Star Wars: JEDI Survivor

 

I really enjoyed 2019's JEDI Fallen Order, and thus was really looking forward to playing JEDI Survivor once it was released. I even interrupted Ghost of Tsushima in order to start playing Survivor. It should not be a surprise that I really enjoyed this game. I'm a big Star Wars fan, and this game starts right where Fallen Order left off, with an excellent story, gameplay, and music. Unfortunately, despite all of the positives, there was one rather large negative that made the game a bit frustrating at times. More on that in a bit. First, I'd like to focus on the positive aspects of the game, of which there were many.

Without regurgitating the entire plot of the game, suffice it to say that the story in JEDI Survivor is classic Star Wars. It involves tales of family, the delicate balance of the light and dark sides of the force, travel to planets with interesting surroundings, plenty of battle, and betrayal. It is good enough to be a side movie (similar to the Han Solo movie), and is considered canon. You play as Cal Kestis, a former Jedi who is living in a post-Clone Wars galaxy where the Empire is becoming increasingly powerful. One of the interesting aspects of the game is that the main group of antagonists, the Bedlam Raiders, use remnants from the Clone Wars to strengthen their defense. This includes using battle droids and other military personnel (including the always popular B1 battle droid, "roger, roger") as well as old Star Destroyer ships as a base. Thus the game is littered with easter eggs from the Clone Wars era, which I found amusing. Along the same lines, the encyclopedia within the game provides an interesting summary of the enemies as well as various technology that you interact with. All of this serves to feed the Star Wars nerd appetite, which is nice, and solidifies the game as truly being a part of the Star Wars universe.

The music is really good as well. On multiple occasions while playing I commented to myself on how good the music was. I read that it was nominated for a gaming award in the soundtrack category, which wasn't surprising. The game looked great, as well, which isn't surprising for a blockbuster game these days, but still worth mentioning. There were periodic graphical glitches, but nothing major or worth commenting on. 

Finally, I need to discuss the gameplay, which overall was great but had one glaring and recurring problem. Being able to walk around and use the powers of the force is absolutely bad ass. It was my favorite part of Fallen Order and continued to be my favorite part of Survivor. Force pulling/shoving enemies, melee battle with a lightsaber, basically any action involving an enemy was top notch. In fact, I resumed Ghost of Tsushima after I finished Survivor, and found myself wanting to double jump and use my samurai like a lightsaber. The environments themselves, however, look like open worlds but are really more like elaborate sets or hallways designed to funnel you to a specific location. Once you reach the location, oftentimes you can unlock a shortcut which opens a more direct route to that location. Getting to the desired location commonly requires platforming and wall running, and herein lies the problem. Very commonly it is unclear where you are supposed to go. The map on the game is difficult to read and basically useless, and there is no on screen icon indicating which direction to head. On multiple occasions I had to pull up a YouTube video just to see how I was supposed to leave an area. Every video I watched the comment section was littered with comments about how people were doing the same thing. Typically it involved a very subtle section of wall for wall running or a small crack in the wall you were supposed to fit through. Regardless, this occurred so often and was annoying enough that if the rest of the game weren't so good I thought about stopping play. EA really needs to fix this for the 3rd game if it occurs.

Speaking of a 3rd game, at the end of the game Cal is betrayed in a big way and becomes furious. Once this happens he is able to utilize the dark side of the force which was absolutely awesome. There is some speculation that in the 3rd game, Cal will turn to the dark side so more to come on this in the future.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

 

Ant-Man is definitely a movie I watched just because it is a part of the MCU. It got mediocre reviews and Ant-Man isn't exactly Spider-Man. The first half of the movie isn't very good. The second half is decent, however. Since the end of the Infiniti War, we've heard about Kang the Conqueror and how he was going to be the next baddie in the MCU. The second half of the movie heavily features Kang in his true form, which was great. At the end of season 1 of Loki, we are introduced to He Who Remains (HWR). HWR sits at the end of time and controls variant timelines through the Time Variance Authority, an organization he created. HWR is a variant of Kang, and in season 2 of Loki HWR is featured prominently. The problem is that in season 2 he is an 1800s scientist variant form of HWR named Victor Timely, who in no way seems powerful or scary. The second half of Ant-Man changes this. We get to see how powerful Kang really is, and it is scary. Not only is he personally strong, but he is capable of returning if killed, as he has an army of Kang variants. For the first time, we see how strong Kang the Conqueror really is.

The real question moving forward, however, is was this all for nothing? HWR dies in season 2 of Loki while trying to fix the Time Loom. The actor who played HWR and Kang got into legal trouble and was recently dropped by Marvel and Disney, so the character's future is up in the air. Some speculate that HWR's death in season 2 of Loki was Marvel's way of writing him off, even though Victor was just a variant of HWR, so theoretically more of him exist. More to come on the future of Kang in the MCU, I suppose, but seeing him in true form against Ant-Man was the highlight of the movie for me.

Lego Alpine Lodge

 

I always wanted a Lego city when I was a kid. I never got one beyond piecing together a few small, custom made houses here and there. Several years ago we bought a Lego train to go around our Christmas tree. We noticed that Lego sold a winter-themed train station, and it made sense to add it to our train. What good does a train do if there is no station for people to board? At some point we discovered that Lego released Christmas-themed sets every year. One thing led to another, and after a few years we had a pretty bustling little winter village in addition to our train. Some dreams do come true.

This year's set was a ski lodge, which is a perfect addition to our winter village as we don't have any kind of hotel for people visiting to stay. Most of the winter sets are in the 1,000 to 1,500 piece range, so at 1,517 pieces, the lodge is one of the larger sets. With that being said, it was one of the easier and quicker builds. I was able to finish it in just a couple of afternoons. One thing I've noticed Lego doing with their sets recently is dividing the pieces into more bags, which means less time spent searching and separating. Additionally, some of these sets have very complicated and cumbersome parts, typically involving the flooring and infrastructure of the building. This set wasn't like that at all. The most cumbersome part was placing the exterior bricks that make the log cabin look, but even that wasn't too bad. 

Another change that Lego has done over the past couple of years, at least with their winter sets, is that they only build the front half of the building. Previous sets would have the back half as well, with a way to swivel open the structure to access the inside. On the one hand, the new design allows for easier access and play to the inside of the building. On the other hand, it makes the building look half complete. I've got mixed emotions on the change, but probably prefer the older swivel design.

The front of the lodge looks great, however, and fits right in with the aesthetics of the village. My favorite parts of the set include the fireplace, which is quite ornate (pictured below), as well as the snow mobile and outhouse, which is just funny. 

2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

The 2023 edition of the magazine was better than previous recent editions. This year's version seemed to try less hard to be everything to everyone, and instead focused more on what it does best, which is swimsuit photos. Below are my highlights from this years magazine.

Celebrities appearing in the swimsuit issue have been hit or miss for me. Some of the photosets have been good, while others have seemed a bit forced. This is an example of a good celebrity shoot. I've hear of Padma Lakshmi, but don't know anything about her. I vaguely remember her as being a host of a cooking show on TV, and after doing a quick Wiki search on found that to be true. At 53 years old, her pictures in the issue really stood out.

I don't have much to say about Christen Harper except that she has become my current favorite model from the issue. Marissa Miller is not walking through that door, to quite Rick Pitino. Instead, we now have Christen Harper.

This year was Katie Austin's third appearance in the issue. Her first two appearances didn't really stick out to me, but this year's appearance was different. Every picture from this year's edition was good. Apparently she is a fitness guru or influencer of some sort. I've only heard of her because of this magazine, but somewhat randomly I am familiar with her mom. I still remember seeing her mom's workout videos on VHS at Wal-Mart from back in the day.

Of course, everyone's favorite NIL athlete Olivia Dunne was in this year's issue. Featuring Olivia was Captain Obvious' number one pick in terms of which athlete to include in the issue. Almost all of her pictures were quite good, however. Despite being in this year's issue, I've read that she will be categorized as a "rookie" for next year's issue. Makes no sense, but I guess that means she will be featured next year as well.

Loki (Season 2)

 

We have reached the point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where I pick and chose which shows and movies I watch. Gone are the days where everything Marvel puts out is great. The stories intertwined so well during the Infiniti War saga, but once the Infiniti War ended, it has become a little harder to make sense of what is going on (and I'm not sure I care). With that being said, I always liked Tom Hiddleston's Loki character. I enjoyed the first season of Loki, and thus looked forward to watching season 2.

Despite what was mentioned in the above paragraph, Loki season 2 is quite good. I'm going to try my best to summarize what happens. The plot is a bit confusing. Essentially, after He Who Remains is killed, the TVA's Temporal Loom struggles to handle all of the emerging timelines. Loki, Mobius (played by Owen Wilson), and others at the TVA race to fix the Loom so that one true timeline can exist. This involves going back into time to get variants of He Who Remains that exist on other timelines, as he is the only one who can fix the Loom. In the end, Loki is able to hold the timelines together, but doing so requires him to sit on the Temporal Loom throne for eternity in order to prevent the timelines from going into chaos.

A couple of aspects of this show really stood out for me. First was the visuals. The show looks fantastic, and is on par with high budget movies in terms of its CGI visuals. One episode has them traveling to the world's fair in Chicago in 1893. I particularly liked that episode. Seeing what Chicago likely looked like in 1893 and knowing what it looks like today was particularly interesting, and the episode looked great. 

The second aspect of the show that stood out to me was the acting. I have always liked Owen Wilson, but his portrayal of Mobius made me like him even more. He was really good in the series, and seeing one of his variants rock out on a Jet Ski was epic. Ke Huy Quan playing O.B. was a great addition to the second season as well. Of course Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki was great as well, though I wish there was a bit more mischief from him.

Even though I enjoyed the show, there is a part of me that wonders how this ties in to the greater MCU. I assume the events of the show have meaning to other Marvel characters and stories, but I'm not sure how. Maybe I'm supposed to enjoy the show for what it is? It just seems a bit pointless if it doesn't tie into a bigger story. This is where I struggle with the current MCU. Mobius on a Jet Ski, however, is awesome.

Lego Horizon Tallneck

 

The Horizon games have been some of my favorite Playstation games since getting a PS5 and Playstation Plus. Whenever I saw this Lego Tallneck, I knew I had to get it.

The Tallnecks in Horizon are large, slowly meandering machines that act as communication towers and resemble giraffes. The Lego set has 7 bags, the first 3 of which make up the base on which the Tallneck stands. After you build the base, you get to the fun part which is building the Tallneck. Overall this was a fun build, much less tedious than the AT-AT. I will say that while building the base was annoying (just from the aspect that you want to start building the Tallneck), I am glad the set comes with the base as the Tallneck is a bit unsteady on its feet. The AT-AT is as well and doesn't come with a base.

The finished product really does look spectacular. I have it displayed in my entertainment center in the Basement Theater.  It is a unique looking Lego set for sure, and does a great job of recreating the look of the iconic Horizon machine. It even comes with an Aloy Lego character which is cool as well.