Category: Game reviews

Battlefield: Bad Company

battlefied bad comp

Many younger readers won’t understand this but a long time ago, FPS games weren’t that special. Of course there were games like GoldenEye, Doom, and the severely underrated Red Faction that pushed the envelope. Red Faction, you could blast through walls and back then it blew my mind. You can imagine my surprise hiding from a tank inside a house and having the tank blow the house up with me in it. Progress, eh?

Unlike many other military FPS games, you aren’t saving the world from terrorists or stopping WW3. You are a new recruit to a charismatic group of misfits referred to as Bad Company, who uncover leads to a stolen wealth and they’ll have to fight there way to it before the government snatches it up.

In a world of overblown shooters that try to hard to be cool or effects heavy, Bad Company was a great exception. Your team sells the game with some pretty funny dialogue and over time you do grow to care about these guys. I love that you can jump into almost every house you see, and jump into every vehicle you see so there’s a good amount of variety. The game loses some of it’s luster as you go but the characters and craziness of the stages keeps it fun. Your health doesn’t naturally regenerate but instead you get an injection that  bumps your health back up, the wait time inbetween can be surprisingly tense. Bad Company was a game I felt should have gotten more love than it did but otherwise it’s a real good FPS I suggest checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Our Favorite Movies Day 9: Jason Goes To Hell

Jason goes to Hell: the Final Friday Is our day 9 favorite horror movie. It is also another movie that is a damn liar when it comes to the title. Tho this movie made the list because for me the ending was iconic and was really our first confirmation that a Freddy Vs Jason (Jason’s side) would actually happen. Just seeing Freddy’s hand rip Jason’s mask down to hell to me was amazing. Me and friends used to debate as kids who would, and that was the first time we saw them together in any capacity. The movie itself was also pretty solid but the ending? That secures it a place from me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Disgaea 1 Complete (PS4)

As I start some of my reviews, I would like to first say thank you to NIS America for tossing me a review copy of Disgaea.  Always a pleasure to work with them. However this isn’t why you all are here, you want to know the ins and outs and to know if this is worth your hard-earned cash or if maybe this one is better off in the Netherworld.

Well for starters you play as Laharl, son of the late king. His goal? Become the Overlord of the Netherworld naturally. This isn’t your typical game, for starters you aren’t really the good guy really. Laharl is a demon, joined by Etna, also a demon. Together they make a pretty good, if not semi dysfunctional team.

The story itself is solid, if not a bit dated at times but not in a bad way. It has a nice nostalgia feel to it. Many of the twist and turns you will see coming a mile away but you will enjoy them. I won’t spoil them for you obviously but the reason some clichés exist is because they work and people enjoy them.

The graphics have been updated to HD quality for the first time ever and as you would expect the game has never looked better. The graphics are crisp and clean and far more detailed than I expected when I heard we would get an HD remaster. They really did a top notch job on this one.

The sound also is well done with the voice acting fitting the characters well, right down to the robot. Yes there is a robot that joins your team, and he looks and sounds like a cross between a 70’s horror movie and something  Doctor Who might end up fighting.

With all that out-of-the-way we now get to actual playing of the game. This is after all the most important part. The game can look and sound as great as possible but if the game play sucks or there isn’t some real content whats the point? Well if you like tactical RPG’s you are already in the right place. Content? You have plenty. For starters you will get the main story which depending on your skill and how much time you want to take can easily run you 40 hours. This isn’t counting the item world which has nearly infinite levels you can fight through as you power up item to use in your battles.

If that weren’t enough there is the Dark Assembly, which is essentially the Netherworld Congress or Parliament. You can go there and spend mana ( which is earned by killing enemies) to do a number of things from adding new or stronger items or even powering up or weakening enemies. Unlike most games that have a level cap and such this game will let you take your characters to insane levels. You don’t have to by the way. Feel free to play it like you would a normal game. Or raise their levels so it is more challenging or simply raise your levels to godlike proportions the drop the enemies back to nothing and just march through the story. The possibilities are pretty wide open.

All of this isn’t to make the game sound perfect. While I enjoyed the chapter making jokes about the power rangers and many other aspects some of the battles were artificially hard. For example a couple had very few enemies they simply put them on tiles that made them damn near invincible that would also practically one hit kill your characters. The way to turn the tiles off? Well on the other side of the enemies. This isn’t a deal breaker by any means Bu I would be lying if I said it didn’t annoy me greatly at times. The battles can also get pretty repetitive, but that is pretty expected for any game of this genre.

Now the short and skinny, is this game worth buying? Rent it? Skip it entirely? Truth be told if you are a Disgaea fan, this is a must buy. In fact anyone that enjoys role-playing games would do well to pick this one up. It’s easy to learn, has a fun story and will introduce you to a series that many people including myself missed out on the early years for. This for me is an 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

If you want to pick it up on PS4 and support Savior Gaming here is an Amazon Affiliate link to do just that.

Disgaea 1 Complete Amazon

The Hills Have Eyes

hills 78

Last House on the Left was legendary horror director Wes Craven’s first big film and the impact it had was huge, pushing boundaries and kicking ass. His second major feature to follow would only solidify his status as a renegade of horror.

The Hills Have Eyes, like Last House, is simple but full of layers. The Carter family is on vacation, driving through the desert after receiving the deed to a silver mine as a anniversary gift ( I know, WTF but let’s go with it.) They come by a grizzly old guy who runs a rundown gas station who gives them a short cut, a short cut that leads to disaster as they break down in the middle of the desert with there RV, miles from anywhere. The oldest men set out for help, leaving 2  women, 2 teenagers, and 2 dogs behind. They aren’t alone however. The hills are inhabited by a group of incestuous cannibals that are watching the Carters and when night falls, they strike on family. The father is burned alive, the mother and oldest daughter are killed and a baby stolen leaving the daughter’s husband alone with the teens and 1 dog left. the husband rushes into the desert to face the cannibals and get his daughter back while the kids are left to fend for themselves. Can they survive?

I have a massive amount for this movie and the influence it had and the boundaries it pushed but I cannot lie, it didn’t age great. Back then, Hills struggled not to have an X rating; in 2018 it could pass for  PG-13  I’d d wager if reevaluated. There is almost no bad language, not much blood and no real nudity. I have a glaring issue with the narrative itself. I feel the beginning and end are too abrupt, especially the ending; I feel there should be more to the beginning to either give the characters more time to develop or develop the situation and the end feels like a car crash, you just slam into it. The cannibals mostly feel like the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre only with a more deformed, Mad Max twist. Michael Berryman, the iconic face of the film, is great and is a genuinely eerie presence on screen. It’s filmed alright and the score is there but nothing memorable. In the end, by today’s standards the original Hills Have Eyes is an ok horror movie that had some groundbreaking ideas for it’s time but has softened with time but worth a watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Epic Dumpster Bear: Dumpster Fire Redux

epic dumpster bear

I have to thank Savior for introducing me to the crazy ass game. Seriously, this is literally Goat Simulator level WTF. The plot is simple, but dare I say epic. You play as a bear whose home was destroyed by a greedy conglomerate and forced to eat out of dumpsters- but no more! He’s on a epic adventure for bears everywhere…see what I mean?

The game is a old fashioned Mario style plat-former that’s tough but fair. There’s a lot of obstacles and while you are a bear, you only take 2 hits before you die. To kill enemies, you primarily have to jump on them, unless you have the army helmet power up, then you can lob bombs at them. Some power ups include a fish head which gives you double jump power via farting and the army helmet to kill enemies and blast away obstacles. The game is simple but challenging. Every world gets harder but I never felt it was impossible. I don’t like that you slip when you run like you are on invisible ice which causes some bullshit deaths- by the way, there is only one checkpoint per stage so you will be repeating yourself a lot. I love the wacky blend of 3-d rendering of the bear and the vintage style graphics. The game is fun and funny as hell and I highly recommend it as a old school or WTF game. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Lunch Truck Tycoon 2 Review (PS4)

lunch truck tycoon 2

It isn’t often I play a game that 100% makes me thing ” why the fuck did I buy this.” That being said, why the fuck did I buy this? The game in theory should be fun. It’s a tycoon game, in an open world and it actually has a story. Its pretty basic, a bunch of food manes people sick and you are attempting to rebuild your business so you may as well solve this problem.

The reality is the game is horrible. The controls make your food truck feel like you are driving a tank the map is essentially useless and to make matters worse outside of some basic stuff the game doesn’t actually tell you what to be doing. There is a short tutorial showing you where different places are to sell your food and such.

The issue is nothing in the game works, I’ve gotten stuck in menus and had to reset the game entirely, launched my truck into water because it simply wouldn’t stop or turn. The game sadly had a lot of potential but most of the game either doesn’t work or works so poorly. I got the game on sale for $5 which is half off its normal price, and I’ve blown way more on some pretty dumb stuff, but this is a complete waste of money. Do not buy this game, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

X men: the official game

x men the offical game

I have a weird pet peeve when it comes to franchises. I hate when a series begins in one medium but has installments in other mediums to fill in the gaps. X men the offical game is one such game, existing to connect the gaps between X2: X men United and X Men: The Last Stand . The game is divided into three campaigns: Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler leading into where they are in the third film.

The game isn’t a marvel (yes, pun intended) by any means. As Wolverine, you go straight up hack n slash which never really feels special. Nightcrawler you teleport around trying for more stealth attacks; the teleporting can be funky and like many stealth characters, you take a lot of damage super quick. Iceman you slide around on streams of ice and blast stuff with ice projectiles; his part was my favorite of the three and ran the smoothest. There is a comic book style to the cut scenes which doesn’t really fit that great. Graphics are fine and the voices are fine. In the end, the game is meh but doesn’t really try to be anything super special even to a hard core fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man 2: the game

spidey 2 ps2

Spider- man 2 is one of my all time favorite superhero movies and strangely  has probably the best movie tie  in game I’ve ever played. The story follows the main story of the movie while adding a Black Cat thread through most of the game, ending with a rematch against Shocker after the events of Spider-man (Ps2 era) as well as facing off against Rhino and Mysterio- which has a hilarious end.

Unlike most reviews , I’m going to start with the negatives rather than bad to good. The worst aspect of the game is the voice acting which, with the exception of Bruce Campbell as the narrator again, sounds dry and tired. The game otherwise is damn near perfect. Web swinging is fantastic; Spider-man moves with a lot of cool acrobatics and feels fast and realistic. Combat is fun, almost a precursor to the Arkham game. There is a flaw with the combat in that once you master the game’s mechanics, you no longer need the instinct mode and the game becomes too easy- there is only one difficulty. There are races, civilians to save, pizzas to deliver, petty crimes to stop, and secrets to find to pass the time which is fun. In the end, the game is far behind it’s time and deserves a fun play through. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Spider-man (Ps2 era)

spider-man ps2

Since I’ve been on a kick lately talking about movie tie games such as Fantastic 4 (2005) the game and Superman returns: the game and well, they pretty much in a nutshell sucked. But, here’s a prime of a Spider-man movie tie game that’s pretty cool, based off of Spider-man from Sam Rami with the voice talents of Tobey Mcquire, Willem Dafoe, and Bruce Campbell returning for the game. As for the story, we begin hunting down Uncle Ben’s killer and becoming Spider-man facing off against villains like Shocker, Vulture, Scorpion, Kraven ( X Box only), and of course the Green Goblin. The villians are actually pretty well done, each given multiple chapters to flush them out and while some are easier than others, none of them ever feel weak and they have an epic mystique to them; I really like how Goblin goes out of his way to do more, and none of it feels like filler and I admit I wish they included some of his parts in the movie.

The game, a decade and a half after release, holds up pretty well. The combat is pretty fun with web moves and combos you unlock after finding golden spiders throughout the chapters. Web swinging is automatic which comes off kinda lazy but is passable; web zipping is pretty awesome and pretty damn acute- master it well before Shocker’s final chapter. The graphics are pretty good for early PS2 era. I really liked the music, which gives a darker tone for certain parts and is cool. After the story, there are fun challenges in training, including swing bowling which is fun as hell. In the end, this an example of a good movie tie in game and it’s worth looking into. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hulk (2003) game

hulk 2003 game

Damn, thinking back on it I played a lot of movie tie in games. This particular game is meant to be a sequel to Hulk from 2003; the Hulk movie with Eric Bana that no one liked. So how does it hold up? Well the plot is simple, Bruce Banner is on the run once again from the military and searching for a cure. He trusts a rival, disabled scientist named  Crawford who betrays you , becomes a Hulk-like creature named Ravage who allies  Himself with the Leader, a gamma being with a enlarged brain that wants to take over the world using Hulk’s DNA, after creating his own band of freaks to attack the brute…

The game is divided into two completely different gameplay styles: smashing through guys as the Hulk and stealth as Banner. First and foremost, the Banner parts suck. It’s really easy to get caught and you die really quick. The Hulk parts are way better but simple. You wreak stuff; there are cool super moves like thunder clap as well as being able to pick up stuff as weapons. It’s standard beat em up but it’s fun enough. I seriously recommend getting the cheat codes so you can be invulnerable, have unlimited energy and unlock all levels and skip the Banner shit. The graphics are bright and mediocre and the voice acting is blah. If you want an alright beat,em up game, it’s worth a shot but make sure to get the cheat codes for a pretty sweet Hulk experience. May the gaming gods bring you glory.