Birds of Prey #13 Review

With his Birds of Prey run, Duane Swierczynski has developed this annoying habit of dropping plot threads without fully resolving them and diving right into new stories. That trait continues as his latest arc kicks off in issue #13. The conflict with Poison Ivy has been all but abandoned from where it ended in issue #12. Instead, we're informed that Batman randomly showed up to assist the BoP gals with their poisoning and they're now all on the mend and craving munchies. It's as if there was a Birds of Prey #12.5 that got lost at the printer and Swierczynski is relying on exposition to make up for its absence.

The conflict on tap this month instead involves the theft of Katana's sword/disembodied husband. This should have at least allowed for some decent character development on her end, but Swierczynski gets too wrapped up in the hunt for the blade itself and the new third party that complicates matters. But the most upsetting aspect of the script this month is that the Birds happily allow Starling to torture an enemy for information. While on some level it's fun to watch her work her brand of magic, this really isn't the sort of Birds of Prey team I want to be reading about. And coming on the heels of Black Canary's moral outrage in issue #12, this behavior really makes no sense.

Romano Molenaar enjoys another solid month following his debut on issue #0. He continues to capture the darker style of Jesus Saiz while simultaneously lending a more freewheeling, energetic touch to his pages. With the scripts growing less satisfying all the time, at least the series still has some selling point to fall back on.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Guild Wars 2 Sales Reopen Today

Having suspended sales of Guild Wars 2 right at the end of last month because servers were creaking under the sheer weight of players, ArenaNet has reopened them this morning. So if you missed the boat on release weekend and have since lost all of your friends to Tyria, at least you can now join them.

ArenaNet originally suspended sales on August 30th, just two days after launch, because the server infrastructure was having problems keeping up with demand. Since then, the company had deployed new European and North American servers and prepared the Trading Post for a new influx of players.

ArenaNet's president Mike O'Brien had this to day: “Preserving the customer experience has always been our top priority. We’re supporting  Guild Wars 2 for the long run. We’ll always do what it takes to deliver the best online gaming experience for our customers, even when that means throttling sales.”

To celebrate, the developer released a bizarre and rather arresting new live-action trailer. Enjoy it below:

Source : ign[dot]com

RoboCop Script Gets a Second Opinion

Okay, so the initial word on Jose Padilha's script for the RoboCop reboot wasn't exactly a glowing recommendation, right? Well, it seems as though CBM, via a SHH user, has let slip a few new story details that might turn you back around on the project.

According to the site's source, the film has a very similar feel to Neill Blomkamp's District 9; while RoboCop is initially human in nature, he slowly begins to lose himself and slowly becomes a less emotional, machine-like entity.

Below is a SPOILERIFIC description that helps better explain the RoboCop technology, including the bizarre Transformer element (beware of messageboard spelling and grammar standards):

"He moves quick. At first as Robo 1.0 he is somewhat slow. But he does move fast, he can run up to 30MPH and catch bad guys pretty quick.

"Other things, that I love is just the whole integration of wi-fi and how he is connected to everything. This is truly Robocop remade for the modern world, not the 80's.

"I have said before I love the virtual evidence world he creates and re-creates a crime as it happens. I love how he is connected to every camera in the city and they are everywhere.

"There is also a motorcycle that is made specifically for him, it sounds pretty cool, it connects to him in a way. So he mainly drives his Cruiser motorcycle thing.

"And people should not worry about the Transformers aspect, all that changes is the appearance of the texture of his armor and helmet, nothing more. He has a visor but it is more see through.

"Yea the armor just changes to different textures/slight bulkiness. But it makes it sound like in the script in many scenes that it transforms very very quickly. No body changing or arms becoming something else kind of stuff.

"He starts out more human, but OCP starts to mess with him and take away his emotions and he becomes very cold like the Robocop we know."

And here's a more in-depth review regarding the overall narrative:

"The story does resolve around that they need Murphy he is the perfect candidate but they know he won't agree to it. So they hire bad guys to pretty much knock him out and 'surgically' blow him away so they can get program under way. And also make Murphy's wife think that it is the only way to save Alex is to do this program and he will still be the man she loves. But lets say the company really back stabs that and then some. They just want a cold robot that does what it's told but give the appearance to the press and public that he can have emotions. They set up the whole family wanting him back thing to give it a good clean image. But in reality the company is being horrible about it.

"One emotional part that turns him more to a machine (which is what the company and Norton wanted) was when they showed Murphy what was left of 'him' they strip all his mechanical stuff and it is just some of his organs part of his head and a part of his brain. A pretty sad scene, especially when they make Murphy's wife look at it, to get her to run away from wanting to still be with Alex."

Source : ign[dot]com

Alphas: "Alphaville" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"Alphaville" might have had its fair share of exciting moments (I'm looking directly at you "Cameron shoots that stealth Alpha right in his stupid toe shoe!"), but it didn't quite leave me feeling all-together satisfied. By the end, with regards to Stanton Parish's mysterious hospital tech, we only discovered what we already knew. That the light oscillations cause an amplification of Alpha abilities. And then Dr. Rosen inadvertently burned down a bunch of peaceful Alphas homes and we were done.

Still, it was great to see Summer Glau back on the show as Skylar Adams, the super-genius Forge-style mutant who knows her tech. This time around, Skylar's struggling as a mom to a hyper-active Alpha kid. And while that storyline might have fallen a bit flat - as well as Nina tagging along and doing nothing - the most interesting thing to come out of it was Parish's proposition to Skylar at the end. And seeing as how Skylar's doing everything in her life for Zoe right now, no matter how miserable it makes her, she might actually join up with Parish's camp.

I liked watching Dr. Rosen come face to face with a bunch of Alphas who weren't too crazy about him blabbing their secret out to the world - but all he got was scolded. Right before he made all their lives even worse. Claude, the bee-whisperer, could have been more (and had a better power), but instead he was just too much of a peace-loving nature-protector to do anything more than lecture Rosen. Which, I suppose, was a good thing for Rosen. But nothing ever came of their mini-confrontations, and in the end all Claude could do was say "Haven't you done enough?" as Rosen tried to help the residents of the tucked-away summer camp evacuate their land due to a Scipio-caused forest fire. And at no time (and perhaps this might even be one of the best things about Rosen) did Rosen ever retro-doubt his decision to go public. No, with him it's ever-forward, with hardly ever a chink in his ideological armor.

There were some fun character moments here, namely from Gary, who went from forest-hater to a guy who could spend his time "listening to the sun." Gary's at his best when he's semi-cranky, but at his worst when the stubbornness brought upon by his mental condition causes him to make dumb decisions that put him and team in danger. But, for the most part, Gary's venture into his first ever signal "dead zone" was a hoot. Rachel, who became an unwitting test subject for Parish's device, found herself overwhelmed when all of her senses went haywire. But in the end, it helped "cure" her of the over-reactions she was having when she was set on "normal." It felt like a teensy bit of a cheat, but I'll allow it. Season 2 seems to be about figuring out solutions to the character-specific hurdles from Season 1.

It's also fun to watch how certain Alphas can have the same, or similar, powers to others. The stealth Alpha reminded me a bit of Rebecca Mader's "Griffin" character in "Blind Spot." And Cameron found himself battling Trisha - a chick with crazy-ass agility like his own. As for the rest of the episode? Well, the inevitable reveal (to the team) that Dani is the mole could be good. But we've known her for such a short while, and we were just hit with the fact that she and Cameron were a couple. I just don't think it will wind up having the impact something like that should. I'm wondering if this all should have been kept a secret from us too, instead of playing out in a dramatically ironic fashion. Too late for that though. No sense in retrofitting.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

Source : ign[dot]com