I thought I’d try something new in writing by looking at current big things and putting a few opinions out there, mostly just to stimulate my mind but it should give topics for discussion.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns – A video game available for preorder with a cool looking cover featuring a group of beloved characters wearing a sort of golden colour. Looking into it, Midnight Suns is a tactical strategy game which I could really go for however there’s one thing that puts me off. Firaxis is the developer and they’re the X-COM company, I’d have preferred it if it was Larian Studios because each developer has a recognisable style. To be completely honest a decent Hack ‘n’ Slash would probably fit the characters better. I am curious about how it reviews and looks on YouTube.

Pokemon – The new Pokemon games came out recently to fairly mixed reviews. I still haven’t played Arceus or Lets Go so I’m a bit behind but I can see that Game Freak are trying new things as they try to mess with and improve a working but tired formula. While the games releasing as a glitchy, buggy mess is inexcusable for a company with so much practice, I do think that one huge failure followed by a year off could do wonders for the game series (just look at the change in Assassin’s Creed after Syndicate). The anime also seems to have hit a bit of a conclusion with Ash being at the top of his game so maybe it’s time for a break before a fresh start. Or at least an investigation into developer attitudes as Pokemon is a big money franchise and a bad game is a hit to its reputation.

PlayStation COD – Microsoft is trying to buy Activision which is facing huge criticism from the PlayStation community, the business as well as the fans. From what I’ve seen the issue comes from the Call Of Duty game series which is possibly the biggest shooter in the world. PlayStation is worried that ownership will mean exclusivity for Xbox which I don’t really have a problem with. Look at the Bethesda Xbox team up, the question there was Elder Scrolls 6 and the answer was basically that Microsoft will do whatever it wants. Exclusivity of games is one of the least consumer friendly practices in the gaming industry, Nintendo keeps high prices on its games, PlayStation proudly throw out some of the best games on the market (which forced me to buy a PS4 if I wanted them) and they have third party exclusivity on some games, all the way back to the Xbox One Microsoft seems to have focused more on PC than console which has left many players feeling let down. Weirdly enough, PlayStation players have had a release bonus on Call Of Duty games which has given them slightly better value for money so losing that could be what they’re really afraid of. Microsoft would be foolish to put Call Of Duty as exclusive as console sales aren’t worth nearly as much as game sales for profit, and for the same reason adding it to Game Pass would be shooting themselves in the foot. I’m hoping Activision comes under new leadership in some form as Call Of Duty is nowhere near as good as it once was, maybe a major change can bring back the glory days.

Pirates Of The Caribbean – Margot Robbie got her female led movie cancelled. Depp may or may not be back. I was sort of curious about the Robbie reboot as Captain Jack had concluded his adventures in the fifth movie by dealing with all curses on the sea, the only thing left to fight was the Navy which the pirates would have to lose to eventually. I don’t want to see Sparrow die. A spin-off series from around the time Jack was dealing with Blackbeard could have been good, after all there were many pirates at the time. I’d still like to see some spin-offs or at least a series focused on young Jack Sparrow like the books I had when I was younger.

Adam Vs Panther 2 – Black Adam, a relatively unknown character from DC got a movie with some awesome casting choices and some not so awesome ones. Personally I think the Rock is terrible at acting but he could manage a character like Adam and he has enough sway in the industry to potentially make DC fans happy. Black Adam is starting something and has been successful as I see it. Black Panther 2 is a weird continuation of a series where the main actor died in real life leaving a problem with the character, I’ve not seen it but as part of the MCU the sequel was bound to be financially successful no matter what. I do dislike the MCU though and think they need to slow down and consider things more.

Disney – Apparently they’ve had some leadership changes at the house of mouse, swapping one Bob for another. Chapek for Iger, the Covid boss for the pre-Covid boss, a return to what worked instead of the “woke” boss who – from the brief bit I’ve read – was losing Disney money. From what I understand the guy coming in is an old leader of Disney and well thought of. Maybe their production will improve with fewer releases and higher quality across the board, maybe attitudes will change to bring in a wave of change, maybe the massive amount of leadership something as big as Disney needs will mean no improvement. There has been way too much abuse of beloved properties, Star Wars is hit and miss, Marvel seems a bit lost at the moment, look what they did to Buzz Lightyear and to top it off the Disney + thing is not doing as well as they expected I hope it works out well for the viewers sake. I also hope cinema becomes a bigger focus for the company as businesses need the support of the money spending, movie going public. Companies like Disney have the power to change the world just by creating events.