It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"You see free soup, you make a decision to eat it!"

Ugh, what were Mac and Charlie eating anyhow?  It looked like old, cold French Onion soup without the cheese.  At least that's the horrible taste I imagined when they were slurping it.

Yes, the Always Sunny gang is back for Season 8 (wow!) and kicking things off with a good old fashioned Nazi treasure hunt. Specifically, Adolph Hitler's priceless, hokey painting of a German Shepherd. A dog that Hitler must of of lost, mourned, and, according to Charlie, used an an excuse to exact vengeance upon the entire world. "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution" wasn't always killer, but it was still a decent enough way to open up the season given that we're now eight years deep into the rancid exploits of the wonderfully filthy and stupid denizens of Paddy's Pub.

The highlight of this one, for me, was Dennis and Sweet Dee discovering that they went to a racist Nazi youth camp when they were young, clearly not remembering the details of what the irate counselor was screaming at them in his speeches. But what caused them to take a trip down Aryan memory lane? Well, their dearly beloved, and currently rotting, Pop-Pop is being kept alive in a death-soaked, soup-filled hospital room by tubes and they have to decide whether or not to pull the plug on the old bastard.

Shorter cable seasons, and the ability to say just about everything except "f***" on FX, have helped preserve this show, keeping it mostly fresh a long while. But we're still years and years deep into Always Sunny and it's become harder to shock us with the gang's outrageous antics. I still expect to get two or three gems out of Season 8, like Season 7's "The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore" and "Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games," but I'm afraid this premiere wasn't the treasure I was hoping for. But it did show, like the Jersey Shore episode, that there's still comedy to be mined from Dennis and Dee misremembering their clearly effed-up formative years.

While Dennis and Dee went back and forth on whether or not to kill their creepy, corpse-like Pop-Pop, who was lying in a room that felt like something out of the movie Seven, Mac and Charlie were on the hunt! In a story that's sure to be adapted later into a big-budgeted "Ryan Gosling as Indiana Jones" Da Vinci Code-style thriller. It's always fun to watch these two spiral into insanity only to revisit their entire idea at the end and discover that one of them was just lying the whole time. This time it's Charlie, who was just pretending to think the dog painting was worth millions to get Mac to help him look for his favorite painting. Except, of course, Charlie had good reason to actually believe the picture could have been worth something. He just chose not to think that.

So throw in a few tasteless jokes about gassing, dog executions and a slight nod to dental torture and you've got yourself an Always Sunny stew goin'! All so that Frank, Mac and Charlie could get their hands on an "original Hitler." "It belongs in a museum!" Mac screamed, channeling his inner-Indiana. Brian Unger appeared, once again, as the gang's beleaguered attorney, providing us with one normal "real life" character to sync up with amidst the craziness. David Hornsby was also back as Cricket, with a wicked new scar on this face and a new job cleaning up giant Mastiff diarrhea at the local pound.

Not a total riot, but when placed side-by-side next to all the new, horrible network comedies that popped up this Fall,"Pop-Pop: The Final Solution" was a masterpiece. By Always Sunny standards though, it was okay.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and on IGN at mattfowler. No other choice you will ever make will be as easy and render such a great reward.

Source : ign[dot]com

IPTL Amateur -- Will Scarlett help push Acer over the top?

Acer as a company has been around in eSports for many years long before their decision to create and manage a team. They have been supporting and donating money to wide range of tournaments in all kinds of games, whether it was League of Legends or Starcraft 2. However, it was their decision to create their own team that brought them huge attention from all kinds of eSports-related websites and communities.

Still, Starcraft 2 was not their game of choice; they first acquired FIFA back in February 2011 when they’ve launched Team Acer’s website. Yet, their current super-star players are all in the Starcraft 2 roster.

At the very beginning of Acer’s existence in the world of Zerg, Terran, and Protoss they brought in four players to the team, including the most famous German SC:BW player – Mondragon, but as the time was passing by none of them excluding Nerchio, who we are going to talk about in a minute, have not shown any promising results.

Currently, the once called “all-zerg” team has 5 active players in their line-up. Four zergs:  Bly, Nerchio, ParanOid, and Scarlett who joined Acer late June 2012, and one terran – DarkHydra. Single SCV user on the team is also the youngest – he was born in 1997. He participates in online cups on a regular basis, but has won only 1 so far back in 2011. Earlier this year Christian was invited as a stan-in for DeMulim to attend HomeStory Cup IV; he lost 0-3 in his group.

ParanOid aka GOsia used to be one of the top SC:BW players in Poland winning 2009 Polish WCG qualifiers. He played alongside Mondragon in clan called Templars of Twilight. Lately he qualified to IPL Season 5 through the European Satellite Qualifiers, but just like DarkHydra, he also has no huge victories in his Starcraft 2 portfolio.

Bly, despite not being the most recognized player from his country, is one of the top players representing Ukraine on the international scene at the moment. Active participant in many online cups he proves every single time why people cannot underestimate him. He took first place during WCS Ukraine Nationals beating faer, White-Ra, Strelok, and White-Ra once again in the finals. He also qualified for the IPL Season 5 just like DarkHydra and Nerchio through the European Satellite Qualifiers.

Until recently Team Acer was known because of Nerchio who grew immensely as a player since he joined the team in July 2011, but now he’s not the only star  on the team. Scarlett has been performing good since she started playing in the official tournaments like IGN ProLeague Season 4 where she took out DeMusliM, Terius and DdoRo or IPL TAC 3, but the epiphany of her skill took place during WCS Canada qualifiers and WCS NA Championship where she destroyed the competition winning both events with less than 10 games lost in total.

She is more than ready to take part in a huge international events, and go against the best our scene has to offer, but IPTL Season 1 is also going to be a test of her true abilities. For the first time in her career, Scarlett will have to play against the best of what Europe and Korea has to offer; this is not a North American only tournament anymore. Is she going to step up? We might potentially find that out on the 13th of September when Team Acer face aTn.Type in their IPTL Season 1 opening match.

The last but definitely not least on the team is Artur “Nerchio” Bloch. This Polish zerg is not only perceived as a top player in his country, but as one of the best players outside Korea. What is more, in public’s opinion he is also the most skilled Zerg on the western scene, but he exchanges this title with Stephano constantly based on their results in the most recent events. Second place at IEM Cologone 2012, First place in HomeStory Cup V, First place in WCS Poland Nationals and many many more – this is a short list of his latest achievements, and he’s still coming for more.

Although, we what we are seeing now is Nerchio at his best, last year during European Battle.net Invitational he was still an inexperienced newcomer, constantly described as a maphacker and a stream cheater due to his amazing runs in online cups, and poor performance during offline tournaments. Back then people didn’t believe him, when he said that he gets stressed during big events like EBI 2011 for example, but now he got it all sorted out, and can perform at the highest competitive level in Starcraft.

In a team league like IPTL both Nerchio and Scarlett might be used for two things; opening a match to get an early advantage and closing a match to secure a victory. Scarlett has proven many times in the past that she has no problem with being under pressure, hence she might be used by her team mainly as a closer, whereas Nerchio can open a match or be used in the middle of it to secure a draw or catch-up with a score.

Nonetheless, Team Acer, being one of the best team in their group, have a huge chance of advancing into the Up and Down Matches. With two strong star players as a core of their success they might even advance to Premier Division next season.

Written by Albert Palka

Source : ign[dot]com

Apple-Samsung Verdict Is In (in South Korea)

The Seoul District Court ruled a split decision in the patent case between Samsung and Apple, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Apple was found guilty of infringing Samsung's patents with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and its first two iPad generations. It has been barred from selling them in South Korea, and must pay Samsung what works out to $35,000 in damages.

Samsung, meanwhile, has to stop selling the Galaxy S and SII, along with the Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1 and pay Apple about $22,000.

So Apple pays an $11,000 speeding ticket, and both companies can still sell all their latest products (the iPhone 4S, the new iPad, the Galaxy SIII and the Galaxy Tab2 were all released after the lawsuit was filed)? Could've been worse.

But the case still results in an immediate sales ban on numerous products in South Korea. The ban affects the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2, and Samsung’s Galaxy S, S2, Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1, IDG said.

The ban does not affect products released after the case was filed, such as the latest iPad, the iPhone 4S, or the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

AMC Cancels The Killing

AMC has decided to cancel The Killing after two seasons. Here is their official statement:

"After much deliberation, we’ve come to the difficult decision not to renew The Killing for a third season. AMC is incredibly proud of the show and is fortunate to have worked with such a talented team on this project, from showrunner Veena Sud and our terrific partners at Fox Television Studios to the talented, dedicated crew and exceptional cast."

Enos and Kinnaman read the original pilot where they were both super-cool skateboarding squirrels with sunglasses.

Ah, but the plot thickens!  Will this actually spell the end of Detectives Linden (Mireille Enos) and Holder (Joel Kinnaman)? Soon after AMC's statement was released, Variety tweeted the following words from FOX Television Studios: "We will proceed to try to find another home for the show."

Source : ign[dot]com