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It's hard to ever know what to expect out of Agatha All Along and Episode 7 certainly opens on the unexpected, with Lillia dressed all in white, falling in an infinite black space. If you didn't hit skip recap, Disney spoiled you a little on the fact that this episode might be more about Lillia and her time skips than anything else, but we frown on spoiling ourselves right before the show starts like that. After a beautiful but concerning performance from Patti LuPone, we're back with Agatha and Teen on the Road. Agatha's doing what she does best and tormenting him. He's been trying to read her mind but can't, so she tells him to just ask her questions. His first one cuts right to the chase: "Where's Rio?" Seems she can also be tormented and she quickly tells him "Not that question." She asks if she has any more questions but pretty soon it's more about her prying into his mind. She wants to know what he wants at the end of the Road, and insinuates she knows his mom very well as her "ex best friend." "I have a mom. " Teen says. "I'll get what I want at the end of the Road." If this was Agatha trying to play nice, Teen's having none of it. He asks if Wanda Maximoff is really dead, but even though Agatha says she saw a body, she still says "No. Maybe." and basically shrugs it off with more vagaries. He challenges her, and insinuates she's never been on the Road, and effectively ends the conversation. A large castle looms ahead, where the group will find their next trial. The wonderful transformation begins here. Teen's sporting Malificent's look, and Agatha's of course THE wicked witch. There's a tarot card deck on the table and as soon as Teen touches it, a timer flips over. He attempts to read for Agatha, but it's not exactly his forte, and when he places a card on the table, a sword drops from the ceiling. Unfortunately, it's one of many, many swords hanging over their head, so he'd better learn tarot pretty quickly. "I wish Lillia was here" he sighs. And then, she is. It seems she and Jen did indeed get sucked under the earth, but are alive and mostly ok (though totally filthy) in a subterranean tunnel system with glowing roots. It seems Lillia's been lost to time a little bit. "I was falling." Jen doesn't understand that she's not referring to the fall we saw in the opening sequence, and is more concerned about how confused Lillia is, seemingly having just "wisped" away. She doesn't know where she is, and doesn't remember any part of the apparent journey she and Jen have been taking under the Road. She tries to recall and Jen fills her in, saying she told her to go down the "gross" path and find shelving, also letting her know that Teen, the son of the Scarlet Witch, kicked them off the road. Lillia's alarm is unmistakable, and she asks how she knew. "You told me," says Jen. This begins a series of vignettes where we actually get to see Lillia beginning her training in witchcraft in Sicily. It paints a better picture of who Lillia is, and the things she's struggled with. Lillia's someone who doubts herself and always has. Her strange time trips have also made her seem weird and out of touch with reality, and both of these factors have kept her isolated. She encourages her to not sell herself short, but it's clear she doesn't feel good enough. Back in the present underground with Jen, Lillia's distraught and explains the time jumps to Jen telling her that it's getting worse. But before long, things start making more sense. And while Jen was initially dismissive or at the very least irritated by frequently having to remind Lillia what she actually said, she actually softens visibly. She's suddenly wisped away again though, this time to the sword room Agatha and Teen are in trying to figure out the puzzle. Teen's happy to see her, but she doesn't feel the same, irate at him for concealing his powers. But as she's seething he's reading her thoughts and reassuring her that he didn't know and if he would have he would've saved Alice. They make peace only after she refers to him as Teenager, which elicits the funniest line in the series so far out of Jen (Sasheer Zamata). "Damn, using his full name!" This particular part of the episode manages to be hilarious and emotional simultaneously and that's what takes this whole episode to another level. There are so many heart to hearts happening at the same time Hahn and Zamata are punching it up with a whole lot of humor. It seems like everyone's making amends. Lillia realizes she has no beef with Teen, and tells him the truth about the sigil and how she placed it so that he would have time to come to grips with it, essentially. But they're still in a D&D style trap room with swords that fly down from the ceiling and a neat little lowering sword ceiling. They've let the puzzle go unsolved during all the amends and now the trial's reinforcing its chokehold on them. Lillia's again facing her own failures, or so she thinks as she wonders what she did wrong, only to end up back in time again. Desperate to stop it so she can help everyone she's physically tapping her head and chanting "Stop stop stop stop stop" but the visions don't stop. She's back with her mentor again, and her present age. Her mentor gently inquires about her life and what she's missed. Lillia's quick to disparage herself. She's asked if she has a coven, and when she scoffs at the notion that a witch needs a coven, she says she'd rather be a fraud and a hermit. Then we're back at the beginning of the root path and Jen's starting to put the pieces together about Lillia. Meanwhile, Lillia finds Teen's spellbook, and re-remembers what they're supposed to be doing. Jen asks about the time jumps that Lillia mentioned having when she was younger and she confesses the reason they stopped was because she wanted to, because all she saw was death. Then they see the shelving, and hear Agatha and Teen bickering, and we're back to the future but everyone's caught up. Teen and Lillia are cool, and the tarot master, the fraud, becomes the only one with the answers. But there needs to be a question, and after some bickering about the validity of tarot which Agatha throws shade on, Lillia takes over. They've determined that Teen is to be the querant (queer-ant, he quips) and they have to have a question. After some frustrated wheelturning he blurts out "Am I William or Billy?" The swords stop descending and she begins to read for him. Jen backs up Lillia pointing out that she knows what she's doing and she launches into it. Her entire reading is extremely accurate for Teen but a sword still drops as though something's still wrong. It's not working. Agatha, reckless, obnoxious and angry, takes the deck and Lillia goes back again, with flashes back to her time with the coven and finally back to her mentor. Her mentor inquires as to why she came and she says she wants her power back -- but it was never gone. "I'm a forgotten woman" Lillia cries out in frustration and fear. "Remember yourself." We've been doing these recaps for 7 episodes with this one, but I feel like further describing everything from this point forward spoils the perfection of Patti LuPone's performance in this final act, and that's something I don't want to do. What follows is a testament to the power of great writing and great actors like LuPone, who can elevate something beyond what might have been something very good and make it unforgettable. Every single thing Lillia's been through, every line spoken by LuPone, paints a portrait of a woman who's lost herself, lost her way, and sold herself short. When she takes her power back and saves them all (which, spoilers, but trust me, the magic is in the details) it's something you just have to witness yourself to really appreciate, and to say I teared up is an understatement. If you've ever felt that you weren't good enough, or that you were a fraud or weirdo - if you're neurodivergent or just different for a reason you didn't choose, you'll see yourself in the anguish and fear Lillia has, and you'll be cheering through tears as she realizes who she really is and lays waste to every obstacle in her way. It's an episode that's worthy of watching even if you never cared about Marvel - a story that's important and relevant and can connect to women (and people) of all ages who feel like they don't belong and can't do it. I can't do it justice in a recap, and I can't recommend watching this episode enough. Not only that, but there's some third act reveals in the B story that not only confirm our suspicions, but have serious implications. I'm a little sad we're about to run out of Agatha All Along but with this episode I can solidly say this is my favorite MCU TV show and I've loved the entire journey. Let's see where the Road takes us.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 22 Maniac Mansion While not entirely terrifying, Maniac Mansion plays on horror tropes from silver screen monster movie clichés. It’s more of a comedy than a horror game, but since you’re sneaking around a mansion where a scientist is stealing brains to use in his experiments, and a green and a purple talking tentacle are roaming about, it’s pretty horror adjacent. I talked about Roberta Williams and Sierra On-Line a few days ago, and how important their work was to adventure games. The other side of that same coin is the work LucasArts was doing for adventure games. They would eventually release games like The Secret of Monkey Island , Full Throttle, Sam n’ Max Hit the Road , and many more classic SCUMM engine driven point and click adventure games. These games were my childhood. Maniac Mansion has you choose between a number of characters to explore Dr. Fred’s mansion and stop Sandy from giving her brains to him. There are various ways you can get your characters into trouble. One of the most famous bits is the ability to microwave a hamster–something that is mentioned in Maniac Mansion’s sequel. It was so notorious Nintendo’s subsequent printings of the NES version of the game had that part censored–among other censorship concessions that were made for the NA release. Maniac Mansion isn’t hard to play these days. You can download and play it right on steam. If you want more of a modernized take on the same idea, Day of the Tentacle is out for modern consoles and is a sequel to Maniac Mansion . While a lot of the gameplay has changed, Day of the Tentacle is a genuinely funny game. Sorry, I mean, scary. (It’s not scary.)

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 21 Sweet Home This is probably the most important retro horror game that you’ve never heard of. Based off of a Japanese film of the same name and released only in Japan, Sweet Home is an RPG survival horror game that served as the main inspiration for Resident Evil .  While Sweet Home never got a US release, you can play some homebrew versions with a little finagling. It’s possible to watch playthroughs on YouTube, even in authentic Japanese with English subtitles.  Ironically, the Sweet Home game was better received than the film it was based on. The plot was changed around a bit to match what sort of gameplay is possible–but that was a surprisingly normal practice in such film-to-game type adaptations. Sweet Home would seem pretty tame in the scares department compared to modern games. But somehow Sweet Home still manages to make an unsettling atmosphere. Most of the gameplay revolves around solving puzzles. You play as a team of two or three or explore solo. The style of gameplay is remarkably similar to Resident Evil or even metroidvania type games–you find an item in one part of the mansion and then you travel back to use that item to progress. I would love for an official localized version of Sweet Home  to release, but due to licensing issues that’s nearly impossible, sadly.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We'll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 20 Phantasmagoria Roberta Williams is a name more people should know. It’s a bummer they don’t. She was responsible for the very first graphics in a computer adventure game. Seriously. And along with Ken Williams and their company Sierra On-line they were responsible for the King’s Quest series along with a bunch of other adventure games from that era. They were a big deal.  So when Roberta Wililams said she wanted to do a horror game, it got the attention of the entire industry. Roberta Williams doesn’t do anything half-assed either, she really put her heart and soul into Phantasmagoria , watching lots of horror movies before she even had a story to develop from. Utilizing full motion video (FMV) was still considered (mostly) cutting edge at the time. And Phantasmagoria had some of the best looking FMV of its era. Unfortunately, it was adrift in a sea of a whole bunch of other FMV horror titles. But FMV video games have had a resurgence the last few years–and while Phantasmagoria isn’t exactly like those FMV games, it’s definitely still worth playing today. And thankfully, that’s pretty easy to do if you have access to a modern computer and Steam.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 19 Silent Hill One of the seminal horror game titles, Silent Hill started a franchise that would spawn spin-offs and movies. It all started with the overly foggy, extremely atmospheric, and terrifying low-res that is the original Silent Hill .  I know, I know. The buzz right now is around the Silent Hill 2  remake. I have to admit that I wasn’t sure that Bloober Team would be able to pull it off–I hated almost every one of their games. But put someone else’s work in their hands and they create a masterpiece. We’ll have to see if their success continues onto their next game. But I digress. In Silent Hill you play as Harry Mason as he searches for his daughter Cheryl. It’s not so simple as that, as you have to navigate a town full of nightmarish monsters. It was one of the first video games to really delve into the psychology of horror, staying away from a lot of horror movie tropes–and creating a whole bunch of new tropes in the process. There wasn’t a reliance on jump scares in Silent Hill –instead, it’s deeply unsettling in those moments where it isn’t outright horrific. The story was also left intentionally vague. This helps elevate the game’s fear of the unknown but also leaves just enough ambiguity to make you wonder even after the end credits. And Silent Hill was a masterclass in showing instead of just telling, especially with its oppressive atmosphere.  The impact of  Silent Hill  on the games industry is profound. Its success proved that video games could unsettle players on a deeper psychological level, opening the door for horror games with a narrative emphasis and atmospheric focused design. Games like Fatal Frame , Alan Wake , and Amnesia owe a lot to Silent Hill ’s legacy, which showed that a well-designed setting and haunting soundtrack could make horror games unforgettable. If you want to play Silent Hill today you’re going to have to look a little hard, unfortunately. However, the remake of Silent Hill 2  has recently been released to critical acclaim.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 17 Escape from Monster Manor Ah yes, I’m writing about a classic 3DO horror first person shooter and it’s not Killing Time ? What’s going on? The 3DO console was a bit ahead of its time–and had a huge price tag as a result. Nowadays it’s a bit of an oddity–something to show off as a retro game collector to show others that you have one of the more obscure consoles. But that old hardware has some pretty great games that are sadly lost to time. Escape from Monster Manor is one of them. While Escape From Monster Manor probably doesn’t come up in many “best of” game lists, it does a lot of things really well for what is essentially a Wolfenstein 3D clone. And yes, I say Wolfenstein 3D and not Doom (despite the infamous 3DO Doom port) because Escape From Monster Manor has a lot more to do with the former game than the latter. It features textureless floors and ceilings in a corridor shooter that consists entirely of flat floors.  There aren’t other guns to collect in Escape From Monster Manor , so don’t go in expecting a traditional boomer shooter with an overblown 90s shooter arsenal. Instead you have a ghost blaster that can one-shot most of the baddies. Ammo is scarce, and keys are consumable resources that are used up every time you open a door. It’s as far from a modern shooter as you can get. But holy cow does it have a lot of charm. Escape From Monster Manor was developed by an Electronic Arts that is much different from its current form. Known as EA these days, Electronic Arts in the 90s was closer to an indie studio now than the behemoth studio it would be later. Escape From Monster Manor was made by a small team, and there was a lot of love put into it. The monsters in Escape From Monster Manor live up to the title too. The enemies aren’t just merely flat sprites–they’re actually claymation models that have been converted into sprites. This gives the monsters in Escape From Monster Manor a look that is really ahead of its time–and genuinely spooky. If you want to play Escape From Monster Manor these days, you’ll have to find original hardware and a copy of the game, sadly. There just isn’t a way to play this classic otherwise. You might get some luck finding a decent playthrough on YouTube, though.

I’m absolutely loving Agatha All Along so far. But full disclaimer: I really liked She-Hulk . (Sorry, not sorry.) In fact, I’ve largely been a fan of the MCU TV series -- with a few exceptions, so I’m not surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying the absolutely charming Agatha Harkness as portrayed by the fantastic Kathyrn Hahn.  The second episode saw Agatha’s coven finally stepping onto the witch’s road, each with their own motivation for taking on the deadly task. Included in the activities was poor Ms. Hart–I mean, Sharon Davis–as portrayed by That 70’s Show ’s Debra Jo Rupp. In fact, after almost dying right at the start of their journey, Sharon has a breakdown which ultimately doesn’t turn out too great for her. The Witch’s Road promised us all sorts of “tricks and trials,” and this episode showed what these tricks might look like going forward. Keeping in the same spirit of Wandavision , when confronted by a trial, the witches' clothes and the decor all change to match. Someone on Discord described this latest episode as “ Saw meets Desperate Housewives" and that is extremely apt. To me, it brought to mind a Dungeons and Dragons campaign: each Witch has their own specialty (ie, class), and they have to go through a series of trials (sounds like a dungeon crawl to me). There are even DM tricks, like the ominous and unexplained timer to build tension. If the writers aren't already Dungeon Masters, they should really consider it.  In this trial, Agatha’s Coven are trapped in an upper-middle class house, decked out in preppy clothes, and greeted by a bottle of wine on the dining room table. Sharon, absolutely destroys a glass of the red before anyone else even has a chance to digest the situation. It turns out the wine is poisoned, everyone has to drink, and they have less than 30 minutes to come up with an antidote. That’s where the potions witch Jennifer Kale portrayed by Sasheer Zamata gets to use her prowess. This episode really took its time to highlight how much of a cheat and a monster Agatha is. The story of her sacrificing her own child for possession of the Dark Hold is confirmed to mysterious “Teen” (Joe Locke) who, at first, doesn’t believe it. But after witnessing Agatha dodging the poison test, Teen started to see Agatha for who she really is. There are some interesting takeaways from this episode. For one, the rest of the coven aren’t able to discern Teen’s identity either–all of them seeing the same sigil over his mouth when he says his name. Agatha says, “we’ll crack this nut later” suggesting that they have (probably dangerous) ways of undoing any such sigils. I really love Teen, even though his dialogue sounds a little “fellow kids” There was also that Mephisto name drop that came in so casually, but must have fans reeling with excitement. I’m sure after all of the fan theorizing about Mephisto’s involvement in Wandavision the writers had to feel an obligation to at least acknowledge MCU’s devil.  We can't wait to see what the next few episodes conjure up. Agatha All Along is streaming now on Disney+.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 16 I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Harlan Ellison. If you don’t know the name, there’s still a good chance you’ve seen or read something at least inspired by the man. He was a prolific sci-fi author who had his heyday in the 60’s and 70’s, and spent the rest of his career as an over inflated blow hard that railed against the very properties that helped solidify his legacy. But this isn’t about the author of the short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream , but about the point and click adventure game on which the game was based. The premise is this: there is an evil supercomputer called AM that has wiped all life from the earth. AM, with its vast superior intellect, has decided that humanity isn’t awful actually, and has decided to torture four humans as proxies for the entire (now extinct) race. Somehow, AM keeps these humans immortal while doling out punishments that would make cenobites blush. Ellison himself actually voices the devilish AM. This supercomputer hates humanity so much its entire existence is spent torturing four humans. Now, there are a lot of missed opportunities in the conversion from short story format to the much longer point and click adventure format. Instead of exploring why or how AM is capable of these tortures, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream instead focuses on the poor creatures being tortured. It ends up being a wholly bleak–and therefore wholly dread inducing.  I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream does give you some control over how the story plays out. Even though the game’s story is vastly different from the short story in many significant ways.In fact, a lot of how the game and its ending depends on the choices you make as the characters. There is some out there logic involved with some of hte puzzles. Not quite “moon logic” but more “ Groundhog Day knowledge”--stuff you’d probably only know after many playthroughs and experiments. If you want to play I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream you can do so easily via Steam. Many consider the short story to be a seminal work of sci-fi, and thus, by extension, the point and click adventure game is held to the same esteem by many. You can play it yourself and see–regardless of how you feel about it, it’s a story that you can’t easily forget.

Saturday Night is a film about the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live and the two hours before they go live. While this sounds like a fascinating topic to dissect, it’ll take multiple viewings for what is a juggling act at breakneck speeds. Director Jason Reitman does his absolute best to fill in as many tiny factual stories, minute details and jokes into every scene in a way that makes the film fly by. It’s really a spectacle much in the way that I’m sure SNL really is behind the scenes. A giant amalgamation of dozens of people all working almost at random to produce something that miraculously comes together at the zero hour. There’s so much to love about Saturday Night that I can’t even describe fully as I only saw it once.  The story takes place at 30 Rockefeller center, in the fabled studio 8H. We have a young Lorne Michaels producing what can only be described as a series of plate spinning acts, all wobbling and threatening to go out of control. From organizing the talent, all fighting to be more than what they are, to handling execs, script ideas, and even executing on a llama delivery. It’s fascinating to watch Gabriel LaBelle play a Michaels who is firing on all cylinders, struggling to maintain his composure as his show keeps threatening to spin out of control. Gabriel's acting is composed yet vulnerable, as what I would imagine this iteration of the SNL founder would be. Never wavering in his determination and belief behind his product.  We mostly follow Lorne, but the rest of the cast round out nicely with stand outs by Corey Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Elda Hunt as Gilda Ratner and Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris. Each attempting to find their own place amongst the crew. Chevy with a budding fame, Gilda with a cast and crew all in love with her, and Garrett with his place as the minority without a comedy background. Each of their dynamics together as well as separately inner weaves seamlessly with the rest of the chaos that you can pick just one thread and follow it to a satisfying conclusion. That’s really what I enjoyed most about Saturday Night, the fact that all of these different stories converge into this finely woven tapestry that is this film.  Another fun aspect of the film are the numerous cameos, not just of actors but the celebrities they are playing. J.K. Simmons plays a hilarious Milton Berle that acts as a foil to Chevy Chase’s rising ego. Nicholas Braun of Succession fame pulls double duty as Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman, both comedic gold and even Nicholas Podany as a lost and confused Billy Crystal got a laugh out of me. There are so many blink and you'll miss cameo moments that I’m already excited for a second viewing to catch the portrayals of Al Franken, Billy Preston and Paul Schaffer. These act as easter eggs more than anything but for the avid SNL historians, these are worth the second viewing.  Saturday Night successfully depicts the chaos of the two hours before the initial first episode of Saturday Night Live, but also how I imagine two hours before ANY of their episodes. It’s a fun piece of television history that delves into both the corporate and personal stakes that come with the show's original airing. The cast pulls together to create a magnetic energy that can only come from a live show, and the tension is both stifling and exhilarating. There's so many things being juggled at any given time that it’s impossible to track them all. As a fan of SNL and the history of those that participated, I found this a fascinating look into the gamble Lorne took all those years ago. I’m more appreciative of SNL now than I was before watching the movie, and am excited to watch it again to see what other details I may have missed. This is definitely worth checking out!  Did you see Saturday Night? What did you think? Sound off in the comments below!

Battletech has been an IP that has popped up throughout my life in various forms. I think the first time I saw anything Battletech was at my local comic book shop. Those little pewter ‘mechs ignited my imagination and forever solidified a lifetime enthusiasm for pilotable mechs. See, I didn’t want to play Battletech: I wanted to be a mechwarrior.  Mechwarrior 5: Clans is a standalone expansion to Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. In fact, I wouldn’t have blamed them if they just called it Mechwarrior 6 or just Mechwarrior Clans .  Developer Piranha Games changed up the formula significantly for this latest release. Instead of playing as a mercenary leader, you’re in the warrior caste of a highly militarized society that invades and conquers sovereign worlds.  I’ve heard about the Clan invasion in Battletech , but I’ve never had the chance to play as a Clan Mechwarrior invading the Inner Sphere. Now, if you’re reading this review and thinking “I have no idea what the Inner Sphere is or why the Clans would be invading,” you’re going to have to do some catch-up:   Clans does little to ease you into its dense narrative. Instead it throws you into the deep end. It doesn’t help that characters are constantly spouting jargon and esoteric phrases with little context. I wish they had an in-game glossary, but instead I found myself going to sarna.net to figure out what the hell they’re talking about.  Because the Clans have been away from the rest of the human population for a couple of centuries building a militaristic society, they have an entire dialect of their own. Let me start you off by telling you “aff” means “yes.” It’s short for affirmative. The Clans frown on contractions, but love to shorten words and phrases–like “battle challenge,” shortened to “batchall.” Shortened portmanteaus are good, but contractions are lazy. If you’re wondering why I’m talking about this and not the gameplay, it's because the narrative is such a huge focus in Clans .And this surprisingly comes up a lot. That means there are a lot of cutscenes. I feel like Piranha Games was going for that AAA look–and they mostly nailed it. However, there is something that’s just a little off with the facial animations sometimes. But overall I think they did a good job. Since Clans is so much more narratively focused than Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, you have less choices for how to play. Gone is the ability to choose your missions as you see fit. This takes away a significant chunk of what made up Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries , and actually makes Clans a little less for it. The trade-off is new handcrafted levels that have a few variations, but end up feeling same-y anyway.   Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries wasn’t just a game where you engaged in ‘mech combat, it was a game that made every decision count. Failing a mission in  Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries had consequences that could ripple into further problems. All you get in Clans is a “restart mission” prompt when you’re met with failure. There isn’t the chance to keep going to see what happens or dig yourself out of a hole. This means failure doesn’t have gameplay consequences beyond having to redo the mission.  I loved Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries , and when I originally wrote about it for another publication I gave it a glowing review. However, hindsight and user reviews revealed to me the flaws that I missed because I was just so enamored with the stompy robot experience. After reading other people’s impressions, I realized that maybe I was just too into developer Piranha Games’ flavor of Battletech . I spent many hours in Mechwarrior Online, which is a precursor to Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries . I was already a bit biased. Mechwarrior 5: Clans does a lot to address the gameplay complaints of its predecessor. This is mainly done through scripted enemy encounters–which is a result of those handcrafted missions I mentioned earlier. Mostly gone are the helicopters that would surprise spawn behind you. Clans  has some decent mission variety too. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries had you stuck running a handful of mission types. Clans , on the other hand, gives you varying objectives as you go through the levels. Sometimes the mission obvjectives even change as the story unfolds. But those changes mostly involve fighting more ‘mechs. So not much different there.  There are only a few changes that Clans made to the robot fighting formula. For one, now you can scan stuff. But only certain things. And usually to make the mission move along. Also, melee is hard baked into Clans . But for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries it was a paid DLC. Being able to melee out of the box is pretty cool. As I’ve said to everyone I know: I really love how visceral and explosive the combat can be in Mechwarrior 5 . Clans is no exception. There was a time, in my youth,  that I hated the overheating mechanic in other Mechwarrior games, and how slow the battles can be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s like that here. But Mechwarrior 5  has enough visual fidelity and audio magic to sell the fact that you’re piloting a walking fortress as you lay waste to tanks and walk straight through buildings and walls. And maybe it was the impatience of youth, but there’s something spectacular about trading blows with an opponent while smashing through infrastructure and using buildings as cover. In battle you will be with your team. One of the complaints of the previous game was how unhelpful your teammates can be. That’s not always the case here, but you have to make sure you match the right pilot to the right weapons. You can also give orders in the midst of battle. This allows you the ability to set up ambushes, have units scout ahead, etc. There’s even a top-down battle map that allows you to issue orders to your units RTS style. This helps give a little bit of perspective to the battlefield. Developer Piranha Games did a great job making you feel like you’re in danger, despite being in control of a walking fortress. You have to keep a clear head to maneuver and position your ‘mech so you reduce incoming damage while maximizing the pain you put on your opponents. If enough enemy ‘mechs concentrate fire on you, you can lose components or get cored before you know it. You have the ability to switch to other teammates, so losing your ‘mech isn’t an automatic fail. But don’t expect to come out of battles completely unscathed, even if you use terrain and buildings as cover. It’s not uncommon for me to finish a mission with most mechs missing components. Of course, without the meta game component of Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries , losing components or having your mechs badly damaged never feels like it sets you back too far. In Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, a bad mission could lead to your best pilots getting killed, and expensive ‘mech repairs that can take a long time. There is none of that in Clans . Clans does introduce a new system for managing your vehicles and crew. Each crewmember has a set of skills you can choose to spend their individual XP on. Some of the skills are specialized, like rocket lock-on, etc.. Others are more general like “evasion,” which is essential if you don’t want your teammates to get hit more than they have to.  You have to choose to spend profile XP on upgrading your science bay or your repair bay. More scientists and more efficient research means you can unlock ‘mech upgrades faster. Repair bay upgrades and technicians ensure that your ‘mechs are repaired before the next mission. But Clans never forces you to make hard decisions. I never was in danger of running out of money. I could almost always buy the next upgrade in the tree. The only way to fail is if you’re unable to pass the next mission and can’t proceed. There are a lot of different ways to customize your experience and upgrade your ‘mechs. Different chassis have experience points you accumulate through combat, which you can then spend to unlock new omnipods and also unlock your ‘mech’s full potential by upgrading its stats like movement top speed, how far you can turn your torso, etc. You can also change your ‘mechs paint jobs as you unlock more by progressing through the chassis upgrades. Clans has a handful of other problems that I’ve run into, like teammates that don’t follow orders during battle sometimes, or teammates that have annoying pathfinding. Mostly issues with teammates.  I also, ironically (based on lore), find the omnimechs to be a little squishier than I anticipated. I think that’s because the Clan mechs have most of their weapons on their arms. The Clan ‘mechs also lack the variety that the Inner Sphere ‘mechs have. They’re all a bit uniform to each other, and a little bland. I have, sadly, not really found a Clan ‘mech I really love. You can play the entire Clans campaign cooperatively with up to four other friends. And while I really love co-op, there’s something that’s making me miss my Mechwarrior Online days. And while that game technically still exists, it’s in the dated Cryengine. I’d love to see a Mechwarrior Online 2  or an expansion that adds PvP into Clans . Mechwarrior 5: Clans isn’t perfect. And I’ve learned to temper my praise a bit. Clans isn’t exactly everything I wanted it to be–but I hope it’s what the fans want, because I would love to keep playing Mechwarrior games for the foreseeable future. Piranha Games really nailed the stompy robot carnage both in look and feel. Mechwarrior 5: Clans is available October 16th and will be available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store as well as on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. A Steam key was provided to us for this review

Last time, on Agatha All Along...Teen killed absolutely everyone. Seems like time for a flashback. And if Teen's your favorite character in the show like he is ours, you're getting your wish for the focus to just be on him for a little while. In what's a really cool transition, you go from Teen wearing his blue Maximoff crown as Wiccan to a blue kippah. Hebrew recitations are heard in the background, and formal preparations are being made. We're at Teen's bar mitzvah, with his parents. If this doesn't seem correct, it isn't. After all, Wanda's not really into anything but witchcraft, and she didn't marry a kindly looking blond bearded guy. The name on the Bat Mitzvah program says William Kaplan. What's at play here? Teen goes through the motions of the bat mitzvah and heads into the party portion of the evening carefree and looking quite at home. He walks into a tarot reading booth (which seems just a bit odd at this type of occasion) and it's Lillia. She's there to make a few bucks telling the kids they'll live long and prosper, basically. But when she takes Teen/William's hand, something is different. Her face grows concerned, the lights flicker. His life line is broken into two parts. She knows it's bad news, but she masks it as a time of life changes, a 'new you'. This isn't a party trick anymore. She pulls one tarot card, the Tower Reversed, before she flashes with recognition. 'I think I remember something.' Teen's not having fun anymore, and Lillia issues a rather ominous warning to enjoy the now. As soon as he leaves the tent, she takes a wood piece and scrawls...the sigil. She places it in the jacket Teen left behind and hands it to someone else, having completely forgotten everything that happened. Just as soon as that happens, someone comes over the loudspeaker to announce that everyone needs to evacuate, as everyone gets emergency alert texts on their phones that say they need to evacuate and return home. Teen's 'parents' race home with him, as Teen actually locates the sigil. Looking back they can see the red light of Wanda's Eastview destruction - and while they're looking at that, his mom narrowly misses hitting another car, and they careen down a hill, hitting a tree, which directly impacts Teen's seat. His mom and dad wake up frantic to get help, and from all sides it looks like that's it for him. Then, a snippet of Wanda's voice saying goodnight to her sons, and something enters him, reviving him. Help arrives soon after and Teen's brought to the hospital. Doctors say there's nothing wrong physically, but refer them to a psychologist. It's the old amnesia trope, this time with a body swap. Shortly after he's awake he finds he can read thoughts, and that he's going home. That goes as you'd expect, everyone strong emotions and Teen confused about literally everything. Even the dog knows something's up. Life's well and truly ruined. Cut to three years later, and Teen's on a date with what seems like a pretty long term boyfriend. Teen hears him thinking he's going to say "I love you" and interrupts their kiss. He doesn't want to have any secrets, and he tells his boyfriend, Eddie that he can hear people's thoughts, if they're people he really cares about and the emotions are intense, and starts to relay the details of the car accident, including his death, and how he came back different. Eddie takes it remarkably well, and now with his secret out, he's free to tell Eddie that he loves him too. It's a tender moment in an otherwise dark episode. It's not like Eddie doesn't have questions though, and he gets to the main one right away. "If you're not William Kaplan, who are you?" Cut to all William's musical posters gone and a large amount of research all over those walls instead. We see a brief youtube ad featuring Jen hawking her skin products, and then a YouTube video about the red bubble, or the anomaly. He recognizes it's a spell, but no one will talk about what happened that day, likely due to the intense amount of PTSD something like that would cause. Eventually though, through the power of the internet, they find someone who's willing to talk - Randall. (Quicksilver, as you know) Randall describes what it was like living in the world of Wandavision, basically. The citizens of Eastview, being able to perceive themselves, but not control anything they said or did. Knowing who they were but not being able to cry out for help or live out their own lives, just watching themselves like they were on TV but in their head, as he points out. It's a perfect illustration of the intense amount of trauma Wanda caused for everyone else who participated in her world. I appreciate this because often Wanda's played as a tragic hero of a sort, but inflicting pain on people because of your trauma just isn't okay, even though it's hard not to do if you're suffering a great loss. It's here in the show that I want to stop and say I think Agatha All Along may have made some mistakes. Randall's got a funny screen name and a funny trench coat and a funny hat, and he wants to meet all clandestine in a parking garage. It's very cartoony and very much seems like it's played for laughs. To be fair, he has been stuck in a television show life playing different versions of the same person across genres and eras, so maybe that's just another pond ripple, but to me, it seemed like after they pointed out how traumatizing the experience would be, they made light of it by treating his character as ridiculous instead of being empathetic through the lens. Teen and Eddie manage to show off that Gen Z "rizz" and actually treat him like a human being and with kindness even if they are a little freaked out, but it still really blows a hole in something that should've been said about Wandavision originally. As sympathetic as she may be, Wanda was still the villain, ruining an entire town's lives to serve her purposes, however noble she thought they were. But it's not all Wanda. Agatha stole his house, made him pretend to be her husband, and used him like a puppet. During this incredibly valid list of horrible things that were done to him, Eddie mentions that he was a bad influence on Wanda and Vision's kids, and Teen finally gets some information that will help him figure out who he is, as Eddie reveals, to Teen's surprise, that they did have kids -- twin boys. One was a "speedster" and the other could read minds. Tommy and Billy. Suddenly, we know who he is, and so does he. Back at home, he pieces it all together, while listening to Linda Wu's version of The Witches' Road and contemplating the sigil. When all signs point to Agatha, he does what any of us from the Plissken faction on would do, and Googles her. And there she is, in the background of tragedies and great moments in history alike. When he finally gets to the brujapedia part of the internet, he gets the really juicy bits - Agatha was the only known survivor of The Road. And off we go, away from Westview, to find Agatha. With GPS and some mild Google skills, it's a short trip. He's got his spellbook, he's got someone on his side, and he's going to get answers. Upon arrival, we find out this is Agatha when she's playing true crime detective, and the familiar scene from before plays out again, only this time with it making a whole lot more sense. After the insanely amusing antics of detective Harkness, Teen releases the spell, and Agatha comes to, realizing nothing she was doing is real. She throws him in the basement for awhile, and after some more ridiculousness that Hahn plays pitch perfect, they get to the point. Teen, aka William, aka Billy, wants to get to the Witches' Road. He says it's because he wants power. Agatha asks who he is, and though he says William Kaplan at first, he then relents, and reveals his true identity. He is Billy Maximoff. Time to head back to the future. Agatha crawls out of the sucking mud and almost immediately she's back on her bullshit. Back at the scene of the crime, Billy's crushed the sigil and stood contemplating his powers. When the two meet, Agatha and Teen clear the air. He doesn't need power, and it doesn't interest him, but what he does want is to find his family. Meanwhile, Agatha's delighted at the prospect of someone so powerful and in what he's done, which only serves to disgust Teen more. Agatha is pure Agatha here - making light of her coven's deaths, Teen's trauma, and basically everyone else's suffering because all she's interested in is herself and the power that she can get if she makes it through the trials and to the end of the Road. There's plenty of horrible, irredeemable characters in shows, especially of late, but the line between love to hate and just pure hatred is a fine one. Kathryn Hahn manages to ride the knife's edge between completely unlikeable and sympathetic and add a comic flair that could only come from her. This time though, she's trying to convince Teen to overlook what she is and help her get what she wants. Teen/Billy knows that he's insanely powerful on his own, and tries to shake her off by saying he doesn't need her, and that's where Agatha gets her hooks in, pointing out that he doesn't know how to control his power, and that given that he killed the rest of the coven, he's just like her. She beckons him down the road with "Last one there is a nice person" and off they go. This road's had plenty of twists and turns but perhaps nothing quite like this. See you next time.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 15 Alien: Isolation  The game starts with you playing as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley from the films. Amanda has signed up on a mission in search of her mothers distress beacon, and to discover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her mothers disappearance. This journey takes her crashing into the Sevastopol, a derelict space station that is currently in the stage of revolt, chaos and an infestation of some sort of vicious alien being known as the Xenomorph.  It’s from here that you are thrust into a terrifying adventure of trying to get the information you want, while also being hunted by the deadly alien, as well as the rioters and a synth android uprising. The game revolves around a lot of sneaking and hiding with being caught leading to almost certain death. There’s a perfect level of tension surrounding the hiding mechanics because safety is never truly guaranteed, and every moment is punctuated by a completely dynamic orchestrated soundtrack that knows exactly when to ratchet up the tension.  On top of the orchestrated soundtrack and chilling hiding mechanics, I also would like to emphasize the Alien Xenomorph itself. It’s a trained hunter and killer that stalks you as its prey throughout large portions of the story, but on a technical level, its AI is something worth discussing. The Xenomorph operates in two different ways: the menace gauge, which is a meter on the back end that measures how often it appears, and will gauge, based on your actions, when is the perfect time to appear and scare you. This works to keep you guessing as you never know when the alien will appear to stop you in your tracks. 2:  The alien’s AI, which is a series of directives. Specifically, imagine a spider web, starting out with only 3-4 nodes, but branching outward into multiple other nodes. This is the learning process of the alien, so if you are constantly hiding in lockers, it will begin to start looking in lockers. It’s ever learning and also works as a real entity in game, so it is always somewhere on the map waiting to start hunting you. But it’s fair and doesn’t cheat, which makes for the feel of an actual animal learning your moves. It’s haunting.  The Alien: Isolation story takes you all over the space station and at some points outside of it. It’s equally fast paced and intensely slow. It works in waves to show you how fast things can spin out of control when it comes to the Sevastopol. The game even goes as far as letting you relive some of the key moments of the original movie, in a fantastic homage that feels right out of the film. The developers were given tons of data as far as reference material from the films, so they had a lot to work with when trying to make this game as accurate and closely tied to the film franchise as they could. To me it’s a triumph and still to this day still manages to shock and awe me while feeling totally in line with what I would see in theaters. I usually go back to re-watch Alien yearly, but this felt close enough to that, that I felt happy with this being my spooky season Alien inclusion. I would recommend our audience check this out if they want more of that world because the developers at Creative Assembly did a phenomenal job with it, and will be doing it again in a sequel in the near future.