Opinion – Page 150 – Savior Gaming

Avengers: Age of Ultron

avengers 2

Avengers 2 was one of those rare movies that when the trailer dropped, I’m think the world stopped for one minute. My phone exploded with texts and calls asking me what I thought, was I pumped, who’s going to die and like 100 other questions. Did it live up to the hype?

Ultron picks up where Winter Soldier primarily ended, the Avengers closing in on perhaps the final and most crucial Hydra base containing Baron von Strucker, Loki’s scepter, and the Maximoff twins: Pietro (Quicksilver) and Wanda (Scarlet Witch). The Avengers crush Strucker’s forces but the twins cause a problem, but otherwise they were victorious. With greener pastures on the horizon and life wearing all of them down, Stark and Banner have an idea: create the ultimate Avenger so they can live normal lives again. Enter Ultron. Corrupting Jarvis and getting life from the scepter’s power, he realizes how much devastation the Avengers cause, he turns on them. Joining with the disgruntled twins, Ultron evolves and sets to destroy the Avengers and kill humanity with his ultimate creation, the vision of perfection ( wink wink) Can the Avengers stop these mounting threats as tensions rise to destroy them?

Ultron is a really good movie but it does drop the ball in some spots. The cast, effects, and general story are damn good. What kills this movie for me are the quips and forced comedy. I’ve read a few Ultron comics- Ultron is cold, angry, and sinister. When the script allows, James Spader does fantastic as Ultron but I hated the damn puns, on top of how much they bitched him down, much like a huge issue I had with X-Men: Apocalypse . I love the twins and especially Paul Bettany’s transition from Jarvis to Vision, who stole the show for the finale. I feel there was some bloating but nowhere near DC level bad. Also, as a minor grip, I wish they kept Hank Pym as the creator of Ultron instead of Tony Stark but I can get over it. In the end, it’s a good sequel and a good movie but it had so much more potential. Below I’m giving a phase 2 watchlist as well as the trailer that had us all frantic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World Captain America: Winter Soldier Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Avengers: Age of Ultron Ant-Man

Aliens: Dead Orbit

alien dead orbit

Happy Alien Day once again my friends from Savior and I. I bought the latest Dark Horse graphic novel just for this special occasion. I’m going to start by saying I’m admittedly not a huge fan of the Aliens comics for one reason or another and I never read a book, though I do want to someday. I’m happy to say, Dead Orbit is exactly what I wanted in a Aliens comic.

Dead Orbit is the ill fated story of Wey- Yu station Sphacteria coming across a derelict ship in the middle of deep space. Inside the ship are three people in cryo-sleep, all of which get horribly burned when the pods malfunction leaving the crew in a desperate panic to save them. As they try finding out what the deal is with the crew, why their ship was so destroyed inside and why their is only 3 seemingly on board out of 8, the moment comes when they realize the answer. Though sedated and violently charred, two of the bodies start writhing in agony as there chests break open and the Aliens emerge. With no weapons on board, the crew faces madness as the last survivor reveals the truth, and hope becomes lost…

James Stokoe did an amazing job with this book; without a doubt it’s my favorite Aliens comic to date. Artistically it captures the run-down look of the original film while adding a strong manga flair which beautifully fit. The story is short, self contained, and frenetic as hell and doesn’t have huge action scenes as the Aliens title would have you think but is far more claustrophobic horror as the first film. If you love the series or want a good horror comic, this book is a must read. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Happy Alien Day!

Happy Alien day everyone, the second best holiday in my year ( yep, I’m that kind of nerd.) If you have followed us for a while, you’ll know how huge of a Alien fan I am. Aliens was the first or second movie I ever watched, scarring the hell out of my psyche but inspiring me for decades to make my own monsters and pay it forward as the saying goes. Later today, I’m covering Aliens: Dead Obit, the latest Dark Horse graphic novel and at the bottom I’m listing links to every, yes EVERY Alien post I’ve ever done so please check them out and may the gaming gods bring you glory and spare you from the wrath of the perfect organism…

Alien Aliens Alien 3 Alien Resurrection Prometheus Alien: Covenant

Aliens- the evolution and variances of Xenomorphs H.R. Giger : master of nightmares

Alien and Predator: Fire and Stone

Alien Trilogy Alien Resurrection: the game Aliens Vs Predator (2010) Aliens: Colonial Marines Alien: Isolation

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale series

gotg telltale

I can’t say I’m a fine connoisseur of Telltale games. In fact, the only other I’ve actually played was Tales from the Borderlands which was awesome and Savior told great things about Batman: The Telltale Series and The Walking Dead Telltale Season 1 . Essentially, if you played any of the others, you get the gist of this: point and click with a story that will tug on your heartstrings. We follow our favorite Guardians (Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot.) as they come into contact with a mysterious artifact called the Eternity Forge that can revive anyone back from the dead. I’m not going too deep into the plot to avoid spoilers but if you love the characters you knew in the movie, you’ll love this game. It is not a movie game though it tries like hell to ride the vibes of the movie. It is a slow burn but satisfying by the end, just keep going with it during the slow parts but does feel bloated at times. It’s not a great game, but it’s not terrible and you get a free Platinum upon completion; I recommend it if it’s $10 or less. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Avengers

avengers

We finally come to probably one of the greatest damn superhero movies of all time as well as proof that cinematic universes can actually be done right with care.

After the events of Thor, S.H.I.E.L.D has the Tesseract and from it reemerges Loki with a badass scepter and a grudge; during his time in the deep ass end of space, he made a deal to conquer Earth with a alien army in exchange for getting to eventually recapture Asgard. Nick Fury, witnessing how under prepared they are against someone like Loki, the Avengers Initiative goes underway bringing together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk to face a colossal army and a god to save the world…

I had little faith walking into this movie; I didn’t think it was going to live up to the hype at all but holy crap it did and more. The cast and characters were spectacular with insanely awesome effects and a good blend of laughs and drama along with badass combos- I’m a sucker for super combos. This movie is pretty much every nerd’s wet dream and I can’t recommend this movie enough. Below I’m including a watchlist of phase 1, ending with Avengers as well as a music video for the film to set the mood. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Iron Man (2008) Incredible Hulk Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor Captain America: the First Avenger Avengers

Venom trailer 2

Venom trailer was pretty disappointing, considering we didn’t get a damn glimpse of Venom at all but holy shit the wait was worth it. The second trailer we get a lot more of the symbiote’s ability and the first image of him in all of his scary ass glory! I’m suddenly more optimistic, though I don’t know how they will get around the Spider-man stuff but I’m no longer dreading it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thor: Ragnarok

thor 3

So I finally rushed to finished the Thor trilogy for these reviews, after hearing how epic and amazing this third movie is. Phase 3 got really psychedelic, especially with Doctor Strange ( 2016) , Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) , and the end of Ant-Man

After Age of Ultron, Thor is on a quest to stop the fall of Asgard due to the prophecy of Ragnarok. After some dead ends, he returns to find Loki has been deceiving pretending to be Odin, after banishing him to die in a old folks home on Earth. So Thor and Loki pay a visit to Dr Strange to help find him, only to spend his last few minutes with his sons. Hela, Odin’s true first child and and damn near invincible goddess of death, comes forth to take the throne, destroying Thor’s hammer and bringing Asgard to its knees. Thor finds himself stranded, wounded in an failed escape on a world ruled by the tyrannical Game Master, aided by a past Valkyrie, forced to fight his way out against his old, angry friend Hulk. Can Thor overcome these impossible odds, find his true power and save his people?

I’m going to be honest, I loved this movie but somehow it annoyed the hell out of me. Visually it’s one of the most beautiful movies in the MCU. It has the most action in the whole Thor trilogy; I laughed my ass off a few times and the use of Led Zeppelin is beyond epic. Cate Blancett was awesome as Hela and Jeff Goldblum was great as Game Master. So what’s the catch? For me I feel like there were a lot of times the comedy diluted what could have been some good dramatic moments; series long characters die and it’s just meh. In the end its one hell of a fun movie at the end of the day and well worth the watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

2 Games I Hope Are At E3, And 1 I stopped Caring About.

With E3 closer than we think, there are a few games I hope are there, some realistic, some not so much and one honestly, I just don’t give a damn about anymore. So let us start with the good stuff.

Borderlands 3, I enjoyed the first, loved the 2nd and even loved the pre sequel as well as the telltale game. So any info on Borderlands 3 would be great to me as long as it was it was coming relatively soon. This comment will make sense later. And that brings me to…

Bloodborne 2, above all I am really hoping we get a release date for this bad boy, or at least confirmation that it is in the works. I loved the first one, in fact I still play it to this day on occasion.The story, the game play itself, the setting, the excitement of finding a new boss, it is just a feeling that is hard to recreate. This brings me to my last game

This may surprise many of you. Here is why Final Fantasy 7 retro review What I hope FF7 Remake keeps . I love Final Fantasy 7. The original to this day is one of my all time favorite games. Hell I have probably finished the game damn near 30 times from beginning to end. I for years I was the only person I knew that managed to beat emerald and ruby weapon as a kid. So why don’t I care? Well the rumors started back in 2014, with confirmation coming in 2015. That is 3 years ago, with various amounts of information coming and going. From the initial mistaken of saying it would be episodic ( tho it was later clarified it was meant episodic in the way Final Fantasy 13 was, not in the way Telltale games are) and the battle system going from what was originally its turn based active time system to what seems to be more in line with Kingdom hearts or Final Fantasy 15 it is hard to remain excited for a remake that has so far gutted a game you loved so much. While I understand that a lot will need to be changed and things will be added and removed for various reasons as social norms changing and technological changes and even changes within the gaming community, they seem to be alienating not only the original fan base, but many RPG fans as a whole and just gamers in general. A three-year wait on any concrete information, or much new information at all is simply unacceptable to many of us when a game is officially announced and I can’t find myself caring anymore. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thor: The Dark World

thor 2

I’m going to start by saying this: I don’t think this is the worst movie in the MCU as many I’ve heard proclaim it be. My personal vote is tied between Iron Man 3 (2013) and Captain America: the First Avenger , but I digress.

Thor 2 picks up after Avengers with Loki in captivity after he was naughty in New York. Thor is kicking ass and being awesome with his Asgardian buddies while his love interest on Earth, Jane Foster discovers glitches in physics popping up in London; glitches in reality itself. She falls through a glitch and ends up coming into contact with the Ether (the Reality Stone) and it bonds to her. Thor has to help her break free of it but an ancient threat descends on Asgard, the dark elves led by Malekith, leading Thor to save the day again while having to join with Loki again..

Thor 2, much like the first, ain’t nowhere near perfect but I had a lot more fun with this entry. There is more action and laughs and I give it credit, the final fight is one of my favorites in the MCU. The biggest issue is Malekith, who is the definition of cookie-cutter villain who sadly had a hell of a lot of potential that fell flat. Besides him, the characters are solid with great performances again from Hemsworth and Middleston as Thor and Loki. In the end, it’s a fun fantasy movie pure and simple. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thor

thor

We arrived to our final MCU installment before we finally talk Avengers; sadly our local theater closing screwed up us seeing Black Panther til it hits blu-ray. The fourth movie in Phase 1 introduces Thor, god of thunder.

Thor and Loki are the sons of Odin, king of Asgard, a beautiful kingdom in space. Thor is arrogant but powerful as he is set to one day become king; Loki, believing his brother a shitty king, plots to embarrass him and when Thor nearly reignites a war with the frost giants, Odin banishes Thor to earth, stripping him of his power and his hammer before going into Odin-sleep, leaving the treacherous Loki to reign. It’s up to Thor to reclaim his power and hammer and learn what it is to be king and kick his brother’s ass…

As superhero films go, Thor is a solid film. It’s not great; there is a lot of dialogue that makes it feel a bit longer than it really is and not very much action, though what we get is nice. Where it succeeds is Chris Hemsworth and Tom Middleston as Thor and Loki and visually the movie looks great. I got some good laughs and a few moments I still quote today. In the end, it’s a decent movie that’s pretty much a prequel to Avengers. May the gaming gods bring you glory.