u/Varsity_Reviews

I love this movie. It’s such a dumb fun spectacle made in a desperate attempt to capitalize on the success of Transformers. To make this movie even more fun, I like to watch it after binging the Friday Night Lights show because both Taylor Kitsch and Jesse Plemons are in it. I like to pretend they’re Tim Riggins and Landry turning their life around and joining the navy. Makes the movie funnier and Friday Night Lights goofier.

So about a year ago I saw clips of the Savannah Bananas on TikTok. I thought they were really cool, unique, and made baseball interesting. I watched their video on their history and thought the whole thing was pretty cool. After getting a little interest in the Savannah Bananas, I started getting into baseball as a whole. I've never really cared for baseball before but I'm enjoying it. Been to a few local games, went to a Red Sox game on a trip to Boston, spent some time at Cooperstown on a trip to New York to visit my mom, and I've been playing MLB The Show and MVP Baseball 07 a bit. I never used to like baseball, and now I really respect it.

And in a sort of weird twist, it made me lose interest in the Savannah Bananas. I've been watching a few of their games on TV lately, and, I just don't really like watching them. I don't know if it's becasue watching sports on TV just isn't that fun, if the people broadcasting the game aren't doing a good job, or if Banana Ball just isn't all that good.

Now I do want to make it clear, I have never BEEN to one of their games, and given their popularity and the prices of their tickets, I probably never will. So I've no doubt that actually BEING at a game would be a lot more fun than watching it on TV. I will fully admit that I don't like watching sports on TV. I'm saying I just don't think the Savannah Bananas are all that fun to watch in general.

Their social media teams are able to capture a very good audience with compliation clips on TikTok or Instagram. And I think I remember reading or hearing somewhere one of their goals is to try to make every moment go virial. I might be thinking of something else, but assuming that that is the case, I think it's making Banana Ball worse overall.

Last night I watched their game against the Party Animals in Oregon. And there were just some weird things that stood out to me while watching.

1. Constantly playing 15-45 seconds of popular songs over the PA system the entire game. This was, really annoying when I started noticing it. It was kind of distracting too. The popular part of a song would play, then the popular part of another song would play, then another popular part of another song would play. It felt almost like it was doing that because it's capturing an audience with a low attention span. The NBAs also started doing this, or at the least the Utah Jazz were when I went to a basketball game over the winter.

2. Watching them without the over excited voice overs in their complations really does take a lot away. I'll give the benefit of a doubt that whoever was commentating last night just wasn't very good, or maybe it wasn't even the commentators fault and it was they just can't sequence live footage as well as editing it after the fact, but just watching both teams play, just wasn't very fun. It was just baseball but with different rules or some unique catches. It's really hard to explain but there's something about the compliations that just made the idea of Banana Ball unique, and fun. But the actual game, just felt, kind of stale.

3. It wasn't very new comer friendly. I don't know the rules of Banana Ball. I'm assuming it's a sort of Calvin Ball type thing though becasue there were a lot of arbitrary stuff. Like runners having to sprint to first base while the outfield tossed the ball to each other after ball four. I don't understand why they were doing that, and the commentators weren't helping much. There were also points that both teams were trying to get. Not runs, points, which ended up giving the Bananas an extra 3 runs in the 9th inning. Again, it wasn't explained at all. This was a common thing the entire night. Some stuff made sense like fans being able to catcha foul ball and it's considered an out. That's easy enough to understand. But most of the game I was confused on what was happening. I get it, it's a different sport, but I would've expected the commentators to explain what was happening since Banana Ball is growing in popularity, not some tiny close knit community. Now I get it, I need to do my research and learn the rules to this version of baseball. But becasue it wasn't so new comer friendly didn't really make me want to go read the rules for myself. It feels like an oversight on the commentators part or something.

4. The stadium they were playing in was a football stadium with an incredibly large area to hit a home run. Any Major or Minor league player would probably have a pretty easy time racking in home runs on a field like this. I get it to an extent, they wanted to maxamize the amount of people who could come in and watch the game, and used a super tiny field as best as they could. But it felt like the players were intentionally not trying to hit home runs. I get it, it's a small field, but it kind of goes back to what I said earlier, where they're trying to make every moment go viral. And assuming that is true, it felt really bland just watching these professional or college level players who are really good at baseball, just not try to not go for the homerun. For how small the field was, there barely any runs the entire game, which kind of sucked. Again, I could be completley wrong on them wanting to have every moment be viral, but this kind of helped reinforce that to me, because it felt like the players were holding back intentionally for the sake of getting viral compliations.

Now why do I want this view changed?

Well, I want to like the Savannah Bananas. They were the reason I got into baseball in the first place. They awoken an interest I didn't know I had. And I like seeing their compliaitons on TikTok or Instagram, sharing them with my friends who either aren't baseball fans or are mega baseball fans. And I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, maybe the few games I watched just weren't very good even to the Banana Ball community. But the one especially last night just kind of left a whatever taste in my mouth. It didn't feel like it was some fun and super unique form of baseball. It just felt like I was watching a skit. Like an impressive half time show for the Super Bowl or something.

I don't know if it's becasue they just have a crazy social media team, or if the game itself just wasn't very good, or if it was becasue of the stadium they were in, or what, but having watched a full Banana Ball game, just wasn't very fun.

Last night Rocketeer or The Rocketeer popped up on my reccomended Disney+ list. I looked at it, read the discrption, saw the year it was released, confused Billy Campbell for Brenden Fraiser and said "eh why not." I thought it was going to be some slightly quirky family friendly Disney movie about a guy with a jet pack.

What I got was a strangely complex spy thriller with a lot of moving parts.

I really liked this movie. I especially liked the ending where there was an entire German Army hiding in the woods that get into a shoot out with the FBI and Mobsters. Never in a million years would I have thought there would be a movie where a battle like that would happen.

Nevile Sinclair was a really fun villian. Like an evil James Bond. It was hard not to like him.

Tiny Ron Taylor played a really fun villian too. I loved how creepy they made him look. I've never played Resident Evil, but he would've made a great Mr. X back when they were pumping out Resident Evil movies.

The overall plot was pretty good too. Nothing really stood out, but it was fun and made sense. It's hard not to like it. Probably one of my favorite non-war-world war 2 movies.

I’ve had these games for forever and loved each of them but never beat them for whatever reason until earlier this week.

This might sound weird but I think these two games are fairly comparable in terms of level design. While I wouldn’t say they have similar levels, I’d say that, for a game where you spend 90% of it dogfighting, they do a good job of making each level stand out. It’s not just “fight enemies above undisclosed location #18”, they do a good job differentiating each location you fight in.

Ace Combat 4 is obviously the much better game, as while I do think both games have great level design, HAWX definitely recycles a lot of its objectives more, which is a great shame. Ace Combat 4 does an incredible job of making each mission feel new, while HAWX makes every mission feel different, if that makes sense.

Some stuff I really like in HAWX over 04 is the voice commands for you squad mates, and using a PS3 controllers SixAxis features to launch flairs. Weird I know, but kind of fun. And for what it’s worth the voice commands are pretty good. I also like the EGS system which does make some dogfights feel more chaotic.

By far HAWXs biggest letdown (other than story) is especially late into the game most of the missions really feel tailored towards coop play. Coop is great in this game I’m glad I had a friend willing to try it with me, but playing some of the later missions solo really suck. Though to be fair this is mostly because your ai wingmen just aren’t really good . I really hope Ace Combat 8 finds a good balance between coop oriented play but still works in single player.

Ace Combat 4 on the other hand I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed with its multiplayer offerings. I’m sure this was awesome when the game came out but I felt it was just a little lackluster. It’s fun for what it is but I don’t ever see myself replaying it. At least Ace Combat Zero had more variety in its local multiplayer. (I’ve played Zero a lot in the past and really liked it, both single player and multiplayer)

Ace Combat 4s story was shockingly good. I was actually really impressed with how well they can tell a story and establish this world with really only like two vocie actors, the narrator and the HQ guy who briefs you at the start. Plus the little stuff like when you shoot down Yellow 4 and Yellow 13 speaks with an air of nervousness and acceptance in his voice. It’s really well done.

HAWXs story on the other hand, honestly starts really well. As a huge Tom Clancy fan I loved the opening and even the parts where you joined the mercenary army. But it really does fall apart after the mercenaries try to take over the US. Sure it gives us some fun missions like flying over the Appalachian mountains, but it just lost the plot. To be fair this was during the time where Tom Clancy games kept trying to make their stories more “grand” in an attempt to mimic the writing in Clancy’s books compared to their earlier games where the story was as barebones as it can get, but I would’ve greatly preferred that to what we got.

As far as planes and unlocking them and weapons go, I sort of prefer HAWXs approach, at least initially. 04s money system is a better option as you can pick and choose easier, but I never really felt incentivized to unlock everything after beating it once. I do like HAWXs leveling system. It’s cliché and a boring system but it scratches my monkey brain in a fun way seeing my stats go up. Ironically enough too though, I don’t really care what plane I fly, I just like flying the different jets and then going back to my F-14 and F-16s.

But even with all that, I think I’d recommend HAWX if you haven’t played it. At least to me it really did remind me of Ace Combat 04, and if you happen to have a friend or two to try its coop, I say go for it. There’s actually a way to play the PC version in split screen if you like that.

I haven’t played Ace Combat 5 or beaten HAWX 2 yet, but I’m excited to try them.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with it. I’ve always associated Bruce Willis movies with surprisingly fun action scenes that make little practical sense that are fun to put on during a party or something. So I was pretty shocked when I found that this movie had an incredible gut wrenching scene about halfway through.

At the start I was somewhat indifferent. Navy SEALs movies tend to be, exaggerated, but the opening was pretty fun. Reminded me of the SOCOM games. The scene where the rebels assault the Mission was predictable but well done. I liked the part where the group was in the jungle and had to quiet a baby while a patrol of enemies were passing. That was actually pretty heart pounding.

The moment where the SEALs left everyone except the person they needed to extract was also somewhat predictable, but I was surprised they changed their mind and went back to save them after they flew over the Mission. Not sure that’s the smartest idea realistically but it was pretty fun. I also loved how they built up the first major battle scene.

Which is probably my favorite part of the movie. Seeing the SEALs clear a village and seeing the sheer brutality of the Rebels. It’s one of the few movies I’d say felt real. Especially that, one scene with the nursing mother. I don’t I’ve ever felt so much hatred and anger towards a fictional character who had no name in my life. My only complaint was the SEALs didn’t knee cap him before executing him.

I thought the twist with the heir to the throne was, eh. I feel like they should’ve set that up more a little earlier but I liked how it did raise the stakes a little.

The final battle was a little disappointing. I was surprised how many SEALs and civilians died in it but I question the tactics used during the fight and how long they’d realistically have lasted. And that revolution war styled front line march the SEALs did at the start was, a choice.

But I loved the movie overall. It’s definitely in my top 10 war movies