Review: "Glee; All Or Nothing" (S. 4/ Ep. 22 2013) " Was This Episode All Or Nothing?"

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By: Jeff Lake

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It is an unfortunate time to be a Gleek. Mainly because the season is over and we were left on multiple cliffhangers of sorts. The season finale, titled All or Nothing was not exactly, all or nothing.


Will (Matthew Morrison) announces that regionals will be held in McKinley's auditorium this time around. Meanwhile, Brittney (Heather Morris) meets with professors at MIT about her odd ability to see patterns and numbers beyond what the normal mind can do, giving her the offer to become a MIT student as part of early enrollment.

This in turn goes to her head. She demands getting all the solos at regionals or she does not perform at all.


She only gets worst from here. Brittney does several vastly out of character things including breaking up with Sam (Chord Overstreet) via text in front of his face (exactly how that sounds).


The only Rachael scene of the episode. She has her final call back for Funny Girl, singing Celine Dion's To Love You More in order to try to earn her spot as the lead.

(Rachael has her final call back for Funny Girl, attempting to win them over with her rendition of To Love You More by Celine Dion.)


Blaine (Darren Criss) asks for Sam's advice about going about asking Kurt (Chris Colfer) to marry him, despite Blaine and Kurt not being a couple since Blaine cheating on Kurt way back in the beginning of the season, even though they hooked up at Will and Emma's (Jayma Mays) failed wedding. Glee can really be confusing when you miss a few moments. I was confused just trying to explain that.

Sue (Jane Lynch) returns for a couple of scenes this episode, teaming up with Will to try to bring Brittney back down to reality. This ultimately, fails. Sam calls Brittney's ex-girlfriend Santana (Naya Rivera) to come to New York to try and talk Brittney down as well. These two scenes were painful mostly because of these attempts at serious moments being surrounded by Brittney's webcam show Fondue for Two that has made me cringe every single time it comes up beyond the first time. I hope it does not come back next season.


Blaine meets a lesbian jeweler while picking out rings. Blaine, Kurt, the jeweler, and her life partney all go to Breadsticks in order to have dinner, and so that Blaine can see how a homosexual couple in love is when marriage is involved. Kurt drops the fact that Blaine and himself are not together, but Blaine is persistent in his love during the episode.


The moment I have been waiting at least many episodes for. Ryder's (Blake Jenner) love life and secret admirer problem. He pulls a Brittney, saying he will not perform at regionals unless Katie reveals herself. After angrily kicking several things, Marley (Melissa Benoist) confesses to be Katie, while Jake (Jacob Artist) gets in between the two.

Marley describes it as a joke gone way too far and Ryder storms out of the room. Later Ryder and Marley are walking down the hall, Marley is trying to explain the situation, however Wade (Alex Newell) confesses to be the “real” Katie. Ryder says that the two never had anything, and that he will never talk to Wade again.


At regionals Ryder tells Will he will perform tonight at regionals because it would be unfair to punish the whole club for one person's actions.

(Not a performance, but the emotion filled finale to one of the most annoying Glee plots ever, condensed into one youtube video)


And it is time for the performances!
The minor and could not care less about show choir group perform, followed by the actual threat to The New Directions, The Hoosierdaddies. They unleash their secret weapon that Will scouted out, a sophomore girl named Frida (Jessica Sanchez). The group performs the songs Clarity by Zedd and Wings by Little Mix.

(Clarity and Wings performed by the Hoosierdaddies.)
For a brief moment I thought they were an actual threat to The New Directions. But then Brittney rejoined the club after a heartfelt moment explaining how The New Directions are a dysfunctional family. She apologizes for her outburst and gets back together with Sam.


Now it is time for our heroes to kick some butt. Musically of course. Starting off with Hall of Fame by The Script, following that with I Love It by Icona Pop, before finishing their performance with an original song created by Marley, titled hopefully you guessed it: All or Nothing, bringing some of the older cast to tears. A short transition later and The New Directions have won this year's regionals.

(In order of performance, Hall of Fame, I Love It, and All or Nothing, The New Directions stand surprisingly tall at regionals)


The episode closes with Emma and Will having a quick and small marriage ceremony in the choir room, so that Emma won't freak out like last time. The two exchange vows, referencing an early episode of Glee when Will cleaned off gum from her shoe with a credit card.

The credits roll on the scene, just after we see Blaine holding a ring box behind him as he stands next to Kurt.


Our Honest View gives Glee; All Or Nothing S. 4/ Ep. 22 a 8.5/10.  It was a little all over the place/ A few plot points were left unsolved like the results of Rachael's audition. Also I am surprised and actually a little disappointed that The New Directions won. But Ryan Murphy and his writing crew know what they are doing (they are bringing in the big bucks after all). I am thinking that the next season will pick up right where they left off this season, as the cast heads towards nationals. All I know is that I cannot wait to see what happens when season five hits.

Review: "Defiance Demo" (2013) "Shooting MMOs From Televison To Consoles"

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While the PC gamers of the world have been enjoying MMO’s for a good long time now, console gamers have mostly been left out, with the few exception’s being Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI, and Everquest Online Adventures and of course DC Universe Online. While those have some good series behind them, none of those three were really any good.

Now along comes Trion games and their upcoming release Defiance.


Now many people are confused as to what Defiance is. Defiance is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) third person shooter, and also a TV series. One of the wrong assumptions out there is that you need to experience one to fully enjoy the other.

This is not true.

Both games take place at the same time, the year 2046 on Earth, but the TV show is set in St. Louis while the MMO is set in San Francisco. There will be crossovers between the show and the game, but while you might understand more if you watch the show and play the game, doing both is in no way required to fully enjoy either.

While many games have branched out into other forms of media, Defiance is the first to have crossovers to this extent. There are two characters that you run into early on in the game. When they leave the game they are driving away in a car, the first episode opens with those same two characters driving with the same clothes on and in the exact same vehicle. Another example is a character might be a villain on the show, leave the show and redeem themselves in the game, and come back to the show a changed person.

One of the cool things that has been mentioned as a possibility is that some of the top ranked players in the world might see their characters walking around in the background of the show. Also, one of the pesky enemies in the game, known as hellbugs, are prominently featured in an episode.
It somewhat hard to get a good grip on how good the game is going to be, even after playing the beta. There are several systems that aren’t fully in place, most notably the dialogue and sound effects. At one point I was playing and when this huge enemy bursts through a door, it basically said this sound effect is not in place yet: bang!


Graphics wise, like virtually all MMO’s, it will in no way be considered a visual marvel. It’s probably end up being strictly decent, but once again, since this is only the beta, not all of the finishing touches are in place. The last coat of polish has yet to be applied.


When you create your character, as of right now you can pick between male and female humans or voltans. Once you make that decision you can customize the look further, and then you your class. There are four classes to pick form, which are essentially soldier, sniper, etc.
Gameplay wise it is sort of like a cross between Borderlands and World of Warcraft. You are told to go somewhere to get a quest, it tells you what your rewards will be for completing the mission, and off you go. The actual action feels a little like a shooting gallery at this point. In the various battles that I got into, I never got that sweaty palmed intensity. It was never bad; it just lacked a certain intensity found in other blockbuster shooters. All the missions can be done on your own or with friends… or complete strangers for that matters. I did several missions alone, but there were also several missions where another player happened to be doing it at the same time and we teamed up. Clan support is included so if you want to team up with a bunch of your friends, it’s not a problem.

On the disappointing side, Defiance will not be cross platform.

By that I mean PS3 players won’t be playing with Xbox360 players, and neither of them will be playing with PC players. If you want to play this game with your friends, find out what system they are getting it for first.

Once the game launches, you will be able to buy a season pass, which includes the first five DLC’s, for forty dollars.


Our Honest View gives Defiance a 3.5 out of 5. Defiance is a game that shows potential. If Trion polishes it up and tightens up a few things, it has a chance to be a very good game and have it’s rating moved up to a 4.5 out of 5. It seems that current generation gamers may finally be able to join the PC playing brethren in the quality MMO world. Wait until the game comes out for our full review of the game.

By: Adam Zimmerman

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