Opinion – Page 161 – Savior Gaming

Violence in Video Games…Again

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It seems like every so often after a tragedy someone decides its the fault of video games. Before we go any further by the way, this transcends party lines. At one point Democrat Hillary Clinton took her shots at the industry and she wasn’t alone. The original Mortal Kombat was also attacked from what seemed like all sides for what was touted as realistic violence and blood.

This time around however it is American Republicans. Recently Donald Trump also decided to blame violent video games and movies and according to Robert Nardolillo of Rhode Island they actually need a special Tax applied to them, which while it would help schools it would exclusively be used to punish gamers for an alleged issue being caused by games that I will discuss in a minute, but spoiler, science mostly says otherwise.

In a recent study from the University of New York found no evidence to support the claim that video games make players more violent and in the opinion of Jesse Marczyk, Ph.D this claim also holds no water. There is also some simple common sense to this tho. Violent video games are played all over the world, yet these shootings aren’t an issue in every country. Hell it isn’t even an issue in every state tho I promise you will find a copy of Grand Theft Auto in all 50 states. Another study also shows no link between violent games and movies and real life violence.

I do apologize for all the links on this one by the way, I know they can be annoying at times. I do however realize this subject can be very divisive and I did want to share the source of where the claim was coming from in case people wanted to see that for themselves. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you safety and glory.

Punisher (2004)

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While I’m ridiculously behind on my Netflix MCU stuff like Daredevil, Defenders, and most recently Punisher, I’m glad the vigilante Frank Castle is back in the spotlight once again. It always bugged me his 2004 film never really took off. As far as character origins, Punisher’s is good old revenge, plain and simple. Left for dead after a mobster kills his entire family, ex military man Frank Castle declares a one man war on criminals. Simple but satisfying. Thomas Jane was underappreciated as Castle, the movie had pretty decent acting all around. The action scenes were appropriately gory and badass but weren’t flashy. One of the biggest gripes I hear is it was too depressing- no shit it was depressing. I’ve never heard anyone use comical, light-hearted, or whimsical to describe a Punisher comic. It’s not a classic in the genre but it’s still a good, solid action movie that I hope gets more love in time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 Games or Series That Deserve a Remaster, but Won’t Get Them.

Lunar is one of those series many of us remember fondly, but tons didn’t get to play at all. Lunar Silver Star Story was an amazing game, and a remaster for the PS4 would be amazing.

I have mentioned this game a few times on here, and it wouldn’t take much to just up the graphics and give it to us, but sadly the company that made it Camelot Software Planning now works pretty much exclusively for Nintendo, so this one is likely to stay in the past.

The Guardian Legend was a game I played back in the NES and involved flying a ship top down style blowing up ships, fighting a boss and then landing on a surface to fight more aliens before they reach Earth. It got mixed reviews and had possibly the longest passwords I have ever come across but the game was fun, and would be fun to see again as a budget title.

Shining Force was one of the earliest tactics RPG games and was followed by Shining Force 2. There were other games in the series but they varied in game type and quality. Tho oddly enough these were also made by Camelot Software Planning, so these will also probably remain in hiding as they continue to blast out hit titles for Nintendo.

The Phantasy Star series has had numerous iterations and has been on a few collections as recently as the PS3 and Xbox 360 but what the series hasn’t had is the classic Final Fantasy treatment where they up the graphics a bit, smooth things out and give us a proper remaster. I also do not believe this will ever happen, but it would be a great day if it did. Let me know what you guys would love to see, but know we probably won’t. Best wishes and may the gamin gods bring you glory.

Hulk

hulk 2003

So what happens if you a visionary director, a all star cast, a huge budget and hell, even a legendary composer for the score come together to make a superhero film? Surely this was a sure thing, right? I’m sure we all heard the story of Hulk before but here it is as Lee told it. Bruce Banner was a scientist with some personnel issues that crapped on his relationship with Betty Ross; he did some experiments with gamma radiation that went great or belly up, however you want to look at it. His repressed rage manifested itself with the energy, turning him into a savage beast when he gets angry.

Ang Lee, if you ever read this, you tried. I respect that. This movie tries to be a deep, dramatic character piece full of symbolism and depth. It comes off as a bored, pretentious mess. None of the actors really seem to give much of a shit and with the exception of rumble crack-head bursts of energy from Nick Nolte as the villain (please don’t ask me to tell you what villain he was supposed to be, 15 years later I still don’t have a fucking clue who or what he was supposed to be.) Hulk himself is cartoon-ish, depicted as like 10 feet tall and bright lime green. For a movie about a pissed off green dude on a rampage, there’s very little action. There’s comic panel transitions between scenes which become annoying quick and random trippy scenes added through to be artistic but just crap on the mess. I won’t call this movie a shitpile because I can tell you effort was put into this but it isn’t good. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Celebrity Deathmatch

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If this were the magical phenomenon known as Celebrity Deathmatch, Savior would be Johnny Gomez and I’d be Nick Diamond. Another awesome piece of the 90’s many have shamefully forgotten and to those that knew of it and have I proclaim SHAME! In Deathmatch we got to see the bloody and brutal clay animated fights between celebs we wished would thrown down in real life. Famous Fights have included Beavis Vs Butthead, Jimi Hendrix vs Lenny Kravitz, Nsync vs the Backstreet Boys, and about a million others. Johnny and Nick had there own wacky skits in between fights and every fight began with Mills Lane famously echoing “Let’s get it on”. Sadly the show faded into damn near total total memory though pieces and even a few episodes are up on YouTube. I recommend checking it out if you can and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Beavis and Butthead

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Before the dawn of South Park and Family Guy, this was the cartoon that pissed off parents and scared PTAs because no one wanted to say they spawned idiots like Beavis and Butthead. These two dimwit teenage headbangers were the nightmare of there school, neighborhood, and all of Highland with there raw stupidity as they persevered in the name of scoring chicks and getting beer and nachos. And god love you if they get there hands on power tools. One of my favorite shorts was them stealing poor Mr. Anderson’s (prototype Hank Hill from King of the Hill) riding mower to destroy peoples flowers, get drive through, and ditch it in a four way intersection. May favorite times were when Beavis got jacked up on sugar or caffeine and became the Great Cornholio- which on a personal note, I went trick or treating as when I was 18. Don’t judge. Indeed the show is dumb but some of the satire and parodies are pretty clever and if anything, it’s very much a time capsule of the 90’s for all it’s worth. In the end, I recommend the classic 90’s seasons, not the newer ones they tried in this generation. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Lucifer 1-3 Impressions

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As some of my early readers know, or friends even know I enjoy the Television show Lucifer. It happens to be based off a DC comic book character and I decided to check it out. Lucifer is 75 comics long as far as I can tell and I am about 3 in, so It is safe to say I really can’t give it a proper review so this is just my first impressions so far.

First the Lucifer character himself is very different than the one presented in the show. He really isn’t as whimsical or easy going, he is actually kind of a dick. Funny, but still a dick. He also seems to have some sort of a weird plan going on, he isn’t simply solving crimes because he is bored. There is actually something going on in the background that is building towards something.

Mazikeen is also vastly different. She wears a mask and so far speaks a strange language that at times almost seems English, but isn’t. She is still a demon from hell. The comic is very adult, there is nudity and violence and doesn’t shy away from things such as Neo Nazi youths beating up a gay man and shoving a bottle in a certain lower orifice.

So far I am enjoying the series even tho I am by no means a comic guy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Pokemon Pinball

pokemon pinball

If you had a GameBoy Color in the early 2000’s, this game was a necessity. As the title suggests, it’s Pokemon themed Pinball in the palm of your hand. You had a red stage and blue stage with all 150 original Pokemon to capture and evolve. After every three Pokemon captured or one capture and a evolution, you got to play a fun mini game whether it was battling MewTwo or bashing Meowth for coins. Though simple, it was easy to get lost and addicted trying to beat that ludicrously high score your friend set as the rumble numbed your hands after hours. There isn’t much to say, the game was simple and fun as games should be and deserves a go. May the gaming gods bring you glory as you go catch them all.

Tragedy Girls

tragedy girls

If you caught Savior’s review of Night of the Living Dead Resurrection (2012) than you may come to see how sometimes we see some undesirable films for the sake of entertaining you fine folks. That was his turn and well, sad to say Emoji Movie (2017) wasn’t the raging dumpster fire I’d been hoping for, I spun the wheel and this came up. For the record, I usually enjoy smaller, low budget horror-comedy projects. Hell, I saw a bit of potential in this flick.

We join two high school BFFs, Sadie and Mckayla, who are millennial cheerleaders, vloggers, and aspiring serial killers. They have dreams of raising hell and leaving a legacy of infamy in there wake. So they kidnap the town psychopath after he fails to kill Sadie one night because they need a mentor after all. He politely tells them to fuck off so they hold him hostage. Since they can’t learn from him, they decide to go wild in his name, getting famous on the internet in the meantime as gossip vloggers during the fear and panic. But life seems to be dividing the young murderers as Sadie falls for the sheriff’s son who happens to be the girl’s editor and Mckayla doesn’t take this well and suddenly she finds a new friend…

In no way is this the worst movie I’ve seen but damn is it disappointing. Though there are a couple of decently funny moments and a couple alright kills, the amount of stupidity made me groan more than laugh. These girls are no Michael or Jason. Sadie’s boy toy hilariously sticks out like a sore thumb because he’s supposed to be 17 or 18 but instead looks to be pushing his mid thirties. This movie is very millennial which annoyed the shit out of me- phones, twitter, people saying things like “hashtag”, “why so jelly”, and talking in text speak and crappy auto-tuned music horribly dates this movie and reminds me I’m old. Besides that, my biggest issue was I couldn’t get behind any of the characters because they were such cardboard stereotypes or were just stupid. I didn’t like this movie myself but I see points where some may like it. May the gaming gods bring you glory because this is for you all that stuck around and best wishes to you all.

Rick and Morty, season 2

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Picking up where season 1 left off, with planet earth frozen in time except for Rick, Morty, and Summer who have to clean there house after a crazy ass alien party got out of hand and discover there uncertainty can shatter the fabric of reality. Yep, this series not only continues to be funny, heart felt, gross, and cleverly thought provoking but finds a way to up the anti. Some of the adventures we get in season 2 are an encounter with Rick’s all encompassing ex alien girlfriend, Beth and Gerry getting caught in a struggle for survival at a couple’s therapy session of genetic monsters created from there angry spiteful feelings for each other, and Rick and Morty taking part in another world’s Purge…in robot suits! If you enjoyed the first, you’ll love the second; I can’t wait for the third season to hit Hulu. May the gaming gods bring you glory.