Tag Archives: Video Games

Primal premieres with two episodes on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on July 21, 2022.

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal is back and it is as violent and engrossing as ever. The show continues to be in a unique position in American animation: an adult-oriented animated show that is not a comedy, is devoid of dialogue, and has a penchant for bloody carnage, with exquisite animation and sound design, all while bringing us drama that pulls at the heartstrings as hard as anything This Is Us does. New this season is an overarching story that has Tartakovsky playing with serialized storytelling and the result is unlike anything else currently on TV.

Like Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack, Primal is set in an anachronistic prehistoric Earth where cavemen not only coexist with dinosaurs and monsters, but also early civilizations, witches, and the Picts. The show focuses on the relationship between Spear and Fang, a caveman and a female T-Rex that bonded over their tragic losses and set out to explore a world of cruelty and savagery.

Where the first season focused on telling standalone stories exploring different facets and monsters that inhabit this world, Season 2 has bigger ambitions. If you haven’t rewatched the Season 1 finale since it aired two years ago, you should rectify that. This season’s opener, Sea of Despair, picks up right where we left off, with Spear and Fang shouting out in anger and, well, despair over their friend Mira being kidnapped and taken away by slavers on a ship. That being said, even if there is an overarching story connecting the first two episodes, so far this is not like a Netflix show meant to be binged at once. Tartakovsky understands that serialization doesn’t have to come at the loss of good standalone episodes, and the first two episodes of the season can be enjoyed separately.

This is in no small part due to the focus remaining solely on Fang and Spear, and their relationship is as bonkers and entertaining to watch as ever. They have an “old married couple” dynamic that leads to hilarious moments of bickering and roaring. Even if Primal toes with “a boy and his dog” tropes with its two leads, it never turns Fang into Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. Yes, Fang acts like a dog at times, playful and loyal to Spear, but she is very much still a dinosaur that can eat him alive, and she behaves like it. Spear, meanwhile, remains careful not to cross a line that would cause his companion to tear him apart.

There are few things on TV right now as satisfying as the sight of a caveman riding a T-Rex into battle, and watching the two fight together to shred their enemies to pieces continues to be a delight in Season 2. Tartakovsky and his team at studio La Cachette continue to push the boundaries of what 2D animation can do in exciting ways. Tartakovsky storyboards the two-episode premiere himself, and you can tell that he has a clear and concise vision for action choreography and timing that channels not only the bizarre pulpy imagery of Ralph Bakshi cartoons but also the aptitude for rhythm and timing of golden age Chuck Jones and Tex Avery.

These aren’t just your run-of-the-mill action sequences, but bone-crunching, flesh-tearing, eye-gorging, teeth-breaking carnage, where bodies of everyone from small fish to men to giant sharks are ripped apart, smashed to bits, and otherwise beat to unrecognizable pulps in poetic bursts of bright red blood.

More impressively, however, is the fact that the action always has weight to it. A problem in many animated action shows, but especially computer-generated ones, is that the action can feel weightless and devoid of impact. That is definitely not the case with Primal, which grants heft to every punch, and earns a visceral reaction from every broken bone and torn muscle. The storyboards give extra attention to making sure every muscle in the characters’ bodies moves in a way that supports their weight, and the creatures on the receiving end of the punches and bites move with the impact of a bite from a 15,000-pound T-Rex. This is aided by exquisite, crunching sound design that makes the pained grunts, the bone breaks, the ripped flesh, and ground-shaking roars engross you in a way no movie featuring dinosaurs has managed to do since the T-Rex tore through the original Jurassic Park.

Plus, the action is not there for action’s sake, but to further explore the savagery of the world and the toll it takes on Spear and Fang. They would rather do literally anything other than fight, but this is what the world pushes them to, and the show makes it a point to showcase the sadness in their eyes at having lost any semblance of a normal life. Primal manages to accomplish this without any lines of dialogue. That isn’t new for this series, but what is new this season is a sense of being out of time, with Spear and Fang encountering more advanced civilizations than they could have dreamt of, which expands the Conan the Barbarian-inspired pulpy world in fascinating ways. Most importantly, it uses these encounters with more advanced creatures to illustrate Fang and Spear’s realization that there is no place for them in a world that is slowly outgrowing savagery. They can’t find peaceful happiness or achieve a sedentary life, and that dawning truth is devastating.

Tartakovsky has tested the limitations of what 2D TV animation can do for over 20 years, but Primal shows that he is not done yet, pushing boundaries of genre, of animation, and of storytelling. The director and animator still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve, and our TVs are much better for it.

Today Dell is coming hot out the game with three excellent gaming PC deals. The Alienwa Alienware gaming PC has both RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 models at big discounts. The Dell XPS gaming PC has an Intel Core i7 Alder Lake with RTX 3080 model also on sale. All three configs get an additional $100 off with a stackable coupon code as well.

Alienware Auroa Core i7 RTX 3070 Ti PC for $1399

This is currently the best deal you’ll find for a gaming PC for $1400 or less. The RTX 3070 Ti is a 2nd generation RTX 30 series GPU and it sits right in between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. This card is about as good as it gets for high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p gaming. It’s not a huge upgrade from the RTX 3070 (non-Ti), but considering the fact that you probably won’t find an RTX 3070 (non-Ti) equipped gaming PC for any cheaper, this is a no brainer. It’s paired with a liquid cooled 11th gen Intel Core i7 unlocked processor, 16GB of DDR4-3200MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD,

Alienware Aurora Ryzen 7 RTX 3080 PC for $1539.99

The RTX 3080 is the card of choice for high refresh rate 4k gaming. It’s a powerful card that’s about 25% faster than the 3070 Ti and can easily handle any current gen game out at the moment. There are a few cards there are a bit faster, like the RTX 3080 Ti RTX 3090, and RTX 3090 Ti, but those cards don’t offer serious performance gains worth the much, much higher price point. It’s paired with the excellent AMD Ryzen 7 5800 processor and 16GB of RAM. Note that the storage drive included is a 1TB HDD; you should upgrade your boot drive to an SSD, whether it be through Dell or just picking up a cheap one yourself.

New 2022 Dell XPS Intel Core i7-12700 Alder Lake RTX 3080 Gaming PC for $1699.99

Dell is offering a big price drop on the new 2022 Dell XPS 8950 gaming PC with Intel Core i7 Alder Lake CPU and GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. The Alder Lake CPU is currently the king of gaming processors; it is significantly more powerful than any of the previous Intel CPUs before it and it eclipses all similarly priced AMD processors in gaming and (in most cases) workstation performance. Additionally, the new Dell XPS boasts an Intel Z960 chipset motherboard that supports the Alder Lake CPU, DDR5 RAM, and a PCI-E 5.0 bus for your RTX 30 series video card.

Newest Apple TV 4K for $129

This isn’t exactly as cheap as Amazon Prime Day of $109, but it’s still $50 cheaper than MSRP and the best price you’ll probably see for a while. The newest Apple TV features two major upgrades. It boasts an A12 Bionic processor that boosts graphics performance, video decoding, and audio processing and delivers high frame rate HDR with Dolby Vision. It also includes a new Apple TV remote. The overall build quality is better than before, but the biggest enhancements are a 5-way clickpad, mute button, and dedicated power button that works for your TV, receiver, and Apple TV.

ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 GPU From $799.99

The GeForce RTX 3080 GPU really doesn’t need any introduction. This is the de facto card to get if you plan to run current generation games at 4K, since it’s up to 50% faster than the previous generation RTX 2080 SUPER and doesn’t command the exorbitant price of the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 (both of which are a mere 3%-5% faster in real world performance). It has an HDMI 2.1 port for passing through 4K @ 120Hz, which it has the power to drive even in resource hungry games like Elden Ring, Battlefield 2042 or Cyberpunk 2077.

The ASUS ROG STRIX model is considered by many to be the very best RTX 3080 variant on the market. It’s usually hundreds of dollars more than the 3080 FE price. That’s in large part because of the incredible cooling potential of the massive 3-slot heatsink combined with the quietest triple fan cooling you’ll find on any RTX 3080. Despite the low noise levels, the ROG STRIX offers a significantly OC’ed 1890MHz boost clock compared o the stock 1710MHz boost on the 3080 FE. This model also comes with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM instead of the 10GB of VRAM that comes standard and most other RTX 3080 GPUs.

The ASUS TUF model is nearly as good! It also boasts a very large 3-slot heatsink with triple fan cooling and a protective metal backplate. It has a generous 1815MHz boost clock and comes with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM much like the ROG Strix model.

EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU Starting at $749.99

EVGA’s XC3 Ultra model is a “smaller” dual slot heatsink with triple fan cooling and a protective metal backplate. It has approximately similar dimensions as the 3080 FE, so it can fit in smaller or more restrictive cases. It boasts a modest 1755Hz Boost overclock compared ot the stock 1710MHz Boost on the 3080 FE.

EVGA’s FTW3 Ultra model comes equipped with a ridiculously large triple slot heatsink with triple fan cooling and a protective metal backplate. This amount of dissipation allows the card to run cooler and quieter than the reference model RTX 3080 FE. This also enables the FTW3 Ultra model to have a bit more aggressive 1800MHz Boost overclock. Lastly and certainly the least important detail, let’s not forget about the RGB lighting. There’s enough there to make this card stand out in both traditional and vertical orientations.

Zotac GeForce RTX 3090 GPU for $999.99

If you were to purchase this 3090 graphics card purely for gaming, even at this discounted price, I’d say your money would be better spent on one of the RTX 3080 deals above. You’d be saving at least $200 and losing only about 5%-10% in terms of performance. Although the RTX 3090 is indeed a best-in-class gaming card, it’s not really intended for gamers; it’s catered towards professional graphic artists, animators, modelers, software engineers, or data scientists who run render farms, intensive workstation applications like Maya or 3ds Max, or machine learning. The RTX 3090 is the workstation GPU of choice not because of its processing power (which it has in spades), but the amount of VRAM. The RTX 3090 comes with a massive 24GB of GDDRX RAM compared to the RTX 3080’s “paltry” 10GB-12GB. Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of games will not benefit from the increased VRAM, and that’s why it’s not the best purchase for the end gamer.

XPG S70 1TB M.2 SSD with Heatsink for $109.99

The XPG Gammix S70 Blade is the least expensive 1TB PS5 compatible SSD available right now. Just because it’s the cheapest doesn’t mean it’s the slowest. In fact, the S70 is actually one of the fastest SSDs available with transfer rates up to 7,400 MB/s. It’s on par with the likes of the WD Black SN850, the Samsung 980 Pro, or the Seagate Firecude 530. This is a PCIe Gen4 SSD that was pretty much released specifically for PS5 gamers in order to double or triple the storage capacity of their PS5 without limiting the speed. To make this deal even sweeter, it already comes with a very low-profile heatsink.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 16″ Intel Core i7-12700H Alder Lake RTX 3070 Gaming Laptop for $1599

Walmart is offering an outstanding deal on the new Lenovo Legion 5 Pro laptop that is also equipped with the 12th generation Intel Core i7 Alder Lake CPU and RTX 3070 GPU. The RTX 3070 GPU in this gaming laptop also has a TGP rating of 140W, and it performs as well as the MSI Crosshair on paper. In real world benchmarks, the Legion 5 Pro is one of the best performing gaming laptops on the market. It also looks more like a standard laptop, so you might want to pick this over the Crosshair if you’re not into the gamer aesthetic.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Free 12-Month Nintendo Switch Online Membership for $49.99

Nintendo Switch Online is automatically added to cart

Best Buy is offering a free Nintendo Switch Online 12-month individual membership when you purchase Super Mario Kart Deluxe 8 for $49.99. Nintendo Switch Online is required for online play in games like Super Mario Kart or Splatoon, downloading custom maps in Super Mario Maker 2, playing free retro SNES games, saving your game data to the cloud, and much more.

ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1660 Ti Gaming PC

Walmart is offering this AMD Ryzen 5 3600X GTX 1660 Ti equipped gaming PC for only $799. The GTX 1660 Ti is still a very capable video card that can handle just about any game at 1080p resolution. You certainly won’t find a more powerful video card for this price.

New Apple AirPods Pro for $179.99

The current generation Apple AirPods Pro is one of the best sounding “truly wireless” earbuds you’ll find, especially at this price point. “Truly wireless” earbuds have no wires whatsoever; even the earbuds aren’t hardwired to each other. In addition to the excellent sound quality, the AirPods Pro is the only AirPods with active noise cancelling technology. That, combined with the inherent nature of in-ear earbuds, means that the AirPods Pro will provide better noise isolation than over-ear headphones like the Bose QuietComfort or the Sony WH1000XM5. If you’re thinking of getting a pair of new AirPods, we highly recommend jumping on this particular model.

PowerBlock Adjustable Dumbbells From $129.99

Currently Woot, which is owned by Amazon, is offering up to 40% off PowerBlock Sport adjustable dumbbells. The 25lb (per dumbbell) set is only $129.99 and the 50lb (per dumbbell) set is $239.99. They are as well built as the Bowflex and the specs are similar. The 25lb set can be adjusted in 3lb increments and the 50lb set can be adjusted in 5lb increments.. These sell out very quickly at Woot so if you’ve been eyeing a pair, you better not hesitate. Woot is owned by Amazon, so you can sign in with your Amazon Prime account to get free shipping.

Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda

Score a rare 20% off this popular little Zelda collectible. The Game & Watch is a miniature retro handheld game system that comes preloaded with The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. It’s very well designed with a vibrant full color 2.36″ LCD screen and intuitive control buttons, all in a tiny footprint that can even fit in your pocket.

Dell S2721DGF 27″ 1440p GSYNC Gaming Monitor

This excellent monitor has hit a new price low for Black Friday. It’s one of the best 27″ gaming monitors you can buy for under $500. The S2721DGF boasts a high quality IPS panel (better than the VA panel found on the popular S3220DGF model). It features wide viewing angles and excellent color rendition including 98% DCI-P3 color coverage, a super fast 1ms response time and up to 165Hz refresh rate through the DisplayPort. It’s also FreeSync Premium Pro and G-SYNC compatible.