Movie Review: Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the second movie in the the Jurassic World Trilogy and the Fifth overall movie in Universal Picture's Jurassic Park Franchise.  Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly return as the Writers along with Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. It is directed by J. A. Bayona and stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, B. D. Wong, Jeff Goldblum, and introduces Isabella Sermon. It hit theaters on June 22, 2018 in North America.

It takes place 3 years after the events of Jurassic World where the island Isla Nublar is set to explode by an active volcano. A team is sent in to save as many dinosaurs as possible but Owen and Claire are betrayed about the motives of the rescue op that was mastermind by scientist Dr. Henry Wu where he created a new dinosaur species, the Indoraptor. 

Personally I enjoyed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The action was good, the acting was great, especially from child star Isabella Sermon. While the writing could have been better at some points, the action made up for it. It has a mixture of action, suspense, and even horror. I found myself on an emotional rollercoaster during the whole movie. I give Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom a rating of 8/10.

App Review: Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens is a card app based on the popular card game with the same name.  The game plays similar to the card game with a few card types taken out, it is easy to learn. It is easiest to learn as you play.

The gameplay is simple and you have one goal: don't explode. There is a predetermined amount of exploding kittens in the deck (one less than the number of players). Each player starts with one defuse card, which they use to save themselves from the exploding kitten. The player can then hide the kitten where they want into the deck. A players turn is completed by either playing an action card or drawing a card (which may include an exploding kitten).  Other cards include but are not limited to: shuffle, skip your turn, steal a card, and reverse order of play. 

There are 3 game modes: Play With Friends, Play With Strangers, and Play Alone. The first two are online where you either play with up to four friends or matched with strangers. In play alone, you will face a computer with either easy, medium, or hard difficulty. 

There are DLC two expansion packs for the app that add more cards in play. Party Expansion Pack and Betrayal Expansion Deck. They both can be purchased for roughly $2.00 each. The base game is available in the Apple iOS App Store and Android's Google Play Store for roughly $2.00.

For a more personal experience, the card game is available in Canada for $25 on Amazon.

Game Review: Golf with your Friends

Golf With Your Friends is a multiplayer mini golf game published by Blacklight Interactive and is available as an Early Access on Steam for Windows PC and MacOX. While it does have a single player mode, the game is enjoyed more as the title says, with your friends.

Golf With Your Friends features four game modes:

Classic - where it's simple mini golf where the rules are simple.

Dunk - where you have to bounce the ball into a basket ball net.

Hockey - where you have to get a puck behind a hockey net with a goalie.

Custom - where you make the rules including weather or not you can bounce your ball or if you can collide into other balls.

As development continues, more game modes may be added including more single player modes.

Golf With Your Friends also currently has seven official 18 hole courses from the Forest to a Pirate Cove. More official levels will be added in the future. It also features Workshop levels created by users for an endless supply of courses. As of writing this post, I have 55 hours logged into this game..

Servers allow for you to 12 players into a single game and is available for less than $10.

June Movie Previews

June is the month of sequels with two big franchise entries with Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles 2 and Universal Picture's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Both are movies I am personally excited to see and will be at both opening weekends. Here is a Preview of both:

The Incredibles 2

Disney/Pixar Studio's latest animated film, the paraphrased synopsis from the official Disney.com storyline is: Mrs. Incredible is in the superhero spotlight while Mr. Incredible must stay at home with the kids to and lead a normal life. This is hard on Mr. Incredible and with the newborn Jack-Jack's superpowers emerging, a new challenge is added. When a new villain shows up, the family and Frozone must find a way to work together again.

The Incredibles 2 is starred with the voicing talents of: Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, John Ratzenberger, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Vowell, and  Huck Milner.

The Incredibles 2.is the sequel to The Incredibles from 2004. It had a score of 90% positive reviews on Metacritic. The Incredibles 2 releases to theaters on June 8, 2018.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World:: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to Jurassic World and the 5th overall movie in the Jurassic Park Franchise. It takes 3 years after the events of Jurassic World where the human abandoned island is being threatened by an active volcano. Owen and Claire decided to go back to rescue the surviving dinosaurs who have been fending for themselves since Jurassic World closed down. During the dangerous rescue, Owen and Claire uncover a conspiracy that may threaten mankind as we know it.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stars: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Justice Smith, Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, Daniella Pineda, Ted Levine, James Cromwell, and Jeff Goldbum. It released to theaters on June 22, 2018.

Fortnite

Fortnite is another free game that I recommend. This 100 player battle royal style game has free multiplayer where you play against 100 other players either individually, in duos, squads of four, or occasional special modes such as 50 vs. 50. The objective is simple; be the last person alive.

Fornite was published by Epic Games and is currently still in Beta where is it not fully released yet but is entirely playable, however, features may still be added or taken away in future patches. Fortnite is now consistently the top streamed the game on Twitch and Mixer.

What sets Fornite apart from other battle royal style games in the ability to build forts after gathering supplies such a wood, brick, or steel. In additional to being free where other games cost anywhere from $35 to $80. You may choose to pay for cosmetic items, however, these items do not give any player an advantage.

Fortnite is available on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 consoles with the ability of cross platform play. The PC Version can be downloaded here. Where the console versions are available in their respective store.

Tech Review: Amazon Echo Dot

The Amazon Echo Dot it the latest of Smart Home Technology. With the generation 2 launching in Canada in late 2016 I have been using mine for about 6 months now. The Echo Dot is the smallest of the available Amazon Echo's. It is perfect for small apartments or as a supplement to the Original Amazon Echo or Echo Plus I have also added on a Jinvoo Smart Plug to allow for functionality. 

The features of the Amazon Echo are countless. With Amazon Assistant Alexa, I have mine set up as an alarm, to play the news, the radio, music from Spotify and Amazon Prime Music, as well as order anything from amazon.ca. Additional features for the Echo Dot include but not limited to, Free calling and messaging to phones in the United States and Canada, reminders, routines, and playing books from Audible.com. Alexa can also learn additional skills from the Alexa Store. Commands are performed simply by saying "Alexa" followed by the command.

One of the selling features of the Echo is using routines. at 7:15 AM every week day my Amazon Echo is set up to say "Good Morning," followed by turning on a lamp using the smart plug I purchased separately, play the local news, report the traffic and weather, play the national news, turn on another light, and finally play.my favourite radio station. At 8:30 AM, My Echo turns everything off automatically. She also performs similar actions when I say "Alexa, I'm Home" and "Alexa, Good night." One more feature I use is "Alexa, help me sleep" where she plays a different type of white noise for one hour before turning it off.

The Amazon Echo is available at Amazon.ca for $59.99 and is available in black or white.

Mixer

Mixer is another streaming software for video games. Owned by Microsoft after they acquired Beam, this up and coming platform is growing at a rapid rate. It offers approximately a 1 second latency between the streamer and the audience for a better interactive compared to other platforms with a typical 7 second latency. While many of the streamers are on Xbox One, this is not a requirement and there are many PC Gamers as well as other consoles.

Some channels to check out on Mixer include:

CarelessRex

TheTapStream

Nejellen

TheLordJames

Streamer Spotlight: Penguins8187!

Penguins8187 is a variety streamer on Twitch. He will play action adventure games such as Assassins Creed to strategy games such as Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links and Pokemon. He is someone who started out streaming though is Playstation 4, Penguins8187 has become a channel with a strong community. He regularly plays Overwatch on stream with his viewers.

His channel schedule in EST is:

Sunday: 7 PM - 2:00 AM

Wednesday: 11:45 PM - 3:00 AM

Friday: 11:45 PM - 3:00 AM

Saturday: 9:00 PM - 3:00 AM

Movie Madness: A Preview of Avengers Infinity War

Today we are going to look at the most anticipated movie of 2018: Avengers: Infinity War; debuting on April 27.

The next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Infinity War takes places two years after the events of Captain America: Civil War where the team is torn apart when they learn Thanos is back and after the Infinity Stones which will allow him to destroy the Universe. The Avengers must work together along with the Guardians of The Galaxy to stop Thanos.  

The Avengers: Infinity War has an extensive cast: Robert Downey Jr,.Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. It is directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.

It is also noted that Avengers: Infinity War pre-sold more tickets in 24 hours than any other movie. The official trailer below has over 165 million views on YouTube as of writing. It is expected to become one of the top-grossing films ever. I personally will be there opening night and will most likely go multiple times throughout its run in theaters. 

Tech Talk Thursday - Pretzel Rocks Music

Pretzel Rocks provides free, royalty free music for any use. Perfect for streamers, content creators, and music lovers alike Pretzel Rocks provides over 200 hours of music over 12 genres including Rock, Ambient, and EDM with the options of mature and instrumental only.

I use Pretzel Rocks weekly with my Twitch stream as intro music. Along with the Pretzel Rocks Bot which announces the current song live in chat.

Pretzel Rocks can be downloaded and used for free at www.pretzel.rocks.

War Thunder

There are plenty of ways to enjoy free games that are fun to play. Today were are going to explore some games in which are free for PC gamers through the use of Steam Free to Play. 

To access Steam Free-to-Play games, you must first download Steam here. Once you have downloaded Stream and create an account you can access the Free-to-Play library in the store. Here are some of my personal recommendations of free games of Steam. Today we are looking at War Thunder.

War Thunder is a free to play, cross-platform, multiplayer, battle game based in World War II and the Cold War. You assume the position of plane, tank, or warship as you battle to secure the objectives in intense dogfights. You can spend countless hours battling and still wanting more with over 80 maps and over 1000 aircraft to choose from. War Thunder provides "seamless cross-platform gameplay between Windows PC, Linux, Mac and PlayStation4 users" allowing everyone to play on together.

Streamer Spotlight: Ezilii

Ezilii  is a daytime, full time, safe for work, partnered streamer on Twitch and Content Creator on YouTube. She keeps her content clean with minimal swearing. You can find her generally playing sandbox games such as Cities: Skylines where she has logged over 3000 hours. She is a member of Team E.P.I.C Streamers and Team Khalico.

Ezilii is where I have gotten a lot of my inspiration from for streamer. I have been watching her now for approximately one year.  Ezilii is extremely community driven and welcoming. She treats her viewers as people and her main mission is to spread positivity. She loves the the work she does. It is easy to see why she was Partnered by Twitch in December 2017.

You can find Ezilii streaming Monday to Friday from 9:00AM EST until Mid to Late Afternoon.

Tech Thursday: Discord

Discord is an instant messaging, VoIP, and Video Calling Application for Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. While comparable to Microsoft's Skype, Discord offers many more features all free.

The main feature of Discord is group servers. This allows communities and like-minded individuals talk about their topics and community. An example of this would be a Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer content creator creating a Discord server for there fans to community and talk outside of video comments and chat rooms. Another example would be a Discord server for a city to allow people to discuss the current affairs.

Another feature of Discord is private chats with one or more person. In these servers, you can use text, voice, or video.

Discord offers a secure way to communicate all for free, however, a person may choose to pay monthly for Discord Nitro which allows cosmetic changes. Discord can also be used online at their website. 

Movie Madness: February

February had many good movie releases from 15:17 to Paris to Marvel's Black Panther. Today, we will take a look into 5 movies from February and how they did in the box office.

 The 15:17 to Paris | Studio: Warner Brothers Studios. | Director: Clint Eastwood

Story line from  MovieInsider.com:

In August 2015, ISIS terrorist Ayoub El-Khazzani boards train from Brussels to Paris. El-Khazzani is armed with an AK-47 and enough ammo to kill more than 500 people, but three American friends refuse to give in to fear. Together, they avert a mass tragedy. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $12,554,286

Fifty Shades Freed | Studio Universal Pictures | Director: James Foley

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.

Opening Domestic Box Office: $38,560,195

Peter Rabbit | Studio: Sony Pictures | Director: Will Gluck

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Peter Rabbit, the mischievous and adventurous hero who has captivated generations of readers, now takes on the starring role of his own irreverent, contemporary comedy with attitude. In the film, Peter's feud with Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) escalates to greater heights than ever before as they rival for the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover who lives next door (Rose Byrne). James Corden voices the character of Peter with playful spirit and wild charm, with Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley performing the voice roles of the triplets, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $25,010,928

Annihilation | Studio: Paramount Pictures | Director: Alex Garland

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

In seeking answers to her husband’s tragic disappearance, a biologist volunteers for an expedition into an area sealed off by the government for the last 30 years as an environmental disaster zone. A secret agency known as the Southern Reach has sent in 11 expeditions over those years to discover the truth about Area X, and those attempts were failures. She and her team find a pristine wilderness, but they also notice quickly that the rules of nature and evolution seem to work a little differently. And the creature they find is dangerous

Opening Domestic Box Office: $11,071,584

Black Panther | Studio: Marvel Studios | Director: Ryan Coogler

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Chadwick Boseman will play T’Challa, the prince of the African nation of Wakanda, who must take over the throne after his father’s murder. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $202,003,951

Box Office Results from :boxofficemojo.com