Fantasy

Ultra-boring with an infuriatingly misleading advertising campaign, ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ will likely be one of the most disappointing action films of the year.

‘The Jungle Book’ is an embarrassment of visual riches that thoroughly entertains on every level.

With fantastic art, unique world building, and an intriguing cast of characters, The Autumnlands #7 picks up where the first arc left off with promises of bigger, better stories on the horizon.

From Under Mountains #1 has magic, demons, familial struggles, murder, mystery, and a whole lot “Um, so what’s it about?” Gorgeous art meets minimalist storytelling in this new series from Brandon Graham’s 8House imprint.

Sion Sono’s ‘Love & Peace’ is one 2015’s best films and it demands to be seen

Looking For Group #6 is another fun romp through the fantasy genre, just like the first five issues of this title. Fans of the series will love this particular issue for furthering Richard’s character development and hinting at his past and greater things to come for the murderous warlock. Anyone with a good sense of humor looking for a fantasy title to get into would do well to check out Looking For Group.

To put it bluntly, this is probably the best issue of Looking for Group that has been published by Dynamite to date. As expected, Sohmer works plenty of D&D and MMORPG tropes into his script along with a larger dose of comedy, but it is DeSouza’s artwork that truly stands out in this issue. His rendering of Hcitb, Richard, and Little Dick take Sohmer’s funny script into realms of hilarity. Even those comic readers not normally into the sword and sorcery would enjoy this issue for the comic relief alone. Hopefully, once they are snagged that way they will give the rest of the LFG series a shot, because it is a truly good book as fans of the series already know.

After last week’s brutal and hard-hitting climax at the wildling fort of Hardhome, a jaw-dropping scene that has literally been built upon and foreshadowed since the opening moments of the first episode, fans could be forgiven for expecting this week to pale in comparison. Luckily “The Dance of Dragons” only amped things up further in preparation for the finale, building an hour that encapsulates what may be the most horrifyingly emotional moment in the shows history and then matches it with a scene of triumph so glorious that the audience is shaken to the core.

Too solemn for Tweens, too violent for youngsters, and too goofy for adults, Brad Bird’s film about hope and change is betrayed by a subpar script and questionable casting choices.

There’s a particularly telling moment toward the end of Final Fantasy VIII that really lets you know what kind of finale you’re in for. After a climactic space battle with the sorceress, Adel, players are blasted through time, 1000 years into the future, to face their true foe. When they arrive they find the last members of a dead army, their dead army, still valiantly committed to fighting the war against evil. Unfortunately, they have failed. As the party traverses a desolate landscape, littered with their dead comrades, a mournfully operatic tune evokes a sense of menace to this already horrific future. Finally the player crosses a giant chain, one of many, that holds Ultimecia’s Gothic castle aloft in the sky.

In the brutal gauntlet of boss encounters in Dark Souls, there are an almost daunting amount of epic and memorable battles to consider. From the soul-crushing difficulty of battling four undead kings in the darkness of the void, to the haunting duel with a fallen hero in a blasted coliseum, to the tragic encounter with a giant wolf who is simply guarding his master’s grave, this is a game rife with intense boss moments, but none carry more nerve-racking danger than the encounter with the former heroes of the kingdom, Ornstein and Smough.

One of the most common requests that has reverberated from the RPG community has been the desire for a true Chrono Trigger successor. What fans have spent years pining for was the dream of a modern game that featured all of the great ideas which made CT the instant classic that it was: time-travel, vastly different timelines, paradoxes, and choices that showed consequences over the course of thousands of years. What very few people realize is that this highly anticipated ideal of a game has already come and gone under a different title: Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Since its introduction in 2011, HBO’s Game of Thrones has soared in popularity, even usurping the might Sopranos as the networks most successful and popular show ever created. Of course, one of the shows best joys has been discussing its various plot twists and shocking revelations with fellow watchers. Now, however, for the first time, players can actually have a direct effect on this world, and instead of examining and criticizing the choices of others, fans will have the chance to make their own.

Though the release date and any real plot details still remain shrouded in secrecy, Telltale’s upcoming Game of Thrones series purportedly leaked a few screenshots yesterday. The pictures revealed that the game’s art style will not be following in the comic-inspired aesthetics of it’s forebears (The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us respectively) but will instead impart a more realistic style that will be more appropriate to the show from which it takes its name and setting.

Chaos Legion Capcom Studio 6 Capcom PS2, PC When Chaos Legion first appeared on the scene during Capcom’s glory days, it was an easy game to ignore. With flashy sequels like Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 2 about, and wildly inventive new titles like Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Killer 7 (all developed by Capcom) debuting during the same time …

Telltale Games has managed to make a pretty big name for itself over the last few years. By focusing heavily on plot and character development in an industry that too often leaves these factors at the wayside, Telltale has brought storytelling back to the forefront of the medium. Now, with two Walking Dead titles, and the Fables-inspired series, The Wolf Among Us, under its belt, Telltale has turned it’s focus to the Game of Thrones universe.

There is a certain nostalgic thrill at being able to finally play new games in what has long been thought to be a dead genre. Quest for Infamy aims to tap into that nostalgia right from the get-go, and is, for the most part, fairly successful.

When it comes to a show as thoroughly and consistently shocking as Game of Thrones, it’s easy to feel like we’ve already seen it all and that eventually there’s going to be a dip in the steady level of quality. Yet somehow showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss continue to wow their viewers again and again. On the heels of last weeks all out action spectacle, the audience might have expected a quieter more subdued episode in the vein of previous season finales. In that regard our expectations were properly set and toppled with enough major game-changers occurring in “The Children” to fill an entire season.

Few games in this era have had the cojones to challenge gamers in the manner that the Souls series has dared to, and fewer still have allowed players to have so much freedom to build and define a narrative. Who is your character? You decide. What are his/her goals? That’s up to you. Who will live, and who will die among the supporting characters? The choice is yours.

Okami is one of the most beautiful games to watch come to life on screen. Some might find the computer generated voices and large amounts of reading off putting. However, as someone who has practically grown up inside a book, Okami is simply an animated novel that I am able to interact with.

Grimm, Season 2, Episode 4: “Quill” Written by David Simkins Directed by David Straiton Airs Mondays at 10pm ET on NBC (Fridays at 9pm ET starting 9/28) This week on Grimm, a Wesen plague hits Portland, Monroe woos Rosalee the old-fashioned way, Hank finds his footing in Grimm lore, and The Families are sending yet …

Grimm, Season 2, Episode 3: “Bad Moon Rising” Written by Richard Hatem Directed by David Solomon Airs Mondays at 10pm ET on NBC (Fridays at 9pm ET starting 9/14) This week, redneck Coyotls try to abduct/induct a new female into their pack, Juliette remembers everything but Nick, and Hank starts to lose it completely.  This …

Throughout the month of December, TV Editor Kate Kulzick and Film Editor Ricky D will review classic Christmas adaptions, posting a total of 13 each, one a day, until the 25th of December. The catch: They will swap roles as Rick takes on reviews of television Christmas specials and Kate takes on Christmas movies. Today …