Game reviews – Page 92 – Savior Gaming

Final Fantasy 9 (PS4)

Every so often in gaming something happens that is a nice surprise. The other day I woke up to an e-mail about the sudden release of a classic from my childhood. Final Fantasy 9. The story of Zidane and Garnet on their quest to save the world. Sure there is much more to this amazing game, but most people know the story. They want to know, how does this hold up?

Well this port was given the full treatment. Beautiful HD graphics, trophy support ( as of the Saturday of release someone has already managed the Platinum) and just like the Final Fantasy 7 port its of the PC version and has some fun little cheat codes you can choose to use. If you never played before I would suggest skipping the max level stuff but if you just want the story that alone will make the game a breeze.

If you are a fan of the JRPG genre, the original release or the series you owe it to yourself to purchase this game. It is truly a treasure, and is easily one of the Best games ever made. Thanks for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory

Soma- what the hell is it? Week one

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So my first week playing the game horror game Soma, and I’m pretty divided by it. I can’t completely tell you what the full plot is but I can tell you that the bastard above was a hour long pain in my ass. The story involves people consciousnesses into machines and it is eerie how the machines we encounter the blur the line between the perceptions of man and machine and reality. I’ve been chased by a “brute”, a ape like robot and I’ve noticed the great/shitty way the game handles its horror element. When nearby an enemy machine, Jarret’s brain starts freaking out, making the screen appear to glitch and blur, these affects intensifying the more closer you get. When caught, the screen full on glitches, flashing pixalated, creepy images during a loud scratching screech. The bastard above should not be directly looked at; his image blurs and grows brighter as he gets closer but your sight gets slowed and sways when your near and this bastard is always nearby. The environments are disorienting to begin with but this crap was too much. Take four 151 shots in a row, spin around in a haunted fun house hall three times and try finding your way out, welcome to that hour of my life. But I carry on. Thanks for listening to my rant and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 Great Games That Are Now Painful To Play

This list is simple. This week I went back and played more original Nintendo games than I should admit to. However some of them were games as a kid I fell in love with, and now they are suddenly painful to play.

Almost everyone that owned an NES played the Mario game and for many it was the first we played. So when I turned this bad boy on I was looking forward to a nostalgia trip. What i got was the realization that this game was boring and hard to control and the sense that the ability to play this game all the way through was lost on me completely. By level 1-2 I wanted to stop. A few worlds and warp pipes later I was done, and possibly forever.

Mario 2 is basically the black sheep of the Mario family for NES. Some hated it some loved it. I fell into the loved category. The whimsical levels and multiple characters with different abilities, whats not to love? Well it turns out everything. From random potions to stealing keys and seemingly random bosses I finally understand how dumb this dream was.

Seriously what were we on that we enjoyed Donkey Kong? It is climbing ladders and dodging barrels with a game that controls like a tank with the emergency break being stuck in the on position.

Double Dragon 2 is a typical brawler. But seriously who in the hell made the decision that the buttons would swap depending on what direction you were facing and that the jump button would be to just hit 2 buttons at once and hoping you didn’t hit one slightly before the other?

Tecmo Bowl. What can I say? Some of you may hate me for this. But by the gaming gods does this game suck in retrospect. The very limited play options is understandable for it time, but hey screw a menu lets go with hitting button combinations. The game play itself reminds me of one of those old football games that shoot and the players just randomly moved

Seriously maybe its an age thing and the fact that better games have come and gone and come again, but these games were simply painful to play. Let me know what you think and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Metroid Retro Review

Metroid

I played this game long ago as a kid, and I have to say I always thought it was an overrated game. As an adult, that opinion hasn’t changed. The graphics while nice for their time basically look like a color swaps of other areas and the enemies seemed lazy and the story uninteresting to me. I will however say it was more fun than I remember. I honestly can’t say much about it that has not been said, and many people feel the game and series are amazing while other like me simply do not get it. Get out there and try it for yourself, and may the gaming gods guide you to glory.

Tales from the Borderlands

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The last Borderlands game before we finally get 3 and it’s from TellTale Games, king of point-and- click adventures with stories that keep you hooked. At first I was pretty against the idea of a different kind of Borderlands game but after the first twenty minutes I was hooked. Tales takes place after 2 and we follow our main characters Rhys- a Hyperion stooge with a cybernetic arm and eye looking to make it big along with his friend Vaughn and there stolen Loader Bot, and Fiona- a wanted con woman looking for a big score with her little sister Sasha. These characters all meld together along with others from the series as they venture to battle more bandits, and assemble a robot that will help them find the Vault of the Traveler, unlocking more of the universe then they could possibly imagine. Holy shit was this a fun way to get a platinum trophy. Because of it being Borderlands it’s a story full of the series trademark outrageous humor and sad drama. Towards the end, I freaked out with nerdgasmic glee at how epic it was. A few times the game felt a little slow but I could never call it boring. The characters were memorable while all the cameos were pretty welcome; at the end of the third episode there a freaking awesome 2 on 2 fight leading into the beginning in the Pre-sequel. Overall, Tales from the Borderlands is a great addition to the series and as I said, it’s a fun, easy way to get a platinum trophy. As always, thank you for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Borderlands: The Pre-sequel

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What was Borderlands missing? How about Borderlands…IN SPACE! for the third game in the series we are lead into space to recount the downfall of the Vault Hunters and the rise of one of gaming’s greatest recent villains, Handsome Jack. For once we already know our characters we play as: Wilhelm the Enforcer (Jack’s cyborg bodyguard from 2), Athena the Gladiator (General Knox’s Atlas assassin from 1’s DLC), Nischa the Lawbringer ( Jack’s future girlfriend and tyrannical sheriff of Lynchwood in 2) and Claptrap (formerly the ninja-assassin Claptrap of 1’s DLC). Like with 2, there are two extra characters with the DLC. In essence, of the three FPS games, Pre-sequel is the shortest story and game wise. I redboxed it when it first came out, and avoided most of the side quests, I got half way through the game in less than six hours. The strongest pro of the game is the story. Jack is likable but we understand how his good motives turn dark and how the heroes we thought were good are just as guilty for the events of Pandora’s decline as Jack is. I love that by the end no one feels completely good or evil. The newest mechanic is the Zero Gravity and oxygen need. I’m fine with the oxygen completely, and I like the joke they make about Claptrap not needing air. The Zero Gravity both helps and hurts the game. Its a fun new challenge bouncing around the moon shooting at space bandits with your new lasers, but at the same time it becomes harder to find your way around and sometimes this gets really annoying. Probably the biggest flaw I got with this game is the side missions aren’t that great. 2 skillfully made them feel natural and a lot of them were funny as hell so we didn’t mind doing them; Pre-sequel has some like this but there is a lot of them that feel like busy work. Overall I liked the game and recommend it if you played the others but don’t let it be your first impression of the series. As always, thank you for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gradius Retro Review

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I have to admit, until this week I had never played this game. This side scrolling shooter is pretty, fun and damn was it hard. This game is like Australia, everything in it either wants you dead or can kill you on accident and it comes from every possible direction.There honestly isn’t much to the game and that is really the beauty of it. You simply fly around collect power ups kill everything you can and try not to die. While there are better games out there today, I do wish I had experienced this years ago. Thanks for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Borderlands 2

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This really is no place for a hero; I love Shortchange Hero by The Heavy, seriously awesome song. Borderlands 2 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Set five years after the fall of the Atlas Corporation and the first Vault was open, the sequel begins with 4 new Vault Hunters being commissioned and betrayed by maniacal head of the Hyperion Corporation, Handsome Jack. Our new heroes are Axton the commando, Maya the Siren, Salvador the Gunzerker, and Zero the assassin. Together they must journey to Sanctuary, where most of the lovable characters we came to know and love from the first game, rejoining the old Vault Hunters and rebelling against Jack before he can reach another vault and unleash the devastating power of the Warrior on Pandora. Borderlands 2 masterfully improves on everything that was great about the first game and expanding on it. The gameplay is just as fun but now every character is amazingly OP ; every character is fun and funny but this is a much darker story. A few scenes hit me square in the heart while others made me nearly piss myself in laughter. I’m happy to say the game has a hell of a lot of replay value- I’m on my sixth play through and not bored yet- and both great solo or with friends. If you never played it, pick it up today. You’ll fall in love with the residents of Pandora and there badassness. Thank you as always and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Punch Out Retro review

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Depending on when you played this game it was either Mike Tyson’s Punch Out or Punch Out featuring Mr. Dream. But to most people it has always simply been Punch Out. One of the original games of memorize this pattern then strike when you can, and to this day I know very few people that have completed it. Now most gamers would add they are one of those few. And hell you guys will never know if I lie or not. Truth is, I am not one of those few. Tyson/Dream always kicked the ever loving crap out of me. The game is fun, tho the controls have always pissed me off to no end. The game is still fun and challenging all these years later and whether you are revisiting or just looking for a history lesson from gaming you can not go wrong here. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Borderlands

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There really is no rest for the wicked when you’re a Vault-Hunter. Borderlands is a fun first shooter, open world RPG revolving around four strangers searching for a legendary alien vault on planet Pandora: Mordecai the hunter, Lilith the Siren, Roland the soldier, and Brick the Beserker. Each character has there own play style and special talents. For example Roland is a expert with a assault rifle and shotgun that can deploy a turret that can upgraded to fire rockets as well as attach an elemental damage onto the gunfire. All four characters are fun but they don’t really have an identity. The game is fun but repetitive and man the final boss sucks. I had a lot of fun gathering loot in the form of guns, shields, grenade mods, and class mods and leveling up. The downside of leveling up is that it drags a bit. Borderlands has some of the best DLC I’ve ever played and in it comes more of the crass humor the series becomes known for. If you ant a heads up to be a epic badass, choose Lilith, who becomes OP as hell real quick (a tip from Torsten V). In the end, Borderlands is fun but kinda meh but with some decent humor and a cool intro cutscene. Cage the Elephant anyone?