Category: Opinion

Portal Knights (PS4)

Portal Knights is one of this month’s free games and honestly, I wanted to enjoy this one. It is kind of like Minecraft except with a purpose I can get behind. You build things, fight enemies and explore. That his more or less the entire purpose of the game, as opposed to Minecraft where you simply build stuff. So I was excited to be able to do the same thing for a reason.

The sad fact is the game just wasn’t fun or good. I was constantly hitting slowdowns, framerate drops and being disconnected. Not just once but many times over various attempts. This saddens me because the bit I got to play was fun. Regardless the game is free so feel free to try it, and I hope your luck it better than mine. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Meeple Station (PC)

Meeple Station developed by Vox games and punished by Modularity can be purchased on Steam. The premise is quite simple, build a space station, mine resources, trade with other ships, increase the size of your station and crew, repeat. It sounds easy, but it does take quite a bit of effort and time to learn. You will also be fending off space pirates and, well squids. They will both honestly screw your day up. Honestly, there isn’t much to the game, yet.

Some of the future promised content however is quite impressive if true. They are talking about a co-op mode that would be amazing for this type of game as its rarely done and even rarer is that it is done well. There is also talk that they will be implementing a way to build your own trade ships. The game is in early access and they claim it is only about 20% done which if true means there is a ton more stuff coming in. definitely, do not count this as a complete review but as more of a preview combined with a review as I will be revisiting this time in the future. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

ultimate alliance

Before Marvel’s Spider-man (PS4) , Marvel was pretty hit or miss with video games. So when we got a game that pretty much promised an Avengers level of epic, spanning most of the Marvel universe.

Ultimate Alliance is a huge dungeon crawler that begins with a massive attack on S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters by the nefarious Dr Victor Von Doom. In his final desperate moments, Nick Fury has non other than Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, and the friendly neighborhood Spider-man to help push back the assault. As the story moves on we go to venture into Atlantis, Asgard, and Hell facing off against Doom’s army, Mephisto’s hellish army, Loki, and even Galactus  as you’re joined by Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, Ms Marvel, Spider-Woman, Ghost Rider, Dr Strange as well as many others. Can all these heroes triumph over the machinations of Dr Doom?

I have to admit, I’m not a fan of dungeon crawlers but there were times I was addicted as hell to this game. When you’re knee deep in badass robots, demons, or mythical creatures with a four man group of your favorite heroes, it can be really sweet. The roster is impressive for it’s time and I like the bonuses you get from putting certain characters together like the F4 or X men. What puts me off is how unbalanced some of the characters were: shouldn’t Iron Man or Dr Strange be way stronger than Deadpool or Human Torch? Certain characters were way stronger than they should’ve been while the OP characters were toned way down. Game-play gets monotonous but the sights and cameos help dilute the fact. My favorite thing may be the beautiful loading screens dedicated to each character. In the end, if your a Marvel fan or fan of those kinds of games like Diablo, this is worth a shot and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4)

As always with these things, I like to be upfront and say a huge thank you to the people over at Bandai Namco for the review copy of this fine game. It is always a huge honor to be chosen, and this one meant a lot more than normal to me since I loved this game on the Xbox 360 and I was dying to see how the Definitive Edition was.

The story is pretty much standard JRP fanfare, you start playing as Yuri, right after the town water system controlled by a blastia goes haywire. Blastia controls certain objects of the world and help humanity in various ways. This will lead you to chase down a thief and into the castle. You will meet a woman, Estelle. She will want your help escaping the castle and warning a knight and your childhood friend, Flynn, that he is in danger.

The story goes off from here and eventually leads in a different direction but admittedly I do not want to spoil what is, in my opinion, one of the best stories of its original release era. It stands up pretty solid in 2019 as well to be honest.

As a remaster the game looks and sounds great, but it does have a couple issues. For starters, Yuri is voiced by two different people. Neither voice actor is bad but is extremely distracting and even odd to suddenly be listening to Yuri with a different voice than have it pop back. Also, there was this.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition_20190118201215
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition_20190118201232

As you can see both voice bubbles are coming from Yuri, tho one of them is Karol speaking. Again, this isn’t a major mistake but it was a bit odd to see and seemed a bit careless to have not fixed. Another issue is the DLC you can get with it essentially breaks the game. It gives you access to high-level gear and items from the very beginning and gives you about 40 levels for all your characters allowing you to just walk through the game. So unless you are having a really hard time or just want to see the story I really encourage you not to use it.

None of that, however, is a deal breaker. The voice thing is annoying but tolerable and without the items, the combat is challenging and rewarding when it needs to be but fair. The artes system functions well and each new move feels like its own reward. All in all, I agree with the other reviews I have seen. This game is a solid title worth your purchase, which I will post amazon links for at the bottom. 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

PS4

Xbox One

Switch

Celebrity Deathmatch: the game

deathmatch game

When we were kids, didn’t all of us get a bit giddy when our favorite movies or shows got a game? Later in life, we see the ploy and can see it as the usual cash grab it is. There are exceptions of course, like Alien: Isolation but those feats of effort and love are rare. And then we get the game for Celebrity Deathmatch

It’s a basic fighter with an incredibly small roster and very limited play ability. A problem with a game like this, based on celebrities is that its going to feel dated and here is a prime example: we got celebs like Anna Nicole Smith, Mr T, Marilyn Manson, Ms Cleo, and the Frankenstein monster to name a few; it’s also a point I have to say I played this in 2004 and even then it felt pretty dated then, let alone how ancient it would feel now. There are some really funny movements, especially Ron Jeremy’s moveset and sicking Ann Nicole’s dog on people to hump there leg’s. The controls are crap; you mash buttons and hope for the best. The weapons are meh except for the chainsaw which is nice for hacking limbs off. There is some gore, but nowhere what you would expect sadly. The campaign is a series of episodes, 3 fights each for 6 episodes total so you can finish the game super quick. In the end, the game ain’t really worth it for fans or gamers and it’s worth skipping. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

evil dead 2

As much as I love the original Evil Dead I admit, I never really set out to follow Ash’s further adventures. I wasn’t a fan of how the series slipped into comedy at a slope but I had a chance to sit down and judge for myself if I was being too hasty. Was I right?

We begin the story with an alternate retelling of events from the first movie: a much more rugged, manly Ash and his love Linda crash a vacant cabin one picturesque weekend only to stumble on the book of the dead and the book proceeds to take her over. Where the last film leaves over, the demons won’t let Ash leave the cabin and Linda won’t stay dead. His mind is slipping as even his own flesh turns against him, forcing him to chop his own hand off with a chainsaw. To make matters worse, the daughter of the professor who translated the book and set this all into action is going to the cabin to see what became of her parents. can Ash pull it together and live to see dawn?

While nowhere as creepy as the first movie, I do love how off the rails it goes. This movie’s greatest strength is just how creative a lot of the scenes are. My favorite maybe when Ash is trying to chase his severed hand and when he finally shoots it through the wall and he gets sprayed with what seems to be hundreds of gallons of blood, only to have time reset like it never happened.  I did laugh a lot but I give the movie credit, it knows how to show some creepy shit and have it feel like slapstick comedy. Ash is a great horror icon and dare I say- groovy. I love the ending which sets up the batshit insanity that is Army of Darkness. Evil Dead 2 is a damn good horror comedy I recommend to new commers to the series and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mk11 gameplay reveal

You know what goes good with a snow storm? A warm drink, a toasty fire, and obscene amounts of gore. Above we got our first look at the latest Mortal Kombat and damn it’s impressive. I love that it brings back weapons and every character seems to have a nice blend of traditional moves as well as whole new ones. Skarlett particularly seems awesome as hell. I can’t wait to see the new Big Bad Guy in action. So far so gory ( yes, I went and made the pun.) and may the gaming gods help you kick ass.

John Wick 3 trailer

So we are going to see legendary badass John Wick take on the world this year. Seriously, I’m not kidding; spoiler for John Wick: Chapter 2 but at the end, pretty much the whole damn world wants his ass dead but he’s the damn “Boogeyman” and he ain’t going down without a fight as we see in the trailer. I have a lot of love and respect for this series and so far Parabellum looks like a good step in the right direction. May the gaming gods bring you glory and stop you from pissing off John Wick.

Pokemon: I Choose You (2017)

Pokemon I Choose you is a retelling and reimagining of sorts of the beginning of Ash’s journey. Brock and Misty don’t even appear in the movie, Pokemon up to Sun and Moon appear and we will see a sped up version of season one up until Ash gets his third gym badge.

Before the opening credits, we get to the point where Ash is attacked by Spearow and they see Ho-Oh. The opening song plays, we see Ash catch Caterpie then the movie starts. It won’t be long before Ash hears a rumor about a wild Entei and he runs off to catch it. After running into Verity and her Piplup they fail to catch Entei. This is around the time they scare an Onyx and retreat and eventually run into Ash’s Charmander that was abandoned by Cross and with the help of Sorrel and Lucario they save Charmander.

This is where things speed up more and we learn about Ho-Oh and some battles later Charmander evolves. In fact, by the end of the movie, it will fully evolve into Charizard to battle Cross as they attempt to meet Ho-Oh.

The movie has pretty mixed reviews from fans but critics as a whole weren’t fans. The movie was solid enough to me for what it was but honestly, I don’t understand why it needed to exist outside of simply being made to make some money. It isn’t a bad movie exactly, it just isn’t good or even necessary. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

I have to admit going into this I had odd expectations. The trailers made it look fun, I always liked Han Solo, but people give this movie so much shit I was expecting to be greatly disappointed.  I didn’t get the chance to see it in theaters so when I saw it was now on Netflix, of course, I checked it out, and I am pretty glad I did.

The story is pretty straight forward. It simply tells the story of how Han escaped a life of being a sewer rat, became a smuggler and got his hand on his prized ship, the Millennium Falcon. There aren’t a lot of twist and turns or shocking developments. Han eventually meets Chewy, then catches a ride with Beckett ( Woody Harrelson) and finally Lando (Donald Glover) to finally pull the job that lets Han say he made the Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs. This has always been a hotly debated thing among Star Trek fans since a parsec is a measure of distance, not time. Many eventually began to speculate that he was referring to a shortened path he took which is now considered the common explanation, tho it is worth noting in the original movie and its script it was made clear nobody believed him because he was obviously lying and sharing false information. This movie now shows it however as a factual event and a shortened run Han made.

Another thing that many never talk about is that they kind of takes a shot at George Lucas at one point. See there is always the who shot first Han or Greedo (Han did for the record), which got worse in the rerelease when George altered the film to make it definitive that Greedo shot first. He did this because he didn’t want Han to seem like a certain kind of character. Well, there is a scene where Han is talking to someone, and he not only shoots first before the other character dies he tells Han he was smart to do that because he would have killed him. Nobody really mentions this to me when talking about the film tho.

The movie is far from perfect, but at the end of the day, it does what it sets out to do. It is entertaining, tells a good origin story and shows how and why Han ended up being who he ends up being. The hate this movie gets to me is greatly not deserved. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.