Borderlands 2 Review

Well, I'm going to start this review by saying that if you have ever even considered buying this game, then I guarantee that you will be one hundred percent satisfied with your purchase. You're not a selfish loot-hound? Okay, then. This game will turn you into one. No, I'm not kidding.

Not to say this game is not without it's flaws. There are very few games that get a good enough balance of priorities for me to qualify as "perfect." However, this game comes pretty close. This is a very lengthy game, with tons of side quests that keep you going. And not the side quests that are just "bring this here, bring it back, and collect your reward." No, I'm talking about the most badass, funny, or twisted side missions you have ever seen.

However, instead of having a subject switching mess, I'll dissect this game by different subjects.

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Gameplay:
This game has great gameplay that is built off of it's predecessor, but feels somewhat new at the same time. While I feel it's unfair to bash COD, and love this, I also feel like if every COD made it bigger, awesomer, and much better, I wouldn't be complaining as much. Very few sequels to an IP knock it out of the park this much.

The main topic of the gameplay is obviously the loot. In the first Borderlands, the loot was amazing, but soon began to be uninteresting. However, all of the guns are now colorful, interesting, easy to look at, and most of all, do shit tons of damage.

The gameplay itself is very fluid, an expectation of most Triple A games, but you'd be surprised about how many really aren't. (Any Bathesda game ever released anyone?) While the driving itself isn't anything too great, it's still an improvement over the first game. At least it's impossible to flip it over anymore, which was really frustrating in the first game.

Graphics:
This game has great graphics. I don't know why, but some people seem to think that since it doesn't look realistic, it doesn't have good graphics. Anyone who has played this game can tell that person that they're wrong. This game is fucking beautiful. The character models could be done better, and the pop-in in cut-scenes is overly obvious, but those are what seem to be tiny flaws in a beautiful world.

The guns look amazing, and each of them have their own, creative look that makes you keep it just to look at it, unless you need money. You've really out-done yourselves, Gearbox.

Replay Value
I have played this game with a mixture of solo and co-op, and both of them are equally rewarding. However, the mutliplayer is only really fun if everyone is a team player. I preferred single player because my friends are shit teammates, but it takes forever on solo, so I found myself going into co-op more and more.  Especially since many things are designed for co-op in this game. Not to say that you couldn't do everything in this game on solo, but I wish you a lot of luck with that.

I currently have at least a day and a half on this game, and it came out a week ago. If that tells you anything, other than me having way too much time on my hands, is that this game is addicting and it's really hard to put it down. I'm doing a second playthrough, and it's still just as rewarding, but more difficult. The Badass System, if you try for it, can be a huge source of entertainment. It's nice to be able to upgrade all the time. You only get to upgrade your skill every now and then, so it's nice to have other ways.

There's always the achievements, and this game has great ones that are a mixture of easy and hard, but all of them are made with humor. In fact, everything is humorous in this game. Even the manual. You'll be laughing out loud at many points in the game. This is the first game to do that for me since Portal 2.

Sound:
This game has surprisingly great voice acting. The MVP of this game is definitely Handsome Jack. Half of the stuff Handsome Jack says wouldn't be as funny if it wasn't executed with the perfection it was in this game. The other voice work was awesome, but he was a standout to me.

The soundtrack itself is fairly basic, but effective. The circle of death's have ridiculously catchy music that you can't help not singing along to when you are listening to them over and over again.

Story/Writing
Let's all be honest. No one was expecting this game to have a great story. Everyone who played the first game knows that that was definitely not a strong point. In fact, it had one of the most disappointing endings in history. However, in this game, we were given not only a great story, but expertly written dialogue that makes you laugh, even if the humor is rather immature.

The ending was the same ending as the first game, pretty much, except for the part where they find out there's more vaults to hunt (future DLC!). Except, this time around, there was more at stake, and there was no stupid bitch telling you there was mounds upon mounds of loot in the vault. This game even tried to lighten up the disappointment from last game by providing an upside to last game's ending.



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This is one of the only game I've ever played that I had high expectations for, and it not only met, them, but exceeded them in every single way. I guarantee that you'll love this game if you're a fan of co-op games, RPG's, or shooters, because this game combines them nearly flawlessly.

9.4/10

Weeds: Season 8 Review

 

While this season had many critics, I still feel like it was above-average. However, not everyone would enjoy this, since it's really only for the people that really love the Botwin's. I'm going to be honest, though. I would have never been able to see this entire season in one sitting. It had no conflict, and nothing really to keep it going. When the Botwin's settled down, so did the show, and a lot of fan's have had mixed feelings about this.

I have to give this season kudos for the fact that they broke away from the classic thirteen episode season used by many shows, such as Weeds and Breaking Bad. This formula is spending about four episodes recovering from the cliff-hanger, about four episodes of filler, and then a bunch of action. This season spent about two episodes recovering from the cliffhanger, and then the rest was what seemed like filler until you realized was actually being factored into the character's ending. It was never really boring seeming-to-be-filler either, it was more just like, why are they showing us this?

While I'm not going to get too much into every episode (you can read my reviews for that), I'll provide a brief outline, what I liked, and what I didn't.

This season was about Nancy recovering from her head injury, but then that turned into her trying to redeem herself and close shop on the weed business once and for all. But then she realized that she was doing it all wrong, so back to Regrestic it is! Then, Andy realizes that if he doesn't get the fuck out, that he'll be hanging on to Nancy's coattails for the rest of his life, so he does just that. Then everyone from the show reunites in a reunion for Stevie.

This season's episodes ranged from great to some of the worst Weeds has every had. The great episodes are as follows; Messy, God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise, and the finale. The others were either good, meh, or bad.

There were some redeeming qualities this season that kept it going. Such as MLP's always-stellar acting, great character moments, and the danger-seeking Botwins finally settling down. Things I did not like include the fact that Alexander Gould seemed to lose even more interest this season, many character cameos or scenes that ended up just being filler in this end, and finally, Celia wasn't there. Well, then again, that can be said to be a flaw of every season since season five.

I know this was a short review, but I'm pretty sure this summed up all of my feelings about this season. There was way too much filler, it was really slow paced, and there was no conflict whatsoever. However, the first and final three episode are some of the best the series has had so far, and that's an achievement most shows don't get to achieve in it's eighth season. Overall, this was a great ending to a great series.

7/10

Weeds: "It's Time" Review

This finale was both disappointing and beautiful at the same time. For me at least, I was like, "Wow... this is it?" and then at the end I realized that the entire episode was not about having an amazing climax to an amazing series, it's about giving every single character what they deserved. This was an absolutely amazing episode in that respect. Just the fact it was so simple and small-scale was just great.

I'm going to start with Nancy, for obvious reasons. I feel like the end was the best possible way to end the series for her, since it basically says that she will never, ever be able to settle down, unless married to someone. I liked at the end how she tried to get Andy back, since it was a bitch move, but a classic Nancy move at the same time. This really proved again how much of a last resort Andy was to her. And him just telling her off was so satisfying.

Silas, while he got a fitting conclusion, I feel like they could have handled him better. While he and Nancy had a nice character moment together, I feel like the fact that he didn't even try to defend her was a douche move, even if he's defending Nancy. I mean, denying the grandmother to hold the baby is just downright offensive. Hunter Parrish was amazing in this episode. Every line was just so pitch-perfect that I really noticed how much his acting has really grown, but at the same time he didn't really knock it out of the park, which disappointed me, since, according to MLP, he had a scene where he had some of the best acting she's ever seen. The scene she was probably talking about was when she confronted him about the baby-holding rights. While he was amazing, I've seen better. I hope I didn't just sound like an asshole.

 

By the way, Silas, Flora is the worst name ever.

Shane had a nice end, also. I hate his character with every fiber of my being, so I was happy that if he were ever to live "happily ever after," he would have to change first. Alexander Gould had his first piece of good acting in two seasons at the very end. Uhhh... congrats? God, he's been horrible this season.

Stevie's Jewish party (going to be honest, don't know how to spell it) was obviously a disaster. It was a great plot device to get everyone together, and I feel like people are taking the fact that the episode was focused way too much on him way out of hand. If people are thinking that, they either didn't understand the finale or didn't look into it far enough. Everything he talked about or did was a plot device to help another character or show the audience how Nancy has been raising him right. Like him wanting to go to boarding school. This was when Nancy finally realized that she needed to stop smothering her children for them to come out well. However, this was a little disturbing to me, because it's exactly what Esteban would have done. And to further explain my hate or Alexander Gould's acting skills, I would like to point out that even the actor that played Stevie was better, and he's been around for two episodes.

Doug finally made piece with his gay son. I finally felt like Doug wasn't total filler, and this episode kind of redeemed some of the stuff I felt like was filler the entire season. The entire homeless scam was leading up to him owning a cult, and the sucking a dick thing, while a crappy way of doing it, was a way to realize that he was hypocrite for hating his son (I think?).

 

Andy, of course, had a kid. This was inevitable, since he was such a great father to the Botwins throughout the series, and he loves kids. That's really all that changed for him, since we already know that he has pretty much written Nancy out of his life. While this could be viewed as a dick move by some, I honestly don't blame him.

I liked how at the end, the entire Botwin family (even Doug!) went out and smoked weed. It was kid of reflective, ironic, and poetic. And the song from the end of pilot really brought it full circle, to where Nancy was struggling and alone, and despite her great efforts, she ended up being in the same place, three year of jail-time and three new last names later. How fitting. Am I right?

 

On a side note: they shouldn't have gone for the futuristic look, since it really took away from the episode's final and poetic feel. And if they did, they should have tried not to make it look so low-budget and fake.

This wasn't the best ending to such an action packed series, but I feel like we should have never expected an amazing, adrenaline-filled climax, after this past season. But that's not what it's about. Realistically, I don't think that after making all of the same mistakes numerous times, they would keep going. And getting a shot to the head really makes you reflect. I know this was a disappointing finale, but it was still a great episode, and every character that I liked got a good ending. Goodbye Weeds!

9/10

Weeds: "God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" Review

This has made the past two seasons worth it. This was best episode in at least three seasons, and quite possibly since the season four finale. Rarely does an episode with so much hype not only meet my expectations, but surpass them. And never has a Weeds episode been this emotional for me to watch. Feelings of nostalgia and sadness were creeping up in every scene and they finally hit a satisfying climax in the end.

Since I'm saving the amazing Andy-Nancy scene for last, I'm going to bring up the only flaws of this episode. Like every single episode of the season, Doug's storyline has little finality, Alexander Gould's acting falls flat, Silas's scene with Megan where he kept repeating the same line over and over again got a little bit annoying, and some of the cameo's were just there for the sake of having a cameo. Also, some of them felt like a tease.

Why weren't Celia's whereabouts mentioned?!! Only the fact that she wasn't there, as spoken by the awesome Pam.

But other than that, there were no other flaws in this episode for me. Now we all know Weeds has jumped the shark, but this episode was worthy of being at the peak of the show. It had a great cliffhanger, and everything just came together so well. I really hope they stay in Regrestic. This city must be magic to the Weeds writers, since they hardly ever deliver a bad episode in this amazing town.

One of my favorite guest appearances was Megan. When Silas stared her in the window in season 2, I just knew she'd be back. Little did I know, it would only take six seasons. When he confessed that he poked holes in the condom, they had a great moment together. It felt like even after that, she could still forgive him and be willing to forget what happened. She wasn't the only great guest appearance.

Guest Stars Best to Worst:
1. Guillermo
2. Pam
3. Megan
4. Lupita
5. Conrad
6. Yael

The MVP of this episode was definitely Guillermo Diaz. He had his trademark line-delivery and he created, yet again, an amazing character. At first I thought, wow, he must have forgotten who his character was, because he was really different. But then I realized that he had been through prison, and this is exactly what the character at the end of season six gone through prison would sound and talk like. All innocence gone and all-business, unlike the old Guillermo. Not to say he's not loveable anymore, because he still is.

A close second was MLP, as always. Her cry of desperation had tears in my eyes. That entire scene was ust so well-acted and so emotional you just couldn't help just staring at the screen, hoping for Andy to stay, but at the same time, hoping for him to get the fuck out, because it was obvious that Nancy was just letting him have sex with her because she thought that was the only way he would stay. Many sex scenes feel awkward in this show, but this one had been a long time coming and it was so well done that it was hard to not feel like this wasn't just some sex scene to fill the sex quota needed for Showtime, but something that was needed to finally let Andy know that he was just being used and he just needed to get out and start his own life. Go him.

Of course, he'll be back. If I'm not mistaken, he's credited for the next two episodes. If those two episodes are as good as this one was, then I will be one happy Weeds fan.

9.4/10

Weeds: "Threshold" Review

  

One of Nancy's rather unflattering pictures. 

Why is nothing resolved in Weeds? The only thing that had any closure was Nancy's storyline. She suddenly realized through her new-new-new-new personality that she had it all wrong. She still wanted to sell pot, just legally. I find it funny that she automatically assumed that she was a pot dealer when she was talking about it to the Rabbi (do they ever mention his name on this? They usually just call him the Rabbi). She didn't even realize that she wasn't until she talked to Silas like an hour later.

I find it rather odd that she would cuddle up to Andy like that. I find it rather odd Andy can even live in the same house with her after suckling her tit and being rejected and used by her multiple times. But, hey! I guess that's their dynamic. They're definitely not what you'd call a normal family.

For the love of god, just kill off Doug. I honestly don't care if his death sucks because any feeling I had for his character has been switched to hate because all he's used for is the only source of comedy for this show and filler. This show has a lot of filler. It's usually good, but this season, the filler has been Doug and Shane's storylines, the most boring and hate-able characters on the show. While Shane dug himself in more shit, such as letting a black chick smash his window and electrocuting someones cock off, Doug was getting to know his homeless people, and even met the girl from the school supplies commercial that sings! What fun! Nether of these were resolved either, which I've come to suspect from this show is the past season.

How are they going to get from this episode to the one in the promo? They should have spent the end of this episode setting up for them traveling to California. I bet the new-new-new-new Nancy's gonna be like "What other place than Regrestic, you know, where I caused a wildfire, to start up my shop?!" She's always been the brains of the family. Seriously, I think she's had one good idea in the entire show and that was Plan C.

What the fuck happened to Stevie? I guess we're meant to assume he's either there and not worth our time with his horrible even for a toddler acting skills, or he went with Jill. Neither of which makes since. The former doesn't because I'd rather watch a kid read from a script than watch Shane and Angela watch guys suck each other dicks, and the latter because Nancy spent like two full episodes trying to bitch Jill into stop trying to be Stevie's mother, and now she'd just let her take him back.

This episode was above average for this season, and the entire episode wasn't filler, which is more than I can say for half of this season or almost every other season. The next episode looks kickass, and hopefully won't disappoint. I think something's going to happen to Andy, because of Nancy's blood-curdling "ANNNDDYYYYYYYY!" at the end of the promo. Can't wait!

7.7/10

Breaking Bad: "Gliding Over All" Review

Hank's realization, while sitting on the toilet, only filled me with disappointment. I mean, really? That wasn't the first thing in the episode that really brought it down, though. It felt like after they killed everyone they were like, "Shit! We've run out of ideas!" *Puts in the longest montage ever, and tries to resolve two giant things in twenty minutes*.

Walt quitting was out of character for him. The whole drug business has moved past a means to pay for his family, it's become a part of him, and for him to set it all down because he had enough money was total bullshit. I mean, at the moment he made the choice, his life was just as empty as a couple of episodes ago, when he told Jesse the drug business was all he had left. So why would he give it up? What happened to building an empire?

I can't even begin to describe how horrible the end of this episode was. To have no evidence, and suddenly find proof that Walt was Heisenberg was just stupid. There should have been a build-up. Like Hank having suspicions and this confirming it. This is proof that the Breaking Bad writers don't plan ahead, and while they're usually fine with that, this was just stupid. Like the season 2 finale, they got somewhere, and suddenly realized they needed to conclude it in a way where everyone would come back.

I realize Breaking Bad isn't always the most entertaining show, but this episode was literally the most bored I've ever been while watching it. I bet they had at least five minutes of the episode of characters just staring at each other in an awkward silence. They had way too much filler and conversation that nobody cares about. There was Hank, spending our valuable screen time talking about his summer job, and Walt talking about the RV in probably the most awkward conversation in Breaking Bad history not including the dinner scene from a couple of episodes ago.

Jesse, my favorite character has been absolutely useless this entire season, and this episode was no different. Why can't they give him a storyline? Instead of awkward conversations, how about you dedicate screen time to him? He's the most interesting character, and he's gotten no character development this season. We have no idea why he's making the decisions he's making, which is frustrating.

I can't even put into words how disappointed I am. I'm honestly starting to think the show is starting to jump the shark. This season, before this episode, has been a slow progression, but not in a way that it was actually bad. This episode had such a dip that hasn't been seen in this show since the end of season two.

Everything about this episode was so rushed. I am wondering what they're going to fill up the rest of the season with, since I honestly have no idea how they're going to stretch Walt going on the run from Hank into eight episodes. Weeds did it, but they are the king of making filler look and sound amazing. Breaking Bad's filler is the worst type, and I have a feeling there will be a lot of it in season 5b. End rant.

6.5/10

The Newsroom: Season 1 Review

 

Can you believe that the Newsroom has a metacritic score of 57? Do you know why it has such a low score? Because of this show's obvious liberal bias when reporting the news. Giving many reasons for Obama and never against, and calling the tea party the "American Taliban," are the biggest examples of this. These really don't matter though, unless you're a sensitive conservative. The news isn't even the main part of the show. Yes, it is about a Newsroom, but it's mostly about what goes on in the background and the relationships between all of the workers.

Like most of Aaron Sorkin's work, people speak extremely fast, so it's sometimes easy to miss things. This is rare, though, since almost all of the actors on the show seem to do well with this speed except one or two people. These people are given minor roles, and sometimes speak their lines noticeably slower than anyone else. This include Dev Patel and Adina Porter, Patel not so much. Maybe I'm just saying that because he was an absolutely horrible character. Or maybe I'm just saying that because he was given terrible storylines. One of which was major, but made absolutely no sense.

The thing about this show, is that it's nearly flawless, but the flaws are so gaping it's difficult not to see them. Take the love triangle. Dan likes Maggie, Maggie loves Don, Maggie likes Jim, Jim likes Maggie, Don's an asshole. But why does Jim like Maggie? What was it that sparked their relationship? It was Mack. She tried to manipulate Maggie and Don's relationship so they'd break up, and sent Jim to do it. There are two problems with this. First, Mack never even looks at Don for the rest of the season for anything but business, and second, Mack isn't written as a bitch (most of the time), but I think Sorkin's orginal idea was for her to be manipulative and selfish, but quickly changed this. He did not change the fact that the love triangle was still in place. Other than this, the love triangle only adds to the show, but it's hard to enjoy it when you know why it's happening.

Another thing that bothered me with the relationships was the fact that Sloan told Don (I think) that she had feelings for him. I might have completely misunderstood this scene, and maybe it was meant to be interpreted as she was never asked out by anyone, (which is EXTREMELY hard to believe) but it still confused me. While Don's handsome and all, I highly doubt someone like Sloan would be dedicating their life to waiting for him to ask them out, especially since he's a horrible person. You were wrong Sloan, he is a bad person, and you should keep that rule you established at the end. She was my favorite character up until then, and Olivia Munn does a great job portraying her, too.

The other huge flaw was the whole "troll" subplot that found it's way into the main plot. This makes an absolutely horrible story, and I have no idea why they would be reluctant to report the Casey Anthony trial when they were devoting resources to this. I felt like it was part of the plot to resolve the death-threat storyline all along, and it could have been written much better than that.

It felt like they crammed thirteen episodes into ten this season. You could tell in the two Blackout episodes that they had way too many stories for two episodes, and it still managed to balance them, but not well. It still had a great season finale, but the episodes before it suffered as a result. And like many short seasons, hardly any of the plotlines were resolved at the end, but were left hanging to continue in the next season.

I feel like I just wrote a review for a crappy show, but this is quite the opposite. This show is a great show, with some huge flaws. I feel like many of these could have been resolved with a thirteen episode season, and hopefully the second season will be extended and we'll get a full season worth of great ideas, instead of most of one.

8.6/10