Author: Savior699

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Lil’ Guardsman Xbox Review

Lil’ Guardsman is the newest release from my friends over at Hilltop Studios publishing and the great people over at Tinybuild Versus Evil, and once again they were kind enough to toss me a review copy of the game. Huge shout out to them for once again trusting me with top secret information. (I mean video games)

 

First thing I want to get out of the way is that Lil’ Guardsman is above all a narrative based game. You won’t be swinging swords or hurling magic etc. You will spend most of your time in a guardhouse using your tools and common sense to decide who can come into the town and who can not.

 All of these decisions matter however. Let the wrong person in and it can end the game early, it is also completely possible to say the wrong thing and have your guardhouse burned down. I discovered this when I decided screwing with the very obvious arsonist went wrong.

One of the many machines you can use in this game is a truth serum that will make people tell you exactly why they are coming to your town, sort of. Later in the game you may or may not come across people that can resist it. (you will) and you will need a crystal to use each tool. These aren’t hard to come across but you wont get enough to power every tool every day or multiple times so make your choice on who and when to use them count.

The story itself is what matters here. The graphics are nice and perfect for what we are playing here and the sound is great. But the part that matters is the story, and honestly between the interesting story and the cute and hilarious dialogue this game is a great 9/10. I loved my time with this one and have no issue recommending it to others, with one small note. If you have never played or enjoyed a narrative game before, this is one of those rare games that could change your mind. It isn’t hard to get into or understand and there is plenty of reason to try new things. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rising Lords Xbox Review

Rising Lords is another game Deck13 was cool enough to send me and it’s honestly another game I sank far more time into than I expected. With the help of Argonwood they have crafted a beautiful,if not slightly flawed, strategy game.

I love the world map

Rising Lords is a strategy game through and through and comes with a couple of game modes (and a tutorial). I spent most of my time in the custom games after I finished the tutorial because I found the story a bit difficult to learn the ropes in,but honestly that could just be a me issue. It is also worth noting the game comes with a full multiplayer mode but I never got the chance to dig into it prior to this review.

The game plays as you would expect with you controlling a small town and it’s peasants. Every 250 population gets you a new peasant that you can use to work fields, work the blacksmith or any number of other things to keep your resources like food,wood or iron coming in.

When the time is right however you are going to want to build an army to spread your influence around. This will let you have an easier time collecting the things you need. (some things aren’t even available in every area it seems) Luckily it is very easy to send things from one town you own to another so even if you end up in a position like I found myself in where one town had more food than I would really need but another town starving you cam easily ship it over.

Combat is also very well done with a sort of rock paper scissors way of units being better against some than others with the terrain also playing a big part. Take your knights charging through a swamp into some spearmen and it’s going to be a bad day even when you out number the enemy almost 2 to 1. Use those same knights to catch some peasants or swordsmen on the plains and they will make quick work of them.

The graphics are great for what they are aiming for and I couldn’t ask for more from the sound. You will notice I’ve only had one complaint so far and it wasn’t the controls,which is intentional. The controls have come a long way on console for this sort of game and this is no exception. While the mouse and keyboard will probably always be king for strategy games, console developers have hit a point where I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

This game is an easy buy for strategy game fans and even the slight balancing issues in the story mode aren’t anything to worry about. Definitely check this one out,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Knock at the Cabin Movie Review

Knock at the Cabin is probably the first Dave Bautista movie I have seen that wasn’t in some way an action movie. I wasn’t really sure what to think going into this but it looked interesting.

M. Night has a way of making 2 types of movies, great and why the hell did I waste my time watching this,and I’m happy to say this one falls into the pretty great category because it doesn’t really force you into making any decisions, while also making you feel for both sides of what should be,and is, a crazy situation.

The movie starts off with a little girl named Wen catching grasshoppers outside of the cabin her family is vacationing in. This is when Leonard (Dave B) makes his entrance and instead of his usual style he is simply shown as a very big man walking in the woods.

He sits down and talks to Wen and quickly we discover this soft spoken giant of a man is here on a mission,one he is not happy to be on. We discover Wen has 2 fathers and when asked how she felt about it she basically tells me she loves her dad’s and it’s only when people try to hard that she becomes uncomfortable with them asking about it. (This is obviously done in little kid language) Leonard quicky tells Wen to remember no matter what happens when his associates arrive, he is her friend above anything else.

Things quickly take a turn when they are forced to break into the cabin and let this family know that one of them must be sacrificed to avoid the apocalypse. The rules are simple. Nobody can leave the cabin, this family must make the choice themselves, and they must also make the sacrifice themselves.

What follows is a weird ride if it is true or isn’t it true, discovering one of these 4 may or may not be the homophobic man that attacked one of the fathers in the bar which is what caused this man’s distrust of people and some tastefully done death scenes.

The movie is very well crafted to make you think instead of trying to catch your interest with blood and gore. At times I even found myself questioning the gay couples motives for not making the choice as it becomes more and more clear this may not be some cult sort of thing.

This brings me to Dave’s performance as Leonard. He was phenomenal and even when I felt he was in the wrong for even being there,I wanted to see him win. This also brings me to what you rarely see in movies. Without giving away the end of the movie, neither side is right or wrong in many ways. I found the whole thing interesting. I definitely recommend checking it out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rising Lords Releases January 18th

Rising Lords, the exciting, turn based, all encompassing turn based strategy title, developed by Argonwood and published by Deck13 Spotlight, is only days away from its launch on PC Steam as well as Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch later this month!


Participate and Grow

Experience and become immersed in the mediaeval and exciting world of Rising Lords as you assume the role of a Lord endeavouring to rise through the ranks and gain more power throughout the kingdom. Battle with other lords, increase production, resource gathering, diplomacy and treason, tax and rations, and much more. A variety of modes to explore include campaign/multiplayer, quick battles which will deploy a vast array of strategic acumen.



Rising Lords’ unique blend of card/board style turn based presentation and intricate gameplay conveys a lavish and ambient feel in a digital game experience that will leave gamers happy and will even capture many new players who are unfamiliar with this – cross genre experience.


Twisted Metal season 1

So I know I am a little late here but I FINALLY got around to watching the Twisted Metal show on Peacock. I have to be honest much of what they chose to do I didn’t really expect but I still loved it.

The story is about John Doe, who drives his car Evelyn on delivery jobs. This is known as being a Milk Man. Interestingly in the Games John Doe drives the car Roadkill, but this show takes place prior to the Twisted Metal tournament. The object of season one is to get from New San Francisco to New Chicago and back.

On his journey he will meet a ton of people and groups,some from the game tho many of them have interesting takes to them. For example Mr. Slam earned his name not because he drives a piece of heavy machinery and slams people but because slams his massive dick into fruit as a show for the people in his bar.

There is also an original character named Quiet,and she makes a nice counter character to John because he never shuts up. I really enjoy Stephanie Beatriz alongside Anthony Mackie as they have great chemistry.

Another character that surprised me with how well he was done was Sweet Tooth. Physically he is played by wrestler Samoa Joe and this is done great,his mannerisms truly come off as insane. Will Arnett does an equally great job in the voice. And I truly enjoy that he isn’t psycho just to be psycho,if you pay attention his actions actually make a weird sort of sense.

All in all the 10 episodes are all worth watching and with Season 2 just confirmed to be in the works, it’s a great time to check this out if you haven’t already. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Outlands: Child of Wrath Comic Review

Not long ago I received an email from Patrick Hockey Jr. from Legacy Comix asking if I would be interested in checking out an upcoming one shot comic they had coming up. It is hopefully launching a new series and ties into a trilogy of books. They involve a group of misfits just trying to survive in a sort of world where there is really nothing but suffering and injustice,in one of the last cities on earth.

The Outlands:Child of Wrath is short, only 8 pages. But it gives you a glimpse into this world they are building. The city’s name is Dios,and it only has two rules. 1. Don’t stand up and 2. Don’t stand out. And you learn very quickly the punishment for breaking these rules is death.

Darius Karr dares to question someone called “The Patriarch” about why if they are blessed why do they suffer so much. This results in Darius being executed, and Vic swearing to avenge his father.

Where the story goes from here I do not know, but I am truly hoping to find out. The city of Dios is intriguing and the story does a great job of giving you just enough to get you interested, without giving away so much as to ruin the stories it is supposed to be connecting. So definitely follow the link below and check out their website. (Savior Gaming does NOT receive any compensation for purchases you make and are simply supplying the link as a courtesy to readers)

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Beware: Children at Play

For starters this 1989 slasher is niche as niche gets,I had never even heard of it until @torstenvblog told me about it,which is how we spent New Years Eve, watching Beware: Children at Play.

The movie starts off setting up the soon to be story, a Dad and his son just vacationing in the woods, until dad steps on a bear trap and after days in the woods dies in front of his son.

The rest of the movie focuses on a sheriff and a writer trying to solve the mystery of the disappearing kids in the area. Later you will discover that the missing children are actually cannibals eating people.

The movie itself is,well it’s bad. The acting looks like something from a bunch of high school students who were forced to perform a play and had no real interest in theater. The effects even for the 1980’s not only didn’t look good some made no sense,for example a guy being chopped in half with a scythe but there being no blood on the ground or the weapon. Also fair warning, a trigger warning if you will, there is a sex scene that is basically a rape scene.

The dialogue as well is far from even decent. The movie is however greatly entertaining and I will say the ending itself is probably one of the most ballsy I have ever seen in a movie. The good news is tho you can just watch it on YouTube,which I have shared below. So please go and enjoy this abomination,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Loot River PS5 Review

Loot River from Supershot and Straka.studio is a new rougelike that combines the fun and difficulty of one more run and Tetris. I originally played this on Xbox Gamepass. They were awesome enough to toss me a copy of the PS5 release full of new updates, such as the level editor.

Sometimes it’s best to move and lure enemies

The game style is pretty nice, you start each run at level 1 and collect different currency that can be used to unlock different weapons to be used on runs. The game is also quite honest that you need to spend these before you die, because if you don’t you lose it all. Luckily the game is quite forgiving and let’s you spend part of it to unlock weapons at a time and you don’t need to save it all up at once.

The combat is simple to get into,and you can easily take advantage of the Tetris like aspect to move in,hit an enemy and move out or even simply lure a weaker enemy onto your raft. This is good because like many that are simple to get into,mastering it is a monumental task.

You do have to ask tho if this is worth undertaking,and the answer is yes. While the story leaves much to be desired in my opinion,the fun I had playing the game was well worth it. The sound is nice,and the accessibility options were fantastic. If you want to see all the possible ways a section can move,there’s an opinion for that. Want to make countering easier, there is an option for that. Want to make the game as hard as possible,they have you set. The base difficulty however all on its own is fair but challenging.

Bosses are a challenge,but in the best way.

Graphically the game won’t be winning any awards,but I can’t think of a better way to attempt this great idea of a hybrid game. And while it won’t win any awards it does look good,and the sound really lends to the gritty feel of certain levels. Without a doubt this game is a 8/10. For the $25 dollar price point it is worth picking this up for rouge like fans. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Born of Bread PS5 Review

Dear villagers recently released,and hooked me up with a review copy of the adventure RPG ,Born of Bread. To say I had high hopes for this game would be an understatement. If you have ever seen or played Paper Mario, you know what to expect graphically or even from the gameplay.

To those that don’t want to know anymore but want to know if the game is any good, just go pick this game up. It’s amazing,and worth every penny of it. For those that want more details (spoiler free) keep reading.

If you are familiar with the paper graphics of games like Paper Mario,that’s what you will get here. This game is beautiful. You will not be disappointed here.

The gameplay is also typical RPG here. It’s all turn based, with button timing for hits and defense as attacks happen. Some of them are as simple as hitting the button when it gets into the green zone, others are more of the guitar hero button commands of hit this button when they pass this section. It functions very well and there is enough variety to keep it interesting without becoming repetitive.

The story, is also fantastic. You start with a chief that attempts to make a special loaf of bread for the queen,and he turns out to be a real boy. This happens as an evil is released into the world and it comes to you to stop them,mostly because you wanted to save your “father” (he is more like a creator) from the queen that wrongly arrested him for blowing up part of the castle.

Leveling up is simple, you get experience,level up and you can choose one of three things to increase.

Health is self explanatory,and will is essentially your ability to use special attacks. Resolve is special abilities that are specific to a certain person and have very specific purposes such as healing or increasing your defense.

You can also choose a sort of points card that will lead to the ability to carry more items or equip more accessories for battle so to speak. Both are important and you can’t really choose wrong.

There is also a sort of hidden game of collecting sleeping lizards,and every 2 you find can be returned to a specific person and you will get SP that can be used to learn new attacks for your friends and completing a row will also give them a boost in their HP.

The game is a master class in how to recreate a gaming experience that people love while making it your own. You can see the creators loved the Paper Mario series, but they didn’t try to replicate it step by step. This leads me to my one real complaint. Each friend has an ability to use on the map to solve puzzles, but switching between characters requires going into the menu to do so,and when you have to do this multiple times it gets annoying. However if this is the biggest complaint for a game, that isn’t a bad thing and that is my only real complaint. The game is a great 9/10 and worth anyone buying. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.