Arrow Season Three: The Sceret Origin of Felicity Smoak

"I'm watching you"

The episode begins with a training montage with Oliver and Roy, Thea and Malcolm, Laurel and Ted and then we see Felicity doing exercises in her house until she gets a visit from Ray and soon after her mother Donna (Charlotte Ross) who Ray gives a new watch too. In a Flashback five years ago when Felicity was at M.I.T (and looking really different) she was part of a "Hackavism" group with her boyfriend Cooper Sheldon and roommate Myron where she created a super virus however she stopped Cooper from using it to hack into the Department of Education to erase university loans. Oliver is later angry because Thea is using the remains of Malcolm's estate to buy a new apartment however later the whole city is blacked out and a transmission some someone calling himself Brother Eye says he will bring the city to it's knees. In a Flashback it is revealed Cooper is arrested by the F.B.I and in the present Brother Eye says he will erase all records in Starling National Bank so Arrow and Red Arrow go down there to quell the riots which happened when Laurel sent in SWAT, to which Quentin later tells her was a stupid move.

Felicity sure was different back in those days 

Felicity later finds out that the virus Brother Eye is using is the one she made at M.I.T so Arrow tracks down Myron who swears he wasn't behind it, when Arrow returns to the Arrowcave Felicity swears it couldn't be Cooper because he hung himself while awaiting trial. When Felicity storms off to have time to herself she gets into an argument with her mother because the two have always had a rocky relationship, she later returns to the Arrowcave to run a trace but Oliver says she should make amends with Donna. While talking Felicity and Donna are kidnapped by Brother Eye who is revealed to be Cooper who fakes his suicide because the NSA recruited him in jail however now he wants Felicity's hacking skills to steal armoured trucks loaded with money. Felicity doesn't however and uses Ray's watch to send a signal to Arrow to come and rescue them which he does and Cooper is knocked out by Felicity. Felicity then thanks Oliver for the advice and Oliver then patches things up with Thea but they are watched by Malcolm. The episodes ends with Roy having a dream of throwing arrows into Sara and killing her.

Was it Roy??????????????

Here is another episode that I have been waiting for ages to see; an episode dedicated to the background of Felicity and it didn't disappoint in that regard. Really liked all the Flashbacks because we got to see what Felicity used to be like and look like, got to admit she doesn't look half bad in all that black and it really was quite the transformation. It is also no surprise why she works so well with Oliver and Diggle and that is because she used to be a bit of a vigilante as well, being apart of that hacker group and designing viruses. I really enjoyed watching the comparison between M.I.T Felicity and present day Felicity, they where almost like to different people. We also got to see another member of the Smoak Family and I really loved watching Donna and how different she is from her daughter. It was funny how she acted around the other characters and how embarrassed  Felicity is of her however we did get some touching moments from her such as when she pleaded with Brother Eye to kill her instead of Felicity and the ending. This also raised the question of Felicity's father because Donna said she got her brains from him, maybe he could be an important character in the future?

"GIVE US OUR MONEY!"

As for the rest of the episode the identity of Brother Eye was obvious and his plan to rob money bland in the end but I liked how he was an enemy for Felicity to take down with her hacking skills like with Clock King. We also got more interaction between Oliver and Thea involving Malcolm's money but I got to say I really don't know where the writers are going with Malcolm/Thea; is she going to side with him or not? give us some more hints already! Then there is Laurel and I do like her character a lot now but she does end up doing really stupid things these past few episodes like how she sent out SWAT when it was the wrong move. I know she is consumed by anger over Sara's death but she is still the one of the least likeable characters in the series, don't make us despise her even more. Finally there is the reveal Roy could have killed Sara and that is quite the twist! I am really interested to see how Team Arrow and Laurel react to this.

Felicity's mom should appear on the show more often!

Overall this was a great origin episode for everyone's favourite hacker.

SCORE: 9/10

Highlights: A Felicity focused episode
                   Donna Smoak
                   Roy may have killed Sara

Let - Downs: Where are they going with the Malcolm/Thea subplot?
                       Brother Eyes master plan could have been better

The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;

 

 





http://screencapped.net/

    

Arrow Season Two: Time of Death

"Time for you to die!"

The episode begins with two thieves being guided through a robbery by William Tockman AKA Clock King (Robert Knepper) however even though they get what they came for one of the thieves kills a guard meanwhile at the Arrowcave Oliver, Sara and Diggle are comparing war scars making Felicity feeling left out and Oliver wants to throw a welcome home party for Sara. In a Flashback the group sees a plane but it is shot down and in the present Clock King kills the thief who messed up while at the party Laurel is notably absent. Quentin and Arrow later investigate the body of the thief and Quentin says he stole a skeleton key earlier, in a Flashback the group find the pilot of the plane gravely injured so Slade and Oliver go to find medical supplies. In the present Arrow and Black Canary show up at a robbery however it is done by Clock King who uses this as an opportunity to hack Felicity systems and escape however they where able to get a blood sample. Arrow and Black Canary go to Clock King's sister's address (after finding out he and his sister are both suffering from a fatal illness) however it is another hack and their computers are destroyed this time, Felicity later admits to Diggle she feels inadequate now Sara is here but Diggle reassures her she is invaluable.

"Let's finally bury the hatchet"

The Lance Family hold a dinner with Oliver (as a way to mend things between Sara and Laurel and Quentin wants to get back together with Dinah) however Dinah admits she is in another relationship and Laurel storms out after realizing Oliver and Sara are together. This is the last straw for Oliver who says Laurel needs to do a better job taking reasonability for her actions and that he is done caring about her. Arrow, Black Canary, Diggle and Felicity all go to stop Clock King and Felicity is able to knock him out by exploding his phone despite being shot in the shoulder, Oliver later reassures her that she will always be "his" girl on the team. Sara later takes a job at The Verdant and has a moment with Laurel who admits she was wrong and even goes to AA with Quentin. In a Flashback the pilot dies but not before giving Sara a picture of her daughter who is Sin. The episode ends with Oliver going home and finding Moira in a meeting with someone who turns out to be Slade Wilson.

"So where are yours two costumes?"

We got another villain from the comics the episode and that is the Clock King and those who have read my Flash review know I really like Robert Knepper as him. The guy is really similar to his comic counterpart and Knepper really portrays him as being borderline psychotic but that is because the guy has almost nothing to lose because of his disease. They also create a lot of sympathy for his character because of the disease and his sister that you almost wish that he got away with the robbery. However what was really great about him was that he was more of an intellectual opponent against Team Arrow this time who outsmarted them twice and was more of an enemy for Felicity this time. Speaking of Felicity I am glad that she was one of the main focuses this episode and that it dealt with her personal conflict of being inadequate now that Sara is here. This could have been made out to be really silly of being jealous but no, the dialogue she had with Diggle and Oliver really made it feel relevant. Plus I like that she is the one to take down Clock King because she really needs an arch - nemesis of her own sometime.

If he was able to hack Team Arrow's systems then you think he got their address?

We also got some great moments with the Lance Family again and I just thought I'd say I am really glad that Quentin is now on friendly terms with Oliver and the Queen Family now because him being a constant ass to them and Tommy annoyed me last season but he is a way better character now. However Laurel of course had to spoil parts of it again with her damn outbursts but I am really glad now that Oliver has finally had enough with her. Liked the scene when he told her so because it was one of the few times we see Oliver crack and I never liked how in season one he was so obsessed with Laurel sometimes. Luckily it looks like Laurel is finally, finally to getting out of the drinks and drugs which is about time but I didn't like the reconciliation between Laurel and Sara because that whole "I was on the boat with you" dialogue and the rest that followed sounded like a load of crap. Lastly for a quick mention I like that we got some more origin on Sin but those Flashbacks but like last episode felt really unnecessary.

"Surprise boy"

Overall I really liked the villain in this episode but it was a shame it didn't focus on him more but at least he was on The Flash after this. Oh yeah I didn't expect to see Slade at the Queen Manor but I can't wait to see how Oliver will handle it next episode.

SCORE: 7/10

Highlights: Clock King was a strong villain
                   Felicity felt more involved this episode
                   Did like the moments with the Lance Family except with Laurel

Let - Downs: Laurel again
                      Didn't like the Flashbacks


The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;

 

 





http://screencapped.net/               

Game Review: DMC Devil May Cry

Time to finally do another game review, this time on a game that received much backlash after it's release; DMC Devil May Cry, the remake to the popular game series.

DMC still has the same basic plot of the original games but with a lot of changes, the first being that the world of Demons (Limbo) and the world of Humans are separate and only certain people can pass in between them. Dante is one of those certain people because he is a Nephilim (a hybrid of Angels and Demons) and he battles the Demons when ever he is dragged in to Limbo. Unbeknownst to him and the rest of society the whole world is under the control of the Demon King Mundus, who prefers to operate in secret and control the Humans through finance, politics, media and drugs. However a mysterious person named Vergil, who leads a resistance group called The Order, challenges Mundus and wishes to recruit Dante to his cause.

DMC was developed by Ninja Theory and I admit I am not that familiar with their work however I know of their two other games, Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, both of which are third person, melee action oriented gameplay so it seems that is their main type of genre. What they have done with DMC is that they have decided to try and make it more appealing for the Western and younger audience.

Namely this includes changes to character designs such as Dante; gone is his trademark silver hair and long, red leather coat (which is a Japanese, anime style) . Instead he is given more of street punk redesign where he has brown spikey hair and a hooded trench coat. But that is not all; Vergil has gone through a similar redesign where they have removed a lot of his Japanese influence (luckily he still keeps his katana sword and silver hair) and Mundus, instead of being a demon in the form of a Roman - looking statue, his human form is that of a business typhoon who resides in a massive office tower.

Also it is not just the characters that are changed it is also the whole entire tone of the game as well like the overall gothic tone of the original games. Instead it has a more Hollywood action movie feeling to it whether it is the heavy metal music that is in much of its soundtrack or the fact that the setting is in a twisted version of a city instead of a ancient castle or tower.

As for gameplay it is still very similar to what you expect from the original game series however I noticed that while I was playing it that it was a lot easier. This was because the developers wanted it to appeal to newcomers but veterans of the original series and hack and slash games in general would want to put this on the harder difficulties when playing this.

It still has the same multiple button combos for new moves with your weapons and guns and you can still buy new skills with orbs as well however they have introduced a new colour coded mechanic. Since Dante is Nephilim he can switch between his blue, low damage, fast paced Angel moves or his red, high damage, slow paced Demon moves. This offers an interesting variety to the gameplay because their are certain enemies that can only be killed by a certain colour however while this is good there is a severe lack of weapons in this game for my taste. Dante has only two weapons each for red and blue and even though he can instantly switch between them in game so you don't have to break off a combo, I would much rather have had to pause the game and equip a new weapon like the original series if it meant more weapons. One thing I dislike but also don't mind much is that they have removed the option to lock on to any enemy you want however the automatic lock on feature is  really smart and can accurately predict which enemy you want to attack anyway. 

The enemies in this game are really good, like I mentioned above some can only be damaged by a certain weapon, however I have played through every difficultly setting in this game and I didn't really have any trouble with them no matter how hard the difficultly said it was. The same goes for bosses too, they have some great designs but I was just a bit disappointed in them. Also thought I'd say that since this game was published by Capcom they have put a chainsaw wielding enemy in it and I am getting sick of seeing them (There is enough of them in the new Resident Evils!).

There isn't that many cast of main characters in this game and their personalities have also changed with this remake. Dante is a lot more cocky and outspoken now and less laidback like in the original, I guess this was another change that the developers wanted to appeal to a younger audience. Vergil however is a lot more reserved in this, preferring to take a back sit throughout the majority of the game. There is the lead female named Kat, a member of The Order, who is really good but not as good as Trish or Lady from the original. However I do like the new Mundus in this because he has a lot more personality in this than when we barely got anything of his ideology and reasoning from the original.

Now I guess the most important question in my review is; Do I like it? Are all of these changes for the better?

I do really like this game however I do not agree with many of the changes. Devil May Cry 1 and 3 where known as one of the hardest games back in the day and while it was really frustrating at times, who really wants a easy game? I do not like the removing of the gothic themes and while the character redesigns of Dante and Vergil are cool, I still prefer the original. This is probably because I am more of a fan of Japanese style when it comes to creating characters (Anime and Manga). However I do really like the overall story of this game because it creates a more detailed backstory for Dante, Vergil (in Devil May Cry 3 it is implied that they have battled many times before but it doesn't go in to detail) and the world they are apart of in general. Also despite not being a challenge like the originals I immensely enjoyed the combat system because it was so fluid and smooth.

Overall this game, as I already know, will have a very hard time pleasing veterans of the original Devil May Cry series however newcomers will find this easy to pick up. It has it's flaws to be sure but if they can be looked past that then you can find an enjoyable and fun hack and slash game.

SCORE: 7/10