, earning more money for the company. It was probably this trail of thought (in some form) that convinced Hasbro to green light the changes.

This doesn't describe why the team behind the show would decide to make these changes in the first place. And for that, I want to divert your attention to these:

1. "cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness" Lauren Faust

2. 

3.

(Yes, I know the videos mostly relates to games, but the concepts still apply for TV shows and film)

So what do these have to do with anything? The first video talks about designing for children and the later points are what I want to bring attention to. "Kids are adults with a lot less experience", contrary to popular belief, children can handle complicated ideas if it is being presented in a way that makes sense for them. I mentioned in my last opinion piece, on how the Transformers have survived for so long, that the stories that have succeed, that will survive the test of time explore complicated ideas while keeping that simplistic theme, one of the reasons for that is because of how younger generations can interpret these concepts. Children can understand more then most would like to admit, the only issue is that they need to be taught these concepts in different ways to others. I want to divert your attention to Avatar: The Last Airbender (and maybe Korra, I haven't watched enough episodes to base the following on Korra though), the series is mature and well constructed, yet all ages can understand its messages because it is written in a way that teaches all ages. I intend to review Avatar later so I'm not going to go into much more detail, stay tuned.

 As for the second video and the quote, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that more and more stories are getting darker re-imaginings and, contrary to popular belief, MLP:FiM is a darker re-imagining when compared to its predecessors (from what I've herd). The quote is by Lauren Faust, the concept designer for this current generation, spoke that as a inspiration behind the changes.

"My Little Pony was one of her favorite childhood toys, but she was disappointed that her imagination at the time was nothing like the animated shows, in which the characters, according to Faust, "just had endless tea parties, giggled over nothing and defeated villains by either sharing with them or crying". With the chance to work on My Little Pony, she hoped to prove that "cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness"." Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic

Darker doesn't have to mean "grey", for darker can come in all forms, in this case, darker themes. The world that has been crafted for FiM appears to be like nothing seen in the series before (I can't say for certain I haven't seen previous generations and I don't know anyone who has). I mentioned before that marketing likely played a key part in Hasbro greenlighting project, but there is another reason, and ironically it's Michael Bay. With the financial success (sadly I can't argue with that) of the Transformers movies at the time (so the First film, and Revenge of the Fallen) Hasbro was looking to redesign and re-imagine their other brands. Lisa Licht suggested to Lauren Faust that her animation style fitted the MLP series and from there, the rest is history.

Finally, during my investigations in the series, I found a common insult being thrown around, saying that all bronies (in particular) are autistic in some form. As a man who is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome myself, I find this offensive... but possibly with a shred of truth to it. Now before I have insults and attacks thrown at me, let me explain. A common connection between people who have Asperger Syndrome and Autism is the kinds of shows, film, visual stimulus in a nutshell. People with Aspergers and Autism tend to enjoy "simplistic" shows, simplistic as in facial and tone. A common issue Aspie's and Autistic people have are issues with facial expressions, body language and tones, its why a common issue is sarcasm. While I was analyzing the show and Equestria Girls, I noticed the way the characters behave is simplistic when compared to people of the real world. You know what the characters are feeling as they have simplistic facial expressions and tone. You know when someone's annoyed, scared, happy, bored ect because the simplistic actions, however not so simplistic that its insulting. Again, the way the show is written means that it teaches without forcing the lesson, something that is very hard to do. I released a questionnaire a while ago, but I didn't get enough replies to conclusively prove this theory. Thank you to those who did participate though. I should stress, this does not mean that I think all bronies are Aspie's/ Autistic, this is just to shed some light as to why Aspies and Autistic people might like the show.

So at the end of the day, why do Bronies and Pegasisters exist? There are many reasons, several I haven't addressed in this. However I don't believe it was a accident, I think it was going to happen, but that should say how well its been written. Next Wednesday: Transformers Age of Extinction... but I have something else for today, come back later for a festive post.