Review

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Game of Thrones: Hardhome Review

game-of-thrones-hardhome-headerIf you gave up on Game of Thrones two weeks ago, I feel bad for you son. You’ve got 99 problems but one of the best episodes in the show’s history ain’t one.

In the run up to this week’s episode, I was mentioning to my show watching friends that I wasn’t really sure what big events we had to look forward to heading into the final three episodes of the season. I wasn’t expecting the big blowouts we got in seasons two and four but maybe some big events scattered about Westeros like in season three. While I’m still not sure we’ll even get that in episode nine, Hardhome certainly brought the spectacle.

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Game of Thrones: The Gift Review

game-of-thrones-the-gift-headerAccording to Rotten Tomatoes, last week’s episode of Game of Thrones was the lowest rated among critics in the show’s history. The final scene was that controversial, apparently. I guess people who watched all 46 episodes of the show are few and far between. Actually, that makes sense given viewership has grown with each season.

This week’s episode was a lot less controversial but did nothing less to move the plot forward. As the show moves toward this season’s conclusion, The Gift certainly gave us a sharp push towards a thrilling conclusion to stories in King’s Landing and Winterfell.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Game of Thrones – Episode Three Review: Words are Wind

game-of-thrones-episode-three-headerOne criticism that Telltale has faced since their renaissance with The Walking Dead is that their games have become quite formulaic. There’s a lot of talking, some needless quick-time events and a helix story structure that only diverges based on your choices for a short period before following the intended plot. But even with those complaints, Telltale is very good at telling their story.

The problem is that when you release games episodically, there’s an expectation for the climax inside the episode and to build the “season”-long story at the same time. The first two episodes of Telltale’s Game of Thrones have been serviceable as their own episodes but they haven’t rushed to build a story going forward. With Episode Three: The Sword in the Darkness, Game of Thrones properly drives us forward in the season-long narrative.

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Game of Thrones: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken Review

game-of-thrones-unbowed-unbent-unbroken-headerAfter a fairly underwhelming episode last week, this week, Game of Thrones is right back on course and I don’t think that anyone of note died this week. See? We don’t need bloodshed (okay, there was a little non-death bloodshed) or titillation to have a great episode of Game of Thrones. This, by the way, was a great episode of Game of Thrones. Sure, it might have been controversial and angered a number of people but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

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Game of Thrones: Kill the Boy Review

game-of-thrones-kill-the-boy-headerSo everyone who pirated the first four episodes of the season had to wait a month for this. I bet they were disappointed. After being left with a massive cliffhanger at the end of Sons of the Harpy, there wasn’t a whole lot of action or adventure in this week’s episode of Game of Thrones. If anything, it’s almost as if this was an episode ten to last week’s episode nine. Not that such a comparison would make most people happy.

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Game of Thrones: Sons of the Harpy Review

game-of-thrones-the-sons-of-the-harpy-headerWhile the first three episodes were pretty good, if a bit slow, Game of Thrones needed to pull the trigger on something big to keep most people engaged in the show. Last week, I called it “the fireworks factory.” This week, Game of Thrones went bang. If you were waiting for something big to happen, you were certainly taken care of this week.

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1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta Impressions: Enter the Storm

heroes-of-the-storm-beta-headerApart from free-to-play mobile tower defence games, I’m not sure there’s a more crowded genre in gaming than MOBA. At the top of the pile, you have League of Legends and Dota 2. Smite is probably the #3 MOBA though Heroes of Newerth would probably give it a run for its money. You’ve also got the like of Strife and Infinite Crisis too. There are probably plenty of other that I can throw in there but I don’t want a 1,000 word intro.

The problem is that while each game has its little intricacies, they all feel fairly similar at the end of the day. You play one member of a five-player team on a three-lane map with towers that you must power through in order to destroy the central structure of the enemy base.

Heroes of the Storm doesn’t completely revolutionize the basics of a MOBA. It’s still a five-on-five match to destroy the enemy team’s core. However, Blizzard has taken the standard Point A to Point B approach to MOBAs and turned it on its head. What results is the most unique MOBA on the market right now.

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1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Entertainment

Game of Thrones: High Sparrow Review

game-of-thrones-high-sparrow-headerI think people are starting to come around on this season of Game of Thrones. It might be because we got some killing and dragon action last week. However, it might be because people have come to realize that non-stop action like we had last season just isn’t sustainable. You can have action without blood being spilled. While it looks like we are quickly approaching the bigger budget and bigger action portion of the season, it didn’t start this week. However, the pieces keep moving into their places but they move in such unpredictable and entertaining ways, you can’t help but feel enthralled.

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Game of Thrones: The House of Black and White Review

game-of-thrones-house-of-black-and-white-headerI was a little surprised last week when most of the people I know weren’t so high on the season premiere. I don’t know what there was to not like last week but not much changed this week. Sure, death got a big return this week after a week off in The Wars to Come but sex and violence isn’t the be all and end all of TV.

Much like last week, we got a look at many of the characters around Westeros. Unlike last week which saw some loose threads tied up, a whole host of new stories were kicked off this week.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Game of Thrones – Episode Two Review: Love’s Labour’s Lost

game-of-thrones-episode-two-headerIt took a long time but it looks like Telltale Games finally found its strong suit with The Walking Dead series. That story kicked off their foray into mature stories, strong characters and meaningful interaction. The gameplay around it wasn’t the emphasis but rather a means to get you to the next character moment.

While Telltale’s new Game of Thrones series didn’t debut at the peak of TWD’s excellence, they did a great job with the talking portions of the game. The memorable moments in the first episode came from the interactions of the two Forrester children who were talkers rather than fighters. The second episode of Game of Thrones has a little less conversation and a little more action but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying.

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