Pshaw. I remember when Orange Box came out. I had just finished my Master’s degree.

Given the sheer number of times “Shada” has been completed, remade, or otherwise made available to people, calling it “long-lost” is, at this point, a bit of a misnomer. There are fully complete serials from classic Doctor Who that are much easier to get a hold of than “Shada.”

Compared to The Mummy. It wasn’t spectacular, and obviously your personal mileage may vary, but it was a more effective spectacle about a somewhat more marketable character. Neither are ever going to be held up as textbook examples of how to launch your shared cinematic universe, though.

The difference is that Kong: Skull Island was a better movie, IMO. In 2019, there’s a reasonable chance I’ll still remember it fondly and be interested enough to want to go out and see the next installment. It’s the same deal as with the original Iron Man: it was a good enough movie that I was willing to wait a while…

It really depends on what era you’re talking about. By the mid-to-late 1990s, it was relatively uncommon. It wasn’t unheard of, mind you, even in relatively high profile releases: Doom was very quickly patched to correct game balance issues, the original Fallout had a couple of serious bugs, and Bethesda has never…

The spoiler: everyone from the first movie is a Replicant except Deckard.

I actually didn’t hate The Mummy. It was... fine. I liked the aesthetic, and the story was enough to keep my attention for a couple of hours. But the big problem is that it wasn’t good enough a film to launch the shared universe that Universal wants to make happen. It would be one thing if they had a more aggressive…

It depends on what you’re looking for in it, I suppose. I mean, I actually liked Bride and Seed because I dig self-referential slapstick comedy, but if you’re not into that sort of thing you mileage may vary, of course. That being said, after the insanity of Seed, I was ready for a more sedate take on the franchise,…

Give Curse of Chucky a try if you’re not interested in the more style of Bride of Chucky or Seed of Chucky. It’s most definitely not a comedy, and it’s quite good, IMO.

I really, really liked Curse, but the tonal shift from Seed was surprising. It’s not just darker and more serious than the last couple movies, it’s probably the most serious entry in the series. It’s more psychological horror than traditional slasher movie, but the amazing thing is how effective it is at it. And that…

I still haven’t seen the Dirk Gently series, but Fiona Dourif was amazing in the last Child’s Play movie, Curse of Chucky. Swinging the series back into more serious territory was a tall order, and a huge part of why it worked was down to her performance, IMO.

Nah, probably not. She’s too valuable a character for marketing. But no promises that their split won’t be mined for maximum (melo)drama. Though for now relationships are “in” at DC, so it may last for a while, at least.

I’ll be thrilled if this marriage lasts as long as Peter and Mary Jane’s did. I still hate “One More Day,” don’t get me wrong, but roughly 20 years is relatively good innings for a comic book marriage. Heck, it’s not a terrible showing for a real-world marriage.

I’ve honestly never understood the love for the Japanese and European console design. It’s not spectacularly ugly, but it’s not especially pretty, either. The two tone grey design looks awkward at best, the rounded corners make it look wobbly, and it just looks... flat. I will say that the four color motif is better…

To be sure, it’s multiple series: Mega Man (the original), Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX, Mega Man .EXE/Battle Network, Mega Man Legends, etc. But I extend to you my respect for your proper use of the possessive apostrophe.

That is indeed a hot take. More power to you for it, though.

They’re really not that difficult. I mean, they’re not exactly easy by the standards of modern games, but they were pretty standard difficulty for platform games of their era. As someone who lived through their original release as part of the target demographic, they weren’t the games we talked about as truly…

Mega Man VII is a good game. It’s not one of my favorites simply because I find the art style a little too... busy for my tastes, but it’s mechanically solid and much more enjoyable than the disaster that was Mega Man 8, IMO.

It’s partially a legal issue. There’s a number of potential risks with incorporating outside work. For one, if it turns out that the person who sold you that work was (consciously or unconsciously) infringing on a third party’s copyright, you open yourself up to liability. And there’s also the everpresent question of…

It’s not that simple. The rule of thumb when dealing with derivative works is that any character that can only exist by invoking another author’s copyrighted material are not protected. Sometimes that’s clear cut. If I create an otherwise original character and make her a student at Hogwarts, then I’m infringing on…