Back in the day, I used to play a lot of games, going to the arcade frequently with my friends to stuff quarters in the slots for Tempest, Tron, Pac-Man, and the like. When Atari introduced an at-home system, my grandparents bought us one and my sister, brother, and I took turns playing all our favorites. When Nintendo introduced the NES Entertainment System, my boyfriend at the time and I got one and I became addicted to Tetris (I once played for five hours without realizing it had turned from day to night). When he and I broke up, I kept the system.

I’ve had Game Boys and other hand-held devices, plus the Wii, and I also played a lot of PC games—Star Wars-related, Mah Jongg, and things like that. Then I discovered Wolfenstein courtesy of a roommate and that became my new obsession: first-person shooters. I’ve played many since then, but as I got older, my PC gaming dropped off and even my Wii gaming has dwindled. My poor joystick and Wii controllers are rather dusty.

So when I was asked if I wanted to try the new Guardians Telltale game, I figured, let’s see what’s new in the PC world. Turns out, even without the joystick, PC games are still fun—mostly.

What’s it about?

From the press release:

“In the wake of an epic battle, the Guardians discover an artifact of unspeakable power. Each of them has a reason to desire this relic, as does a ruthless enemy who is the last of her kind, and who will stop at nothing to tear it from their hands.

From Earth to the Milano to Knowhere and beyond, and set to the beat of awesome music, you wear the rocket-powered boots of Star-Lord in an original Guardians adventure, where your decisions and actions drive the story you experience.

The series will feature a star-studded cast of voice talent, including Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series) as Star-Lord, Emily O’Brien (The Young and the Restless, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor) as Gamora, Nolan North (the Uncharted series, Pretty Little Liars) as Rocket, Brandon Paul Eells (Watch Dogs) as Drax, and Adam Harrington (The Wolf Among Us, League of Legends) as Groot.”

There are currently two episodes available, “Tangled Up in Blue” and the very recently released “Under Pressure.”

Playing the Guardians Game

As with all Telltale games, the choices you make as you go along help shape the story that gets told. There’s also a Crowd Play feature, which I didn’t try. As this is a PC game, the controls are the mouse, the arrows on the keyboard, and certain keys that are illuminated as the game progresses to help you make your choices.

I played the first episode, which took me about two hours to get through (note: I’m a little rusty; an experienced gamer could probably get through it faster). In “Tangled Up in Blue,” Star-Lord, Gamora, Groot, Rocket, and Drax tangle with Thanos, have the opportunity to meet with The Collector or the Nova Corps, and meet a Kree warrior with a really bad attitude.

The characters don’t look like the team from the films; rather, they’re based on the comic-book versions. That means Drax’s and Gamora’s skins are less ornate, but that’s probably for the best, given all the other animated shenanigans catching your attention.

I decided to play Star-Lord the way he’s presented in the films: a mixture of hollow bravado, true bravery, smart-assedness, and caring. Sometimes, I would choose the answer that was funniest, and others, I chose to reassure the other characters or maybe tick them off a little (I messed with Gamora and Drax). With every choice in a conversation (and there are a lot of them), a note would appear at the top of the screen to let you know the character you’re speaking to would remember what you said. Pissing off Gamora and Drax was probably not my best choice, but my reassurances to Rocket paid off handsomely.

I will admit to getting a little bored with how many conversations I had to have in order to advance in the game—a holdover trait from my first-person shooter days when I was blowing away everything in sight. After some time, though, I got into the rhythm of the story and enjoyed my time sharing with the other characters.

I just started the second episode and look forward to the mischief I will make Star-Lord get into on account of the decisions I made in the first episode. I think I might have totally screwed up by going to The Collector instead of Nova Corps, but…hee hee hee!

What’s good?

The music, as in the films, is outstanding. As you advance in the game, you unlock more of Peter Quill’s Awesome Mixtape, which makes the scenes more fun to watch.

I enjoyed Nolan North’s Rocket the most; although he sounds a lot like Rocket from the films, North adds an extra dash of cockiness and warmth. The other voice actors are very good, particularly Eells’ Drax.

The controls to the game were easy to follow once I figured out what everything stood for. The animation has a nice depth to it and responds fairly quickly to your commands.

What’s not as good?

Sometimes, the animation stalls a bit. In particular, I got stuck in one room with no controls flashing or working that would allow me to get out. I had to re-boot the game and start the sequence over. Once I got past that and got the hang of the game, things went smoothly.

Star-Lord also looks kind of constipated a lot of the time. The rest of the characters look good, especially the furry Rocket, although they all move a little stiffly at times.

The many conversations, as I mentioned earlier, dragged somewhat at first, but as the story became clearer, the conversations became more crucial and occasionally, fun.

The Verdict

All in all, I’d recommend the PC version of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, and I look forward to completing episode two and the rest of the episodes as they become available. The game has repeatability because you can go through and make different choices (I plan to replay episode one and choose the Nova Corps over The Collector just to see where I end up), and the price point of $24.99 for the entire game seems just right.

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Series Premiere Available for Digital Download on April 18th; Available at Retailers Starting May 2nd

Friends,

Today we are excited to reveal the official launch trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, which is set to premiere the first of five episodes on April 18th for $4.99 USD or equivalent on PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One®, Windows PC, and Mac, as well as available to download on the App Store® and Google Play. The series will also be available as a special ‘Season Pass Disc’ on May 2nd at retailers across North America for an MSRP of $29.99 USD, and on May 5th at retailers elsewhere across the globe. The special ‘Season Pass Disc’ will include Episode One: Tangled Up in Blue, and will grant access to download the subsequent four episodes via online updates as they are released in the coming months of 2017. Additional platforms for release are yet to be announced.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is a brand new story of the universe’s unlikeliest Super Heroes: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot. In the wake of an epic battle, the Guardians discover an artifact of unspeakable power. Each of them has a reason to desire this relic, as does a ruthless enemy who is the last of her kind, and who will stop at nothing to tear it from their hands.

From Earth to the Milano to Knowhere and beyond, and set to the beat of awesome music, you wear the rocket-powered boots of Star-Lord in an original Guardians adventure, where your decisions and actions drive the story you experience.

The series will feature a star-studded cast of voice talent, including Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series) as Star-Lord, Emily O’Brien (The Young and the Restless, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor) as Gamora, Nolan North (the Uncharted series, Pretty Little Liars) as Rocket, Brandon Paul Eells (Watch Dogs) as Drax, and Adam Harrington (The Wolf Among Us, League of Legends) as Groot.

For more information on Telltale Games, visit the official website, Facebook, and follow Telltale Games on Twitter @TelltaleGames.

You can find our previous coverage on the game here: https://www.thenerdelement.com/tag/marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-telltale-series/

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Telltale Games and Marvel Entertainment Reveal World-Debut Trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

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Oscars talk

The nominees are:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sarah Rubano and Howard Berger)

Foxcatcher (Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier)

(I forgot or missed taking this photo)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White)

Maleficent (Rick Baker, Toni G and Arjen Tuiten)

Noah (Judy Chin, Jerry Popolis and Adrien Morot)

The Theory of Everything (Jan Sewell and Kristyan Mallett)

The whole thing was great to attend. Having a bunch of make-up artists just catching up with friends and congratulating some with their nominations for other awards as well. I also interviewed Michael Key (owner of Make-up Artist Magazine), about how he came up with the idea for this celebration. Here is the audio.

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Wizard World Chicago took us on a journey through time and space with these panels.  Stars from the hit TV franchises Star Trek: The Next Generation and Doctor Who, and the latest box office hit Guardians of the Galaxy all sat down and answered questions from the fans.

Doctor Who Panel

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan aka The Doctor and Amy Pond together again. Enough said.

Guardians of the Galaxy Panel

Michael Rooker and Dave Bautista reenact that infamous *slight spoiler* dance scene at the end of the movie.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reunion Panel

Captain Picard and Captain Kirk in the same room? A must see.

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Gamora where are you?

By Llana

This past weekend Guardians of the Galaxy made a mind-blowing $100 million over the weekend worldwide. With studio projections at around the $70 million mark these figures are great news for Marvel Studios and its parent company Disney. Ticket sales aside there are potentially millions more to be made in merchandising. As parents run their children to the Disney Store, the Marvel online shop, and Toys “R” Us they are bombarded with images of Star-Lord, Groot, and Rocket. Sometimes even Drax is included, but Gamora is noticeably absent.

Many blogs have made note of this so I did a little research of my own. While searching the Marvel store I did find a POP! Funko Gamora, an action figure paired with Star-Lord, and three available t-shirt designs. No such luck with Disney.  Other Guardian members had lots of items to choose from: stand-alone action figures, t-shirts, plush toys, the list goes on. By far the most popular is Rocket Raccoon who quite frankly, has more merchandise than any of the characters.  The question now is what to do?

There are undoubtedly women young and old who would love to have Gamora merchandise. Social media is a wonderful tool that could be used to let the powers that be (Disney and Marvel) that female characters are important. Sometimes it’s even successful if we are to look at the future addition of Princess Leia merchandise.  If I’m completely honest the entire thing makes me feel a little apathetic. I mean no Gamora, no Black Widow, no Princess Leia…ok. The real concern is not so much the lack of female characters (I mean really this is Disney’s bread and butter), but the lack of what are considered to be strong characters. Female characters that ‘kick ass’ so to speak.

While I agree that the portrayal of women, and fairness of merchandising practices leaves much to be desired, I can’t help but to think of my goddaughter who has exactly two mainstream pop culture females to look to. The first would be Storm who finally has her own comic (review to come), and wait for it…..Princess Tatiana who was mostly a frog (I did love the movie). I would’ve included Michonne but she’s too young for The Walking Dead.

I guess I should be grateful as other women and girls of color have far less.  So while I’ll keep an eye on and purchase merchandise from my favorite characters regardless of ethnicity, I will only count it a true victory when women of color have truly equal representation regardless of their rating on the ‘kick ass’ meter.

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When Marvel announced it was making a film out of its comic, Guardians of the Galaxy at San Diego Comic-Con two years ago, a lot of fans were puzzled, including me.  Although I had a passing familiarity with Guardian leader Star-Lord, I pretty much knew nothing of this particular team.

Boy, am I ever glad I know who they are now! Guardians of the Galaxy is a delight, a witty, charming, and visually spectacular film that also has a big heart, giving it emotional resonance to underpin the raucous fun.

Based on the 2008 comics iteration of the team, the movie stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, a Terran boy kidnapped by the Ravagers, a group of scavengers who are hired to procure special items for particular clients and are led by the blue-skinned Yondu (Michael Rooker, clearly having fun).

We are quickly dumped into a fully-realized universe when we meet Peter as an adult. He’s on a desolate planet attempting to steal a small metal orb for one of the Ravagers’ clients. Unfortunately for him, it’s also wanted by agents for a Kree warrior called Ronan the Accused (Lee Pace), a guy with a serious grudge against another race he’d like to annihilate.

Fleeing with the orb, Star-Lord eventually crosses paths with Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his living tree sidekick, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), who want Star-Lord for the bounty on his head; Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who is connected to both Ronan and to Thanos (Josh Brolin, unrecognizable under the makeup); and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), whose grudge against Ronan is greater than his desire to throttle Gamora for everything she’s done in Ronan and Thanos’ names.

A thief, two bounty hunters, an assassin, and whatever Drax is doesn’t sound like a group you’d want guarding your house, let alone a galaxy, but what occurs once they become a team takes the audience on a rollicking, hilarious ride.

The film is filled with humor, action, and virtually seamless effects. I saw it in IMAX 3-D and while neither format is necessary, the 3-D conversion is worth the extra money. The visuals are eye-popping, and seeing some of the action sequences in 3-D added to the thrills. Special note should be made of the makeup, too, especially on the green, blue, and purple aliens, who all looked realistic, not like people wearing paint. The CGI is also quite good, particularly with Rocket and Groot.

What anchors all the fun, though, are the great performances. Pratt (Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation) infuses Star-Lord with the right amount of humor, heart, and narcissism, reveling in the character’s shallowness while also showing there’s more underneath the rocket shoes and spiffy helmet than an awesomely six-pack’d womanizing thief. Saldana and Cooper bring similar levels of warmth to characters who could easily be caricatures, and Pace is all menace as the arrogant Ronan. Bautista does a great job with Drax’s literal-minded delivery, and even though Diesel’s vocabulary as Groot is limited, he manages, along with the excellent CGI, to make Groot substantial, not just a collection of ones and zeroes (the same goes for Cooper as Rocket).

Several supporting characters make an impression, notably John C. Reilly as Dey and Benicio Del Toro as The Collector. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the best of the Marvel films to date, and I, for one, cannot wait to see the Guardians’ further adventures on-screen.  In the Marvel film tradition, be sure to stay for the extra scene after the credits, which is brief but effective.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” – Rated PG-13

Directed by James Gunn

Written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman

Starring Christ Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Honsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro, and the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel

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Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, and Dave Bautista were scheduled to be in a panel together but wound up being in three separate panels, with some interaction in between.  First up was Dave Bautista, who will be playing Drax the Destroyer (a character who first appeared in the Iron Man comic books in issue #55) in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy.  Drax was originally created in the comic books to destroy Thanos.  Dave was really excited to get the part and answered a fan’s question on how he got the role. Dave has an enthusiasm for acting and is looking forward to his role on the Kickboxer remake. Watch the video below to see what role is he playing, but if you’ve seen the original you can probably guess.  He also answered several questions during his panel, and He mentioned that he would love to have a match against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. That’s one match I want to see happen!

Next up was Michael Rooker, he came a little early for his portion of the panel.  In the Guardians of the Galaxy movie he will be playing the character Yondu, a hunter from the alien planet Centauri who helped form the Guardians in the comics.  Rooker discussed the Walking Dead and how he is still close with Norman Reedus.  Yes, he is bitter by not the fact that he got stabbed, but how many times he got stabbed.  Rooker describes some of his favorite scenes that he did in the movie Slither.  He also talked about how Hollywood need to bring slapstick comedy back like “The Three Stooges.”  Michael then proceeded to act like he slipped on a banana peel.  He has had such a varied career and he seems to enjoy each role he plays.

Last but certainly not least, Karen Gillan had her mini-panel.  She came early enough to interact with Rooker. They even started asking each other questions!  Karen talked about how she trained for the role of Nebula and when she cut her hair.  I remember when she revealed her bald head during San Diego Comic Con last year, and how I was so surprised at that! Rooker and Gillan both compared their bald heads during the San Diego Comic Con panel, which was funny. During her mini-panel at Wizard World Philadelphia she even flexed her arms. One fan asked about her new tv show “Selfie” and how she prepared for that role.  Karen replied that she wanted to find reasons for her character doing the things she was doing and making it believable.  Gillan then revealed her next project,a revenge western movie called In A Valley of Violence, which is also starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.  During the panel there was even a Nebula cosplay from a fan in the audience that was really good! Gillan’s panel was fun and it was good to see her twice in one day!

All this and more happened in these mini-panels, as you can see in the video below!

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