I own issue 449 and my next issue is 455, so the is the only chapter I own of this storyline.
I’m a fan of whenever a recap page spotlights 129, they do it here – as it is Emma’s first appearance. Of course, to me, it will always be Kitty Pryde’s first appearance but Emma is in this issue as a co-star, so it makes sense. Kitty shows up as an illusion, so that’s why I own this issue. More on that, below.
Issue 451, apparently X23 is suppose to be 15 years old, she sure doesn’t get drawn like a 15 year old! Plus, that makes me even sadder that she was a fourteen or fifteen year old prostitute.
Last issue ended with Sage removing her X-Uniform, and donning her old Hellfire Club – as she disappears into the Hellfire Club’s 5th Avenue Location. Just down the street from Avengers Mansion.
This issue opens with The X-Men (Nightcrawler, Storm, Bishop and Rachel) standing in front of the abandoned Hellfire Club. It hasn’t been used, in forever. Wolverine comes out of a sewer, all of the tunnels leanding into the Club have also been shut down.
There is an ad for the 2 Disc DVD set for Spider-Man 2, probably still my favorite Spider-Film.
Also joining them, is Emma Frost! Taking time away from her Head-Mistress duties at the Xavier Institute. An X-Man is in danger, so Emma wants to help. Rachel is a real jerk to her. Storm tells Rachel to be behave. Emma reveals a secret teleportation portal, that is actually part of the next door building, but the Club uses it.
The team teleports away, while Emma and Rachel continue on. Rachel accuses Emma of betrayal, which is insane to me! Emma has been full fledged X-Man, for over four years – at this point. And that’s since Morrison’s reign of the title. She was with Generation X for even longer! She’s an ally.
Rachel, being a brat, tries to fight Emma on the astral plane. Emma, being more experience, makes short work of Rachel. There are some decent blows but Emma keeps being the clear winner. She is also wittier.
There is an ad for Smallville Season Three, which was great, and X-Men / Fantastic Four, which was not – four X-Men get bombarded with cosmic rays, I’m surprised it took this long to tell that story.
Rachel tries to take a cheap shot by turning Emma super fat. Now no one will ever lover her. Instead, mental Cyclops still loves Emma and this breaks Rachel’s heart.
Look how hard Kitty is laughing there! Oh, if only Claremont got to use Kitty in a proper way, with his third return to Uncanny.
Rachel decides to act her age, and work with Emma.
Hong Kong. Emma dressed in a modest White Queen style outfit and Rachel is in a similar styled outfit. Emma turns Rachel invisible, so she can explore. Emma runs into Courtney Ross, who is now the White Queen Elect. Viper is standing behind Courtney, Ponsor could have made her hair greener but it is a Claremont comic, so the dialogue will never fail.
This section of the comic ends with Selene, who is the mastermind of the assault, ambushing Rachel. They have a long history together, ever since Uncanny 189, which was twenty years ago, at this point. I wonder if Claremont purposely did that, I doubt it but he does plan on the super long term.
Meanwhile, the final two pages have the rest of team in a sewer. Someone shoots the X-Men, and we see that it is Bishop with the smoking gun and Wolverine is about to fight him.
November 2004 X-Men Titles
Uncanny X-Men 452 – Chris Claremont and guest artist Andy Park bring you a new tale of the infamous Hellfire Club!
Exiles 54 – The Exiles versus . . . a danish?!
Alpha Flight 9 – The past is our future and the future is now as Alpha Flight jumps the time stream to stop the death of an old ally!
Gambit 4- An unexpected tragedy!
X-Men The End 5 – The final story of the X-Men continues!
Starjammers 6 – The exciting conclusion!
Sabretooth 3 – The fur flies as Sabretooth takes on Sasquatch!
District X 7 – Brand new story arc! Bishop must solve the mystery of a terror under the streets!
X-Force 4 – Guest starring, Deadpool!
Emma Frost 17 – A stunning revelation about Emma’s new best friend!
X-Men 164 – The mind-bending conclusion to the battle with the new Brotherhood of Mutants!
New X-Men 7 – Brand new story arc! Could the Xavier Institute be . . . . haunted?!
Rogue 5 – The truth about the mysterious new man in Rogue’s life is revealed!
Cable / Deadpool 9 – The Six Pack become a thorn in everyone’s side!
Jubilee 3 – Jubilee is caught between a rock, a hard place and rival LA gangs!
Wolverine 22 – The awesomeness continues with Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
Excalibur 7 – Professor X and his team take on Dark Beast!
Mystique 21 – Crosses and double crosses are the order of the day . . . so will Mystique end up on top?
Nightcrawler 3 – Kurt and Amanda make a very disturbing discovery . . . but will it be too late?
Astonishing X-Men 7 – First isue of a new story arc from Whedon and Cassaday!
For issue 449’s review, I thought I was commenting on New Excalibur, this volume of Excalibur, I skipped except for issue 14, that had Kitty’s father in a flashback, he fought in the same war with Xavier and Magneto. Of course he did! Millar / JRJR’s Wolverine was awesome! Astonishing’s Danger storyline, may be the weaker of the four.
X-Mail, letters from – Erin, Alissa Groff and Marquelon Sigler of Birmingham, Alabama.
The August 2020 Free PS Plus Games are going to be :
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered and Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout!
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered (a clunky title, but it explains everything you need to know) was released only back in March 2020, and already a free game.
Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout is following Rocket League’s success by having its launch be part of the PS+ initiative. The game is very much inspired by Takeshi’s Castle, like a very colorful and crowded version of TBS’ Wipeout.
I’m pretty excited to try these games out. CoD MW2 CR comes out today, Tuesday, July 28, and Fall Guys launches on August 4. Hence why the announcement came early. I’m going to play Modern Warfare 2 on Recruit difficulty and try to get as far as I can in a night. Fall Guys, I’m really hoping has couch co-op as I think Walker Dennis will love playing it as well.
. . .
PS Prices
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is currently a $20 game, and has gone as low as $15 in the past.
Fall Guys has no previous pricing, and I supposed we won’t know what it retails at until September, so I will have to remember to recalculate the running total for the October announcement as the game would still be free by the time the September games are announced.
Our current running total is $165 plus Call of Duty WWII Digital Edition, and I would add Fall Guys, but we’ll know the price of the game eventually. So adding $15, our new total is $180. We’re almost at $200 and not even into the fourth quarter of the year.
Since CoDMWCR is only the campaign, it was not given any DLC.
. . .
Reddit reactions have mostly been comments about how this is the fastest turnaround for a game’s release to being a Plus title ever, at four months. People seem to be really excited for Fall Guys, so that’s nice. We will all be getting in on the game at the ground floor, and the lobbies should be super full.
I stayed up a little too late to beat Rise of the Tomb Raider! Such an amazing game! I got to the last campfire and it said there was no turning back from this point and it was still around 11:45pm, so I figure I could give it another 30 minutes, at the most. Then I woke up around 2am this morning with mega heart burn, and that usually puts me in a wide awake frame of mind, so I finished two tombs, earning the Tomb Raider trophy, and that felt pretty good too. I may try to buy those last two guns in the Supply Shack, but first I need like 50 more coins, and I might finally get back to The Council. Just in time for one of our PS+ titles to come along too. So that all timed out pretty nicely. If either Tomb Raider came (Shadow or 2013) goes on sale below $10, I’m buying those games, no matter what! I had such a great time!
Though I do worry that Rise may have perfected any kinks that 2013 had, but Shadow should be everything that was great in Rise, but more of it, right?
. . .
Walker Dennis has gotten really into Lego Dimensions again. He’s also gotten into Doctor Who, right when it can’t be found anywhere besides HBO MAX. Which I really wish Roku would just make a deal with HBO Max and make it so we can watch the app not on my phone but on our actual TV. Philo no longer has Doctor Who either and Amazon Prime Video has BritBox, but that’s an extra $7 a month that I rather not spend.
I bought Walker another Doctor Who disc, so once it comes in, we can have two Doctors on screen at one time, so that should make him pretty happy. He’s been pretty obsessed with watching Twice Upon a Time where the First and Twelve Doctors meet. I overrode the Simpsons TV toy tag so we already have two TARDISes (?).
If we play a level a night, we should be able to earn Walker his second Platinum, but sometimes our nights gets away from us, but it would be fun to earn that trophy with how much he loves that game. We have to finish five levels and then do 25 puzzles of each type : Searching, Painting, and Weather Powers, and I would have sworn we have done the work for those, but those are the three I’m concern we will have to keep completing the proper Portal 2 level in the main game. But hopefully we earn one of those during the next five levels, as I’m concern the game is glitched, but 25 does seem like a lot, so we must be close.
I’m trying my best to not just flood the blog with Hamilton related thoughts, but I keep coming back to this one.
Whenever I get to the “Just Say No to This” song.
Thanks to YouTuber Tommy Love for hosting this video!
Which I will admit, annoys me so much about Hamilton, but it is part of his history and it affects so much of the rest of his story/life, that it has to be included.
But now I can’t watch this segment without stopping the play and immediately want to watch Katherine Ryan’s incredible take on the situation :
Thanks to Netflix UK & Ireland for hosting the video!
I’m so glad she’s on her way to 2 million views, as I’m sure we’re at least a hundred of those. As soon as the song starts, my brain already wants to watch Katheryn Ryan’s segment.
What I may just do is actually play the video on my phone and use it as a commentary to the scene. I’ll do it at least once. Plus, it will time out pretty nicely.
I would highly recommend her Netflix special, Glitter Room. It is very funny. The first time we watched it, we were essentially waiting for the above segment to start, and there were a couple times, we were like, here it comes, but then it didn’t happen. Well worth the wait.
She has a 2017 special, In Trouble, that is also pretty funny.
Hey, Lin-Manuel Miranda even supports her view point! So it does get better than this.
I finally got around to playing the July 2020 Free PS Plus titles enough to write about them!
NBA 2k20 actually feels like an improvement over 2k19. The Prelude was pretty fun. I started the entire game with a two player match between the Phoenix Suns (me) and the Chicago Bulls (Walker Dennis, originally). I think starting off this way was a good refresher course. It gave me a comfortable zone to practice the game. I only scored one point with the green glow, signaling a perfect shot. The Prelude isn’t too long, I enjoyed making choices throughout it. I do regret ditching Rosario Dawson’s college advisor for Thomas Middleditch’s professional agent. Though I had no real problems minutes later when Middleditch is opening all types of venues for my guy. I also liked how my guy looks the same from 2k19, though I”m sure that’s because I didn’t fuss around too much in the creator option. I did try to download the app to scan my own face, but it kept failing on me.
The true highlight is Lamorne Morris (Winston from New Girl) cuts my character’s hair before the NBA Draft. Just checking his Wikipedia page, it doesn’t look like he has a new series yet, which is absolute bonkers.
Thanks to BMcKayGaming for hosting the beginning of the scene.
So much fun!
I was having some real stress about not making it into the Phoenix Suns, but I totally did it and felt so good!
2k20 doesn’t have any MyNeighborhood related trophies, so I sort of feel like I am now done with the game. I may look into how to get some of the other trophies, but I didn’t earn any besides what I earned after winning that original game.
. . .
Turns out, I only completed one proper playthrough of Erica. So I finished my second playthrough as soon as the game was announced to being a July game. Tonight I plan on playing my third playthrough. I would then be half way through the game, so hopefully I just commit to it. I also really hope to just stumble onto Fallout Girl, but I’ll definitely get it during the sixth and final playthrough. Such a great game, but like Man of Medan, I need a decent break between playing these decision making story based games. Which I have been really thinking about Man of Medan a lot lately, and I really need to do an All Brain Decisions playthrough and another where I kill them all.
Someone was nice enough to really recommend using the phone app for Erica, and I would also join in that recommendation. It seemed like I had extra time to make decisions. It might be better even on a bigger phone or a tablet, but I don’t have that option. When I got to that moment of following Officer Blake or staying in Erica’s flat, I got all types of nervous, as that’s where my original attempt at my second playthrough fell apart. But I was able to follow him and enjoyed following the rest of the playthrough.
. . .
Rise of the Tomb Raider starts off pretty fun. I finished my first night with the game at a camp site. It felt like a good place to stop, but really, I haven’t played enough of the game to really write a bunch about my time with it. I also don’t like this specific post being not published until after the 15th, but I will commit to playing more of the game. At least a few more nights with it.
Every Friday, I search Roku to see if I can watch Ratchet & Clank or any of the three Tomb Raider films, and none of them are availalbe on any streaming platform, which seems like a real missed opportunity when we are subscribed to like five different streaming services. None of the films have been on sale through VUDU either, but I will let you all know if that changes.
. . .
PlayStation Access released their Top Ten Driving Games video, in their series of Top 10 PS4 games :
Which really made me want to revisit Burnout Paradise Remastered. So I played a slew of that game, meaning I did not play any of the other games for a bit. I was bouncing between Burnout Paradise and NBA 2k20, its Prelude being a decent length.
Walker Dennis saw that the Delorean, the Jansen P12 88, is in the game, and that means something to him now (before it was just a cool looking car). He loves placing it in hovering or floating mode, He’s been having a blast with the game, so now he plays between Burnout and Goat Simulator.
The Jansen P12 88 is a great car to look at, but gosh, it gets so easily destroyed, but Walker Dennis is all about driving fast enough to time travel and then crashing the car head on. But I’ve seen him not even driving that fast but still taking a turn a tad short and it destroying the car when only a headlight should have been busted. So it is very fragile.
. . .
Like most people after July 3, my wife and I have become obsessed with Hamilton. Which I really want to play an American Revolution game, but only Assassins Creed III has that setting. George Washington does not feature in that many games besides Assassins Creed III and The Council. So I have been playing The Council a lot more than I thought I would be in such a short span of time. Which I have really been enjoying, though Episode Three doesn’t have enough of George Washington, but I do like how I do bump into him a few times. Which will have to be enough.
Two more episodes left! I am starting to worry I will not get to level 15, the trophy I am most anxious about, as the rest of them are going to be easily done by replaying Episode One at least twice more. If I don’t earn level 15 by the end of Episode 5, then I’m going to have to replay the entire game again, and just focus on whatever skills give me the most experience points. Which could be fun as I really am enjoying the heck out of the game.
. . .
I bought Mohjong for two dollars during the July Savings event, and I like either ending my night with a game, or starting my gaming session with it. It is very relaxing. My only gripe is that it has all of this nice background music and setting, but a very gamey sound effect for when tiles match, that I wish was more inline with the aesthetics of the rest of the game.
At first, I was confused why I bought this for Father’s Day 2015. I thought one of my three favorite websites tricked me. Then I came across the scene with Nightcrawler and Storm, at the Purity Rally. This was the only issue I was missing of Alice Tremaine’s 13 appearances. So now I own all of her appearances.
She is in all six issues of Mekanix (a great miniseries!) and then her final appearance is this issue. Then Claremont brings her back in X-Men The End, Book Two – issues 1, 5 and 6. He continues to use her in X-Men The End, Book Three – issues 3, 5 and 6.
Another interesting note about Alice Tremaine, that I just discovered with this post. If you Google “Alice Tremaine” you will see the stepmother (the wicked one) that harrasses Cinderella. That step-family of Cinderella’s last name is . . . . Tremaine! That has to be done on purpose, right? Claremont would know the most famous usage of “Tremaine” So Claremont, amongst all of the other kudos he deserves, deserves a few more points for the naming of this character.
In my collection, I own issues 448 and 452. I’ll review those, some day.
Inside front cover ad is for the Thomas Jane’s Punisher DVD. Such a good movie!
Previously in the title. The current team (think a Pre-X-Treme X-Men) are Storm, Bishop, Sage, Rachel Grey, Nightcrawler and Wolverine. This team is called, X-Treme Sanctions Executive (XSE). That’s the mission statement. Last issue, Viper (one of Wolverine’s ex-wife’s) is back on the scene, looking for some sweet revenge on Sage. Viper takes the team to a modified MurderWorld, she has also taken away their powers. As bait, she has taken the Queen of England hostage. Last issue ended, apparently, with her shooting Sage – to the head!
The Tower of London. Viper is bragging, over Sage’s dying body, no one insults Viper, and gets away with it. Rachel shows up and punches Viper to her silly face. Viper gives back, as good as she can take it, which confused me until I reread the recap page. I’m so use to skipping those, that the fight made sense.
There is an ad for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I still haven’t seen it.
Bishop gets into the action and Viper teleports away. Sage stands up and reveals that Wolverine has been using an image inducer, this whole team. Wouldn’t the bullet have just passed through her head?
A flatscan introduces Alice Tremaine, of University of Chicago fame. They are hoping to turn a college movement, Purity, into a global party. Chicago to London, does seem like a major step.
Kurt and Storm are stuck in the room, and the only way out is through hateful crowd. Storm uses her African knowledge, that one doesn’t run from jackals, also, the flatscans don’t know that the two mutants don’t have their powers.
Alice Tremaine starts her hate speech as Storm and Kurt start walking towards the stage. If I know Alice Tremaine, this is her best case scenario.
Some dumb jerk throws a chair at Storm but Kurt’s tail catches it. Kurt, and me, don’t care for the term – mutie. Kurt confronts the idiot and that fool passes out.
Alice Tremaine confronts Storm. Earth is for humans and they will defend it. Storm whips out her XSE badge, they are sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them. Kurt steps between the ladies and tells Storm that they are done here. Some dumb face wants to shoot them, as they leave, but another guy (a smarter one) is worried about the backlash from their fellow mutant brothers.
Once they are far enough away, Storm shows off that her powers have return. Storm wanted to fight Alice Tremaine, so much!
Meanwhile. Old School Excalibur ally, Courtney Ross, wants to be the new London White Queen of the Hellfire Club. She wants Viper, who has a gun at her head, to be the Lord Imperial.
The London Eye. XSE gets to the giant Ferris Wheel. A taped message from “Arcade” (I’m not sure if it really is him or just a picture of him) reveals that it isn’t the Queen, in the upper car. Which I’m curious where the real Queen is, if this was ever a credible threat. I imagine, the X-Men are simply told the Queen has been captured, they believe it – that is the life they live.
In the top ar is Mrs. Ella Thurlough, one of the Queen’s housemaids. If nothing is done, a simple bomb will explode, only killing her. If there is a rescue attempt, even the slightest, a small nuke will go off.
Alistaire Stuart, old friend of Nightcrawler’s and Rachel, is there to confirm that what the message states, is true. Rachel can’t believe that Alistaire can be so cold hearted, or practical. I misread the page, I thought it read like – one bomb over the housemaid and a small nuke, somewhere else in the city. Instead, the two bombs are located in the car, atop of the housemaid.
Storm has a plan. Rachel is going to keep the housemaid calm, as Storm creates very intense winds Bishop is there to absorb the blast. Rachel brags that Storm’s winds are stronger than those found on Jupiter. Which seems too much, for such a small section. Of course, XSE saves the day. I do like how Wolverine has nothing to do, but watch from below.
Later. The team assumes that Arcade’s message is just pre-recorded and he wasn’t involved, at all.
Elsewhere. Sebastian Shaw arrives, to make a deal with Courtney Ross – who has to really be Sat-rr-9, right? As we saw original Courtney Ross die, pay back in the day, As they, Viper is there too, toast, their new pact – Sage has Shaw in her gunsight.
Other titles coming out in September 2004 –
Uncanny X-Men 448 & 449 – The X-Men trapped in Murderworld! By Chris Claremont & guest artist, Oliver Coipel!
Exiles 52 – Worlds Collide! Literally!
Alpha Flight 7 – The end of Alpha Flight?!
Gambit 1 & 2 – New ongoing series! The Ragin’ Cajun is back! By John Layman & Georges Jeanty!
X-Men The End 3 – The final story of the X-Men continues!
Starjammers 4 – Will Tolo exact his revenge?
District X 5 – Tragedy strikes as the hunt for Mr. M continues!
X-Force 2 – The coming of Jon Spectre!
Emma Frost 15 – Who is Astrid Bloom? And what does she know about Emma?
Weapon X 28 – The Series Finale! Sabretooth v Mister Sinister!
X-Men 161 & 162 – The Brotherhood of Mutants are back!
New X-Men 5 – New penciler Michael Ryan debuts!
Rogue 3 – Rogue and Gambit no more!?!
Cable / Deadpool 7 – The Burnt Offering begins here!
Jubilee 1 – New Series! By Robert Kirkman & Derec Donovan!
Wolverine 19 – Greg Rucka’s final issue! Guest-starring Nightcrawler!
Astonishing X-Men 5 – You’ll have to read it to find out!
Excalibur 5 – Food Fight begins!
Mystique 19 – The prelude to Quiet, the story where everything changes!
Nightcrawler 1 – New Series! By Robert Aguirre-Sacasa & Darick Robertson!
I imagine I’ve read the Uncanny X-Men issues. I must have read Exiles and Alpha Flight. Gambit, I own that first issue, still. X-Men The End, must be the first book. I would have also been reading Cable / Deadpool. Jubilee by Kirkman, I imagine that was him just trying to make a name for himself. Astonishing X-Men 5 is dealing with the after shocks of Colossus’ return. I should have dropped Excalibur after the third issue but I read all 24 of those. If Mystique was still being written by Sean McKeaver, at that point, it was still such a good title. Nightcrawler, now that was a series that could have lasted longer but I really enjoyed it.
X-Mail, with letters from – Nadav Millman of Israel and James Hunter of Newbury, England.
Next Issue, X23 joins the title! But she has already appeared in NYX.
The flashbacks are over and now we build towards, The Wolverines!
So cool that Ogun is respecting Sharpe by incorporating his name into his identity, so now they are Shogun. Which makes sense due to how Sharpe is still conscious and has his own thoughts. At least, as of Weapon X Program 4.
To celebrate PlayStation Plus turning 10 years old, the July 2020 Free PS Plus Games are :
NBA 2k20, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Erica!
Apparently NBA 2k20 was recently four dollars, but I bought NBA 2k19 when it was three dollars, so I must have missed that other sale. One basketball game would typically be enough for me, but I’m looking forward to playing the latest version of NBA. Apparently 2k21 is slated to come out soonish. Which I forgot it was announced during the PS5 Future of Gaming event. To get back into the game, I redownloaded 2k19 and tried to get some of the easier trophies in MyNeighborhood. Once I got my character from Preclude to the Phoenix Suns, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even play one game as a Sun. Just having the jersey was enough for me. Looking into it, it is a real shame that 2k20 doesn’t have a Prelude, as I saw 2k18 did. It is a nice free DLC tutorial, but I get incorporating it into the game itself, if that is what they even did. My gaming goal for 2k20 will be to start a new character and get him to the Suns again.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the second sequel to the rebooted trilogy. I have been having Tomb Raider on my mind, since replaying Uncharted 4, and wanting to watch the Tomb Raider films again, especially latest one that I have never seen. Neither of the three films are available for streaming, but hopefully that changes relatively soon. I added 2013’s Tomb Raider to my psprices wishlist, and I see the Definitive edition goes on sale for five dollars, but I wouldn’t mind playing Rise prior to the first game, as that’s what I have.
Erica is a game I bought when it was five dollars. I had remembered it as I had completed two playthroughs and had been forced into making a decision I didn’t want to due to not getting the cursor to land where I wanted to in a third playthrough. Turns out, I had only completed the one playthrough and that had occurred in my third. So I completed my second playthrough last night, using the app, and it did seem to work out better than using the touchpad. I’m going to complete a third playthrough and keep the game in my game rotation for the month of July. There is only six playthroughs, so I should be able to do all six of them in July or August. Using the app did seem to give me a few additional seconds to make a choice, but I could be remembering it wrong.
Some people are complaining about these being the games to celebrate 10 years, but it seems like a pretty decent month to me, and I’m pretty happy that Erica is getting some attention that it deserves.
. . .
PSPrices
NBA 2k20 is currently a $60 game, but goes as low as $19.79, so maybe people are remembering 2k19’s amazing sale and not 2k20.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is typically a $30 game, but goes as low as $8.39.
Erica is typically a $10 game, but goes as low as $4.99.
Our currently running value of PS Plus is $131, with us considering Call of Duty WWII a bonus game. So we’ll round up and add $34 to the total to make $165, and that’s us now in the second half of the year, so I’ll say we definitely have gotten our value from the service for our $45 investment. Plus, hopefully the price doesn’t go up too much for the PS5, but hopefully it still goes on sale for either Black Friday or the holiday season.
PS Store
NBA 2k20 has the standard edition for $60, and the game is heavily influenced by microtransactions.
5,000 VC for $2
15,000 VC for $5
35,000 VC for $10
75,000 VC for $20
200,000 VC for $50
450,000 VC for $100
There is a Digital Deluxe edition for $80 and a Legend Edition for $100.
Free International Commentary so I’ve downloaded that already.
I’ve never been tempted to buy VC (the game’s currency), but you do earn a small amount with most things you do in the game. Just not as much.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 20 Year Celebration edition, so it comes with all five DLC.
Not sure what is happening with the Plus subreddit, they were trying to link to Twitter.
. . .
Here are my YouTube peeps :
Nathan of PlayStation Access :
Adam of PlayStation Grenade :
Ben of Platinum Chasers :
Ben has a fun little intro as the announcement came on a Monday instead of the traditional Wednesday, is like three months in a row of the announcement breaking from tradition.
Turns out, Walker Dennis is quite familiar with PlayStation Grenade thanks to Adam’s great videos relating to Goat Simulator.
. . .
Here are PlayStation Trophies.org’s guides to the games :
Hey, NBA 2k20 has a guide! I immediately checked and no one made a 2k19 guide, so I’m still just stumbling my way through getting those.
I apparently made some mistake in my first two playthroughs of Erica and did not earn Fall Out Girl, so hopefully one of the other playthroughs has me redo one of those activities, but it is pretty early on in the game, so it shouldn’t take too much and the recommended sixth playthrough is essentially play the entire game except do this one thing towards the end, so that’s when I will ensure I annoy each of the ladies then.
. . .
I’ve been making some great headway and keeping with my gaming rotation. I will have to modify it to include two new games, but it was fun during the previous cycle. It really just helps when I have so many episodic games to play.
I finally earn the Kifflom trophy in Grand Theft Auto V, which was one of the non-story related trophies I felt I was capable of earning. I believe I did what was necessary to earn my million dollars for Online, but clearly I never checked again. I will sometime around July 15, when I try to earn another million dollars. Then I will play another mission or so. I left the game where Michael is working for a movie producer and Franklin and Trevor are doing some mission Michael is not involved in. So I will do the Franklin/Trevor mission and another studio mission as that was fun, and call it good.
I started playing Ratchet & Clank, and kept just thinking to myself, what an amazing game! I really want to watch the movie now, but it isn’t streaming anywhere and I really don’t want to spend more than five dollars through VUDU and I want to say it was still asking $15 for it, and it came out in 2016 and I’m probably the only one wanting to watch it who hasn’t. Well, I guess they just announced Rift in Time, so the desire is probably coming back, but I will watch for a sale for it.
Just because I was already at VUDU, they want $18 for the Angelina Jolie two films, and $15 for Alicia Vikander’s 2018 remake. I do like how Lara Croft has been portrayed by two Oscar winners, she deserves that. Jolie won for 2000’s Girl, Interrupted, Best Supporting Actress, and Vikander for 2016’s The Danish Girl, Best Supporting Actress, so also fun that they both won for Supporting Actress, as well. $33 is a bit much for those three films, I’ll say. Shame VUDU isn’t doing a three movie bundle like they often do for other movies, but that’s probably a rights issue.
I left Ratchet & Clank on Gaspar looking for 60 brains, which was super annoying to me as I found 40 on my own, and can’t really fathom where the other 20 could be. Then I was reading the guide, and at some point, we earn a map that makes finding the brains way easier, so I’ll have to make progress and come back. I really liked the flamethrower weapon, the Pyro Blaster. I have it completely leveled up to 5, so I’ve taken it out of my weapon setup, but I’m missing it dearly, but I clearly won’t use other weapons otherwise. Well, that isn’t true, I was using Mr. Zurkon as well, who I also loved as our buddy buddy. I do wonder if Clank is jealous or annoyed by Mr. Zurkon. Mr. Zurkon gives these amazing quips and I also have him maxed at level 5, so he’s out of the rotation. The game is a lot harder without my main assets, but that’s on me, I should have been balancing them more. Turns out, in New Game Plus, I can raise these higher to level 10, so I’m excited about that possibility.
I really got into Detroit Become Human playing for several more nights than I was expecting. I was also surprised to see Connor come back, as I got him killed in the very first mission. My Connor, unfortunately, is not very good, he’s let Kara escape (as how could I let him capture her? She’s the best!), but he also failed to catch the bird Android person and also failed to figure out where murderous sex robot went, which he’s upset with himself almost as much as I’m upset with myself over it. The bird android, I get, as we lost track of him in that final stage, but the sex robot, we were doing everything possible, but I was having to talk to more androids than expected.
Kara and Alice are still save, and we got new buddy Lucifer now too. We’ve been to the abandoned amusement park. That mansion where we meet Lucifer was intense!
Markus has met his crew and I want to ship him and North so hard! Turns out, she’s played by Minka Kelly, so she’s giving Kara’s actress, Valorie Curry a run for her money. But I still like Kara more, especially as Markus keeps doing at least one thing that annoys North, but then she makes it pretty clear what she wants to have happen next happen, and I make those decision so easily, even if it annoys the rest of the crew. Valorie Curry was on Amazon’s The Tick, so now I really want to watch that show.
I meant to keep playing even more but then I was reading up on what skills I need in The Council and it made me really want to play that game. Seriously, I really want more people to play The Council. The first episode is free, and I love how it is a TellTale style of game, but with a skill tree. I love the act of finding out which skills I need, I make a list, when it comes time to pump skills into the tree, I find out which ones I really needed during the previous quest, and I raise those skills and see how it effects the next quest. I completed Episode 2, and just having a great time with this historical fiction. I can’t wait to jump into Episode 3!
I finally got around to playing Metal Gear Solid V : Ground Zeroes. I thought I was doing a pretty decent job at stealth, but I would blow my cover, but I eventually got my two buddies rescued. It got intense towards the end of it, but I figured out a path, and got her out of there. I hate to write this, as it may be controversial, but I think I much prefer Sniper Elite IV’s stealth to Metal Gear Solid V, but I was instantly taken by Sniper Elite IV, and I will give Ground Zeroes a couple more tries and try to get good with it.
I finished Chapter Eight of Uncharted 4, such a fun game. Here is another game where there is just a lot of fighting, and I forget that besides amazing set pieces, that the game is a cover shooter. Like, I forget all of the combat that is required to get through, just to get to the next place. I’m playing on Normal, and I’m sure the two lower difficulties probably has less enemies, but after completing a chapter, I usually feel pretty good with my progress.
I finished the second episode of King’s Quest. Still really enjoying the game. I had to do one full run of Episode 2, and then pretty much two thirds of a playthrough, twice, to get the other two endings. I recall reading Episode Four might be the same way with having to create saves to save time, but I’m still here for it. A fun game, the characters are fun, not enough of Amaya for my taste, but she was barely in the first episode as well. I doubt she becomes the future queen, but if she is, that would be amazing.
Doing these episodic games, I was reminded that we never completed the first episode of TellTale’s Back to the Future game. So I completed my run, and then I helped Walker Dennis complete his run. He started the second episode and the controls seem to be a tad better. There was a lot of back tracking in 1955 that I wouldn’t have minded so much, if when I press the left direction, Marty walked in the left direction. Because of camera angles, or not implementing a better control scheme, I was holding down to make him to across the screen in the right direction. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I was running across the central area and going to the soup kitchen and the jail a bunch, and the controls could have been a tad better.
A game that has pretty much perfect controls is Batman : Arkham Aslyum. I finished the game with locking Harley up and moving onto the Botanical Gardens. I forgot how creepy those lunatics are, and two different ones jumps on my back and gave me quite the freight! That’s when I knew it was bed time. I meant to play more, but then the free games were announced I wanted to play Erica’s second playthrough and that took almost two hours, but I still had enough time to knock out some easier trophies in NBA 2k19.
. . .
Because I had filled the PS4 with my current game rotation and to make room for Erica and NBA 2k19, I had to delete Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank, GTA V (which was probably the only one I really needed to delete), and Detroit Become Human. It was fun to revisit those games, but removing those games freed up a bunch of space. Oh, and I deleted Final Fantasy XIV as well. I clearly was not coming back that game any time soon. So I should have enough space now for Rise of the Tomb Raider and I will delete NBAS 2k19, once I have 2k20. I thought progress carried over between games, but I also clearly never finished a season, so what would I be carrying over? I just checked and NBA 2k20’s demo is not the prelude, it does not have a story mode that benefits the game, so that’s pretty disappointing. So I will spend a night (hopefully) of running around the neighborhood to earn the Marathon Man trophy and delete 2k19 in preparation of 2k20.
I’m sure I will redownload Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank again as the desire will return, especially Ratchet & Clank, as I’m sure Rise of the Tomb Raider will scratch the Uncharted itch.
. . .
My beautiful wife got me the best Father’s Day present ever! I am now the proud owner of a PlayStation Vita! I’ve been wanting one for so long! She also treated me to a 16GB SD card so I was able to fill the thing up with so many games, that I eventually had to delete a few as I got carried away with wondering how many filled up the 16GB as the first few games I downloaded, were super small. Turns out, and I’m still getting used to the store format through the Vita, but I did claim some additional games that I didn’t think I did. So that has been nice, and even one game I didn’t even know I had access too. That game is Super Mutant Alien Assault.
At first, I had no intention of redownloading games I have played on the PS4 that were cross play, but then I realized how silly that was as that eliminated like 20 games, and I decided against that policy when I realized I had 20 Vita games, when I thought I only had like six.
Every Wednesday, I’m going to check psprices (I do this regardless) to see the cheap Vita games and slowly start building my collection. Especially if the game is cross play as I like to give them a shot on the big TV before playing them on the Vita. I bought Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition as it was $1.19, and worth a risk. I saw Cel Damaged was on sale for $3, but I think I can hold off on buying games until they are under $2, especially as I have so many new games I haven’t even played yet.
I did buy Demetrois : Big Cynical Adventure after reading it was a visual novel with a twist, and I think I really want to turn my Vita into a Visual Novel machine, as those seem to be perfect carry around and play type of games.
I write that but I have been playing King Oddball like crazy! To the point, where I want to reinstall it onto the PS4 as I’ve been making crazy progress, but I’m also okay with not doing that. Such a great game, if you want Angry Birds, but with a floating head that throws rocks using his tongue, King Oddball is the game for you!
I also been playing Sparkle 2 for a lot longer than I ever gave it a chance on the PS4. I am mentally committed to playing it until I earned the Play for 4 Hours trophy, but I’ll probably see it to the end.
Divekick is a very fun fighting game, either we jump or we are divekicking. I did one playthrough as the bear character and now I’m currently playing as Dive, brother to Kick. Though I am playing with the YOLO gem, so one kick to me, and I lose and I have to kick my opponent five times, one kick per round. It is for a trophy, and it like King Oddball, as a real “just one more go” feel to it.
Draw Slasher is not the Ninja Fruit clone I thought it was going to be, but I understand now where they make that comparison. It is more of a side scrolling fighting game, where we are constantly swiping our sword at opponents. Pretty fun, I beat the boss and felt good with my progress. I’m essentially just trying out a slew of games to see what I take too.
For instance, I did not take to Atomic Ninjas, there is a lot of depth and abilities to the game, maybe a few too many, and I’m just plain not good at it. Like, I felt good at the beginning of the tutorial, but then it goes on for like six additional abilities and then I try it for real, and I just end up bouncing around the area and shoving people into fire.
I sort of want to buy a 32GB SD card, but those things are so expensive but I just want to have access to all of my games. Which is silly a the PS4 has clearly trained me to only keeping like six games at any given time.
Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition was fun until I got to the second boss fight. It took so many tries, but I did it, and felt I got my $1.19 out of it. It also served as a cautionary tale to maybe not just buy every dollar game out there.
I really want to get Uncharted : Golden Abyss, I rather not spend $15 on it, but I think I might just be getting to the point that I want to play one of the best Vita titles out there. I also saw there was Batman Origins Blackgate for the Vita, and I sort of want that game too. Hopefully with people’s interest in the Vita since that one moment in The Last of Us Part 2, sales for games will start kicking in. I saw there are already two company’s who are going back to developing games for the system, so hopefully that is a new trend.
I’m still no good at 36 Fragments of Midnight, but I feel like it could be a perfect Vita game. Usually I tuck Walker Dennis in at night, then I sit and play on the Vita until he falls asleep, which has been nice as there were a few nights (too many, to be honest), where I started getting sleepy myself, and either dozed off or became to sleepy to hang out with my wife. Now I am pretty alert and ready to hang out, so it has been worth it.
The Vita has a tutorial to learn more about its function, Welcome Park, and there were trophies associated with it, so I gave that a try. I’m no good at that jigsaw puzzle, but I’m never good with those where we are missing a piece and have to move all of the tiles along to form the puzzle.
I’m hoping Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross go on sale, they were on sale in March or so, and if I knew I was getting a Vita then (it was still a dream at that point), I would have bought them when they were $5 each, instead of $10. If they had trophy support, I would just buy them right now, but they don’t, so I’m holding out for a sale.
So a lot of gaming stuff is happening around me and I’m super excited for July!
I can’t believe I started this blog seven years ago! Seems like ages ago my wife was visiting friends in San Francisco, and I had a lot of time on my hands and needed a break from Fallout 3. We have come a long way from strictly comic book reviews and doing more PlayStation focus posts. I really wish I had a comic book store that was local, but I also have boxes and boxes of back issues that I could be reviewing too. I just barely have time these days to even game for an hour some nights. Being an adult is not all it is cracked up to be. But enough of the woes, let us get to the fun!
At 8,168 views – our most popular post is still my post about Bounce Patrol.
At 1,964 views – our most popular comic review is still Avengers 51.
Best Month : May 2018, with 6,157 views
I’m still a tad obsess with getting my visitors from countries with nine views to ten views so if you know anyone in Guyana, Laos, Cape Verde, and Fiji, please encourage them to check out the blog! I say that but apparently I have not earn any views from Cape Verde, Guyana, Laos, and Fiji, in over a year. Well, dang it!
I did get additional visitors from Mauritius (10), Cuba (10), and Uzbekistan (12), so that’s nice!
Once again, thank you, all of the visitors who have made all of this possible – I wouldn’t keep doing this if it wasn’t for the constant encouragement of visitors. Thank you.
Thank you again for everyone who has come to the blog, even with the lack of reviews of current comics. People still do seem to be coming for older reviews, but I appreciate that the video game posts have been getting some love too as that’s mostly all I can write about until I get inspired to tackle a different topic.
Thanks to Friend of the Blog, MoxieMk5, for suggesting I write the review for this comic. It has been on my mind to do ever since!
Been a while since I wrote a comic, so let’s give this a shot!
This is the infamous issue where we follow up Lockheed getting hurt from the previous issue. Since Lockheed is on nearly every page, I thought it would be fun to showcase the Kitty Pryde pages.
Also, special thanks for Marvel Database for having the creative team written out as the comic does not list them out.
The issue opens with a doctor remembering her cat died on her sixth birthday. She recalls wishing people heaven and pet heaven was the same, as it doesn’t seem fair to never see your best friend again.
See how the credits don’t give the full names and duties? I’m sure it made sense at the time. Plus, that is a glorious splash page! Actually, this entire issue has some great splash pages, that I’m sure Hoover, Candelario & Dzon have already since sold the original prints.
The team watches on as the operation lasts at least four hours.
Thankfully this is a comic from the early 90s, so I knew there was going to be a recap. I had forgotten about the Doctor Doom arc of the past three issues, and how Lockheed got injured from trying to save Kitty from an attack by Doctor Doom.
Dr. Edgerton, the vet who lost her cat when she was six, is the lead doctor on the case. She just patched Lockheed’s fifth lung. She states that Lockheed’s recovery is up to him now.
Lockheed has an outer body experience that will take the bulk of the issue. Since this could be seen as a dream sequence, it is hard to know how much of it could be canon. I know he rarely is ever seen with the Flock outside of having a date to Kitty and Colossus’ would be wedding ceremony.
Lobdell has some fun writing in rhymes this issue.
I like how Lockheed knows his teammates’ names, and it isn’t like he has cute nicknames that he has given them.
It must take a lot of work to just instinctively know how to rhyme. Lockheed would be amazing in a rap battle. Though we do hear his thought process before in various future appearances, such as the Pet Avengers and SWORD, that he does not continue this. It could be the medications he is currently on as well.
There is a lot of purple in this issue, which must have been fun for Vancata.
The Flock are putting Lockheed on trial.
I really miss the editor boxes as they could be fun on an occasion, besides being super helpful.
Lockheed is on trial for being . . . a traitor! He left the Flock, and that is the highest of crimes.
They give Lockheed the option to defend himself with either science or art, how does that type of system even begin? Lockheed chooses painting.
Lockheed is held in high esteem for all of his work eliminating the Brood. He met Kitty in Uncanny X-Men 166, and snuck onto their ship to head home. He was scheduled to get married the next day, so that isn’t ideal.
We get an awesome panel from Uncanny X-Men 168.
Lockheed must defend his reason for leaving a bride at the alter.
Lockheed states it was so he can join Excalibur, even though he was with the X-Men for years by that point.
He was smitten with Kitty (who isn’t?!), and gets cut off before he can really go into his case. The prosecutor is really against him.
Lockheed begins to tell his side of Uncanny X-Men 168. He says some really lovely things about Kitty.
This issue really serves as a great introductory to Lockheed, Kitty, and the entire cast of Excalibur. The trial is just a framing sequence to do a little catch up for those who jumped onto the title with the Doom battle.
I would totally buy this print if I could.
He met a fellow warrior and he knew then, he had to be by her side. The X-Men were believed dead, and she went to England, and he followed.
We get a great page of Nightcrawler’s origins. Lockheed states Kurt is the backbone of Excalibur, which he is, but he is also the team’s heart and a great deputy leader. This was also at the time when Kurt had a crush on Meggan. It must be those elf ears!
The prosecutor is upset that Lockheed is revealing information from origins that Lockheed was not present for. They discuss how humans don’t speak dragon, and Lockheed doesn’t speak human, they can’t communicate at all. Lockheed reminds him that they are empaths, and that is enough for them to get along and be friends.
The prosecutor is called a casemaker, and his lovely wife explains how Lockheed is so passionate and clearly isn’t lying. Turns out, the wife is Lockheed’s former betrothed. Which, really, the casemaker should not be coming at Lockheed as hard in that respect, he got himself a lady out of the deal. But a job is a job, I supposed. She calls the casemaker, love-life, so I assume they are romantically paired.
Lockheed is not quite sure of Meggan’s origins, but she isn’t sure of her origins either.
Captain Britain’s origins are quickly recapped.
Captain Britain is searching for Rachel, the staff tell him she is on the roof. She’s thinking about the events of Uncanny X-Men 207, where she nearly killed Selene, but Wolverine stopped her. She has decided to not seek revenge against Dr. Doom. Rachel gives Brian a quick recap of her origins from the Days of Future Past storyline, which I’m pretty sure he knows about by this point. He’s very polite.
Back at the trial, the casemaker is asking Lockheed about being pals with the Phoenix, as she brings nothing but death. The issue is really making a big point to remind us that Wolverine stabbed Rachel.
We get a nice recap of an earlier adventure in Excalibur with the Warwolves, Widget, and Colin.
Meanwhile, at Scotland Yard. Inspector Dai Thomas and Alistaire Stuart are chatting about the wounded Lockheed. Thomas, who doesn’t prefer superheroes, feels really bad for Lockheed, and doesn’t hold his pals being superheroes against him. Thomas views Lockheed more as a dragon than a superhero. Thomas gets a call and orders the roads between Scotland Yard and the hospital to be cordoned off.
I like how the trial is bouncing around Excalibur history, though I would have loved to see every issue recapped. We cut back to them as they are discussing the Cross-Time Caper. Lockheed has put the Flock to sleep with his tales. The ship starts to rumble, as even the pilots are sleeping. We learn that the Flock on the ship, are souls of the passengers, and their bodies are on their home planet. Which explains how Lockheed is both on the ship and in the hospital. If the ship crashes, Lockheed should be find, as his body is relatively close by.
Lockheed goes immediately into hero mode, as he tries to right the ship. Lockheed could have easily escaped, but he didn’t, so the Flock see him as the hero he is. Lockheed explains how he is who he always has been, but he’s now . . . Lockheed of Earth! If his only crime was finding happiness, then he deserves to be sentenced to death.
Lockheed has earned the right to go back his body! The Flock takes off, and Lockheed is left alone again. He returns to his body, as a helicopter lands on the roof.
Rachel senses the hospital staff are now in a panic, and directs the team upstairs. Kitty is worried about leaving Lockheed in his current state. Brian wants to meet the threat on the roof, and away from the patients and staff.
The issue ends with the X-Men! Jean Grey, Storm (with a short haircut), Colossus (the worst!), Psylockhe, Rogue, and brown costumed Wolverine! As soon as the X-Men heard Lockheed was hurt, they were on their way.
The next issue caption hints that it is sort of a reunion.
I really should make a point to review more comics, but this one took a long time for me to find the time to do it, but I could have been better with my time management as well.
