So a couple days ago we heard from Savior the games that disappointed him, and well some more immediately came to mind. Some may not agree on one in particular, but I got my reasons and plus I heard it’s sequel was better. If anyone has anything we missed or a game that really pissed you off, please a comment below or hit up Savior_gaming @ twitter. Well, here we go with a counter point to Savior’s 5th game he covered on his list.
1. Aliens Colonial Marines (aka worst self given birthday present ever aka five years of my hopes and dreams gone up in napalm flames aka alien penis drinking game number 2)- well the aliases for it say a lot but that doesn’t include the dip shit alien A.I., crappy story, terrible voice acting, a shitty inventory system, and one of the worst final boss fights ever. Piss on this game at your leisure, my friends.
2. Resident Evil 6- so what happens when you can’t pick who the hell your game is for? 7 characters, 4 interconnected campaigns, 2 kinds of enemies and a shitty new character upgrade system. Characters like series legends Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield are reduced to discount Jack Bower and a drunken C.O.D reject; I don’t have any real idea what the plot is but there is a guy that turns into a zombie T-rex, a Godzilla sized dementor, and drug peddling cricket people…Yep.
3. Batman: Arkham Origins – You had an amazing trailer and a awesome Joker-free premise. We got a moody Batman, Arkham City’s Christmas leftovers full of glitches, a annoying leveling system, and SPOILERS: all this is a way to retell how Batman and Joker first met and Bane first used his super-duper steroids. By the way, too much Nolan bro. Too much damn Nolan. It ain’t horrific but enough to bum you out and make you want to drink.
4. Assassin’s Creed- let’s pretend there was no 1, just 2 and on. So much bullshit. Water kills, near impossible perfect assassinations, god damn pain in the ass civilians always in the way, crappy fighting mechanics, and a main character that’s just there. The story is fair but you may need help getting through it without breaking your controller.
5. Outlast- I give them this, it looks nice. I get why I’m probably going to get hate mail but truth is I’ve had this game shoved down my throat for months after it released and wasn’t impressed. Whereas Alien: Isolation was a game where you needed luck and brains to survive the intelligent alien, Joes, and looters; most of Outlast’s threats can be outrunned. The camera’s battery dies ridiculously fast to where it becomes annoying. I admit, I haven’t finished it and I’m sure it’s fine but the first hour or two in didn’t make me a huge believer.
First, I have to say we at Saviorgaming.blog are saddened by the recent passing of one of horror’s greatest director’s, George A. Romero. Zombies were never the same after the first three films in his legendary Dead series: Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead, and day of the dead. The fourth installment, Land of the Dead, was met with much wide recognition. The fifth installment, diary, I consider a underrated gem. Diary of the dead features a group of college film students in the woods with their sullen Professor, filming a movie when strange reports come in of the dead coming to life. The film chronicles first- hand there experiences through first person film surviving a zombie outbreak, commenting on how the rational world melts away around them. Romero cleverly uses our main character (who we rarely see at all, because he’s behind the camera 95% of the time) to demonstrate our society’s over-dependence on the internet and our obsession with recording and reporting every second of our lives to validate our lives. I can believe the main actors are college kids living in northeast PA (two-thirds of the movie they are trying to get to Scranton, our hometown). The zombies are Romero’s classics but work for what the movie’s point is. There is enough strange moments to make the movie memorable and the narration is bleak but profoundly thought provoking. Though not as well know as the other entries in the series, Diary of the dead deserves a watch if you want to remember Romero as a man who used the living dead to say something about us and the times we live.
Rest in Peace George A. Romero, the godfather of zombies.
First Encounter Assault Recon; it’s kind of a stupid name but the acronym fits better : F.E.A.R. It’s a first person supernatural shooter that came out the beginning of the PS3 era. You play as Pointman, the new guy on the F.E.A.R team who deal with paranormal phenomenon. He has heightened reflexes and a strange connection to Paxton Fetel, a psychic psychopath with a small army of cloned replicants at his disposal. As Pointman gets closer to his target, he keeps getting followed by Alma, a projection of a young girl. What ties this all together? I admit, I think this game gets a little too much credit in the horror department but its still creepy full of dark atmospheres, eerie noises, and a few good jump scares. One of Alma’s last appearances is pretty chilling (just not the ending). The shooting is simple but trusty, but the true fun comes when using your adrenaline fueled reflexes to slow down time. Trust me when I say you will need to use this ability, your flashlight, and your ammunition wisely because it can all run out in a blink in a eye. My problem with the first F.E.A.R as well as the trilogy itself, I’m not really invested in the story. Much of the story has to be uncovered via files and answering machine tapes as well as radio broadcasts; as for characters, I got four characters and a couple of names. There’s a twist at the end that’s fairly disturbing but falls flatter than it should. Overall, the first F.E.A.R is worth a once over but that’s as far as it should go, so may the gaming gods guide you away from creepy ass Alma.
Howdy ho, friends, Torsten V returns from a much needed vacation. Coming back from vacation, I returned to the much anticipated first trailer to the latest installment of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. This is the story of legendary slasher Leatherface as a teenager and what I’m going to assume is another Leatherface origin story. So first things first, I feel like I have to wonder if this part of the original timeline or a new series of films upcoming. I personally didn’t mind the remake and its prequel, in fact I actually like the more serious, darker tone. But with 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3-D, that swept back into the original time line and frankly dissolve the series into a hot shitty mess. It;s a interesting question to ask. I liked a lot of the imagery of the trailer, including the fresh look of the mask but I wish there was a little more story in the trailer, just to get an idea where the hell it is in the timeline. Good to be back, and may the gaming gods be with you.
Until Dawn did for horror gaming Cabin in the Woods did for horror movies, and that’s the best compliment I can give. Normally I’m not a fan of point and click games but when I got dropped into what at first I assumed was gong to be a rip off of Friday the 13th in video game form, much like how Cabin leads you to think it’s going to a Evil Dead clone at first glance. The story revolves around a group of College friends who traditionally meet at a cabin during holiday break. Tragedy strikes when two of there friends die in what seems to a accident after a prank gone wrong. A year later the friends meet again, there friendships strained by the tragedy. During the course of a fierce blizzard, they begin to suspect they aren’t alone up there after all…
Sinestro Corps War plays a major role to Green Lantern’s story because it ends with the shattering of the emotional spectrum and the emergance of other lights, other lanterns, and the last coming before the finality of the prophesied Blackest Night. It takes place after Parallax possessed Hal Jordan and slayed most of the Green Lantern Corps, for which the other Lanterns now fear him. The Corp is rebuilding but so is Sinestro’s with a plan to destroy them all once and for all. Using Parallax again, he uses Kyle Raynor this time, formerly the Green Lanterns last hope and bearer of their entity Ion; and using another lesser known weakness of the green power rings and there inability to use lethal force, he assembles a massive. bloody attack on the remnants of the Green Lanterns. Suddenly the mistakes of the Guardians of the universe start forming a noose around there necks as they begin to argue over the validity of the prophecy of Blackest Night as well as well as the pressure of unlocking the lethal force protocols, opening the pandoras box they had opened with the Manhunters centuries ago. Against the wishes of two of the Guardians, who see the vows they had taken to abandon emotion being used against them, they take the names of Ganthet and Sayd and reach out privately to once greatest Green Lantern Hal Jordan to warn him of the horrible times coming, urging him to pull himself together and get ready to lead the Corps and face his ultimate fears and his ultimate enemy…
“In Brightest Day and Blackest Night, no evil shall escape my sight. For those who worship evil’s might, beware my power: Green Lantern’s Light!” the green lantern oath.
So this is a weird one, friends. Lord of Flies is a book that is both strange and deep, much like Animal Farm, showcasing the the evils that can spawn in the hearts of man without the threat of society’s consequence. During the dawn of WW2, a plane full of English boys crash lands on a island in the middle of nowhere. They are the only human inhabitants. Our character is Ralph, a carefree young lad transfixed with the promise of no grown ups and a island to explore. Soon he meets Piggy, a fat, asthmatic boy in glasses who acts as a thread to rationality to the story. Together they find a conch shell in the sand; Ralph blows on it to summon the others. Others come forth, including a band of black clad choir group led by Jack Merridew. Ralph and Jack, two of the oldest, old a vote to see who leads the group. Ralph is voted chief, while Jack takes point of leading hunters for food. The goal is simple: build and maintain a fire on top of the island and survive. Ralph quickly discovers the hardships of chiefdom- the fire isn’t easy to keep up, fear spreads among the little ones of a monster that lives on the island eating the children, and ultimately his tumultuous clashing with Jack, who slowly falls into madness and overthrows Ralph by violent force.
Since I covered what I felt to be the most overrated Star Wars entry to date, I thought it would only be fitting to cover the most underrated piece of the series that sadly isn’t canon anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I hold no ill will towards the canon series; I enjoy that a lot too. But the first series came to me at a time when I was beginning to discover anime. The animation style feels very reminiscent of Samurai Jack, and though only 25 episodes, most of which are only 5 minutes long, they’ve stuck with me more 12 years after the fact with there unique blend of quick storytelling and anime influences.
I did not go into watching Rogue One: a Star Wars Story with the enthusiasm I’ve seen countless others go into with; I couldn’t help but think “I already know how this is going to end? What’s the point of seeing a two hour movie about something I was perfectly content with knowing in a sentence of exposition from the Original Star Wars movie?” Seriously, I never wondered how the rebels got the plans for the Death Star, I just knew they got them and the people who got them died doing it…but we live in that kind of world anymore. No more mystery, every little thing has to be delved into and exploited…I’m sorry, it’s a sore topic but kind of relevant in that, while not a terrible movie, it isn’t great either.
Savior Gaming 