Abandon All Hope: Fear The Walking Dead (TV Review)

Fear The Walking Dead EP.03 Review By Bryan Quevedo

Fear the Walking Dead has no fear at all in following the same formula, and it doesn’t show that it cares that people have figured it out.  The show has given us character development in the first episode and outbreak cause in the second, so it would follow that they would deliver some aftermath of the outbreak within the third to start moving the plot forward right? Fortunately this was the case which gave the show a much needed plot boost but with it came the loss of much of the character development that the first episode helped establish.

The episode begins with Travis and his family trapped in the barber shop they were left off in the last episode.  An escape must be made when his son finds out that the room next door catches on fire and for the first time, viewers get a clear view of the mayhem going on in the streets of LA, walkers and all.  Problems develop as the barber’s wife gets her leg smashed on a building scaffold that causes the rest of the gang to find a hospital.  This only makes them realize that even a place of health has been overrun as military begin to shoot at a walker exiting the building.  Cue Madison and her family’s scene, as we see that they try and take their mind off the situation by playing Monopoly only to be interrupted by a stray dog.  Blackout occurs and they see that their neighbor begins to drag himself to their house which prompts Nick to suggest getting a shot gun.  The situation gets worse as soon as Travis gets home and sees his neighbor eating the stray dog on his carpet.  He is convinced for some odd reason that he is only sick and tries to talk him out of his “sickness” only to be saved by the barber who shoots him twice in the face.  Their other neighbor Susan who has become a walker herself becomes the next center piece of the plot as Travis and Madison argue over the fact that this isn’t a sickness but rather reanimated dead humans.  As they awake the next morning and leave, Madison sees Susan’s husband walk into his house, unaware that his wife becoming a walker.  Within the last minute military come in to save him after shooting Susan in the head and it is quickly assumed by the viewers that they also killed him for being exposed to the blood.  The episode ends with Travis claiming it only gets better from here now that the military has arrived but then denied by the barber who claims that the help came to late.

Credit should be given to the show since the wait for some action came as expected and it came with some satisfaction.  It was pleasant to see a couple walkers instead of a whole horde, helping the characters develop their personalities within the situation and helping viewers see it rather than giving people buckets of gore and blood to enjoy.  Unfortunately, this character development ruined what the first episode did by increasing negative aspects of certain characters or completely overwriting some aspects and ignoring aspects that made viewers support them.  The most obvious person to have his characteristics overwritten is Travis, who made us believe he had the common knowledge to handle the situation.  His failed attempts to snap his neighbor out of the “sickness” created a problem that was not necessarily needed at all and a fight that seemed almost childish when looked at a second time.  Nick, who needs the narcotics to apparently survive, somehow became the character with the “know hows” but developed a more arrogant personality that helps no one in the group.  Aside from downgrading character personalities, the show has created an unpleasant atmosphere.  Like The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead have made humanity look completely stupid.  None of the decisions or actions look like something that would happen in these sorts of situations.  Assuming that this world is unaware of zombies in pop culture and somehow has undeveloped CDC (which we all know isn’t the case because of the first season of The Walking Dead), it is almost confusing to accept the fact such an outbreak would occur this quickly.  Needless to say, none of these events can actually happen in real life, but when a show tries to grasp its viewers into its made up world and making them think of what they would do in these situations, it is impossible to not be frustrating.

EP03 “The Dog” did a great job at delivering what the audience wanted, action in a slowly deteriorating world.  It is not as much dramatic as it is humorous seeing what seems to be the entire population of LA rioting the streets all while ignoring the fact that the dead are eating others alive on the same streets.  The conflicting personalities of characters is still seen and much of what was built in the first episode is quickly ruined within a few scenes of this episode.  Score: 5/10  

Apple’s Smallest Bomb Drop Yet: Apple IPhone 6S Reveal

Apple Press Conference Analysis By: Bryan Quevedo

            It is that beautiful time of year where Pappa Apple comes running through your door to announce his latest and greatest innovation pieces of tech you just have to buy.  Cue the lights, prepare the tech and begin the conference because like every other Apple event, no one will ever leave disappointed… or so they thought this year.  This conference, unlike most other years, had much to reveal but little to make audiences of all likes to get excited for.  With the reveal of the IPhone 6S, there also came news of a new Apple TV, styles for the Apple Watch, a newer bigger laptop killing IPad and a bunch of other specs people would never understand unless you break it down in simple English.  As the title claims, it felt lackluster and almost pointless but nevertheless there were quite a few interesting announcements that made this conference worth listening.  For this reason, I will list the positives and negative highlights of the conference to avoid any confusion on what was good and what was dull.

Positives:  People will always come into these conferences awaiting what sort of new features Apple will come up next.  For years Apple has been the face of innovation and I would be lying if I said it still isn’t.  Beginning with the IPhone 6S and 6S Plus, we do see some new features being shown through the phones new 3D Touch.  This allows users to apply different pressures to the screen to quickly access their media.  Want a quick look at your messages?  Simply add slight pressure over the icon and you will see your most recent messages.  It is a great new feature that the phone needed alongside its multitasking program thanks to the new 64-bit A9 chip found in the phone.  This allows for a 70% faster CPU (in simplest this is the brain of the computer that allows for faster processing of programs) and a 90% faster GPU (the part of the phone that allows for rapid mathematical calculations that help render images faster) meaning graphic intense apps will now render smoothly, or so they say.  You do of course get faster Wi-Fi and LTE network, which has been standard for every upgrade for a while, but more importantly and fascinating is the addition of a 12- megapixel “iSight” rear camera.  Photos are said to come out clearer than ever before and allows for videos to be shot in 4K, a resolution that is 4 times greater than 1080p.  No other phone has ever matched IPhones phone technology and now thanks to Apple, people will be able to carry around a portable 4K video camera.  Alongside the IPhone, we also got smaller announcements of interest such as Apple’s new payment plan, allowing consumers to pay monthly for their devices through Apple.  This is a program very similar to Verizon’s Edge program or Sprint’s program.  Not new, but a great addition allowing new users to come in and not feel completely intimidated about Apple’s prices.  The new IPad Pro and Apple Pencil made strong appearance, showing off that the laptop/tablet market was never off the table for Apple.  The IPad Pro will come in at almost a 13 in diagonal screen running with an A9X mobile processor claiming it to be 80% faster than most other portable PCs.  It’s CPU performance will supposedly run faster than the IPad Air 2 and have a greater resolution than a MacBook Pro with Retina display.  Its companion, the Apple Pencil, could potentially be the digital artist new friend.  This new device caters to the artist by allowing smooth and practically flawless editing to be done by letting users alter or create an image by just one pixel.  Besides the humorous attempts and reactions to Apple’s failed attempt to photoshop a smile onto a woman, this was essentially it for the positives of Apple’s conference. 

Negatives:  Paying more than you should for something that hasn’t really changed much is never a good thing.  It makes people uncomfortable and Apple is better off asking people to pay for their things with kidney’s and livers than an arm or a leg.  The biggest turn off of this year’s conferences, as well as the others beforehand are the prices of their hardware.  Apple has made it “easier” to pay for their IPhones with the monthly payment plans that start at $32 but the starting prices of the IPad Pro and new Apple Watch styles are a letdown for any hard middle class Apple user.  Starting at a base price of $800, the IPad Pro offers itself at 32GB. 64GB and a staggering 128GB with 4G LTE that is priced at $1080 that wouldn’t be a problem if its accessories weren’t all sold separately.  In total, many people are reporting that a top of the line experience with an Apple IPad Pro, someone would have to spend around $1400 or more depending on the warranty plans offered.  Apple is known for innovation but this conference felt very much like a copy paste of others.  As interesting as Apple TV sounds, it is a piece of tech that has existed elsewhere. With a newly integrated iOS software which now includes Siri, this felt more like an advancement for current Apple TV users than someone new.  The addition of gaming seems like an excellent idea (especially if users get to see Infinity Blade on the big screen) but it is something that has been attempted by several others and if the trend follows, it won’t be the big feature as Apple claims it to be. 

The conference felt lackluster and it was mainly due to the fact that nothing besides the new payment plan was aimed to attract new users.  The phone reveals always seem to be the highlight and yet truly changed from its predecessor.  If this conference has shown us anything, it is that Apple can sell audiences anything they want, simply by adding "Apple" to anything they create. (Apple Pencil...really?)

The Dawn of a New Hype: Video Game Analysis

Until Dawn Analysis By Bryan Quevedo

            In this day and age, it is almost impossible for a development studio to create an original IP without it being criticized for some sort of poor mechanics or being a copy and paste of an already existing game.  The market for creativity seems to be slowly diminishing as big publishers release sequels to popular titles that change very little from its predecessors; not just seen within the graphics of a video game but also within how the game is played. That is not the case for development studio, Supermassive Games, and a massive game they recently released called Until Dawn.

            What makes this game unique isn’t its cheesy title and cliché set ups, but the way the game is played and how players watch this game unfold. Until Dawn plays much like a movie where the choices you make affect the outcomes of the game and how you proceed throughout the main story of the game.  Unless you watch a play through or actually play this game for yourself, comparing this movie style game to others like Beyond Two Souls or Heavy Rain would diminish what this game has tried to do; it has done a lot to perhaps change the way games can be played.  This is in no way a review article, rather a look at how the direction this game took will possibly open doors for future games. 

As mentioned before, Until Dawn revolves around the choice a player makes, and each move affects the relationships between characters, their personalities which affects choices and what outcome you will end up with at the end of the game.  It sets up like any typical slasher movie, with a group of young teenagers vacationing somewhere far from society only to be attacked by an unknown antagonist.  Each character will either develop differently according to choices made and will either have good relationships with the rest of the cast or bad ones that could lead to death.  You as a player, must pick these choices (or sometimes not choose any option at all) and follow through some quick time events which leads to some surprisingly intense moments that could test your real life choices if you were put within a similar situation.  Until Dawn goes even further, giving you the feel of a psychological analysis in between scenes where your morals and fears are questioned.  Jump scares and proper character development lead to an immersing experience that fulfill a suspenseful horror atmosphere. 

Much of the game’s success is due to its Butterfly Effect mechanic that allows players to explore various options that the games have to offer.  Did you decide to bring up a sensitive topic or hide instead of run?  Every choice leads to something different, a mechanic tried in many other games but never as immersive as seen in Until Dawn.  Graphically the game looks amazing and the amount of dialogue and story lines this game contains, on the surface, looks to be vast.  Which is a surprisingly in depth game mechanic that other games have not yet attempted to explore as much as they should.  Games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, give players the illusion of choice with choices that are either good or bad and can affect what dialogue or what characters are left alive at the end.  No matter what route the player decides to take, the outcomes come out to be very similar.  This isn’t the case for Until Dawn and the reason lies in how players make the irreversible choices.  The butterfly effect game mechanic is by far one of the biggest illusions of choice seen in video up to date, and one that I personally believe can change the way choice based games can be created.  Developers can learn from Until Dawn; allowing players to choose the way they want to play the game allows for both a more in depth experience and lets players feel as if the outcome is more in line with themselves rather than a community as a whole.  Not to say that all games, such as Metal Gear and Assassin’s Creed, should be developed this way, but developing individual properties could be more successful if this were the case.  This can be an extremely successful mechanic that could be implemented in newer IPs, and Until Dawn has shown us that expanding the mechanics of a game does not come at a cost.

The Dead are Finally Arising: Fear the Walking Dead (TV Review)

Fear the Walking Dead EP 02 Review By Bryan Quevedo

You can finally say that the dead are rising in the newest episode of Fear the Walking Dead and with it, tons more excitement that was definitely needed in the last episode.  Let me begin with this, last episode of FTWD was not completely terrible in set up.  It gave us a simplistic understanding of what each character’s roles will be for the remainder of the show.  This still does not excuse it for creating bland characters that failed to capture attention as a whole, and repeating the same formula as its mother show.  As predicted, episode 2 of Fear the Walking Dead explained how humanity poorly handled the outbreak leading the apocalypse into fifth gear with no possible way of maintaining order. 

            Beginning with the plot of the second episode, we see the main cast being separated because of priorities (well damn, who would have thought a horror drama wasn’t going to split the party in half).  Travis goes to his second family to make sure they are all safe, while Madison tries to convince the annoyingly incompetent daughter to stay home after seeing her loving boyfriend dying of this mysterious disease.  Tension begins to build, but still, nothing is being reported, all the while, LA is going up in turmoil for multiple reasons. These lead into the most surprisingly satisfying parts of the episode.  We see the Travis’s son crowding around with other people as they protest the death of a homeless man who was shot in the head by LAPD.  This is, by far, the highlight of this episode; it finally showcases a true to life scenario that could happen in situations such as this.  Not defined, but shown through their attitudes, these social justice warriors are one of the key reasons the outbreak begins to take place.  Prevention of authority over social beliefs and rioting, leads the dad and his second family to take shelter in a small shop with another encountered family as they wait out the riots and future zombie infestation.  The audience gets their first close up look at a walker as the mom meets up with Thaddeus, the kid from the first episode who, for some reason, knows more about this than others. It ends as expected, yet with a feel of suspense with us almost losing a character.  The episode ends with the main cast at home, witnessing a walker attack a neighbor as the mom pushes the daughter away, keeping her from seeing a tragic and bloody scene. 

            What the last episode lacked in explanation was picked up by this episode, as audiences finally get to see the disease progress into modern society.  Even when we do get these moments of explanation and action, Fear the Walking Dead fails to deliver satisfaction and horror. As I watched this episode, I was led back to my old habits that I had watching The Walking Dead; yelling at the screen as characters stupidly made decisions or just ignored the fact that something was going on when it was right in front of it.  The continuous problem that, for some reason, the show refuses to fix are the self-inflicting problems that every character creates.  Even when I have to keep reminding myself that in this world, the knowledge of zombies is non-existent, I kept getting frustrated that the easiest solutions were always ignored.  This episode almost brought about the end of one character because of ignorance and then had two people split for reasons that were confusing to say the least.  There is no reason for some of these actions to happen, and I completely understand that suspense needs to build up to progress the story. If this show’s purpose is to make me hate humanity, then it is succeeding.

            Overall, episode two was an almost enjoyable experience.  Many of the supporting characters kill off the good nature of the main cast, and even when given the chance to shine, the main cast fails to grab the spot light.  So far, Fear the Walking Dead feels like a copy and paste of The Walking Dead with its characters, expect that they are all different races.  Travis has been the only main character to take hold of smart opportunities and seems to be the only one among the 4 main characters to understand the gravity of the situation.  Fear the Walking Dead’s biggest concern isn’t the situation at hand, but its failing cast of characters who don’t help one another out and much rather hurt the development and chance of a hopeful resolution.

Fear the Walking Dead Episode 02 “So Close, Yet so Far” delivers the same atmosphere the show is known for and properly explains the developing situation with close to life explanations.  It did not linger on explaining the characters any further but made it clear that for the rest of the episode, the main cast will suffer from avoidable problems created by themselves or the people they trust, just like in The Walking Dead.  Score: 5/10