Trailers that brought back my childhood

This week has been pure awesome for me. There are a few movies that I just can’t watch without thinking back to my childhood and getting the feels deep inside. This week, I got to see two of the major ones come back and I could not be more giddy.

Early this week we got the trailer to Jurassic World! The original Jurassic Park movie was great. Getting to see dinosaurs and people walk side by side and watching those giant beasts rip up the big screen, was something I’ll never stop loving. The new movie looks to take the franchise where we all hoped it would go. The park is open, we treat them like zoo animals, and things go crazy. Perfect.

Chris Pratt is taking the lead on this and after watching him In Guardians of the Galaxy, I’m really hoping he brings that same level of funny/action to a movie that holds a special place with me.

If you haven’t seen the trailer before, make sure to click the link below and enjoy!

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Now let’s move on to the movie that has arguably the biggest following of any franchise ever. Starwars is back and the teaser trailer finally made it’s way to the light. After dealing with the endless assault of fake trailers, rick rolls, and just trolls in general, it is finally here!

And we got everything we needed! The storm troopers are back and look like they mean business, the Force Awakens was not talking about the Jedi’s, and the Millennium falcon is still awesome!

There will be plenty of fanboys that will find tiny areas to nit pick but not this one. This fanboy is more than happy with what I saw. The empire is down but not out! Look for this to be a major theme through the first movie. The empire rebuilding and this new Sith/Bad guy coming to power and rallying what is left.

If you didn’t get to catch this one yet, make sure to click the link below!!

[[click here]]

Which movie are you looking forward too more? Are you like me and wouldn’t miss either of these for anything? Let is know in the comments below!!

Talking steampunk with the lovely Anastasia Dragunov

Two of the genres that has always interested me is steampunk and dessertpunk. They have always been fascinating. Some people’s ability to bring this to life is just amazing. That is defiantly true when it comes to Anastasia! The costumes that she puts together look as though they are ripped straight out of the genre itself.

We got the chance to sit down and talk with her about her love of steampunk and some of her other hobbies. Take a look and make sure to enjoy the gallery below and follow the link at run end to find more and follow her on her Facebook! Enjoy!

1. What started your love of the steampunk genre?

My love of science-fiction and period films/books first brought me to the idea of Steampunk. I would see hints of it here or there, but it became truly prevalent in my life after the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie came out. I’ve always loved the fashion of the Victorian Era and ultimately it was a combination of the above which really drove me into the steampunk genre.

2. What has been your favorite convention that you have attended?

My favorite convention…. That’s a hard one actually. I think I would have to say its a toss up between Comicpalooza in Houston and Realms Con in Corpus Christi. At both I was able to meet some pretty amazing people I’ve looked up to in films, music, tv, as well as cosplay.

3. Are you into gaming at all? If so, what is your favorite game?

I am a huge gamer actually. My favorite game is by far Dragon Age Origins. In second place of that I would have to say Skyrim though.

4. Besides making costumes and modeling, what hobbies do you have?

Costuming and modeling take up a hug portion of my time, but when I’m not doing either of those I’m usually gaming (haha). I actually went to university for Physics so stargazing is definitely something I love to do in the cooler months. I do also love camping and I’m big into organic lifestyles. So, I do garden and work on my herbology skills.

5. How do you plan to end this year? Any big plans for the upcoming year?

As of right now my end of the year plans are still undecided. I have one more convention planned as well as appearing in the December issue of the Ladies of Steampunk magazine. However, next year is looking to be pretty awesome. I have conventions I will be guesting at, photo shoots planned, some international jobs in the works, and some amazing costumes I’m really looking forward to working on and releasing. Keep an eye out for me in future issues of the Ladies of Steampunk magazine next year as well.

Make sure to check out her Facebook here!

Is Gamestop the next Blockbuster?

Back in the day, Blockbuster was a must for every weekend. I would go and grab a movie or two and maybe even a game to kill the weekend. I was in and out of the store so often that the employees knew me by name. There was no where else that I could go to find such a wide selection, much less on the release date, that would not cost me full price. Then came Redbox…

After that there were little kiosks all over town at places I was already going. This was a fatal wound to Blockbuster’s business. Then there was Netflix and Hulu that finished the job. This was the end of a staple in my childhood, and now it may be Gamestop’s turn to go the same way.

Earlier this week Gamestop president made this comment during an investor call: ” “We want to help ensure that our industry does not make the same mistake as other entertainment categories by driving the perceived value of digital goods significantly below that of a physical game,” according to Gamasutra.

In short, he fears that the rise of more bundle console deals and digital downloads for new releases are going to drive down their profits and make their industry obsolete. This is the exact same situation that brought the mighty Blockbuster to its knees, and all this may not just be fear. At first glance you will not the huge profits from the last quarter and say, ” they are doing just fine”. Truth is that they missed their projections and that is never good for stock price or investor confidence. Take a look at the stock prices…

Now, while Sony may not be at the top of the pack they are trending up for the year and will most likely continue in that direction, and Gamestop can not stay stable at all and according to their president, Tony Bartel, “$100 million worth of games have been digitally delivered for free in hardware bundles”. They, of course, see this as a loss of sales and profit. Which they should if you ask me.

Sony and Microsoft are starting to realize that a third party vendor is no longer necessary in the digital age, and even if you did want a physical copy, Microsoft is moving into retail locations of their own.  If you ask me, this is going to be the trend to come for a long time. Physical game disc, like CD’s, will die out and be nonexistent soon. So enjoy Game stop while you can, because before you know it. It may be gone.

Do you think that this is a trend that will continue to go towards the digital? Is Gamestop in trouble or is this just a large company complaining about nothing? Would you be happy with an all digital game products? Let us know in the comments below!

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Sources:

http://www.google.com

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/21/7265337/sony-and-microsoft-are-giving-you-games-and-gamestop-isnt-happy

Assassin’s Creed Unity in depth, Full Review (Spoilers Inside)

Written by Native Gamer

 

Unity is the eighth full Assassin’s Creed game released on console (excluding Freedom Cry and Liberation) and the first to be released on the current generation of consoles. The main story centers around Arno Dorian, a child of an Assassin. When he was a young boy his father was killed and he is adopted by the Grand Master of the Templar order. In respect to Arno’s father he kept the fact that he is a Templar, and in fact the Assassins and Templars altogether, secret from Arno.

 When his adoptive father is killed and Arno is arrested for his murder, and he meets Master Assassin Pierre Bellec. Bellec trains Arno in the use of the sword and the two escape. Afterwards Bellec tells Arno to seek the Assassins out. After a brief run in with his adoptive sister, who was also his lover, who blamed him for her father’s death, Arno leaves for Paris and joins the Assassins. For the rest of the game Arno seeks retribution, hunting his way up the Templar ranks with near reckless abandon, which earns him the ire of the council.

 Eventually Arno reconciles with Elise, but just after he does so the mentor of the French Assassins is killed in such a manner that heavily implicates Elise. Not believing she would do this, he tracks down all the clues and discovers his true killer, his teacher Bellec. Bellec believe any truce with a Templar treason of the highest order, and decided that the council needed to be cleansed. But After defeating and killing Bellec Arno losses favor with the council, eventually leading to him being dispelled from the Order, and Elise.

Arno Returns to Versailles and becomes a drunk, having lost both his cause and his love. Though Elise shortly comes and brings Arno out of his self imposed exile he decides he must first assassinate Le Touche who had control over Versailles.

Afterwards they both return to Paris and finish the hunt for the Templar Grand Master behind the death of Elise’s father. Eventually cornering him in the temple of De Molay a former Grand Master of the Templar order. Arno and Elise team up to take him down and they do, and take the sword of Eden, but at the cost of Elise’s life. Distraught Arno takes her body and leaves. Years later, Arno Returns and puts the Grand Masters body in the catacombs.

The future story centers around you, after the Assassin’s recruit you to travel through Arno’s memories to discover when he met a sage and where his body was. Eventually you end up traveling through rifts to avoid detection from the templars which are time anomalies, and gain the ability to do this at will to save trapped Assassins as a side quest.

The gameplay is similar to previous games with obvious improvements:

The free running mechanic has been enhanced to include the ability to go quickly up or down buildings in a smoother fashion than before.

The fighting mechanic has been revamped, making the game a lot more difficult in this area, the parry system has been improved to include timing on when you hit it to how effective it is, and the smoke bomb is no longer overpowered. You will not mow through enemies in this game like previous games.

Money is no longer as easy to come by as in previous titles, thus making getting the best equipment feel like an actual accomplishment, and upgrading it has been delegated to earning points through tasks in the game, these points being known as Creed Points. These creed points also can be spent to buy new colors for your outfits as well.

They have also added almost a rpg element to the game with the new skills function. This allowed you to buy new abilities through the use of points gained in story missions and in Co Op missions.

This brings us to the biggest new feature of the game, Co Op. This is online Co Op that is integrated into the main game. This ability can be used to just explore the city with your friends or to take on missions with your friends or others online. The missions are all re-playable and are split between mission and heist. Missions offer rewards and skill points whereas heists offer money.

 

The Game is overall an improvement gameplay wise, even with the minor glitch. Half of which were fixed with the first patch. The main issue still persisting is with Co Op, though it was a big focus of the campaign.

 

 To this I give this game a 9/10 on the provision that it will be a 10/10 when the Co Op is fixed.

 What are your opinions on this game? Tell us below.

Will we see Gwen in the Amazing Spider-Man 3 Or possibly someone else…

I know what you’re thinking right now. She died didn’t she? And the answer would be yes, yes she did. Then why is the rumor of Gwen making a return in ASM3 coming around All the sudden? Well for that, we need a history lesson.

I’m the comics, Gwen had a professor that was in love with her and when she died, he decided that making a clone of her was a good idea.

Well, as expected, things go wrong. Clone problems and the creepy professor becomes the Jackal. Like this wasn’t a weird enough story line…

There is an interview of Emma Stone, done by cinema blend, (can see our source here) kind of alluding to her return in the trilogy. Take that for what it is and move on.

Here is the bottom line, I believe this is a huge mistake. Death of loved ones is something that has molded Peter into the “Amazing” hero that he is. Most people (non-comic fans anyways) didn’t even know who she was, but the connection was real and the audience felt that. That means the pain felt real to. Don’t pull the comic book trick and bring her back that fast. Let the pain shape Parker and make him better. Show him working through it and meeting Mary Jane. That is the better way to go if you ask me.

And on top of the reason above, I think we will see a different surprise appearance. The entire trilogy has been about his parents and the secrets that he is uncovering. Who were they? What happened? Well, we all assume that the Chameleon will be in the “sinister six”, Thanks to the end credits of ASM2. If that’s the case. What better way to bring his parents into the third but run the story line where Chameleon “brings them back”. What other reason do you use a character like him? It is perfect, if you ask me.

But what do you think? Should Gwen make a come back so soon and if so will it be the Jackal that does it? What about Peters parents? Let us know in the comments below!

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Video Game Release and quick review of Assassins Creed Rogue

Written by Native Gamer

This week instead of the regular news round up I want to give you a small review that will lead
into a bigger review later. This is just a first impressions and basic overview of the game.
Assassins Creed Rogue follows Shay Cormac, a former Assassin turned Templar. As a Templar he acts as an Assassin Hunter, and hunts his former brotherhood while following a new creed. The games mechanics follow the same vein of Black Flag, though there are noticeable
differences.

 

The game is set in New York City, as well as the inland Appalachian regions of North America
and off the coast of the northeast American colonies. The,games story takes place during the
Seven Year War.

As far as gameplay, Shay captain’s the Morrígan, a Sloop of War. This ship has a shallower
draft than the Jackdaw, Edward Kenway’s ship, which allows for river travel inland American
Continent.

This ship also has new weapons and features, such as the Pickle Gun, Burning Oil, and the
ice ram. The last of which allows for traversing through the ice sheets of the north seas.
Also since your targets are Assassins they will display abilities similar to you have in the past:
smoke bombs, hiding in tall grass and Hay Carts, and so on.

Other changes include the ability for other ships to board you in naval combat, and a parry
system that i similar to the Batman Arkham series involving timing.

A more in depth review of the story as well as a final grade will be given at a later time.

 

Games released on the week starting November 17th 2014:

18th
Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom 3DS, PS3, PSVita, Win, X360Company of Heroes 2 ­ Ardennes Assault Win
Dragon Age: Inquisition Win, PS3, PS4, X360, XBO
Escape Dead Island Win, PS3, X360
Far Cry 4 Win, PS3, PS4, X360, XBO
Grand Theft Auto V PS4, XBO
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd PS3, PSVita
LittleBigPlanet 3 PS3, PS4
Middle­earth: Shadow of Mordor PS3, X360
Never Alone Win, PS4, XBO
Watch Dogs WiiU
WWE 2K15 PS4, XBO

20th
Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms Win

21rst: 

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire 3DS
Super Smash Bros. for Wii WiiU

Editors pick:
Native Gamer: Assassin’s Creed Rogue

A talk with Tulsa’s Twilight Cosplay!

Being based in Tulsa ourselves; it was an awesome opportunity to get to talk with Twilight Cosplay who is also from T-town. She is a growing cosplayer that, as she says, never got over her love of dress up.  Make sure to always keep a look out for her fantastic cosplays. You never know where she will pop up at! But let’s get down to it!

 

1. We loved you steampunk Poison Ivy last weekend at Wizard World Tulsa Comic Con. But we want to know who your favorite bad guy from the comic world is? (see on the right —> )

Favorite comic book bad guy would have to be Magneto from X-Men. There’s just something about good guys gone bad. Plus, I love his back story.

 

2. What made you want to get into cosplay and start your page?

I’ve loved dressing up from a very young age, and I’ve always been really nerdy. When I was about fifteen, I went to my first convention. I’d heard about cosplay before, and I was really interested in trying it out, so I did. Here we are almost eight years later, and I still love it.

 

3. What is your guilty pleasure when it comes to food? We all have that one meal that we love but know we shouldn’t eat.

Guilty pleasure, food wise, would have to be pastries and sour candy. So good.

 

4. What kind of loot did you walk away from with this convention?

I actually didn’t get much this convention, because everything was so expensive and I was on a budget. But I did walk away with an autographed photo of Scott Wilson!

 

5. What are your plans for 2015, any new cosplays or major projects coming?

So far, I’ve got three cons planned for sure for 2015. I’m currently working on a faun cosplay (major undertaking), as well as a White Rabbit cosplay for an original Alice in Wonderland group and a secret cosplay!

 

Make sure to click here and follow her on Facebook. There you can see all the fun costumes and conventions that she goes to, not to mention more pictures from past cosplays as well. Enjoy this small gallery below! Once you’re done enjoying these though, make sure to click here and follow us as well! Until next time guys!

 

 

Unity within the Assassins Creed universe

Last week we saw the addition of two new games in the Assassins Creed series. To those of us who love this history and gaming equally, this series has been nothing short of a god send. Some of them have been better than others but they seem to add something new every time! This round of AC brought us a new experience all together. Let’s dig in!

 

This time around we have been brought to the French revolution. While this one is not as tied to the actual revolution as AC3 was, it is very apparent that you are dealing with war. The streets are filled with protesters and the guards/army are not up for taking any crap.

One of the main complaints that I always heard from friends and online was that the game was too easy. Well, they heard you and fixed that problem. While you used to be able to easily take on massive number of guards, not so much anymore. The guards are smarter, faster, and without the auto kill, counter button, fighting large groups is not so easy. But, we are not here to review the game. That will be coming later on this week! Let’s get into the things that make this, in my opinion, the best of the series.

 First, is Arno. He is not the lifelong assassin, such as Altair. He is not the rich playboy turned assassin, like Ezio. Nor is he the completely unaware Conner. Arno is an assassin all his own. His grace and style alone make him a stand out to this game. His dichotomy in the story only adds to the draw of this new character.

Next is the online aspect of the game. While in the past we had the hide and seek on crack game play, this time around it was a little different. They have done away with the PvP of the old games and instead, replaced it with a co-op mission system. There are many different missions and if you get bored with that, nothing stops you from just free roaming the city of Paris with your friends. It makes the game just that much more deep, and adds an aspect of the game that we have never been able to do before. Getting to coordinate attacks and plan out assaults allows us to act like we are actually in a brotherhood. This, to me, is what sets this out and makes it the best of the series. 

A few things that deserve mention is the customization that this game allows. Being able to choose everything about your assassin, down to the colors he wears is amazing. The choices in Weapons is almost never ending, the combination of equipment is perfect for allowing you to be the type of assassin you want to be. This is yet another awesome addition to the series.

And if there is not enough in this game for you, make sure to download the app for your mobile device. There are endless puzzles and nomad missions to do. This ties back into the main game and just allows you the chance to feel even more in charge of your brotherhood!

Overall, this game is terrific. While I have read that people are talking about the glitches and bugs (that I personally experienced very little of) these are far and few between. Those small blemishes are not something that you should let stop you from playing the game. Ubisoft has been on top of things and is fixing them as fast as they can. So, what are you waiting for? Go buy the game and get to it! 

 

 

Day 3 Wizard World Tulsa: See you guys next year!

After three long days for all the cosplay, merch, and celebrities that we could ask for, it has come to an end. If you were anything like us, you are worn out and glad to be at home. After a convention comes ends, there is always that day of pure nothing. We just sit back and relax and look over all the tweets, photos on Facebook, and show off all the awesome things we picked up from the con.

But let’s look over all the fun from the final day!

When we arrived at 10am the line was already wrapping down the street and towards the edge of  the Cox Convention Center. People had shown up early to be one of the first few in and find the good spots in line for autographs. After 45 mins of waiting they decided to open the doors and little early and let everyone in! The doors came open and it was like a flood!

 

It was nice to see Tulsa’s news programs take so well to the convention. They has had experience covering the cons, seeing that Tokyo in Tulsa comes every year. There was even a news crew interviewing cosplayers that were more than willing to answer any questions they had.

We followed the crowd down to the celebrities area and just chatted with a few of them. They would not allow us to use our camera down in that area, for obvious reasons, so we do not have many pictures of the guest. ( If you have some that you would like to have featured, just send them to our email at projectsplaygroundinfo@gmail.com)

 

The cosplay on Sundays is always a little lighter but the level of cosplay did not drop at all! There were awesome costumes all around. We found a fantastic Black Adam and a few more that you can check out for yourself in the pictures below!

If you could not tell from the lines in the picture above, Tulsa sold out it’s first major comic con and with that Wizard World has already announced that they will be back next year! The date we are hearing is Oct 25th, 2015.To us, this is the greatest news of the weekend. Them wanting to come back and all the vendors talking about how great the people were is just fantastic! I always knew that if a well organized comic con were to come here that Tulsa would come out in numbers and show them that they were not making a mistake. So even though this year has come to an end, we will see you all next year and make sure to come back to the blog and check out more of the conventions and news that we post weekly! Hope you all had a blast and if you could not make it, we hope to see you next year!

 

We talk Power Rangers with Jason David Frank

This week we were given the chance to sit and talk with one, if not the, most popular Power Ranger of all time, Jason David Frank. Just to give you a little back ground, if you didn’t know, Jason was Tommy, the green ranger, on the original series. He has since done many different appearances on the show. So when we got the chance to sit and talk with him, the Rangers were a first stop when it came to questions.

The rumors of a reboot have been going around and gaining some steam over the past month or so. Once we asked the question he smiled big and told us ” The new movie will be filmed in 2015, it’s not written yet. I’ve talked with Saban but it’s just not written yet.” This put a big smile across my face! I was glad to hear it confirmed but is this just a reboot or a continuation of the series?  Here’s what he had to say on that: “They don’t want me to call it a reboot. It’s a re-envisioning of the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.”  He added ” I’m sure I’ll be involved, and I’m down for that and down for the brand.” 

When the chance of a Green Ranger series was brought up he told us simply ” I tried working on the Green Ranger series, and that’s not completely out, but with the Lionsgate reboot, they don’t want anything to out shine that.”

It was great to see him still so in love with the character that brought him into fame and the lime light when he was only 18 years old. The show holds a special place with a lot of people and he seemed to understand that. He talked numerous times about his fans and how much he loved getting to be with them at the comic cons and doing interviews like this one.

Speaking of fan projects, we asked about his involvement with Bat in the Sun and the awesome videos that they are doing over on YouTube.

” You know, it’s funny man. I tell this story to everyone. They ask how do I know if these interviews are real or not and I just say, you don’t care. You treat every interview equal. It doesn’t matter if they have one fan on a podcast or you got 5 million fans, if you treat them equal you’ll make a hit. So with Aaron [from Bat in the Sun] he called and and said how would you like to do this, and I just said yeah, yeah, I’ll help you out. He loves the white ranger so i’ll help him out. I had never seen his work yet and I agreed to help him. I’m a man of my word so he said go check out my work and I told him I would. So I looked it up and saw like 5 million views on Youtube, on Predator vs Wolverine and I love Wolverine so, but I thought his work was phenomenal. And it just happens to be that now he is the executive producer on my reality show, my mighty morphin life, without him and his dad I couldn’t produce the show. I think that God just puts the right people in your life and sometimes it’s great when you meet people to not ask what can you do for me, but just meet them as a person.”

 

New suit from the upcoming Bat in the Sun video

We talked a little with him about the new episode of the Super Power Beat Down on Bat in the Sun. ” We just got done filming with Saban on the Green Ranger vs Ryu beat down.  Which we got Sabans approval, which is a big thing cause there is a lot of underground stuff that’s being made. It was a big deal.” I am personally excited to see how this one comes out and make sure to check out Bat in the Sun here on Youtube! You can also check out the trailer to his new web series on their channel has well!

Well guys, that wraps up our talk with Jason David Frank. The main things to take from this it that the Power Rangers movie is coming,  JDF will likely be involved in it, and even if not he is working close with Saban and doing more Ranger centered things! It was awesome to meet such a down to earth and all around great guy! Make sure to watch out for all of his new projects coming. You can find most of it at the links below! Till next time guys.

Follow JDF on Facebook!

Bat in the Sun can be found here!

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