Latest news with #Hell
Geek Dad
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – Green Lantern #23: Specters of the Past
Green Lantern #23 cover, via DC Comics. Ray: The Green Lantern Corps have been going around the universe, but now they're in a completely new setting – Hell, where the worst creatures of the DCU dwell for all eternity. Hal is accompanied by Zauriel and Phantom Stranger for a mission relating to his old days as The Spectre, but he soon picks up another unexpected ally – G'nort, the iconic worst Green Lantern ever. What's he doing in Hell? It's not clear, but he seems mostly unfazed by the horrors around him. While Hal seeks out an old enemy of his, Kyle and his crew are having a much lighter adventure – traveling through space with Odyssey, Superboy, and new recruit Dan Garrett – who was thought to be dead for decades. Of course, just because they're not dealing with any existential horrors, it doesn't mean they're having it easy – this issue has them blasting their way out from a giant carnivorous space squid with a taste for spaceships. Dog days. Via DC Comics. One of the most impressive things about this run is how Jeremy Adams is obviously pulling in some deep cuts. Geoff Johns built a huge mythology for the character, but I can't imagine him hinging an arc on something Hal did as The Spectre years earlier. One of the most famous arcs of the book featured a truly vile villain who Hal sealed away with a key artifact – one that could fend off the Starbreaker Corps now. Of course, there's one problem with this heist – The Spectre is still guarding this prisoner, even if Hal isn't one with him anymore. With Jim Corrigan having passed on, The Spectre is now all rage without a humanizing touch, and he wants Hal back. The battle that closes this issue is one of the most exciting of the series so far, and it makes me wonder if the story of the Spectre's new host is being planned as we speak. The scale of this title keeps on building, and this issue is another big winner. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong artist Ho Sin-tung's graphic interpretation of love and friendship in new show
Hell looks quite jolly if it is like the one designed by Ho Sin-tung. Visitors to the Hong Kong artist's latest exhibition are welcomed by an animated neon sign showing a pair of hands supporting an overspilling bowl, the stream of liquid in the middle resembling the stem of a cocktail glass, and the name Circe glowing invitingly on one side. Beneath it is a five-step display stand for what appears to be cheap tourist tat: fridge magnets, crystal globes, keychains and ashtrays. It would be encouraging if Hell had souvenirs. As the exhibition guide points out, souvenirs only exist when there is a place to go back to. In this Hell you can choose postcards – each printed with the word Hell in a different language – and browse the painted selection of cocktails, not that these look very enticing even though they have nice tropical island backdrops. Cocktail Series by Ho Sin-tung. Photo: Enid Tsui Lord of the Flies (2025), Ho Sin-tung. Photo: Enid Tsui One looks like blood and is swarming with flies, and another seems to come with a pair of goldfish. Even more unsettling is the mirror with a gun next to it. Apparently, that is inspired by Spanish writer Javier Marías' 1992 novel A Heart so White, in which a bride shot herself in the heart just after the honeymoon.
The Review Geek
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) Game Review
This new instalment in the long-running FPS franchise has a medieval slant, but despite the 'Dark Ages' setting, it's still the game you know and presumably love. There are still hordes of demons to kill, with an increasingly powerful set of weapons, and the music score is as adrenaline-pumping as ever, to enhance your excitement as you blast monsters into oblivion. The game is a prequel to the last two entries in the series, with a dark, occasionally complicated narrative that leads into the events of the 2016 reboot. Of course, you don't come to a Doom game for a plotline. For the most part, it's very forgettable – a lot of mumbo jumbo about the DoomSlayer being humanity's last hope against the forces of Hell – and a lot of it has been echoed before in previous games in the series. The bolted-on narrative adds some meaning to the run-and-gun gameplay, but whenever a cutscene appears to explain away the plot, you'll probably be itching to hit the skip button, so as to get back into the thick of the very bloody action. And if it's action you want, it's action you'll get, as you battle the hordes of darkness like a medieval badass. Movement is more weighty this time around, so you're not quite as nimble as before (which isn't to say you're particularly slow), but you do have a handy shield that you can fling around the battleground and lay waste to multiple enemies before they swarm to your locale. You also have the ability to shield charge, so even though the Doomslayer is not quite as athletic as he used to be (there is no option to dash or double jump), you can still whiz across the landscape by targeting and jumping to an enemy with your shield. This makes moving around the battleground a lot faster, useful when you're feeling outnumbered, so your chances of survival are increased dramatically. Of course, it's mainly your weapons that do much to boost your survivability. Early on in the game, you're armed with a combat shotgun, the Shredder (the Doom-verse's equivalent of a machine gun), and the Power Gauntlet, a melee weapon that packs a mighty punch. Later on in the game, you're rewarded with more powerful weapons, such as the Accelerator, a pulverising plasma gun that can rip apart the enemies' shields, and the Ballistic Force Crossbow, a limited ammo weapon which is especially useful at taking down the game's bosses. You also get a couple of new melee weapons, including the Flail, a slow but powerful chain weapon that befits the medieval setting, as well as an upgrade to the shield – the Shield Saw – that sticks into and momentarily stuns the enemies, thus boosting your offensive potential. In short, the game lets you be the badass you always want to be in a Doom game as you use your beefed-up armoury to wipe out Hell's minions. Some of these monsters are easier to defeat than others – you should have little trouble ripping apart the slow-walking Zombies and weak-assed Imps. But more of a challenge are the Riders – annoying archers who take pot shots at you while riding giant reptiles – and the Titans, gargantuan beasts that can only be taken down with certain types of weaponry. There are 39 enemy types in total, some of which you'll have seen in other Doom games, and new additions to the franchise that match the medieval setting. So, it's pretty much business as usual for a Doom game then. However, there are a couple of new gameplay additions that will likely prove divisive. The first of these sees you ride on the back of a dragon at various points during the game. Movement via this winged beast is smooth and slick, so you'll have little trouble flying around the corrupted landscape. However, you're required to use this flying lizard to take down building turrets and shields, which can be a little fiddly due to the need to build up a meter by dodging gunfire (easier said than done) before you're allowed to destroy the hellscape's defences. The other new addition is a giant piece of mechanised armour that allows you to tower over the environment and smash your way through obstacles and the minions of Hell below. Unfortunately, this isn't as much fun as it sounds, and like the dragon riding, it proves as a needless distraction to the demon-pulverising at ground level. I can understand id Software's decision to modify the traditional Doom formula – some people will appreciate the variety in gameplay – but franchise purists might get annoyed by these diversions. Despite the occasional change to formula, Doom: The Dark Ages still hearkens back to the franchise's roots. You're still required to find keys to enter previously impassable areas (and find optional secrets) within the game's expansive map, and you're often confined to specific areas until you destroy the hellspawn that litters each battleground. Fans of the franchise will welcome the familiarity, though newcomers to the series might be frustrated at the game's old-school feel and lack of depth in the puzzle department. Doom: The Dark Ages is a fun game with super-smooth combat and a wide variety of graphically impressive environments from which to unleash all manner of glorious kills on the demonic enemies. New variations to the gameplay will please some while irking others, but for the most part, this is still a traditional Doom game at heart, which will be good news for long-time fans of this loud and bombastic series.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Love, Death & Robots Aired A Great Episode Recently (But It's Not Enough To Redeem Season 4)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SPOILER WARNING: The following article may contain a few light spoilers for Love, Death & Robots Season 4. So, if you have not used your Netflix subscription to catch up on this latest batch of weird, wild animated shorts, do not say I did not warn you if you continue to read on. I am a huge fan of anthology TV shows, and one of my all-time favorites is Love, Death & Robots. From creator Tim Miller and co-executive producer David Fincher, the Emmy-winning, Netflix animated series for adults is a collection of short sci-fi/fantasy films, typically no longer than 15 minutes, boasting mind-blowing, highly inventive stories and out-of-this-world beautiful animation. However, I hate to admit that I would not quite say that about Love, Death & Robots Season 4 (billed as Vol. 4), which is easily the series' weakest collection of films so far, in my personal opinion. Luckily, there was one bright spot among the largely disappointing experience I had this time around. In fact, I'll start by singing my praises for that episode before I get into my reservations about the season overall. Director Diego Porral's "How Zeke Got Religion' is based on John McNichol's short story of the same name. It follows a group of World War II-era pilots, one of whom, named Zeke (Keston John), is unlike the rest by being a staunch atheist. However, he begins to question his certainties when his crew's plane is attacked by a monstrous demon conjured straight from Hell by the Nazis. Love, Death & Robots is not quite a horror anthology TV show, but it has been known to scare in some episodes, and 'Zeke' is a great example of that for its traumatically graphic violence, cleverly juxtaposed with gorgeous animation from the studio Titmouse. What really takes the creature feature over the edge for me is its message about the benefit of second-guessing your beliefs, or lack thereof, and acknowledging the secrets of the universe that we, as humans, cannot confidently understand. I can't say I would call it one of the all-time best Love, Death & Robots episodes yet, but it's easily my favorite from Season 4, especially in comparison to the rest. To be clear, I do not believe Love, Death & Robots Season 4 is a complete dud, and not just counting 'Zeke.' For instance, I found director Jennifer Yuh Nelson's 'Spider Rose' quite touching, especially as a devoted pet owner, and the Tim Miller-directed 'The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur' was a decent, futuristic chase flick. However, even those bear the same problem I have with the shorts I do not care for. As far as I am concerned, the majority of installments in this volume suffer from weak executions of decent concepts or weak executions of weak concepts. I have always praised the show for consistently having story ideas that I could only dream of coming up with on my own, and animation styles unlike anything I have ever seen. Season 4, for the most part, offers very little that is refreshing in the animation department, in my opinion, which is a shame because that could have redeemed some of these shorts from their relatively unremarkable plots. Patrick Osborne's 'The Other Large Thing' has a cute concept of a cat achieving world domination with a robotic assistant's help, but it ultimately felt like a setup for a joke with a weak punchline. I was even more disappointed by Miller's live-action short, 'Golgotha,' which is about a priest (Rhys Darby) meeting with an extraterrestrial, that I feel does not fully live up to its potential in its 10-minute runtime, especially with its abrupt conclusion. I was also excited about the star-studded, stop-animation comedy 'Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners,' in which tech products complain about the humans who use them, but it was not nearly as funny to me as it clearly tried to be. The first short in this latest collection had me invested from the beginning. An animated recreation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing 'Can't Stop' live, and from none other than David Fincher at the helm? Hell yes! However, it ended up being a little underwhelming, since it is really nothing more than a short concert doc that replaces humans with CGI marionettes. Sure, I had fun with it, but I didn't think it was anything special like what Love, Death & Robots has been capable of presenting before. It is certainly cool to see Fincher return to his roots as a music video director, but I suppose I was hoping for something more from the man who directed what I believe is the absolute best episode of this anthology series, Season 3's "Bad Traveling." You know, I have rewatched some of the series' older shorts and ended up liking many of them more a second time. So, perhaps I should try to stream Love, Death & Robots Season 4 on Netflix again at some point and see how I feel then. However, there are still a few installments I might skip.
Digital Trends
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Monster Train 2 stays on track with a safe, but tough sequel
Monster Train 2 is the opposite of the Ship of Theseus. Its predecessor Monster Train is a polished card-based roguelike where you fight monsters on three levels of a train, defending your pyre at the top across a series of levels and storming Hell to fight evil angels. Monster Train 2 is the same but in reverse: angels and devils taking Heaven back together from the corrupting Titans. Both games break up their seven or so battles with stores and random events. The art styles are the same, the gameplay is the same. Small, subtly-introduced differences make the second one technically different from the first. But if you squint you see almost exactly the same game, five years later. Recommended Videos How few things can you change and still have a game that feels like it's progressed? That's the question I approached Monster Train 2 with. The first game punched above the weight of its art style and barely-there story, but the sequel's art is sharper and more colorful now. However, the environments of Heaven are much less distinct than the levels of Hell. None of that really matters because you spend most of your time in the four chambers of the train, which always looks the same. At a certain point, remembering how to play playing Monster Train 2 is like remembering your walk to the store: you do it so often, it all blends together. And it blends together with its predecessor, too. There's a problem with making the same game twice though: the people who already played the first one, who are likely most excited for the sequel, already know how to beat it. The team behind Monster Train 2 knew this, because it's arranged for people who already played the first one. The story builds on the events of the previous game with only the briefest pause to explain. There are also more complex battle effects. For example, instead of 'spikes' (fixed damage to any unit that attacks yours) you have 'pyregel' which sticks to the enemy and increases the damage you do to them. This makes the first few levels of the sequel easier than the original. There's also room cards and equipment cards that (respectively) grant bonuses on a floor and give bonuses to a unit. However, they've turned up the difficulty to compensate for your new tools. While Monster Train was challenging, 2 is more so. Even Covenant Zero, the tutorial difficulty, requires you to build your deck thoughtfully. I felt like I needed to lose quite a few times on Rank 1 to level up my clans, get better cards, and therefore break through the damage walls that arrive at level 5 or so. Some enemy teams made me groan every time I saw them, because it was obvious my current damage level wouldn't cut it. But on the other hand, it's possible for a run to start quite badly and still get a victory. Unlike genre cousin Slay the Spire, there was never a doom spiral where I could tell I would lose several levels before I actually lost. If I could get through a battle, even if my pyre only had a few HP, there was a chance I could beat the next one. I also enjoy Challenge runs, where you have restrictions and pre-applied bonuses at a set Covenant level. These can be hard, but they feel, if not more fair than regular runs, at least more intentionally tough. And as it often is with these games, if you're still unlocking artifacts and making progress, it doesn't feel too bad to lose. It took me about 15 hours to have runs where I wasn't unlocking at least one thing. At that point, between my unlocked clans and my new cards, an average run was much more varied, and felt much more fun, than one five hours in. In this respect Monster Train 2 has fine-tuned the trickle of content in what I'd consider the early game (the time in which you have your first few runs, and when you get through the story.) So the difficulty might have squashed me, but at least I was having fun while it happened. Monster Train 2 is made not just for people who liked the first one, but for people who want the magical period of 'figuring out' the game– when you understand it, but before you actually win– to last as long as possible. Its similarities to the first one beg that existential question I asked earlier: if you keep almost everything in a game the same, why make a sequel and not, say, a DLC pack? Other related games raise this question too. Slay the Spire 2 and Hades 2, both releasing soon, both rely on their similarity to their predecessors to sell. The job of a sequel is to be the same as its progenitor but also substantially different enough to justify its own existence, either through refining the previous game or through providing a lot more of it. Monster Train 2 is the latter, a slightly more polished version of the original with more content for fans to plow through. It trades memorability for momentary captivation, and it's an understandable tradeoff. Just like with the first game, though, the memories of my hours mowing down Titans are already melting away.
