Categories
Entertainment Gaming

What’s Been In My Gaming Cycle?

Hi all, it’s been a while! I was thinking it would be a good time to give an overview on what’s been in my gaming cycle recently, as well as what I’m looking forward to!

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

The remaster of what appears to be a collectathon title that many looked fondly upon its release in the early 2000s, the game tells a fairly basic but charming plot around Plankton unleashing robots within Bikini Bottom, with the objective being for SpongeBob (as well as characters such as Patrick and Sandy) to collect Golden Spatulas (the game’s version of Stars/Jiggies) and put a stop to the techno-menace.

While mainly put on my radar due to my enjoyment of the chaos that was ai_sponge (may it rest in peace), the game is filled with charm and characters on a show that I very much enjoyed growing up. While the gameplay isn’t groundbreaking, and some voice acting is a bit off (e.g. not having Clancy Brown voice Mr. Krabs), it was an enjoyable and inoffensive experience with an approachable level of difficulty for the most part, with exception of some the slide levels!

THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE

No, … Read More

Categories
Pop Culture

Shell-uloid! A ranking of TMNT movies and tv projects

Greetings! It is I, Josh “Thunder” Shaver, making my return to the printed page. Recently, I watched the new TMNT Mutant Mayhem film and actually loved it. I know a lot of purists out there are mad that things were changed, but when the multiverse is cannon, anything is possible. In fact, there is no actual TMNT cannon, as it changes with every iteration. Sometimes Splinter was previously a man, sometimes he was that man’s pet. In the original comics, April was a living drawing. For this ranking, I’m just looking at the movies, live action and animated, and the TV series too. Here they are in order from my least favorite to my most preferred version of the brothers. Let’s kick it off with the one movie I hate the most and a reminder that these are my own personal opinions.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)– I have so much disdain for this movie, I don’t think I will ever have anything nice to say about it. The boys don’t just look bad, they’re fugly. The story is slow paced and retcons everything to be aliens. I know my whole soapbox is there is no real canon but … Read More

Categories
Entertainment

Celebrity Memoirs I Want to Read

There are dozens of articles across the web that include the “best” celebrity memoirs. This isn’t one of them. I have never been interested in celebrity memoirs, autobiographies, or biographies. I’m not sure why. I’ve not felt the need to know their personal lives or been super into celebrity gossip.  Maybe because I’ve only felt “connected” to a handful over the years and those individuals never released one? Dunno. But it seems there has been a surge the past year or so, and a few have actually caught my eye. Below are five that I am interested in… but still may or may not read.

1. Spare- Prince Harry,  Jan 2023: A prince struggles with his royal lifestyle and finding love, eventually relinquishing his title and leaving his royal family after marrying the love of his life. Sounds like a modern-day fairy tale or a rom-com movie. But fairy-tales and rom-coms don’t talk about the nitty gritty details. I don’t share the same fascination of the British monarchy that America possesses overall, but I loved Princess Diana. She was dubbed the “World’s Princess” for good reason, and I admired who she was and what she stood for. Conspiracy theories aside,
… Read More
Categories
Gaming

Final Fantasy XVI – The First FF I’ve Completed! (Impressions)

Hi all, Andrew here – I appreciate it’s been a while since I’ve written an article, so I hope it’s not too rusty! Anyway, on with the topic – I, as a gamer who’s approaching his 30s, have completed my first ever Final Fantasy game – the recently released Final Fantasy XVI. While I have dabbled and played a bit of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XV, this is the first one where I got to the credits. As a result, I thought it would be interesting to put down my non-spoilery thoughts on what I felt worked well, and what I felt would be better built on!

What I Liked

  • As a rule, I’m generally not a fan of turn-based combat (with exceptions such as Persona), so having a more real-time combat focus was definitely a plus for me, and made the series feel a bit more approachable for a beginner.
  • The graphics were fantastic, with a minimal difference between the cutscenes and the actual gameplay – it certainly makes the best of the PS5 technology, with some breath-taking scenery and set pieces!
  • They used QTEs in a way that make sense – while I personally don’t
… Read More
Categories
Entertainment

WWE RAW results from 04-10-2023

Tonight’s WWE RAW opens LIVE on the USA Network from the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington as Kevin Patrick joins us. He’s joined at ringside by Corey Graves. Graves explains how some Superstars aren’t here due to travel issues, but the ones here are ready to tear it down.

We go right to the ring and out comes 2023 WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio to a big pop.

Rey, wearing his LWO t-shirt, welcomes everyone to RAW. He talks about how this has been a crazy year. A “Rey!” chant starts up as he talks about his ups & downs. Last week should’ve been a dream come true with the induction and to compete… a “you deserve it!” chant interrupts. On top of that, to compete at the biggest WrestleMania of all-time but instead he had to face his own son. Fans boo. Rey really wanted things to be different. The music interrupts and out comes Dominik Mysterio to boos.

Dominik goes on with the usual, about he’s sick of hearing Rey and how he’s a deadbeat. Dominik says The Judgment Day is his real family. Rey says those idiots are using Dominik. Dominik says Rey is the … Read More

Categories
Podcasts

The Next Level Episode 34: Video Game Adaptations

In this episode, Brian & Josh discuss the various video game adaptations when it comes to movies and television along with some of their favorites as well as their least favorites.

You can listen to this episode right now below or you can head to linktr.ee/TheNextLevelPod to not only listen to this episode but also listen to all of our previous episodes by choosing from various podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.

Please let us know what you thought of this episode below in the comments!… Read More

Categories
Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons: Cincinnati Comic Expo 2022

Last month I had the pleasure of attending my very first comic convention out in Cincinnati, Ohio and one that happens to be the largest comic convention in the city. I’ve always wanted to go to conventions in Ohio and after checking out Horrorhound Weekend earlier in September I was glad to be attending yet another convention in Ohio a few weeks later.

Cincinnation Comic Expo is an insanely large convention that takes place inside the Duke Energy Convention Center in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. The first thing I really liked was the entryway into the convention with various comic books covers lining the sides of the entrance to get inside the convention itself by way of the vendor hall. This particular comic convention is the biggest one that I’ve had the pleasure of attending with various comic vendors, collectors, cosplay shops and so much more that you shouldn’t have a hard time finding something to tickle your fancy. My biggest complaint about this convention is that nothing was really grouped up but rather everything was mixed up. Most conventions I’ve attended in the past have things pretty well categorized together such as an artist alley and etc. but … Read More

Categories
Conventions Reviews

Pros & Cons: Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati 2022

Horror is one of my absolute favorite genres of movies and it wasn’t until a few years ago when I attended my very first ever Horror convention that I realized just how much I would enjoy attending them. Horrohound was one of my very first experiences at these type of cons and its one of, if not the best, Horror convention in the United States.

Horrhound Weekend took place in Cincinnati, Ohio and this actually ended up being my very first convention that I ever attended in the state. It’s been since 2018 since I’ve attended when Horrorhound was in Indianapolis and it felt great being back as this event was at the Sharonville Convention Center which makes for a very intimate place to have a convention. The vendor areas had a rather interesting layout featuring several vendors local to Cincinnati and Ohio as well as other parts of the Midwest. The smaller vendor room had a few guests on one side with a few vendor booths but one of the interesting things I noticed here was the fact that this was an area in which you could get a tattoo at featuring several tattoo artists from the surrounding area.… Read More

Categories
Entertainment

A Letter from our Editor: September 8th, 2022

It’s been a few months since we have had any sort of new articles posted to our site here on our front page. However, I want everyone to know that our site is still very much alive. I want to personally thank everyone for your support from those that talk about The Domain and share it on your social media pages, those that listen to our podcast, The Next Level or watch/subscribe to our YouTube channel and/or Twitch.

Thank you.

Every single one of us have been going through our own personal conflicts and while I am not going into the details of what exactly those are, I want everyone to be assured that this site isn’t going anywhere and we are in the process of getting back to working hard on this site and provide more content to our audience. We have been working very hard on our podcast and especially our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/TheDomainGPCE) but we understand that we have not been giving the website itself the attention it deserves.

I will be attending Horrorhound Weekend this coming weekend in Cincinnatti and thanks to them for providing us press access to their event. We hope to cover even … Read More

Categories
Entertainment Reviews

Song Review – Gorillaz (feat. Thundercat) – Cracker Island

It’s no secret that Gorillaz has been one of my favourite bands since I got into them around 2005, and they continue to astound me to this day, with this song being no exception.

After the pot-pourri mix of genres and themes that was Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (including features with Beck, Elton John, St. Vincent, Robert Smith of The Cure, amongst many others – one of my favourites being a mix of Chai and JPEGMafia), many a person was interested in what would come next for the virtual band helmed by Damon Albarn, with Jamie Hewlett’s excellent art. The answer to that is the introduction of the mysterious The Last Cult…

Gorillaz are currently performing a series of tours all over the world and in recent times, there have been two new songs that have been added to the setlist – one being called Silent Running, and one that had an official studio release last week (and the subject of this article), Cracker Island.

Kicking off with a foreboding synth melody and unsettling sing-talking from 2-D (the singer in the virtual band), it doesn’t take long for this song to become a groove-bomb, … Read More