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Welcome back to Remixed! This week, we discuss the latest album from Angel Olsen. How has her music changed with this recent release? How does this music reflect the artist’s beliefs? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of Remixed!
Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week, we'll be discussing the recent controversy surrounding Blizzard's banning of one of their pro Hearthstone players. Did Blizzard ban the player because of China's influence? Was Blizzard just in applying the rules in this case? Find out all of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played!
Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week, we discuss the latest Nintendo game that has graced mobile phones. How does Mario Kart Tour compare to the main series? Is Nintendo becoming greedy? Find out all of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played!
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! This week we discuss the possibility of the hit movie "The Princess Bride" returning. How has he original held up through out the decades? Could the second possibility uphold the perfection of the first? Find out this and more in this week's episode of Input 2!
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! This week, we cover the latest Netflix release, "Tall Girl." While the premise does is unique, does it live up to Netflix's constant advertising of its greatness? Find out all of this and more on Input 2!
Let’s get something straight: high school sucks. If you didn’t think it sucked, you’re probably the reason it sucked for the rest of us. Those formative years of your life where you’re constantly making bad decisions and getting relentlessly dunked on can be a nightmare to look back on for many people. I scraped by thanks to branding myself as “the funny fat guy,” but let me tell you, if I hear one more person make a “fat guy eat Twinkie” joke, I’m going to create a doomsday weapon fueled entirely by preservative-stuffed snack cakes.
by Tanner Kinney Let’s get something straight: high school sucks. If you didn’t think it sucked, you’re probably the reason it sucked for the rest of us. Those formative years of your life where you’re constantly making bad decisions and getting relentlessly dunked on can be a nightmare to look back on for many people. I scraped by thanks to branding myself as “the funny fat guy,” but let me tell you, if I hear one more person make a “fat guy eat Twinkie” joke, I’m going to create a doomsday weapon fueled entirely by preservative-stuffed snack cakes. So, to me, it’s a complete anomaly why bog-standard teen movies get greenlit so often. Sometimes you have real winners like The Hate U Give, which ascend beyond the cliches and use the toxic atmosphere as a backdrop for intense storytelling. Other times, you have movies like Sierra Burgess is a Loser, which was a Netflix experiment to see how unlikable they could make a protagonist while still getting away with it (spoiler: they didn’t). And now, somewhere in the middle, Tall Girl tries to blend in with the popular crowd despite being a cringey, insufferable, capital-L-loser of a film. A unique take on high school, just like everyone else Tall Girl attempts to stand out from the crowd by having a premise seemingly transported from the early 2000s era Disney Channel original films. Jodi (Ava Michelle), the titular Tall Girl, is a 6’1” high school junior that receives constant, cartoonishly-exaggerated harassment due to her height. She towers over all of her classmates, but this Amazonian pianist can’t seem to find the confidence to overcome the people knocking her over. Specifically, she struggles with love, unable to find a guy who feels comfortable being the little spoon in the relationship. She’s friends with Fareeda (Anjelika Washington), the token sassy black friend, and Jack Dunkleman (Griffin Gluck), a short king determined to be the tick bird to Jodi’s giraffe. The three stick together through thick and thin, even though Jack’s obsession with Jodi frequently steps over the line of quirky to creepy. This dynamic is rattled by the arrival of Stig (Luke Eisner), a Swedish foreign exchange student with good hair and a tall body. Jodi, captivated by this Nordic chad-beast, is determined to reinvent herself and gain the confidence to pursue the guy despite adversity from not only her rival Kimmy (Clara Wisley), but also her own bad decision-making. And if any of that sounded like I just filled in a Mad Lib for the topic “Teen Movie Synopsis,” then you likely have some questions as to whether or not lead writer Sam Wolfson is a human being or a cover name for a robot designed to create Netflix original films. I will say though, to the film’s credit, I actually did genuinely like the running gag of the generically beautiful pageant-winner older sister having crippling allergies. It’s just unusual and underplayed enough that it stays consistently funny throughout the film. Unfortunately, that’s the one sturdy stilt this stinker is standing on. Tall Girl, without a shadow of a doubt, is a bombardment of bad cliches and overdone plotlines. I highly encourage brave viewers of this film to make a list of predictions based on knowledge of other teen movies. You’ll likely find that your predictions are correct, regardless of whether or not they seemed to fit soundly within the narrative developed. This isn’t to say that cliches are the problem; oftentimes, cliches can help ground a strange film in a land of familiarity. The problem is that many of the cliched characters within Tall Girl are simply predestined to meet the fate of their character trope. In fact, in the case of the main cast, their tropes overpower the actually interesting parts of their characters as the AI checks the boxes to factory-produce the film. Discomforting relationships for poorly-written characters The characters within Tall Girl are sloppily written and make decisions seemingly at random, which would almost be accurate for high school if it wasn’t obvious that these decisions were being made to reach a specific, predictable end. For example, Jodi, our protagonist, is frequently the source of her own problems, not due to insecurity, but due to being a terrible friend and communicator. The drama in the second act of the film is almost entirely self-inflicted, with Jodi burning nearly every bridge on her Viking conquest. Of course, the drama resolves itself, but not due to Jodi reconciling with the people she hurt. Instead, the drama magically disappears without any effort put in by any of the characters involved. In the case of Fareeda, they literally say nothing to each other between their big fight and their make-up. The movie is trying to portray Jodi as sympathetic, but it's hard to sympathize with someone who is being cartoonishly standoffish to people she’s longtime friends with. However, the most egregious example of a terribly-written relationship is the owner of the childhood friend trope, Jack Dunkleman. Jack is written with certain characteristics to make him come off as quirky; he carries his stuff in a milk crate, he’s hopelessly in love with a girl that doesn’t reciprocate, uses overly complicated metaphors, and plays battle royale games on a VR headset with someone from Okinawa. In the context of the love dodecahedron, he’s the scrappy underdog the audience is supposed to be rooting for to get with Jodi, and to his credit, the performance given by Griffin Gluck in this role is genuinely great. The problem is that Jack more often than not crosses the line and becomes manipulative and creepy. He intentionally tries to sabotage Jodi’s friendship with Stig, he makes remarks about her “beautiful torso,” he leads a different girl on despite having no intentions with her, and he even comes into Jodi’s room while she’s sleeping and tries to stroke her hair. I was constantly questioning why Jodi stayed friends with Jack, although considering how awful Jodi was, it was probably to feed her ego by leading someone on for so long. The worst part about it is that these characters could have been more than their tropes. The natural resolution to Jodi’s character arc could be that she’s confident in herself, and, with the admiration of the student body, no longer needs to find a guy. Jack could have learned his lesson about the hopeless pursuit, sacrificing his own happiness for the sake of his friend. The only character with an arc that fits not just their trope, but the narrative as a whole, is Stig. This perfect guy comes from Sweden and is the exotic foreigner, but back home he’s a nobody. He goes too far with his desire to be the popular kid and ends up hurting people he truly did love and respect. And, surprisingly, his arc has a satisfying conclusion. But one satisfying conclusion doesn’t make up for all of the missed opportunities abandoned in favor of lazy storytelling. It doesn’t help that there’s unironically more romantic chemistry between Stig and Jack than nearly every other romantic pairing in the film. And hoo boy, does this film go a little overkill with romantic pairings. Firstly, there are two love-triangles running parallel to each other. The first is with Kimmy, Jodi, and Stig. The second is with Jack, Jodi, and Stig. Of course, a love trapezoid would be too simple, so Kimmy’s female friend Liz is in love with Jack, while her guy friend Schnipper falls in love with Jodi after Jodi applies a little bit of lip gloss. The absurdity of this love polygon reaches maximum cringe in a scene where pairs of Kimmy/Stig, Jodi/Schnipper, and Jack/Liz all decide to have a group make-out session in an escape room. During the scene, the film wildly cuts between extreme close-ups of Stig, Jodi, and Jack all staring down the person they really love. And all of this is scored by a pop song so generic and forgettable I’d believe it was royalty-free. Jodi ends it early, trying to leave, but the joke’s on her: it’s still an escape room. And the joke’s on the audience: there are still about 40 minutes left in the film. The problem-film without a genuine problem Of course, the small controversy of the film’s trailer drop two weeks ago doesn’t work in the film’s favor. On the surface, the film seems to be about the oppression and discrimination against tall girls, along with how such tallness can create issues with self-image. And that second part is a real issue; women, especially trans women, can feel uncomfortable due to their height making them not feel like the women they are. However, Jodi is an attractive, cisgender, straight, white tall girl. In the world today, there are so many issues in terms of diversity within media and fair portrayals of minority groups. So, a movie about a good-looking, every-day girl who just so happens to be very tall feels a little like a movie in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s even more absurd when the movie uses a pageant-winning mom and older sister to emphasize that Jodi is supposed to be ugly. Ava Michelle, the Tall Girl, is actually a successful fashion model and dancer outside of the world of the movie. Now, that’s arguably lazy criticism, but a movie about something as ridiculous as tall girl oppression needs to work a lot harder to make the issues it talks about real issues, especially since it even attempts a hamfisted political allegory about immigration and acceptance in one scene early on. It’s not ridiculous enough to be a meta-commentary farce, and it's not serious enough to really mean anything. It slouches into all the comfortable cliches, conforming to a genre so overdone, it makes one pine for those at least vibrant nightmares of real high school experience. Images: Netflix, Digital Spy Featured Image: IMDb
Welcome to the semester premiere of How It's Played! This week, we discuss the recent firings that GameStop issued to many of its top managers. Also, we discuss the increasing competition from online game retailers. Find out all of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played!
Welcome back to the semester premiere of Input 2! On this episode, we discuss the recent dispute between Sony and Disney over Spider-Man. How does this conflict showcase the more sinister side of Disney? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!
Another day, another problem for massive video-sharing giant YouTube. It seems like every few months, the platform gets itself wrapped up in another controversy. Sometimes it can be controversies created by the platform itself, other times it’ll be controversies connected to YouTube.For the low-level grunts running the social media accounts and dealing with customer service, it has to be frustrating getting so many awful things airdropped in out of nowhere, then being forced to deal with the consequences because upper-management is too busy figuring out new ways to promote up-and-coming stars like Jimmy Fallon or Will Smith. Oh, that’s not-so-hot, is it?
by Tanner Kinney As this generation of consoles winds down, the last couple E3’s are usually fairly tame. The big three companies will all hold their cards and wait to see how they can one-up their competition and capitalize on their mistakes. As such, with both Sony and EA stepping away from a formal conference this year, E3 feels surprisingly empty this year. It’s likely that next year will be the one where Sony announces the PS5, waiting until it’s ready to ship. This year, however, there are plenty of rumors around Microsoft’s conference. With Halo Infinite and Gears of War 5 on the menu already, along with dozens of new titles they are planning to announce, there’s a lot of buzz. Banjo is said to be making a return somewhere, which is leading people to predict either him as Smash Ultimate DLC or in a remake/remaster of the original Banjo-Kazooie, all ignoring the possibility of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts 2. Most promising though, are the rumors around the Xbox Scarlett project, which is said to be their next-gen console. If Microsoft can nail a console announcement and have it out by the winter, it could be the head start Microsoft needs to trail blaze into the next generation. All eyes are on Microsoft to show something truly amazing. World premieres and major titles Microsoft leads the conference with Obsidian's highly-anticipated space exploration RPG, The Outer Worlds Short narrative/gameplay trailer shows off a beautiful open world featuring tons of choices and customization Releasing October 25, 2019 for Xbox One and PC as and Epic Games Store exclusive Ninja Theory walked out to announce they are working on a number of projects, namely their third-person competitive multiplayer game, Bleeding Edge. The game is colorful and stylish, loaded with personality, and features a focus on melee combat in an arena environment. The game will be released in a technical alpha June 27 The trailer for Mojang’s new Diablo-esque top-down action-game, Minecraft: Dungeons, was given an announcement trailer. The game features local and online co-op, a classic Minecraft artstyle, and the classic hack-and-slash gameplay the genre is famous for. The game will release Spring 2020 A trailer for Jedi: Fallen Order was shown at the conference. The game is single-player, featuring lightsaber combat and a focus on mobility and exploration. The game will release November 15, 2019. A world premiere for a new forest-walking, flashlight-pointing, camcorder focused horror game, Blair Witch, was shown. Cyberpunk 2077 was shown in greater detail with a new narrative trailer. The gritty, cyberpunk aesthetic is amazingly complimented by an obnoxious censor for the swears. Keanu Reeves is in it (and on stage), for some reason. This announcement certainly Keanu Leaves the audience in shock. Keanu Heaves heavy plot exposition, explaining the basic details of the game. The game will Keanu Release April 16, 2020 Another world premiere was shown for a 2D-side-scrolling exploration game titled Spiritfarer. The game features a hand-drawn artstyle and a base management system A new trailer was shown for Battletoads. A crazy impressive art-style, and some brief gameplay, are shown. It features beat-em-up action and three-player couch co-op. The Legend of Wright, a literal pen-and-paper RPG, is shown. The game’s creative usage of various cut-out art styles compliment a dungeon crawling experience. The game will release 2020. Xbox Game Pass for PC launches in open beta today, featuring a number of major titles announced and available. A world premiere, captured in real-time 4K, powered by satellite data and Azubu AI, is shown for… a flight-simulator, specifically Microsoft Flight Simulator A trailer for a new Wasteland game is shown, taking place in Colorado Springs and featuring wacky, Borderlands-esque non-humor. A new trailer for Psychonauts 2 is finally shown. Some gameplay and narrative elements are shown, and the platforming style remains intact. A world premiere for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, shown Releasing 2020 A trailer was shown for Dragonball Z: Kakarot, a new action-RPG, was shown. Gears of War 5 was, of course, given a new trailer at this conference. The incredibly weird and psychedelic trailer creates intrigue and confusion for the game, surprisingly abstract for the Gears series. The game will release September 10th, 2019. July 17th will have the multiplayer test, with a Horde Mode test in August. Another, more in-depth, traditional trailer is shown for the new game mode, “Escape”, featuring an awful song that samples “Crazy Train” A world premiere for a new Forza game, featuring a life-size Lego car on stage, is shown. The game looks to be a new Lego Racers game created by Playground Studios, featuring customizable cars and wacky, off-the-wall racing. The expansion, titled Lego Speed Champions, will release this week. A world premiere is shown for the Western release of Phantasy Star Online 2, a free-to-play MMORPG that was long-time exclusive to Japan. The game will release 2020 in the West. A world premiere trailer is shown for Crossfire, some kind of cooperative action-game. The game will release in 2020. A world premiere trailer is shown for the new Tales game, Tales of Arise, featuring some story elements and a very impressive aesthetic. The game will release in 2020. A world premiere trailer for FromSoftware’s new game, Elden Ring, is shown. The game is a joint project between Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin At the end of the conference, Phil Spencer talks about the new Xbox console, Project Scarlett; designed, built, and optimized for gaming. That’s right, no TV A long explanation from the designers, in what was basically buzzword bingo, says both everything and nothing about the Scarlett. We got a logo, and an announcement for a Holiday 2020 release window. Project Scarlett will launch with Halo Infinite, as shown in the closing trailer of the show. The impressive tech of the Scarlett is… not really shown off here. No Super Smash Bros logo was shown… yet. The Good Microsoft, for the years since Phil Spencer took the helm, has been about one thing: showing off games. And to their credit, this year was once again filled to the breaking point with dozens of amazing, unique, and most importantly exclusive games. The games shown this year were mostly from Microsoft’s own Xbox Game Studios developers, meaning that they will release on both PC and Xbox One. Aside from a few games that will most likely be multi-platform, but chose to be shown off at the Microsoft conference since Sony decided to skip this year. Interestingly enough, the most interesting titles weren’t the ones with big budgets and advanced graphics, but the smaller, more stylish indie titles that got their own showcase on the big stage. Games like Spiritfarer, Battletoads, The Legend of Wright, and even double-A titles like Wasteland 3 and Bleeding Edge all impressive with their vibrant aesthetics and worlds. When you include titles like Minecraft: Dungeons, The Outer Worlds, Lego Speed Champions and, yes, even Cyberpunk 2077, the games shown this year were all seriously impressive. To top it all off, the conference flowed near-perfectly. There were a few minor hiccups (which I will mention later), but overall it was a constant stream of information, games, and gorgeous trailers. This was a conference made for people who love games, not just the seven die-hard Xbox fans, so it was a treat to sit through. Plus, Keanu Reeves on stage and Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the West are almost exciting enough for me to buy an Xbox One. Almost. The Bad This was a great conference, but there were still some problems. Although games were the sole focus, and that’s great, there was almost an information overload because of the amount of games being shown in such a short period of time. It was almost a relief when a developer or influencer or Phil Spencer himself would step up on stage and talk for a brief moment. It didn’t necessarily feel bloated, but some more breathing room between major announcements would actually have been appreciated, at least for me. And while the presentations themselves were appreciated in giving a breather, they didn’t really have much to say aside from Sarah Bond’s presentation of Xbox Game Pass. Phil Spencer gave the traditional politician speech in his blazer/graphic-tee combo, saying a whole lot of words that meant basically nothing. The Scarlett got an informational video talking about tech, but it was a whole lot of buzzwords and not a lot of substance. As someone who still believes, firmly, that technology is magic, it meant basically nothing to me. Speaking of the Scarlett... The Future of Gaming Our first glimpse at the Scarlett was… underwhelming, to say the least. Microsoft can say a whole lot about the specs of the system, ray-tracing, their SSD’s and other magic processing chips, but it doesn’t mean much to the average consumer. This is how Sega got away with “blast processing” back during the early 90’s, since the processor was technically better than the Super Nintendo’s, but the number itself is something consumers wouldn’t care about. So, they called it “blast processing.” To me, this Scarlett presentation was a whole lot of “blast processing.” Sure, it’s still in development, alongside Halo Infinite, but it makes sense why Sony didn’t show up with their new console if this is about what they’d have. There wasn’t even a noticeable difference between the trailer for Infinite and any other AAA game shown, although that could be because my TV isn’t 4K. In terms of the future, Microsoft played their hand this year right. Sony folded, keeping their secrets to themselves, but in doing so lost the ability to associate their brand with major titles coming soon, namely Elden Ring and Jedi: Fallen Order. That sort of recognition works wonders in the eyes of the consumer. However, Microsoft teasing the Scarlett so early may reduce the hype momentum going into Holiday 2020, while Sony and possibly even Nintendo will have console announcements as well. At the very least, I hope Microsoft keeps the name Scarlett; the name rolls off the tongue, is unique, and has an air of elegance that Microsoft could utilize in branding. The future of gaming may not look that much different, but Microsoft is at least prepared for it. Image: Wikimedia
by Tanner Kinney Another day, another problem for massive video-sharing giant YouTube. It seems like every few months, the platform gets itself wrapped up in another controversy. Sometimes it can be controversies created by the platform itself, other times it’ll be controversies connected to YouTube. For the low-level grunts running the social media accounts and dealing with customer service, it has to be frustrating getting so many awful things airdropped in out of nowhere, then being forced to deal with the consequences because upper-management is too busy figuring out new ways to promote up-and-coming stars like Jimmy Fallon or Will Smith. Oh, that’s not-so-hot, is it? Well, unfortunately for YouTube they found themselves in scalding hot water once again. And unlike the last few times, this case can truly set a precedent for the future of the platform. Crowder v. Maza, featuring vicious indifference On May 30th, Vox journalist Carlos Maza posted a thread on Twitter detailing harassment he’s faced during his work for Vox. Specifically, at the hands of right-wing YouTuber and self-proclaimed comedian Steven Crowder, along with his #MugClub. The thread contained a series of allegations, the most damning being a video detailing numerous cases where Crowder used derogatory language to insult Maza during a series of videos that ran counter (literally, in this sense) to Maza’s “Strikethrough” series. Please watch the video if you’d like to hear a sampling of what Maza is talking about, but it contains a number of racist and homophobic slurs with the intent of demeaning Maza’s character. Although he had been dealing with it for a long time, Maza had finally had enough and called for action from YouTube. That being said, I'm not mad at Crowder. There will always be monsters in the world. I'm f**king p*ssed at @YouTube, which claims to support its LGBT creators, and has explicit policies against harassment and bullying: https://t.co/K9XJGAP7Xp pic.twitter.com/4GUfTDuOXS — Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 31, 2019 YouTube, at least publically, claims to support all creators of any race, gender, sexual orientation, and specifically openly supports LGBTQ+ causes on their social media accounts, especially since we’ve hit pride month once again. But, this is only publically; privately, YouTube still answers to the money and what they consider “family-friendly.” This has lead to them demonetizing LGBT content in the past and present, along with playing anti-LGBT ads on the videos of the creators. They don’t believe these videos are “suitable for all advertisers” due to the nature of the content. This is especially painful because they are trying to double dip, abusing their status as a beacon of salvation for queer creators while simultaneously giving a platform for harassment and bigotry on a massive scale. Calling YouTube hypocritical at this point is like saying the planet is dying; we all know it, and will be declaring it until the water rises around us as we return to Atlantis, but our tears just become part of the ocean. And, well, YouTube hates being public about these things, so they tried to just ignore the problem until it went away. This was, of course, until a left-wing YouTuber known only as “Shaun” baited YouTube’s support staff into facing the issue head on in a masterful display of sleight-of-hand. okay hello yes my issue isn't actually with Youtube TV, apologies. it is with repeated targeted homophobic bullying on your platform as evidenced below. why do you allow this harassment on your platform?https://t.co/npiS3RX88H — Shaun (@shaun_jen) May 31, 2019 Now, with no choice but to answer the calls for investigation, YouTube looked into the issue. During the downtime, both sides of the aisle started spinning their wheels about the potential consequences. Daily Wire journalist Ryan Saavedra quoted Crowder’s personal video on Twitter, saying, “A far-left Vox journalist is trying to get a conservative media publisher banned from YouTube for exercising their freedom of speech.” Meanwhile, leftist YouTubers rallied their causes as well, with another Tweet from Shaun saying, “[G]iven that youtube are investigating crowder now would probably be the best time to go and report the videos of his that breach their terms of service. searching for 'crowder' and 'vox' will give you most of the videos with the homophobic bullying.” Crowder himself even released a joking “apology video” where he repeats the homophobic and hateful comments again for his audience of lobsters clattering their claws in support. So, after days of investigating, YouTube released their response on June 4th, 2019. And somehow, someway, it managed to make every single person angry. (4/4) Even if a video remains on our site, it doesn’t mean we endorse/support that viewpoint. There are other aspects of the channel that we’re still evaluating– we’ll be in touch with any further updates. — TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 4, 2019 Essentially, YouTube looked over all the evidence and decides, “Wow, this is actually kind of terrible, but it’s technically still allowed so we can’t do anything about it. But we totes don’t support it guys, we just can’t get rid of it!” This is despite the fact that YouTube’s terms of service specifically say that you can’t create videos harassing or calling for the harassment of individuals. YouTube gave a typical non-answer and, although it is unsurprising, it is disappointing. Left-wing YouTubers and Maza himself were all confused by YouTube’s decision, lighting a fire under them to at least do something to hurt Crowder’s bottomline. Otherwise, what’s to stop other channels from using this case as a defense for their vegan neo-nazi flat Earth (yes, that was a real thing for one YouTube channel) and their insane ranting? YouTube sets a precedent by doing nothing, because non-action is deafening in cases like this. A literal swedish nazi had one of my videos taken down by abusing your horrible system, but you won't punish a channel where a mug salesman commands an audience of millions to harass a gay journalist Just in awe at how little youtube functions or cares on any level https://t.co/deYWfvQMGt — Hbomb (@Hbomberguy) June 5, 2019 So, YouTube looked into the situation again, and decided to demonetize Crowder’s channel. This was met with ire from everyone who supported Crowder, but only seen as a half-measure by those against him. In this way, it truly did finish the job of making sure every single person out there hated YouTube’s decision here. There were a few ways they could’ve solved the issue, and there was never going to be a route that made everyone happy. But YouTube still tried to make everyone happy, and in doing so dumped gasoline on all of the bridges they could find and just let it all burn down. Now that, that’s hot. YouTube’s dangerous dilemma This isn’t to say YouTube’s choice was cut and dry. It’s very easy (as someone who doesn’t support Crowder) to just say to deplatform and let him rot with Milo Yiannopoulos in a melting chocolate castle. In fact, I wouldn’t bat an eye if that happened. In my mind, this was a clear case of harassment that violated the terms of service, so there should be punishment of some sort. If smaller LGBT creators can be demonetized for “non-advertiser friendly content,” then Crowder shouldn’t escape punishment just because he has a massive fanbase. The problem for YouTube lies in the optics of it all. They were in a lose-lose situation with the harassment, not due to any fault of their own, but through their negligence to deal with it before it became a huge problem. They could have issued warnings before it became part of his brand, but the man literally has a merchandising line with text on them reading “Socialism is for f*gs.” They ban Crowder, then the talking conservative heads have a field day claiming victimhood for media persecution. The legions of clever mugboys and Channers who support Crowder will claim this is “Adpocalypse 2: Demonetize Harder” or something along those lines, railing YouTube for enforcing anti-harassment policies. In fact, this is already being discussed by conservative talking head Ben Shapiro in response to a demonetization of Crowder. If @YouTube is now going to police insulting speech -- not violent speech, not incitement, not actual fake news -- because a virulently censorious, radical activist masquerading as a journalist complains about being insulted, they're a joke. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019 However, if they committed to letting Crowder go, left-wing YouTube gets just as angry about the situation, saying it proves that YouTube is two-faced in how they slap a rainbow sticker on their face when it’s profitable, but will simply stab that community in the back when need be. After all, their algorithm is in love with injecting right-wing content into your feed when it even smells you could be interested in it, since after watching Crowder’s apology video for five minutes my recommendations have already been altered, albeit just slightly. This algorithm is discussed in a number of videos by YouTubers, and it has a number of names, but Jack Saint summed it up in a video essay he did recently, citing the “Anita Sarkessian effect” coined by Big Joel. “If you happen to open a video about Captain Marvel between February and now, you’ll likely be struck by just how many of your video recommendations for the next week will be about Brie Larson, Captain Marvel, snowflake meltdown exposed.” Because of this, YouTube recommends this easily digestible Crowder-esque content more frequently, despite how inflammatory it is. It’s not a far-cry to claim that YouTube is trying to have its cake and eat it to and, like a famous cake eating queen, will also find itself in the guillotine, God willing. The defense of “comedy” Then there’s also the defense of Crowder’s statements as “comedy,” and a reactionary call to ban all late-night talk show hosts, comedians, and journalists who use “offensive language.” Crowder does label himself a comedian, as do most people who want to try and escape consequences for saying horrible things. It’s an easy out to claim that a particularly inflammatory statement is “comedy,” and has been used as a defense by both the left and the right. Shapiro also went to bat for Crowder using this defense, and I personally believe it’s a weak and easy out. Notice how this entire story never labels @scrowder a comedian. Which is, of course, rather important for interpreting his words. https://t.co/pMRtHPhf4v — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019 To go off on a bit of a tangent here, let’s use a DM my friend sent me the other day as an example. I sent him a Tweet about a professional Smash Bros. player who was also high level in League of Legends. My friend, unsurprising to me, sent a response that was horribly offensive and racist to the point where I started to question my own existence on this planet. Knowing him, though, it was in his mind an “edgy joke.” It made me deeply uncomfortable, and I let him know that, but that’s the risk you take with that kind of humor. It needs to fit a certain situation, context, and atmosphere. Being offensive is a thing stand-up comedians will do for a punchline and, in a bar setting of 50-200 people, it’s not that bad. Now, compare this to a person with a massive platform making a similar joke. Instead of a person with a platform and influence making a joke for an audience of 200 drunks, this is a joke made for a massive public audience of many different people. With YouTube especially, this includes impressionable youth who are just clicking from video to video trying to find themselves in this grim, dark world, or just trying to get epic Fortnite hacks without viruses. More importantly, it’s all online, where three clicks can take you from a video about a person to directly speaking with that person. This is what happened with Carlos Maza, if his Twitter thread is anything to judge by. One person making an edgy joke is one guy being rude; the problem comes from when that edgy joke is repeated ad-nauseam by an audience of parrots who probably also genuinely believe in crazy things like Dinosaur Earth or Gamer’s Rights or, most absurd of all, the marketplace of ideas. It becomes targeted harassment due to the encouragement of an audience to harass a person, and that’s the main rule Crowder broke. What’s your call, YouTube? In an attempt to wrap this up, it’s all on YouTube now. They are the ones with all of the power, due to having a near monopoly on video streaming services. Demonetizing Crowder will likely be where it all ends, even if their PR department is currently in flames trying to figure out a good way to spin it. For the left, this is a terrifying sign that YouTube will not actually punish those who break terms of service if they have a large enough audience and bring people to YouTube. For the right, this is a terrifying sign that YouTube are going to start demonetizing ideas they don’t agree with if enough people create a Twitter mob for it. And for the enlightened centrists, eating paste and saying both sides are bad enough times to try and convince themselves it’s actually true, they finally have a company that stands up for their non-existent values. I really haven't seen anything as depressing as this whole affair in quite a while. As long as harassment and bigotry are profitable, LGBTQ+ creators are just deemed to suffer at the end of it or are forced of the platform. https://t.co/jvXRhM5Ij3 — Dan Arrows ↙️↙️↙️ (@_DanArrows) June 5, 2019 In my opinion, in case it wasn’t obvious, YouTube is pants-on-head crazy in how they handled the situation. It’s sickening to me, as someone who identifies as bisexual, to see that YouTube is not going to stand up for a community that has no one else standing up for it. They want to claim that “some opinions are vile and harmful, but also valid,” ignoring the further harassment that is encouraged by their half-hearted shrug in support of it. It’s clear at this point that they’re only LGBT-friendly as long as the money is there, as with most corporations. And so, just in time for Pride Month, YouTube was given a chance to show their true colors, stand for the values they publically fight for and support. And show their colors YouTube did. And those colors were pure, unsaturated beige and unflavored oatmeal. Sources: Twitter, Byte BSU, YouTube Featured Image: McKenna Kolb
by Tanner Kinney Picture this: the year is (roughly) 2007, or so. Nine-year-old Tanner Kinney and his family recently purchased a brand-spanking used PlayStation 2 Slim, along with Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and War of the Monsters. A friend down the road has a few PS2 games as well, and he occasionally brings them over so Tanner can try them. One of these games was a PlayStation One game titled Final Fantasy VII (FFVII), an ugly looking game that I didn’t understand most of despite being a fairly competent young reader. But, it was loads of fun to play, even though we didn’t have a memory card for it and couldn’t make it past Midgar. https://youtu.be/Ru9zzFEdGWk A year or so later, another friend loans us a spare copy of FFVII and a memory card so we can finally experience the game in full without having to keep the console on overnight. I never made it past Disc 1 (I would always get lost after leaving Midgar), but my brother was able to play through the game and I experienced it with him. It was fantastic, at least what I remember of it. I especially loved Yuffie’s storyline and character arc, since she was (and still is) my favorite character in the game. Even when I got older and edgy in the “popular-thing-is-bad-because-it-is-popular” sense, I couldn’t deny that Final Fantasy VII was a great game. Since then, I’ve played through nearly every single mainline Final Fantasy title in one (or multiple) of their various releases. I have my own personal favorites, of course, but other than Final Fantasy II (Japan) and the entirety of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I subscribe to and even sometimes play Final Fantasy XIV, and I spent the entirety of the week after release of Final Fantasy XV just playing through the game in full, nearly non-stop. That was the first game I ever got a platinum trophy for (although, that’s without the DLC). Final Fantasy is a series that means a lot to me, even with some strange narratives and a nonsense understanding of time travel. Here's the Teaser Trailer for #FinalFantasy VII Remake that was introduced just now at #StateofPlay. Most of the plans are already in place in the run up to launch, so please bear with us a little longer until we can release more information next month – Tetsuya Nomura #FF7R pic.twitter.com/LLMqWw8e9x — FINAL FANTASY (@FinalFantasy) May 9, 2019 So, you may ask how I feel about Final Fantasy VII Remake (FFVIIR), a game that has been in development (or rumored to be in development going as far back as the PS3 launch) for most of my young adult life. Hot off the heels of a new teaser trailer that announces an announcement in June, the buzz around this game is starting to stir once more. Director Tetsuya Nomura already delivered one promise in Kingdom Hearts 3, so it’s finally time to bring those charmingly ugly 3D models to the 21st Century. And, with some rumors of Final Fantasy XIV’s eccentric director Naoki Yoshida being assigned to a Final Fantasy XVI, the future is finally looking bright again, right? I’ll be honest, I’m very excited for it. FFVIIR looks fantastic, and the changes made will probably be for the best. The original game will still be here in all of its various releases, and will always be the classic that it is. But there was a magic to the Final Fantasy series that’s starting to feel lost, maybe even dated. And I’m starting to wonder if that’s for the better, or for the worse. The (alleged) death of turn-based combat Final Fantasy has always been experimenting with ways to play through the various different stories. Final Fantasy IV added the “active-time battle" (ATB) gauge, which became a staple up until Final Fantasy X, where they went with a more traditional “command turn-based" (CTB) system. Throwing Final Fantasy II aside, each game changed things up for the better, improving on what worked and didn’t work while adding new elements to spice the game up. Final Fantasy III and V added the Job system, which allowed players to improvise strategies on the fly and experiment with strange combinations and classes. Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system, Final Fantasy VIII’s Junctioning system, and Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid allowed players to build characters in whatever way they wanted. And Final Fantasy IV, VI, and IX offered for traditional, cut and dry jobs that fit the characters and their stories. But they all had one thing in common: turn-based combat. There are those who avoided Final Fantasy VII simply BECAUSE of it's turn-based setup. Traditional, yes. But not everyone's cup of tea. If this remake's direction can get newbies to experience the game's world, characters, themes and story, then that's more reason to welcome it. — SomecallmeJohnny (@Somecallmejon) May 9, 2019 With Final Fantasy XII, Square-Enix had decided to start experimenting more with the concept of turn-based combat, particularly ways to use the beloved ATB gauge. The pseudo-MMO style combat of the game was an odd choice, but works fairly well (at least, in the Zodiac Age version of the game). Final Fantasy X-2 experimented in the sense of being a joke of a video game that, while fun, doesn’t take itself seriously in any way, shape, or form. It’s better than people give it credit for, particularly in its stellar blend of the best parts of older games’ combat systems. So, where did things start going wrong? Many people attribute the decline of Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XIII, and I’m not going to say I don’t agree with them. Even when I was younger, the game always just felt a little too boring for my taste. It had impressive visuals and a killer soundtrack, but it never sat well with me. Just as a disclaimer, due to our copy of FFXIII being old and worn down, I haven’t been able to revisit the game in earnest, so critique here is mostly based of what I remember. The combat throughout a majority of the game was very limited, boiling down to mashing the X-button, switching to defensive roles and mashing X there when need be. A three person party doesn’t truly exist until much later in the game when the main cast finally cross paths again. Without the ability to control the actions of your other party members, the game did feel somewhat faster-paced, but it wasn’t a fun twist on the gameplay of older Final Fantasies. Final Fantasy XIII-2 doubles-down on this divisive combat system, adding some gimmicks to try and make it more palatable. It even works, kind of, but doesn’t help the game in becoming more fun or avoiding the other traps the series had started falling into. I only ever played the demo of Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns, so unfortunately all I can say is that the gameplay was again improved, but the story just went further and further into the nuthouse. However, the gameplay not being as engaging worked against the FFXIII trilogy in exposing the flaws within the series as a whole. Without a strong backbone of gameplay, the flaws in the writing and pacing of the series were starting to become more and more obvious. They had always existed, although never as a serious problem, but they stuck out like sore thumbs when there were fewer good things to say about the games. It’s a popular opinion to hate on the FFXIII trilogy, but they seemingly were the games that made Final Fantasy less meaningful to people. The games themselves don’t deserve all of the hate they get, but it’s at least fair to critique them for their boneheaded story choices and, more damningly, making Lightning an actual Louis Vuitton model in the real world that we live in. And yes, that is canon with Lightning Return’s story. Oops all Kingdom Hearts Following up the XIII trilogy was a game trapped in development hell for years on end: Final Fantasy XV. The game was originally announced alongside FFXIII as Final Fantasy XIII Versus, an ill-fated title that received one announcement and entered meme territory alongside The Last Guardian. The original game was led by Kingdom Hearts producer Tetsuya Nomura and, unlike its sister title that eventually became the underappreciated but ultimately forgettable Final Fantasy Type-0, that project never truly saw the light of day. It’s original trailer from 2006 held much promise, but due to bloated development that went nowhere fast, it wasn’t until around 2013 that the final version of Final Fantasy XV entered development. https://youtu.be/b6At_bb1PNU Even from early trailers, this game was never meant to be a mainline title. It didn’t even pretend to be turn-based, it was a full-on action RPG a la Square Enix’s popular Kingdom Hearts series, which is not surprising considering Nomura was on the project. Hajime Tabata, on the other hand, found a way to detach the newly rebranded title from all the fluff and problems of the pretentiously named Fabula Nova Crystallis universe, and worked to build what they had into a (mostly) finished game. He succeeded, producing a title that sold amazingly well and pretty much saved the franchise. However, although I love a lot of things about the game, the combat always just felt off to me. The combat retained its action RPG concept, with the player controlling just Noctis. It was fun to warp around the battlefield and take enemies down in dramatic fashion, but with fairly limited options (and a disappointing treatment of the magic system), it got mindless and grindy particularly fast. It never became “un-fun” like the early parts of FFXIII, but it never felt truly fleshed out. Maybe the DLC helped to improve the combat, but I still haven’t revisited the game and don’t intend to until I have a PC that can handle it. This isn’t to knock on action RPG’s or even Kingdom Hearts, since I love Kingdom Hearts to death, but it doesn’t scratch that JRPG itch anymore for me. And, considering the popularity of Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler, it seems I’m not the only one. ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ will never live up to expectations Which leads me to FFVIIR, a game that is never coming out. Well, it is probably coming out eventually, especially since Nomura is finally free from his Disney-themed prison (for now), but I feel safe in saying it’ll never live up to expectations. This game is on the same tier as Half-Life 3 in terms of games that are hyped even when there are no updates about them, and in a similar vein, that level of hype comes with expectations. Many purists want the exact same game in a fancy new suit and tie, dressed up to take them to prom only to get dumped the Monday after. Nothing will ever make them happy. Newer Final Fantasy fans are excited to experience such a beloved story in a new light, regardless of how the changes that will (inevitably) be made. Then there are those who look back on the golden age of Final Fantasy and simply long for another high-quality, turn-based JRPG. Those people (including me) are in the wrong place. Turn-based JRPG’s are becoming more and more of a rarity, at least in the mainstream. The only game to really break through that is Altus’s Persona 5, and even that game is still relatively niche. A junkie like me has to get his fix through occasionally dodgy ports or translations of Idea Factory/Compile Heart collaborations, random Digimon games, or (god-forbid) RPG Maker games that almost could be passed off as professionally made productions. Dragon Quest, at least, never strays from its roots, although I’ve never invested myself into the series. Hopefully Square continues to fund the teams behind I am Setsuna and Octopath Traveler so we can get some more high-quality turn-based JRPG’s from them. Or, at the very least, someone needs to wake Atlus up so they can finish Shin Megami Tensei V, another game that’s never coming out. I am so fucking sick of people bitching about how the FF7 Remake isn't gonna be turn based. It's 2019, get with the fucking times. "Well I won't buy it if it isn't turn based." You're so full of shit. When the game drops, you are gonna buy it and like it. — Calebhart42 (@calebhart42) May 11, 2019 In terms of Final Fantasy, I think the series has moved past turn-based gameplay. It’s too big-budget to invest in an (admittedly) niche style of gameplay. More people love action-RPGs, and I understand why Square wants to move their tent-pole franchise in that direction. Besides, with Dragon Quest and their smaller teams, they can scratch the itches of everyone except Final Fantasy Tactics fans, who will never receive anything more than a themed raid in FFXIV. FFVIIR is going to be an amazing game, with tons of polish and charm in its own way. I have always had high-hopes for the game’s eventual release. Besides, since you can play all of the party members, that means my dream of playing as exclusively Yuffie can finally come true. It’s hard to shake the feeling that the thing I loved for so long has changed. The world has changed since 1998, and gaming is a whole different ballpark than it used to be. The series is just growing up — I’m starting to think maybe it’s time for me to grow up with it. Sources: YouTube, Twitter, Louis Vuitton, Featured Image: WCCF Tech
MAJOR SPOILERS: Welcome to the last Input 2 for this semester! This week, we discuss the legacy of superhero films and how Avengers: Endgame fits within this genre. How did the Marvel cinematic universe originate? Will these films ever end? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!
Welcome to the last How It’s Played episode for this semester! We are discussing a recent Norway study, where it said that girls are negatively impacted by games. Is this study valid? How does this play into the greater gender perspectives in the gaming community? Find out this and more on this week’s episode of How It’s Played!
by Tanner Kinney Nothing is more cursed and inspires worse nightmares than movies based on video games. It seems like every time, whether the source material is good, bad, or mediocre, the producers of these films know absolutely nothing about the games and just make a movie that vaguely resembles its namesake. From the original stinker in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, or the Uwe Boll classics like Bloodrayne, or even the seven thousand Resident Evil films that exist to keep the director and his wife employed, it’s all bad. Even the best video game movies are only good by comparison, and the bar is so low it’s knocking on Satan’s wine cellar. So, if you were to approach me and tell me that not just one, but TWO high-profile video game movies based on classic franchises were releasing this year, I would be shocked. Surely they’ve learned their lesson, right? You can’t just keep brutalizing beloved franchises into whatever Hollywood-approved picture and expect something watchable, you have to try something new! Break the mold, prove that the game deserves to be turned into a full movie and not just a Netflix mini-series or Cartoon Network show. Yet, here we are, with both Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog slowly approaching our theaters, menacingly, with hyper-realistic fur and way too many quips. it's like soggy noodles you found on a park bench vs woodworth mac & cheese pic.twitter.com/OtEY1p5bOj — Ball State Din Din (@ballstatedining) April 30, 2019 What’s interesting, though, are the reactions to these two movies; they are complete polar opposites of each other. While people are fawning over the cool redesigns of Pokemon in Detective Pikachu, along with the fact that Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is voicing Pikachu, the same people are screaming in (justified) horror at the Sonic redesign that makes him look like a naked man-hog. Detective Pikachu honors the legacy of the franchise with dozens of easter eggs and fun references, while Sonic has two characters, some random powers, and a time-stop gimmick stolen from X-Men: Days of Future Past. So, I wanted to discuss some reasons why people might be reacting so negatively to Sonic when Detective Pikachu is receiving glowing praise. Detective Pikachu worked to win people over An important thing to note is that Detective Pikachu didn’t have everyone on board on day one. Even on this very site, some of my fellow editors had doubts about whether or not it would be a colossal trainwreck of epic proportions. The Pokemon looked cursed, Mr. Mime looks evil, the world is so strange, we know nothing about the story, etc. People weren’t prepared for hyper-realistic Pokemon, and even I wasn’t prepared for hyper-realistic Pokemon. I remember seeing that Mr. Mime and asking myself, “What is this? Why is this? Do I like this?” To answer the question: yes, I did like it. CG mr.mime is extremely cursed pic.twitter.com/cmgtagAnk8 — Balrog (@BalrogGameRoom) November 12, 2018 It wasn’t until a couple more trailers released and people got to warm up to not only Ryan Reynolds as the cuddly Pikachu, but also the world and how it was designed. The sleek, modern design of the city contrasting with the natural looks of the Pokemon started to grow on more and more people. Now, at the time of writing, we are a week and some change away from release, and the movie is looking golden. Especially in the wake of the Sonic trailer, it looks even better. So, will people warm up to the Sonic movie? My guess is a soft maybe. Unlike the Detective Pikachu designs, which are only strange compared to the original designs but work together cohesively, the new Sonic design doesn’t really gel well with the world he’s in. Many people have made impressive fan edits of Sonic to make him look more classic, and while they look impressive still, they likely would still be as unsettling in motion. As fellow Byte writer Jack Gillespie aptly worded it: “Seeing him in motion literally triggered my flight-or-fight response.” Like seeing him in motion literally triggered my fight or flight response — jack geeeeee (@JackGeee) April 30, 2019 However, there are still good aspects to the trailer we have yet to see more of. The writing is very much 90s-level cheesy, and playing on that would benefit the movie significantly. Showing more Jim Carrey in action wouldn’t hurt either since his Dr. Robotnik is one of the few actually good decisions this movie makes. The action also doesn’t look that bad, and there are hopefully more creative action sequences within the film. If we don’t go on a trademark Sonic loop-de-loop, the film can truly be considered a failure. Sonic the Hedgehog gets almost everything wrong The Sonic the Hedgehog trailer, to me, is more interesting than the Detective Pikachu trailer for the sole reason that it feels like they got every single thing they could possibly get wrong horribly, tragically wrong. Movies that intentionally try to get everything wrong couldn’t concoct the level of badness that Sonic manages to achieve. It breaks the conventional barriers of trailer making that were previously shattered by Suicide Squad with a legendary sonic boom. And, at least to me, that makes it wonderful. To everyone else, that doesn’t make it look good. Relax, everyone. It's nothing some good ol' Buscemi eyes can't fix. pic.twitter.com/2Hw2yWi3E7 — Cal Skuthorpe (@buzz_clik) May 1, 2019 So, what exactly does this trailer get wrong? The casting puts great actors into roles way below their pay grade, particularly the wonderful James Marsden getting put sidekick to ANOTHER CGI animal. Visually the movie is unsettling, as we’ve already discussed. There are a number of unanswered questions and questionable decisions made for some of the characters. The movie follows absolutely NO plot threads of any Sonic game ever. On top of all that, absolutely none of the jokes land, even if they are delivered in a comedic way and almost manage to be funny. The things that are funny are funny for the wrong reasons, like Sonic having teeth or the random usage of “Gangsta’s Paradise.” #SonicMovie is just Hop 2 starring sonic the hedgehog pic.twitter.com/qCCauRXCFj — ky 💭💗✨ (@sleepymrshmllow) April 30, 2019 Speaking of, the cherry on top is the usage of a looping sample of “Gangsta’s Paradise” interspersed between generic trailers noises and sound stings. There are so many questions about this one choice alone. For example, why use that song? What does it mean in relation to Sonic the Hedgehog? If you were gonna pick a cheesy 90s song to represent Sonic’s dated nature, why not use some more up-tempo song? Europop, for example, would work wonderfully. Classic Sonic Butt-rock would fit fantastically as well. Was Crush 40 just too expensive to contact? Hell, even “Running in the 90s” would be better, even if it’s a little on the nose. I can’t think of a song that fits as badly as “Gangsta’s Paradise,” although I’m sure there’s something. The game was rigged against Sonic from the start The biggest thing working against the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is the concept of the movie itself. As established, movies based on video games have to work twice as hard as any other movie to win people over. That much is evident from Detective Pikachu. Add on the posters for the movie that showed a silhouette of the Hellbeast they named “Sonic,” and an already skeptical public was starting to sweat at the thought of seeing it in action. As leaks started to drop about Robotnik making breastfeeding jokes or the song picked for the trailer, people were expecting a disaster. People WANTED a disaster, and in all honesty, the Sonic trailer is bad and dated, but not any more so than other similar trailers. The fact that the trailer was as bad as people expected just served to prove everyone right. thank you sonic hedgehog for the 200 bits pic.twitter.com/IKR1x2TPY3 — XEECEE (@XEECEEVEVO) April 29, 2019 Yet, I’m willing to bet if the trailer was a mind-blowing spectacle and a perfect recreation of everything people wanted from Sonic, there would still be hate. There would still be memes about Sonic having teeth or collecting dirty old shoes. There would still be jokes about whatever song they selected, and edits of the trailer featuring great moments of the Sonic community. Sonic is the punching bag of classic game characters because of how inconsistent the series has been in quality. There are as many people who blindly hate Sonic as there are people who blindly love Sonic and all of their strange original characters. And while I’m more in the camp of “Sonic was never good,” I’m willing to admit the deck was stacked against Sonic from the start. Now, we’ll just have to wait for a second trailer to see if things can’t improve for the Blue Blur. Will we bring back classic Sonic tunes and references? Will he skateboard at all? Are there going to be any actually good jokes? Hopefully, the answer to these questions is “yes.” I’d love for this Sonic movie to be good like Detective Pikachu is likely going to be. However, I’ve got a bad feeling that Sonic the Hedgehog will be the cinematic equivalent of Sonic 06: a trainwreck you have to see to believe. And I couldn’t be more excited. Sources: Twitter, YouTube, Featured Image: IMDb
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! Recently, Disney has been releasing its classic films as live action remakes. Are these pure cash grabs or are these meant for bring life to classics? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!
Welcome back to this week's episode of Input 2! We discuss the latest film by Jordan Peele. How does the movie Us continue the outstanding film Get Out? Does the film use its horror to accurately portray a deeper meaning through its storytelling? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!
