Vermintide, aka Left 4 Rat

Warhammer: The End Times - Vermintide, like the Left 4 Dead series, is a first person shooter with focus on multiplayer, where up to 4 heroes fight horde monsters and a few specialized enemies. It is unfortunate that the Skaven, the rat-men, are not playable unlike the zombies in Left 4 Dead, but fans hope that this will be implemented in the game someday. 

At first, Vermintide feels harder to play than Left 4 Dead. This is perhaps because heroes who do not carry a strong bow or gun will easily fall prey to the Ratling Gunner, a Skaven with a heavy machine gun. Anyone who is exposed to his gun for a few seconds will go down, and he should only be encountered if there is cover nearby. The Ratling Gunner is a unique enemy who has no counterpart in the Left 4 Dead series – because zombies do not carry guns – and his range is absolutely fatal. 

They seek to surround us! Source.

 

An effective way of dealing with the Ratling Gunner is playing as the Wood Elf, who can choose from several hard-hitting bows. Ultimately, every hero can have a far-ranged weapon, but the heroes are different insofar as some have access to weapons that excel in a certain category but in a different category, their weapons will just not be as good as others’. For cutting through great amounts of Skaven, the witch hunter is pretty good, but the Wood Elf’s dagger is even faster. But the Wood Elf hardly gets any heavy melee weapons, which make battles against heavily armoured Stormvermin a lot easier once they and their halberds come close. A way of dealing with them, for example, is playing as the Imperial Soldier, who uses the deadliest shotguns in the game.

However, there is no necessity to strictly confine oneself to a role, and oftentimes two marksmen make a better team than one among a team of melee specialists. For my purposes, the Witch Hunter’s sword is fast enough, and his crossbow makes a perfect addition if the wood elf misses his aim. Once a level is completed, dice are cast and players will receive a random weapon or other item, and the higher the difficulty setting, the better the reward. If you are not happy with your reward, you can for example collect items of the same quality and melt them down to create a new one. At first, the outcome seems to be absolutely random, but you can affect it: Choose three ranged weapons and add two random weapons, and you are likely to get a ranged weapon.

How to beat the Tank, eh, Rat Ogre.

The looting system is one central motivating aspect that will keep you playing. Vermintide is great fun and it looks like Fatshark is determined to keep the game interesting by adding new content every now and again. Vermintide is perfect for Warhammer lovers: The developers have invested a lot of care and detail in the story, which is presented much more palpable than the cryptic hints in Left 4 Dead. The characters, hissing sarcastic comments at the rat-men and each other, seem a lot livelier than Left 4 Dead’s depressive misanthropes. However, I cannot honestly say that it is notoriously better than the Left 4 Dead series, because playing as a zombie is just insanely evil fun. Thanks to the Warhammer franchise, the potential for expanding the game seems endless. A taste of this soon can be discovered in the upcoming second DLC, Schlüsselschloss. It features a new map and maybe, just maybe, Chaos Warriors or undead as a new enemy faction. I feel I need to stress this point: If any of these became playable, (which is not to be expected as of now,) Vermintide would have it all. 

If you like Left 4 Dead but feel you need a change, you should definitely consider traveling to Ubersreik and beating up some rat-men!

Deadpool – Not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need

There has been a huge hype around the new Deadpool movie for months now. At first, I did not know what that was all about. Judging from the trailer, Deadpool seemed like just another branch of that endless stream of Marvel and DC superheroes polluting the arteries of pop culture for decades now. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I like superheroes – from time to time. But in recent years, Hollywood became obsessed with them. Superhero movies had become the perfect cash cow, repeating the same formula ad nauseam. Then came the Avengers, a group of young men and one woman dressed in the tackiest outfits imaginable, and yet again, the world needed saving. But first, each and every time there are quarrels, an attempt at characterization, which always ends in our heroes overcoming their differences to fight a greater evil. The only deviation from this formula brings Loki (along with his stupid hat), who will reliably become a traitor.

 

Deadpool wants YOU to watch his movie. Also, he brought some friends. Source.

Those movies usually are accompanied by Terminator-inspried lines, because things are not supposed to get too serious but family friendly-serious, and no one who has seen The Avengers in their silly outfits can blame them for being humorous. 

 

At first glance, Deadpool just seems like another clone. There is a classical mix of cheesy lines and typical superhero stuff, saving the princess, the world, both – no surprises here. But I had to think again once I was watching the actual movie.  

 

Deadpool is well aware that he is a clone. But instead of being yet another tryhard, the movie openly ridicules superhero clichés and lets Deadpool have his moments of laughter, e. g. when he checks his watch from Adventure Time or explains his taxi driver how to disperse of his rival in the trunk. Deadpool’s lines are surprisingly on point and the movie enjoys delving into depths of irony and black humour which the sissy-hearted Avengers would never dare to explore. 

But being humorous does not mean that there can’t be tragedy. Wade, Deadpool’s former self, has a short but hilarious love story and is then forced to undergo a painful procedure to cure his fatal health problems and transform into a (kind of-) superhero. Deadpool may act in favour of the good, but his cause is primarily a personal one, and he is not interested in his morally superior superhero “friends” who constantly try to win him for their cause. Needless to say that the movie expresses its overall bad boy image by showing more violence than usual superhero movies.

What makes the movie so likeable is that it is consequent, at times rigorous. It is a perfect blend of superhero story and self-aware, intelligent cinema, and oh, God, is it a relief from all those that came before.

Star Wars: The Nostaliga Awakens (Yes, major spoilers)

The new Star Wars movie belongs to the most hyped things of 2015. Rightfully so? I kind of think so. Star Wars is still very much about the feeling, not so much about innovation. Certainly, you have a great universe with interesting characters. But it is not like we haven’t seen this story before: A young man becomes witness of genocidal actions through an evil, intergalactic entity and decides to abandon the scene. Next, some robot lands on a desert planet, is captured by greedy scrap dealers only to be released by another hero. 

Then, we have a death star – for the third goddamn time. Also, there are some serious family issues: This time, it is not the father who has fallen to the dark side of the force, but the son. The only thing that's missing is a line like “Han, I am your son” to complement the infamous “Luke, I am your father”. New ideas are applied very carefully. 

A female Jedi. Surprise, s*ckers!

Indeed, you would not expect the movie to be a crazy experiment that entirely changes the whole idea of what Star Wars is. Nostalgia is what this franchise has been running on for the last few decades, and this movie gets away with it by the virtue of being technically competent. Again, the writers have managed to preserve the feeling of the originals.

What is genuinely new to The Force Awakens is that it supports strong female roles. Women here are the center of attention, be it Rey, who becomes a Jedi Knight, be it Leia, who is a General now, or be it that female Yoda with the thick glasses. That makes the movie interesting beyond its nostalgic moments and I appreciate it. Those women are in stark contrast to the comparatively much weaker male roles. Finn is insecure as to whether he should flee or fight; Kylo Ren does not know if he has the balls to kill his own father, and upon finding out that he has, Han Solo's screentime ends. 

 

So, what do we get? An entertaining movie that proves that the Star Wars formula can keep up with the times. Fair enough, but the sequel's success will require a little more innovation than that.