Michael G. Munz

Marvel Trifecta

April 14, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

So guess whose laptop’s hard drive crashed and evaporated and exploded, leaving its owner kicking himself for not backing up some future blog posts and part of a chapter he’d written? If you guessed Mark Ruffalo’s, you’d be wrong. It’s me! So there may be a bit of a delay in my usual posting while I get things sorted out.

So in the meantime, have this trio of Marvel-related videos that came out this week!

The whole concept of Ant Man continues to give me trouble. I’ve never read the comic, and I’m having difficulty suspending my disbelief. I’ve got no problem with the Hulk, Groot, Rocket, etc., but even if he’s GOT super-strength when he’s that size, he’s got so little mass, it’d be like firing a bullet at a stone wall. But then I didn’t think Thor could work either, and it proved me wrong.

Hulk vs. Iron Man. This does not seem to be a good way to get Hulk to calm down, but I like it anyway!

This is, apparently Iron Man vs. Ultron, but I haven’t actually watched this one, because I don’t want to spoil the ENTIRE movie for myself.

Thanks for being patient, everyone. I hope to have everything working again soon!

Farscape Rewatch: “Suns and Lovers”

April 10, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Z-Minus Two…

Season 3, Episode 2:
“Suns and Lovers”
* out of ***

“Frell me dead.”

[Read more…]

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

April 9, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

**The Deus Ex franchise is back!**

Or, at least, it’s coming back. Eidos-Montreal has made it official with the first game trailer (scroll down to view it), and a GameInformer exclusive: Get ready for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

I honestly didn’t think we’d be getting another game in this series. Foolish me didn’t think there was room for more to go between the ending(s) of Adam Jensen’s story in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the story of J.C. Denton in the original, but I underestimated the influence of an interested market and the lure of additional gamer-dollars.

This is not a complaint! The original Deus Ex is one of my favorite games of all time, and Human Revolution gave us a prequel that updated the series (and gameplay) for the current generation. (We won’t speak of DX: Invisible War, the New Coke of the series.) Human Revolution didn’t quite capture the greatness of the original, yet it was still a (mostly) excellent game despite its flaws, and worth the long wait. I’m excited to see what they’ve got for Mankind Divided.

Reportedly, Mankind Divided (I’m not crazy about that name, but oh well) takes place two years following the events of Human Revolution, with the canon ending apparently being one where everyone augmented went violent and berserk. Jensen is now with an organization linked with Interpol, apparently dealing with cyborg terrorists. Will we see some of the events alluded to in Deus Ex? (Will the Statue of Liberty get its head blown off? Will UNATCO be formed? Will Bob Page return?

WILL WE GET LEMON-LIME WHEN WE WANTED ORANGE?!

I guess we’ll find out. Eidos has apparently stated that they’ve learned from HR’s mistakes, especially with regard to boss fights. (Why they ever thought farming them out to another studio completely unrelated to the rest of the game was a good idea, perhaps we’ll never really know.) I’ll be waiting for this one, folks. Have a look at the trailer:

Geez, another upcoming game I need to play? I’m going to need more free time.

Guest Geeks: Tammy Thomas and the Ninth Doctor

April 7, 2015 By Michael G. Munz 1 Comment

After a Norwescon-induced hiatus, the Guest Geeks feature is back! This time up, my guest is sci-fi/fantasy geek Tammy Thomas. Now, I’ve always found David Tennant to be my own personal favorite Doctor, but I have to admit that Tammy has got the best and most touching argument I’ve ever heard for why the ninth Doctor is the best doctor. Take it away, Tammy!

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IGN Review: Pillars of Eternity

March 28, 2015 By Michael G. Munz 2 Comments

Hi everybody – I’m overdue for another post, both on the Farscape Rewatch and Michael Reads Percy Jackson front. Things have been busy preparing for the blog tour for the New Aeneid Cycle re-release, ECCC 2015 this weekend, and Norwescon the next.

I hope to have something new up soon, but in the meantime, take a look at this IGN video review of the just-released Pillars of Eternity. If you’re like me, you consider Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment some of the best PC RPG experiences ever, and the people behind PoE would seem to agree with us. As the IGN reviewer says, it “feels like Neil Gaiman is playing dungeon master.”