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The amount of serotonin it gave me to watch this grandma react to her new galaxy light 🥺

It’s dark in here- *gasps in excitement* OHH SARAH!

OHH SARAH! *giggles like a little kid* OHhHhH!!

My ceiling is filled with blue lights… and stars and everything!!

OH Sarah! I can go to bed at night looking at this. OHHHH it’s beautiful!

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The Problem With Cruella

Cruella is honestly a lot better than we were expecting, but it was something of flawed concept from the start.

Disney’s Cruella is a live action retelling of the 1961 film (and preceding book) 101 Dalmatians, told from the perspective of the antagonist. The film also labels itself as a prequel to the original animated film, although the storylines are distinct enough that this doesn’t really hold up beyond a handful of character names. I will say before we start that Cruella has generally been well received and it deserves a lot of the praise it’s been given, but in my opinion there’s something at this film’s core that simply doesn’t work – or, at the very least, didn’t need to be there, and actively takes away from the experience.

Let me explain what I mean:

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Review: Enola Holmes

I’ll admit that I went into Netflix’s Enola Holmes with something less than an open mind. I always try to approach a new film with no expectations or pre-conceived judgements, but, as I’m sure anyone who watched the downfall of BBC’s Sherlock will no doubt find, the phrase ‘a story about Sherlock Holmes’ sister’ strikes a fear in me that I couldn’t shake before I turned on this film.

Fortunately, in the end, Enola Holmes was not everything I feared it would be. It has quite a lot going for it, in fact – decent acting, a likeable main character, and some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments of good humour – and if you’re looking for something a bit mindless then you could do worse than this film. That being said, I think Enola Holmes had some fairly major stumbles that ultimately killed any chance it had of being something really worthwhile, and I think it’s something that takes a little digging into.

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Why the Snyder Cut Won’t Save Justice League

The release of an official cut of 2017’s Justice League from former-director Zack Snyder has finally been announced, following a long campaign by fans. The film will be coming to HBO’s streaming service HBO Max in 2021, as revealed by a haunting trailer that dropped earlier this month and looks set to rework the film into something much closer to Snyder’s original vision before he was forced to leave the project during post-production. According to HBO, the film, titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League, will initially be released as a four-part miniseries, followed by a four-hour combined version.

The thing is, it probably isn’t going to help.

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Why Do So Many TV Shows End Badly?

After 15 long years of saving people and hunting things, The CW’s Supernatural has finally come to a close. The series finale ‘Carry On’ aired on 19th November and oh boy, were the fans not happy with this one. Following a combination of rushed pacing, deeply underwhelming writing, and frankly bizarre directing and acting choices, the final few episodes of the long-running tale appear to have been received less as the triumphant conclusion the producers were hoping for and more as yet another addition to a growing line of disappointing endings to once-loved TV shows.

The last decade has seen plenty of these – Game of Thrones, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, Dexter… The list goes on and on. And, if we’re being honest, this isn’t a problem that’s unique to TV series – plenty of people were upset by the ending to the Harry Potter books, for example, or Avengers Endgame – but it seems to be a far more common fate for our favourite shows. In part, this is just the law of statistics; there are more TV shows that run on for several years than there are film or book series, so there are many more opportunities for disappointment, but that’s not the only culprit. So, what is it about TV shows that invites this inability to deliver a satisfying ending?

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A Love Letter To Eurovision

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is exactly what you’d expect from a film based on the annual singing competition Eurovision. If you want a five second review, it’s this: If you like Eurovision, you will find something to enjoy in this film; if you don’t, you’re probably not going to get much out of the experience. The film shares the same frenetic, colourful, and light-hearted humour that the contest has become known for, and the result is two hours or so of relatively harmless comedy and some genuinely great music.

So, with that said, is it a stretch to try to find a deeper meaning in The Story of Fire Saga? Yes. Am I going to do it anyway, knowing that it’s probably just Covid-19 lockdown getting to me and making me sentimental and sappy? Also yes. And since no one but God himself can stop me, here we are.

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This implies that the person played the game for 8,492 hours, and then gave it a negative review. After doing that, they played the game for another 9,165.9 hours.

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Review: The Witcher

I’m going to set my stall out early and say that while I’ve played all three of the Witcher games from CD Projekt Red (and loved all of them), I haven’t read a single one of the original novels and short stories written by Andrzej Sapkowski. As a result, I wasn’t entirely sure what I could expect from Netflix’s The Witcher beyond some slightly dodgy trailers and the memory of a long history of terrible adaptations of video games, but I went in with high hopes all the same.

I’m thrilled to say that my optimism wasn’t in vain.

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The Top 10 Defining Innovations In Gaming From The Last Decade

As this decade comes to a close, gaming news outlets everywhere are looking back and trying to rank all the best video games of the last ten years. Since that’s been done to death elsewhere and – in our opinion – the ‘best’ games are going to be entirely dependent on the interests of each individual player, we wanted to do something a little different. Instead, we’ve been considering which innovations and moments in the last ten years have most significantly changed the gaming industry and where we might be going from here. So, here are our top ten picks for the most defining gaming innovations of the 2010s:

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6 Times Developers Did Something Interesting With Multiplayer Modes

Ever since the days of couch co-op and split screen PvP, multiplayer modes have been an integral part of gaming. However, while many games fall back on standard modes like deathmatch and capture the flag, some developers have taken the basic idea of online gaming and used that as a platform to create clever, innovative game modes that redefine what online gaming can accomplish. We’ve been looking at six games with multiplayer modes that really stand apart from typical, tacked-on PvP.

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All the Biggest News from Blizzcon 2019’s Opening Ceremony

On Friday we were treated to the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2019, game developer Blizzard’s annual convention to showcase their upcoming games. A few leaks over the last month had already given us some idea of what to expect, but there were a couple of surprises too – we’ve put together a few of the biggest moments from the ceremony for you to have a look through if you can’t find time to watch the whole stream. Enjoy!

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I’ve already written an entire article about Endgame/Infinity War so I really can’t justify writing another one but this gifset so makes me want to. Tony’s progression all the way from Iron Man 1 has been exactly this - he cannot rest until the world is safe and it’s never been safe and, what, 15 years on? He’s tired. He’s fought too much, he’s lost so much, and for all he’s gained - finally, finally getting a happy ending of sorts - he knows he needs to risk it all again because if he buries this thing he will never be able to rest. He can’t do that to himself, or Pepper and Morgan.

And worse - this is the first time I think we see Pepper really get that. Because she’s been pretty absent since Iron Man 3 we’ve not seen her progression from there to here, but at the end of that film she was thrilled to see Tony letting go of his obsession. Now, many years and losses later, she’s the reason that Tony walks right back into battle, because she knows that he can’t not do that and still be Tony. It would be the end of him and no matter how much she wants to keep him safe there, she understands that he simply can’t. 

Of course, Tony knows that too. This is more than asking for advice - this is asking permission. That little nod he does after he suggests he bury it, a silent ‘please tell me I can let this go’ even when he knows that isn’t, and never has been, an option. He knows she’s going to say no, but he needs to give her the chance to say it all the same. There’s an understanding there that’s only shared by people who have been through trauma together and at long last, they’re on the same page. 

And they both know that it will be the end of them. 

I can’t help everybody. Sort of seems like you can. Not if I stop.

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Blizzard Finally Releases Statement On Blitzchung Ban

Almost a week after game developer Blizzard came under fire for removing a professional Hearthstone player from a tournament over pro-Hong Kong comments, the company has released a statement explaining their actions and reducing the penalties place on those involved. In particular, the statement clarifies that neither the specific views expressed by Blitzchung in the interview, nor Blizzard’s relationships in China, factored into their decision.

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Outrage After Blizzard Bans Pro Hearthstone Player Over Hong Kong Comments

Game developer Blizzard has removed professional Hearthstone player Chung ‘Blitzchung’ Ng Wai from a ‘Grandmasters’ tournament following remarks he made in support of the protests currently taking place in Hong Kong. The ban also prevents Blitzchung from participating in any Hearthstone competitions for the next 12 months and rescinds all of his prize money, reported to be around $10,000.

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Review: Robin Hood

The folktale of Robin Hood has a somewhat mixed history when it comes to Hollywood productions. Older films, like 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and 1993’s follow-up spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights still enjoy a long-standing popularity to this day, while more recent endeavours, such as the unimaginatively named 2010 production of Robin Hood, have almost immediately fallen by the wayside. How does 2018′s Robin Hood fare?

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NFSA Announces New Video Game Archival Preservation Project

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) has announced its intention to archive Australian video games as part of a preservation effort of the medium. The plan was revealed at the opening of Game Masters, a new exhibition in Canberra that will run until March 2020, and looks to archive digital copies of the games involved alongside any available storyboards, artwork, soundtracks, and promotional materials.

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Niantic Settles 2016 Class Action Lawsuit

Pokémon Go developer Niantic has settled a public nuisance class action lawsuit that was first brought against the company in 2016. As part of the settlement, Niantic has committed to new rules regarding gameplay and will pay legal fees and stipends to each participant in the case, but does not admit to wrongdoing.

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