classic

Hawkeye’s Hearing Aids Are a Call Back to Classic Marvel Comics

One thing about the origins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s easy to forget these days is that much of the Avengers stuff was inspired by the Ultimate Marvel comics, specifically The Ultimates. This especially went for Hawkeye, who had little to do with his mainstream comic self and far more with Ultimate Hawkeye. His uniform, SHIELD black ops status, and even his family were taken from the Ultimate Marvel comics. Not only that, but the way he became a hopeless mass murderer after the deaths of his wife and kids (far more permanent in the comics) was lifted from…
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Metroid Dread Revives Classic Boss Monster and Unleashes Mysterious Chozo Villain

Metroid Dread is an unexpected new installment in the original mainline series that goes all the way back to the Samus Aran’s debut on the NES in 1986. Picking up threads from Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion, the new 2D side-scroller follows Samus on the trail of the X parasite once again. After the Galactic Federation loses contact with an EMMI (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) unit sent to investigate the planet ZDR, where the X parasite from Fusion is rumored to have survived, Samus takes on the mission herself, and quickly finds dangers and terrors unimaginable. “The…
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Nelson Riddle: Music with a Heartbeat Review – How Classic Songs Become Standard

Nelson Riddle is a patron saint of comic book entertainment. He wrote the theme to Batman, the original 1960s camp classic TV series which paved the way for all things geek. That theme caught the excitement children of all ages felt from the moment of the twirling introductory horns through the POWs and ZOKs of the opening battle. Full-set drum rolls propel a swing-blues rhythm section through an ever-building cascade of wonder. Insistent scat singing clashes with atonal chordal squawks until it sounds like it will all come crumbling down, unless someone fires up the Bat-Signal. You won’t find that…
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World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic: Best Addons to Download

While part of the appeal of World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic is the chance to relive one of the best expansions in WoW history, the truth of the matter is that World of Warcraft has improved in some significant ways in the 14 years since Burning Crusade was first released. The ideal WoW experience is arguably somewhere between “Classic” design and modern innovations. Well, the best Burning Crusade Classic addons essentially help bridge that gap. By improving some of old-school WoW‘s most annoying shortcomings, they allow you to enjoy a version of WoW that some will argue is close…
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World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic: How Long Does it Take to Reach Level 70?

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic is finally here, which means that it’s time to use every guide, cheat, and skip you can find to reach level 70 as quickly as possible. Ok, there are still plenty of players who love to take their time on their journey to the level cap, but as WoW Classic showed, more people are interested in reaching the “endgame” as quickly as possible than ever before. Call it a symptom of dedicated gamers “figuring out” older WoW games and optimizing the best path through them, but it seems like more and more Classic…
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World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic: How to Fix Server Issues

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic is finally here, and unless Blizzard has figured out something about server overload that the rest of the video game industry hasn’t, the return of one of WoW‘s most popular expansions ever will likely also mean the return of server issues that prevent some from playing the game. Server problems are essentially the cost of doing business for those who love to play online games, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less frustrating to learn that you can’t actually play your favorite game because the servers that run it just aren’t working.…
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The Taskmaster Series 12 Contestant Line-Up Looks Like an Instant Classic

All change! No sooner had Mike Wozniak charmed the nation by undermining a vole, and put us all off our tea with his downstairs casserole, than it was all over. The current cohort of Taskmaster contestants have finished their last task, and it’s time for a new set of contenders. Please give a warm welcome to series 12 contestants: Desiree Burch, Victoria Coren-Mitchell, Alan Davies, Guz Khan and Morgana Robinson. Series 12 is set to air at an unconfirmed date later this year on Taskmaster’s still-relatively new home of Channel 4. It’s “Coming Soon” according to the post-finale teaser. Also…
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WoW Burning Crusade Classic Pre-Patch: Best Classes for the New Expansion Meta

The next chapter of World of Warcraft Classic properly begins on June 1st when players are finally able to enter the Dark Portal and reexperience the first WoW expansion ever. Before then, though, players will have the chance to explore some of TBC‘s most notable upgrades, changes, and improvements as part of a special upcoming pre-patch that serves as a soft launch for the next expansion. Whenever you start playing TBC Classic, you’ll probably want to be up to speed on which classes are best in the new expansion’s upcoming PvE meta. Even if you don’t care about joining a…
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Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. Review: A Classic Animated Workplace Family Supervillain Sitcom

This Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. review contains no spoilers. Marvel has already had a big year on the small screen through their Disney+ offerings WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but on the heels of the latter’s finale comes a strange, quirky show to Hulu. Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. takes the humor of Deadpool, the weirdness of WandaVision, and a small dash of the animation style from Wallace & Gromit to create something…even stranger than it sounds. This adult animated series comes in part from the brains behind Robot Chicken, which does a lot to explain how those three things can be…
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Mass Effect Legendary Mode vs. Classic Mode: Which Level Scaling Option Should You Choose?

We’ve spoken before about the numerous changes that Mass Effect Legendary Edition makes to the original Mass Effect, but the one change that seems to be throwing most players for a loop is the ability swap set the game’s “Level Scaling” setting between Classic Mode and Legendary Mode in the options menu. The game’s menu tells you that “in classic mode, the original 1-60 level range will be used instead of the new 1-30 level range. XP and talent points progression remains the same, but the number of levels is doubled.” It’s understandable the developers wanted to keep that menu…
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Masters of the Universe: Revelation Shows Kevin Smith’s Classic Inspiration

Masters of the Universe will once again have the power, this time on the platform of Netflix, which has unveiled a new animated series shaped under the creative auspices of geek royalty in showrunner/executive producer Kevin Smith. Consequently, the latest iteration of the Mattel Toy property, which dominated pop culture during the 1980s, is carrying classic-inspired sensibilities, as the new show’s first images clearly prove. It’s a retro direction—in stark contrast to other revivals of the property—that Smith confirms was no accident. Two years after it was announced, Netflix animated revival Masters of the Universe: Revelation has officially revealed a…
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New Pokemon Snap Successfully Modernizes the Classic N64 Formula

New Pokémon Snap takes one of the oldest, most bizarre, yet surprisingly brilliant offshoots of the Pokémon franchise and updates it for the current generation, 22 years after the launch of the original game back in 1999 on the N64. It’s a polished update to the original formula that deepens and expands the experience in many ways while preserving the core idea that made the first game so brilliant in the first place. Developers Bandai Namco did a fantastic job here, and for fans of the original like me, it’s a treat to head back out into the wild, camera…
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Mortal Kombat Review: Video Game Movie Redefines Classic ‘90s Series

Warner Bros. and director Simon McQuoid pull off a daring, high-wire balancing act (above a pit of spikes, no less) with their big screen take on Mortal Kombat. That is to say, it’s incredibly difficult to make a good, entertaining movie that stands on its own while at the same time remains faithful to source material with a rich, extensive history and passionate fanbase. Plus, it’s a video game movie. Yet 2021’s Mortal Kombat is both a loving homage to the blood-soaked arcade classics that started it all and a savage, devilishly fun martial arts flick. The film is actually…
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Synchronic Ending Makes Sci-Fi Movie a Modern Classic

This article contains Synchronic spoilers. “Time is the school in which we learn / Time is the fire in which we burn,” wrote poet Delmore Schwartz decades ago, and if any genre filmmakers take that couplet to heart, it’s Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The self-contained directing/writing/producing/acting pair have made four feature films to date, each of them dealing in some way with the passage of time, the volatility of memory, and the warping of both. Their fourth feature, last year’s Synchronic—which makes its Netflix debut this week—is the duo’s most mature, fully developed, and coherent film yet, while also…
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Kung Fu: Inside The History of a Martial Arts Classic

It’s been a long journey for The CW to snatch that Kung Fu pebble from the master’s (Warner Bros.) hand, but the new reboot of Kung Fu could not have come at a better time. Issues of diversity and representation have been at the forefront of our cultural conversations for years now. The rise in Asian hate crimes – nearly a 150% increase in 2020 – has made #StopAsianHate a frequent trending topic on social media. For The CW to launch a show with a Chinese leading actress and a largely Asian cast right now makes a bold statement for…
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Why Turner Classic Movies is Reframing Problematic Hollywood Favorites

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a movie Alicia Malone fell head over heels in love with during childhood. Seeing it more times than she can remember in her native Australia, the future author and Turner Classic Movies host still recalls failed attempts to launch a high school film club with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly as the star attraction. “I thought for sure people were going to get excited about classic movies if they watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s because it has so much life to it!” Malone says today. How could they not fall for Hepburn’s iconic performance, which Malone still describes…
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10 World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Moments We Can’t Wait to Relive in Classic

Much like the reveal of Diablo 2 Resurrection, many Blizzard fans were anticipating the eventual release of The Burning Crusade Classic as the follow-up to WoW Classic. It seemed inevitable that Blizzard would revisit the first WoW expansion following “vanilla” WoW‘s recent success. And yet, there’s something undeniably magical about the confirmation that we’re this much closer to the essential re-release of WoW: The Burning Crusade. Not only was TBC the first of many expansions in WoW history, it is what many consider to be one of the best eras in the history of one of the best video game…
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Hearthstone Classic Update Reignites Succubus and Felstalker Card Art Controversy

Blizzard is bringing back the “classic” version of Hearthstone, which has proven to be all the reason some fans need to revisit a debate over changes to made to one of Hearthstone‘s classic cards, Succubus. For context, Blizzard recently announced that the release of Hearthstone‘s upcoming expansion will also mark the release of a new “Classic” format that lets you play the game roughly as it was when it officially launched in 2014. While that may not seem like a big deal for a game where nearly every card ever made is readily available for crafting and play, you have…
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