It’s exciting. It’s impactful. And most importantly it keeps the cringe-worthy romantic mishaps of kid’s television’s worst love triangle to a bare minimum.

Episode 11 debuted on Nick.com two weeks after a myriad of executive decisions and poor planning saw the series yanked off of Nickelodeon’s Friday night line-up and off the air, apparently for good. However series creators vow the show will not only finish out the entirety of its season online, but season 4 will return as well. In what forms is unknown.

‘Ultimatum’ is the highlight of the season, and in my opinion the entire series. Pitting the revolutionary Red Lotus team against Avatar Aang’s trio of kids, the episode provides well choreographed action and stakes for the audience to care about. It’s the most sense this world and its characters have made without the original cast being front and center.

In the past the series has tried to convey an overall theme of a world coping with new ideals and technologies while grappling with leadership from a nearly all-powerful super entity in the background, but it has arguably never managed to make it this interesting to watch. Zaheer and his cast of misfit expert Benders are a great change of pace from the antagonists of the past.

The mystery surrounding their goals don’t interfere with the believability of their actions. The audience may not know what they want, but they know that they’ll apparently do anything possible to attain it.

The irony is not lost on me that the best episodes of this series are when the namesake is most absent. When the new Avatar is in the background, my interest tends to rise. The Avatar Wan two-parter last season was a highlight amidst a rather dire showing, and the entirety of the new regular cast was MIA in that.

Prior to this season we knew Katara was still kicking, but this one gave us recurring appearances of former Firelord Zuko and a name drop of Toph Beifong. We also learned that the Southern Water Tribe was graced by the leadership of the number one Chief Sokka as well!

This series hasn’t been perfect, and the circumstances around its handling by Nickelodeon have been far from ideal, but finally this season has allowed me to be less critical and just enjoy the ride. It’s not Avatar Aang. It’s not even Avatar Plop Plop (a fan-fictional baby Avatar that a friend of mine made up before seeing Wan last year). But we can only hope whatever new lease on life the show has found online keeps it afloat long enough for us to get more material of this caliber.

One way to ensure that is to show support. I don’t believe watching the show on Nick.com with Adblock turned off will do much, but purchasing episodes or DVD/Blu-ray of this season on Amazon sure will.

Do it for Aang!

The post The Legend of Korra 3×11 Reinforces return to form appeared first on Couch Campus.

What is it like moving from a light-hearted comedy like We Need Girlfriends to a much darker piece?

It is a bit of a difference. Same basic approach, but instead of laughing after a take or being able to goof around a little more on set, the atmosphere is what you would imagine. A little … darker. Add to it that WNG filmed mainly in the spring and summer and The Eve was filmed in the dead of winter, with the lowered temperature, the snow and sleet, and the silence all around, it adds to a slightly more ominous atmosphere.

How would you compare your characters? 

Comparing Rod to Harry? They both share a passion for what they do, but I would say that Rod is imbued with confidence while Harry is easy to rile up and though he tries to be confident, it is a facade. Rod… probably would not know what the word facade means.

Can you tell us what The Eve is about?

The Eve centers around four friends that travel out to Martha’s Vineyard to spend New Year’s Eve. The house is isolated far down a dirt road in the middle of the woods, in cold ass winter. It is desolate and alone, and well, bad things start to happen. What starts as a trip to reconnect with old buddies turns into a fight to survive the night.

You wrote the script, so is it safe for us to assume you survive?

Nothing is ever safe to assume. The script was written to play out as people would really react. There are no action heroes. These are reactions that you or I might take if we were in this situation. Things don’t always turn out as expected.

Though I wrote the script, it is written with the best story we could tell in mind. Maybe my character does survive; maybe none of them do. I guess you’ll just have to watch it to see.

On a scale of Scary Movie 5 to The Exorcist, how many hours of sleep will I lose after having seen this?

It depends where you fall on a scale of me to fellow producer Angel Acevedo. If you fall on my side, you may sleep with the lights on for a few days. If you side more with Angel, a horror buff, then you’ll probably be fine. To note, I may or may not have literally jumped off the couch in surprise while I was watching Aliens.

What are some of the challenges that come with working in the horror film genre?

The biggest low-budget horror film challenge was balancing the amount of action you want in the film with the number of days and equipment you have. Going from day to night shoots, battling changing weather conditions, and trying to make the best movie possible with what you have is insanely challenging. Looking back, I am not sure how we got through some days, but we did. We worked as a team, and we got some really amazing footage out of it.>

Another big challenge was finding time to sleep. We shot days and nights, and though we stuck to turnaround times, the work of a producer/writer is never done and we had many late night meetings. I definitely fell asleep in the middle of on-going activity at one point.

How can readers get a chance to view The Eve? 

Readers can follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/TheEveMovie) or on Twitter (@TheEveMovie). They can also check out our homage series of movie posters on our Website, TheEveMovie.com. We will be releasing a teaser trailer in the near future and just might be in a festival near you very soon!

The post The Eve – Interview with screenwriter Evan Bass appeared first on Couch Campus.

During a Reddit AMA a Naughty Dog developer alluded to their next game and the company’s recent rumblings.

This isn’t as far as a stretch as you might think. In Uncharted 3, newspaper headlines hinted at The Last of Us before we were made aware of its existence. Savage Starlight receiving a mention in collectible from in TLOU makes sense.

I’ll wager that we’ll see more from http://savagestarlight.com in the coming months.

UPDATE: Naughty Dog co-president Tweeted that there is no space game in the works. Oh, well…? Epic misdirection of the year?

The post Naughty Dog’s next title is scifi, awesome and Savage? -UPDATED appeared first on Couch Campus.

Think of everything you love about Grand Theft Auto, multiply that by a few hundred, and then you have Rockstar’s latest creation; Grand Theft Auto V – a game of such large scale is difficult to breakdown in a single review due to the sheer depth of what’s available to do in the world of Los Santos. It’s been practically five years since the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, with the odd DLC here and there in between, and its safe to say – the wait was well worth it.

The game startswith a prelude involving Michael and Trevor, two of the main playable characters, which takes place during a heist 9 years prior to the actual games events – essentially this is a glorified tutorial, enabling players to familiarize themselves with the various gameplay mechanics.

That is just a small part of the narrative, the game revolves around the lives of all three characters, which eventually relate to each other in some way or the other. There’s Michael – the once serious criminal, now turned family man, Trevor – a meth dealing red neck who isn’t quite all there in the head, and finally Franklin – the stereotypical gangster who wants more than dealing petty drugs in the hood.

Each character has a unique ability – Michael’s shooting can be enhanced, Trevor is able to conflict more damage whilst reducing damage taken, and Franklin is able to drive with superior driving skills, making chases and races much easier.

There is so much to do in this massive environment, from little things such as getting a tattoo or playing tennis, to finding yourself in intense gun-battles, torturing someone for information, or taking place in heart-pounding illegal street races at max speeds.

Missions start off at a pretty slow pace just like previous games, eventually moving onto far more complex tasks that reward you much more, you’ll start doing things such as delivering cars, helping out friends, then you’ll finally do your first heist job – one of the most distinguishing features of the game.

Heists allow you to earn a lot of money as long as you have the right preparation – before performing a heist, players must go through various tasks including finding the right getaway vehicle, hiring the appropriate people for each part of the job, and so on.

The amount of money earned at end all depends on you – there is a time frame in which you are able to steal lucrative items shall we say, if you’re not quick enough, only a small amount of cash will be rewarded, however if you manage to actually steal every item available, expect a large deposit in your virtual bank account. Using the option to replay missions comes in handy here, especially if you don’t do so well on your first try.

Some missions won’t be so straight-forward, and will actually make you continuously switch between characters depending a part of that particular mission, for example Michael could be planting sticky bombs on a boat, Franklin could be keeping watch from a building in the distance with a sniper rifle, whist Trevor waits around in the getaway car preparing to pick the other two up – this is definitely something new in the series and it should be welcomed with open arms as it proves for extremely entertaining gameplay and a sense of real teamwork.

Core gameplay mechanics are generally good, driving vehicles feels a lot easier, the cover-shooting system works well, especially in gang fights, but the option for auto-aim makes the game way too easy – you can literally shoot every enemy without practically no manual aiming – of course there are options to turn off auto-aim, it depends how much of a challenge you really want.

Each characters stats can be upgraded by performing certain tasks i.e. reaching top speeds, playing sports, swimming – almost everything you do will effect stat progression in some way or another, this reminds me of San Andreas, only more advanced.

There is so much to talk about in terms of gameplay – the rampage missions we’re familiar with, taking part in triathlon events (actually more fun than it sounds), teaching your dog “Chop” new tricks, taking part in random events – giving you the option to hunt down criminals who have mugged citizens, and either keeping the money if giving it back like a decent human being. I usually keep the cash for myself.

From the very first GTA, music and the radio stations have played an important part, adding not only entertainment whilst playing, but also giving the series a sense of uniqueness – GTAV has a total of 16 radio stations, offering rap, punk rock, reggae, heavy metal, and so forth, catering for almost everyone’s music tastes.

The graphics are visually pleasing – riding through the greenland with the sun on the horizon is actually really relaxing and takes you away from the chaotic life of San Andreas temporarily – for the most part, the visuals are fantastic, although there’s lack of detail in some places due to such a large sandbox, which is completely understandable.

Each area of the enourmous map has its own personality, for example the rundown ghettos (including the infamous Grove Street) have their own look; chain linked fences surrounding cramped housing conditions, with gang members dotted around the place, whilst the upper-class suburban locations offer large expensive houses, perfectly catered for gardens, and trendy cars driving by almost constantly.

The sheer scope of this game is incredible, Rockstar have created something that will be played for years to come, just like past titles in the series are, having all three characters narratives play out is such a simple, yet effective way to improve the series – offering fantastic and entertaining gameplay, beautiful visuals, humorous themes, and a rich world offering so much to players, this game is truly epic in every sense of the word

The post Grand Theft Auto V Review appeared first on Couch Campus.

This is in conjunction with the recent news that Amazon could launch a new console by years end, initially thought to be rivaling the Ouya.

So, does this mean Amazonians could be getting some story driven, high production value titles console gamers are used to instead of the traditional App store shovelware? Only time will tell.

The post Halo, Gears writer Eric Nylund joins Amazon Games Studio appeared first on Couch Campus.

The two models would seem diametrically opposed. One model sees the game disc as an actual physical product, while the other sees the disc as an installer for a game license that is digitally owned.

Microsoft announced that the Family Sharing plan that would allow up to 10 Xbox Live friends to have access to your games, providing only one of them was playing one game at any given time, would be removed. However our sources tell us that this may not be a permanent change, and that a more balanced solution for both consumers and publishers is being worked on.

As recent developments show, the Xbox One’s policies are constantly in a state of flux.

The post Family Sharing may return to the Xbox One appeared first on Couch Campus.

The third Infamous series entry looks to be in the Playstation 4’s launch window sometime before or around March 2014.

Check out this brand new Infamous: Second Son gameplay footage.

The post Infamous: Second Son Gameplay appeared first on Couch Campus.

The post Microsoft & Sony E3 Conference impressions appeared first on Couch Campus.

It’s been hard going for me as a Final Fantasy fan since Sakaguchi got the axe. I haven’t gotten an enjoyable sequel since entry number X. I’ve been less looking for them to make a compelling Final Fantasy game and leaning more towards them making an attractive game whatsoever. XV looks like it could be their strongest contender.

Square Enix revealed that the game was in development for both Playstation 4 and Xbox One with no release date given.

Here’s the trailer for Final Fantasy XV:

The post Final Fantasy XV transforms the franchise appeared first on Couch Campus.

Telltale subsequently Tweeted that the game would be coming to Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC/MAC, and iOS this summer. Here’s some screenshots.

UPDATE: DLC is scheduled to release in July at $4.99 (or roughly over a penny per day!).

Also here’s the trailer from IGN showing off The Walking Dead 400 Days.

The post The Walking Dead 400 Days DLC revealed appeared first on Couch Campus.