Game reviews – Page 75 – Savior Gaming

Ultimate Spider-man game

ultimate spider-man

I don’t really talk about Ultimate Marvel that much. I enjoyed Ultimate Fantastic 4: Fantastic / Doom and the The Ultimates but that’s where most of my fuzzy feelings end on the matter. This game opened my eyes…

So it begins with a really quick run through of Ultimate Spider-man lore and immediately a boss fight, Venom chasing down Parker at a rained out football game. Through the game we switch perspectives as Spider-man and Venom as S.H.I.E.L.D, OsCorp hunt you down but it all comes down to the grudge match between the two.

Some of Ultimate’s general story choices always bothered the shit out of me like the Black Suit not being a alien, Green Goblin being lime green HellBoy that throws fireballs, and Peter Parker being Carnage. How Venom is portrayed as more of a mindless brute that just hungers is enough to piss off any true old school Spidey fan. That being said the story isn’t great but passable.

The game’s graphics go for a bright comic book aesthetic which fits. Playing as Spider-man is a serious down grade from the awesome Spider-man 2 game. There’s no real combat combos, the web swinging feels clunky by comparison, and instead of the previous game’s cool dodge mechanics, you just jump out of the way. As for Venom, you brawl with your fists and tentacles as well as a hell of a super jump. The problem is your health bar dwindles and you have to feed- a lot. Venom’s chase sections are a pain in the ass compared to Spidey’s. The villain roster is nice with the likes of Shocker, Electro, Goblin, Beetle, Rhino, Silver Sable and Carnage. Would I recommend it- not unless you are a fan of the Ultimate comics honestly. Before this game and after, there are better Spider-man games out there. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Fantastic 4 (2005) the game

f4 game

I fell for the onslaught of movie games pre- MCU and it all boils to being just a kid. I was pretty disappointed with Fantastic 4 (2005) and I was praying for a better experience. Well, it’s a game…pretty much the story follows the movie loosely, only with added villains like Mole Man, Dragon Man, El Diablo, and Puppet Master with Dr Doom as the main bad guy.

We get to play as each member of the Four: Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing. The game doesn’t do bad with most of the characters but Human Torch felt the least under powered of the group and Invisible Woman felt almost OP with her stealth take downs and the push beam from force field. Level design was simple- straight beat em up with some cut scenes and QTEs thrown in for good measure and with the exception of the Torch levels it’s not a bad game, just repetitive. Everyone gets a solo level, then boss and repeat. Graphics are meh and the voice acting ain’t great. It’s an Ok game but nothing fantastic- pun intended. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Superman returns: the game

superman returns the game

There is a lot of movie tie-in games out there. Not so much these days, but when I was a kid every movie seemed to have a damn video game counterpart. Superman Returns stuck with me after all these years because there were some ideas that could have been awesome, and maybe if done now could have been astounding.

The story of the game for Superman Returns doesn’t really follow the movie- at all. The fact Superman comes back to Earth and Lex Luthor is doing something naughty is pretty much where the similarities end. Somehow he finds himself in a Colosseum in space in a fight with Mongul , which is weirdly the tutorial. You escape and go to Earth where you fight Bizzaro, Metallo, and that little creepy inter-dimensional guy no one but a true comic geek can even pronounce let a lone spell while Luthor does build up stuff to a create a bunch of evil tornadoes…this is the story in a nutshell.

Playing as Superman in a open world isn’t perfect but I have to give the game credit, it works remarkably damn well. You get heat vision, super breath, freeze breath, super speed, flight, and strength and for the most part, they work really well. I like how you really can’t die but you can get weakened but the closer you get to sun, the stronger you get. What does have a health bar is Metropolis itself, which is a fair idea but damn it’s a pain in the ass to maintain. The fights you get into cause a lot of collateral damage. Actual fighting I think sucks. Your vision powers aren’t really effective against enemies on there own and the combos you can do aren’t great but alright. The game never feels fluid, it feels clunky and that hurts the Bizarro fight for example. The final boss is a huge letdown. There is fun here but after a few hours it gets old and repetitive fast. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Battlefield V Beta

download (1)

Going in to the Battlefield V beta. There has been a lot of talk about a lot of things but honestly, this is really just a good-looking battlefield game. The controls are almost exactly what you would expect, tho I will admit the begging for help to be revived when you get killed annoys the hell out of me. But the shooting feels nice and the graphics looked great.

Another major problem that I hope they fix,is the match finding. I spent as much time finding a match as I ever did playing and if that isn’t fixed the game will be in terrible shape. All in all tho my honest take away is if you have always enjoyed the Battlefield games you will enjoy this one, but from the beta I don’t see this one changing that opinion. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Red Dead Redemption

red dead redemption

Red Dead Redemption is one of those rare games that truly deserves to be called a masterpiece. Whether you want a game where you can inflict your own sadistic whims out on others and just enjoy yourself, you surely can; if you want a clever satire that’s thought provoking and deeply character driven in ways so few games are anymore, it’s that too.

Red Dead Redemption is a former outlaw on a mission: hunt down his old gang and kill them. Not for revenge though, but because a shady government man tells John Marsten that they have his wife and son. Through this huge journey through the old west, we understand who Marsten was and the kind simple man he wants to be who just wants to be left alone to raise his family. But can any of us ever escape the past?

There is so much to say about this game. The huge, twisting, sprawling story was my favorite part. The characters felt so human and authentic it was impossible not to be invested in them. The gameplay runs damn good. Shooting is simple to pick up but challenging to truly master, especially on horseback, but you’ll feel badass once you do. I like the blend of western drama, dark comedy, and fiction throughout; there’s a truly sad side mission with Sasquatch that almost made me tear up. The game has so many unique side quests and mini games that are engaging and fun it’s so easy to keep entertained. The graphics were amazing for the time and hold up damn good to this day. In the end, I couldn’t recommend this game more and needs to be tried. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

V Rally 4 Review PS4

As always first thing I would like to do is give a quick thanks to Maximum Games for the review copy of the game. It is always nice to work with them and be given the chance to try their games out.

V Rally 4 is obviously a rally racing game, in case the cars and title were not a very good hint. The game is developed by Kylotonn and published by Bigbenn interactive. The game however is a bit more than a standard racing game, it is actually almost like a racing simulator. We will get more into that later.

First and foremost, the game is beautiful. I love driving around and just enjoying the views or watching the water fly up as I hit the water while speeding around the track. The dirt kicking up and sticking to the car is a sight to see. My only real complaint is simply a personal complaint is I would have liked a little more detail to the car when I damage it. This is honestly just a personal preference, the damage that shows does look good, I just would like a little more variety to it.

The sound, this is great to me. The engines sound fierce and fast, the skidding sounds dangerous its just very well done. There isn’t a lot for me to say with the sound, it’s there, it does its job, and I have no issues with it, just superbly done.

The race types are also nice, obviously you have your V-Rally mode which is simply a career mode, and this is really the first mode you should play. This has a short tutorial mode to get you started. It will show you about controlling your car and how some of the race types actually work. After V-Rally we have quick race where you can, as stated, quickly access all the race types and tracks the game has to offer. There are 5 different types to choose from my favorite being Extreame-Khana which is basically a race set on what is almost an obstacle course with jumps and such.

No game however is perfect and V-Rally is no exception. While the game has no major bugs or glitches during my time this is a racing game for racing fans and most notably for rally fans. If you are looking for a more arcade experience with flipping cars or cars that are unrealistically easy to control, this is not the game for you. I often found myself struggling to do things simply because of this. I am not a racing fan, and the ones I have been good at are that less realistic type or the NASCAR games where you simply drive as fast as you can. This strategy will not work here. You need to know how these cars handle and the best time to drive fast, when to slow down and the proper way to take turns. You will also need to listen to your co-pilot on rally tracks or you will end up losing precious time.

I should also point out that this game has something most games don’t have, split screen co-op. It is a lot of fun and functions great, me and @torstenvblog spent some time with that and had a blast. He also played the career mode a bit, he cost me more money in repairs than we made finishing the races.

Now for the reason you are all here, a score and a recommendation. Well for a recommendation, absolutely. Fans of this type of racing should not hesitate. The game is beautiful, the game has no glitches or glaring flaws. It isn’t overflowing with tracks but it has enough to keep you going and interested. That being said, the casual race fans will want to wait for a sale and people looking to get into race games will want to rent this because it is made for the more hardcore fans of the genre. I will happily give this game an 8.5/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Steel

steel

Hey everyone, remember the 90’s when no one had an idea what makes a good superhero movie? Because of this, we got such majestic gems as Batman and Robin and Spawn/ Spawn: origins so why the hell should it come as a shock that anyone thought of giving Shaq the role of a DC superhero? Well…here’s Steel…

Shaq plays John Henry Irons, a weapons maker for the military with his best friend Sparks. Together with a dick named Nathaniel they made a whole new line of laser weapons to help the government get a leg up on shit. Well, Nathaniel rigs one of the weapons for maximum power, it backfires and people end up dead, Sparks ends up in a wheelchair, and John Henry says F U to the army and leaves to go back home to his grandma while he works in a steel mill to get his head together. Well his old friend comes back with a gang and those weapons and intends to sell them. So its up to John Henry, his uncle Joe, and Sparks to stop them, but first he’ll need his own armor and weapons to become Steel…

Oh boy…so when I was a kid, this movie wasn’t bad. Wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad. As an adult, this movie is ass. The acting is meh at best but what really kills this movie are the effects. The suit looks fake as hell and damn right gaudy. There’s a lot of unintentionally funny stuff in this movie like the fact grandma making a souffle is an actual side plot, Shaq free throws a grenade, and the awkward dialogue choices throughout. I can’t sadly say it’s hilarious enough to be a total WTF movie, its just bland and by the numbers moment by moment. Its really forgettable and I can’t say its worth watching. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Graveyard Keeper

Graveyard Keeper is an odd game. The game starts off with you at a store, in the modern day. On the way home BOOM. Dude is hit by a car. After talking to what I assume is death you are tasked with digging up a friend to help guide you on your task. What task is that do you ask? Well as the name implies running a graveyard, which you will do very little of the time. Seriously I spent the opening hours of the game talking to people, chopping down trees, killing some slimes for the local smith. All sorts of things, and yes some of that was to fix up the graveyard. Mostly tho, it was not.

The game is fun and demented in its own way. For example do you do things the right way to sell meat, or do you get a fake seal and just hack parts off dead bodies the donkey brings you and sell that to people? Yes you can sell people human mean from corpses. Eventually you can also open up the church and get some money and such that way.

The game also has some bugs to it, some are quite major reportedly and that seems mostly on the Xbox version but the PC version as well and yes that does include some that will require you to restart your game. I haven’t had any issues but they are reported pretty reliable from many places. The game is a lot of fun, but it isn’t the most polished game out there and it can be pretty grindy at times. I don’t regret buying it and I have no issue recommending it to people that enjoy the style of game, but it is a very niche game and is not for most people. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Die Hard with a Vengeance

Die hard 3

I want to start this review with a special shout out to my Dad, Duke, who got me into Die Hard as a kid. My favorite Die Hard needs to be shared with my favorite badass..

So after the events of Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2: Die Harder , John McClane is in a pretty rough place. His wife and family left him, filthy and drunk as a cop in New York fighting to keep his job. After a massive bombing, the terrorist responsible has a demand: he wants to play a game with McClane, but he didn’t count on a good Samaritan, Zeus, saving him. This terrorist named only Simon is driven to kill McClane, putting him and Zeus through insane scenarios while Simon carries out his own agenda, but it isn’t long before John realizes Simon’s vendetta goes back to his first great adventure- Simon was Han’s brother.

Die Hard with a Vengeance is pretty much what a action movie sequel should be. Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson, and Jeremy Irons give great performances. The action scenes are truly badass and for the first time in the series, we get a lot of different locations so nothing ever feels stale. What helps too is the chemistry between Willis and Jackson which carries the film. What I truly love about the first 4 Die Hard films is how beat to shit McClane is by the end. I can’t stand action movies where no one gets dirty, just maybe a cut or two; in Die Hard, you know John McClaine ain’t Superman and the tension mounts because he wins every fight by the skin of his teeth. I seriously recommend tthe third Die Hard as much as the first and with that: may the gaming gods bring you glory and yippie-ki-ay motherfucker everyone ( even though it’s not Christmas)

One Last Shot (1998)

One shot is a short film by Mike Clattenberg which most of you know from Trailer Park boys. It featured the characters Rickey, Julian and Mr. Lahey and told the story of Rickey and Julians last day together before Rickey moved to Vancouver.

At first I thought the movie wasn’t very good but I realized it wasn’t really fair to judge a 20-year-old short film shot by friends and 3 guys to harshly. Sure Clerks is basically a cult classic but that is equal parts genius and fluke to be honest.

One last shot was actually fairly well put together, the scenes make sense and for a black and white film the lighting is actually well done. At no point did I feel like the dark parts were overly dark or the light taking away from anything and the acting while a bit bland at times didn’t exactly feel stiff. It just felt like what it was, people who loved movies that wanted to make one and get some experience and honestly that showed. I have seen much higher production value movies feel less heartfelt and honest than this did. Its only 30 minutes and it very much worth checking out if you are a fan of his or the Trailer Park Boys (which I am not) best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.