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Batman: Arkham City

arkham city

The follow up to Arkham Asylum royally kicked the notches up when it came to scope and gameplay, but it ain’t perfect. I would say Asylum was a 10/10, Knight a 9.5/10, and City a 9/10. By no means horrendous, but still my least favorite of the three.

The begins with a bang, Bruce Wayne is arrested during a press conference protesting the formation of Arkham City: a huge, contained part of Gotham acting as a massive prison for all of Gotham’s criminals from the common thugs to the Super villains. The head of Arkham City, Hugo Strange, knows Wayne’s true identity as he tells him how he will make Gotham a better, safer place without Batman with the mysterious Protocol 10. So it’s up to Batman to face off against a city in the clutches of a three way gang between Two-Face, Penguin, and a dying Joker who requires Bats help, injecting him with his own tainted blood to ensure Batman’s help. It’s a race against time to save the good, the bad, and the insane from Strange and his dark benefactor lurking behind the scene.

I love the story as it first stood. Arkham City the best rogues gallery of any batman game I’ve ever played facing off against Two-Face, Penguin, Mr Freeze, Clayface, Rhas al Ghul, Solomon Grundy, and Deadshot to name a few. Mark Hamil and Kevin Conroy are amazing as always as Joker and Batman, with all around great voice acting. The combat is much more fluid this time around and being able to add gadgets into my combos was friggin sweet; I loved the gliding mechanics for getting around Arkham City. Then we come into some issues with the Riddler and Catwoman. shit. The Catwoman sections on there own aren’t bad but I hate how they were integrated into the game after the Game of the Year edition came out which kinda kills the flow of the game for me. And the Riddler stuff ranges from cool to flat out, blood boiling annoying and oh there is a shit ton of it. So if you don’t like collecting shit- oh well. Another pet peeve is that find things to complete the side missions are a major pain at times. You either have to wait a lot or randomly find things along to continue them, which thank god they fixed the mission for Hush because that drove me crazy. Overall Arkham City is a really sweet game with some drawbacks but a lot of fun. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox

flashpoint paradox

Another great comic I wanted to read and one of Flash’s greatest stories that inspired much of season 3 of the show as well as rumor has it is looking up to being the focus of DCEU’s solo Flash movie.

We join Flash, Barry Allen, as he goes about his normal life as the Scarlet Speedster. Fastest man alive. Life is ok, but could be better. Barry’s driving force is the death of his mom Nora, the death that put his dad away for a murder he never committed. A conflict with Flash’s greatest nemesis, Eobard Thawne- Reverse Flash, brings Barry the oppertunity to have his dreams comes true: Thawne gives Barry the chance to travel back and save his mom. He takes the chance and saves her, causing one huge bitch of a paradox. Barry wakes up one day and discovers himself powerless but happy, but the world around him a dark mirror of itself on the brink of WW3 between Themyscira and Atlantis, where Bruce Wayne was shot dead in Crime Alley as a kid and Thomas Wayne became a malevolent, cruel Batman, and Superman was found by the US government instead of the Kents and experimented and locked away. Barry is powerless and alone, realizing his dream meant the suffering of millions.

I have to say this was my favorite DC animated movie so far. Batman was my favorite part, twisted and sad. If you love Flash or are one of those people who think comic books or superheroes can’t tell great stories, I urge you to check this animated movie out on Netflix. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Gotham by Gaslight trailer

gotham by gaslight

So it’s pretty safe to say DC’s first R rated animated film didn’t do so great despite Hamil and Conroy reprising there iconic voice roles as Joker and Batman. I’m seriously optimistic and pumped for Gotham by Gaslight. Gotham by Gaslight is a what if story about steampunk Batman tracking down the infamous Jack the Ripper. Already from the trailer we got, I love the scenery and art style. I always had a fondness and appreciation for Victorian era themes and scenery and to see Batman looking so down to earth and old fashioned is really cool. I’d love to read the graphic novel before the film comes. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Wonder Woman

wonder woman

Ok, so I feel like I’m really repeating myself here, but I’m not really a Wonder Woman fan but I did love the movie. After the movie, I’m willing to jump into her comics, so if anyone has any ideas where to start drop them in the comment box. Seriously, Gal Gadot was fantastic as Diana Prince and badass as hell as Wonder Woman. In what short of screen time she had in BVS, she stole the show from the titular men for me there and I’m glad to say I’d call her movie the best the DCEU has to offer so far.

Diana is an amazonian princess on the island of Themyscira, a paradise island inhabited by amazon women. Diana is not a average amazon however, she was forged from clay and brought to life by Zeus. She grows up a skilled warrior, possessing speed, strength, reflexes, and durability unmatched by any of her fellow amazons. But there is nothing to fight…until Steven Trevor crashes into the sea near the island. Diana races out to save him, in astonishment he is a man. Trevor brings trouble as war follows him and amazons are killed in the fighting. Diana is convinced the war in Trevor’s land is the work of Ares, the god of war. Rescuing him from confinement, taking the things that would be her costume, her and Trevor set off to Europe to fight World War 1 and Diana is off to kill Ares o end this great war to end all war…

Wonder Woman is the most refreshing superhero movie I’ve seen in a long time. Instead of being overly dark, overly bloated with sequel bait and universe building, and needlessly complex, the movie went back to a simple story done right focusing on characters, setting, and story. This is a gorgeous film to behold. The tone is extremely well balanced, knowing how to be serious and tragic when need be, but humorous and light hearted when need be to. A huge problem I had with the first Captain America movie was that I wished it was a more grounded in reality; Wonder Woman does feel much more grounded in a hard gritty war. The trench scene and her taking back the village is one of the most badass debut scenes I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie. The characters are well flushed out but the villains are kinda weak, especially Ares but nowhere as bad as they could be. Overall, I highly recommend Wonder Woman to fans of the genre or people that just want to see a cool movie. I hope writers in the future take note from this film. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes all.

Man of Steel

man of steel

So I’m not a huge Superman fan but I actually love this rendition of the Man of Steel (haha pun). I’m always more inclined to Darker representations or darker characters but for the first go around, I didn’t necessarily see this as a darker take but in a lot of ways a more human take on Superman.

So we get a pretty detailed, 15-20 minute prologue about the destruction of Krypton. Jor-El discovers his world is going to die, tries to tell the super wise elders and they ignore him because a rogue military leader named General Zod tried playing a coup against there government. In a last ditch effort, Jor-El placed the genetic codex of there world inside his newborn son Ka-El and he and his wife sent him off to Earth, where the sun was still young and strong. Zod murdered Jor-El and was captured, banished with his men to the Phantom Zone. Krypton died soon after. Kal landed in Kansas on the Kent farm in Smallville and yep. Well Clark Kent figured out he wasn’t normal, but he wanted to help people and hated that helping may out him to the world so after Pa Kent died, he searched for his own answers. While this goes on, reporter Lois Lane goes through hell tracking down this mysterious savior. Just when Clark begins to understand his true self, a ghost from his parent’s homeworld tracks him down with his army and a desire to rebuild Krypton anyway possible…

If you’re a Superman purist, you will probably fucking hate this movie. Henry Cavill is not Christopher Reeves, and isn’t the warm smiling, super goodie goodie he always seemed to be. He has understandable darker, human moments. He’s scared shitless as a kid when his senses begin tuning up, he’s pissed because he sees a group of guys try getting fresh with a waitress just trying to do her job, and at the end of the day he sat on his couch in a sweat shirt and jeans with a beer and watched the baseball game. For once, Superman was a regular guy to me. He still had a good heart but he was a regular guy, and I think Cavill did that well. I love Michael Shannon as a actor, I think he was great as Zod and he is my favorite DCEU villain to date. Amy Adams was a good Lois Lane but I didn’t buy some of the romantic stuff. I like the anime influences in the cinematography, like the DBZ feel of the fights and that moment before Superman takes flight; essentially Zod’s plan was the same as Lord Slug’s from DBZ The score is fine but can get annoying after awhile. Ok, so the ending really divides people, but I was fine with it.

Overall I really like the movie as a Superman movie. As for it being a universe movie, it does jack shit to establish a universe at play, adding to why the sequel Batman Vs. Superman was such a clusterfuck. If you enjoyed Man of Steel, I seriously recommend checking out Superman: Earth One volume 1, a lot of the movie came from there and it’s a cool book. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes. It’s good to be back.

Where did Torsten go?

where did I go

Hey everyone, I’ve returned after my successful takeover of Gromulous X-14 past Neptune but before Pluto…ok, not really but I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long. Pretty much I’ve been having some work, scheduling problems at my job that ain’t Saviorgaming and, sad to say, I’m a retail slave, it’s the holidays, and life is hell because of that. Also doesn’t help I got pretty sick too, but that I can get over. I’m sorry to say, I can’t do no more near as much for Justice League as I wanted to; I planned a huge extravaganza of DC coverage but even then, kinda pooped on me. BUT Savior and I will be going to the opening day and we should have our split reviews next day. Last thing I want to say, thank all of you for viewing our posts and continuing to come back; all of you are awesome. May the gaming gods bring you glory and check us out today…because those warlords I nerfed on Gromulous are pretty pissed.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

arkham asylum book

So to start off, yes this is the book that inspired the epic Arkham video games. If you’ve played the game as a fun fact, the Amadeus Arkham recordings from the game came from the book. Both are extremely good but the differences are pretty heavy, outside the fact one is a video game and one is a graphic novel.

So the graphic novel follows a night where Batman is called by Commissioner Gordon for a special problem: Joker is holding the orderlies of Arkham Asylum hostage and says the only person he will deliver demands to is the Batman. Against Gordon’s wishes, Batman ventures in, getting caught in Joker’s game. Game is simple, Batman has to survive a one night long game of hide and seek inside the asylum with the inmates loose, wanting a piece of the Caped Crusader that locked them away. As this story is being told, we recount the eerie, Poe like story of how the asylum’s founder Amadeus Arkham lost his mind and became twisted.

The game has a different touch to the plot. Batman captures Joker one night, taking him to the asylum, weary of how easy it was. Turns out Joker used Batman to get access to the asylum, where he has been having a new permutation of Bane’s serum Venom to be created, making goons into raging beasts. Alone it’s up to Batman to face the horde of crazed inmates, armed thugs, and villains and stop Joker from unleashing Titan on Gotham.

Either way you look at it, Arkham Asylum is an amazing story. The book is written extremely well by one of my favorite writers, Grant Morrison and the illustrations are freaky as hell and abstract. The book does well to draw tension. The game is one of the best games I’ve ever played with great graphics, addictive combat, and great returning voice performances by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, arguably the definitive Batman and Joker.There are very tense, eerie moments in the game and Scarecrow’s part scared the hell out of me first time I played it. Overall, I highly recommend giving either or a read or play through. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

scarecrow

Freddy Vs Jason (Jason’s side)

freddy vs jason

So, I know I’m skipping ahead a bit but me and Savior decided to join sides and debate who really hand the upper hand, Elm street’s #1 Christmas fan or Crystal Lake’s mascot. So Savior covered Freddy’s side, so I’m going to cover things through Jason’s perspective.

So sleeping peacefully, minding his own business, he gets woken up by his mom telling him to go to Elm Street because kids are off drinkin, smokin, and screwin like usaul. So Jason wakes up grouchy and walks all the way to Elm Street to go teach the kids of 1428 Elm about the dangers of alcohol and premarital sex…with his machete. He taught a couple of those pesky kids good but than the cops came, worried about some hoodlum named Fred Kruger. Jason, being a morally upstanding citizen, kept a chopping, finding his way to a rave the kids were throwing in a cornfield. And they didn’t invite him, which was rude. So he went to the rave anyway, because obviously the postal service lost his invitation in the mail, and oh what a ball he had with the youth of Springwood. Good times were had by all but the same group his mom wanted him to talk to ran away again, for some reason to the local psycheward. Jason met a few more of them there but one strange young man put him to sleep and there was his mom…but not quite. It was that dastardly villain Freddy the good people of Springwood were afraid. Jason couldn’t leave Springwood at the hands of this madman so he faced the rude burn victim and kicked his ass a bit. But Freddy’s dream magic sent him back to the crummy day he drowned. But those nice kids woke him up with Freddy in his old stomping grounds none the less. After a epic but bloody battle Jason triumphed, leaving the lake with Freddy’s head in hand…

Happy Halloween and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Jason goes to Hell: the Final Friday

friday9

Spoiler alert, this isn’t the last Jason movie either. Jason goes to hell is New Line’s first foray in the Jason franchise and arguably the strangest.

It begins with our typical Jason movie setup; hot naked chick undressing at Crystal Lake and of course Jason shows up We get the standard chase until we find out it’s really a set up; Jason gets mowed down by the most brutal gunning down I’ve seen since Predator, and Jason gets blown to pieces. End of story right? Well, no. Jason’s spirit starts possessing people and continues on his usual murder spree on this time hunting down the last Voorhees who can actually send him to hell and finish his ass.

Honestly, this doesn’t feel like a Jason movie. There’s a lot of spirit talk in this one and I can’t really buy much of what comes out the story of this movie. Most Jason fans I know like this movie but it just wasn’t for me. The kills are fine but nothing special. I don’t like Jason’s design in this, for the very little we do see of him. My favorite part of it was the ending before credits where Freddy grabs Jason’s mask and pulls it under. Other than that, it’s just kinda there to me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friday the 13th part 7: The New Blood.

friday7

So, curious what became of Tommy Jarvis and the Sheriff’s daughter? Well,they don’t come back. Instead psychics got involved in this installment and well, it’s the first movie to have Kane Hodder play Jason.

So a little girl named Tina is being chased down by her abusive asshole dad at there lake house at of course, Crystal Lake. Tina, with her mind, collapses the dock her dad is on and kills him on accident. Years later Tina comes back with her mom and douchebag doctor to help Tina get past her past; her doctor secretly is recording her powers to gain fame quick. In another fit, Tina tries wishing for her father to return, instead bring Jason back instead. No one believes Tina when she tells them she has visions of Jason killing people, not her mom, or her doctor, or the house of teens down the way. Good grief.

New Blood is probably my least favorite of the series for one solid reason: it’s watered down as hell when it comes to the killing. I’ve heard stories how the MPAA cracked down pretty hard on Paramount because of all of the noise the series caused with it’s excessive gore and nudity, even going so far as to threaten a X rating for the film. Tina is a decent enough hero and some of the effects at the end fight are cool but other than that I really can’t say I like the other characters. Hodder brings a menacing, hulking stature to Jason which sets him apart in my mind. Jason unmasked at the end is the coolest of the series in my opinion. Otherwise, if you cut out the psychic crap, the movie ain’t too memorable but meh. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.