It’s a brand new episode of The Flickcast. And this time, we’re not alone. 

That’s right, this week Chris and Joe welcome special guest Jason Inman. He’s an author, host, comic book writer, podcaster and Army veteran. Plus, he’s a great guy.

The three discuss Jason’s life growing up in Kansas, his time in the military and the development of his love for comics and writing. They also discuss other things including DC versus Marvel, Star Trek, first video game consoles and Jason’s dislike for Klingons.

They also talk about social media, fandom, the treatment of women in comics and entertainment and dealing with things during this weird time. They also get into life, family, the search for toys, talking to your kids about starting a YouTube channel and the first time he saw his comic for sale in a store. 

WARNING: This episode contains discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

We’re back baby!

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When movie makers started taking toy lines from twenty years ago and made it into movies like Transformers or G.I. Joe, the concepts at least made sense. But when Battleship was announced that it was coming to the big screen, the only thing more frightening than what would appear on screen was the chance that a game adaptation of the film might be made as well. Traditionally movie tie-in games are quick cash ins to coincide with the film’s release, a few exceptions being the much beloved Spider-Man 2 or X-Men Origins: Wolverine games. Now, a strategy game that started on a table top using red and white peg and miniature ships has made its way to the world of movie tie-in first person shooters.

Gameplay

Battleship consists of two main gameplay aspects. Where players will spend most of their time is in a traditional military FPS. While traversing the tropical beaches of Hawaii, players’ choices are limited to three human weapons, a pistol, a shotgun and a carbine, two alien weapons, one resembling a turret gun and another similar to a sniper rifle, and grenades. The lack of variety of weapons or just the sheer lack of different weapons is disappointing as it doesn’t feel like the game really gives a player the opportunity to progress and earn better items. In terms of control, the game moves and shoots in a fairly standard manner, not doing much to try and set itself apart from other shooter combat scenarios but still at least getting the basics right.

When I first heard there was going to be a movie based on the Battleship tabletop franchise, I was expecting some modern naval epic. Instead, like Michael Bay going to the Ninja Turtles, we got aliens. And now, seeing the game based off the movie off the game takes on a FPS perspective, we can’t help but watch with morbid curiosity at the potential insanity that could be brought to us.

It’s obvious that developer Double Helix Games, known for Silent Hill Homecoming, G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, were forced to tie in to the theme’s of the movie as opposed to the board game like the 1993 NES and SEGA Game Gear classic. But there is something unmistakably interesting about the premise behind the game, by association to the movie, that we can’t take our eyes off of it.

It could be the thought of combining Call of Duty and Halo style gameplay together on a modern locale like Hawaii. Or it could be the premise of a piece of our childhood being completely shattered like it was during the summer of G.I. Joe, Wolverine Origins, Transformers: Rise of the Fallen and Terminator: Salvation.

But, luckily, the Battleship tabletop game didn’t have characters that we could hold close to heart only to be torn from us. Instead, many people just remember the frustration of trying to program the damned Electronic Battleship that almost never worked as well in real life as it did in the commercial. So now, little white and red plastic pegs are replaced with high grade military grade weaponry in a FPS along with a tactical sea-based warfare game alongside it.