Friday, February 27, 2015

Superhero Murder Mystery Party!

  It's party time! Every year my wife and I have an annual Murder Mystery Party. This past weekend we had one that had a Superhero theme to it, which made me feel like it's worth a post here on TheRetroAve.com. When my wife and I were deciding what this years theme was we were watching a lot of Batman, Arrow, and I believe the Flash TV show just premiered, which seemed to have an effect on our decision making.

  This year's murder mystery party was named Assassination at the Superhero Assembly. Now that we've done a couple of these my wife and I are considering writing our own murder mystery for next year, but we purchased this one at MyMysteryParty.com. Here's the description of the one we purchased that they have on their site:
  "A super fun superhero murder mystery party for 6-10 heroes, ages 12+. The story is set at an annual superhero meeting to discuss the capture of a notorious criminal mastermind known as Da Bomb. Host this party if you are up for loads of super powers, deceit, intertwining story lines and murder!"

     Overall we had a lot of fun with this one, it came with 10 characters, and due to the number of guest we were having we ended up picking up the expansion pack, which came with 11 more characters. Each character is designed to make you laugh either from their names, to what their super powers are, and if you have the right people chosen for each character, it can make it even more fun and entertaining. We like to do extra little things at our murder mystery parties such as give out awards, and gifts for people who are voted to have the best costume, best actor, and give out awards to those who figure out the mystery. If you haven't ever tried out a murder mystery party, I suggested checking one out sometime, and even hosting one yourself. The best part is that you get to be someone completely different for the night.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

It's that time of year again!

  It's getting to be that time of year again! PAX East 2015 is right around the corner. I'm slowing getting myself prepared for the trip, and for all the video interviews I plan on getting. As each day goes by and as March 6th gets closer, I get more and more excited and nervous at the same time. PAX East is the gaming event of the year on the East Coast. I'll be able to see friends I haven't seen since the last PAX East, I'm bringing more friends along this year than last year, which actually includes my wife, and I hope to make new on top of that.

  Once PAX East hits you'll see an influx of posts from me of developer interviews, and reviews of different games in the weeks after. This is arguably my favorite time of the year when it comes to gaming events. The only other point this year when I believe I'll be this excited again with a gaming even will be when Arkham Knight is finally released.
 
  Well I supposed that is it for now, and I hope to see you at PAX East!

Monday, February 16, 2015

Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt. 1

  Today I was debating on creating a video for this review, or just writing it up here as a blog post. Well as you can see I decided due to the amount of detail I wanted to include in this review of Mockingjay Part 1, I'm writing it up. Warning there will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven't seen Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, you may not want to read this!

  Mockingjay Part 1 is the third installment of The Hunger Games series. It stars Jennifer Lawrence, who has also starred in another "Geeky" movie, X-Men First Class, as a young Mystique. Mockingjay Part 1 takes place after Katniss's second time through the Hunger Games, she was able to be extracted from the dome, and was taken to a secret base in District 13. Basically this movie is all about the beginning of the revolt against The Capital.

  The President of District 13, played by Julianne Morre, wants to use Katniss's image for propaganda to gain more support from the other districts for the war against The Capital. You see after the first Hunger Games Katniss was in, she became an icon of hope because of he ability to go against The Capital, and live to tell about it, and after the second movie, she was actually able to escape. It wasn't planned, at least in her mind that she would escape, but it worked.

  At first Katniss was against helping because when she was rescued they didn't take Peeta, her Not Boyfriend/Boyfriend, with them. Basically she's worried about him being hurt by President Snow of The Capital. Eventually she agrees to help with the revolt against The Capital and become an image of hope for the people. At first there's some trial and error, but eventually she gets it, and becomes a force not to be reckoned with.

  One aspect about the movie I found to be quite interesting is the actual world they live in. It feels very much like George Orwell's book, 1984. Which is probably my favorite book to date. If you haven't read it, I suggest giving it a read, or at least checking out one of the two movies that are based on it. I could do an entire multiple page write up on 1984, so I'm going to stop here before I take an extreme tangent on that subject. Now returning to the subject at hand, Mockingjay. Each district provides a specific resource for everyone, like District 12 provides coal, another provides wood, and lumber, ect... It feels very much like a communist kind of society, each group has their own job, and the Capital takes these resources and redistributes them in a rationed form. Mind you, the Capital is the only place where people have enough to really waste resources, such as food. The Capital uses the Hunger Games for two things, as a from of population control, and used as a way to control the people in the districts.

  Another part of the film I found to be interesting, (Warning Spoiler Alert!), is that there is a part where the Capital's defense system seems to be down, so the President of District 13 sends in a team to get Peeta, and the other remaining Hunger Games tributes. Well they were able to get them all out, but you end up finding out that the Capital's President Snow actually let them go, and no-one knows why. Well it turns out that the Capital's President brainwashed Peeta into thinking that Katniss was a threat to his own life, so as soon at Peeta sees Katniss he attempts to kill her. At the last second she's ends up being saved.

  Overall Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is a roller coaster ride that keeps you into the move the entire time. I give it a 4 out of 5. If you haven't watching Mockingjay Part 1, or any of the other Hunger Games movies, check them out, their worth at least a single viewing.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Lego Marvel Super Heroes

  It has been years, probably decades since I last had a chance to sit and play with Legos. Lego Marvel Super Heroes gave me the that chance again... well in a digital platform at least. When they first started making the Lego video games, I probably had the same thought most adults would have had, the game is made for kids, why would I want to play it? Whatever the reason, I was wrong.

  Lego Marvel Super Heroes obviously takes place in the Marvel Universe. Silver Surfer crash lands on earth and his board is shattered into multiple Lego blocks. The evil villains of the Marvel universe, Loki, Dr. Doom, Magneto, ect... join forces and scoop up the pieces of Silver Surfers board so that they can create the ultimate super weapon.

  The actual game play was pretty fun. The controls were fine until you needed to do different race missions in the game, using cars, or flying. It really takes some getting used to in order to be able to complete some of those missions. Here and there I ran into some minor bugs, mostly getting stuck in a wall or something along those line, it only happened three times, but it can make it frustrating especially if you are in a middle of a mission. Other than those things which weren't actually that bad, Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a really fun game, especially when you play with other people. I played this game with my wife, and to this day, even after completing the main storyline, we are still playing a lot of the little side missions,

  Overall, even with the little bugs, and minor adjusting for controls on vehicles, Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a fun game, and definitely work a play. I give it a solid 4 out of 5.

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