Last of Us – Teaser in Uncharted 4

Yesterday saw the release of the highly anticipated ps4 adventure exclusive “Uncharted 4“, Perhaps you’ve heard of it? I will be doing a review of this game soon, but first wanted to address an Easter egg hidden in the epilogue of the game! Don’t worry, this doesn’t contain any spoilers! I’m not focusing on any aspect of the game, just the Easter egg!

If you explore the surrounding area of the epilogue, you can discover all kinds of fun and neat things! One of those neat things is a poster for “The Last of Us: American Daughters”. I’ll show it here now in case you missed it.

Now, for those unfamiliar with The Last of Us, it’s a game from the same developer as the Uncharted franchise, so many people are excited about what they believe to be an announced sequel to The Last of Us. It wouldn’t be the first time that ND has hidden a teaser for an upcoming game in another game! In fact, Uncharted 3 had a hidden mention of the “Last of Us”.

However, I don’t believe this is a teaser for an upcoming sequel. While I am sure a sequel is in development, I don’t think “American Daughters” is it. The reason? The bottom right of the poster has a logo that looks VERY much like the logo to Dark Horse Comics. I’ll refresh your memory.

Dark Horse Comics released a similarly titled comic book mini series based on the Last of Us called “The Last of Us: American Dreams”. So, I am 99% sure that this is less a teaser for a sequel to the Last of Us, and more of a Teaser for a new Comic book mini-series. Now to be fair, the Mini-series could be launching as a promotion to a Last of Us sequel…I don’t know. I am just reasonably certain, “American Daughters” will be a comic series.

Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited

Marvel comics has an online service called Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. The idea is great, and in fact I used to subscribe to it. Basically, for one low price(Either monthly or yearly, choice is up to you) you get access to a boat-load of digital comics. Including in some cases, entire series of comics from start to finish. We aren’t talking a small selection here people, we are talking a giant comic book library!

 

As I said, the idea is great, and if it fits your needs, then it really is a great deal! I only have two complaints. The first being, that this service has been around for quite a while, yet they don’t offer any type of free trial. Sure, on occasion they will have a limited time promo code for a free month stuck somewhere, or a free month included in some marvel product(game/movie/book/), but there’s no “REAL” free trial, for people who want to subscribe.

While there aren’t any real free trials, there are many free readable comics, and all comics do have the option to “Sample”, so you aren’t really going into it blind. It won’t drive away customers who don’t buy what they can’t test, because there are those free issues, and sample. Still, it’s nice to offer subscribers a little incentive.

Another issue is, that the service can only be used on your computer/laptop. This to me is an inconvenience, since I really don’t like the idea of having to sit at my computer desk chair, slouched over a monitor just to read a comic. I simply won’t do it! Why can’t they have an Android app to read this? It makes sense! I would happily re-subscribe, if I could lean back in my recliner, or relax in bed with my tablet in hand, and read through some issues while relaxing! Almost like I had the comic book there with me!

Sure, Marvel does have an Android app, but it’s only for their digital comic purchases, it won’t work on their unlimited service, despite the fact that the 2 services work almost exactly the same! Which is great if you purchase comics digitally, I prefer buying the actual issue myself, since those have some chance of possibly gaining some kind of value if they are taken care of and treated well, where as a digital copy just won’t!

The service sadly won’t even run on a PS3 browser, so you can at least read from your couch. You are literally tied to your computer to enjoy the service, and normally that’s fine for most internet services. Most services are best used at your computer, however reading a comic book? I just don’t believe that’s the best way to read.

So, unfortunately I am going to pass on re-subscribing to this, however if for some reason it does fit your needs, and nothing I mentioned here bothers you, then you really should get this service then! Great price, huge comic library, and new comics added all the damn time!

 

Star Trek: Early Voyages – Final Issue

One of the most common things known about me, is that I read, collect and enjoy Comic books.In fact, my favorite comic company is Marvel Comics, though I am definitely not a Marvel Fanboy, as I also enjoy a number of titles from DC comics. I just tend to prefer Marvel, since their stories have just a little more realism to them. At least as much realism as you can have when you are producing stories about people in colorful tights swinging through Manhattan on spider webs. I am mentioning all of this here, because while my love for comics is pretty much common knowledge, I am not 100% sure if I have mentioned it here in my blog.

Another thing I enjoy is Sci-Fi. I am also one of those sci-fi geeks, who enjoy both star wars and star trek equally, and really don’t prefer one over the other, since I firmly believe they are both fantastic franchises in their own right.

All that being said, it’s now time to get down to the meat of this post.

I was digging around in my comic collection and came across a Star trek comic, which was produced by Marvel Comics. The series was titled “Star Trek: Early Voyages” and the only one I had, was the Special Final issue. I originally had picked it up, because to be honest, it was the first time I had seen the title, otherwise I would have gotten the whole series, but the other reason I picked it up, was because it was the final issue. I am a sucker for first issues and final issues.

Anyway, I flipped through the book, and looked at the back of the mag, where they say their farewells, and how great it’s been producing the comic, and how they hope you had as much reading them, as they did producing them. You know the routine.

Anyway, after their “Good-bye”, there was a little blurb. I will quote it here.

Attention to all subscribers of EARLY VOYAGES – after this issue, your subscription will be transferred to IRON MAN! Face it, True Believer – You’ve definitely hit the jackpot! If you already have a subscription to IRON MAN, it will be extended accordingly!

To that I say: Huh?!

How does that even make sense?! Where do I start? To begin with, how fucked up is that? If I were subscribing I would be seriously pissed off! To begin with, I think it’s a tad unfair that they willingly took your cash, then cancelled the stories you were interested in, but then to add insult to injury, they decide instead of returning your money prorated, they would just keep it, and pick out a comic themselves to send to you!

Hey, if they want to keep your cash, fine! At least give the subscribers a choice of what comic they want though! It’s their money! They should have a choice on what it goes for!

Speaking of choices? The whole “your subscription will be transferred to IRON MAN! Face it, True Believer – You’ve definitely hit the jackpot!” line? Just stupid! To begin with, they cancelled the comic that the subscriber was interested in! That’s what the subscriber wanted to read. If they wanted Iron Man, they would have subscribed to Iron Man to begin with! So, I ask you, how the hell is that hitting the jackpot? What it should say is “Face it subscriber – You definitely got screwed and didn’t even get taken to dinner first!”

That’s pretty much all the ranting I have regarding that.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – Review

Image via Wikipedia

Marvel is my all time favorite Comic company. I also love most of the newer movies and games that have been released and based on Marvel properties. So, when I heard about the release of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, that was going to give you the ability to play, not just one spider-man, but 4 different spider-men from 4 different established marvel realities. Unfortunately, Zombie Spider-Man wasn’t one of the characters.

In any event, I picked the game up for the PS3, because I wanted to try and build my trophy list on that system. What kind of differences are their between the games on different platforms? Couldn’t tell you, but this review will be regarding the PS3 version.

The first thing I noticed was that the cutscenes were boring. They weren’t very animated, and I suppose this was done to reflect the Comic book history of the characters, but to me it was just a humdrum experience. Other than the cutscenes however, the games graphics were beatiful! The cartoony look gave just the right tone to the game, and helped put me in the proper mind set for the game.

One thing I found disappointing was, how different it was from previous Spider-Man titles. It wasn’t the same style or gameplay that I have grown to love and expect from a spidey game. Instead of the world being free-roam and sandbox, it has become very linear, and is broken down into “Levels”. Each level requires you to play a different spider-man, and battle baddies in a different location within their universe.

Maybe the gameplay format isn’t a big deal, but it’s what I have grown to expect, and to be honest; I am not thrilled with linear level based gameplay anymore, unless it gives you some sort of freedom.

I sincerely hope, that this isn’t what we can expect from future Spider-man titles. I hope, that after this release they will return to the normal sandbox style of gameplay and leave the linear level based gameplay behind.

Related Articles

• Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions Web-Slings Into Retailers (cinemablend.com)
• Shattered Dimensions’ Spidey swings in 4 worlds (sfgate.com)
• Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (guardian.co.uk)

Classic Thor Comic

I love comic books, most people who know me already know this. I have even in the past gone into discussions about my favorite comic book company. So, this definately isn’t a secret. So, I’m not going to repeat that previous discussion…It’s out there, you all know about it.

What I am going to do however is talk about CLASSIC marvel comic books. They came out in a time when Americans were all great, all knowing and of course…a time when the american people were scared to death of communists(Some may still be scared to death of communists..I don’t know..but if they are luckily it doesn’t show in comics).

Case in point. Classic Thor comics(Was before he had his own series..back when he shared ‘Journey into mystery’ with some other Marvel heroish type..person) always pitted Goldilocks…errr…I mean Thor against either crazy gods or…Communists! Some times just communist agents, other times whole freaking communist countries…In one such instance Thor saved the day from them wacky commies and their leader decided he was gonna head off somewhere with his countries cash flow…and then his army-type people…realised how bad he was, how bad communists were…and how great America was…and killed their leader so ol’ thundergod wouldn’t hafta! Here’s a little panel that shows that.

See? Classic! Ya gotta love those older comics, because they are so realistic….