Scheme from H. Mortimer: “Develop a new time-delayed explosive that are placed in cakes throughout the city. While Batman is trying to collect the cakes, reveal that they are remote-detonated and destroy one.” (REJECTED – too much respect for cake-makers after watching Great British Bake-Off. -J)
Scheme from D. Ramirez: “Plant laughing gas containers throughout a hospital labeled 1, 2, and 4. While he’s searching for the one labeled 3, blow up the building.” (REJECTED – far too basic and stealing from my old materials. -J)
Scheme from E. Fulton: “Train a squad of attack hyenas and release them in the sewers.” (REJECTED – but this did give me an idea for a new reality show we could release on YouTube to drum up money, see me in my office which is build inside of an abandoned novelty factory. -J)
Scheme from N. Armitage: “Tell Batman to meet you at a specific location with lots of hints that something sinister will happen. When he shows up, shoot him with a gun.” (REJECTED – what a novel idea, you’re really going places, please meet me in my office where you are definitely getting a promotion and lots of presents. -J)
Scheme from L. Washington: “What Are You Playing.” (REJECTED – Harley took my Switch when she went to live with her girlfriend so I’m not playing anything, this is so sad alexa play despacito -J)
Bonus question: What’s your favorite movie in the past two decades that you unironically love which was critically lambasted? (Yes, we’re doing xkcd’s “Unpopular Opinions” bit here.)
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Gonna try to get in some Pokemon Go time, but I’m hanging out with a whiny dog at Japanese festival on Saturday and he’ll probably make me carry him because he’s old. Ah well. Maybe that’ll give me karma for a shiny Rayquaza.
Favorite critically disliked movie in the past 20 years? Maybe Watchmen or Venom. Can’t remember how critics viewed Watchmen but I remember the fan reaction and I was on the wrong side with them. Pitchforks down, please! Also, Venom was fun.
Andy McAdams: Keeping in the Final Fantasy XIV – going to try and shift gears to some gathering and crafting this weekend. I might boot up Legends of Aria or Albion Online for some sandboxy fun too, but we’ll see.
Bonus: I’m kind of notorious for liking terrible movies. We’ll go with “The Core” because that was movie was so unbelievable, but for some reason I loved every second of it.
Ben Griggs (@braxwolf): I’ll probably pop into The Elder Scrolls Online a couple of times for the Orsinium event. Gotta bow to my impulse to collect those Indrik tickets! Besides that, I’ll probably continue leveling my Japanese cruiser line in World of Warships and eradicating goons in RAGE 2.
I’m not sure if this movie qualifies since it has a 58% metacritic score, but I used to love the Nicolas Cage/Sean Connery film The Rock from 1996. Watched now, it certainly has the distinct feel of those 90’s action films, and Cage’s acting is a bit cheesy but Ed Harris is still brilliant as the sympathetic villian. I’d watch it again without hesitation.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I have no choice: I gotta be in Star Wars Galaxies Legends getting the Yavin carnivore meat. It’s server best. It caps all my food. I need to farm it until I can’t stand it. (I already can’t stand it, but yeah, still need it!)
I spent a solid 20 minutes surfing articles like this trying to even think of something that was outright critically panned. Turns out I just haven’t seen enough true garbage beyond MST3K. It’s probably something like Attack of the Clones, which is kinda terrible, but I also still kinda like it and wish it were just Obi-Wan playing detective the whole time.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): After a brief interlude on Friday evening, it’ll be the usual FFXIV for me, although I am starting to branch out a little bit more into as-yet-undetermined titles. Hey, I’ve cleared all my sidequests and we’re now on to the slower part of leveling everything. Cut me a little slack here.
One of my favorite aspects of the way that movies exist is that I can frequently see films with middling-to-bad critical scores that are really entertaining to me while also understanding why these films didn’t score well. Power Rangers, for example, wasn’t something I would call a good film, but it had a lot of ideas, a genuinely fun retake on the original premise, and felt new and fresh. Jupiter Ascending is the kind of bonkers worldbuilding that makes me immediately want seven more films and a miniseries about this weird universe. And I will never not love the absolutely raucous and bizarre comedy of Let’s Go To Prison, a film that swings big for black comedy, misses some marks, but takes a lot of shots that land solidly in absurdist hilarity.
Mia DeSanzo (@neschria): I am hip deep in both Aura Kingdom and Riders of Icarus right now. I am in a holding pattern for Neverwinter and No Man’s Sky next week. I also need to clean house, do laundry, and work on my non-gaming projects. Too many things to do, not enough me to go around.
The last 2 decades, eh? All my favorite movies involve things exploding and/or people getting eaten, and those generally aren’t the darlings of critics.
Samon Kashani (@thesamkash): I’m going to keep on with Guild Wars 2 festivals and play some Legends of Aria hopefully. I really want to play more Crowfall this weekend too but I’m not sure if I’ll make the time for it.
I actually liked the whole Matrix trilogy, even Revolutions. Give them a pass on special effects, they were doing their best! I enjoyed it totally.
Tyler Edwards: Continuing my D&D campaign based on The Secret World and probably playing more of Anthem’s Cataclysm content.
Most movies I love are critically lambasted, so that could be a long list. If we’re picking a single favourite, Star Trek: Nemesis. It’s the best Trek movie out of the whole franchise. Fite me.
Every Saturday, join the Massively OP community and staff for What Are You Playing, our roundup of what MMORPGs and other games we’re hoping to play this weekend (with a bonus question or two for our amusement). Tell us what you’re up to! Go off-topic! And don’t forget to have fun!
